HELP - Innovation Needed

One of the big discussion points running around my brain, and those of us in commercialization at TechColumbus, is innovation. I have been thinking about innovation and how it relates, but is different from, creativity quite a bit. I often say that I see a lot of creativity in this line of work, but unfortunately little innovation. Then, many of us attended the Dave Berkus presentation last week and his primary message was one of INNOVATION! How timely!

You can find his presentation at our website, http://www.techcolumbus.org/en/cev/297. However, you won't get his fantastic delivery!

Mr. Berkus echoed the sentiment that innovation is game, or life, changing. Creativity, on the other hand, can be a novel use of current technology, or a mix or other things that exist in a unique way. Mr. Berkus listed his top 10 dominant trends that will shape 2008 and beyond. In short (and without his great anecdotal comments and delivery), here they are. Some of the sub-bullets are from his presentation and some are from my experience.

1. The growing scope of the Internet
12 million new people join the Internet each week! This seems like a great customer base that is longing for innovative products and services.
2. The paradise of choice
I enjoyed his assertion that time and place shifting is becoming more the norm. We want what we want when and where WE want it. How can we create something new that caters to this desire?
3. The audience is the network
Anyone can create things, sell things, publish things, and help others find things! Buyers are sellers and vice versa, making us all more discerning. Innovation hits a home run here.
4. Increasing computer power drives changes in human behavior.
Cloud computing and software as a service (SAAS) are the norm. The other end (how we receive the product) is no longer a limiting factor in electronic products - take advantage of that!
5. Mobile computing changes our lives - I am the office!
I am seeing more and more startups that are taking advantage of the simple fact that most of us have a very smart phone with us all the time. We need to think about this device and how important it is to the consumers and deliver innovative and useful content to them.
6. Consumer electronics spending is growing and converging, dominated by HDTV
Computer games and simulations are growing rapidly. New technology is enabling consumer electronics to do more. This seems like a great distribution channel for innovative, or creative, content and creates a new industry of related devices.
7. Web 2.0 enters the mainstream
This is what I see a lot of these days. There are many creative uses and companies out there for this new social networking trend. This is driving more young people onto the web for longer periods of time and opens up a huge market! However, there is too much focus on just doing different things with the same old technology or web 2.0 business models. A new social network website with an advertising, or "freemium" model is not innovative. It might be creative and people might pay for it, but it is not innovation.
8. Web 3.0 and 4. 0 are coming - way beyond search
www.powerset.com was given as an example of the new semantic web search. I can see opportunities for innovation here as this is new ground.
9. Everything turns green
We know we are using more of our resources than we should and the green movement is moving. How can we produce innovative products or services that do good and take advantage of the natural movement toward this type of product??
10. The CIO becomes a business strategist
The CIO or technology person will continue to become more and more important to the overall strategy of the business. That means they will have more power to make decisions and spend money on your innovative products or services!

We have so many innovative companies and institutions here in Columbus. I am hopeful that we can start to get some of that innovation out of the research institutions and universities and create sustainable companies. I made a statement on Twitter the other day that if you create some innovative piece of technology but you don't commercialize it, you might as well teach! That was not meant as a disparaging remark to teachers, professors, or researchers. I teach and thoroughly enjoy it. The idea is that if this innovation is so great and so valuable that we can get people to buy it, and use it, we will create sustainable companies, create high paying jobs for our community, and ultimately change the view of Columbus! This is not still a cow town and there is no need to add ", Ohio" any time a national writer writes about Columbus.

So, come on Central Ohio! Bring me innovative technology ideas and let us help to commercialize them!

Thanks, Kevin...