Perspectives on Innovation

We recently posted a piece about Dwayne Spradlin’s participation in The Economist’s The World in 2010 Event.  One of the commenters on this piece pointed us to a video created by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry.  The video is a charming illustration of, literally, breaking down fences in communication and opening new channels of communication to accelerate innovation and problem solving.  Enjoy!

Bruce Hannon is known to many for his weekly email digest highlighting interesting articles, published in various well regarded complexity sources, that span the gamut from all areas of research and inquiry, from the life sciences to the social sciences. What all the articles have in common is that they celebrate interesting findings, provocative theories, and the complexity of the world. Bruce has graciously agreed to allow InnoCentive to repost his “Complexity” Digest from time to time. Thank you Bruce!

Below, you will find Bruce’s “Complexity” Digest #4, we hope you enjoy. Please let us know your feedback and feel free to respond to the blog posts and share your thoughts and reactions with others.

Ageing, Nature

Excerpt: It is now clear that by tinkering with particular signalling pathways and by balancing nutrition, the lifespan of many organisms, including yeast, worms, flies and mice, can be extended. Crucially, the same tweaks often bring about substantial health benefits and seem to delay the onset of age-related diseases. Most of the pathways involved are evolutionarily conserved, so it is likely that some of this research will eventually benefit human health.

• Source: Ageing, Marie-Thérèse Heemels, DOI: 10.1038/464503a, Nature 464, 503, 2010/03/25

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We recently discovered a new web site, Science for Citizens, started by Science Cheerleader founder Darlene Cavalier and her business partner Michael Gold.  The site attracts a wide spectrum of people, who may or may not be “official scientists” but who enjoy working on scientific projects in their spare time.

We love the idea of the citizen scientist – many of these people have the same profile as our Solvers.   And we particularly like this site, because it has such a wide variety of interesting projects, from monitoring water quality in the Willamette River to building habitats for Monarch butterflies to helping build a database of dinosaur bones.  In addition, people who are enthusiastic about their projects are welcome to submit blog posts about any scientific topic that interests them.  Using the “Project Finder,” users can search projects based on time commitment involved, whether the project takes place indoors or outdoors, degree of difficulty – there are even projects that are suitable for children.  The site is still in beta, but we think it’s a great idea – in fact, we even posted one of our Challenges there.   We asked one of the founders, Michael Gold, to tell us a bit more about the project:

Hi Michael.  Thanks for agreeing to talk to us about Science for Citizens.  Can you tell us why you decided to start this site?

There’s a growing interest in science among lay people. Concern is building about science-related societal issues such as the environment, including, of course, global warming. “Science cafes” where researchers discuss their work in an informal setting are popping up around the country. And impressive numbers of people seem inclined to “get their hands dirty” with science, either through recreational activities or full-fledged research projects. To take just a few examples, in the U.S. alone there are 48 million birders, half a million amateur astronomers, and another half a million volunteers who monitor the quality of our waterways. A few years ago when a citizen science project known as “Galaxy Zoo” put out a call for volunteers to analyze telescopic images online, nearly 150,000 people signed up. (more…)

by Steven Telio, Director of Product Management, InnoCentive

In the end, I took a different job.

I’ll also admit that my thinking has evolved since the interview, and I don’t necessarily believe that the RGM metaphor holds together completely, but for the sake of argument…

The interviewer asked, “Who are your role models?”

“Rube Goldberg,” I replied.

The interviewer looked confused. I was interviewing for a position with a consultancy that specialized in solving difficult business problems. She didn’t think I was taking her question seriously. But I was.

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist and inventor who won a Pulitzer prize in 1948 for his political cartoons. He is best known for a series of cartoons depicting complex machines designed to do simple tasks, a so-called Rube Goldberg Machine, or RGM. The machines are often whimsical, overly complicated and completely contrived, yet they successfully perform the tasks they are designed to do. Some of my favorite real-world examples are OK Go’s latest contraption, and the Honda car commercial “The Cog”.

A well-conceived RGM is a singular example of the art of engineering and science. There is beauty in these machines. More important to me, though, and the reason I brought it up in the interview, is a successful RGM requires an enormous amount of planning, a willingness to adapt as circumstances change, and a certain amount of luck for it to work. And that is a metaphor which directly applies to consistently solving difficult problems. (more…)