I was watching “The Colbert Report” the other night, and Colbert interviewed Emily Pilloton, who is an industrial designer, founder of  and the author of “Design Revolution – 100 Products That Empower People”

I found her thoughts on product design being a vehicle for social change incredibly interesting – check out the interview below, and wait ’til you see the “Adaptive Eye Care” product – it’s simply amazing!

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/262000/january-18-2010/emily-pilloton

Seeing her on Colbert inspired me to check out her website (http://projecthdesign.org/index.html) and watch some of her YouTube clips – all of which gave me that same ‘vibe‘ I feel around the InnoCentive office. Specifically her perception on design activism and humanitarian design. She speaks of problem solving being at the core of design, and how out of certain designs springs fantastic social changes – the most profound example is “The Hippo Roller” – I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you – worth going to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iq7XnSONpk

I recently participated in a panel discussion as part of the Economist’s The World in 2010 event in Washington D.C. Facilitated by Mathew Bishop, Business Editor of The Economist, the panel included: Dean Kamen (Founder, Segway), Kai Huang (Co-Founder, The Guitar Hero), and Rob Carlson (Principal, Biodesic). The panel focused on the state of innovation and predictions for the year. The conversation was both timely and lively. C-SPAN has repeatedly rebroadcast the panel. Worth a watch.

My Innovation Prediction for 2010? That policy makers would finally promote innovation to the forefront of their agendas, in the US and around the world. I noted that overhauls of the entire system are necessary in areas including patent law, immigration and work visa policy, education (particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine), grant making and funding.

We have incredibly important work to do and profound problems to tackle, from curing diseases to climate change, and now is the time for governments to “get it right,” particularly in terms of the structural elements that enable and empower true invention and meaningful progress. Have we created a “land of opportunity” for scientists, inventors, universities, companies, and entrepreneurs? Do we have a culture of collaboration and information sharing? Or have we created an expensive and divisive system of trade secrets, laws, patents, and inefficient investment? The problems exist in academia and other areas as they do in the commercial space. Fresh and bold thinking is crucial and policy makers have an opportunity to offer real leadership.

Epilogue

Now, more than a month since the World in 2010 predictions were made, everyone’s attention is squarely focused on jobs and budget deficits. Clearly governments are faced with difficult choices. I sense that boldness and a willingness to champion a desperately needed innovation agenda will not be rewarded in Washington. Privately I hear that now may be the worst time to push change. Status quo.

In my opinion, courage and focus around innovation is absolutely vital. We need to invest heavily in planting the seeds of recovery and a vibrant future.  Innovation has always driven short and long term growth, INCLUDING jobs growth and GDP expansion. Now is precisely the time to implement a bold and strategic innovation agenda (investment and meaningful policy reform) in the US and around the world. Budget deficits notwithstanding, the “Inconvenient Truth” is that this is the only prudent and sustainable path forward and lawmakers need to step up now more than ever.

What do YOU think?

I was trained as a sensory psychologist and after a couple of academic positions lucked onto a career in R&D. I have spent most of the last 15 years working in sensory research and human factors in the medical device industry (SOLA International and Carl Zeiss Vision). I heard about InnoCentive when I was managing a product development area and we were looking to improve the product innovation process. In particular, I was impressed with the ideas Charles Leadbeater was promoting about new models for collaborative innovation in the future.

With this in mind, I believe the model set out by InnoCentive, combined with the ever increasing connectedness of the planet, is a major step in the right direction. It is clear to me that collaborative innovation and other forms of networking with customers are going to be the basis of some great innovations as we move forward.

I’m also excited to see many newer companies starting life with collaborative innovation built into the fabric of their organization. I currently work for Image-Line Software, an innovative Belgian company that makes music/audio production, DJ & web development software. Their business and product development model is how I think the smart, flexible, companies will organize themselves in an increasingly capricious marketplace. That is, they have a globally distributed workforce, many of whom work via the net from home, and tightly integrated customer relationships through social media networking and their own forums. Watching the to-and-fro of ideas between customers and the software developers on their forums and social media sites is to experience collaborative innovation in action every day.

I think the big challenge is for traditional and established companies to take on these values open innovation, as the processes usually fall under layers of confidentiality and trade secret provisions. I have noticed that it is particularly difficult for the IP department, who squirm at the thought of opening up the R&D process and the complexities of IP ownership. That’s where I see Innocentive providing a valuable mediation role between the great mass of customers/thinkers and the internal R&D processes. But I digress, I am just passionate about the opportunities in this area and would love to see more of this type of collaboration.

Interestingly, my work background had little to do with the challenge I solved. It was more about keeping an eye on the challenges and then one day a problem appears that makes your heart race, you have an answer! There are millions of answers out there just waiting for a problem, all companies need to do is pose the challenge.

PS: If you want to know what I am doing in the bio pic, recording the sound of Bees, you can hear and download the recording from another wonderful collaborative site (Freesound) here…

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=59451

Regards

Scott Fisher

My favorite movie innovation is one that is more within the movie as opposed to an actual technique. In 2002, Spielberg released this film called “Minority Report”, about a “precrime” police officer, played by Tom Cruise, who apprehended criminals based on the foreknowledge of three psychics called “precogs”. Whilst that in itself is pretty forward-thinking way of handling crime, I want to focus on what has become known as the “mall scene”. Check out the video from YouTube: this is the scene where Tom Cruise (who is trying very hard to be anonymous) walks into the mall and his retinas are getting scanned by 3D advertising screens. The screens subliminally call his name to get his attention and tell him a store has jeans in his size or the shirt style he last bought at such-and-such a store is on sale, etc.

I am simultaneously impressed and alarmed at the potential to be reached in such a focused and intimate manner. This concept is certainly not new – current web ads, for example, are banners of brands and items you have searched. But the ads in the movie were calling you by name! Oooo…..

Current shivers notwithstanding, tell us some innovations you’ve noticed in movies that you think are cool, and why!

ASSET India is a noble non-profit organization who provides marginalized women and children in rural India access to the skills and knowledge needed to escape the sex trade. They hope to use the $1 million prize money to give 5,000 women and children access to literacy programs.  They will also produce wireless routers to enable access to their programs for those living in rural areas. The program is currently limited to 500 due to space and resource limitations so this prize would dramatically increase the program’s impact and enrollment.

We ask you to support ASSET India’s efforts by voting for them. As evidenced by film producer Pat Loewi’s video of students at the ASSET center Delhi, ASSET India’s programs do much to enable women and children to escape the sex trade environment by arming them with knowledge, self-confidence and purpose.

The voting link is: http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/717045

Their target is 100,000 votes and we can help them reach their goal.

Thanks so much for your help!