Comments on: Gordon Brown at NESTA - The Innovation Edge

By: May Top 10 Blog Posts | WOWNDADI

May Top 10 Blog Posts | WOWNDADI — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:36:30 +0000

[...] of the month was attending NESTA’s Innovation Edge 08event, as you can see from the posts (Gordon Brown attracted lots of comments, as did Tim [...]

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:46:22 +0000

Good thoughts James. I’m looking forward to writing up my notes on what Sam said - I agree with some, but not with others. He had an interesting perspective.

A decade ago we were limited by what technology was able to do for people. Now we are limited by what people are able to do with technology. Creating better user experiences and more experienced users is the next wave of innovation.

By: James Stewart

James Stewart — Sat, 24 May 2008 15:54:02 +0000

Sam Petrodi’s comments were a really helpful contribution for me too, and fit in some ways with a lot of the conversations that have been stimulated by Clay Shirky’s book. The web has been a huge technical innovation, but what we do with it is also a space for innovation in the sense of changing things and (hopefully) making them better.

I keep having conversations with clients and potential clients where they ask “can we do this?” and every time I seem to find myself pointing out that the real challenges aren’t technical–it’s very rare to find a web project that involves real technical innovation–they’re about the concept, the user experience and all of those softer areas.

In that sense the current “social media” world seems to be part of the maturation process of the web. Uploading and displaying photos and video is something we’ve been able to do since the early nineties, but flickr et al have innovated in the design and social spaces, as well as around the edges in considering how we scale this stuff.

In that respect the key innovations on the web in the next few years are likely to resemble those Sam Petrodi referenced. They won’t be big technical shifts (I hope we see that effort going into our energy production, and transport, rather than extensions to HTTP) they’ll be adaptations to how we related to one another and how we use existing tools.

By: Tim Berners-Lee @ The Innovation Edge | WOWNDADI

Tim Berners-Lee @ The Innovation Edge | WOWNDADI — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:55:16 +0000

[...] in a short series of posts, as I digest the talks from The Innovation Edge 08. Yesterday covered Gordon Brown (I’m enjoying the comments). Today is focused on Jonathan Freedland’s interview with Sir [...]

By: Emma Wallace

Emma Wallace — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:18:21 +0000

For me innovation is about inspiration and vice versa. The Innovation Edge was a great example of this. Only time will tell how many great innovations and transformations resulted thanks to the conversations had on Tuesday and the subsequent relationships that are forming as we speak.

To quote a fantastic book The Way of Nowhere http://is.gd/k98 :

“Co-creation sits in the space between freedom and constraint. Indeed it is the creative tension that these two polarities generate that ultimately gives rise to a new insight or breakthrough.

Moreover, in that moment of co-creative breakthrough two things happen: we create something other than ourselves (innovation) while simultaneously becoming more than ourselves (transformation), so that we can no longer be who we were before.”

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:05:46 +0000

Yes, that and the comment about late night whiskey at Number 10. It’s all about relationships and communication! I hope to write up some more of my notes tomorrow.

By: TransportInnovation

TransportInnovation — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:44:02 +0000

I loved that Sir Bob used to get letters addressed “Bob Geldof - England”. It’s like becoming Santa Claus.

By: James Heartfield

James Heartfield — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:53:31 +0000

GORDON BROWN AND THE GHOSTS OF INNVOATION
James Heartfield reports from yesterday’s NESTA conference in London on the flailing PM’s vampiric relationship with the ‘innovation economy’.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5175/

By: James Heartfield

James Heartfield — Wed, 21 May 2008 06:32:49 +0000

Here are some pictures from the day

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35948&l=f820b&id=756513153

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:16:16 +0000

That was a much needed eye opener for me - as a life-long technologist/geek, it was good for me to hear that innovation applies to other areas too.

That said, technology and sociology seem to be set to invade each others space - social media is changing society and society is changing technology. A ‘Medici effect’ moment maybe? As some else said, innovation always happens at the margins (I think Tim Berners-Lee talked about it “falling between two stools”).

Maybe innovation is old ideas in a fresh set of clothes and a new room?

By: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:59:23 +0000

Poor Gordon - I actually do believe he means every word (unlike some politicians one might mention) but I’ll be surprised if he gets the chance to put it all into practice. In any case, the real need for innovation seems to be social rather than technical - we’ve got technical innovation coming out of our ears in the West but (as Sir Bob said), we’re too scared to really take risks with it.

By: newmd

newmd — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:58:40 +0000

Necessity is the mother of invention. I think one of the speakers quoted that - it might have been Bob Geldof that did.

Innovation is what happens when you have a great idea and not quit enough time to do it…

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:56:20 +0000

Innovation is creating new things? Solving problems? Are innovation and invention the same thing?