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Innovative Non-profit Seeking Sponsorship

Jan-31-11 By Aminda
Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs) a non-profit organization working to impact, empower and reconstruct local and global communities through innovation, is currently seeking sponsorship of their new work space. They are inviting individuals, businesses and organizations to have their name engraved on the walls of different rooms of the RLabs Space.

Report from CoDev 2011

Jan-29-11 By Aminda
IdeaConnection enjoyed a busy week in sunny, Scottsdale, Arizona at CoDev, the 10th annual conference on Co-development and Open Innovation. It appears to have been a great week from an attendee view, with speakers who were open and informative, sharing stories from the trenches. As open innovation evolves, changing job descriptions and expanding across business units and geographical borders, it’s increasingly valuable to get insight from these pioneers who are pushing the boundaries of what can be accomplished.

A Presidential Nod

Jan-27-11 By Aminda
U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address has been getting plenty of attention for its emphasis on innovation.
Public affairs Journal, The New Republic, reports; Obama placed innovation at the center of his narrative, and promoted technology innovation (especially clean energy innovation) as the central imperative of national economic renewal. But while he has emphasized the importance of invention in the past, he has never done it as explicitly and forcefully as he did last night before a prime time national TV audience in a year of tepid recovery, 9 percent unemployment, and fears of lost national mojo.

This was different from the past, in which presidents have tended to either ignore innovation or tick it off as one of many programmatic topics. Even for Obama, last night’s rhetoric was new.

Crowdsourcing for the Greater Good

Jan-26-11 By Aminda
Just as General Electric has utilized crowdsourcing in an effort to advance sustainable, environmentally sound technologies, Sony, in partnership with the World Wildlife Federation has recently announced the result of their Open Planet Ideas Project. The goal was to tackle and address a defined set of looming environmental problems using already existing Sony technology. The winner is a cross platform software application designed to mobilize a new generation of volunteers accustomed to social networking.

Profiting from Patents: Part 2

Jan-25-11 By Aminda
A previous post on selling patents highlighted the importance of creating a strong, sellable patent and of knowing the marketplace and the competition. It warned against both selling too soon and not soon enough. This is all critical research to have done before entering the next step in profiting from a patent which is choosing whether to sell or license the patent.

Keeping the Internet Open

Jan-24-11 By Aminda
A Canadian blog is alerting readers to potential changes taking place in Internet accessibility.  The premise is that as big telecom companies broaden the scope and influence, their effect will mean they ultimately replace smaller, independent Internet service providers (ISPs), which will in turn lead to the demise of open internet thus impeding innovation.

Developing Innovation Talent

Jan-22-11 By Aminda
Cultivating an innovative culture is a team effort between employers and employees. Here are some tips for both.
What Organizations Can Do
Innovation Management magazine recently published an in-depth piece about cultivating innovation talent management. Some of their key points:
Keep innovation Visible
In the most innovative companies, the concept is a defining part of the organization’s strategy; from definition and development to execution. It is regularly discussed in company meetings from the Board on down and as normally as topics such as marketing, sales, operations and finance.

Selling a Patent – Part 1

Jan-21-11 By Aminda
IdeaConnection provides a useful forum for patent owners to pitch their invention to a market of motivated buyers. Any inventor will maximize their return if they first maximize their research.  Here are few tips on getting started.

A Marked Need for Marketing

Jan-20-11 By Aminda
An organization’s marketing department is often thought of in terms of only one function – the communication. Granted, this is the most visible side, the ads and glossy brochures, but it really is only part of what Marketing does. Smart R&D teams will understand that they should be communicating and connecting with marketing to generate products not only with the best technology, but that are going to be the best sellers. Why? Because marketing is charged with tapping into the voice of the consumer, generating useful information about what features are desired and how much consumers are willing to pay for them.

In Celebration of an Original

Jan-19-11 By Aminda
Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary is Wikipedia.org, having grown from “Hello World” into the world’s fifth largest internet commodity. Within a month of founder Jimmy Wales sounding the challenge to write a complete encyclopedia from scratch, the site reached 1,000 articles. Within a year, the site was expanding into different languages. By 2008, Wikipedia had become the largest encyclopedia on the Internet with 10.6 million articles in 250 languages and more than 2,500 visitors per second. If the site were published as a book in English, it would require at least 1,500 books to print. Today it receives 400 million visitors per month and used by 42 percent of American adults, according to a Pew Internet study.