A panel of CEOs from Xerox, Ford and Verizon spoke on education and innovation during CES as reported by Vegas Inc. The executives pointed out that better education and economic diversification were the key to the United States catching up to leading businesses around the world.

“We must fundamentally improve our educational system,” Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox, said during the CES’ Innovation Power Panel session. “We need to make science and math a desirable place to be. We need great teachers. We need excited learners. We can’t complain if we don’t have them, if we don’t invest in them.”

She went on to say that a part of the solution was to make students realize that four or six more years of education after high school could change their financial outlook and success.

“Unfortunately, it’s still not cool to be that way,” Burns said. “And it’s amazing to me how few people are thinking that way.”

CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro, moderator of the panel, said that the aftermath of the death of Steve Jobs put an emphasis on his role as an innovator. It was good for the industry as it showed the importance of innovators and the need for a solid education.

Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford, said that the United States needed to get back to letting businesses grow.

“Manufacturing can be a big part of fueling U.S. growth,” Mulally said. “It’s almost like we’ve decided not to be competitive.”

John Stratton, president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said that his company was fostering innovation through the opening of centers in Boston and San Francisco that invite entrepreneurs to develop phone apps and services.

Stratton blamed the government for not establishing new tax policies and putting regulatory burdens on companies as the main reasons behind their stifled innovation.

The executives praised the section on the CES show floor called Eureka! Park that features more than 100 new technologies. Shapiro said that the area featured product categories like broadband services, safe driving and sustainable technologies. It’s his hope that venture capitalists will invest in these new technologies to bring them to market.

Apple’s original office park, according to Jobs, only houses around 2,600 to 2,800 people. But they’ve got “almost 12,000 people in the area.” So what have they been doing? Renting out buildings in areas that aren’t always adjacent to the original campus.

Apple recently bought up about 150 acres in Cupertino that was once owned by Hewlett Packard. This is where Jobs is proposing that they build the new complex. In his presentation, Jobs said that the land is “kind of special to me,” citing the fact that Bill Hewett was one of his idols when he was 13.

Jobs proposes the new Apple headquarters as one big building, housing 12,000 people. It looks awesome, to be quite honest. It’s one giant ring, with curved glass windows and tons of space in the middle for landscaping. It resembles either a spaceship or a giant metal donut. Either way, housing that many people in one centralized campus will be quite the achievement.

Here’s what Jobs says about the new building:

It’s a circle, so it’s curved all the way around, and if you’ve built something, you know it’s not the cheapest way to build something. There’s not a straight piece of glass on this building, and we’ve used our experience making retail buildings, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world, for architectural use – and we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curved all the way around the building. It’s pretty cool.

Today, about 20% of the space is landscaping, most of it is big asphalt parking lots. We want to completely change this and make 80% of it landscaping. And the way we’re going to do this – we’re going to put most of the parking underground. And you can see what we have in mind. Today there are 37-hundred trees on the property, we’d like to almost double that.

Also, here’s the entire video of the presentation, complete with council-member questions at the end. They seem enthusiastic about the venture. The slides of the proposed campus start around the 5 minute mark:

Outside innovation is a systematic process for sourcing, evaluating, and driving ideas through to funding and measuring success but it starts with understanding your internal innovation process.

Innovation is an important topic for most companies, it is the essential source of new products, new markets, and even new business models. Outside innovation has been a topic that many companies have been exploring involving customers and partners in the innovation process and holds the promise of enormous returns for small investments. P&G has been a leader in open innovation and sources over 33% of it’s products from outside parties like educational institutions, customer communities, and the social web. Outside Innovation though is not easy and can only be a sustainable success when it works in concert with internal business processes and internal stakeholders.

Successful outside innovation then relies upon understanding your internal innovation process and ecosystem and then creating appropriate interfaces to outside parties. Understanding internal innovation itself can be a challenge as it is often a tacit process and a shared understanding amongst specific teams so it is useful to have a framework to use as a starting point. In this case the generic innovation process serves as a good starting point.

The generic innovation process:

• Fuzzy Front End
• Opportunity identification
• Problem Definition
• immersion in the problem and incubation
• Idea generation and exploring options
• prototyping solutions
• testing, measurement and iteration

When thinking about involving outside parties in these stages it is important to understand each require different kinds of thinking, behavior, motivation and measures of success. When externalizing this process through outside innovation participants are not under direct control and require intrinsic motivation to participate meaningfully in each stage. Companies that approach open innovation with a customer free-for-all are often flooded with unstructured ideas and feedback with weak ties to business goals. The goal of the outside innovation process is to provide a systematic way to help channel and motivate participation appropriately to support the goals of each stage of the process.

The open innovation process is continually iterative and helps identify successful participation at each stage by identifying particular individuals who are intrinsically motivated by specific stages of the process. This provides a framework for inviting users that enjoy and are particularly suited each kind of challenge or activity. This combined with appropriate internal participation will help create a direct connection between internal innovators work, business goals and external activity.

The starting point for formulating an open innovation process in your own organization is identifying the innovation leaders that already exist and identify your own internal innovation processes. This will form the foundation for understanding the existing internal innovation process which is the first step in being able to integrate outside innovation.

Originally published on Experience Curve

Yes, hiring. While Yahoo is shedding employees left and right, Google has announced that this will be its biggest hiring year in company history. That could help innovation too. Increasing the number of people who can take advantage of 20% time is in some sense increasing 20% time as a whole. 

Last year, Google added over 4,500 employees, mostly in engineering and sales. That was the second most in company history, behind 2007 when they added over 6,000 people. Now, they are looking to outdo both years. 

"We’re looking for top talent—across the board and around the globe—and we’ll hire as many smart, creative people as we can to tackle some of the toughest challenges in computer science: like building a web-based operating system from scratch, instantly searching an index of more than 100 million gigabytes and even developing cars that drive themselves," says Google SVP Engineering and Research, Alan Eustace. "There’s something at Google for everyone—from geo, to enterprise, to video—with most of the work done in small teams, effectively working as start-ups. (The average number of software engineers on a project at Google is 3.5.) That’s why the vast majority of our people stay with us, building their careers and taking on new challenges within the company."

"I joined Google more than eight years ago—when we had barely 500 employees and still used Outlook for email and AIM for chat—and while there have been many changes, Google is still the same entrepreneurial company it was when I started, encouraging Googlers to take on big ideas and high-risk, high-reward opportunities," adds Eustace.

Google just made two new acquisitions in SayNow and fflick. Earlier this month, Google acquired eBook Technologies. They’ve also got a Groupon clone on the way already (after failing to acquire that company), and they’ve announced some upcoming managerial changes.  It’s only 25 days into January, and Google is certainly not sitting still. 

If you think things have cooled down at Google, while the company has lost some engineers to Facebook, you’re going to be in for quite a ride as the year progresses, it seems.

I’m not saying that I necessarily agree with that, but the much of the company’s focus in recent memory would appear to be based upon acquisitions and "me too"-type products.  Most recently, an upcoming Google product called "Google Offers" came to light – an apparent Groupon clone. Such a product makes sense for the company, like an acquisition of Groupon would’ve made sense, but it’s not exactly something people haven’t seen before – at least based on what we know about it. 

Google Buzz is another example of an original Google product, which hasn’t generated the Buzz the company would have liked. That’s not to say it’s not a useful service and doesn’t have its place, but it’s not looking like it’s going to be the next Twitter or Facebook. 

Google’s greatest successes these days seem to come from acquisitions (in terms of talent and product), most notably Android. 

Jeff Jarvis writes in an op-ed piece for Reuters:

When I interviewed Schmidt a few weeks ago and asked about pressure over privacy, China, and lobbying, he said, "This is not the No. 1 crisis at Google." What is? "Growth," he said, "just growth."

Scale is Google’s greatest skill and greatest challenge. It scaled search (vs. quaint Yahoo, which thought it could catalogue this web thing). It scaled advertising (vs. the media companies that today don’t know how to grow, only shrink). It is scaling mobile (by giving away Android). It has tried to scale innovation (with its 20 percent rule)—but that’s the toughest."

Perhaps the 20% should be bumped up to a slightly higher percentage. Keep in mind that products like Gmail, Google News, and AdSense began with 20% time. There would appear to be room for flexibility, as they seem to have the revenue thing down pretty well. The company reported revenues of $8.44 billion for the 4th quarter. 

But, as has been widely documented, the company has lost more than a few engineers to one of its biggest competitors – Facebook. Google is faced by a growing amount of competition from all angles – whether that comes from Bing in search, Apple in mobile, Facebook in where web users are spending their time, or Groupon in the deals space. Obviously, it is Google that brings much of this competition onto itself, as it expands into established industries, but while the "me-too" services can sometimes prove valuable, the "next big thing" generally stems from innovation (granted, acquisitions can solve this to some extent).

Google has probably some of the brightest minds out there at its disposal, and giving them 20% of their time to facilitate new ideas has proven valuable for both consumers and Google itself. Maybe it’s time to bump that 20% up a bit (even if it’s not really a formal number). It could help Google create the next big thing, or even keep some talent loyal.

The company is in the process of revamping its management strategy, and it will be interesting to see the shape it takes, as half of the original Google brain takes the driver’s seat.

Steven Berlin Johnson,  Author of "Where Good Ideas Come From" and Chairman and co-Founder of local startup Outside.in, had some inspirational things to say on the matter. For one, ideas come from hunches, and it’s crucial that you surround yourself in environments where such hunches can thrive. 

You might check out his book if you want to see examples throughout history, but getting right to the point, think about Google and their 20% time. Think about Facebook’s casual working environment. These are two of the most innovative companies on the web, and they give their employees environments that cater to constant innovation. 

Beyond the actual work environment, the tools are clearly there to spark innovation. "The web has obviously been an extraordinary engine of innovation," said Johnson. "The web is an open platform….It’s the openness of the space that makes all these new forms of connection and innovation possible."

Another part of it is not closing this openness off. "We need to recognize the value in connecting ideas and not just protecting ideas," he said, adding that all the intellectual property law kind of stuff is basically the equivalent of paying an "innovation tax."

One more piece of great advice that Johnson offered was to associate with a diverse group of people. This means not just people in your own industry. While it’s certainly a good idea to get involved with the people within your own niche, innovation can be sparked from seeing things from the points of view from a much broader group. 

One easy way to do this is follow people in different fields on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Gates proved that underneath the ill-fitting shirts and the underwhelming stage presence lies a strong debater who can disarm even the toughest of questions with facts and humor.

To quote a bit from the transcript, Gates is told by Snook that he feels Microsoft has always been reactionary. Gates’ response is brilliant:

Especially when we started the company. (Laughter.) I knew that three years later, Apple would come along. It was [just a reaction]. (Laughter.)

There are bits the transcriber had trouble picking up. They’re in brackets.

Gates response is completely disarming, and funny too. Snook responds by asking about Word being reactionary to WordPerfect, and Gates goes:

When do you think Microsoft did its first word processor, just out of curiosity?

Gates says that Microsoft has little 8080 word processors, and that ultimately Charles Simone built the first bitmap graphics word processor at Xerox PARC, and he started Microsoft Word (or Microsoft Multi-Tool Word), so there was no reactionary movement, just coders doing what they do.

He makes the more important point that Microsoft didn’t beat WordPerfect by copying them, they won by betting heavily on the graphical user interface while WordPerfect bet against it, a costly losing bet.

Bill then asks who else is doing tablet computers? Who is doing IPTV? He explains that Microsoft is so big, everything it does becomes the baseline, so by definition that means only what everyone else does is innovative.

Anyway, tablet computers, is there somebody else out there doing tablet computers? IPTV, is there somebody else out there doing — by definition what we do is the baseline. Everything Microsoft does is the baseline, and what we don’t do, that’s what’s innovative I guess. (Laughter.) And by that definition the other guys do all the innovative things.

It’s not an airtight argument, but it’s a better way of looking at it than some defenders of Microsoft have tried using. Bill does make the good argument that the winners in tech are rarely the ones who come up with the new idea, but rather the ones who bring it to market properly.

Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player, it just brought it mainstream. Microsoft didn’t invent the graphical OS, it just brought forward the first one compatible with everyone’s old software. YouTube didn’t invent internet video, it was just the first one to package it with an easy embeddable player and a great community. The winners aren’t the ones who do something first, but the ones who did it right for the market and the users.

It’s a lesson we should all remember as we try to make a difference in the world.

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“This groundbreaking analysis identifies a critical issue facing the Internet – that we must take the necessary steps to build out network capacity or potentially face Internet gridlock that could wreak havoc on Internet services,” stated Larry Irving, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance.

Things like BlackBerrys, YouTube, and file-sharing have brought us to this point, according to Nemertes, and without an improved infrastructure, it seems unlikely that we’ll ever get beyond it.  The study’s title does, after all, include the phrase “Limits in Internet Capacity Will Stifle Innovation on the Web.”

What will this improved infrastructure cost, then?  Nemertes tosses out some large numbers – an extra $42-$55 billion – but then provides a point of comparison by adding, “this is roughly 60-70 percent above and beyond the $70 billion service providers are already planning to invest.”

Assuming the accuracy of the study, that much of a difference might necessitate some price hikes or even government intervention.

Obama unveiled his “Innovation Agenda”, his set of principles related to the tech industry that would shape his policy if he became President. You can read them in depth here, but the bullet points are:

• Ensure the Full and Free Exchange of Information through an Open Internet and Diverse Media Outlets
• Protect the Openness of the Internet
• Encourage Diversity in Media Ownership
• Protect Our Children While Preserving the First Amendment – Obama will create Public Media 2.0, a sort of PBS for the internet age
• To ensure that powerful databases containing information on Americans that are necessary tools in the fight against terrorism are not misused for other purposes, Barack Obama supports restrictions on how information may be used and technology safeguards to verify how the information has actually been used.
• Obama supports updating surveillance laws and ensuring that law enforcement investigations and intelligence-gathering relating to U.S. citizens are done only under the rule of law.
• Make government data available online in universally accessible formats
• Establishing pilot programs to open up government decision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies, not simply by soliciting opinions, but by tapping into the vast and distributed expertise of the American citizenry
• Requiring his appointees who lead Executive Branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public
• Restoring the basic principle that government decisions should be based on the best-available, scientifically-valid evidence and not on the ideological predispositions of agency officials.
• Lifting the veil from secret deals in Washington with a web site, a search engine, and other web tools that enable citizens easily to track online federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts with government officials.
• Giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days before signing any non-emergency legislation.
• Bringing democracy and policy deliberations directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national online town hall meetings to answer questions and discuss issues before their agencies.
• Employing technologies, including blogs, wikis and social networking tools, to modernize internal, cross-agency, and public communication and information sharing to improve government decision-making.
• Obama will appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
• Redefine “broadband” in government policy as speeds considerably larger than the current 200kbps
• Unleashing the Wireless Spectrum: Obama will confront the entrenched Washington interests that have kept our public airwaves from being maximized for the public’s interest.
• Barack Obama believes that America should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access, and Obama believes we can get true broadband to every community in America.
• Lower Health Care Costs by Investing in Electronic Information Technology Systems
• Double federal science and research funding for clean energy projects
• Invest in the development of the next generation of biofuels
• Invest in a digital smart energy grid.
• Upgrade Education to Meet the Needs of the 21st Century
• Obama also believes that we must strengthen math and science education
• ensure that we can retain and grow high-paying jobs in fast-growing sectors in the sciences and technology rather than exporting those jobs to lower cost labor markets abroad
• Modernize Public Safety Networks
• doubling federal funding for basic research
• Make the R&D Tax Credit Permanent
• Reform Immigration
• improvement in our visa programs
• We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time.
• Promote American Businesses Abroad
• Barack Obama believes we need a business and regulatory landscape in which entrepreneurs and small businesses can thrive, start-ups can launch, and all enterprises can compete effectively while investors and consumers are protected against bad actors that cross the line.
• Protect American Intellectual Property Abroad and at Home
• Reform the Patent System

TechCrunch has thoughts on these points and how they affect the Web 2.0 world.

Obama isn’t the first presidential candidate to appear at Google. Check out John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Mike Gravel. Hopefully Republican front-runners Giuliani and Romney will join up and speak at Google soon, too.

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]]> http://www.webpronews.com/obama-visits-google-unveils-innovation-agenda-2007-11/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/yahoo-executive-wins-innovation-award-2007-08 http://www.webpronews.com/yahoo-executive-wins-innovation-award-2007-08#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:42:59 +0000 Doug Caverly http://www.webpronews.com/?p=39701 Yahoo’s got some pretty bright people in its employ, and one of them - Dr. Usama Fayyad - has just been awarded the 2007 Innovation Award by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).  And yes, that’s the same ACM that gives the Turing Award.

]]> Yahoo’s got some pretty bright people in its employ, and one of them – Dr. Usama Fayyad – has just been awarded the 2007 Innovation Award by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).  And yes, that’s the same ACM that gives the Turing Award.

Yahoo seems quite proud of Dr. Fayyad, who serves as its chief data officer and executive vice president of research and strategic data solutions.  In fact, Yahoo put out a press release to mark the occasion, and it’s not every day that a major corporation honors a single employee with one of those.

The releases notes that the “Innovation Award is the highest technical award in the fields of data mining and knowledge discovery,” and that the Award “recognizes individuals who have either driven significant innovations that have transferred to industry practice in impactful ways or who have significantly influenced the direction of research and development in these areas.”

Well said.  The description of Dr. Fayyad’s accomplishments is, to be honest, also best left to someone other than me – I’m a writer, not a “data mining and knowledge discovery” expert – and the ACM site contains an extensive professional biography.  To quote just one impressive sentence from it: “[Fayyad] is a prolific inventor with over 30 patents issued and over 50 filed patents in the areas of data mining, on-line marketing and the Internet.”

For his trouble, Dr. Fayyad will soon receive $2,500, in addition to what I imagine will be quite a lot of applause.