How information flow empowers innovation in the future

The flow of information, its density, volume and accessibility are essential underpinnings to a society's innovation capacity. In this short series of posts, I've taken a historic perspective, looking at the information revolution in the middle ages, and at the technological and societal developments up to the 20th century, before turning to the 21st century and the dominant … Continue reading How information flow empowers innovation in the future →

How information flow empowers innovation – Part 3

Much has been said and written about the transformative power of the internet; how it affects every aspect of our lives; how it keeps changing our economy, society, culture. Today, I'll take stock of the most profound effects the internet has had so far. For me, the term "the internet" is a chiffre for the current performance level that information and … Continue reading How information flow empowers innovation – Part 3 →

How information flow empowers innovation – Part 2

With the advent of movable type printing and wide-spread literacy in the 16th century, society departed from its traditional person-to-person mode of information exchange and entered into a new era: since those days, ideas can travel independent of a human carrier. What did we do with this new freedom; how did the patterns of information exchange evolve … Continue reading How information flow empowers innovation – Part 2 →

How information flow empowers innovation – Part 1

The flow of information is a good starting point for a little investigation of how the essential inputs to our society – to our technological world, to our economy – have shaped and will keep shaping our ability to innovate. Our ways of handling information, generating it, storing it, granting or denying access to it, transmitting and sharing … Continue reading How information flow empowers innovation – Part 1 →

Empowering innovation

Most often, the term empowering innovation is used as a synonym for disruptive innovation. For good reason, as these terms vividly describe two different views of the very same type of innovation: taking of complex and expensive product or service, and making it simpler and more affordable is the underlying definition that you'll have seen … Continue reading Empowering innovation →