Tag: digital

Extending The Spaces You Need To Innovate (Further considerations)

InnovationPublished onUpdated on2 Comments on Extending The Spaces You Need To Innovate (Further considerations)

In my previous post about the Spaces You Need to Innovate I explored a range of specific domains of thinking and practice that impact on your ability to innovate.

Each space contributes to the culture and in particular the conditions for innovation. Some spaces are more prominent and noticeable than others, whereas some have a more significant influence than others but cannot be seen.

The ‘spaces‘ I referenced were 

  • Physical
  • Temporal
  • Agentic
  • Cognitive
  • Emotional

In this follow up post, I share a few further examples of ‘spaces‘ that seem to influence our ability to bring ideas to fruition.

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Digital Space

Technology has always been part of my work as a teacher and as a consultant. I have seen how students can work together on ideas from the the very earliest days of collaborative docs to blogging.

More recently there are a whole plethora of tools that allow remote teams to operate and innovate together. Without such a Digital Space remote teams would not exist.

I wonder if a complimentary Digital Space has become a default arena which helps innovation projects. When digital spaces operate effectively, they improve communication (outside of email), facilitate collaboration and allow for improved project management.

I am still not completely convinced you need a Digital Space for creative, innovative work. Although it has become a standard space for us to operate it in, a Digital Space seems a “nice to have” not a “must have”.

That said, asynchronous work needs to occur somewhere and digital spaces offer us great opportunities for staying connected and organised. What do you think?

Relational Space

“I prefer to bounce ideas of other people.” How regularly have you heard colleagues, friends and peers say something similar?

A strong contender for a fundamental space for innovation is the opportunity to share the innovative work with others. Encased within this effort is, of course, the process of collaboration which defines many projects. It is rare for us to have to implement creative projects alone.

The Relational Space for Innovation not only refers to the level of collaboration that fundamental but also to the quality of the relationships that exist.

We might consider these relationships as being central to the work taking place: colleagues you are working with, teams and others you consult directly regarding the project.

Relationships exist obliquely too. These might be the fundamental relationships between the industry and stakeholders, or even those indirectly impacted by your work.

Whichever type the Relational Space for Innovation is a key component; the quality of the relationships at the heart of the innovation process is directly proportional to the likelihood of success.

Developmental Space

My final contender, in this blog post, is the Developmental Space to Innovate. I define this space as the room you have developmentally to explore new projects, programmes or opportunities.

In a previous article (Innovation Compression) I explored the situation when new programmes and initiatives pile up. Despite the best of intentions we need to clear the way for new developmental work.

How much is on your plate right now? Are those who bought the crockery removing stuff as well as piling things on?

Innovation compression might be when good ideas or innovative programmes are introduced [forced] into a space still occupied by previous innovations. Programmes get compacted as nothing is removed, nothing is freed up. This is about new and old(er) innovations attempting to co-exist and it typically leads to a reduction in efficacy
 of the newer innovation. I suppose the incumbent might hold existing ground and resources.

If the Developmental Space is not available we will be fighting for attention, resources and energy at every turn. The Developmental Space for our new thinking, renewal projects and creative ideas is key.

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Is the “page” dead or are we just getting started?

iPadsPublished on1 Comment on Is the “page” dead or are we just getting started?

One of the interesting points made by Anthony Salcito, the VP of Education for Microsoft, during his talk at Learning Without Frontiers, was about the persistance of the page in digital formats.

He referred to the bookshelf look of iBooks and the animated page turn in digital books. Salcito asked why do we need this in the digital form? Why does this analogue construct persist in the digital representation of text?

I have recently enjoyed reading some of the the early Sherlock Holmes stories on my iPad and I like the way I can personalise the look and feel of the text. The page turn animation and control is always quite nice too. But are we just being unnecessarily nostalgic about this and in fact limiting what can be done with text in the digital form by sticking to this traditional notion of the “page”? Are we not being ambitious enough?

I think it was either Anthony Salcito himself or Steve Wheeler on Twitter who referred to it as a behavioural artifact:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/timbuckteeth/statuses/162560661866561537″]

And thrown into the mix was of course our love of the ‘desktop’ which was shared by Andy Powell.

The discussion about pages in digital text reminded me of the following video of further development of the user interface of the eBook, a prototype from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)

Skimming through the pages of a book, a feature that was previously unavailable with e-books, is also possible through 3D rendering of the contents on the pages being flipped. A bookmark function allows users to conveniently go back and forth between pages of interest. In addition, the system has a “multi-touch” function as well as a smart capability of recognising dragging time, finger pressure, and finger gestures.

Professor Howon Lee said,

“I hope that our technology will accelerate the wider use of e-books and contribute to Korea’s endeavours to lead the development of software application technology for mobile devices.”

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But is this simply innovation in the wrong direction? Does it just perpetuate a form factor that limits what can be done on digital devices? Or is the 1000 year old idea of a page going to be with us for another millennium and beyond?