Given that we are discussing the question of "How can our group be innovative?". I choose to focus my context question on the definition of innovation. To help me with this, please read this short article on its meaning: http://www.innovation...

And now for my question. Given the last two lines of this article that are:

"We should always be striving to improve our products, our businesses, our lives, but let’s save innovation as a descriptor for the really big things; for the ground-breaking, earth-shattering, company-saving missions that require more than just adding a few skus to the range.Let’s keep innovation special."

My context question is: What are true examples of innovation do you see in social change right now? What organizations or programs are doing "really big things" that are disrupting and redefining their field? What sets them apart from the rest and why do you think their innovation is important?

Shan, many thanks for the interesting article. Although it was indeed short, it got right to the point and made very important distinctions and categorizations that are important to utilize for the ICPP if we are to move forward.

Before tackling your question and subsequently the main one of the group, i find it important to mention a few points of view with respect to the article:
-I believe that the ICPP is-and will have to be- about innovation, and not advancement. It will have to be about innovation in the realm of human communication, dialogue, and organization.
-This in extension, means that we have to invent a new product to answer a need.
-Regarding the idea to create the need, I have a divergent view: the need already exists, and people are talking about the difficulty of collaborating and of becoming aware of community events and projects. The trick will be to show them how this need has an answer, and in convincing them that this need is causing a lot of...wasted time and effort, for lack of a better phrase.
-I support the layout of: vision, invention, adoption, innovation for a potential "business" plan and timeline for our group's decision making process. I can even see us creating 4 departments each headed by a few people.


Now to the Questions:
1) "How can our group be innovative?" By changing the way human beings interact in meetings and by promoting a very different notion-and manner- in which a community collaborates, within itself, and with external actors.

2)Examples of innovation in social change: Email; the internet; Twitter; Facebook; Youtube; the idea of applications in cellphones;text messaging. They are unique in that they have revolutionized the way human beings communicate, and subsequently organize and advocate for change. Dialogue is now not merely in person, nor will ever be solely in person. How are they different from the rest? Well, perhaps because "the rest" simply do not exist. Or if they do, they are not frequented by users. They are defined by their popularity, and its hard for some other idea to fill a niche that is already full. This suggests that innovation must insert itself into a whole "undiscovered" by others.

Hopefully more ideas will come with time.


Would you still like to meet at 11am? Recall ms y will be MIA.