1. Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Worlds
Episode 3 - Innovation - 2/26/08
cory ondrejka - cory.ondrejka@gmail.com

2. why innovation?

3. why innovation in a
discussion
of virtual worlds?

4. cause I agree with these guys

5. open innovation

6. future of work

7. structural holes

8. tertius iungens

9. but more importantly,
I wanted to understand why
these entrepreneurs succeeded

13. but, before we dive in

14. innovation

15. anybody want to define it?

16. like art,
we know it
when we
see
it

17. and we have some sense
for how it differs from

18. invention

19. innovation

20. improvement

21. I like an economic definition

22. per capita gdp growth

23. in other words,
productivity

24. which most people want more of

25. although it is creative
destruction
after all

26. but, generally

27. we are all
pro
innovation

28. so why does it happen?

29. so how does it happen?

30. so where does it happen?

31. lots of maps

32. clusters

33. breed theories

34. and correlation-causation errors

35. ants and picnics

36. but, we know a bit

37. innovation happens at the edges

38. at intersections

39. at collisions

40. (this is ron’s work)

41. backed by north

42. who tied innovation to learning

43. we can pay to change the
direction of innovation

44. but the cost of learning
constrains the rate of innovation

45. which brings us to
long tails
and
random walks

46. we all know this, right?

47. long tail consumption

48. areas under the curve

49. areas under the curve

50. areas under the curve
more or less equals

51. areas under the curve
more or less equals

52. and random walks

53. what does this have to do with
innovation?

54. myths of innovation

55. remember the ants?

56. we’re pattern matchers

57. we see things

58. even where we shouldn’t

59. so we want explanations

60. like hiring the innovators

61. like hiring the innovators

62. like hiring the innovators

63. like hiring the innovators

64. selection bias

65. we want
innovation
to work like darts

66. ready, aim, fire

67. but the evidence is otherwise

68. random walk

69. a multi-dimensional one

70. another myth is the
shortage of ideas

71. but ideas aren’t the problem

72. it is all about connecting
solutions and problems

73. a personal example

74. or innocentive

75. 30% solution rate

76. most only solve one problem

77. or the hive mind

78. “no problem was hard enough”

79. so, want lots of solvers

80. but not just lots, right?

81. need to be
learning
from each other

82. otherwise you just have monkeys

83. but if they communicate

84. dramatic change in us
per capita growth
post IT (1995) revolution

85. but connecting isn’t enough

86. back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers

87. back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers

88. back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers

89. back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers

90. back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers

91. back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers

92. collaborative exploration
shared process
trust

93. so, to sum up

94. to maximize innovation,
we want

95. a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other

96. a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other

97. back to our long tail

98. think long tail innovation

99. what is the cost to try?

100. what is the cost to try?
what drives this?

101. capital

102. stigma of failure

103. regulatory/legal challenges

104. how do you let everyone try?

105. which brings
us back to
virtual worlds

106. capital

107. stigma

108. regulatory

109. who do explore design space
Web Wikipedia Sims Open Source
Mainstream Media Second Life
65.00
48.75
32.50
16.25
0

110. a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other

111. long tail communities

112. disney versus nyc

113. multinational,
gender
balanced
audience of
explorers

114. a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other

115. all kinds

116. of learning

117. a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other

118. remember, it is a
zero marginal cost world

119. but, more than that,
avatars build trust

120. and cultural collisions

121. which we want

122. whether your goals are virtual

123. or not

124. because,
in the experience economy

125. what’s here today

126. is here tomorrow

127. defusing one general problem

128. often the tension between
structures that are good at
generating ideas

129. and those that are good at
execution

130. can be mitigated in the
information and experience
economy

132. if problems can be divided into
independent pieces

134. virtual worlds give us the
opportunity to

135. teach

136. study

137. explore

138. innovation

139. which matters

140. because innovation is exponential
which
curve do
you want to
be on?

141. stop talking now

142. cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
http://ondrejka.net