Faculty Seminar on

Virtual Worlds
Episode 3 - Innovation - 2/26/08
cory ondrejka - cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
why innovation?
why innovation in a
discussion
of virtual worlds?
cause I agree with these guys
open innovation
future of work
structural holes
tertius iungens
 but more importantly,
I wanted to understand why
these entrepreneurs succeeded
but, before we dive in
innovation
anybody want to define it?
 like art,
we know it
when we
see
it
and we have some sense
for how it differs from
invention
innovation
improvement
I like an economic definition
per capita gdp growth
in other words,
productivity
which most people want more of
although it is creative
destruction
after all
but, generally
we are all
pro
innovation
so why does it happen?
so how does it happen?
so where does it happen?
lots of maps
clusters
breed theories
and correlation-causation errors
ants and picnics
but, we know a bit
innovation happens at the edges
at intersections
at collisions
(this is ron’s work)
backed by north
who tied innovation to learning
we can pay to change the
direction of innovation
 but the cost of learning
constrains the rate of innovation
which brings us to
long tails
and
random walks
we all know this, right?
long tail consumption
areas under the curve
areas under the curve
areas under the curve

more or less equals

areas under the curve

more or less equals

and random walks
what does this have to do with
innovation?
myths of innovation
remember the ants?
we’re pattern matchers
we see things
even where we shouldn’t
so we want explanations
like hiring the innovators
like hiring the innovators
like hiring the innovators
like hiring the innovators
selection bias
 we want
innovation
to work like darts
ready, aim, fire
but the evidence is otherwise
random walk
a multi-dimensional one
another myth is the
shortage of ideas
but ideas aren’t the problem
it is all about connecting
solutions and problems
a personal example
or innocentive
30% solution rate
most only solve one problem
or the hive mind
“no problem was hard enough”
so, want lots of solvers
but not just lots, right?
 need to be
learning
from each other
otherwise you just have monkeys
but if they communicate
 dramatic change in us
per capita growth
post IT (1995) revolution
but connecting isn’t enough
 back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers
 back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers
 back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers
 back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers
 back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers
 back to autos
us automakers toyota us suppliers toyota suppliers
collaborative exploration
shared process
trust
so, to sum up
to maximize innovation,
we want
 a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other
a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other
back to our long tail
think long tail innovation
what is the cost to try?
what is the cost to try?

what drives this?

capital
stigma of failure
regulatory/legal challenges
how do you let everyone try?
 which brings
us back to
virtual worlds
capital
stigma
regulatory
 who do explore design space
Web Wikipedia Sims Open Source
Mainstream Media Second Life

65.00

48.75

32.50

16.25

0
a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other
long tail communities
disney versus nyc
multinational,
gender
balanced
audience of
explorers
 a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other
all kinds
of learning
 a large, diverse set of explorers
cheaply learning from each other
 remember, it is a
zero marginal cost world
but, more than that,
avatars build trust
and cultural collisions
which we want
whether your goals are virtual
or not
 because,
in the experience economy
what’s here today
is here tomorrow
defusing one general problem
 often the tension between
structures that are good at
generating ideas
and those that are good at
execution
 can be mitigated in the
information and experience
economy
if problems can be divided into
independent pieces
virtual worlds give us the
opportunity to
teach
study
explore
innovation
which matters
because innovation is exponential

which
curve do
you want to
be on?
stop talking now
cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
http://ondrejka.net