As a researcher, I have often faced the dilemma of being intruiged by an idea and its implementation, often new and simply beautiful. But at the end of the day, the real beauty lies in the understanding that people will have of this idea; and this goes far beyond research.

Turning inventions into innovations is increasingly creating a new focus in my work life. Recently, I’m immersed in discussions around the Future of the Internet, identifying reasons as to why we ought to change it and finding solutions as to how this change might happen. But the most important bit in these discussions is the way we will make these new solutions happen in the ‘real’ world. Many other grand challenges of our time face similar issues.

For this reason, I started an endeavour called Technology Challenges (TECs) within the ICST society (http://www.icst.org) together with a group of similar minds. This construct aims at creating a stage of dialogue between the different camps of academia, industry, regulatory bodies as well as end user communities, all of which represent important stakeholders towards any technological (and societal) challenge.

Currently, the TEC concept has been defined for five grand challenges, namely Future Networked Society, Sustainability & Growth, Enhanced Life, Future Cities, and Future Transport. The concept is still in its forming stage but if you’re interested please do drop me an email.

Last Saturday I attended a lesson on technological innovation at London Business School and my professor would fully agree with Stroustrup (and Edison) that innovation is 99% perspiration or even more.

A nice distinction my professor made is the difference between an inventor and an innovator.

For example who can spot what the following inventors did invent?

- Murray & Spengler
- Elias Howe
- N.G. Cugnot

But if I list the associated innovators, then it will be easier to spot the invention:

- W. H. Hoover
- Isaac Singer
- Henry Ford

Of course the answer is the vacuum cleaner, the sewing machine and the car.

My understanding is that an innovator is somebody that had really an impact on the market and the world. An innovator brings the inventions outside labs and ivory towers so that everyone can enjoy and benefit from them.

In that sense Bjarne Stroustrup was a innovator in the true sense and it is really a pleasure to read his interview.

In industry we are so concerned with deadlines we don’t allow or give time to explore the forrest and new ideas or new ways to develop.

I always find it difficult to tell a manager that I explored this concept or that just to see if I could improve x or y. If x and y is working why wast time?

Or explore a concept in greater detail. Don’t just implement: understand the technologies you are using and what is good and bad about them. New ideas will come once you have a great technical understanding of the current technoloy

Just some random thoughts.

I am not an innovator……
I am a boring implementor of current technologies.