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