Social implications
of innovation
Laurent Haug
Founder, Lift conference, Lift lab
laurent@liftconference.com

Social implications
of innovation
1. Innovation & society
2. Examples of technical, business, and social innovations
3. Take aways

Innovation changes society

Society changes innovation

The problem with this co-evolution
• It is...
• not evenly distributed
• adopted slowly
• not well understood
• not a truth but a discussion
• can’t be ignored anymore
• hard to anticipate

Education in 2000
(1910, paleofuture.com)

The visiophone
(1939, paleofuture.com)

Apple prediscts Apple in 1997
(1987, paleofuture.com)

Clothes in 2000?
(1950, paleofuture.com)

Examples of recent
(and upcoming)
technical, business, and
social innovations

Technical innovation
• Communicating objects
• Online convergence (& divergence)
• Open source

Technical innovation
• Communicating objects
• Online convergence (& divergence)
• Open source

Poken, www.doyoupoken.com

SPC-101c
More on liftconference.com/videos

QB1 robot

QB1 robot

QB1 robot

Playmegaphone.com

Jury Hahn, PlayMegaPhone
More on liftconference.com/videos

Technical evolutions
• Communicating objects
• Online convergence (& divergence)
• Open source

Technical evolutions
• Communicating objects
• Online convergence (& divergence)
• Open source

Business evolutions
• Network is the new job security
• Private life invades work
• New exchanges and currencies

Private life invades work
• A typical user spends 80% of his or her time communicating with just four other people.
• People are using different communications technologies (fixed-line calls, mobile calls,
texting, IM,VOiP) in distinct and divergent ways.
• There is a flattening in voice communication and an increase in written channels.
• Instead of work invading private life, private communications are
invading the workplace.
• People generally do not work while on the move: hotel rooms and airports are not seen
as an appropriate environment for substantive work and are mainly used for e-mail.
• Migrants are the most advanced users of communications technology.
The economist, “Home truths about telecoms”

Social innovations
• Transparency & openness
• Governments behind changes
• Conflict of value systems

Take aways

20y = 8y

Important to unlearn

Solution is to anticipate

Where did the future
go?

“Intelligence is the
capacity to stand
uncertainties”
I. Kant

“21st century
analphabetism is the
incapacity to unlearn”
A. Toffler