Innovation in the hoods ?
Following a recent article I read on the upcoming doom of innovation (by Peter Thiel), I did mention that innovation rather than doomed would just need to be looked for elsewhere (see on Scoop.it).
That is maybe not in the places currently seen as the capitals of (startup) innovation.
Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, just to mention those have been regarded as the places where the ideas are born.
Yet, we tend to see a trend where new ideas are just old ideas. Where innovation is more about re-creation of an existing bit, with added functions, added colors, etc … but not a game-changing creation.
The recent fashion for looks, for design, the awards given to the best-looking products all tend to show the push is not on the brains but rather on the look.
This innovation is actual pimping.
So, is innovation dead ? Or dying ? Innovation dies, long lives innovation!
Indeed. In the same way as startups are now to be found everywhere in the world, that there is a strong growth in new geographies, so is innovation.
U.S. cities like Detroit had started it, putting an emphasis on resources for new businesses and willing to develop the city. New Orleans with good scholar level and an attractive lifestyle is calling back startups.
In Europe a city like Freiburg has been at the forefront of “green” for years (See this 2008 article by The Guardian) and that can be called real innovation as not only is there business involved but mainly a path taken for people and their future.
It does appear that the “old” realms of innovation look like they have turned their sights towards business more than ideas. Yet, all these new territories (see Techie.com‘s article about U.S. cities topping the charts for high-tech innovation) look like the new unexplored parts where ideas can bloom again.
Innovation is dead. Long live the innovation … born in these new territories.
This Is Sam's Town 