Information Governance & Innovation

Innovation requires a certain climate or environment in order to flourish, and there are fundamental similarities that can be found in the bastions of creativity worldwide. A measurement of creativity is that of Richard Florida's Creativity Index (2004) which is a baseline indicator of a region’s overall standing in the creative economy and a barometer of a region’s long run economic potential. more >>

We have all gotten used to spectacular innovation breakthroughs over the last decades, especially in the field of information and communication technologies. We have also come to appreciate what seems like a continuous stream of incremental innovation coming to our information processing tools in the form of updates and point releases. The Internet is a most effective and efficient distribution mechanism for such incremental change. But is the Internet also facilitating radical innovation?

Not necessarily, as I+I Centre director Viktor Mayer-Schönberger has argued in a recent paper. He suggests that successful commercial vendors are held back by the desire to keep loyal a growing user base that is reluctant vis-a-vis radical changes. That is why Microsoft can't fundamentally rethink Word, even if it wanted to - hundreds of millions of users would likely revolt, or at least see this as an opportunity to consider alternatives. more >>

Joseph Schumpeter, the famed theorist of innovation, advocated for entrepreneurial breakthroughs: private sector innovation based on a new product, a new production mechanism, a new product ecology, or entering a new market. For him, innovative entrepreneurs were revolutionaries, bringing much needed disruption to the market system of established players. Others have made a caricature out of this - equating the innovative entrepreneur with a person, who thrives on breaking the rules and despises existing rules and norms. more >>