Via C|Net (Link):
Technology innovations are more likely to come from someone’s living room than from the corporate boardroom or even an entrepreneur’s garage, says Frank Moss, the newly named director of the MIT Media Lab.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Wednesday that Moss is heading its Media Lab.
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But in his mind, technology users are increasingly setting the direction of inventions, rather than corporate research labs or venture capital-funded start-ups.“I think a lot of innovation will come from a different place. It will trickle down further so that innovation will come from the consumer, whereas in the past they were the recipient” of new technologies, Moss said Wednesday.
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The MIT Media Lab will continue doing research in a number of areas, as it already does. But Moss said that he would like to have participants take their ideas beyond the “demo,” or demonstration, phases.Instead, Moss thinks that the Media Lab should be involved in making prototypes, which will help the lab make a broader impact.
I like this guy already. It’s a long way from a $100 Laptop demo the previous director has been promoting to an actual prototype… as I mentioned in an earlier post (Link). Sounds like MIT has someone in charge who groks that. Awesome news.
I disagree with this. Innovation comes from the innovator. The wisdom of the crowd will provide the mother necessity , but someone has to make sense of that necessity and patch that together in a meaningful and useful way.
There’s no formula for that, except inspiration, invention and innovation.
What the MIT direction should have said is that:
“Technology innovations are more likely to be more relevant as requirements come from someone’s living room rather than from the corporate boardroom or even an entrepreneur’s garage, says Frank Moss, the newly named director of the MIT Media Lab.”
I suspect the reasoning is that as more people gain access to increasingly powerful tools, the ability to innovate democratizes.