Developer Howard Harte wants to innovate, and he is using prize money to get a jump on the competition. Harte is offering $1000 to the first person who can build a software-based hack of Google TV that will allow him to install third-party applications onto the device. While it was released only a month ago, Harte already has big ideas for Google TV. By reaching out to the hacker community for support, Harte is ensuring that he is first to market with his software. In class, we discussed how offering prize money can help tech companies generate ideas. In this particular case, the prize competition will also benefit conversion, allowing Hart to develop his concepts into functioning prototypes before Google offers third-party application support. While Harte argues that the incentive he is offering benefits the developer community as a whole, he will no doubt reap the benefits of being a first-mover in the marketplace.
Author: Emily Barabas
Large technology firms are finding business opportunities in organizing and analyzing scientific data in new ways. They are collaborating with external partners to generate ideas for innovative technologies. Microsoft is one company seeing the potential in partnerships with a diverse set of academic and medical institutions. They are bringing together scientific data from a variety of sources and using powerful analysis techniques to seek new breakthroughs. In one project, Microsoft is partnering with UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory to analyze satellite, geologic, and economic data in order to improve water supply management. In another project, they are looking at individual viral mutations in thousands of subjects to better understand HIV. According to Tony Hey of the Harvard Business Review, collaborations like these may not only not lead to the next scientific revolution, they may prove to be quite profitable for technology firms that are making breakthroughs possible. As covered in our discussion of the Innovation Value Chain, this will only be true if effective mechanisms for conversion and diffusion are in place.
Full article: http://hbr.org/2010/11/the-big-idea-the-next-scientific-revolution/ar/1