Innovation Nation

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but there’s a short documentary circling the interwebs created by film makers supporting a foundation called Invisible Children. That video is called Kony 2012 (seen below).

If you don’t have 30 minutes to spare, here’s the lowdown:

• Joseph Kony is a war criminal leading a rebel group in Uganda called Lord’s Resistance Army
• the LRA is made up of children forced to murder, rape, torture, and hold captives as sex slaves on his behalf
• the International Criminal Court indicted him and the US sent Special Forces into Africa to capture him
• Special Forces have been unsuccessful in attaining him and are being withdrawn from the country
• this video is a call to action; to keep the word about Kony alive and raise funds to bring him to justice

Before I get to my point, let me make my stand on this subject very clear. A man that would rip innocent children from their homes and force them to murder their families, mutilate others, and rape young girls sickens me and deserves nothing kinder than a slow, excruciating death. That being said, I do not support this campaign at all. The facts are skewed and only about 31% of the money raised from merchandise actually goes towards the charity. But, I digress. If you’d like to learn more about the other side of this debate, Visible Children is an informative blog on the subject.

Now what exactly does this controversy have to do with innovation? Like I said last week, a big part of innovation is the ability to get your target audience to adopt the product and embed it in their culture.

Firstly, Kony has become the main subject of conversation. Since the video was posted, it has been shared by both celebrities and ordinary folk. Everybody and their grandmothers have seen this video and discussed it in some way or another. I’ve been (sometimes unwillingly) pulled into very different conversations depending on the person I was talking to. Regardless of the conversation, I’m not entirely sure marketers care. The bottom line is, people are talking. In fact, they won’t shut up about it. I keep trying to move past it now that I’m thoroughly informed but, like Michael Corleone said, they keep pulling me back in. 

Second, this mini documentary has proved that it is possible for a video of any length to go viral. According to Demo Duck, videos are not always limited to under a minute, but they still shouldn’t exceed five minutes. Everywhere you look, this is the general consensus where viral videos are concerned. Yet, Kony 2012 managed to grab viewers’ attention for half an hour! It was neither funny nor did it feature any celebrities and people still took 30 minutes to watch the entire thing. Referring back to my first point, everyone wants to be part of the conversation and this video going viral proves that. 

Lastly, the call to action for this cause created a massive response. People became willing to spend money without even questioning how much of their money was helping the cause directly. Hip posters and shirts were being sold and there is even an event happening in many cities called Cover the Night where supporters will spend the night plastering the city with posters supporting Kony 2012. Not only  did the notforprofit charity create awareness, it became trendy and therefore became part of the youth culture. 

The one thing that has me worried since Kony 2012 went viral is how easily the general public takes information at face value. Most people, including celebrities, were sharing this video and whole-heartedly backing the cause before asking all the necessary questions. Have we really become so gullible that we will believe anything the internet tells us? Luckily, there is still a large number of critical-thinking viewers. Kony 2012 has proved that celebrity endorsement is still a powerful force and celebrities should never take that power for granted. They have a great responsibility thrust upon them to be well informed before relaying a message to their fan base. One of the few sensible messages came from Don Cheadle when he said:

“Assisting the Ugandan government and letting them ultimately resolve and solve their internal issues are not mutually exclusive acts […] We need to be wary of traditionally paternalistic attitudes toward other nations and make sure we are acting as ‘helpers’ not encroachers.”

I’m sure there were others urging viewers to be critical of the message they are receiving but for the most part Kony 2012 seemed to be just a mass spread message without any discretionary warning. 

I know this post may seem like a bit of a stretch from the subject of innovation but I believe, from an objective point of view, that Invisible Children created a truly innovative social media campaign simply by the lengths they managed to reach in only a few days. 

For over a week I’ve been combing the internet in a desperate search for something innovative enough to evoke some sort of emotion.

So far I’ve come up short.

Originally, I wanted to talk about the PS Vita but a classmate had chosen the same topic and considering the fact that she actually owns one of these beautiful devices, I figured she’d have better insight. I’ve Tumbl’d and Stumbled and wasted an incredible amount of time, which I now feel could’ve been better spent catching up on TV shows or napping. I’ve even gone through the entire “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” and nothing peaked my interest. I’m sure I could’ve talked about something on Yanko Design because that blog is full of innovative ideas, but because most of those designs don’t really exist, the entire blog entry would consist of “why this would be awesome, if it were real.”

So this week, I’m doing an anti-innovation blog entry! I’ve chosen 2 products/designs that, contrary to popular belief, are not as innovative as they claim to be. 

1. HBO Go

According to Fast Company, HBO Go is the “first comprehensive mobile TV service”. Last time I checked, many networks, including Rogers, have been providing on-demand services online and on tablets quite some time now. On top of all of that, it’s not even available in Canada yet. There’s virtually nothing innovative about this service. The only advantage HBO Go has over cable providers is that they provide their entire library for free without subscription. 

2. Jawbone Jambox

When Jawbone first arrived on the scene with their super cool-looking Bluetooth earpieces, everyone wanted one because they seemed so slick. In reality, they delivered only slightly better quality than the others, with a few extra features that are now available to almost all other Bluetooth devices. Once again, they’re trying to pass off an existing product as something brand new. The Jambox allows users to simultaneously use their phone while streaming music wirelessly. While I’m sure the sound quality is great, this is not a new device. Portable speakers have been around for years, so what makes Jambox different? It’s prettier (Big whoop). I personally would prefer to use my own sound system and have an adapter that would allow a wireless connection to my phone. 

I’m sure there are plenty more products I can rag on for trying to pass themselves off as new and innovative, but I’ve already strayed too far from the purpose of this blog. 

Windows 8 is coming. 

Now, you might be thinking “but wait, Windows 7 just got here”. Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking too.

Microsoft has had its share of bad releases over the years. I’m going to keep this short by skipping everything before Y2K and stick to the major releases. Remember Windows ME?

This image haunted me all day and night.

Most of us are trying to forget the constant onslaught of deadly blue screens and error messages. After a year of mass user suffering, they quickly replaced that nightmare Windows XP which was an absolute delight. Windows XP reigned supreme on PCs for a solid five years before they updated to Windows Vista, the second reign of terror in my life. 

Every. Damn. Day.

After purchasing a laptop preloaded with Vista, I refused to run anything but XP on the rest of the PCs in my house. A little over two years later, Microsoft graced us with Windows 7, who like XP, has proved itself to be a solid OS that probably doesn’t need to be updated for a few years.

So why is Microsoft releasing a new OS after only 2 years? Short answer: Unity.

Microsoft has chosen to do something that no other OS has done really done before: use the same OS across all platforms. This means that Windows phones, tablets running Windows, Xbox consoles, and PC laptops/desktops will all be running an OS that functions the same (with a few differences depending on the platform). If a user starts with Windows 8 on their PC then later purchases a Windows phone, the learning curve is greatly reduced because they’ve already gained familiarity with the PC platform. 

Let’s talk about the new look. One of the reasons why Microsoft had failed on other platforms in the past (the biggest area being their mobile platform) was their aversion to adaption. They basically tried to fit an interface made for 19”+ monitors into a tiny 4” screen. This time, they’ve created a sleek, minimalist look utilizing Metro (a language design originally developed for Windows Phone 7) which is flexible enough for any screen size. They’ve also made this somewhat open-sourced to encourage outside development; a move that they have greatly benefited from in the past with the Kinect.

I should note, this is essentially a consumer OS. Microsoft is making their OS more accessible and enjoyable to users who are not as technologically sophisticated as others. This does not, however, mean there aren’t any legitimate reasons for “Techies” to upgrade. Windows 8 has significant performance upgrades and supports new technology such as USB 3.0. 

Windows 8 is scheduled to release mid-late 2012. Check out some of the highlighted features here and the CES demo below. 

Snapkeys (developed in Israel) boasts itself as the invisible keyboard with a 99% accuracy rate for predictive typing. 

Traditionally, text input has come from a QWERTY keyboard layout which has been around since 1878. Although, with the shift from physical keyboards to touch screens, this traditional layout (originally created to utilize all fingers) has become a chore for thumbs. 

To better the user experience of typing on mobile devices, there have been many alternatives developed. One of the earliest was the t9 predictive typing system that worked fairly well, but still needed to be taught certain words and often created words that were irrelevant to the user. A more recent approach is the Swype system that allows users to literally swipe their finger across the keyboard to the desired letters rather than tap them one by one. 

Snapkeys has taken a different approach to text input all together. By grouping all the letters of the alphabet into four categories and rearranging the backspace and space bar, they have completely redefined the keyboard.

While this may not be to appealing to those who were conditioned to type at lightning speeds on the QWERTY keyboard, Snapkeys claims that the learning curve is small and anyone could master it within a few hours. This will, however, be extremely appealing to digital natives whose ability to pick up new technology and quickly master it continues to increase. 

Why is Snapkeys so confident in their ability to bury QWERTY? Simply because it’s an innovative approach to a problem of which users are becoming increasingly aware. Typing on tablets can become an awkward battle between the minds’ instinct to keep the fingers on home row and the fingers fumbling to adapt to a keyboard that isn’t physically there. Also, QWERTY keyboards on many mobile devices are too small for the average pair of thumbs. It can also find great applications in the gaming and entertainment worlds, where bulky controller adapters and huge QWERTY remotes are currently being used. 

I personally think this typing system has extreme potential and could possibly destroy QWERTY, but only where mobile, gaming, and entertainment devices are concerned. As a traditional user with the “Desktop > Laptop” mentality, I can’t picture myself using this on my computer, nor could I see it catching on with those who do the majority of their work on a computer. However, I have avoided touch screen products because I would lose the ability to type without looking, Snapkeys would definitely ease this aversion. I will definitely be trying the demo when I get my hands on my brother’s Nexus S. I’m interested to see if it catches on after its official release.