How do you define Innovation?


An aspiring innovator is how I would like to introduce myself. Someone that is passionate about technology, especially the security aspect of it. On a daily basis, we may face security challenges in our work, school, and personal lives. That is why I decided to pursue a Doctorate in Computer Science, with an emphasis on cybersecurity. Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities may not be completely eliminated anytime soon, but it is our duty to prevent weak technologies from enabling such attacks to happen. 

Disclaimer: 
My main focus will be on the Internet of Things as it is my main area of interest 😁.

When I think of innovation, I always refer to big companies deploying groundbreaking technology of some sort that helps solve a major problem in the technical industry, like in the cybersecurity field for example. having the knowledge and education to respond to such challenges is where I thrive to be. But, first, I decided to understand how innovation came to be, and where we may be heading in the upcoming years. As I browse through the history of innovation, I came across a Ted talk by Charles Leadbeater that proves just the opposite of my thought process. Leadbeater focused his talk on young individuals that found a limitation or flaw in something they use frequently and thought of ways to improve it. he shared the example of mountain bikes, which were not invented by any bike corporation or some random individual. Instead, the mountain bike came from "young users, particularly a group in Northern California, who were frustrated with traditional racing bikes" (Leadbeater, 2007). 

The fact is, innovation has no boundaries and no limits, any individual that is passionate about something can think of ways to improve it, and this improvement can expand to many other unrelated areas. While this view of innovation may seem right, Leadbeater argues that it is increasingly wrong. That is because the ideas of growth and innovation are led by the consumers, which are more often than not, ahead of the producers. This force is known as radical innovation, where the "payoffs to innovation are greatest where the uncertainty is highest" (Leadbeater, 2007). A perfect example of this is innovation in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. IoT has been around for decades, but over the past few years, we have seen a huge jump in the growth and consumption of IoT solutions. Consumers pushed for the need for more IoT solutions, and producers had to comply. The consequences? Weakened security, leading to more cyberattacks and more vulnerabilities in the all-up technological space. 

Another example is one provided by Leadbeater during his talk, where he targeted the history of telephony and the force of uncertainty. Telephones started with landline phones, which their inventors originally purposed for people to listen to live performances. When mobile phones came out with SMS capabilities, telephone companies didn't understand their use. Ironically, it was the teenagers that invented the use of messaging through that technology. Hence, as Leadbeater sums it, "the more radical the innovation, the more uncertainty, the more you need innovation in use to work out what a technology is for" (Leadbeater, 2017). 


We may be nearing an era where inventors produce technologies without a prior plan of what their use will be, but in collaboration with the users, that use will be determined. 






Leadbeater, C. (2007, January 31). The era of open innovation. TED Talks, Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks.charles_leadbeater_the_era_of_open_innovation





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