The effects of a room of "junk"

It wasn't until a year ago when I first heard of the Mercer Museum. I was looking for a place to volunteer at and one of my teachers told about this old museum that is really cool and is always looking for help. Personally I love history and the the idea of working in a museum was astounding to me. I have no idea why I haven't thought about it before!
My First day at the museum, they told that I had to spend the whole day learning about the museum and its roots, and I did as I was told. I spent the whole day at the museum learning about this one of a kind place. When I first walked into the great hall, I was shocked. The only thing that you can do is look up as far as you can for as long as you can. When I said that I spent the whole day at the museum I meant it. I spent hours upon hours upon hours in that scary dark castle, and if I went back today, I would still find things that I missed. What I loved about this place, was that it was created by one man. (Technically the museum was built by a team of 7 or so but you get my drift). When Henry Mercer first started his expedition for tools and gadgets that people were throwing away, he was seen as insane, but of course today he is seen as an innovator and a genius. One of my most favorite aspects about his collection was that in his collection he owned no more than 20 guns, but he had thousands of shoe horns. This just shows that Mercer wasn't concerned about the items that everyone knew about, but really the items that no one cared about.
That is probably the creates lesson I learned when I went to that museum. I learned that in order to become a good innovator you not only have to look at what people are collecting, but what they are throwing away. As in we can't just look into the future for new inventions or new idea, because chances are, the idea was already thought of and everyone just forgot about it. If something wasn't thought of, the best way to come up with a new one is to look into the past. the more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future

Here is a link that you can use to look at the Central Court of the Mercer Museum. (it is the one at the bottom)
http://www.mercermuseum.org/visit-us/online-tours/

Apple v. Samsung debate

In the Harvard Business Review, there is a blog about the recent lawsuit between Samsung and Apple. The lawsuit ended with Apple walking away with a couple billion in spare change from Samsung. The problem was that Samsung was being sued for copying Apple products like the iPhone. The blog states that not only does Apple own the ability to zoom in on a smart phone by pinching the screen, but it also owns other features of the sort, making it difficult for competition to follow/copy. The blog also mentioned that android isn't loved like Apple, and the reason for that is because Android is trying to become the phone that is like the iPhone but just a little different. Therefore it will never be loved by the same standards that Apple is.

This is something that I completely agree with in today's world of communication, it is impossible to copy something without be caught or sued for it. Even if one did copy another well known company, that's all their product is going to be. A copy. therefore one should never want to create a copy of another product. Since when was creating a good copy of someone else work someones goal. I agree with the article in saying that if android wants to get the "love" that Apple does, it needs to step out of Apples shadow and create its own style. Possible even completely start from scratch and change the way everything is done on a smartphone. The day that Android is loved more than Apple is the day that they revolutionize the way we look at phones or even how we use them.

The 7 sources of Innovation

Within the enterprise industry, there are seven different sources of innovation. Here I will be going through each one and respond to each of them. the first four are from within the enterprise industry while the last 3 are from the outside.
1. The first source of innovation is the unexpected this would include success, failure, or basically anything else that could happen. The unexpected comes every single day and it is hard for many companies and even innovators to cope with it. A company has to be extremely flexible if it is to survive. In other words, they have to expect the unexpected. A company and an innovator have to know if the failure of a product will put them under or if it's a success, they would be able to profit from it.
2. The second source of innovation is incongruity. An innovator has to be able to see something the way everyone else sees it and then a way that no one else sees it. In other words, an innovator is looking for something out of place that no one else see's. This out of place object can be a great source of inspiration for the innovator, and the innovator would never had noticed it if he looked at things the same way as everyone else.
3. The third source of innovation is process need. there are things in this world that people want or need. An innovator was able to look at something that was needed in society and was able to create something that fulfilled the need. An example of this is in many places around the world, if one slept outside, they would be bitten up by mosquitoes, and it was deadly in some places in the world. An innovator saw the need for something that would prevent people from getting bitten up, so they created the mosquito net that prevented people from getting bitten up at night.
4. The fourth source of innovation is changes in industry structure or even the market structure. this is one of the most interesting sources because in a way, it is the most dangerous. Innovators are able to keep even the largest companies in check for power because of this source. This is when an innovator comes up with a new process or product that completely changes the way business is done by businesses. An example of this would be when netflix came out. Video rental stores were caught completely off guard  and most of them went out of business because of it.
5. The Fifth source of innovation is Demographics. this plays a huge role in innovation. Basically it states that an innovator has to know the population that he wants to give his product to or who they're' going to make the product for to begin with. An innovator can't make a high price car to sell in specific city, and have it turn out that most of the residents in the city are poor and the city has no roads to drive on. An innovator has to know who or what the population is.
6. The Sixth Source of innovation is perception, mood, and meaning. This source is referring to the fact as to the ways that everyone else would see the product or idea. The idea or product has to be able to gain support from others almost as soon as they see it.
7. The Seventh and final source of innovation is New knowledge. If an innovator is to be able to come up with new ideas and compete with other innovators, they absolutely must be able to keep up with todays advances in technology and ideas. With these new advances, it could create inspiration for any innovator, and it could even open up the opportunity for an innovator to create a new advance in technology and ideas

Mayor's challenge

July 16 2012 was the first deadline for cities to sign up for Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor challenge. The idea of this challenge is to help cities create new innovated ideas on how to save their cities. As many know, cities and the people living in them are taking a toll with the economy the way it is. This challenge opens a possibility of relief and hope for cities that are struggling. Though the first thing I wondered when I first saw the challenge, was 'why should a city spend time and resources working on a challenge when it clearly has other things it has to do. Then I saw the grand prize of 5,000,000. Don't get me wrong, this challenge is a great idea and a great way for cities to find creative ideas to save themselves and possibly others. though is it really necessary to pay the city to do what it was suppose to be doing in the first place?
I can't help but wonder how many cities are doing this just for the grand prize and not to find a new innovated idea. On the other hand something that newspapers talked a lot about though is that the prize creates competition, and nothing gets people going better than a competition. The other upside of the reward is that it is only for the cities and not the people who came up with the idea, so it's not as though they win 5,000,000 if they have the best idea. It is puzzling though, where the money is coming from, but I suppose during times like this, no one really cares.

All in all this is actually a really good idea. It is very rare for a challenge like this to appear, and in this great time of need as well. From 2007-2011city revenues decreased by 39 billion. This challenge gives cities the opportunity they need to help dig themselves out of their hole. If this idea is worth even half of the total prize money, it could not only help, but possibly save hundreds of cities. Image that just one innovated idea and save hundreds of cities and thousands of people. If you want to learn more about the challenge the link is bellow

http://mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org/