• What Fashion Teaches Us About Creativity as Driving Force for Innovation

    Johanna Blakley wants to challenge the notion that innovation depends on ownership--a basic premise behind copyright protection. Blakley, Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, spends a lot of her time looking at the intersections between entertainment and "political, communication, and social habits." And in researching the fashion world, she found a business sector that depends on innovation and creativity. And she says a major reason innovation and creativity are so important is because there is no copyright protection. Anybody can "steal" a design. To be clear, The Watch is not a particularly fashion-conscious environment, so we'll have to take Blakley's word on what is hot and inventive. But the notion that innovation does not depend on ownership is a provocative one, and timely in the digital age. Here's Blakley at a recent Ted talk :

  • Human Centered Design and a $25 Incubator

    I'm a big fan of designer/innovator/educator George Kembel . He's a co-founder and executive director of Stanford's d.school . The d.school is a multi-disciplinary design institute centered on teaching design thinking. Design thinking, to put it simply, is a human centered design approach. Kembel spoke at the Chataqua Institute earlier this month, and he shared an example of a product that d.school students developed--a $25 incubator. Those students have since launched a company, Embrace , through which they plan "to help the 20 million vulnerable babies born every year around the world, who can not access traditional incubators that cost up to $20,000." Here's Kembel in an excerpt from the speech. Kembel's full speech is titled Awakening Creativity , and in it he talks about how to tap into creativity and innovation. You can watch it by clicking here .