Tag Archives: patent

What’s In Your Innovation Backbone?

Posted on by

Authors: Dr. Morton Tavel, Mike Jensen, Gary Markovits, Devin Markovits & Blake Markovits

Facebook and Twitter are popular and successful examples of social media. Successes made possible by their underlying network structure. Networks enable connections and interactions that only a generation ago were impossible. Today, network insights are being used to understand complex systems such as disease epidemics, the electric grid and consumer adoption behaviors.

Why use networks to study innovation? No doubt innovation has a high degree of social content. Many innovations are created by the social interaction of groups and similarly, innovations are adopted by consumers in a socially based manner. So, it is reasonable that a network model should provide powerful insights.
Continue reading→

COTS to the Rescue

Posted on by

In a previous article [Defense AT&L, September-October2005], we explored a method of leveraging the U.S. patent database to bridge the small worlds of technology and accelerate research and development (R&D). Sometimes, however, the need is so urgent that one must find commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions and press them into service as rapidly as possible.

Finding mature solutions to today’s problems is reactionary, however, and only half the answer. With the pace and complexity of modern warfare, we also need to put in place the knowledge tools and networks that will create an “innovation grid” to keep us one step ahead of tomorrow’s urgent needs.
Continue reading→