OK, But Where is the Real Technology Innovation?

Radio-Electronics 1949. "The Radio Hat". CC Public Domain.

OK, Social, Mobile and Consumer-base get the easy money and media accolades but what about the Real R&D lurking behind the red curtains? Or at least under the red radio hat!

As some folks are aware the gadgets and gizmos that we now possess in our hands, homes, work, schools and car in most cases was developed nearly 50-years ago, even most of the math, forms, functions and source code came about from that age as well. In some cases, some of the conceptual ideas, wireless radio innovation and ways we transmit things, has been around over a hundred years – sparked by the adaptation of generated industrial electricity and some guy named Tesla who died broke and regulated to obscurity.

Unfortunately, at this time, money, time and talent is chasing and being diverted to gold prospecting in SM and the next app, though most are all actually losing money and many start-ups will fail in their quest. Some critics say that we are just tweaking and localizing our marketing tastes and that the web is dead and just an electronic flea market to sell goods and exchange services far and wide.

Most of the IT/Technology industry is either rebranding or rebadging or marketing things that have been in place or conceptualized in the mid-twentieth century. And the dirty green truth is that our electronics and search capabilities are more power hungry than ever – electronics and e-waste abounds, just look at the recycling centers and recycling e-waste programs here and in developing countries.

In regards to IT innovation in education, the dynamic and locus operandi is still appropriate new hardware and the educational software will sort itself out later. The new metric and market thought in programming is intelligent software and big data – I thought that was what spreadsheets, data visualization and fancy graphic charts were for? What have we been doing with all these machines for all these decades – lighting up painted ping-pong balls? I guess I was wrong.

I do hate the notion that when we speak about Technology – most think it is just IT, computers, SM, and the next consumer gizmo. Yes, there is more out there in Technology; most gradually being adopted, tinkered with in a small garage or lab and off the popular technology PR radar and in some fortunate cases actually making some money.

Yes, there is a quiet Technology Revolution happening before our very eyes and most of it is published in obscure journals or kept behind secure closed-door innovation centers sprinkled throughout hubs and clusters. But that is not all….

So where do we stand with Technological Innovation? Are we just receiving marketing of artificial reality and science-fiction dreams?

I would encourage you to look and read a few interesting articles in regards to Technology and Innovation to spark an inward or outward conversation while you are in your garage, evil-genius lab or deep earth bunker:

(The Atlantic Piece)

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-jig-is-up-time-to-get-past-facebook-and-invent-a-new-future/256046/

(How Technology Can Fix Education)

http://edudemic.com/2012/04/how-technology-and-a-controversial-idea-can-start-fixing-education/