Innovation #1

 

 

 

Whenever I read about an innovation, I always end up with a sagging incompleteness inside. The products that come out of those innovations are so common-sensical and having finished half my life, how come I seldom think of anything closer?

Well, inspiration can strike you at unexpected times but there are also methodical ‘frameworks of thinking’ (FOT) that could produce amazing results. Now I tend to sway more to the second.  Here is what I did. I reverse engineered some of the innovations and came out with a handful of FOT for innovation. I will talk about them one at a post here.

This FOT is to do with product innovations. “Cross a professional with a gadget” and you get an innovative product. Examples…

1. A dietician and a mobile phone = A ‘Phone Doctor’ mobile phone which downloads your dietary recommendation. It also shall take inputs on what you ate and tries to moderate the next recommendation based on that. (like your nagging wife!)
2. Bay watch life guards versus swimming goggles = Smart goggles that monitor the swimmer’s heart beat for panick levels and alert the life guard.
3. Building contractor versus the helmets = Helmets that sense the elevation and solidity of the building being constructed and report on the progress.
4. Cooks and ladles – Ladles with weighing scales built inside. It may be there already available.

Caution – don’t think of the implementation feasibility in this process. There are enough nerds in the world who will make anything possible. Have fun! And when you hit a killer product, buy me a beer.

Catching the Enterprise Service Bus

‘Enterprise Service Bus’ is the center of universe for systems integration today. But is it new or just another marketing conspiracy? Is it a pattern? A logical component or a physical infrastructure? How different is it from an Integration Broker? I got into some digging and mapped its incremental evolution.

My take is that conceptually, its an integration pattern for which various implmenetation technologies exist. At the physical level, it is just a glorified broker with the ’services’ mask. Finally, you have a product (or a package of products?) that holds the governance aspects of integration inherent to itself. And it does need its own name in the new world. Your perspectives are most welcome here…