| As Linus Pauling famously observed, the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. And one company—Google—certainly jumps to mind when it comes to having lots of ideas. Google Buzz is one of the latest in a long, long line of ideas that have been pouring out of Google; ideas that include Maps, AdWords, Wave, Chrome, Chrome OS, Docs, Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Apps, App Engine, Voice, Alerts, Books, Groups, ... and literally dozens more, like my recent favorite: 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home. Oh yea, and I almost forgot, they've had some pretty good ideas related to web search, too. I don't know, yet, if Google Buzz is a good idea or just an idea. But it has enough visibility to bring into plain view a phenomena I like to call the  innovation immune system. The innovation immune system is similar to the corporate immune system, but operates over a broader domain. Whereas corporate immune systems operate across members of a company, the innovation immune system operates across anyone interested in the relevant field of innovation, e.g., software, internet, etc., and especially among the "experts"—self-proclaimed or otherwise—in the field. When a significant innovation first appears on the scene, the immune response is predictable. Pundits in the field pounce on the new idea, eager to be the first to learn all about it. Then, invariably, these early users start finding imperfections. Occasionally, the imperfections are fundamental flaws that doom the idea to failure. More often, however, they are simply artifacts of an early implementation that, over time, can be refined and polished. But no matter, the flaws have been found! And now, the pundits have something they so badly need: something to talk about. Then, time moves on. Some ideas die out, others live on. For the ones that survive, the implementations are refined based on continuing user feedback. Gradually, ideas evolve from "new innovation" status to "established solution" status, often with few people really noticing. By then, the pundits—the lymphocytes of the innovation immune system—have refocused on the next round of new ideas, and are busy explaining why they don't measure up to the established solutions. |
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