Stephen Downes

Alex Usher wants to redefine two things in this short post: innovation, and skills. For the first, instead of the usual definition of innovation, "about discovering some new idea or application and then building a world-beating company," he says it should be thought of as "the general application of new ideas to all processes across the economy as a means to bring about not just novelty but greater efficiency and value as well." I read this as meaning that innovation includes building markets (which includes building skills in the use of the new products). But then his take on skills is puzzling. "Instead of focusing on the number of graduates we are producing in a given field, why not put the emphasis on a relentless improvement in the quality of graduates?" That's a strategy that would seem to accelerate inequality in society, undermining any effort to build markets (not to mention undermining society itself). I'm not opposing the idea of redefining innovation and skills, but I think we have to get out of the old way of market-based thinking to do it. Something to think about.