by Hanif Warren

Created on: September 08, 2009   Last Updated: September 09, 2009

There is, and will always be, room for innovation. The internet is no exception. Really, the question itself is flawed, because it implies that innovation is a tangible thing. It makes it sound as if innovation requires "room" in the same way that an oak tree requires a physical patch of soil. Innovation requires no space. That is the beauty of it. Innovation is actually the process that creates room where there was none previously. It is entirely possible (though exceedingly unlikely for the foreseeable future) that society may cease to innovate online. However, even if that were to occur, it would not be for lack of room for innovation. It would simply mean that people had moved on.

Now, let us take a minute to define innovation. One dictionary defines it as "a new idea, method, or device: Novelty". When the internet was developed, it was a relatively new concept. Today, the concept itself is anything but new. However, seemingly every day someone takes the "old" internet concept and adds a new idea, or device. Some ideas become popular, like Twitter. Some ideas flounder horribly, like UPOC (a site remarkably similar in concept to Twitter).

Innovation is a relative term. One synonym for innovation is novelty. If some 92 year-old asked me to show them something novel online, then I would stifle a chuckle and direct them to directly to the Google homepage . They would probably be pretty impressed with the whole concept of search engines. But if a 26 year-old were to ask me the same question, I might then show them the front page of Helium and ask them if the articles were familiar. There is a good chance that they would say no. To that particular person, it would be novel (i.e. innovative). So in a sense, innovation is a function of popularity as much as it is a function of having never been tried before. Fortunately for all of you would-be innovators out there, innovation can be as simple as bringing an old idea to a new audience. When you look at it that way, innovation doesn't sound so audacious.

But wait. What if you wanted a more conservative definition of innovation? What if you wanted to restrict it to ideas that are new to even the most savvy internet users? In that case, I would direct your attention to the U.S. patent office. If you ran a search there, you would find hundreds of internet related ideas which are new, and ostensibly have not been tried before. Will the rate of patented internet ideas decrease? Probably not. The rate will only increase as people seek to piggy back off of some old innovation. They will take an old idea, add their own unique twist, and Voila! Innovation. These factors are what ensure room for innovation on the internet.

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