Students

On flying cars and 140 characters of innovation

In a recent debate with Twitter investor Mark Andreessen of Netscape fame, Paypal founder Peter Thiel observed that the millennial generation grew up watching flying cars on their Saturday morning TV shows. But today, all we have for evidence of innovation is Twitter, he argued. Then he went on to poke fun at that 140 character limit. Have the graduates of 2013 been shortchanged? Are they victims of an educational system that stifled innovation? Do they miss the flying cars?

2013-05-13

By Michael Goul, Chairman, Department of Information Systems I’ve been reading that we are in the throes of what has been called an “innovation gap,” according to my recent newsfeeds — e.g. CNBC. Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal, says innovation has decelerated in the U. S. economy. And Tyler Cowen, who dedicated his book to Thiel, speaks of stagnation, a term coined to characterize a general state of economic inactivity. In a recent debate with Mark Andreessen of Netscape fame (and a major Twitter investor), Thiel explained how the millennial generation watched flying cars on their Saturday morning TV shows. But, he argues that today all we have for evidence of innovation is Twitter — a social application for nearly-instant personal message broadcasting – and he pokes fun at that 140 character limit. Have the graduates of 2013 been shortchanged? Are they victims of an educational system that stifled innovation? Did they miss the flying cars? Twitter teaches how to communicate something interesting, that has broad appeal — fast and short. Then, enjoy the streaming line of thoughts broadcasted in response by one’s peers. Whatever happened to the flying car dream, Thiel wonders. Are Twitter and other similar applications innovation disappointments? Maybe to Thiel’s generation, they are. But didn’t PayPal start as part of an application for the Palm Pilot? Do you remember any details of the Palm Pilot? Me either, but great ideas always start somewhere, and then they morph into innovations. May is graduation season at universities, and I am here to tell you that this year’s W. P. Carey School of Business graduating class is composed of some of the most innovative students I have ever seen. I recently attended the capstone project presentations by graduating students on the new apps they had envisioned and created. One of those apps was designed to transform study habits. I am confident presentations exactly like this are playing out all over the world about right now. Today’s education stresses realistic experiences that prepare a student for the future. The lecture model with its follow-up quizzes exams is fading. Our capstone students may not know how to navigate the university administration to get their apps adopted, but they know IP. They know that innovations have to be monetized in unique business models. And they know their scholarly pursuit of prototypes mimics the start-up experience: they had the vision, wrote the code, and tested and refined their ideas — just as if they were already running their own businesses. Oh — and did I fail to mention this? Many of these recent grads are already are running their own businesses, quite successfully! Thiel needs to meet some recent grads to hear just a few short presentations and watch them at work to see firsthand that innovation is alive and well. Yes — I said presentations. And note that these presentations are most often short: precise, and to the point. Hmmm ... I wonder if Twitter is having an impact? Is that a bad thing? Thiel is quick to benchmark flying cars claims and then pinpoint that Twitter is lame. But let me tell you about last week’s undergraduate convocation. Dean Amy Hillman began her speech by pointing her cell phone camera at the audience. Noting that she had a most wonderful vantage point, she snapped a photo and immediately tweeted it to #wpcgraduation. All over the arena students immediately checked their smartphone Twitter accounts. I even saw one student, in official cap and gown — cross the stage to accept his diploma with a video camera attached to his mortar board. I noticed how still he held his head — likely he was shooting HD. And it is sure to show up on YouTube soon! If I had been asked to speak to the graduating class of 2013, I would have told them about Thiel’s take on innovation and mention that term, “stagnation.” But then I would say that if Thiel ever spent a bit of time with the newly minted innovators he would have to tell them how great their ideas are. I mean, there is always someone standing around lamenting that things aren’t like they used to be. Then there are others taking action to vitalize a next generation of innovators. I know what camp I’m in. I would follow one important criterion for designing that speech. I’d keep it short, although probably a bit longer than 140 characters. But then Dean Hillman probably had it right — tweet the pic. After all, a pic is worth at least a thousand words.

KnowIT