Embracing Innovation

My eyes are sore and I’m tired as I enter this blog post from a hotel room in New Jersey.  Today, I was part of a presentation on innovation, and the topic has inspired some pre-sleep (hopefully coherent) thoughts that had to get out before I head into dream land.

The World Wide Web, as we currently know it, is a relatively young technology—approximately twenty-five years by my count.  Sure, the computer network known as the Internet has existed for several decades, but the World Wide Web and the web browser as a content delivery mechanism are relatively young technologies.

As websites evolved over time, a set of accepted user interface, content and programming standards (some documented, others anecdotal) were established by the architects of Web 1.0.  It is fairly common knowledge that browsing technology and programming languages have pushed the online channel into a new generation of interactivity and expectations; you’ve undoubtedly heard of Web 2.0 or even Web 3.0.  So far, I’m likely not telling you anything you didn’t already understand.

The photograph above depicts a car approximately 20 years into the innovation cycle of the automobile powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine; at it’s core, it is the same type of vehicle driven my millions of people today.  By today’s standards, this vehicle (circa 1906) is antiquated, unsafe and inefficient.  As technology and the needs of drivers evolved, features of the vehicle were modified, added and removed to improve the driving experience until the automobile in the photograph became something foreign and antiquated to modern drivers.

In 125 years, people will still use the Internet as a tool to communicate and share information, but the World Wide Web of 2133 will bear little resemblance to today’s experience.  Technology and the needs of the user will evolve.  Is your organization prepared to examine the status quo, identify what is no longer working, innovate and update?  Or does your online marketing and communication strategy resemble the automobile in the photograph?

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