A recent article over BusinessWeek takes a look at how IBM is approaching the innovative process on its microchip division, confirming this trend:

“IBM is reinventing the way it innovates. At one time the tech giant was a true believer in go-it-alone R&D. The feeling was that if a technology wasn’t invented by IBMers, it wasn’t as good. Now the computer pioneer realizes that no matter how big an organization is, more smart people are going to work outside its walls than inside. So it courts R&D partners aggressively.”

You can read the full article here.

“The number of patents each country generated during those four years, per million people, was the primary method for determining the measure of innovation. As for the results? Not what you might expect. India, for instance, didn’t even make the top 15, nor did China.”

The study was conducted from 2002 to 2006, and here is the top 15 list:

1. Japan
2. Switzerland
3. U.S.
4. Sweden
5. Finland
6. Germany
7. Denmark
8. Taiwan
9. Netherlands
10. Israel
11. Austria
12. France
13. Canada
14. Belgium
15. South Korea

The article, titled “Disruptive Diamonds,” illustrates how some companies are investing into a synthetic diamond manufacturing technology. Quoting the author:

“Several companies, including Florida-based Gemesis and Massachusetts-based Apollo Diamonds are betting that it will be. Over the past few years they’ve improved synthetic diamond technology to the point where they can now produce gem-quality colored and even colorless diamonds. And they can do it for substantially less than it would cost to process the approximately 250 tons of ore required to find a single, one-carat, natural diamond.

What remains to be seen is whether these synthetic, or “cultured” diamonds, as producers at Apollo and Gemesis prefer to call them, are good-enough for consumers. Diamond simulants such as cubic zirconia and Moissanite still beat synthetic diamonds along the dimension most important to low-end customers: price. Will mid-tier consumers be willing to accept the trade-offs these higher quality synthetics offer relative to the real thing, gaining performance along the dimension of price for some loss of authenticity? Or perhaps synthetics have an edge along another dimension: as environmentally friendly and conflict-free?”

Do you think synthetic diamonds could disrupt the market?

IdeaConnection.com is hoping to become a trading ground for ideas, new products, and innovation teams. No matter the industry, the age, or the experience, there is something for you to participate in.

IdeaConnection facilitates individual and corporate innovation, ideas, and solutions by offering access to an international pool of thinkers. It is designed for use by anyone seeking a solution to a problem. The problem can be simple or complex. This is a destination where ideas percolate

I am interested to see how this service works out.  Has anyone tried it?

Found via gizmag

Thinkplace, ‘a web application for facilitating innovation through idea generation, collaboration, and refinement,’ appears to be on the right track.  What Thinkplace does is provide a place for sharing, refining, and recognizing ideas.  Any employee or member of the public can look around, post ideas, vote on them, and so on.

It is recommended to keep sensitive information to yourself though.  There is no way of protecting a patent if it is out there in the open, although this can be challenged depending on your preparedness.

For more information, feel free to check out the alphaworks website.