Tag: innovation

Silicon Roundabout: cluster evolution and effect of public policy in Inner East London Startup Cluster

Digital economy is currently huge economy contributor for United Kingdom. In 2015, this sector contributed 97 billion pounds and provide more job growth than any other sector in the country (Tech City, 2017). Majority of UK digital economy activities is concentrated in London, specifically in the area called Silicon Roundabout. The cluster is the home of more than 3000 digital media and internet companies, most of them are newly-established and small-sized.

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Silicon Roundabout (image source)

This essay will discuss the development of Silicon Roundabout cluster and how public policy have impact on that process.  Short overview on the cluster will be discussed first as the starting point. After that the evolution of cluster will be described followed by discussion on the cluster policy impact. In the later part of the essay, challenges facing the cluster will be explained and then closed by essay conclusion. Continue reading “Silicon Roundabout: cluster evolution and effect of public policy in Inner East London Startup Cluster” →

Benefits and Challenges of Innovating Public Services Through E-government.

This is my submitted essay for professor Ian Miles’s Service Innovation class. I got a really bad grade for this essay, probably the worst grade in my master’s course. However i believe there is some useful info in this essay and hopefully by posting here, it could be a stern reminder for me to keep getting better better again in writing. I hope it helps. 

E-government is an innovation in public services which aim to simplify and amplify the relationship between government and the citizens (Rodríguez, et al., 2011). The technology was seen not only to as a tool public service delivery but also a bigger platform which government can perform better in multiple aspects. Seeing this potential, increasing number of country are developing and implementing e-government. According to UN E-Government report, the number of countries providing services through the internet jumped five times, from 33 to 148 in the span of 2003 to 2016 (UN, 2016). However, the successful rate is very low due to the various challenges both from the technical and non-technical side.

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South Korean booth in UN Public Service Forum (source)

This essay attempt to discuss what is the prospect and challenges of e-government implementation as a public service innovation. First, the trend and historical context which help the conception of e-government will be explained. Following that, the essay will discuss several definitions and classification of e-government to shape the understanding about this technology. Subsequently, potential benefits and promises of e-government will be described. In the final chapter, several challenges regarding e-government implementation will be discussed along with ways to address that. Continue reading “Benefits and Challenges of Innovating Public Services Through E-government.” →

Silicon Roundabout Presentation

Today, Ive delivered presentations for regional innovation class. For the final coursework, the students are expected to submit essay on several topics related to regional dimension of innovation, from role of public policy in cluster formation, university-industry relation to smart specialisation. I choose to do clusters, specifically start-up cluster. The topic fits into my interest and i want to take the topic as my dissertation areas as well. Before submitting the final essay, the students would need to present first in order to get feedback and directions.

The case study that i chose is Silicon Roundabout which also known as East London Tech City. It is a high tech startup cluster in the east London area (Shoreditch and Hoxton). Digital economy is huge contributor to UK GDP. London in particular has turn over of 56 billion GBP from digital economy. Majority of this are contributed by cluster of tech startups around the old street roundabout in East London. The area has a history of being a creative hub from the early 1990s. Post dot com boom, several startups such as Moo, Dropplr and Last.fm relocated to this area and in 2008, the terms Silicon Roundabout was coined.

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short history of how silicon roundabout emerge

In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron launched Tech City initiatives to support this cluster to become world class technology area. Two years later, Google developed seven stories co-working space / incubator called Google Campus.

For the presentation, i include a short history on the cluster, how the cluster grow without policy intervention, the pros and cons of Tech City initiatives and future challenges of the cluster moving forward. I need to be very concise considering 15 minutes time limit.

My presentation is embedded below. Write me in the comment if you have any questions.

All in all, i did okay on today session however as i think my presentation delivery need to be upped a notch. One deadline finished, a lot more to go.

This week is going to be a semester two hell week. All the best for you folks!.

International Competitiveness in Nanotechnology

One of the class ive enrolled in the second semester is International Competitiveness by Professor Marcella Miozzo. In this course, prof Miozzo discuss how firms, organization and countries achieve international competitiveness / global leadership through innovation. Ive also learned a lot of about strategy and the history of industrialization in developed and newly develop countries in this class.

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China is one of the countries highlighted in my presentation

For group coursework, i need to present international competitiveness in the case of nanotechnology. The task is very interesting and challenging because prior to this i know nothing about nano tech. After several weeks of digging Scopus papers, reading science magazine and collaborating through Google Slides, me and my team delivered the topic in the class yesterday. We present the history of nanotechnology development, international competitiveness using research indicators also case studies of three leading countries in nanotechnology. Due to over excitement, we overshoot the presentation time by over half an hour however the response was good.

In this post, im embedding the presentation slides along with several highlights from the materials that i referenced. Due to the way we split the work, im putting only the materials related to nanotechnology in the context of China. For the completion of this work, i would like to thank my awesome team mates which coincidentally both of them are Chevening scholars : fellow Indonesians Yoanita Simanjuntak and Pakistani aspiring economist Aisha Aurakzai.

Third world countries, represent!.

Continue reading “International Competitiveness in Nanotechnology” →

Sifat Kontra Intuisi dari Inovasi

Perkembangan eksponensial teknologi informasi dalam satu dekade terakhir menghasilkan kelas konsumen teredukasi dengan ekspektasi yang semakin hari semakin meningkat. Pelaku bisnis, entrepreneur dan bahkan sektor publik dipaksa berinovasi dengan laju yang lebih cepat dan lebih efektif dibanding sebelumnya. Di tahun 1999, The Economist menulis bahwa inovasi menjadi agama baru perindustrian di penghujung abad 20. Organisasi yang inovatif memiliki produktivitas jauh lebih tinggi dibanding yang tidak. Inovasi menjadi cawan suci yang menjanjikan kejayaan ditengah gencarnya kompetisi.

Meningkatnya peran inovasi membuat populernya materi materi terkait. Siapa dari kita yang belum melihat video stay hungry stay foolish ?. Buku bertema inovasi juga kerap menjadi best seller. Yang paling terkenal diantaranya : Innovators Dilemma yang mengenalkan konsep inovasi disruptif. Sejarah inovasi komputasi dalam buku The Innovators dari Walter Issacson dan juga tips memanage kreativitas di Creativity Inc dari Ed Catmull.

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Salah satu buku tentang inovasi yang menarik buat saya adalah How To Fly A Horse dari Kevin Ashton, pionir dari teknologi internet of things. Buku ini mencoba membantah mitos bahwa inovasi, mencipta dan kreativitas adalah hak istimewa segelintir orang yang dianggap jenius. Kevin mencoba menjelaskan inovasi dari unit yang paling sederhana yaitu kerja keras. Dia juga mencoba mematahkan miskonsepsi bahwa proses inovatif terjadi secara magis, seperti bohlam diatas kepala yang tiba tiba menyala. Miskonsepsi ini terjadi karena beberapa karakteristik dari inovasi bersifat kontra intuisi (counter intuitive) sehingga rentan untuk disalahartikan.

Memahami sifat sifat kontra intuisi ini krusial untuk mengerti bagaimana inovasi dihasilkan dan menghindari kesalahan umum yang terjadi ketika membangun proses inovasi. Continue reading “Sifat Kontra Intuisi dari Inovasi” →

Basic vs Applied Research

To prepare for semester exam, i wrote several essays on Innovation topics to help me revise. As the exam period already finished, rather than throw it away i might as well post it here. All of the essays can be looked up using ExamEssay tag. Hope it can be useful. 

Research by definition is a creative activity to produce knowledge. By characteristics, research can be divided into two categories : basic and applied.

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Characteristics of both type of research

In short, basic research is curiosity driven activity to produce science while applied research is a problem solving activities to come up with new technology.

Classical view on science and technology relationship

In the old fashioned view, science came before technology. Basic research increase the stock of science in the society which in turns becomes the fuel of applied research activities. Technology is an application of science hence basic research need to be prioritized first.

 

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Relationship model on the classical view

The prominent supporter of this view is inventor, engineer and former head of US Office of Scientific Research and Development  Vannevar Bush. After world war 2, Bush advocated the importance of funding basic research. In his report to the president titled Science The Endless Frontier, Bush argued that basic research increase the nation’s scientific capital, drive technological progress which in turns improve the nation’s competitiveness in world trade.

The entire Vannevar Bush report to the President can be read here.  Continue reading “Basic vs Applied Research” →

Refleksi Satu Semester

Tidak terasa, sudah hampir lima bulan semenjak saya sekeluarga meninggalkan Indonesia dan tinggal di Manchester. Walaupun tentunya ada enak dan tidak enak, secara keseluruhan pengalaman ini terasa menyenangkan. Pada saat tulisan ini dibuat, saya sedang merapel bahan bahan kuliah untuk persiapan ujian. Sebari rehat sejenak, berikut refleksi empat bulan pertama menempuh pendidikan master di Inggris.

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Kelas High Tech Entrepreneurship dari Prof Jonathan Pinkse

Continue reading “Refleksi Satu Semester” →

Why Ebook Is Not Disruptive (Yet)

One of my favorite strategy blog Stratechery recently has a great piece on ebooks. Apparently in 2015, the sales of physical books in the United States is still going strong while ebook fall down 10 percent. The market share of ebooks also did not grow very much, still steady at 20% for several years. The trend is even more disconcerting  due to the massive sales decline on ebook reader. Having single purpose device such as Kindle are apparently too cumbersome for general population. It is still too early to pull the verdict, but things are not going well for the state of electronic books.

Source: death to stock photos
Source: death to stock photos

This is very interesting because usually the emergence of the electronic media will disrupt the old establishment of physical ones. Case in point, the introduction of itunes and other digital music platform had brought CD sales to its knees. Disruptive Innovation as famously interpreted by Clayton Christensen. So why does this not happen with ebook ?. In the stratechery piece, there are three factors which held the adoption of ebooks: Price, Experience and Modularization.

Reflecting it to my experience as an avid book reader and the market condition in Indonesia, In this post, I will relate some of this drawback factors discussed in stratechery post to my personal experience. I will discuss some of the reasons which makes ebook worth to try and why physical books will still going to be around for the foreseeable future. Continue reading “Why Ebook Is Not Disruptive (Yet)” →

Recommended Readings #4

Great morning folks.

First of all, Eid Mubarak to all of my fellow moslems. I hope you guys had a great meatful Idul Adha weekend. As usual, here are four articles i recommend to read to kickstart your monday.

GigaOm on Mobile App Economy

More and more apps are released daily but on the other hand people are using less. Even worse, willingness to pay for an app is on decrease as well. Is mobile apps economy reaching maturation ? an insightful analysis on GigaOm tackled this question.

Mike Monteiro’s 13 Ways Designer Screw Up Client Presentations

On point tips from designer Mike Monteiro on things to avoid if you deliver high impact presentation to your client. The last one really speaks to me because i have a severe problem remembering people names.

Fast Co Design on Writing Great Interface Copy

I learned that design is not just the visual. In this FastCo article, John Zeratsky of Google Ventures share five tips on achieving great design with copywriting.

The Next Web on Why Big Companies Struggle with Innovation

George Debb describe in details several factors that contribute the lack of Innovation in most of Big Companies.

Recommended Readings (RR) is a weekly compilation of  internet articles which is interesting and insightful. No limitation on the topic, as long as it ticks me ill share it with you guys here. Check out the previous RR articles here.