Lars,
It's interesting to hear of these other researchers who I, as an engineer,
haven't had time to study.

My main inspiration for the whole balance thing was nature, rather than
anyone else's work in innovation, marketing, entrepreneurship, etc).  When I
look at ecosystems, I see a system of agents exerting complex forces such
that the system constantly seeks some kind of equilibrium.

As for the rest, I can't really comment without first doing a bunch of
reading.
Appreciatively,
Fil

On 3 April 2010 03:51, Lars Albinsson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear Fil and Donald,
>
> I think your position is somewhat similar to that of von Wright (who
> "inherited" Wittgenstein's chair in Cambridge):
> ”Technological innovations must, to be used, respond to whishes. They may
> also respond to needs. And, which is important to observe, by responding to
> whishes they may create needs. … It is not the market, which spontaneously
> calls for innovations and improvements of already made innovations. The
> relationship is the reversed; technical innovations are marketed so that
> they correspond to whishes, which have been woken and shaped by already
> existing technologies.” [my translation]  (von Wright, 1986 p 141-142). Much
> development is also done following the "wishes" of the engineers and
> technologists.
>
> Fil's model share some characteristics with the work of Douglas Engelbart
> (mostly known as the inventor of the mouse). He put forward ideas of the
> capabilities in organizations as being developed in an interplay between
> technology development and development of usage. (“human systems and tool
> systems”) (Engelbart, 1962). New technology allows for new behaviors, new
> behaviors may inspire new technologies. This includes both a more planned or
> rationalistic use of new technology as well as the serendipitous or
> unintended applications of technologies.
>
> Within the field of innovation research it is customary to make a
> difference between invention, innovation and diffusion. (Following Schumpter
> who also coined the term "entrepreneur"). Some of the examples you give
> would then be inventions, which never made it to a "market", other would be
> innovations (being successfully introduced to a "market"). There is quite a
> large body of research on this, for instance the s-curve introduced by
> Everett M. Rogers in his 1962 book, “Diffusion of Innovations". ("Early
> adopters", "mainstream users" etc.)
>
> Donald's phrase "myth: Use ethnographic observational studies to discover
> hidden, unmet needs" is a difficult to place, I was not aware that this was
> a widely held position. I agree with Erik and other that question your focus
> on "needs". (Although I agree that a user of a computer system may actually
> have need for a toilet.) As both Fil's and earlier models indicate,
> innovation is an interplay between wishes and technology development. And
> marketing is often used to modify and develop peoples wishes. (iPad anyone?)
> Of course for instance von Hippel discusses user driven innovation but not
> in such a over-simplistic way.
>
> The key in innovation is that it often requires the customers or users to
> shift their views. The will to do so and the effects of it is very difficult
> to predict and survey (which is fairly well-known since the Ford Edsel). For
> instance Engelbart's invention of the mouse was accompanied by a single hand
> key board, which allowed very effective simultaneous pointing, clicking and
> typing. While the mouse is widely diffused, few have heard of the single
> hand keyboard. (I have tried at Douglas home, it is a fairly quick to learn
> and really fast.)
>
> Best wishes
>
> Lars
>
>
> Engelbart, D. C. (1962). Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual
> Framework: Stanford Research Institute.
> http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/slides.html
> von Wright, G. H. (1986). Vetenskapen och förnuftet. Stockholm: MånPocket.
>
> Schumpeter, J. (1934). The theory of economic development : an inquiry into
> profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle. Cambridge,
> Mass.: Harvard U.P.
>
> von Hippel, E. (2005). Democratizing innovation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
> Press.
>  /Lars
>
>
> .........................................................................
> LARS ALBINSSON
> +46 (0) 70 592 70 45
> [log in to unmask]
>
> AFFILIATIONS:
> MAESTRO MANAGEMENT AB
> CALISTOGA SPRINGS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
> UNIVERSITY OF BORÅS
> LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY
> .........................................................................
>
>
>
>
>
> 1 apr 2010 kl. 17.39 skrev Don Norman:
>
> Hurrah! Filippo's analysis is wonderful. here is the comment i entered on
> his blog page:
>
> Very nice analysis. Precisely what I was hoping might result: informed
> discussion and debate, perhaps new formulations. Alas, most of the debate
> has been uninformed. Thank you, Filippo. This is the best analysis I have
> seen. I couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, I obviously didn't.
> Don Norman
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 7:44 PM, Filippo A. Salustri <[log in to unmask]
> >wrote:
>
> > It's taken a long time, but I've finally put down some thoughts on the
> > whole
> > technology & need thing.
> > Those still interested can read them at
> >
> http://filsalustri.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/balancing-need-and-technology/
> > Cheers.
> > Fil
> >
> > On 18 December 2009 03:57, Rosan Chow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
>



-- 
Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University
350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON
M5B 2K3, Canada
Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
Fax: 416/979-5265
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/