Institute For The Future

How new models for building the Web will reshape Innovation

Just a few years ago, launching an Internet startup typically entailed making the rounds on Sand Hill Road, pitching venture capitalists an idea and a business plan illustrated by a handful of slides. Today, PowerPoint decks are replaced by working prototypes and the business plans by waiting lists for beta test accounts. Even the venture capitalists are being replaced by angels and self-financed entrepreneurs, as the cost of bringing a web application to market falls below $100,000. Innovation, long the exclusive domain of research and development groups and their long-range roadmaps, has gone lightweight— agile, capital-efficient and user-focused.

Welcome to the emerging world of lightweight innovation on the web. But while today, this new model is most easily found in the web industry, over the next decade it is likely to set a new pace for every sector. While open innovation sought to merely expand the sources of new ideas, lightweight innovation seeks to disaggregate and accelerate R&D, more systematically engage end-users, and constantly invent and re-invent new platforms. Lightweight innovation itself is a disruptive way of thinking about idea generation and execution, and stands to fundamentally transform the way large organizations innovate and profit from innovation.

Keeping with Institute for the Future's commitment to share our research with public, over the next year, this blog will explore the forecasts and impacts of "The Future of Lightweight Innovation" (IFTF members please log-in here to access the full report). Around the 15th of each month, we'll share the next section of the report, as well as signals and trends from the world around us that showcase how lightweight innovation models are evolving.

We hope you'll join us in this conversation about innovating in an uncertain world. Our calendar of topics is:

• March - The Strategic Challenge: Innovating the Process of Innovation
• April - More than Open, More than Incremental
• May - Recognizing Lightweight Innovation When You See It
• June - Drivers of Lightweight Innovation: Disruptive Technologies
• July - Guidelines for Reinvention: Inverting the Incubator
• August - Guidelines for Reinvention: Re-engineering Innovation Networks
• September - Guidelines for Reinvention: From Moon Rockets to Cubesats
• October - Guidelines for Reinvention: Pop-up Labs
• November - Do's and Don't of LW Innovation