Innovating to Evolve

As a global society, we have much more information, than at any other point in time, about the possible externalities and ripple effects of business and commercial activities. In this week’s articles, we see many cases of how companies and investors are harnessing this information to make bold innovations, insights and developments to increase access to resources, provide more incentive for social impact and plan for industry shocks that may occur. In each of these cases, much of the focus is on the gains of innovations without much consideration as to how these ventures and approaches can also incorporate strategies to mitigate the losses and/or prepare for the physical and social landscape they are creating.

Increased Internet access:

Facebook and Google’s aerial solutions to provide broadband internet access to over a billion people will have a major impact on all sectors of industries and life at large. To make sure that the power of this access is used for positive purposes such as education, commercial and entrepreneurial resources and exposure, there will be a need to involve institutional regulations, maintenance and monitoring of this technology. For the market at large, having easier and increased access to the internet may cause market prices to decrease. What effects and shifts will we see for major internet providers and that industry? To increase social impact beyond developing/isolated communities, can the impact of aerial based internet be analyzed and used as a case study or argument to for more wealthy nations to provide internet access for their low-income and limited income subpopulations?  primarily serve a subset of the global population

Electric and automation in the auto industry:

The auto industry has consistently played a major role in the development of planned landscapes and commercial advancement in the United States and globally. We have also seen how this industry was able to evolve and respond to its effects on the environment, urbanization and health through design innovations. However, as the technology review[1] article suggests, with a shift to automation and electric, the automobile industry will have a dramatic effect on the social and commercial landscape that was built around its growth the first time around.

To make sure that innovation occurs at a reasonable and conscious pace, the auto industry could offer training and educational programs to bridge the gap for skills sets that will be needed for automation and electric maintenance and repair.  

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[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604047/self-driving-and-electric-cars-are-going-to-have-tons-of-strange-effects-on-society/