Information work and the opportunity of innovation

Abstract

Explains the need for fresh innovation in product development, suggesting that the industries that contributed to the last economic boom will be replaced by new ones in the future. Distinguishes between innovation and creativity, arguing that the two are complementary and that it is increasingly product users, rather than manufacturers, who are the inspiration for product innovations. Posits that, formerly, organizations have over-focused on the technological, whereas in fact innovation rarely happens outside the social. Suggests that information professionals are uniquely well placed to contribute to this process: because they have the equipment and technology to do it; because they constitute a knowledge-gathering node outside the political manoeuvring of the organization; and because they can provide leadership on knowledge about the field of information itself.