The term ‘disruptive innovation’ is often associated with technology. Part of the reason is due to the fact that when Clayton Christensen first published his theory of disruption in his book “The Innovators Dilema” he used the term ‘disruptive technology’ to describe his theory. It wasn’t until Craig Barret, former Chairman of Intel suggested at a conference to Dr. Christensen that his theory was really about the broader topic of ‘disruptive innovation’. In his next book “The Innovators Solution“, the reference to his theory held the updated title. But many still mistakenly associate the term with technology advancements and fail to recognize disruption in service markets and other non-technology arenas. Let’s look at information sharing among government and civilian systems as an example of disruptive innovation taking place right now.
Disruptive innovations describes products or services that reach a new set of users that were not previously served. One such service would be the access and use of information that once was not accessible. Mapping and GIS systems such as GoogleEarth and ESRI ArcGIS have certainly opened up a disruptive market opportunity where field workers now have immediate access to real-time actionable data. They are now consumers where previously they were non-consumers of much of the data available to them. The mapping systems can be thought of as a transformational innovation and not necessarily disruptive by themselves. It’s the use of them that is creating a service disruption. With these systems it’s possible to layer virtually unlimited data feeds from government and non-government sources such that users can see the information and drill down on specific data that is important to them. As more agencies adopt the use of open standards based systems, more and more field workers from local and national first responders to utility and infrastructure services gain access to information that will help them operate more efficiently and accurately. And this information costs little to nothing to share or view, overcoming a critical economic barrier that further fuels adoption. Another example of the positive role that disruption can play in society.
A great book for those wanting to understand the data sharing opportunity for society is “Silver Bullets – How Interoperable Data Will Revolutionize Information Sharing and Transparency” by Pete O’dell.