The British government is thinking about introducing prize competitions as a way to spur breakthrough innovation: “A future Conservative government may offer prizes for companies that come up with innovative answers to difficult problems - like a workable system of wave power. The prize scheme would mean reviving a former practice, which in the 18th century produced a breakthrough in global navigation by determining longitude…” The innovation prizes would become part of a broader effort by the government to “encourage more innovation in the UK, discourage the shift of highly skilled jobs to rival foreign states, and promote a positive and inspiring vision of what science can do for society.” While all plans are still tentative, one idea that has been discussed is a £10 million prize for the first company or organization that can produce a workable system of generating power from waves.

Not coincidentally, the $10 million X Prize competition in the U.S. led to the creation and development of the first-ever manned commercial spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, in October 2004.

Tags: British UK innovation prize

[image: The winner of the 1714 British longitude prize competition]

Influx Insights hints that London-based designer Thomas Heatherwick might be “the leader of a new movement of multi-disciplinary designers.” Already, Heatherwick’s creative design studio has worked on a wide range of projects, including those related to engineering, architecture, store design (e.g. the Longchamp store pictured here), product design, urban planning and sculpture. In short, Heatherwick is a “three-dimensional designer” for the modern age: “Thomas Heatherwick is rapidly building a reputation as THE new “Renaissance Man” of the creative-world. He doesn’t appear to be limited by the “box” of a specific creative discipline. Only in his mid-30s, he already has an impressive range of projects under his belt.”

Tags: Thomas Heatherwick design creativity

[image: The Longchamp store in NYC]

Since it costs something on the order of $40 million to create and develop new games for the XBox gaming system, Microsoft is now reaching out to members of its gaming community with a unique opportunity for them to design their own games:

“Microsoft has made a very interesting announcement about game content creation. Starting on August 20, Microsoft is making available the tools for people to create videogames for the Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio Express will be available for free to anyone with a Windows XP-based PC, and will provide them with what’s described as “Microsoft’s next-generation platform for game development.” In addition, by joining a “creators club” for an annual subscription fee of $99, users will be able to build, test and share their games on Xbox 360, as well as access a wealth of materials to help speed the game development progress.”

At the same time, Microsoft is partnering with a number of top-ranked universities to include XNA Game Studio Express and Xbox 360 development in their curricula. According to Microsoft, the new gaming initiative “…will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry.”

Additional coverage is available at Gamasutra, CNET News, and BBC News. What do you think? It may not create a “YouTube for video games,” as Microsoft suggests, but it will certainly change the way that companies think about video game development. Any time you can transfer $40 million in development costs off the books, it seems like a game-changing development (pun intended).

Tags: innovation gaming

[image: BBC News]