What this blog is about

The thorny relationship between innovation and value – that’s one of the main themes that you’ll see in this blog. Here’s why:

Innovation only sometimes results in creation of value – an adage nowhere more true than in computing technology, where the pace and range of innovation continues to grow. Yet we’ve all seen many excellent technical developments that fail to deliver sufficient value to a large enough number of people to have significant impact. And let’s not confuse this with commercial success or lack thereof – there are plenty examples of commercial successes that are based on some important innovation, and yet are not high in value. (Some of which you’ll see highlighted here.)

In fact, value is a notoriously slippery idea, so (at least in this blog) perhaps the best way to discover its meaning, and its connection to innovation, is by taking a focused look at specific cases.

Another key theme is where security gets in the mix of innovation and value. I’ve been engaged in a variety of types of technical security endeavors off and on in my checkered past, and perhaps that accounts for why security, innovation, and value comprise a fascinating topic for me. Certainly I’ve seen a lot of cool security technology prove to have little practical benefit.

So, some (not all) of the examples of innovation and value (or lack thereof) will be either about innovation in security itself, or – more interesting to me as time goes by – innovations that when applied turn out to significantly effect the way that a valuable asset is used. Often it just isn’t clear at the outset how applying a technical innovation affects an asset’s risks of security, integrity, privacy, or the trust that underpins these three.

Last but not least, and particularly were security is involved – hype. Just about every technical innovation you hear about claims to be valuable, and often some simple claims are obscured by claims full of hyperbole, exaggeration, jargon, of just plain poor communication. So a certain amount if cut-through-the hype is needed, and you’ll find that here too. So …

… visit here often, for view on the ongoing stream of tech innovation, and de-mystification of claims of new value and/or security.