OnInnovation: Visionaries thinking out loud. A video oral history project advancing a culture of innovation powered by The Henry Ford.
Inspiring Innovation.
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How did selling apples out of a garage change the world?
Steve Wozniak can tell you. Together with Steve Jobs, they put technology in the hands of the people through the invention of the modern personal computer.
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What does a chicken farmer know about auto racing?
Ask Carroll Shelby. After starting out raising chickens, Carroll Shelby went on to become a world-class race car driver and a world championship race car builder. In 1962 he designed the Cobra sports car and changed the face of automobile racing.
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How do you create a marketplace of a billion merchants?
You spend a long and focused weekend writing brilliant code, a holiday weekend no less. Pierre Omidyar's development of eBay, when he was 28, has forever changed the face of Internet commerce and online community-building.
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How do you design buildings that respect sensitive sites that already exist?
By looking past structure alone to bring form, light and landscape together in delightful yet respectful new ways. This is precisely what architect Toshiko Mori has done for homes and public buildings around the world.
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Can the buildings where we live and work be grown from seeds?
William McDonough thinks so. His radical redesign of the Ford Rouge Plant in Michigan is a model of green architecture and efficiency that features a living roof composed of real plants.
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What do electric cars have in common with crops on Mars?
One man, Elon Musk. This multi-talented inventor founded SpaceX, a company that develops and manufactures space launch vehicles; and Tesla Motors, which produces 100% electric luxury roadsters.
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Can women compete on an equal footing with men in the world of car racing?
Yes, and Lyn St. James helped paved the way. A major competitor in the Indianopolis 500 and international circuit for more than two decades—St. James helped a new generation of women to break into the traditionally male-dominated sport.
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How do you break new ground in something as basic and fundamental as how we sit?
You rethink what a chair needs to be made of and how its pieces need to be built—and you work from a mindset that it must adjust to the individual completely.
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How can people and businesses thrive in an open-sourced world?
Mitchell Baker knows. The high-minded lawyer and CEO of the public, non-profit Mozilla Corporation became a champion of putting source code into public hands and helping to build dynamic communities of developers around it.
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How can you help make fossil fuels obsolete?
By unlocking the secrets of how special kinds of materials can store energy, a self-taught inventor named Stan Ovshinsky developed new kinds of batteries, liquid crystal displays, solar energy laminates and many more energy-wise innovations.
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Back to School with
Stan Ovshinsky
With 400 patents spanning a 50-year career, Stan Ovshinsky, together with his late wife Iris, has developed an array of energy and information-related inventions in pursuit of a hydrogen-based economy.
Designers: Are your products among the decade's best?
Which designs have had the biggest business and social impact? An all-star jury, convened by IDSA, aims to find out. Winners will become part of the permanent collection at The Henry Ford.
The Real Wizardry of Edison's Menlo Park Lab
Watch this fascinating video as featured on Time Magazine's iPad version providing further insight into America's first R&D lab, part of the collections of The Henry Ford.
Bill Gates to become a part of OnInnovation
Fall 2010
Come back this November for the release of our exclusive interview with business pioneer and philanthropist, Bill Gates.
Ignite 2010:
Classroom Challenge
Teachers who use OnInnovation.com content in classroom projects or curriculum can enter to win up to $40,000 in prizes.
BYU Conducts Study on How Business Innovation Happens
Pierre Omidyar Mentioned in Study
BYU professor Jeff Dyer presents results from six years of research on how business innovation happens and whether or not it can be developed.
metromode Feature
Patricia Mooradian, president of The Henry Ford
In an ongoing series of blog postings, Patricia Mooradian discusses the launch of OnInnovation with metromode.
Elon Musk featured in New York Times article
February 15, 2010
Check out the latest NYT article from February 15th, "Adding Rocket Man to His Résumé"
Women in the Winner's Circle
Presented by Lyn St. James & The Henry Ford
Women in the Winner’s Circle is a traveling exhibition recognizing the past history, growing achievements, and future growth of women in racing.
The Birth of Auction Web
with Pierre Omidyar
At the time, on Labor Day of 1995, did you know this was a great innovation?
Take the Poll
Join the conversation, debate the poll results and inspire others on our discussion board.
News
Change Your Internal Chip
Posted September 1, 2010
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” – Einstein
How many times have you been with a client and proposed a new idea only to have the bottleneck of someone’s ego get [...]
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