January 29, 2014, DesignCon, Santa Clara, CA—Eileen Bartholomew from the X-Prize Foundation talked about creating a new future through breakthrough technologies. Before anyone can get a breakthrough, the concept is just another crazy idea. Breakthroughs change the directions and drivers for the future.
Although our life seemed to be local and linear the world is moving towards a global and exponential growth pattern. In fact, researchers have confirmed that we only know about 150 people, this number is called Dunbar's number. Eric Schmidt of Google noted that it took from the beginning of time until 2003 to generate 5 exabytes of data. Now, this much data is created in 10 minutes. We are now at the start of the change from a linear to an exponential growth curve.
Another example of these changes, Kodak went bankrupt in '12. In comparison, Facebook bought Instagram for a billion dollars last year. This little company only had 13 employees. Kodak had its competitive advantage evaporate, because opportunities and new business models emerged. To survive in this environment, companies need an appetite for risk and failure.
To survive in this environment, companies need to disrupt themselves to prevent a Kodak moment. They need to do things well, but moving to the next plane is getting harder. As a result, innovation comes from new areas, rather than extending existing ones. The experts cannot foresee these disruptive changes, so companies need new tools and technology.
X-Prize is always looking at new tools and technologies to see which of these might help define the changes between linear and exponential. In addition, they offer cash prizes for innovations in various areas. Although the cash prizes probably will not recover costs, the attempts and successful completion of the contest create change.
For example, Charles Lindbergh is remembered as the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic. He was not the first to try, but was the first to succeed. This aviation breakthrough came about because someone offered a $25,000 prize. Most aviation experts considered the spectacle as impossible, because the plane would have to divest all safety year and other non-essential equipment to reduce weight. When Lindbergh accomplished the feat, two thirds of all Americans saw the plane when it's word the country, and one year later the number of piloting licenses increased dramatically. The successful crossing of the Atlantic created the commercial aviation industry.
This combination of financial incentive and measurable goals is what has inspired the X- Prize. The organization, rather than awarding money to honor past achievements or directly funding research, incites innovation by tapping into our competitive and entrepreneurial spirit.
So far, they have launched a number of prizes. Past prizes include Ansari for getting three people in near space, Progressive Insurance Automotive, Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup,
Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander, and Archon Genomics. All of these contests have measurable goals that can create new markets through innovative technologies by proving the feasibility of underlying concepts.
These competitions launch billion-dollar industries and redefine what is impossible. The contests are designed to be efficient by having only one winner, and are highly leveraged. They get the seed money from small donors which is used to propose a contests to large philanthropic organizations for the top prize.
The contests are open to anyone, and have audacious yet achievable goals that are measurable and marketable. The competitive structure inspires creativity. They have a number of new contests in progress. To see the requirements for these contests, go to their website at www.Xprize.org T he various initiatives include healthcare, global literacy, ocean mapping and health, carbon and CO2 management, personal jet packs, and batteries.
The organization is open to contributions of new ideas to create new prizes.