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After 3 years of publication, with our 3rd birthday this past April, our publisher,  innovation agency 2thinknow, is planning a new future for the Globe Innovator.

In June 2010, the Globe Innovator changes will be announced. We’re looking at updating the publication, to provide more ongoing content on innovation across cities, business and policy. We’re also examining more frequent shorter content centred on single ideas.

Let’s look back over the last 3 years. There’s already been a lot of change since our 2007 inception, and what it is about that change – is that it changes us.

A Jaunt around the Boston Common. Our birthday of our first post from Boston MA, on April 23rd , 2007 tracks how far this site has come from a travel journal of innovation in cities worldwide. > Read our first post on Boston Walking City.

This was during the announcement of the first Innovation Cities ranking 2007 (now Index), and first Global Innovation Review process. I was staying in the Westin Copley Place at the time, and writing about Innovation Cities.

Cities of Innovation. Since that time, this year 2thinknow are into the 4th year of Innovation Cities, now featuring a Report, Program, Index and Framework (published in the aforementioned report).

Changing Formats. Over the same period this site has morphed immediately into a journal of change in politics and foreign affairs, then briefly into a journal of a broader view of innovation, and a finally an innovation analysis / news site moving domains only in 2009, and growing to its current standalone domain address.

Web 2.0. I still recall the panicked responses to my (albeit overwhelming) first seminar on web 2.0 in Melbourne, Australia later in 2007. Now some of the newbies of that period are leading social media voices in Australia.

The GFC Prediction. During this time our readers saw us (well, mainly me!) predict a “September 2008 shock turmoil event” for shares, a U.S. recession and even a potential depression as far back as October 2007 and in detail on December 2007. I said Australian shares would fall to 4,500 at the same time most forecasters saw only “blue sky”.

At the same time in February 2008, I warned our readers of U.S. bank nationalisation. this was foreseen by virtually no major U.S. commentators… Ultimately though, I was one of the handful of voices like Harvey Dent who analysed the basics, and saw a different view.

The prediction differed in that they were specific not general, time-limited and contained no ‘counter-predictions’.

The one that got away. The one area I was wrong is Australian house prices. I believed I undervalued 4 factors – 1) the sentimental flight to bricks and mortars of scared investors, 2) the government willingness to prop-up property prices at all costs, 3) relatedly, the size of the consequences of falling prices to create a general economic collapse and 4) foreign purchasing of Australian assets due to trade and legislation.

Wither Finance. Yes, I warned of the financial services industry over-dominance at a city-level in 2007 book – the Global Innovation Review 2007 Annual. Indeed, this was a major reason why I took the sometimes criticised decision to rank London low for innovation in 2007. I (rightly) saw that creativity-led innovation would drive successful cities into the future, all socio-political factors otherwise being equal.

Some more thoughts…

Often this site became a test ground for these ideas in other speeches, workshops or printed reports. Sometime the ideas copped flack – like my infamous bogan piece railing against Australian anti-intellectualism, which we later archived as it came to dominate all comments and over-shadow ideas. When Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle was elected, anti-bogan hoon-ism (if there’s such a term that can be conceived) was part of his platform. I felt that in some small way we contributed to that.

Ideas need testing, and thinking needs validating – and occasionally rejecting. Like markets readers are great validators (or not) of ideas. Whilst I always preferred civility, some of our commenters were not so kind.

For this reason, I see change as a process, innovation as a process, and this site as a testing ground for ideas leading that process. But it is this testing and validation that enables ideas to turn into implementable business concepts, and ultimately models. And 2thinknow is at that stage.

Now we stand in 2010, awaiting the ides of August-November 2010 to know how deep the trouble goes. As Mises and Hayek would point out you can only delay the inevitable, inevitably. And I see 2 cycles that have a probability of occurring, but the outcome 2021 is the same.

Oh, and yes, updates have been non-existent over the last 6 months. Why? Well, we are in implementation phase for launching new products and services, and Globe Innovator, is a part of that.

The key is to be relevant, and commercial, and that’’s what we’re working on ensuring our relevance. But the times must match the ideas, and the ideas must match the times. Those who see only the din and clash, who hear sound and fury, miss the sense of what actually is happening. It’s ripples in a pond.

Right now, we face an uncertain period, conversely, that can be perceived with certainty. So, as an innovation agency, we are seeking to position this publication at the right point in the continuum from innovation to conservatism, relative to the time. So, this publication must adapt to the current global circumstance. There is also, always, the value equation.

By the by, in the mean time, I will post some economic thoughts soon, regarding innovation policy and process and economic effects at the macro and micro level.

P.S. Thanks to those of you who have written us saying you miss our updates!

Keep innovating,

Christopher Hire