Idaho Innovation Council: Take Away Thoughts from the Initial Meeting

On Tuesday, I attended the first quarterly meeting of the recently formed Idaho Innovation Council.  According to the Idaho Business Review, it’s “…a group that will advise the Idaho Department of Commerce, other state agencies and universities on ways to leverage the state’s technological innovations into economic growth.”  The council members, who were appointed by Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter, include:

• Jefferson Jewell (Chairman): co-founder and managing partner of Blackfin Technology
• Robin Woods: founder and president of Alturas Analytics, Inc.
• Douglas A. Sayer: founder of Premier Technology, Inc.
• Mark Warbis: communications director for Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter
• Milford Terrell: president of the Idaho State Board of Education
• Steve Hodges: founder and president of M2M Communications
• Jason Stolworthy: commercialization manager for Battelle Energy Alliance’s Technology and Commercialization Department
• Donald A. Dietrich: director of the Idaho Department of Commerce

Governor Otter was also in attendance for part of the meeting to outline his vision and direction for the council.  Some of the comments he made include:

• His vision for the council is that it will identify (and interpret) best practices in technology transfer and commercialization from universities and businesses. The council will communicate their findings in order to provide Idaho with a competitive advantage upon implementation.
• Technological advances are outrunning our ability to efficiently make the transfer where Idaho currently is to where we need to be in the future.
• Idaho has to conform to the needs of the market in order to be competitive with the world.
• The focus should include increasing efficiencies. Two areas mentioned include – energy and education.

Although I only attended the first half of the meeting, I was able to glean several things, including:

• The council will focus on technology transfer and commercialization. Specifically, to identify what obstacles (e.g., current policies, procedures, etc.) need to be removed in order to streamline the process of commercializing potential products, services, etc.
• The council has a more expansive mandate than its previous incarnation – the Science & Technology Advisory Council.
• The focus will be on the application of existing ideas; not so much on the development of new ideas.
• The LinkedIn Group will be used to foster discussions with members between quarterly meetings. Moreover, they hope to leverage this medium to increase participation from interested individuals who are located in more rural areas of the state.

As I reflected on the substance of the meeting, I was reminded of articles I’ve read from the human factors and ergonomics domain that stress how appropriately designed products, services, and processes facilitate technology transfer and commercialization, including:

• Burns, C.M., Vicente, K.J., Christoffersen, K., & Pawlak, W.S. (1997). Towards viable, useful and usable human factors design guidance. Applied Ergonomics, 28, 311-322.
• Dekker, S.W.A., & Nyce, J.M. (2004). How can ergonomics influence design? Moving from research findings to future systems. Ergonomics, 47, 1624-1639.
• Gillian, D.J. (2001). Usability science. 1: Foundations. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 13, 351-372.
• Woods, D., & Dekker, S. (2000). Anticipating the effects of technological change: A new era of dynamics for human factors. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 1, 272-282.