Platforms the Development of the GPS System

Platforms

The development of the GPS system was almost entirely a series of chance events, yet these chance events occurred in a situation and amongst individuals that were able to see them for what they were and combine them into the GPS system essentially as it is still used today. Knowledge of the Doppler Effect, the Russian launching of Sputnik, the ability for the folks at the Applied Physics Lab to pick up Sputnik's signal and from this to pinpoint the satellite's location and track its movements, and finally the APL director's idea to reverse this calculation and determine Earth-bound positions from orbiting satellites -- all of these events happened not by design, but because one mind saw something another mind had done and applied it in a new context. The importance here was the environment at the APL, which brought these different minds and perspectives together.

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There are a variety of innovations and growing communities of shared ideas that have been developed and supported by the Internet, as it allows for the more rapid and widespread sharing of ideas and for the connection of like-minded individuals. One major example of this is the growth in the writing of "fan fiction" -- stories involving the characters and settings of popular (or cult-followed) novels, films, comic books, etc. There are many websites and communities dedicated to fan fiction of all genres and works, with people writing continuing episodes of everything from Dickens novels to the Twilight series and everything in between. These communities, like the GPS system, have been largely emergent, developing not because one person design the community, but because many people connected through similar shared ideas.

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The fact that old ideas tend to find homes in new buildings and new ideas are more typically found in old buildings has nothing to do with the age of the building, at least not directly. New startup companies where new and innovative ideas are more likely to emerge tend to be more cash-strapped than their larger competitors, and thus they are seeking places to do business in properties that they don't own, that have already been built and can be modified (or not) rather cheaply. A very extreme example of this can be seen in the development of many modern technology companies, a number of which began in the garages of their founders (or their founders' parents). These were "old buildings" birthing very new ideas; now that these companies have grown, they have built their own large office complexes and often struggle to achieve the same level of innovation in their very new buildings.

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