Guidelines for Contributors to The Future Of Innovation: FAQs

“Are you looking for a personal perspective or should it be supported by research, references, or other evidence?”
We are looking for your views, dreams, wishes, hopes and aspirations on The Future Of Innovation, your personal original thinking rather than research results. What makes the book and the website unique and innovative (even if we say so ourselves) is this very approach – to ask people with experience and strong views in innovation about their thinking on 'the future of innovation', as they see it–as you see it. Forget about literature & research and share with us your thoughts and feelings, speak from your heart, and find out how it resonates with people from around the world.
“Do you want contributors to focus on both the field of innovation as well as innovation management?”
We give a carte blanche to our contributors. What comes to your mind when asked about the future of innovation is what we want to hear about. How ever you want to continue your heading after “The Future Of Innovation....” is what we would like to hear.
“Shall I write about the future of innovation in my own country or to consider it at a global scale?”
Through our initiative, we seek to gain insights into what people around the globe think and feel about the future of innovation. Yes, we are interested in how people view the future of innovation from their country’s perspective. But what really matters is what comes to your mind first when asked the question about “the future of innovation”. If what comes to mind first is about your country’s particular situation, then that’s what we want to hear.
“How serious are you about staying within 500 word count limit?”
Ah well, pretty serious. Not least because we want to be fair to everyone. So keep your contribution as close to 500 words as possible. Of course, there is a little bit of leeway, contributions range from 450-550 words.
“Can one person submit two contributions?”
We continue to think about this but for the moment we accept ONE contribution from ONE contributor.
“You are seeking contributions from around the world, this means that people might not be entirely comfortable writing in English; would a contribution be considered even if the English were poor?”.
Not to worry; don’t forget that English is the second language for Anna and Bettina too – and for roughly half of the world. Please submit your thoughts and we will work with you should your English need a little tidying up.
“Can we submit a co-authored contribution?”
We would like to acknowledge that several of our contributors were not quite comfortable with our request for ‘single author contributions’. We quite understand, and we have had the odd discussion about it, again and again. Asking for a single person authorship somehow seems to contradict some of what we promote (you will find our contributors talking about collaboration a lot). Yet we have asked for personal perspectives, views, dreams and aspirations for the future of innovation, well knowing that in the end we all build our insights, dreams and visions on the insights, dreams and visions of others, they do not come out of a vacuum. Teams and collaboration are essential to making innovation happen, yet visions and dreams tend to have their seeds with one person. Visions and dreams can be shared, grow and spread, and different people might have the same dream without having created it together; yet still, we have asked for YOUR personal take on the future of innovation; hence, in the end we decided to stick to our guns, and insist on individual contributions. We much appreciate that you followed that call and are delighted that those of you who felt very strongly about acknowledging someone else’s contribution and influence have found ways and means to express this within the statement.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.