Renovation ≠ Innovation

...both are important, but they are not the same thing.

It will be a long, long time before we can retire the current MR fleet, so a fresh coat of paint and more comfortable seats are both needed and welcome, but painting a racing stripe down the middle of our WWII-era DC-3 won't make it fly five times faster on solar energy.

Much (most?) of what passes for innovation in our industry these days is renovation posing as something more. This innofaking is creating a false belief that all we need is a light cosmetic update and thus distracting from the fundamental changes needed to move MR forward.

Be wary of anyone claiming to be an innovator. If their plan boils down to letting participants play with social features but relies on points or other rewards to attract users, they are renovating. If they tell you they are building an online community whose primary purpose is to take surveys, they are renovating. The less disruptive their idea is, the more likely it is they are renovating.

Let them renovate, appreciate the work they are doing, but don't be fooled into thinking they are solving the problem of gathering quantitative data in a world increasingly resistant to taking surveys.