The Great Transformation: How the Biggest Innovators Changed the World

As a process of creating something new that makes life better, innovation is impossible without passion. That’s why innovators have the same traits: they see the world differently and they are obsessed with making the world better. From inventing a new method to develop paper and creating the Internet, there are well-known important characters written down in history books as an epitome of what it takes to be a great innovator.

Cai Lun - The Development of Paper

Cai Lun is credited with the development of paper in 105 A.D., and his achievement was based on the improvement of an existing idea. The use of papyrus for writing and illustration was already well established at the time, but it was slow, often expensive and unreliable. Cai Lun conceived the idea of forming sheets of paper from soaked tree bark, hemp waste, old rags, and fishnets. Lun then standardized his formula before it rapidly adopted across China and around the world.

Thomas Edison - Long-lasting Lightbulbs

One of the most significant innovators and inventors in American History, Thomas Edison is known for inventing the first commercially practical incandescent lightbulb. In January 1879, Edison had built his first high resistance electric lightbulb at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. In order to improve the bulb, Edison tested thousands of other materials to use for the filament, which brought him to carbonized cotton thread. When voltage was applied to the completed bulb, it began to radiate a soft orange glow which lasted about fifteen hours. Apart from lightbulbs, he was also the father of many other technological breakthroughs like the first phonograph and motion picture camera, and he was influential in developing the first economically viable way of distributing light, heat, and power from a central station. 

Hedy Lamarr - Spread Spectrum Communications

A glamorous Austrian-American actress during MGM’s Golden Age, Lamarr certainly doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of what an innovator should look or act like. At the start of World War II, she co-invented an early technique for spread spectrum communications, the principles of the technology incorporated into today’s wireless communication technology. In part, if you’d like to express gratitude to someone every time you connect to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you have this Hollywood actress to thank.

Tim Berners-Lee - The Worldwide Web

Great innovators are quick to recognize that their ideas may have applications beyond original intended use, and it is difficult to find a better example of this than British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee’s Worldwide Web. Taking his initial idea beyond a quick way for scientists to share their research around the globe, he realized that his inventions could benefit the entire world.  In 1989, Berners-lee created the first hypertext browser while working at the CERN European Particle Physics Laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. By the end of the following year, he had formulated the core components of the global network that we still use to this day: HTML, URL, and HTTP.

As you craft your own innovation and how you can be innovative in your company or organization, it is advisable to work on a big problem and turn it into a way to change the lives of billions of people. Established as an incubation channel to produce commercial-ready tech innovation, Telkomsel Innovation Center (TINC) embrace and accommodate innovation through collaboration with innovators. Visit https://tinc.id/ to find out how TINC and innovators develop solutions that will solve the real problem and change the world.