Deutsch: inside the CERN Globe of Science and Innovation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been spending most of this year working with my colleagues to help build our Academies MobileYouth Academy and The Youth Marketing Academy. Why? Because everyone needs a space to innovate. It’s here we can share and discuss ideas. It’s here, in these social spaces, that  innovation happens. I’m not talking about big idea, blue sky, IDEO stuff but real innovation.

Real innovation is the next little thing. Often lots of little things and often mundane. Most of our work at mobileYouth uncovers small hacks we call Positive Deviance, initiated by often anonymous youth. Sometimes individuals, sometimes groups. I’m talking about using BBM, txt messaging language or how Facebook grew to become a dominant platform. On a day-to-day basis it doesn’t win awards but it changes lives, sometimes whole countries. That’s why you need a frontline to experience it. It doesn’t happen in the labs.