I sat down with Mike Davidson Co-Founder of Newsvine - a couple of months ago and interviewed him for Northwestern University's Media Management Center's study on innovation and media.  Mike is an interesting guy - an entrepreneur who can 'do' as well as think conceptually about things that matter like truth and credibility in reporting.

Mike described the original impetus for the idea of the company.  He and his buddies had a long history together working at Disney Interactive Group as well as ESPN.  Over time they noticed the inefficiencies in the web functions.  Mike describes the inspiration process like this: “Well, if 90% of the traffic is going to basically wire stories and automated data you don’t need 280 people to produce those two things.”  The group decided to take the leap, get their own AP subscription and created a unique algorithm for filtering user generated news.  The site became so compelling to so many that Charlie Tillinghast took noticed and purchased them.  For more about the acquisition see the Seattle PI article.

I'll write more later about Newsvines brilliant 'simulated editor' function, but I'd like to concentrate on this original inspiration for the idea.  In my model for creative thinking The Five Faces of Genius, The Observer is the face that notices detail.  They are able to set aside the distractions and focus on what really matters.  Observers latch on to the emerging details and create something new.  Mike and his team were able to filter the 'noise' of traditional newsites, notice where the traffic was going and develop a fresh and new experience for readers.  Congrats to Mike and his team.  Innovation has it's just rewards.