Essay about School: Dropbox Innovation

Submitted By jar9576
Words: 1227
Pages: 5

Dropbox Innovation In late 2008, Andrew Houston emerged from a world of technology with a brilliant idea. His idea would quickly become a popular resource and tool of many businessmen and students throughout the United States. This simple, yet genius innovation is known today as Dropbox. In the Innovative Consumption article, author James Surowiecki(2011) explains that Dropbox allows you to upload your files, via an intuitive drag-and-drop method, to remote servers, and to then synch those files with other computers. Dropbox has been used in many of my classes and it allows students to share notes or work on group projects in a more effective manner. Innovations can be evaluated many different ways. In class the past few weeks we have discussed Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation and how it can be applied to any new innovation whether it be new technology or a process. Everett M. Rogers, a communication scholar, developed a theory referred to as Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation that describes, 1) the innovation in itself, 2) communication channels, 3) time involved in diffusion and 4) the social system revolving the diffusion process. Rogers(2003) describes diffusion as the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. In the first step of the theory Rogers(2003) explains that an innovation is an idea, practice, or object perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption. The Dropbox idea was considered an innovation because it was perceived as brand new by the American people and it was adopted at a quick rate. In an article written by James Surowiecki(2011), he states that the U.S. has a particularly large number of people who are willing to do something like hand over their precious data to a brand-new startup- the kind of people the economist Amar Bhide’ calls “venturesome consumers.” In this article it shows that the American people were early adopters of this idea and it returned the favor of being fairly successful from the beginning. The second step according to Rogers(2003) is communication channel which is the means by which messages get from one individual to another. In the process of the communication channel you have to approaches to this step. Mass media is one which you can observe from social networks such as facebook or the television. The other message can be relayed by what is called interpersonal channels. Rogers(2003) mentions that interpersonal channels are more effective in forming and changing attitudes toward a new idea, and thus in influencing the decision to adopt or reject a new idea. Based on my own personal observation, Dropbox was definitely sent through an interpersonal channel. In comparison to an innovation such as the shake weight, if you turned on the television or went on the Internet there would be an ad in your face immediately. My first encounter with Dropbox was in my communication class in 2011. We were split into groups and one of my group members mentioned Dropbox would be a great way to share ideas and documents. The third step according to Rogers(2003) is the amount of time it takes for diffusion to go through five main steps. These five steps consist of (1) knowledge, (2) persuasion, (3) decision, (4) implementation, and (5) confirmation. My knowledge from what I learned about Dropbox that one day in class was it is a form of software that allows you to share documents to multiple computers. At that point step two had kicked in and it was time for me to be persuaded toward or away from the innovation. I found myself persuaded favorable toward this new innovation. It had captured my attention and was ready to adventure further into the innovation. At this next step, decision time, I decided to adopt Dropbox and give it a try. Implementing this innovation was my next step. I decided to use Dropbox as my main source of communication with other group members. After several weeks of