A contributor to my online ezine, aimed at social gaming, wrote an article wherein he discussed that the term 'innovation' was over used and that there was actually very little innovation in board games.  He based his argument around his experience in IT.

Whilst I respect his opinion and I think he formulates a good argument, I don't agree with the overall findings.

In my opinion innovation is in the eye of the beholder - by which I mean that, like beauty, it depends on your own view and reference point.

Buying and selling online isn't new, but this step is a big innovation for a company that has only traded via bricks and mortar stores for many years.  Similarly, open source software isn't by definition innovative - it's been around for many years and is adopted by many companies.  It is, however, innovative for a company to adopt open source software where they have previously only used big named software solutions.

Additionally, innovation can be in the way you use or 'repurpose' something.  It's not very innovative to teach people at a school, but using the same lecture halls outside of the school hours to offer exhibition space or host business events is innovative.