Perspectives on Innovation

For the last three years, InnoCentive has been posting marketing Challenges that showcase the diversity and creativity of InnoCentive Solvers, and to drive InnoCentive’s market awareness. These Challenges are aimed at not only involving the “artistic temperament” of our Solvers, but also to demonstrate to our Seekers that the InnoCentive Solver Community is a great resource for “voice of the customer” input for Challenges that are considered to be part of more “traditional” business domains, such as marketing.

Well, we’ve just posted our Fourth Annual InnoCentive Video Challenge! It’s called The Uniquely Prepared Mind, where we ask you to demonstrate the idea that a uniquely prepared mind is capable of solving even the most demanding Challenges the world has to offer. This is why the InnoCentive Solver is the perfect person to create this video – you know Solvers best and you are always up for a Challenge – pardon the pun.

This year, we’re guaranteeing $10,000 in awards for the best 30-second shorts that nail the 2011 Video Theme, The Uniquely Prepared Mind.

The first prize will receive a minimum of $5,000, and we’re guaranteeing $10,000 in awards. The top 20 runners-up will receive IC-branded shirts with the website’s new look and feel! Visit YouTube to see the 2010 winner and runners-up from previous years, then prepare your mind and submit a winner.

Clock is ticking! Check it out, open a Project Room, and share it, too!

Chris Wilmer has been awarded for two Challenges – Synthetic DNA Management Software and Water Problems Affecting People in Developing Countries.

Science is a noble pursuit, and I would pay to be a scientist if I had to. You can imagine how lucky I feel then, that the payment works the other way around.

Designing porous materials for carbon dioxide capture and hydrogen storage is my Ph.D. research at Northwestern University in the department of Chemical & Biological Engineering. My advisor, Professor Randall Q. Snurr, has helped me tremendously to become a specialist in molecular simulations and a super-computer systems administrator. These skills, simulations, programming and systems architecture, have been invaluable when approaching InnoCentive Challenges. As the speed of computers increases, there are fewer and fewer materials science and chemistry problems that cannot be better understood by a properly designed computer simulation.

While my current research is in Chicago, I was born in Canada, and I have a bachelor’s degree in engineering science from the University of Toronto. Biology and bioengineering are my hobby sciences, which I pursue (or just read about) in my spare time. Greater exposure to these fields is one of the benefits that draws me to InnoCentive.

I have been participating regularly in humanitarian and bio-related InnoCentive challenges since August, 2009. It is enlightening to read about contemporary problems in the variety of industries to which InnoCentive caters (which as far as I can tell, is every conceivable industry short of the military), and it is also fun to attempt to solve them! I have found that, while it is difficult to come up with a great idea, it is usually easy to make a half-decent suggestion… and sometimes that’s enough!

I would like to see InnoCentive provide additional services to help Solvers and ultimately lead to better solutions for the Seekers (e.g., providing mock solutions to the Solver community that preserved the average number of typographical errors of actual winning solutions). I’m glad that InnoCentive is so successful already, and I’m sure that as it evolves it will become much more successful in the future!

If you are a would-be Solver but are unsure of how to go about it, please feel free to send me an e-mail. I have a wide variety of interests, and am always excited to collaborate on a project!

Best regards and good luck

-Chris

Attention InnoCentive Solvers!

Do you know someone who would be a great InnoCentive Solver? Someone who is a visual thinker and a do-it-yourself tinkerer who is always asking “what if” and “why not” in their never-ending quest to make things “better.” Someone with eyes on the stars who can help NASA forecast solar flares with an 80% accuracy rate? Or a mechanical whiz who could create the next mosquito trap or enhance the next generation of BOGO lights for African villages? Or perhaps someone with creative ideas who loves to brainstorm about interesting concepts? If you do, refer them to be an InnoCentive Solver and have the opportunity to earn a cash bonus!

Referring someone is easy:  click here to learn more and get your referral link. Forward your link to anyone you think would like to be a Solver. When friends or colleagues click on your link and register with InnoCentive, you’ll automatically get credit for referring them. When they solve their first Challenge, you can earn up to $1,500!

Sincerely,

The InnoCentive Team

The Economist-InnoCentive Challenge on The Capture of Atmospheric Carbon to Address Global Warming has recently been amended to include what we call a “Priceless Prize”. A Priceless Prize typically grants access to an experience or opportunity for exposure, that a Solver would never be able to achieve on their own. In this case, the winner (or one member of the winning team) will be given an invitation to participate in SciFoo, taking place August 12 – 14, 2011.

SciFoo, or Foo Camp, is an invitation-only event that brings together about 200 leading scientists, technologists, writers and other thought leaders for a weekend of discussion, demonstration and debate.   Foo Camp is an informal conference format pioneered by O’Reilly Media, a leading book publisher and event organiser in the field of information technology. There is no predefined agenda, instead attendees collaboratively create one during the first evening, having shared ideas in advance through a wiki. Since the first O’Reilly Foo Camp in 2003, these events, now co-produced by Google and Nature Publishing Group, have become legendary and much imitated.

Below is a short video that captures the spirit of Sci Foo 2009.

More about SciFoo can be found here.

I am very excited to share with you this video interview between InnoCentive CTO David Ritter and Bill Laberis, Editorial Director and Social Media Manager, Custom Solutions Group, IDG.  This discussion focuses on the important role that CIOs and other IT leaders should play in the implementation of a company’s innovation strategy.

In the interview, David talks about how investing in collaboration tools, social networks and idea management platforms is usually insufficient to truly improve innovation. Disjointed efforts usually elicit no tangible results, and often create information noise – indecipherable data – making it difficult to aggregate, rationalize and analyze. Instead he argues for a Challenge-driven innovation approach that will complement existing strategies and investments in social networking and collaboration.

This program is filled with insightful learnings, experiences and best practices that you can use right away! Have a look!