Solver Alert: Please Participate in Our Study!
Hello Solvers,
We are currently doing a study with researchers at Erasmus University (Rotterdam, Netherlands) concerning open innovation and prize-based crowdsourcing. They have already conducted personal interviews with several Solvers and as a follow-up will be sending out a survey this week to a few thousand active Solvers. In the researcher’s words:
“We aim to understand your motivations, perceptions, thoughts, and how you solve Challenges.”
I just wanted to give you a heads-up that you might receive this survey in the coming days and mention a few things:
- The survey is anonymous. It will mention a specific Challenge to which you submitted a solution, but the researchers will not know who you are or see your actual submission – they will just know that you submitted to that particular Challenge. Again, your responses will be treated anonymously and only be used for academic purposes and improving our services.
- Any Solver who opted out of receiving emails from InnoCentive will not receive the Survey.
- The survey is targeting “active” Solvers, that is, those that have submitted to several Challenges in recent history. Some will be award winners and some will not.
- The survey should only take about 15 minutes of your time.
Not everyone will receive a survey, but please check your email (and spam-box) for the survey next week. We ask that you answer all questions as accurately and honestly as possible so that we can build your feedback and insights into our future Challenges and serve you better.
Thank you in advance!
Michael Albarelli
InnoCentive-Erasmus University Research Team
May 17th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
I have just completed your survey and hope that my answers were suitable. Having answered several of your challenges without getting a winning solution and having not seen the solutions that did achieve this success, I have become somewhat suspicious as to the possible use that my ideas are being put. I imagine I am not alone in taking this attitude.
Can you please provide us solvers with some information that will give us reassurance about what we try to do to help. In many cases it is not the money prize that is important but the knowledge that our ideas have contributed and that the company who have use for them would kindly communicate directly, to both show us what we might deserve (how close were we to the best solution) or where possibly we have failed!
May 17th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
I have heard of a website called Rockthepost.com where inventors can post projects and raise funds in exchange of rewards. In my case, I need capital in order to put my invention on the market. Any other suggestions? Thanks for the help in advance.
May 23rd, 2012 at 9:16 am
Tina, Sorry for not responding right away, but I took a few vacation days right after this post. We get many requests from inventors like yourself who want to find backing for their ideas. Unfortunately, our model finds solutions to existing problems and not the reverse of promoting a “solution” and looking for the person who has the problem it can solve. I really do not have any suggestions as I would just do the same search that you have done. I would recommend that you join the LinkedIn InnoCentive Solvers Group and post your question there. There are many Solvers in that group with similar needs and there is a good chance they have searched this and have found outlets for this market.
Michael Albarelli
Client Services
InnoCentive
May 23rd, 2012 at 9:52 am
@Macrocompassion, Sorry for not responding right away, but I took a few vacation days right after this post. Thank you for participating in our Survey. Your responses will help us better understand our community and show us ways to improve it.
I will try to answer your request, but the answer is somewhat Challenge type dependent.
For Theoretical and RTP type Challenges, the Seeker is looking for a specific answer to a problem. They buy or “award” the submission(s) that they wish to own and use that have met the requirements. The Solver usually turns over the rights to the solution (or at least a license to practice) for the posted award. All other submissions are “rejected’ and all rights are returned to those Solvers. Those submissions cannot be used by the Seeker as they are wholly owned by the Solvers. If you have not been awarded for these type Challenges, then your solution is not being used by the Seeker as that would be illegal by our agreements. Some people “suspect” they are being used, but I assure you it makes no sense for the Seeker to “borrow” a solution and chance a lawsuit and reputation damage when they could buy it for a few thousand dollars. They only use what they pay for and we have legal recourse if they did. We have never seen this or have any evidence that it has every happened.
For an Ideation type Challenge, the rules are different. Upon submission, you the Solver, are giving the Seeker a non-exclusive license to practice your idea for a chance at winning part of the award. In this case, all the Solvers still own the ideas, but the Seeker gets to practice all of them. In return, the Seeker guarantees that the full amount of the award will be paid out no matter how good or bad the submissions are and usually the award is split between the top 2-4 submissions. (Note: the Challenges above are not guaranteed, but are only paid if the requirements are met.) The Seeker gets to try them all, but in reality, they are going to try the top few first (the awarded ones) and will probably never get too far down the list, I suspect. Also, you still own the idea and can use it yourself or license it to someone else as long as it does not interfere with the first license.
We do have Seekers provide feedback for the first types of Challenges above. You should be told what requirement was not met. Of course, you could meet all the requirements and still not be awarded, if someone else provides a solution that is better, faster, cheaper, etc. We do not provide feedback for Ideation type Challenges. We do rank submissions on a 1-5 scale, but we have not been able to provide that information to the Solvers to date. We hope to provide that more consistently in the future. Unfortunately, we cannot show the winning solutions as they are owned by the Seeker and they usually do not wish to show it for proprietary reasons. Sometimes the not-for-profit Seekers will show the winning solution and we do that when we can.
I hope this helps,
Michael
Michael Albarelli
Client Services
InnoCentive