Perspectives on Innovation

I recently interviewed Scott Pegau, Director of the Oil Spill Recover Institute (OSRI) in Cordova Alaska. OSRI was created by the government in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and has been tasked with improving oil spill response in Arctic and subarctic marine waters. As you may know, OSRI has posted several Challenges on the InnoCentive website, including the Challenge, recently made famous by the New York Times, to separate oil from water in recovery barges. That Challenge was solved by John Davis, an oil-industry outsider. We find that many of the best solutions on our network come from outside the industry in which they are posted.

Liz Moise:
Scott, tell me – how long had you been working on this particular Challenge before coming to InnoCentive, and what other avenues did you pursue before coming to us for help with this problem?

Scott Pegau:
Actually, the process of setting up a prize program predates my arrival at OSRI.  The idea had been kicked around for a couple years, but hadn’t fully developed because of the need to ensure the program was properly run and advertised.  Once InnoCentive was identified as a mechanism to post and manage challenges we started to actually draft the concepts that have become the challenges we have released.

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Chris Brogan’s post (Solve Some Real World Problems) this morning really caught my attention. It’s a call to action for startups and individuals alike to rethink how they might use their businesses or positions to help solve real problems in the world. As Solvers at InnoCentive I know you are motivated by the chance to really impact the world, not just the chance to earn money. InnoCentive’s philanthropic endeavors, and the amazing potential this business has to enable individuals to contribute to solving the world’s most important Challenges was a large part of my motivation when I took this job as the marketing manager and social media evangelist. This year you have helped bringing solar powered light to Africa through SunightSolar, helped innovate ways to clean up remaining oil in Alaska for OSRI, and are currently sending in your research results on how to help detect a biomarker for ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

I had an interesting conversation with Michael Anuzis yesterday about ways to continue to improve the depth of opportunity that InnoCentive offers to contributers who want to make a difference in the world. He is one of many individuals who have blogged, called, emailed or dm’d me recently with ideas for growing our business. It’s pretty inspiring to see how strongly people believe in the concept of InnoCentive. He suggested that we find a way to allow individuals to contribute small amounts of money towards innovation projects they see on InnoCentive.com. Much like the contribution model of our friends at Global Giving. I suggested that perhaps we could even allow individuals to post an idea for a Challenge that they feel strongly about, and then use the website as a way to gather financial support around it. Once the support has hit a certain level, they would be allowed to post the Challenge and ask for solutions. These are just initial ideas, and I know you have more – please share them with us! As we grow the business, especially the philanthropic side of the business, we want to hear your thoughts.

For those of you not familiar with Jeff Howe’s upcoming book, Crowdsourcing – here is his recently released video trailer. Jeff coined the term “crowdsourcing” with his article The Rise of Crowdsourcing in Wired magazine back in June, 2006, and has written about InnoCentive various times. In fact, Solver Ed Melcarek was profiled in his Wired piece. Needless to say we’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of this book!

From a “Jack to a King”, a True Story. After years of being a company man and team player, I found myself trying to rescue my floundering career after being given my walking papers. My resume didn’t open the doors it used to, and nobody wanted my skills as a design engineer in the local marketplace. The usual reason given by prospective employers for not hiring me was ” too diverse a set of skills and experience” or, “not a good fit” for our needs. If I was to hire someone to be a design engineer, I would regard any extra pertinent knowledge the applicant has, a positive attribute. After many years, I found that there aren’t many people like me doing the hiring out there in the real world. Apparently, I found that during the course of an interview, a trivial matter such as the color of one’s shirt or tie can influence whether or not you get the job. An interviewer always had a hidden agenda and criteria by which the final decision was made. My qualifications, most often, had little to do with that decision. After giving up jumping through many inteviewers’ hoops, I decided to strike out on my own to survive in the jungle.

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If you haven’t seen this article yet, go check it out – Prize Power: How Competition Inspires Tech Innovation. This is a fantastic piece on how the work of Solvers leads to world-changing innovation. This one is for you, Solvers!