Perspectives on Innovation

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

Hi Everyone–

I mentioned earlier in the summer that we would be asking for your input as we develop our strategic plan for 2011-13. The time has come: We’ve begun the fall strategic planning process at InnoCentive and we need you to weigh in about what is most important to the Solver community as we develop plans, initiatives, and priorities for the coming years of growth and success.

Our goal is to create and foster the most vibrant, engaged Solver community in the world by developing a robust work environment (products, policies, services) Solvers will use continually in the flow of their careers.

We’ve heard from some of you already and we’ve got some ideas about where to focus. Right now, you can help us by telling us what you think by taking a short survey (see below). Once we’ve gathered your input, there will be more opportunities to contribute to this process of developing the future of work for Solvers. Please participate!

Take the survey now by clicking here!

As always, many thanks!

JD

In the effort to build a culture of innovation, it is InnoCentive’s role to provide its Solver community with the opportunities they need to take full advantage of their potential. This means presenting you with as many challenges as we can, even if we don’t have a financial stake in them. That’s why earlier this year we started aggregating external challenges.

When you click on the External Challenges tab you will see a list of the almost one hundred challenges we’ve processed so far. These challenges have been pulled from all over the web, by organizations ranging from Starbucks to NASA, and are updated regularly. If an opportunity presents itself, you can find out about it here.

The types of challenges range from colossal projects like the NASA Centennial Challenges, to student technical paper competitions and awareness projects geared towards children (which are a great way to get kids involved in open innovation!). These challenges welcome participants from almost any background.

Open innovation is about finding creative solutions to problems, and the world is teeming with problems. We’re going to make it as easy as we can to connect you with those problems. Good solutions need to be found for these challenges, and you’re the best community to do it.

Greetings Solvers–

I’m curious about the low usage of our Solver Forum and I’m writing today to draw your attention to it and ask you to visit and give your input.

First, did you realize there is a Solver Forum on the IC website, which is there for your use? You can use it to express a view, connect with other Solvers, or to connect with IC.

Now I’ll be the first to admit, in the age of rampant social media technologies, it’s a slim offering today, but we’re looking at building it out around the Solver Community’s needs. I’d love to know if and how you use forums and other social media. Leave me a comment here or post your thoughts on the forum.

Second,  I posted a note on the forum last week about one of our current open challenges (InnoCentive Solver Community Visualization Tool, Challenge ID: 9543015). Check it out–Solvers are working on the challenge right now, and they could use your input. Maybe you even want to open a project room.

Thanks!

JD

Hello everyone.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, InnoCentive’s new website is now live!   We’ve been working hard to update the site with both a new look and feel that we believe better represents today’s Solvers and Seekers and with a framework and functionality that is more flexible and robust.

With this new site, you will immediately feel the difference-it’s lighter, friendlier and, most importantly, it is richer in content than it was before. And it’s going to continue to get better and better rapidly over the coming months thanks to an open framework and content management system on the back end.

We also think you will start to see improvements and enhancements to key functionality that will make you more efficient and effective, as well as enable you to collaborate more easily and more often with improved Team Project Rooms (coming this fall) and more social media tools to help you connect when you want and with whom you want. The basic workings of the website will remain the same: your user information, your archives and your Challenges are exactly as you left them. We haven’t changed the processes you’re used to, such as signing Solver agreements, opening project rooms and submitting solutions, however we’ve tried to make them a bit more user-friendly, and will continue to do so.

It’s worth reflecting that InnoCentive is a marketplace that brings Solvers and Seekers to difficult Challenges. And our site reflects the complex nature of this relationship by providing sections for both sides of the equation. But we encourage you to look at the “other” side if you are a Solver or a Seeker, because there’s lots to understand and learn about how Open Innovation really works today.

With our new site, we’re working hard to make this complex area easy. Please let us know what you think. You can provide your feedback by clicking on the “feedback” link on the homepage, or by clicking on the “contact us” link on any page in the site.

We’re very proud of the new site – it represents months of work by the InnoCentive team, and valuable input that we’ve received formally and informally from Seekers, Solvers and partners alike. Thanks for your support during this process – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Best regards,

Dwayne Spradlin
President and CEO, InnoCentive