Perspectives on Innovation

With people and companies tightening their belts in tough economic times, charities are often the first to suffer.  An article in today’s Washington Times highlights one charity’s innovative solution to declining traffic on their donation site.  Heather Paul, president of the DC-based SOS Children’s Villages, which runs villages for orphaned and abandoned children in the United States and 169 other countries, and her staff devised a plan.  They announced a contest to see who could produce the best video advertisement for their cause. The result: traffic on their Web site tripled and donations doubled in just a few short weeks. SOS even increased the number of subscribers to its electronic newsletter by 10 percent.  Can you think of other ways for organizations like this to sustain or even increase donations in times like these?  Let us know in the comments.

You can watch the winning video and the finalists here.

Dear Solver Community:

As the year draws to a close, I am writing to you today to say that in 2008, we accomplished great things together.

As “crowdsourcing” and Open Innovation become increasingly important engines of innovation globally, the world has taken notice.  In the past year, InnoCentive and InnoCentive Solvers have been chronicled in Science, Time, Harvard Business Review, Business Week, Newsweek, and the New York Times as well as on ABC, NBC, BBC and NPR.

With a record 200+ new Challenges from commercial and Not-for-Profit Seekers, your amazing problem solving abilities have shown through as brightly as ever.  In the past few months alone, you have improved the design and efficiency of air conditioners, devised new production approaches for TB drugs, created new materials, and offered actionable ideas to improve the US healthcare system.  You have driven innovation into organizations and impacted people’s lives.  We at InnoCentive are extremely proud of each and every member of this community and the difference you are making.

And with your guidance, we improved InnoCentive itself.  Substantial investments were made this past year in the website.  This year we have increased the number of disciplines and pavilions, dramatically improved the look and feel of the websites, added Solver communications and blogging capabilities, and worked hard to foster a sense of community with the use of newsletters, blogs, etc.  We have also been testing Challenge-level discussion boards, a feature we will use much more broadly in 2009.  Your feedback and involvement has been an integral element of this work and is greatly appreciated.

In the coming year, you will see even more investment to make your experience with us on the InnoCentive website more productive and rewarding.   As a result of the Solver Community survey earlier in the year, we have prioritized a number of initiatives for 2009, including: creation of user groups to facilitate discussion and collaboration; better matching of Challenges to your interests; and significant improvements to the My InnoCentive and Project Room areas of the website.  These suggestions and many more have become the core of the website work underway at InnoCentive – some of which will go live within the first quarter 2009.

Working together, we will make InnoCentive truly the place the world Innovates.

We wish you the best this holiday season and hope you have a happy, prosperous, and innovative 2009!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the InnoCentive team.

Warm regards,
Dwayne

In a week where the true nature of democracy is front and center, when citizens vote their conscience and leadership changes in response to the will of the people, one can’t help but take great pride in the ability of every individual to participate in the system.

I find some irony then that in this technologically advanced and connected world in which we live, there is so little opportunity for individuals to participate in the material advancement of the numerous critical challenges and needs that affect all of us.  Routes to meaningful engagement are often difficult to identify, match, and integrate into our lives. All too often, we are left with financial donations as the only currency for participation. I will argue that in fact creativity and ingenuity are the most valuable assets lacking in the system today, not access to financial means. And for many of us, lending our intellectual means in support of the efforts and challenges about which we care most may be the most fulfilling.

I would like to introduce a new term into our innovation dialogue: the Citizen Innovator. Highly creative and inventive individuals have had monumental impacts throughout history, the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Sir Isaac Newton. Often considered giants in their day, these are the archetypal Citizen Innovators, often the beneficiaries of great patronage, with resources and substantial freedom to roam in creative circles, these individuals have inspired many … they were also few in number.

With the convergence of technology (internet, social networking, communications), increases in standards of living and education, and a more global awareness than at any time in history, I believe there are now legions of Citizen Innovators around the world ready, willing, and able to invest their relevant experience, knowledge, creative talents and hunger for problem solving toward the important challenges of our time. Some will engage simply to make a difference, others for financial gains. But make no mistake, they are changing the way we innovate, from corporate research and product development to improving the human condition and reinventing government.

This emergence of Citizen Innovators represents a shift from the few to the many. They stand ready to tackle problems big and small and are at the heart of an unstoppable movement that is recasting the role of the individual in society. This is an empowerment movement and represents the most democratic of ideas: that we as individuals have a necessary and vital role to play in shaping our world – and in some cases an obligation. We at InnoCentive are proud to be part of this movement and to be working with Citizen Innovators from every corner of the world and from every walk of life.

Go Citizen Innovators!

Regardless of your political views, there’s no doubt that history was made this week in the United States.  As noted in an article in New Scientist today, President Elect Barack Obama’s platform includes a pledge to lead a new era in scientific innovation in America.  According to his comprehensive Science and Technology Policy (pdf), submitted in September, this would be achieved by doubling the federal investment in basic research and by addressing the “grand challenges” of the 21st century.  What does this mean to you?  What is the #1 challenge you’d like to see addressed as part of this initiative?  Tell us in the comments.

Today marks the first in a series of blog posts written by the InnoCentive Client Services team.   As the primary interface to both the Seeker and Solver communities, Client Services is in a unique position to understand what it takes to successfully write and solve an InnoCentive Challenge.  We hope that these posts will be useful to you – and as always we welcome your questions, suggestions and feedback!

The InnoCentive Client Services Team – Who We Are

By Gabriel Eichler
InnoCentive Client Services

For many Solvers, the Client Services team is the virtual face of InnoCentive. We are involved in every aspect of the Challenge lifecycle, from working to define the crux of the problem with Seekers, to answering the questions of inquisitive Solvers and then making that exciting introduction between the winning Solver and appreciative Seeker. With such a wide variety of responsibilities, the InnoCentive Client Services team wears several hats, but that comes naturally to us.

We’re an experienced and diverse bunch. We have a combined total of over 17 years of Open Innovation experience and an average 13 years of R&D intensive industry experience. We have advanced degrees in Chemistry, Biology, Computational Sciences, Engineering and Business. The Client Services team has worked all over the world including Russia, Switzerland, France, Israel, Thailand, Japan, Germany, and even Alaska. On top of that, we collectively speak 7 different languages.

Even considering this diversity, we’ve joined InnoCentive because we believe in the promise of Open Innovation. We not only love to provide exciting Challenges for individuals around the globe but we also believe that the opening of innovation will lead to more and better innovation for all. It is precisely because of this passion that we’re launching this new series of blog entries by the InnoCentive Client Services team. We hope that through the next several months, you’ll get to know us better and our individual passions for Open Innovation will shine through. More importantly, we hope that you can benefit from the insights we share. We have after all seen over 700 Challenges on the InnoCentive Website, so we happen to know a thing or two about what it takes to get the most out of our marketplace. We encourage you to leave comments, ask questions and reach out to any of us if you’d like to join the conversation. Enjoy.