Perspectives on Innovation

Bogdan and Stephanie Yamkovenko won The Economist-Nielsen Data Visualization Challenge, which asked the World to review Nielsen consumer data, generate insightful conclusions with broad implications, and present a compelling visual presentation of the most interesting ideas from the data. Over 4,000 Solvers from 101 countries signed up to participate in the Challenge. To view the Yamkovenko’s winning submission, a video of them presenting it at The Economist World in 2013 Festival, and profiles of all the Challenge finalists, please click here.

We saw an advertisement in The Economist for the Data Visualization Challenge sponsored by Nielsen and The Economist. The focus of the Challenge was to analyze a data set provided by Nielsen and to tell a story using data visualization. I am a journalist and have also done graphic design in the past, so I knew I could handle the visual story telling. Bogdan is a researcher and assistant professor with an affinity for statistics, which means that he could easily handle the data analysis.

Bogdan and I have been married for six years and had never previously collaborated professionally on a project. This Data Visualization Challenge was a great opportunity for us to combine our skills and, ultimately, be competitive.

We began our work on the Challenge with a brainstorm about the Nielsen global dataset, which consisted of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index and other data about consumer spending and purchasing habits. We decided to supplement the dataset with other widely available economic indicators (such as unemployment rates). We noticed that countries that had high confidence in their economies were not necessarily the best performing economies.

When working on my master’s degree in journalism, I developed an appreciation for my profession’s role as the “fourth estate.” As we looked at the confidence index, we noticed that countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt had high confidence, but their economies weren’t doing that great. We wondered whether democracy was playing a role in the citizens’ confidence. We decided to include the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index in our analysis, and found that countries with the highest confidence also had the most restricted press. This finding gave us a compelling story to tell and gave the original Nielsen dataset more context and depth. (more…)

Last week, we announced the winners of the Scalable System to Track Electronic Waste Challenge. This Challenge, run by EMC Corporation in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and InnoCentive, sought solutions for tracking shipments of used electronic components and subsystems and ensuring that they are disposed of responsibly. Sumit Bhardwaj was one of the three winners of this Challenge.

My day job is to handle digital marketing for a large telecommunications company in London, but my evenings, weekends and other free time (such as my tube journeys) are spent either writing papers for my Ph.D. or working on finding solutions to intriguing problems. 

As someone who holds two postgraduate degrees in business administration and information technology and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. from the University of London, I am passionate about solving complex problems using technology. I strongly believe that everyday people can collaborate and create simple, easily implementable, cost effective, and scalable solutions.

I first heard about InnoCentive in 2010 from an entrepreneur friend at an alumni gathering. He described InnoCentive as “a global network to find solutions to the world’s problems.” It sounded intriguing enough so I signed up immediately and realized he was largely correct. In this day and age, where the extent of interaction on social networks is limited to liking some post or tweeting about it, there is InnoCentive, which connects people to real-world Challenges and gives them an opportunity to harness their critical thinking and contribute something meaningful.

I started participating actively as a Solver in 2011 and came across the “e-waste” Challenge which sought a scalable system to track electronic waste. Considering that there are about 500,000 tons of electronic waste in the U.S. alone, it’s clearly a huge problem. Moreover, sustainability is now considered a megatrend. The Challenge seemed both relevant and well timed, so I decided to participate and contribute what I could.

Having worked on RFID technology extensively as part of a previous research project some time back, I had a good idea of the technology’s capabilities. Hence, I decided to apply the same technology to find a solution for the problem at hand. I researched some of the most prevalent ways to destroy and track electronic waste, tried understanding the limitations of each method, and finally chose one that I believed had the most potential to be developed into a solution. I also studied some of the latest tracking technologies and evaluated the possibility of integrating them into my solution. The other factor I kept in mind was to ensure that the solution was economical so that it could be easy to implement and highly scalable. I submitted my solution and I am thrilled to be rewarded as one of the winning solutions. 

Previously, I participated in The Economist-InnoCentive Transparency Challenge. For that Challenge, which sought ideas for achieving transparency in government, I suggested a Facebook app that would collect data directly from citizens, enabling government to collaborate directly with citizens and attain creative solutions to various civil problems. My solution made it to the final screening, but the Challenge was ultimately won by Ben Skowera. I read about his solution and really liked his way of approaching the problem.

Thank you very much for reading and I wish all the best to everyone who is participating in InnoCentive Challenges.

Sumit lives in Southfields, London with his wife and enjoys going on long countryside walks.

Ben Skowera is the winner of The Economist-InnoCentive Transparency Challenge.

I am an Associate at SEI Investments in Oaks, Pennsylvania, where I’m currently working on the online software development team performing quality assurance and business analysis for our products. My past projects at SEI have also included web product strategy, international new service development, project management, and operational process improvement. I graduated from Lehigh University in 2009 with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and a minor in Economics.

I first learned of InnoCentive through a news article about technology and innovation and I decided to sign up. Shortly after, I came across The Economist-InnoCentive Transparency Challenge in one of the site’s weekly Challenge Bulletins. The Challenge tasked Solvers with developing an innovative way to utilize technology to drive transparency in the government. With the upcoming presidential elections and the political turmoil occurring throughout much of the Middle East and North Africa, I thought this topic was both extremely relevant and important.

I believe having a basic knowledge of the government, political processes, and current political events is a very important part of anyone’s involvement in government and politics. After performing research into how people obtain information about their governments, I came to the conclusion that there wasn’t a sufficient way to truly understand the impact that political decisions have on us and our values and how well our elected officials are representing us over time. This is why I proposed my solution of creating a website that delivers personal and easy-to-understand, value-based political analysis by utilizing technologies and techniques used in online dating, social networking, and metric-based dashboard design.

As part of the award, I traveled to the Ideas Economy: Innovation 2012 event in Berkeley, California, where I was interviewed on stage by Matthew Bishop, US Business Editor and New York Bureau Chief of The Economist. The experience was incredible and so was the opportunity to meet and speak with some of the amazing people that attended the event. [editor note: to see Ben’s interview at the event, click on the link above]

By connecting organizations with problems to Solvers that reside outside of specific localities or the four walls of typical organization, I believe InnoCentive is creating a great opportunity for both people and organizations to take advantage of the tremendous knowledge the world has to offer. As more and more people connect due to the expansion of technology and the internet, I believe InnoCentive has developed a great way to bring together everyone’s ideas and create a global community to solve the world’s biggest problems.

I wish the best of luck to all future InnoCentive Solvers.

In late March, we announced the winner of the Economist-InnoCentive Transparency Challenge.  Benjamin Skowera, an associate at SEI Investments presented his solution at the Ideas Economy: Innovation event on March 28th in Berkeley, California. The InnoCentive Challenge, which attracted more than 600 problem Solvers and received more than 115 submissions on the InnoCentive website, asked participants to identify an emerging technology or a national or global information platform and propose an innovative way to use this resource to motivate governments to engage in productive and open discourse with citizens.  Below is a video of Benjamin and Matthew Bishop, US Business editor and New York Bureau Chief for the Economist discussing Benjamin’s winning solution at The Economist’s Ideas Economy: Innovation 2012 event in Berkeley, California.

Last week, InnoCentive Solver Corinne LeBuhan presented her winning solution to the Economist Human Potential Index Challenge at the Economist Human Potential conference in New York. In honor of the event, we reached out to a few Solvers and asked them to send us a video of themselves, talking about what it means to them to be Solvers, and asking them to define “Human Potential”.  The video was shown during InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin’s presentation at the conference.   Enjoy!