Perspectives on Innovation

Happy New Year!  In a blog post last month, we highlighted some of our joint successes in 2008.   Now we’d like to tell you about our ideas for 2009.

In 2009, we’d like to get to know you better.  And we’d like to give you a way to get to know us better.  We already know that the InnoCentive Solver community is one of great passion and creativity.  We know that you are dedicated to solving the big problems and tackling interesting puzzles.   Above all, we know that you are always looking for ways to share what you know and learn more about things that interest you.  And we believe that great things can happen when great minds get together and share ideas.

So in 2009, the key word is COMMUNICATION.  Between you and InnoCentive, with each other.  As the first phase of this initiative, we’d like to introduce the following ways for you to join the conversation (please note:  specific Challenges should only be discussed in the Challenge project room on InnoCentive.com):

Become a fan of InnoCentive on Facebook. This  is where you can start discussions with us and with other Solvers, post videos, find out about upcoming events and meetups and read the latest news about InnoCentive.

Follow us on Twitter!

Join the Open Innovation discussion group on LinkedIn. This is a group that discusses any and all views on innovation – content is not specifically related to InnoCentive.

InnoCentive Insider Blog Series. Launched in early 2007, the InnoCentive blog has been a vehicle for us to communicate with you, and for you to provide feedback.  One lesson we learned last year was that you are interested in information that helps you become more effective in writing and submitting Challenges.  This led us to launch the Client Services InnoCentive Insider blog series.  The most recent post, The Lifecycle of a Challenge – Behind the Scenes, provides some insight into what happens both before and after you submit your solution to an InnoCentive Challenge.  We’re still listening – is there anything else you’d like to see here?

Later this year, you’ll see changes to our web site which further reflect our goal to engage you in conversation.  In the meantime, please let us know what you think – are we on the right track?

Hello.  My name is Elly Madrigal, and I am the Client Operations Manager at InnoCentive.  What does that mean?  Every day, I receive new orders for Challenges, review them, assign them to one of our Team members, establish metrics and statistics on our various delivery and success rates, and review these results with our Management and Clients (otherwise known as Seekers).

Since Solvers on our site have limited ability to view the “Big Picture” of the Challenge Lifecycle, I thought I’d paint that picture for you from my point of view.  The Challenge is not magically created and emailed to us from these big pocketed Companies (although I wish they were!)  They do require a significant amount of development time between InnoCentive Team members and the Seeker Challenge Owners (usually Scientists or Technical Managers).  In addition, there is a significant amount of time spent by the InnoCentive Team and the Challenge Owners reviewing your Submissions.  Solvers do not see this happening in the background, so I thought I’d tell you what we do when we’re not answering your questions or sending updates on your Submission.

We’ve arranged this process into 3 phases each with specific milestones and deliverables that mark the beginning and end of each phase.  Let me apologize in advance for the Project Management lingo, but I can’t help it.  So let’s dive in…..

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In September of this year, we announced that a Challenge to create technology for solar-powered wireless routers had been solved. The purpose of this Challenge was to provide marginalized women and children in rural India access to the skills and knowledge needed to escape the sex trade.

The Seeker organization for this Challenge, ASSET India was founded by Ray Umashankar two years ago, with his daughter Nita and his wife Sushila. In the two years since ASSET was founded, the organization has opened several training centers in urban areas in India, where 369 students have been enrolled. Plans for 2009 include two or three more training centers and 600 or more enrolled students. Now with the availability of wireless, solar powered routers, he can reach many more people, including those who live more remote rural areas.

In December, Umashankar was recognized with The Purpose Prize which celebrates and supports “outstanding individuals 60 or older who are producing significant social innovation and accomplishing work of great importance. ”

I recently caught up with Dean Umashankar, to get a status update on the implementation of the wireless router technology, as well as an update on the organization’s plans for the future.

Hello Dean Umashankar. It has been a few months since the solar powered router Challenge was solved – what has ASSET been up to in this time?

ASSET has been busy raising funds to pay for the hardware, student wages and faculty salary. The total budget is $42,000 and so far we have raised $8,000. The two prototypes for the router should be ready and tested by September 2009.

Our partner organizations are eagerly awaiting the deployment of the routers. Once the technology is deployed successfully, we will be able to open several centers in rural India. ASSET has had many requests for setting up centers in small rural towns.

How do you anticipate that this deployment will help expand the ASSET mission?

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