Perspectives on Innovation

Another week, another major update to InnoCentive.com.

Two weeks ago we introduced you to the new Challenge Center. Today we are introducing an update to the solution submission process, Solutions 2.0.

Thousands of solutions have been submitted to InnoCentive via our website. Our goals when designing Solutions 2.0 were to retain the best parts of the process that has worked so well for years, while also making it easier for you to submit and track your solutions, and ensuring that solutions remained secure and confidential. For Seekers, our goal was to further streamline the evaluation process, so we were able to better track and evaluate each solution.

Solutions 2.0 has been used with selected InnoCentive Challenges since the beginning of this year. Based on the enthusiastic and very positive feedback we have received, it is now being used for all submissions on all Challenges.

Solutions 2.0

Some of the notable features and benefits of Solutions 2.0 are:

1. Submit Solutions and attachments securely and confidentially: As always, all data is transferred securely via the InnoCentive website and is only accessible to authorized personnel. A structured workflow ensures that all submissions are reviewed and evaluated.
2. View all submitted solutions: Through the Solution 2.0 interface, you may see all of the proposed solutions that you have submitted for a Challenge, and you can open and view any of the files you have submitted. You now have a record of the files associated with your submission, and an online confirmation of what InnoCentive has received. It is a worry-free process since you can see exactly what has been submitted; there is no guessing if it has been received.
3. Submit multiple solutions for a Challenge: You have always been able to submit multiple solutions to a Challenge. Solutions 2.0 allows you to view them all on one place, and also gives you the ability to replace a previous submission with a newer one, or to submit an entirely new solution.
4. Delete a previously submitted solution: Should you decide that you do not want a submitted solution to be evaluated, you can simply delete it from the site. If a solution is deleted, it will not be eligible for an award.
5. Update an already submitted solution: You can replace or delete any of the files associated with a Solution. You can also add new files to your submission. So, in the case where you proposed an initial solution then came up with a better approach or supporting information, you can now revise and amend the initial proposal.

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Excerpts from Complexity Digest 2010.10   (5/11) by Bruce Hannon

A telescope for spotting global crises, The Great Beyond

Excerpt: The good news is that your future can be predicted. The bad news is that it’ll cost a billion euros. That, at least, is what a team of scientists led by Dirk Helbing of the ETH in Switzerland believes. And as they point out, a billion euros is small fare compared with the bill for the current financial crisis” which might conceivably have been anticipated with the massive social-science simulations they want to establish.

• Source: A telescope for spotting global crises, Philip Ball, The Great Beyond [Nature blog], 2010/04/30

Meaning-Making Neurons, Science

Excerpt: In The Brain and the Meaning of Life, philosopher, psychologist, and computer scientist Paul Thagard (University of Waterloo) has elegantly employed the pithiness principle. He offers a tightly reasoned, often humorous, and original contribution to the emerging practice of applying science to areas heretofore the province of philosophers, theologians, ethicists, and politicians: What is reality and how can we know it? Are mind and brain one or two? What is the source of the sense of self? What is love? What is the difference between right and wrong, and how can we know it? What is the most legitimate form of government? What is the meaning of life, and how can we find happiness in it?

• Source: Meaning-Making Neurons, Michael Shermer, DOI: 10.1126/science.1189752, Science Vol. 328. no. 5979, pp. 693 – 694, 2010/05/07

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Please join me in congratulating the InnoCentive Top Solvers for 2009, announced earlier this week.

The twelve individuals selected as Top Solvers for 2009 were awarded the most prize dollars last year.  This year’s Top Solvers come from six countries including India, Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Challenges solved in 2009 varied within a range of subjects – finding new uses for cotton, extending the shelf life of microbiological products, Passenger Screening for Contagious Agents and closing in on finding a biomarker for ALS.

Two of our Top Solvers, Nikolay Barashkov from the United States and Kamel El-Darwish from Finland, are multi-year honorees.

Our Solvers are some of the world’s smartest, most innovative thinkers and each year there are more Challenges posted seeking answers to increasingly difficult problems. All of our Solvers, and especially our Top Solvers, prove time and time again that they can rise to the occasion to successfully tackle these issues and make a difference in the world. (more…)

Elly Madrigal, Client Operations Manager, introduces InnoCentive’s Challenge Process Guidebook

The Challenge Process Guidebook is a reference document that was created to help Seekers understand the actions and steps involved when posting and evaluating a Challenge on the InnoCentive Solver Network.

The Guidebook is divided in the following four parts:

1. Benefits of InnoCentive’s Challenge Process: Lists the key benefits (shared by some of our clients) of using the InnoCentive Challenge process towards problem solving over traditional techniques.

2. Challenge Types with brief descriptions: Describes each InnoCentive.com Challenge Type– Ideation, Theoretical, RTP and eRFP – including key differentiation points.

3. Challenge Process Steps: Describes each step that a Challenge Owner will experience when posting a Challenge. Those steps are:

a. Challenge Identification – brainstorming and completing the template.
b. Challenge Development – drafting and approving the Challenge Details and Requirements.
c. Challenge Posting & Solution Development – posting periods and InnoCentive’s initial evaluation of Solutions provided by our Solvers.
d. Solution Evaluation / Award / Transfer – evaluation periods and criteria for evaluating each Challenge type.

4. Challenge Closeout and Questionnaire: The handbook describes the final step in the process – Challenge Closeout. Here we present a sample survey that is conducted by InnoCentive to help capture any learnings and improvements that can be made to your organization’s innovation process.

We hope that this short guidebook will help your Challenge Owners understand the basic concepts of the InnoCentive Challenge Process, and like always, if you have any questions, general or specific to your account, please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Today’s guest post is provided by InnoCentive Top Solver Harvey Arbesman, and his wife Marian Arbesman.  Harvey won the Discovery Prize and the Thought Prize in the Prize4Life ALS Challenge. Harvey and Marian are innovation consultants who in 2002 founded ArbesIdeas, Inc., a research and consulting company devoted to innovation in the life sciences.  They’ll be contributing to this blog from time to time as part of our “Help a Solver Succeed” series.  Harvey and Marian’s previous post, A Systematic Approach to Defining the Challenge for a Winning Solution, can be found here.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Albert Einstein

Maps are amazing – whether one is taking a trip or trying to locate a specific store in the mall, maps can help you find out where you are, and the best way to get where you are trying to go. In addition, by stepping back from the details of the map, you can understand the big picture of the journey you are taking.

Mapping is also very useful during the process of understanding a Challenge that you are trying to solve. Plotting the relationships among various factors involved in a Challenge can help establish clarity regarding the problem. It also stretches one’s thinking and promotes the development of new thought patterns and connections between established areas. (more…)