Perspectives on Innovation

For the last three years, InnoCentive has been posting marketing Challenges that showcase the diversity and creativity of InnoCentive Solvers, and to drive InnoCentive’s market awareness. These Challenges are aimed at not only involving the “artistic temperament” of our Solvers, but also to demonstrate to our Seekers that the InnoCentive Solver Community is a great resource for “voice of the customer” input for Challenges that are considered to be part of more “traditional” business domains, such as marketing.

Well, we’ve just posted our Fourth Annual InnoCentive Video Challenge! It’s called The Uniquely Prepared Mind, where we ask you to demonstrate the idea that a uniquely prepared mind is capable of solving even the most demanding Challenges the world has to offer. This is why the InnoCentive Solver is the perfect person to create this video – you know Solvers best and you are always up for a Challenge – pardon the pun.

This year, we’re guaranteeing $10,000 in awards for the best 30-second shorts that nail the 2011 Video Theme, The Uniquely Prepared Mind.

The first prize will receive a minimum of $5,000, and we’re guaranteeing $10,000 in awards. The top 20 runners-up will receive IC-branded shirts with the website’s new look and feel! Visit YouTube to see the 2010 winner and runners-up from previous years, then prepare your mind and submit a winner.

Clock is ticking! Check it out, open a Project Room, and share it, too!

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.

With a static kill procedure solution in place on the MC252 well in the Gulf, pressure tests are being performed and results are being reviewed.

Today we’re featuring a solution we received from InnoCentive Solver, Joseph Pegna, which focused on freezing MC252 while it was still blasting oil into the cold waters at the bottom of the Gulf.

The purpose of Pegna’s solution was not to contain the leak from the ocean floor indefinitely, but rather to contain it efficiently until such time as a more permanent plug could be found.

The solution takes advantage of the relatively stable and low temperature of the sea floor to provide a temporary obstruction to the leak by freezing locally available materials: oil and water.

A back-of-the-envelope estimate of leak flow-rates indicates that a few ten’s of cubic meters of liquid Nitrogen would be sufficient to stop the oil in its track. Subsequent freezing of the surrounding water, either by additional liquid N2 or by lowering an industrial refrigeration unit to the ocean floor, would keep an ice plug over the leak.
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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