Perspectives on Innovation

InnoCentive Founder Alph Bingham will be speaking at X-Prize’s i2i Conference in New York next month, along with InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin.  Alph was invited to guest author a blog post for the conference,  on the topic of his presentation – incentivized competition.  Below is the text of his post.

The use of prize incentives to motivate problem solving is well established. While some debate continues vis-a-vis effectiveness, especially in contrast to more traditional modes of research and discovery, most of that analysis has been from the ‘receiving’ end of the spectrum, that is, by the proposed ‘users’ of the innovation. Less so has ‘effectiveness’ been addressed from the inventor’s or contributor’s perspective.

Perhaps it seems all too obvious. The solvers of such puzzles as the Longitude Problem or a Millennium Problem must surely be motivated to work in exchange for the substantial cash reward; it’s no more complicated than any employment contract. Of course, people do things for lots of reasons. I think, over time, that prize systems have evolved to meet specific NON-CASH interests of the solvers and it would be interesting to see how two systems have developed, characterized by InnoCentive on the one hand and the X-Prize on the other. (more…)

On June 8^th and 9^th The X PRIZE Foundation, in partnership with BT Global Services, the John Templeton Foundation and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, will host incentive2innovate (i2i) – a two-day conference that will put c-suite executives face-to-face with some of the word’s greatest innovators to discuss two powerful yet underutilized tools: open collaboration and incentive prizes. During a series of intimate sessions, attendees will have an opportunity to build relationships with peers and engage in discussions focused on how open collaboration and incentive prize competitions can be leveraged to create new ideas that will benefit an organization’s bottom line.

Dwayne Spradlin, InnoCentive President and Chief Executive Officer, and Alpheus Bingham, Ph.D, InnoCentive Founder and Board of Directors member, are two of the conference’s featured speakers. Others include Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief, Huffington Post; Filippo Passerini, chief information and global services officer, Procter & Gamble; and Dan Tapscott, Author, “Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation.” Dan Tapscott will deliver the opening keynote speech.

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO, The X PRIZE Foundation, joins us to share more about the upcoming conference.

Hi Peter.  Thanks for talking with us today.  Can you tell us, what is the goal for the i2i conference?

The X PRIZE Foundation is a recognized leader in bringing about “radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.” The i2i conference is an extension of our efforts to create such breakthroughs in the business, government and nonprofit worlds. The conference goal is to showcase and drive dialogue around two powerful yet underutilized tools that can create fundamental breakthroughs within an organization’s walls to positively impact their bottom line performance, the economy and the world.

The X PRIZE Foundation, BT and the John Templeton Foundation have seen first-hand how these tools can be used to bring about radical changes for humanity, spur the development and growth of new industries and generate innovative ideas and technologies from individuals across the globe. We want to increase awareness and usage of these tools within the business, government and nonprofit communities to help them improve the pace, cost and quality of innovation. We’ve brought together a dynamic group of innovators who, through a series of breakout sessions, will do exactly that. (more…)