In my last newsletter I wrote about an inspiring exhibit from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum: Design for the Other 90%. The show featured simple innovations for the majority of the world.
It’s got me thinking about all forms of innovation. On my radar this week are Crowdsourcing and the Purpose Prize.
Crowdsourcing
The word comes from CROWD + OUTSOURCING. An organization has a challenge and invites a specific community to solve it. The practice has broadened to include every aspect of corporate agendas since the word was coined a mere three years ago in a Wired magazine article.
Years ago I had the pleasure of talking with Mark Turrell, CEO and Founder of Imaginatik when he was launching his company and figuring out processes to capture collective intelligence. If Crowdsourcing intrigues you I can recommend Mark and his company. His results were impressive ten years ago and he and his colleagues are clear leaders in the field.
The Wisdom of Crowds did a fine job of exploring collective intelligence. James Surowiecki is a journalist at The New Yorker and relates examples of collective intelligence–both successes and failures.
Say what you like, but the Audience is usually right on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Another firm doing work in this area is Chaordix. This blogpost from their site has a generous list of many crowdsourcing opportunities. Participate in any number of challenges from designing marketing to forecasting solar activity.
The Purpose Prize
And for those of us in our ‘encore careers’…the Purpose Prize is $100,000 big ones for worthy social innovations. TEN people will win! The catch is that you have to be over 60 years of age. If you qualify you have until March 5th to enter or nominate someone else. I don’t know about you but I am going to start thinking about it now.
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