"But because I was too close to the source material, I couldn’t think of another way to do it. So I asked Twitter.jeffkirvin
How would you kill something that had nanites in its blood that repair damage (injuries, aging) almost as fast as they happen? #research"
I've always been fascinated by the web 2.0 movement, especially the crowdsourcing aspect. Companies such as Facebook and Threadless, a Chicago-based apparel company that prints user submitted and voted artwork on t-shirts, have been at the forefront. Now DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of U.S.'s Department of Defense, known for their challenges usually involving quantum physics, is taking advantage of the internet with its latest challenge. Care to win $40,000 and be part of modern warfare? Help to find a red balloon!
Via ReadWriteWeb, read more coverage here.
Update: found after a little over 24 hours, the original deadline isn't until the 15th. Amazing!
Good articulation of the Enterprise 2.0 opportunity. The point Andrew makes about organizational knowledge transfer is spot on and, the example he shares is how the US intelligence services reengineered their approach post 9/11.
Casting out a few years, its interesting to consider the data store companies could amass, and the usefulness of it once more sophisticated human language interrogation programmes are developed. Would be cool to have a computer do the leg work for the 9/11 issue Andrew refers to, while its human counterparts focus on utilising their time in other areas.
Brining it down a few pegs, what could it mean for idea generation in blue chips and SME's? The more 'stakeholder' data committed to a central data bank, the more potential to match requirements with smart solutions and the selection of smart teams to develop them out.
Since Tony Blair stepped down, he has received millions of pounds from an unusual mixture of income streams. His financial affairs have been described as 'Byzantine' and 'opaque'. Can you shed any light on them?
The Guardian vuelve a echar mano del crowdsourcing, esta vez para investigar las finanzas del ex primer ministro Tony Blair.
Ahora, además, ofrecen un premio para quien dé con las mejores pistas.
Boundaries uses Flickr geotagging data to draw local area boundaries on a map. It's creator, Tom Taylor, says:
Flickr understands that places are more than unique geographic identifiers; that they are mental models people use to identify with location. Moreover, they are fluid and opinionated, varying based on a number of parameters such as context, ambition and personal background. In true wisdom of the crowds style, Flickr use the combined selections of their thousands of photographers to compute the shape of these places.
This is an Ideation Challenge that has the following distinct features:
There is a guaranteed award of $5,000, which will be paid to the best submission.
Granting of the award is at Seeker’s sole discretion. Additional awards may be made for the next best submissions. This means that your submission does not necessarily need to be perfect – it just needs to be better than others for you to win the awards.
Innocentive is a "competitive" approach to crowdsourcing. Participants try to beat each other out, and there is no visibility among ideas. This style is create for people seeking rewards and the thrill of the competition.
This contrasts with a more collaborative approach to crowdsourcing. In such a scenario, the goal is more people seeing each submitted idea. The diversity of viewpoints improves the idea.
Contest winner Angela Kohler received US-$20,000 from Amazon – in Amazon gift cards.
http://jamiebeckland.com/2009/11/amazon-crowdsources-television-advertising/
Key features:
- Big, fast-growing, active community.
- Mostly online.
- Leader has gone ‘professional’.
Key ingredients and learnings:
- Satisfy real needs.
- Safe space.
- Mutual support and power.
- Who belongs.
- Stay amateur or go professional?
Who would think that government would be so interesting? Well, actually, not that many. Even most in government are tepid about it. But there is a small percentage that is passionate about what it can do, and who are driven to make it better.
That’s who Govloop is for.
Communities have to satisfy real needs
This might seem obvious. But you’d be amazed how many online and offline communities are started without a proper examination of whether they’re needed. And so they fail, or if they’re smart, they modify themselves to find and then satisfy something that people want, whether it’s a social life or social change.
In this case Steve Ressler (Govloop’s founder) was very clear about the need. And as is so often the case, he identified it by examining his own.
There’s a new breed of youngish people in government who want to innovate. Judging by Steve’s personal experience, it’s about 4%: “There were about three people out of the eighty in my department who were passionate. The other 77 couldn’t care less”. He felt lonely and dragged down by the ‘jobsworths’ (as we call them in the UK: “it’s more than my job’s worth to make change/rattle the cage etc”…a particular characteristic of government workers there too.)
Govloop is designed to help the innovators find each other, emotionally reinforce each other and get direct help to do a difficult thing in the slow-motion world of government: make change.
There may only be the equivalent of three out of eighty in government at large, but over 21,000 change-makers have found each other using the Govloop community after only 18 months of its existence. Clearly, it’s satisfying a real need.
Communities create safe spaces (Glue ingredient #2).
High-functioning communities create ‘safe spaces’ for individuals to become themselves, protected from criticism and attack because they are amongst ‘like-others’.
Two great finds in one post here at Social on the Inside.
First, there's The Glue Project an initiative/blog I highly recommend you add to your reading list. And in this particular post, they're highlighting UK's govloop.
Yes, an example of how the UK government is empowering those amongst their ranks who want to innovate and who are committed to doing so.
The Glue Project offers lots of insight on building communities that stick and create positive change and many of the case studies and conversations covered there can be applied at the enterprise level.
