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Help Hollywood Create a Hit TV Show about a Female Engineer

Feb-23-15 By IdeaConnection
Hot on the heels of the Academy Awards, Hollywood is on the hunt for some new talent, and this is where you can come in.

Award-winning writer, producer and director Lee Zlotoff and the National Academy of Engineering in the US have launched a global crowdsourcing competition seeking ideas for a TV series with a female engineer as the lead character.

3 Awesome Open Innovation Challenges for Better Health

Dec-29-14 By IdeaConnection
Need a medical innovation, a better way to treat patients or new approaches to improve health and well-being? The crowd may just have the solution that you are looking for.

The medical and healthcare industries are no strangers to open innovation and putting the brain power of the public to good use. After all, we all have vested interests in the outcomes.  Here are three open innovation challenges that have yielded breakthrough innovations:

Countdown to the Inaugural World Open Innovation Conference

Dec-01-14 By IdeaConnection
Have you got your tickets?  This week sees the very first  World Open Innovation Conference.  Leading industry and academic figures will gather in Napa Valley, California on December 4-5 for two days of research, lectures, presentations and brainstorming, designed to forge stronger links between business practice and academia.

Intelligence Community Embraces Open Source and Crowdsourcing

Nov-24-14 By IdeaConnection
In a recent radio interview, the chief information officer of the USA’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) restated the organisation's support and investment in crowdsourcing solutions.  Speaking on Federal News Radio, Dave White highlighted the GitHub platform and the need for wider collaboration.

The GitHub platform is an open innovation portal that allows registered users to help the agency develop apps across 16 areas, including anti-piracy and tools for first responders.

Why Problem Solvers Love IdeaConnection

Nov-17-14 By IdeaConnection
IdeaConnection's problem solvers are drawn from diverse disciplines, countries and cultures. They work together in small teams to solve open innovation challenges for businesses and for the common good.

At any one time a team could consist of an engineer, biologist, chemist and physicist. In their own words, here are some of the reasons why these brilliant minds enjoy stretching their creative problem solving muscles.

Crowdsourcing Push to Replace Unpopular Logo Proposal

Nov-10-14 By IdeaConnection
There is discord in the city of Yogyakarta on Java. A proposed logo and slogan for the cultural heart of the Indonesian island has caused such an uproar that citizens want to have a go themselves and crowdsource a new emblem that represents the city.

Crowdsourced DNA Project to Speed Up Research

Oct-27-14 By IdeaConnection
A new crowdsourced citizen science project could speed up some microbial research by nearly 40,000 years. Uncovering Genome Mysteries is a new project being hosted on IBM's World Community Grid. Researchers are hoping to unlock the biological secrets of marine microbes from all over the world, whether they are in Botany Bay in Australia or the Amazon River in Brazil.

Understanding the genetic similarities between microbes could lead to new medicines, new crop technologies and new eco-friendly materials.  And that's just for starters!

Open Innovation Challenge Offers $1 Million for Ebola Protection

Oct-13-14 By IdeaConnection
The Ebola outbreak that has now spread outside of Africa, could become "the next AIDS" unless there is a fast global response. That’s according to Thomas Frieden, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Africa alone, the rate of spread is faster than the efforts to care for those infected.

The fight against the deadly hemorrhagic fever is happening on several fronts, and to boost protection for health workers, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has turned to the crowd for help.

Scientific Research to Benefit from More Open Innovation

Oct-06-14 By IdeaConnection
Open innovation is giving science a big boost with the announcement of a challenge fund to advance bioelectronic medicines research and the launch of an open innovation stem cell technology center.

Open Innovation to Accelerate Development of Home Appliances

Sep-22-14 By IdeaConnection
Crowdsourcing and 3D printing appear to be all the rage at the moment.  Earlier this month, Local Motors created the world’s first 3D printed car, based on a design submitted to a crowdsourcing contest.

Now there’s news that a General Electric (GE) affiliate called FirstBuild is going to use crowdsourcing and 3D printers to build the next generation of household appliances, revolutionary products to make our lives easier.  They could be anything from food blenders and garbage disposal units to grilling machines and feature-packed water systems.

The aim is to get novel products to market quickly without spending heaps of cash on production tools.