For those who don’t know, in a nutshell, what is IdeasProject?
IdeasProject is an online community for everybody from all around the world to brainstorm. It enables the two-way exchange of ideas between users and developers around ideas and innovation.
So how does the project work?
It’s very simple: You’ll join the IdeasProject community and tap into the expertise of a growing group of over 14,000 enthusiasts and more than 7,700 ideas (and growing all the time!)…
- Create an idea that is either related to an on-going idea or challenge, or share them on Idea Space where your creativity is not limited to any theme.
- Check already existing ideas – great minds think alike – so you might be able to join a brainstorm already taking place.
- The community can like your idea, comment and in the best cases, start developing it.
What do you need in order to join in?
Anyone who is 18 years old or older may join. The service runs currently in English and Chinese. Please note that there’s a mobile-friendly website too. We do not wish to exclude anyone!
Can you tell us where the idea for IdeasProject came from?
The idea has been cooking inside Nokia for quite some time. In January 2008 Nokia started utilizing the “wisdom of the crowds”, i.e. internal idea crowdsourcing as part of its innovation management practices.
“Giving inspiration to others and sharing is the more altruistic achievement”
These things never happen in isolation, Nokia’s IdeasProject team is a fan of many other services utilizing the crowdsourcing model of working. 🙂 We have many examples where collective intelligence has been used successfully. Anyone in the world of crowdsourcing knows we are just in the beginning of learning what kind of practices and business models are rising in the junction of social media and open innovation.
What do you think is the projects greatest achievement?
So far, the most tangible achievements can be found from application stores. Being a fresh service, we are just in the beginning of the journey from ideas to realisation of them. Giving inspiration to others and sharing is the more altruistic achievement. Getting feedback and being sparred with is something that inspires the participants of IdeasProject.
“Ideas are the currency of the future – but let’s remember – people are more important than ideas!”
The IdeasProject was opened 9 months ago and yet we have a fast growing community of more than 14,000 ideators (50% are between 18-29 years – out of which we anticipate many being students like in Imagine Cup!) and almost 8,000 ideas. Participants are coming from 204 countries and autonomous regions.
How should students use IdeasProject when preparing for the Imagine Cup?
IdeasProject is an idea treasury for students. We have thousands of ideas which can be of inspiration. Students can find ideas based on tags, challenge themes and by using the search functions of the site. The current idea base resonates extremely well with United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
“According to our first principle, you own your idea, but according to the second, the community can make it real. And that’s what this is all about – finding promising ideas and making them real in the Imagine Cup 2012! However, as a courtesy to the original ideator, please notify him/her about taking his/her idea further and possibly invite him/her to be a part of your team, if you participate in a team challenge”
Finally, ideas are the currency of the future – but let’s remember – people are more important than ideas! People make the ideas happen, ideas are just the raw material, and it’s a looooong way from a single idea or clusters of ideas to an innovation, whether it’s more commercial, technical or social in nature.
Thanks for your time Pia!
So with a vast and growing community full of bright, talented people at your fingertips, you are all set to start pondering what issue you would like to solve and start sourcing ideas on how to solve it. Let us know in the comments or on Twitter if you have something to share, we’d love to hear about your ideas.