I am having my class at Johns Hopkins read Wikinomics. Some like it, many are underwhelmed. It may be the repetitive nature of the book and I hope an pray it's not a "ho-hum' reaction to co-creation and crowdsourcing.
Asking people to contribute good ideas that can help society is a great way to engage people in something with relevance. Not everyone can host a crowdsourcing contest that can award a cash prize or other support to making that idea come true. This is a great idea for corporate CSR programs. Currently American Express is winding down it's heavily advertised Member's Project which awarded $2m to the Children's Safe Drinking Water project yesterday (apparently from a P&G employee). They got some heat on the blogs but they generated some solid coverage as well. (disclosure: American Express is a long-time client of Ogilvy's but we did not do this project nor do I currently work on that account).
Now, the Dutch Postcode Lottery and Picnic have teamed up to create the Picnic Green Challenge which awards 500K Euro to the winning idea and then helps bring that idea to market. Here's their challenge:
"Your idea:
- Should have the potential to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by an amount you can roughly estimate;
- Should be developed enough to execute;
- Should be realisable as a usable product or service within the next two years.
You should:
- Be willing to bring your idea to market yourself, and to commit to working with all organisations necessary to develop the product and/or implement the service;
- Carefully answer all the questions on the entry form, and be available to answer supplementary questions from the jury between 1 and 29 September 2007;
- Be willing to present your idea in Amsterdam on 29 September 2007, if you are one of the finalists. Failure to appear will render your entry invalid "
Within the site, there is an interesting interview with Emily Farnworth of The Climate Group. She essentially endorses the challenge. (You should check ou The Climate Group as they seem to be doing some interesting partnerships with corporations and government to respond to climate change.)
Back to the Challenge: Sir Richard Branson will chair the jury which has green heavyweights like Greenpeace alongside corporate wanna-do-gooders like Tommy Hilfiger Inc. Corporations have money to support causes. Why shoudln't they ask the "community" at large for their thinking and in this case fund an innovation that emerges from the crowd?
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