Prize competitions have led to incredible breakthroughs: naval navigation, architectural masterpieces like the Sydney Opera House, Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, and the commercialization of space travel. One of the first examples began in 1418 in Florence, Italy, when town officials issued a contest to build a dome for Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral – commonlyRead… Read more »
At this year’s South by South West Interactive (SXSWi) conference, I’m pleased to be moderating a panel on the role of government and prizes in stimulating technology innovation and providing public services. Federal agencies have recently been given the authority by Congress to sponsor competitions for individuals, groups, and companies to develop new ideas andRead… Read more »
Innovators—including government innovators—should be paying attention to prizes because they work, because they add another tool to their innovation tool belt, and because they are already being used by a typical late adopter—the government. I’ve been a student of prizes and competitions in government for several years now—there is always something to learn: a newRead… Read more »
Government leaders and managers are increasingly doing business using methods and approaches that differ from the traditional contracts and grants process. Today, government leaders and managers need to know how to use innovative acquisition methods that shorten the lifecycle of a contract, as well as how to leverage new ways of tapping into the privateRead… Read more »
This content was originally posted on Phase One Consulting Group’s Government Transformation Blog. Over the past few weeks I had the pleasure of serving as a global judge for the MIT Global Challenge which ended in an exciting awards ceremony Monday in Cambridge, Mass. The Challenge is designed to connect students” with the passion andRead… Read more »
President Obama said he wanted to spur innovation, in his State of the Union address. Actually, this effort started in earnest last year through the use of prizes and contents as a complement to traditional research and development. As promised in an earlier blog post on this topic, the IBM Center now has a report,Read… Read more »
Inducement prizes – as opposed to “recognition” prizes such as the Nobel or Pulitzer prizes – are a growing element of how government is trying to spur innovation in solving tough problems both inside and outside the government, notes Annie Lowrey in a recent Washington Post article. Why? Because prizes are effective. Under the rightRead… Read more »
It’s been over a month since my last posting on my featured jennovation series on Govloop and the Phase One Consulting Group (POCG) Transformation in the Federal Sector Blog, but for good reason. It’s been a busy Fall season on many fronts: POCG’s Growing Open Gov and Innovation Team: POCG has recently hired two rockRead… Read more »
Prizes and competitions provide one way to stimulate innovation and tap “solver communities” that may not have been leveraged previously when considering some of our nation’s grand challenges (see my blog posting from the White House/ Case Foundation event on prizes and competitions in April where I discuss this assertion in more detail). Building onRead… Read more »
John Shore, Senior Director, PIA X-Prize X-Prize Foundation http://www.xprize.org/ Mission: To bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity Some thoughts on best practices for running a prize or challenge to solve a problem, meet a need. Hallmark attributes of large incentive prize competitions High Leverage Efficiency Encourage industry development Donate to a non-profitRead… Read more »