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New York, NY – September 13, 2011 – The Economist and InnoCentive, Inc. today announced the winner of the Human Potential Index Challenge. Corrine Le Buhan, an IP and technology strategy consultant and valuation analyst from Lausanne, Switzerland, with a background in electrical engineering and strategic management of intellectual property and innovation, will be awarded $10,000 and present her winning solution at The Economist’s Ideas Economy: Human Potential Event later this week. The Challenge, which attracted more than 1,250 Solvers and received 171 submissions on the InnoCentive website, asked participants for well thought-out concepts for novel and useful metrics or indices to quantify important trends that affect humanity.
Le Buhan’s solution proposed measurement of creativity and knowledge sharing via a “creative sharing” impact, described as the number of people reached by an original creative work as the creative work is spread, and possibly enriched, through further peer-to-peer interaction. This measurement could be used to compare various creative works and their impact on human development.
The 2011 Human Potential Challenge marks the one-year anniversary of the partnership between The Economist and InnoCentive; the first Human Potential Challenge was solved in September 2010. In the year since the formation of the partnership, several Challenge solutions have already progressed toward implementation. Andrew Deonarine, developer of the EduCell project and winner of the 2010 Human Potential Challenge, has seen his solution developed on a number of Nokia phone models. EduCell is currently being targeted at Nokia’s cost-effective S40 platform, which is used by millions of people. The first pilot project for EduCell is expected to be running before year end.
Mario Rosato’s solution to the Capture of Atmospheric Carbon to Address Global Warming Challenge has been profiled in several Spanish publications. This exposure resulted in an invitation to present his solution to an Italian bank and several venture capital firms. Rosato is now working with an Italian investor with the goal of launching a demo project in Northern Italy and presenting the project to the Italian Senate.
Over the past year, The Economist InnoCentive Ideas Economy Challenges have resulted in unprecedented Solver engagement, with more than 5,300 Solvers engaged and 585 solutions submitted to five posted Challenges. This success has led to an expansion of the partnership, where The Economist will standardize on InnoCentive’s Challenge Platform for all event Challenges. The first event outside the Ideas Economy series to utilize the InnoCentive Challenge Platform will be The Economist’s World In 2012 Festival in December.
“The Economist and InnoCentive Challenges have succeeded far beyond our expectations,” said Matthew Bishop, U.S. business editor and New York bureau chief for The Economist. “Opening up the conversation and searching for solutions among a broad, but qualified, audience has allowed us to find unique, innovative ideas in a short period of time.”
“Our partnership with The Economist has been fruitful on many levels,” said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive. “Not only have we given our Solvers a new arena in which to solve pressing problems, but with the stage provided by The Economist, we’ve been able to see some of those solutions progress toward implementation at a rapid rate. We are delighted that our partnership has expanded to other Economist events and audiences, and look forward to additional opportunities to affect real change in the world.”
About The Economist (http://www.economist.com/)
With a growing global readership (now 4.5m) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognized and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. Its website (www.economist.com) offers articles from the past ten years, in addition to web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programs. The Economist is now available to download for reading on Android, iPhone, or iPad devices.
About InnoCentive, Inc.
InnoCentive is the open innovation and crowdsourcing pioneer that enables organizations to solve their key problems by connecting them to diverse sources of innovation including employees, customers, partners and the world’s largest problem solving marketplace. InnoCentive’s proven Challenge Driven Innovation methodology, community of millions of problem Solvers, and cloud-based technology platform combine to fundamentally transform the economics of innovation and R&D through rapid solution delivery and the development of sustainable open innovation programs. Leading commercial, government and nonprofit organizations, such as Eli Lilly, Life Technologies, NASA, nature.com, Popular Science, Procter & Gamble, Roche, Rockefeller Foundation and The Economist, partner with InnoCentive to solve problems and innovate faster and more cost-effectively than ever before. For more information, visit www.innocentive.com.
