CTO of HP, Phil McKinney’s Mystery Tease via Engadget

Engadget, an online technology and gadget magazine, recently posted interesting photos of HP's CTO Phil McKinney.

The photos, which were originally dropped via Twitter by HP's social media strategist Mark Budgell, came in conjunction with a little push for readers to vote for McKinney's SXSW panel.

Since HP's $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, the company has found creative ways to harness and tap employees to brainstorm around the possibilities created by the webOS platform. Earlier this year, HP held a WebStorm powered webOS App Competition for employees to build and submit apps for the platform that likely produced a few of the new devices promised to be "breakthrough".

McKinney has already revealed through Twitter that over 500 apps were submitted to the WebStorm-powered campaign and he is in the final stages of hand-picking the winners.

Make sure to follow Mckinney on Twitter and check out his blog to keep up with developments and teasers like this one!

 

 

 

INTERVIEW: Brightidea's CEO, Matthew Greeley on Gov2.0 Radio

CEO and co-founder Matthew Greeley     recently spoke with Adriel Hampton at Gov2.0 Radio about Brightidea's emerging role as the leading provider of idea management solutions for government. Whereas in the past government has been reluctant to adopt newer technologies, now at the national, state, and local level, departments are looking to utilize the reach and power that social  technologies offer both internally and externally. A favorite on twitter during the interview captured it best- @DavidBromage: Installing innovation tools in government is a "highwater mark of democracy," says @BrightIdea (Matt Greeley) #Gov2.0.

Greeley touched on Brightidea's diverse experience with government innovation and highlighted individual success stories like San Francisco's internal ImproveSF campaign and Ireland's 'Your Country Your Call' challenge as well as the recent contract won by Brightidea from the U.S. Department of State. He spoke about the moving pieces of a well-run campaign, the need for policy-shifting innovation initiatives during a struggling economy, and Brightidea's end-to-end role in streamlining that process. Greeley expressed optimism and hope in the ability of the State Department to utilize the full Brightidea Suite to innovate everything from policy to daily operations, providing a benchmark for success that will surely impact gov-related adoption.

Check out the full interview below or see the coverage on GovFresh and original posting on Gov2.0 Radio.

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Brightidea’s API & GE’s ‘Spinnable’ Data Visualization

Brightidea's Application Programming Interface (API) allows customers to access and pull data collected by Brightidea software. API's are critical for creating, maintaining and updating a large amount of data for use in everything from complex reports to Sharepoint and LDAP integrations. But, it's not all boring excel charts and user management. Often times, customers' use the API's for interesting new creative outputs as well.

As part of the Ecomagination Challenge, GE recently utilized Brightidea's API to create a detailed graphic visualization that conceptualizes and sorts through more than 1,300 ideas. Like a 'spinnable' solar system of ideas, GE's interface features a timeline of rings holding clickable idea spheres, which, when clicked, give you an overview of the idea, a link to the idea, the number of votes & comments and sometimes even a picture of the submitter.

The idea circles vary in size and color, depending on the idea popularity (based on comments and votes) and innovation category. An opaque 'halo' shows the amount of comments on the idea. Sorting through the data is easy by date range and innovation category which adds and removes ideas instantly. With a simple click and a spin, the visualization reveals more and more ideas, with a seemingly endless amount to explore. See for yourself here!

RECAP: ‘A Next Step for Every Idea’ Tour Continues with BOF San Diego

Our latest Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders user workshop was once again a huge success! Hosted at Sony's headquarters in San Diego, the West Coast stop of our "Next Step for Every Idea" Tour brought together an eclectic group of innovation practitioners from HP, Avnet, CCH Wolters Kluwer, 7 for All Mankind, Cisco, among others, to network and share best practices in an intimate, interactive setting.

The event kicked off the evening before with a dinner on the beautiful terrace of the Veranda Restaurant, where participants engaged in lively discussions about innovation management over some great food and wine. The networking and thought-exchange continued the next morning, when the group gathered at Sony's headquarters for a full day of peer-to-peer conversations and engaging presentations.

Jeffrey Phillips, innovation expert, author and Senior Consultant with OVO Innovation Consulting, addressed common challenges of determining and executing the right next steps for ideas. With real world examples and concrete solutions he presented valuable insights that obviously resonated with his audience.

John Russo of CCH Wolters Kluwer shared his first-hand observations and experiences as head of the company's innovation program. His presentation provided an insiders' look into the program's structure, incentive methods and challenges, and was followed by an open discussion that brought interesting different perspectives to light. 

Another highlight was Philip Horvath's presentation which inspired attendees to think about "Vital Innovation". Open, interactive discussions throughout the day covered questions like how to encourage active participation in innovation programs as well as how to deal with intellectual property challenges. 

Helpful solutions offered include:

- Ensure ideas are addressed in a timely manner

- Update idea statuses regularly  

- Recognize submitters

- Set clear goals and expectations

It was fascinating to see our customers come together to discuss and discover new ways to address their mutual challenges.

All of us here at Brightidea would like to thank our hosts at Sony, our speakers, and especially all of our participants for making this event a memorable and productive experience. We are looking forward to more conversations and insights into innovation management at our upcoming workshops in Zurich and Hong Kong! 

UPCOMING BOFs in our ‘A Next Step for Every Idea Tour’:

European Region:      October 19th, Zurich (Hosted by UBS)

Asia Pacific Region:     Early 2011, Hong Kong (Hosted by China Light & Power)

 

Remember, you too can get involved and stay engaged. Become a part of the leading community of innovation leaders. Visit the online Birds of a Feather community and register for this and upcoming events while keeping up-to-date on innovation activities and sharing ideas.

Connect Online: @brightideaBOF  &  Linkedin

To see more photos of this event visit our Flickr page. 

Brightidea’s Coding DNA Series: A Quick Intro to Agile Software Development

 
 
Extreme Programming and Agile Development in BI
Here at Brightidea we follow two main methodologies for Software development: Agile development and Extreme Programming (XP). We try to take different pieces from each to create a custom methodology that works well for our development team.

The Game Plan
We typically work in small one to two weeks cycles; so we start off by creating different use-cases (commonly known as stories) and breaking those down into small tasks that we then estimate time on. Once we have all tasks and stories estimated we present them to our management team (stakeholders) and select the ones that are feasible based on business value and time. Use-cases can range in size from features proposed by customers to large UI redesigns to make our products more user friendly and accessible. On average each cycle includes 25% of user generated ideas.

The Team

When people think about software development, most only think about programmers. But at BI our team consists of Project Managers, Developers, Graphic Designers, Business Analyst, QA Testers among others. Although our two offices are geographically separated, we are in constant communication by having daily meetings on how the whole project is running. Our team works together in a virtual space of provided by our own Enterprise edition of the Brightidea Innovation Management Platform, as well as using the traditional methods like telephones, email, and screen sharing where collaboration and communication are maximized.

Small (internal) Releases and Continuous Integration

As we develop features and stories, we believe that early and often deployments are very important. The one or two week development cycle allows us to deploy small but significant progress to the whole project. With our continuous integration, every step of the way can be previewed and tested several times a day by our internal QA team. Two key components that allow us to do this are Team Ownership and Coding Standards. Team ownership of the code allows anyone of the developers can modify the code. This makes for quick bug fixes and feature improvements all while having a continuously stable product. Developers following strict coding standards make for readability, maintenance, and code updating a breeze. We believe that software development is a marathon, not a sprint.

VIDEO: Interview with the City of San Francisco's CIO, Chris Vein

View this exclusive Brightidea interview with Chris Vein, CIO for the City of San Francisco. Learn about open government, Gov. 2.0 straight from one of the most highly respected, forward-thinking leaders in the government technology space. For more coverage on the ImproveSF.org campaign and to find out how the City is saving more than $90,000 annually from submitted ideas, read our previous posts here and here. And stop by the Brightidea YouTube page to see more videos!

 

 

About the Campaign: ImproveSF.org, powered by Brightidea's WebStorm and Swtichboard solutions, served as a tool for the City to encourage and collect ideas from its employees. In a matter of weeks, there were 700 active participants, 4,000 votes, and nearly 700 comments. Of the 569 total ideas submitted, 4 were chosen for immediate implementation. Many others are under review for possible savings or revenues. Learn more here and here.

Aberdeen Launches Exclusive Innovation Community for Product Development Summit

The Aberdeen Leadership in Product Development Summit will draw some of the most forward thinking leaders in product development to exchange strategies and best practices for business growth. The Summit is an ideal platform to understand how to consistently innovate and meet project deadlines with fewer resources and a smaller budget.

To help promote the Summit and create an exclusive place online for registered attendees to network, collaborate, and submit ideas for the panel discussions, Aberdeen launched the Leadership in Product Development Ideas Site powered by Brightidea's WebStorm solution.

VIDEO: HP Introduces Brightidea Powered Campaigns on Mobile Devices

Good ideas can happen anywhere; during your morning commute, on the treadmill, and even in the supermarket. Creativity is not limited to a desk between the hours of 9AM and 5PM, Monday through Friday. Brightidea has long realized these fundamental points surrounding innovation and creativity. That's why Brightidea offers a mobile web version of its software so customers can have their WebStorm powered Campaigns accessed anywhere, anytime.

Using a web-browser on a mobile phone, users can seamlessly submit, comment, and vote on ideas on a BlackBerry, iPhone, or any other web supported mobile device. To introduce potential users to accessing our software on a mobile device, James Mercer of HP produced the below 5-minute demo video.

As one of Brightidea's most prominent customers and partners, HP often runs campaigns and finds interesting ways to utilize different features and functions of Brightidea software. This video highlights the functionality of one of HP's internal innovation campaigns, Idea Nursery, on a mobile device and provides some excellent visibility into innovation at work—mobile style.

In addition to using a web browser on a mobile device, Brightidea launched the first ever idea management app designed exclusively to power innovation on-the-go in February 2010. Brightidea Mobile, which offers increased functionality and simple, initiative user-interfaces, is designed specifically for the iPhone and is available exclusively for Brightidea customers. And make sure to check out the Brightidea Mobile powered GE iPhone App for the recently launched Ecomagination campaign here!

About the Author: Alyssa Brent is the 2010 summer marketing intern at Brightidea's New York office. She is contributing to the Power of Innovation Blog as a guest-writer covering current events and customer success stories.

 

Innovation Superstars Awards

As we've discussed in previous blog posts, our customers' success is our success. When our customers are recognized for their innovation excellence, we are doing our job right.

Last week at the Innovation Superstar award event, Brightidea, alongside Hewlett Packard, Adobe, Nielsen, Sierra Nevada Brewery, and Snap-on, was recognized for continuously delivering exceptional customer value.

The award was brought to life by Lassen Innovation Consulting after evaluating over 200 companies worldwide to identify the top global innovators.

Sierra Nevada Brewery hosted the exclusive event at its state-of-the-art facility in Chico, CA, which – besides brewing delicious, award-winning beer – produces its own clean power through one of the largest private solar arrays in the United States and an on-site fuel cell plant.

A VIP tour through the brewery after the event offered impressive insights into why Sierra Nevada is without doubt an innovation leader… and a taste of their freshly brewed beer, too.

Many thanks to Lassen Innovation for recognizing Brightidea, to Sierra Nevada for being such great hosts, and to all of our customers who continue to drive innovation success every day.

"Targeted" vs. "Broad-Spectrum" WebStorms

This post is a part of the  'Innovation Management Practitioners Blog Series.'

When considering launching a WebStorm, there are many options and features to consider. We’ve talked about features in our last post - now let’s consider two types of WebStorms, targeted vs. broad spectrum.   First let's start by defining our terms. A WebStorm is Brightidea’s web-interface for idea collection and collaboration that facilitates three main front-end functions of idea management- Voting, Submitting, & Commenting- often referred to as an Idea 'Challenge' or 'Campaign'. A targeted WebStorm is topic specific and will often have a defined time period with a predetermined start and end date, while broad spectrum WebStorms are very general in terms of topic focus, and again, often, but not always, are ongoing with no specific timeline.

In the case of a targeted WebStorm, participants are asked to submit ideas on a specific initiative, question, or business challenge. “We are seeking to cut shipping costs by at least 25%,” for instance. On the other hand, one could set up a WebStorm with a much broader topic, or multiple broad themes, that simply request “give us your ideas.” In reality, the broad spectrum WebStorm is like the web-based version of the age-old ‘employee suggestion box,’ a general repository for any kind of suggestion that usually sat tucked in a corner of the company cafeteria or near the water cooler. It was there, yes, but it represented at best a half-hearted attempt on behalf of the employer to give employees a way to submit a suggestion or idea and stopped there.  No one really knew what would happen to a submission and in most cases, never heard a response or knew if ideas were ever actually implemented.

While there are exceptions, in most cases, a series of targeted WebStorms are far more successful at achieving real innovation results through a high-level of participation and strong implementation rate.

Here are four reasons why:

1.   Helps Secure Executive Buy-In

 

-A focused WebStorm is driven to find solutions to real business needs. This motivates senior executives to support the campaign, of which typically they are the initiators and sponsors. That support is critical to the resource allocation that makes marketing and elevating the visibility of the WebStorm much easier.

-Convincing senior executives why a WebStorm is valuable also involves stressing the importance of follow-through on idea submissions and provides a level of credibility needed to support evaluation and increases the likelihood of implementation.

2.   Creates Community Focus

-Targeted use-cases not only make identifying, but also communicating, objectives to the community easier. And when potential participants better understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the WebStorm, the quality of idea submissions increases.