Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing Examples

Open Innovation, crowdsourcing, co-creation… overlapping terminologies to describe a trend towards more open business models and a closer collaboration with customers. On this page we gather a list of inspiring examples. Tip us about other initiatives (info@boardofinnovation.com – or twitter: @philderidder).

Intermediary Platforms

Research & Development platforms

• Innocentive – open innovation problem solving
• IdeaConnection – idea marketplace and problem solving
• Yet2.com – IP market place
• PRESANS (beta) – connect and solve R&D problems
• Hypios – online problem solving
• Innoget – research intermediary platform
• One Billion Minds – online (social) challenges
• NineSigma – technology problem solving
• Ideaken - collaborative crowdsourcing

Marketing, Design & Idea platforms

• CMNTY Corporation - community co-creation
• Innovation Exchange – open innovation market place
• Idea Bounty – crowdsourcing ideas
• Guerra Creativa – crowdsourcing anything creative
• Brand Tags – tagging brands
• Battle of concepts – student challenges
• crowdSPRING – creative designs
• BootB.com – custom creative ideas for any creative need
• 12designer – marketplace for creative solutions
• LeadVine – crowdsourcing lead generation
• 99designs – pioneer in design crowdsourcing
• Edge Amsterdam – elite sourcing platform
• OpenIDEO – collaborative design platform
• Challenge.gov – crowdsourcing for government problems
• eYeka – the co-creation community
• Spigit - social innovation platform
• Cognistreamer - open innovation platform

Collective Intelligence & Prediction platforms

• Lumenogic - collective intelligence markets
• Ushahidi – crowdsourcing crisis information
• Kaggle – data mining and forecasting
• We Are Hunted – the online music chart
• Google Image Labeler – crowdsourced image labeling

HR & Freelancers platforms

• TopCoder – competition-based software crowdsourcing
• Spudaroo – crowdsourcing copywriting
• Clickworker - small online task solving
• Amazon Mechanical Turk – low-cost crowdsourcing

Open innovation software

• Imaginatik – collective intelligence software
• Napkin Labs – connect with consumers, experts, employees
• Venture Spirit - gamification platform
• Wellspring Worldwide- open innovation software

Intermediary open innovation services

• Big Idea Group – organize innovation contests and idea hunts
• Skild - organize innovation quests
• Pharmalicensing – open innovation for the life sciences
• Chaordix – crowdsourcing engine for innovation
• DataStation – complete innovation platform

Creative Co-creation

• Spreadshirt – shirt community
• Threadless – create and sell your t-shirts
• cafepress – shop, create or sell what’s on your mind
• zazzle – create and sell products
• CreateMyTattoo – crowdsourced tattoo design
• Sellaband – crowdfunded bands
• Artistshare – fans funding new artists
• Quirky – community product development
• jovoto – co-creation & mass collaboration
• Dream Heels - design your dream heels
• Mookum- co-creating lifestyle & interior products
• Quirky + GE - co-creating platform by quirky & General Electric
• Userfarm - co-creating platform for Video makers

Corporate Initiatives

Product Ideas crowdsourcing

• Fiat Mio – create a car
• BMW Customer Innovation Lab – in german
• Kraft – innovate with Kraft
• InnovationJam* – IBM’s idea generation project
• Dell IdeaStorm – external idea sourcing
• Betavine – Vodafone’s mobile app community
• My Startbucks Idea – shaping the future of Starbucks
• Ideasbrewery - Heineken Ideas Brewery
• Connect + Develop - Innovation platform by P&G

Branding & Design crowdsourcing

• Peugeot – Peugeot’s design contest
• Fluevog – open shoe design
• BurdaStyle – open source sewing

Peer Production & P2P

• Funding Circle – p2p lending
• Linux – open source software
• Wikipedia – peer produced encyclopedia
• Yahoo Answers – crowdsourced Q&A
• A Swarm of Angels – creating a £ 1 million film
• …

Public Crowdsourcing

• iBridge Network – platform for university innovation (iBridge)
• Science Commons- generic license agreements
• Picnic Green Challenge – ideas to save the planet
• Fold it – solve puzzles for science
• Galaxy Zoo – discovering the universe

Extra examples: Co-creation Platforms

Board of Innovation cooperated with mission-e-motion in an innovation study to combine new mobility with co-creation. We made a report (pdf download) as a part of the whole study, which bundles 20 benchmarks of existing co-creation platforms.