Cisco Launches Its Second I-Prize Competition
by Bill Ives
On January 27 Cisco announced the launch of the second I-Prize global innovation contest where entrepreneurs worldwide can collaborate and submit proposals for Cisco’s next billion-dollar business idea. I wrote about the first contest (see: Cisco I-Prize – Mining the Web and the World for Innovation) and the results. Following the first I-Prize, which drew nearly 2,500 entrepreneurs, this year participants will have access to an expanded portfolio of Cisco collaboration solutions to build on as they share their ideas with others globally. The winning team will be eligible for $250,000 in prize money.
There are four main categories as described by Cisco:
The future of work: Use the power of the network to bring together customers, suppliers and associates to propose solutions that will change the way companies and organizations do business.
The connected life: Showcase technological advancements that will dramatically improve living conditions and culture. This category will require people to envision a life of seamless connectivity.
New ways to learn: Create innovative solutions that will transform when, where and how people learn.
The future of entertainment: Devise next-generation solutions that will change how people play.
I like their topics. I-Prize contest participants will be able to use the following Cisco collaboration tools:
Cisco Show and Share, a social video community where contest participants can record, edit and share video; comment, rate and tag interesting content; and use speech-to-text translation for easy video search and viewing.
Cisco Pulse, a search platform that dynamically tags content as it crosses the network, allowing contest participants to accurately locate and rapidly connect with the best available experts and information on a particular topic.
Cisco WebEx™, an online meeting platform for audio and Web conferencing that enables users to share documents and desktops in real time.
Cisco TelePresence™, an immersive, virtual meeting experience that combines innovative real-time video, audio and interactive technologies to give people in distributed global locations a wide variety of face-to-face collaboration experiences.
This is a good way for Cisco to gain more exposure for its collaboration suite. I-Prize participants will also have access to a management platform, powered by Spigit, which enables participants to buy and sell ideas on an open market (see: Innovating Through Market Games with Spigit). The idea market lets contest participants establish the value of their ideas through trades. Shares of ideas are purchased with virtual currency awarded to participants based on the value of their contributions on the platform. This is the same platform being used by the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 conference to help participants and others evaluate potential sessions.
This program seems to be a win-win for Cisco as they get to harvest new ideas, showcase an innovative crowd-sourcing program, as well as feature their collaboration products.
