Finding Archimedes in his bathtub

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Finding Archimedes in his bathtub
Alpheus Bingham InnoCentive, Inc. 2007
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What if 120,000 bounty hunters were turned loose
on scientific outlaws?
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Archimedes
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Archimedes
Eureka! Eureka! I have found it! I have found
it
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Can you find Archimedes in his bathtub
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Finding Archimedes in the Bathtub

• Heros Challenge
• Archimedes Training
• Triggering Event

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The past 10 years have seen amazing search
capabilitiesWe can now search.

• Digital vs. paper files
• Search engines
• Documents
• Web pages

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But not.

• Memories
• Undocumented knowledge
• Inventions ABOUT to be made

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Variants on Archimedes Tub

• Set challenge and training and await trigger
• Add challenge to mix of training and triggers
• Prior undisclosed solutions
• Parallel yet unsearchable work

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Organizing for Serendipity

• Broadcast challenges
• Lightweight contracts
• Problem specific intellectual property agreements
• Build intellectual not physical attractors
• Minimize core with reconfigurable problem-solver
  population

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Our PlatformHow InnoCentive Works Today
InnoCentive Operations
Seeker Companies
Solvers
Proprietary and Confidential
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Our PlatformHow InnoCentive Works Today
InnoCentive Operations
Seeker Companies
Solvers
Proprietary and Confidential
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Our PlatformHow InnoCentive Works Today
InnoCentive Operations
Seeker Companies
Solvers
Proprietary and Confidential
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Our PlatformHow InnoCentive Works Today
InnoCentive Operations
121,575
Seeker Companies
Solvers
Proprietary and Confidential
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Our PlatformHow InnoCentive Works Today
InnoCentive Operations
121,575
Seeker Companies
Solvers
Proprietary and Confidential
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(No Transcript)
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Meet a Solver
InnoCentive 3109 R4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)
Butanoic Acid

• Challenge AbstractAn efficient synthetic
  strategy for the following butanoic acid
  derivative is required. Devise and execute the
  best synthetic pathway.
• Solution Criteria
• 2 steps or less
• gt80 overall yield
• lt100/Kg
• gt95 purity
• 2.0g white-off white solid

• Results221 Project Rooms7 Submissions1 Award

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The solution is out there
Meet a Solver

• Drew Buschhorn, Innocentive Solver

• Registered last summer
• 20-year-old chemistry student at University of
  Indiana, Bloomington
• Tackled 10K Challenge
• New substance to replace art restoration chemical
  being phased out by Environmental Protection
  Agency
• Realized he already had solution
• A substance he had found years ago to help his
  mother preserve colors in dyed cloth

Source Business Week, June 20, 2005
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George
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InnoCentives Hypothesis

• Given a large enough n you can find Archimedes
  in the bathtub (or create him)

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Backups
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Solver Country Productivity
Productivity - Awards
value total number of of awards for country /
total number of solvers for country 10,000
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SearchHard Drives vs. File Cabinets
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Space is mostly empty
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Intentionshttp//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/63460
69.stm
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Intent preceeds consciousnesshttp//www.americans
cientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/34008/pa
ge/2jsessionidaaa5LVF034171, UCDF,
1983the brain is going full speed
ahead well before a person experiences the
conscious intention of moving