November 2, 2010
Dear Colleague,
I'm sure that you have all noticed the "Ideas are Coming" and "Win an iPad" posters around campus and have heard people talking about a new program focused on improving Stevens by engaging and 'listening' to the people who know the university best…students and faculty. The Office of the President and the Student Faculty Alliance are pleased to introduce the "Stevens Idea Initiative," a revolutionary new collaborative environment where the Stevens Community can exchange and enhance ideas that improve the University.
The goal of this System is to gather your ideas and feedback on how to improve different aspects of Stevens. In order to effectively collect and collaborate on your ideas, a technology developed by Prof. Peter Koen at Stevens, and now a separate company called ID8 Systems, will be used to allow you to electronically submit your ideas, comment and embellish ideas submitted by others, and rate these ideas using a Virtual Stock Market where ideas are traded as stocks on a real-time exchange.
Two separate markets have been set up in our first campaign: A student / faculty participation market focused on "How To Improve The Learning Experience At Stevens" and; A "Faculty-Only market focused on "How To Improve The Faculty Experience And Environment At Stevens.
The first Student / Faculty Campaign was opened on November 1st and trading will end on December 10th. The next campaign will start after the New Year and focus on "Sustainability At Stevens." This next phase will expand the participation in the program to all Stevens' personnel. Later markets will also be expanded to Alumni as a means of re-engaging them into the Stevens' environment.
The faculty-only market will open on November 2nd and remain open in order to serve as an interactive suggestion box for the faculty. Ideas submitted into the Faculty Market will be considered jointly by the Faculty and Academic Councils on a monthly basis. Ideas that have not received any significant traction / trading will be archived in the market on a monthly basis to keep down the number of active ideas being considered. They can be retrieved at any time however if changes to the idea or the environment increase their utility.
We have decided to energize participation in the Student / Faculty Campaigns with a series of prizes and awards that are described below. The Faculty-Only Suggestion Market will be an open forum for Faculty communication and suggestions to the academic leadership, but no monitory prizes will be awarded.
Two Simple Rules Regarding The Listing Of Ideas and Corresponding Input:
Rule #1: Ideas should not deal with individual issues, must not be derogatory, use inappropriate language, nor be inappropriate to the goals of the program. Such suggestions will be filtered out by the Student-Faculty Alliance, in the case of the Student / Faculty Campaign and by the Faculty Administrator, in the case of the Faculty Market.
Rule #2: Do not violate Rule #1!
How To Access The Market…
You are able to access the site immediately at the myStevens website, by clicking on the logo that reads "Stevens Idea Initiative".
How The Site Works…
The site operates like a stock market. You begin with a stake of $20,000 in play money that you can use to either IPO your own ideas (at a cost of $5,000 per IPO) or to trade (buy, sell and short) other people's ideas. If you have an idea you wish to submit, there is a set of self-explanatory forms that only take a few minutes to fill out. The more information you provide about the idea, the more likely the market will react positively and drive up the share value of your idea through active trading. In addition to buying and selling share in ideas, you are encouraged to post questions for the inventor(s) and actively embellish the core ideas that you think will improve their viability and value of any idea in the market. You will want to buy shares in that stock before posting your improvements so that you gain a financial return on the ideas you post. Your equity will go up and down depending on your ability to select the best ideas early and/or sell the ideas that are not likely to be selected for implementation. The value of your portfolio is not what wins a prize. It is the value of the individual stocks you own that are selected for implementation.
How Are Ideas Selected…
The trading process will help prioritize the value of an idea as more people invest in and idea. Ideas will go up and down in value as newer, and possibly better, ideas are posted since participants will want to sell their holdings on low probability ideas in order to buy into new ideas that are moving upward in value and more likely to be selected for implementation. The concept behind the whole market is "Crowd Sourcing" or the "Wisdom of Crowds" which are the people closest to the issue or opportunity…in this case the Students and Faculty of Stevens.
Stevens Faculty Participation…
Stevens' Faculty will have an opportunity to participate in both markets. Faculty will be competing with students for the prizes and rewards in the Student / Faculty Campaign.
Since the Faculty-Only Market is more of a suggestion box designed to promote an open dialogue between Faculty and the Administration on how to improve the Faculty experience at Stevens, financial rewards are not included.
The Selection Process For The Top Ideas…
Trading in the Student / Faculty Campaign will end on December 10th. The Student Faculty Alliance will then review all of the ideas and make recommendations to the Academic Council. To insure that participants are thoughtful in their investment and that participants are not able to 'game the system,' the final selection of ideas that will be recommended to the President for implementation will be done by a Task Force appointed by the Academic Council. Ideas selected will be based on risk, cost of implementation and the ideas overall potential to contribute to the University's strategic objectives. As a result, the top traded ideas may not be selected for implementation in favor of a more practical solutions. This approach encourages participants to think like management, analyze the likely cost/benefits of an idea to the university and make their investments accordingly.
Awards…
The inventor (and co-inventor, if any) of selected ideas will be awarded iPads and be invited to an awards dinner following the selection. The top 100 equity owners of those ideas selected for implementation will receive a T-Shirt, a Certificate from the President and attend the awards dinner. The next 100 top equity owners will receive a T-Shirt and a Certificate from the President. The top 200 equity owners of those ideas selected will also sign a poster describing the idea, which will be hung in the Howe Center until the next campaign is complete, starting the process over again.
We are very excited about this new project and encourage everyone to participate. This program could result in some very significant changes that improve the experience of Stevens Faculty and Students for years to come. In addition, this program is leading edge innovation in the collaboration space and will further help differentiate Stevens form the other universities. We look forward to your input and collaboration on this important new program!
Any questions can be forwarded to: stevens_support@id8systems.com
Thank you for your participation and support.
-George P. Korfiatis, The Student Faculty Alliance, and the Stevens' ID8 SEED Team |
