An IBM Research talk, part of the monthly BostonCHI speaker series
When: Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 6:30 PM to 9 PM
Where: 1 Rogers Street Auditorium, IBM Cambridge
Register here: http://www.bostonchi.org/
Michael Muller will walk us through a collaborative experiment led by Werner Geyer, Todd Soule, and Michael, all of IBM Research, Cambridge, and John Wafer of IBM, Dublin.
Crowdfunding is a relatively recent Internet phenomenon, in
which an innovator can propose a project and solicit investments from
the public. More than 450 crowdfunding sites are now in operation around
the world, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Rockethub, Kiva, and Donors
Choose. Successfully-funded projects span much of human aspiration and
intention, including charity, creativity, community service, new
business initiatives, and financial rate-of-return.
We conducted our own crowdfunding experiment inside IBM.
Our project, I Fund IT (previously “1×5″), has been run four times — in
two research groups, and twice in an IT organization. Outcomes went
well beyond our original expectations, and include: employee proposals
that addressed diverse individual and group needs; very high
participation rates; inter-departmental and international collaboration;
the discovery of many previously unknown collaborators; and the
development of goals and motivations based on collective concerns at all
levels of project groups and communities.
We discovered that moving crowdfunding “behind the firewall” is transformative, highlighting opportunities for new forms of collaboration among employees and between employees and upper management. We conclude with our current understanding of success factors, best practices, and implications for theory and design.
We discovered that moving crowdfunding “behind the firewall” is transformative, highlighting opportunities for new forms of collaboration among employees and between employees and upper management. We conclude with our current understanding of success factors, best practices, and implications for theory and design.
About Michael Muller
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