Hasta La Ideas

“Idea jams [where users don’t just submit ideas, but also vote and (usually) comment on them as well] are a big hit with the private sector. Companies like Starbucks, Dell, IBM and even General Mills have all adopted them, for the excellent reason that they’re a cost-effective method for product innovation, and inspire good will with your customers to boot. The best-publicized incarnation involves Dell’s “IdeaStorm,” which the computer maker used to tap its most loyal (or at any rate, most vocal) customers. They’ve now integrated some 280 suggestions into their product line.”

So, asks Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, on the Crowdsourcing blog, “if the idea jam format works for companies, why isn’t it working for our President?”

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Clive Thompson explains in Wired Magazine in more detail what can be done to address one particular problem: trolls.

Picture: courtesy of the CC-licensed Flickr stream of Robert of Fairfax

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