Which areas of innovation hold the best promise for enabling economic development in Africa?
On May 8th, IBM will open ThinkPlace, our collaborative innovation platform (a brainstorming and idea generation tool), to the world. This first-ever public ThinkPlace Challenge is a three-week online event designed to foster global collaboration on innovations that can fuel economic growth and improve the standard of living on the African continent. The ideas developed in this challenge will immediately shape the agenda for the IBM Global Innovation Outlook/Africa sessions, conducted in person in locations around the world beginning in June. The input will also inform IBM's World Development Initiative, a new long-term effort to identify commercial opportunities addressing the needs of the vast population currently living on less than $5 a day.
I'd like to invite you to participate in this discussion. While the official launch takes place next Tuesday, you are welcome to post your ideas and feedback starting today (as an early recipient of this invitation). Here is the URL to join the Thinkplace Challenge and contribute your best thinking as well as respond constructively to other participants:
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/thinkplace/execchallenge/html/archive/exec_challenge_2.html
Once you get to this site, click on either "Answer this challenge" or "View all ideas" to connect to the registration page that then allows you to participate.
Additionally, please feel free to forward this to your network of contacts who have experience, expertise, and/or interest in economic development and/or Africa or link to our challenge from your website.