InnoCentive

I recently signed up with InnoCentive.com today. I found the link on Pepperjam and thought I would take a look into it.

The idea is fairly nifty: they post challenges in business, life science, computer science, etc. and they are creating a network of people who are interested in those fields to put together solutions to solve them. For example, one of the challenges I saw was about social networking sites - how to make them better, different ways of using the technology and so forth. The winning solution is paid up to $10,000! Now, I don't know a thing about social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook, but I know there is a lot of people out there who do.

What I find rather interesting about the InnoCentive concept is that they are going straight to the people - the armchair inventors and the basement tinkerers. The cash prizes are huge, which to be honest intimidates me a little, but at the same time, if I saw a challenge come up that I felt I knew something about, why not submit it? Who knows, right? All it would cost me is the time it took to think it out and write it up - signing up for the website and being able to submit solutions is free.

I've been all over the web site looking to see if there was any "catch." So far I haven't found any. Does any one else have experience with them?

Here's some info from their website:

Founded in 2001, InnoCentive.com connects companies, academic institutions, public sector and non-profit organizations, all hungry for breakthrough innovation, with a global network of more than 145,000 of the world's brightest minds on the world's first Open Innovation Marketplace™.

These creative thinkers -- engineers, scientists, inventors, and business people with expertise in life sciences, engineering, chemistry, math, computer science, and entrepreneurship -- join the InnoCentive Solver™ community to solve some of the world's toughest challenges.

Let me know what you think!