My Innovation Journey

Grand Rapids buys "Lack of Red Tape" and other features in fight for Google Fiber

On 3/23, the entire Google Fiber for Grand Rapids Facebook fan base was invited to play in an online Innovation Game® called "Buy a Feature".  At least two games were played.  Here are some of the thoughts people had after the game was over.

• "...an interesting way to negotiate."
• "...it is quite an enjoyable game."
• "...we all collaborated in an innovative fashion and it was fun!"
• "...this was kinda fun."

I facilitated both games and while the results have not yet been fully analyzed, here are the "features/traits" that Grand Rapidians purchased.

• We are a city committed to eliminating red tape and bureaucracy.
• We are a city ready for a transformation to a new economy.  We need this speed to facilitate the transition.
• The medical research/care facilities of Grand Rapids are world-class.
• The city is loaded with industries that will find ways to use the ridiculously fast Internet to do amazing things.

In this case, what the players "purchased" in the Buy a Feature game outlined for Google what the community thought were the top characteristics of Grand Rapids that Google should consider. Hopefully these characteristics match Google's goals.

The online game is going to continue through Thursday, March 25th.  To play, you only have to click on the game link and then wait for 4 other people to show up in the lobby.  If you have friends, send them a link to the game so you can see what all the buzz is about.

Example Game Results:

Innovation + Collaboration (30k Facebook Fans) = Differentiation

I want to give a shout out to an organization that is doing one heck of a job putting the problem-solving power of innovation to some pretty good use.

In my own grassroots effort, I recently partnered with GamesforDemocracy.org (G4D for short) to help Grand Rapids differentiate themselves from the other cities that are vying for the 1 gigabit Google prize. G4D is a not-for-profit organization that "... promotes democratic discourse through the use of serious games..."  They are powered by the technology of The Innovation Games ® Company. And G4D has put the technology to some good use, like prioritizing features for National Health Care Reform by running a "Buy a Feature" game that "unlike voting or polling ... is collaborative and the results are a measure of our collective intelligence and wisdom."  A copy of the results of the game can be found here.   

Much the same way that G4D did with National Health Care, I am trying to differentiate Grand Rapids from all the other cities vying for the Google prize.  With G4D's help, I crafted a series of questions that were designed to engage the 30,000+ fans of the Google for Grand Rapids Facebook page in an attempt to get them to "Remember the Future".  The questions were written as if Grand Rapids had already been selected by Google and the citizens and businesses were celebrating the amazing things that had been done with the new technology ... an innovative way to extract memories from the future and to show Google how forward-thinking we are.

Here's what I've tried to do so far.

1. The Facebook fans were invited to my blog to "Remember the Future" to tell us how the network will have been used.
2. During the week of 3/15, the fans have been submitting their ideas and I've been reviewing/compiling them.

Here's what's left to do.

1. Continue promoting the blog and get people to submit their ideas.
2. Analyze the results and group the responses into a top ten list of features that Grand Rapids will have implemented "in the future".
3. Invite all the fans to play the online version of the "Buy a Feature" game just like G4D did with the features identified in the National Health Care Reform.
4. Compile and analyze the results.
5. Share the results of the "Buy a Feature" game with the Google as well as all the Facebook fans to show them how we, as a community, were able to pull together and use our collective intelligence and wisdom to have some idea as to what the network would be used for.

The Google Fiber for Grand Rapids committee has done a superb job coordinating lots of activities and events, and in short order.  I can only imagine the behind-the-scenes roadblocks they've had to overcome to pull off the event in downtown GR on Friday afternoon. 

Introducing Innovation Games ® to the Facebook group and inviting them to participate is my personal contribution to reaching the goal of bringing Google Fiber to Grand Rapids.  I think I will have been successful differentiating Grand Rapids if the Facebook fans can get involved in the process and participate in the online game.  The results of the game will be shared with Google and I think it will have demonstrated to them how we as a community can do things on multiple fronts, all working toward the same goal.