Topic:The ENTR 4435 Idea Challenge

From SharedExperienceProject

Contents 1 Introduction 2 What's the challenge all about? 2.1 Goals 2.2 Directions 2.3 Notes 3 How Will I Be Assessed? 4 How Do I Get Started with Knol? 4.1 What is a Knol? 4.2 Figuring out how to use Knol 4.3 Sample for this project

Introduction

Google recently announced a competition called Project 10¹⁰⁰ (or Project 10 to the 100th).

It's a call for ideas that will change the world by helping as many people as possible.

Google is going to select the 100 best ideas from those that are submitted on or before October 20, 2008. To do so they're going to use the following judging criteria:

• Reach: How many people would the idea affect?
• Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
• Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
• Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is the idea?
• Longevity: How long will the idea's impact last?

Then, starting on January 27, 2009, the public will vote to select the top 20 ideas, of which 5 will receive their share of $10 million dollars to bring the ideas to life.

In this assignment you are required to:

1. Develop an idea for submission to Google's Project 10¹⁰⁰ competition
2. Develop a business model appropriate for making that idea a reality, and
3. Pitch your idea
   

What's the challenge all about?

Goals

Your first goal in this challenge is to develop an idea and realistic business model that will be of use later in the strategy development portion of this course. Emphasis is on demonstrating the skills and knowledge you have gained in ENTR 4435; your submission can draw on prior knowledge but it must apply what you have learned to date.

Your second goal in this challenge is to demonstrate that you can use a simple modern collaborative medium to develop and deliver your work. You are required to submit the assignment using Google's Knol service, for which you only need a web browser and an internet connection. You will be given a demonstration in class, but just like in the real world it will be your responsibility to make sure you know how to use it.

Your third goal in this challenge is to practice pitching your idea.

Directions

To succeed in this challenge, you will need to follow these steps:

Step 1: Come up with an idea that helps as many people as possible according to the above criteria

Step 2: Develop a viable business model for that idea using the simplified framework we saw in class

Step 3: Document your idea and business model using Google's Knol service:

• See the Getting Started with Google's Knol section below
• Also see the sample given below under the heading Sample for this project

Step 4: Solicit and incorporate feedback from at least two classmates on your idea and business model

• Use Google Knol’s “Reviewer” functionality to do this
  

Step 5: Submit your idea to Google by October 20, 2008

• You can only submit once so be careful not to do it until you're ready!
• The submission page is found here

Step 6: Submit your completed Knol on October 23, 2008

• To submit your paper for grading, you must invite me (alex.bruton@gmail.com) to be a "Reviewer" of your document
• Submissions made in hardcopy or by email will not be marked

Step 7: Do a 60-second pitch of your idea in class on October 23, 2008 (up to 30 seconds each for the idea and for the business model)

Notes

We will work through a comprehensive example during the classroom sessions.

You are encouraged to also "Publish" your completed Knol to the web to be shared as part of a portfolio of ideas.

How Will I Be Assessed?

This assignment is worth 20% of your overall grade which will be determined from each of the components as follows:

Assessment for this assignment

Component	Weight
Quality of your idea	35%
Quality of your business model	35%
Skills with the collaborative medium i.e. use of Knol to document and receive feedback on your idea	10%
Quality of your 60-second pitch	20%

As discussed in class:

• The following criteria will be used to assign the marks for the first three components above:

• Assessment.pdf

• The judges will use the following form to assess your 60-second pitch:

• Judging form.pdf

• The entrepreneurs whose pitches are judged to be in the top three will be awarded an additional 5% grade in the course.

The order of the pitches was determined in class and is now posted on Blackboard.

How Do I Get Started with Knol?

What is a Knol?

Google defines the term knol as a "unit of knowledge." Based on this concept, the company introduced it's Knol service in July 2008 as a tool with which anyone can publish pretty much anything they want.

As you will see, Knol provides an interesting alternative to Wikipedia for sharing ideas on the web:

• Unlike entries in Wikipedia which require sources to be referenced, a Knol is based on the opinions of its authors
• Unlike Wikipedia which encourages many authors to collaborate on one single article for any given topic, Knol encourages every author to write his or her own articles and lets the author take credit for them
  
• Although Knol is not set up for mass collaboration, it does allow an author to collaborate with selected peers using what it calls moderated collaboration and seek input from others using a reviewer function
  

As described above, you are going to use Knol to draft and document your idea, to solicit feedback from your peers and to submit it to your instructor.

Figuring out how to use Knol

You're probably going to be able to figure out how to create a Knol on your own, but just in case, you can start here for some basic tutorials:

• Web sites: Introduction to Knol and Basics of Writing Knols
• Video: How to create your first knol

When using Knol for the first time:

• If you don't already have an account for other Google services, e.g. gmail, start by creating a Google account
  
• Then sign in to Google Knol
  
• Then create a new Knol

Sample for this project

For this project you need to:

1. Fill in the main Title so it reads: "My Idea for Changing the World"

2. Fill in the Subtitle so it corresponds to the category you have chosen, e.g.:

• for Education would be: "Helping more people get more access to better education"
  
• for Energy would be: "Helping move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy"
• the others are given here on the competition web site
  

3. Fill in the Summary exactly as shown below:

4. Then for the main body of the Knol you should use the headings and basic content in the following sample:

• Sample template: My Idea for Changing the World
  

To save having to re-type this template you can just open it, copy everything after the word "Introduction", and paste it into your Knol. Then you can edit the sections between square brackets [].

You may add to this basic format, but that's not necessary in order to do well.