ThinkPlace temporarily closed - February 1-28
The ThinkPlace service on alphaWorks will be closed for a private challenge event
from February 1 to February 28. alphaWorks apologizes for any inconvenience.
Please check back after March 1 to try ThinkPlace.
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The ThinkPlace program - scope & eligibility
1. Who's eligible to use ThinkPlace?
Any member of the public and the alphaWorks community are invited to participate.
2. What are the different ways I can participate in ThinkPlace?
There are a variety of ways to participate:
- Post your own idea
- Comment (collaborate/brainstorm) on an idea
- Rate an idea
- Sign up as a volunteer for a specific idea
3. Should I use ThinkPlace for what might be a patentable idea?
ThinkPlace is a publicly available forum. Our recommendation is that you only publish ideas that you are willing to share with anyone. If you have an idea for which you or your company wishes to retain intellectual property rights, you should not post that idea on ThinkPlace. We recommend you contact your legal counsel prior to making the post if you have any questions regarding posting your concept on ThinkPlace.
Submitting your ideas
4. Am I guaranteed some sort of response if I post an idea in ThinkPlace?
You will receive a confirmation email after you submit your idea, if you have included an email in your profile.
You will also be able to track the status of your idea, real-time, on the ThinkPlace site.
There is no guarantee that your idea will be formally evaluated or picked up by a member of the alphaWorks community. Check out the Best Practices section in the left navigation. It offers several ideas and approachees which can increase the chance of your idea being adopted and implemented.
5. Why is nobody doing anything with my idea?
The best way to make sure your idea progresses through the system is for you to take an active role in promoting it. Remember the goal of ThinkPlace is to "demonstrate that every IBMer can be an innovator. " We want to promote maximum flexibility.
It is important to frame your idea appropriately when you submit it and also promote it after submission. Check out the Innovation corner in the left navigation . You'll ideas that can help you to improve the chances of your idea being implemented.
6. Can I add any kind of idea at all?
Yes. You can submit any type of the idea that you think would be of interest to the alphaWorks community.
Your ideas may pertain to a product, a process or cultural change. Your ideas may be revolutionary or they may be a simple improvement.
If your idea might be patentable, please speak to your legal counsel before submitting it to ThinkPlace.
7. Can I edit my idea or my comments to someone else's idea?
Authors may edit ideas which they have submitted. Editing of comments is not possible at this time.
8. What if I have a suggestion that I don't want to make completely public?
At this time, ThinkPlace does not accept private submissions. If you are not ready to make your idea public, then ThinkPlace is not the appropriate vehicle.
If you are interested in obtaining ThinkPlace for your business, please feel free to use the Feedback to contact us.
9. If I change my mind, can I withdraw an idea?
Yes, you can.
Note that withdrawing an idea marks it as being withdrawn and closed, but it does not cause the idea to be removed from the system.
Finding and rating ideas
10. So many items! How can I find what I want?
There are several mechanisms for narrowing your search, and they may be used together.
- The Search for: keyword box at the top of the page
- The "search navigator" on the left of the page allows you to focus your search to various classifications. Note that this navigator is dynamic. As you perform one search, the numbers of hits displayed change to reflect the results of your search.
- Your customized "action list" on the left navigation allows you to filter ideas by categories, keywords and search terms. You can also update your notification settings to be notified by email (daily, weekly or monthly) when there is activity in ideas on your action list.
11. If I enhance someone's idea, can they add me as a contributor?
Yes.
If you are a significant contributor to an idea, the author of the idea has the ability to add you as a contributor.
12. Is it important that I rate ideas?
Yes.
The ratings that an idea receives determines how far it will progress through the pipeline. Ratings also align with the reward structure of the program.
13. What's the difference between the "Rate this idea" section and the "Comments" section?
The "Comments" section offers a place for open brainstorming and collaboration, where you can contribute to an existing idea. Your thoughts here may improve the idea, but they will not directly record your opinions about the value of the idea to IBM.
In the "Rate this idea" section you can offer your opinion on the idea based on business value, technical merit, cultural impact and feasibility. The overall rating from you and others may improve the visibility of an idea and enable it be considered further.
14. I see an idea that I can use. What should I do?
If you think you can benefit from someone else's idea, use it. Let others know it's a good idea by adding your name to the "Volunteers" section. And you can even send the idea originator an appreciation card.
15. I see an interesting idea, but I think I can improve it -- or -- I want to explain why it might not work. What should I do?
Some ideas will require additional resources before they can be implemented. And some ideas may be good, but for one reason or another, don't merit consideration. Perhaps your company already has a similar program in place, or maybe the idea is not practical for you. That's where the collaborative process is so critical. By commenting on other people's posts and by using the "rate this idea" feature, you will help to determine the best ideas for implementation, and those that don't merit further consideration.
16. What happens with the highest rated ideas?
That's completely up to you and the alphaWorks community. See an idea you think should be implemented? Implement it!
Language support - what will I see? what can I use?
17. What languages is ThinkPlace available in?
The ThinkPlace application is available in 11 languages:
- English
- French
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- German
- Italian
- Dutch
- Chinese (traditional)
- Chinese (simplified)
- Japanese
- Korean
You may switch from one of these languages to another through the language setting in your browser.
Note that this language support refers to the ThinkPlace application itself; the language in which user submissions or comments appear is under the control of the user at the time the material is typed.
18. How do I switch languages in ThinkPlace?
Setting up your browser to view ThinkPlace in different languages depends on which browser you use, how your browser is set up today, and which other language or languages you wish to be able to use.
There are three factors to consider. If you are still having difficulty after following the instructions below, please contact your local help desk.
1. Languages selected for display
Firefox: Tools > Option > General > Languages
Mozilla: Edit > Preferences > Navigator > Languages
Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Options > Languages
This choice expresses your order of preference for the language used to display a Web page -- if it's provided in that language. Here's an example from Firefox:
This example specifies that if the page is provided in Chinese, show it in Chinese. If it's not available in Chinese but is available in Canadian French, display French Canadian, and so on down the list.
This user will always see ThinkPlace in Chinese unless they resequence the language preferences.
2. Character encoding selected
Firefox: Tools > Option > Languages.
Mozilla: Edit > Preferences > Navigator > Languages.
Internet Explorer: View > Encoding.
The encoding of choice is UTF-8. This will not cause any problems with English-only pages, but is the accepted "globalization" standard.
Here's another example using Firefox:
3. Font availability
You must have the appropriate fonts loaded on yourcomputer in order to display the characters used in the language of your choice.
As part of the set-up steps listed above, you may be asked to download a "font pack." This will provide fonts missing from your computer. This step is most helpful to a user who wants to display ThinkPlace in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean for the first time.
19. What language should submissions use?
ThinkPlace allows submissions in any of the eleven supported languages. We encourage voluntary translations into English.
Work is ongoing to make ThinkPlace a more effective multilingual application.
20. What are the rows of ????? that I see in some submissions?
These are characters which are not being displayed appropriately on your screen. An example would be text written in a language such as Korean displayed on a screen set up only for English. We are working on making those characters visible.
Work is ongoing to make ThinkPlace a more effective multilingual application.
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Date Posted: May 7, 2007
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