Matt Spangard said: Are you an innovator? Introduce yourself here and let us know what you're all about. Have opportunities for the community?

Matt Spangard I'll start with myself...

I'm a partner in the product development firm Enventys (www.enventys.com).

I'm the co-executive producer of PBS' Emmy award-winning innovation series, Everyday Edisons (www.everydayedisons.com).

I'm a partner in Inventors Digest, the world's only magazine dedicated to the independent inventor (www.inventorsdigest.com).

I'm the co-founder of Edison Nation, a Web site dedicated to idea people (www.edisonnation.com).

Those are the highlights...

Mark Frazier Hi Matt,

We're keen on seeing the Innocentive prize approach to R&D brought to the base of the pyramid via microprizes. Have you looked into this? There are millions of students in entrepreneurial schools in poor regions that are now getting connected via cell phones and the Internet (the Google-backed satellite being launched next year will also be a great boost). Openworld would like to help catalyze online work-study projects for students in poor areas to research pending and potential breakthroughs in micropower, clean water, land titling, dispute resolutions, and other crowdsourcing technologies - and win prizes for best ideas to localize/adapt/improve/innovate. You can see background at www.openworld.com of some of our related work with microvouchers. Look forward to hearing what may be a good fit.

Best,

Mark Frazier
Openworld
@openworld

Matt Spangard Hi Mark,
I'm sorry It took me so long to respond. There wasn't much action around here since I started this group last Summer and I had stopped checking in.

OpenWorld.com is pretty cool - great, memorable domain name, too. Something we've struggled with on Edison Nation is telling people enough on the home page to explain what we do but not so much that they are overwhelmed before they understand the message. You'll see we're pretty extreme at the moment. I've been focusing on conversions as of late and by reducing some of the copy increased new memberships by about 140% with a few small changes. I think you guys are at that same stage I was before optimizing the page. There's so much going on out of the gate that nothing stands out. It might help if you had a big splash at the top of the site that explained what you are about and then had the opportunities listed at the bottom of the page or deeper inside the site. Trying to get my hands around how we might be able to work together. I'm open to suggestions.

Wishing you the best!
Matt

Vincent Hunt Hello -

MY name is Vincent Hunt, and I am a Founding Partner and Chief Design Officer of the Vincent Hunt Company a agile, boutique Design and Innovation Consultancy launching in Sacramento CA early July 2010. The Vincent Hunt Company specializes in assisting organizations in the conceptualization and development of breakthrough ideas for new products services and brands. http://vincenthuntco.com