IdeaScale enables companies to build living/breathing Digg style communities. IdeaScale is based on the simple model of crowdsourcing. It begins with an idea posted to your IdeaScale community by a user. Each idea can be expanded through comments by the community. The ultimate measure of an idea is determined by a voting system. Any idea can be voted to the top or buried back down to the bottom. It combines the "wisdom of the crowds" concept with Web 2.0 models like Digg.

You can access IdeaScale from any of our tools by clicking on the IdeaScale link on the Top Left Corner:

IdeaScale is currently in Beta. If you want to try it out please create an account.

Our current plan is to go live on June 1st -- Depending upon how the Beta goes.

Two options:

1. You can email us your comments : blog [at] surveyanalytics [dot] com (A human will respond!)
2. You can post your comments on the QuestionPro IdeaScale Portal (Yes, we have an IdeaScale for IdeaScale!) -- http://questionpro.ideascale.com (under the IdeaScale category)

Although we originally envisioned it for companies, we are realizing that this can be a great tool for bloggers and personal sites also. We will be releasing a widget also soon, that can be posted into your blog to see the top rated ideas etc.

We will be offering various levels of security (From all open/all access to all closed moderated access) -- If you get access to the tool, you'll see the different security levels-- Currently we offer 4 different security levels depending upon your needs -- From open access to completely closed access.

• Security Settings : Details

Yes - You can designate anyone as a moderator. Moderators can delete, edit ideas -- Mark ideas as completed as well as reject ideas.

• Setting Up Moderators

There are a couple of ways -- One of which is the "Track This Idea" feature. Users can specifically "subscribe" to an idea and track the discussion for that idea. RSS feeds for the IdeaScale is also available.

Users who post ideas, automatically get notifications of changes to status as well as comments etc.

Finally there are "leaderboards" of the top posters, commenters etc.

See here : http://questionpro.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/88-393

• SAML/Single Signon - Details

Pricing will likely similar to what we do with QuestionPro:

• A free license for Personal/Blogger use
• An Corporate/Enterprise license that has features that most likely companies would need (Single Signon, SSL, Attachment Support etc.)

Any Idea/Voice of Customer portal has it's own pro's and cons. From a macro level :

1. The tool is very powerful -- In eliciting responses. There is enough social-science research done about the fact that users are willing and happy to give you their opinion and feedback.
2. Agility In Business -- As organizations go larger, it's a natural tendency to become less agile. There are many ways to overcome this and an IdeaScale type portal can allow your company to think about agility.
3. Prevent Dilution -- One of the challenges is for companies to infuse new ideas and thought without dilution. Corporate structures usually dilute radical ideas before they are presented to stakeholders. IdeaScale type portals not only give customers access to express their opinions, but also senior level executives to touch and feel the undiluted feedback
4. Bi-Directional Direct Access -- With IdeaScale type portals, the levels of bureaucracy are greatly reduced. Anyone in your company can login to the IdeaScale portal to view suggestions and any customer can also login and post suggestions. This helps breaks down corporate barriers.
5. Rapid Turnaround -- Once the community is established and vibrant, the same community can be used for vetting internal ideas and suggestions also. It can act as a first filter layer on new ideas and suggestion that are generated internally.

1. The Crowd can turn into a Mob -- There is a real threat that a few very vocal and loud users can disrupt the activity of the crowd. Moderators need to be aware of this and make sure that they are actively looking for such issues.
2. Your company is not agile -- Backlash is a real threat when suggestions take too long to implement or an implementation strategy is not thought about. It's one thing to get good ideas, and it's another to implement them and show rapid progress.

Yes - You own the data and can download the registered members anytime. When users signup with IdeaScale they are signing up with YOUR portal -- Not a global IdeaScale portal. So, if your IdeaScale portal is at mycompany.ideascale.com -- they are all users of mycompany.ideascale.com, not ours.

Yes - You can customize the Header and Footer if you are familiar with HTML. You can also customize the HTML for each of the pages etc.

We are discussing this right now: See:

• http://questionpro.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/674-393

Yes - You can create your own categories and all the data is segmented by those categories. If you have multiple products you can create categories for each of your product lines or even create categories for different areas you'd like feedback on (Website, Customer Service etc.)

• Details on Categorization

Yes - see below:

IdeaScale - Introduction Creating IdeaScale Portal - How To? Editing IdeaScale Settings Managing Ideas - Editing/Deleting etc.

Set users as Moderators - How to? Categorizing Ideas/Topics Tagging and Related Ideas RSS Feeds for IdeaScale