Idea Street ideastreet.spigit.com
User Guide November 2009
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Contents Click on the headings below to go straight to that section.
1 Welcome to Idea Street
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Team member shares
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2 Post an Idea
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Trading
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Using the editor
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Payoff
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Idea homepage
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14 The Leaderboard
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Idea Stats
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15 Network with other users
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Uploading supporting documents
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My profile
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Inviting team members
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User stats and administration widget
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3 Find Ideas
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Updating your profile
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4 Comment on an Idea
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Uploading files
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Posting a comment on an Idea
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Your resume
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Editing a comment
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Invite others users
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5 Vote on an Idea
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Your ideas
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6 Review an Idea
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Your Watch
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Posting a review
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Team members
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Posting a comment to a review
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Privacy settings
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7 Join an Idea team
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Your Connections
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8 Contribute to the Wiki
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Your Connections’ Activity
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9 Become an Expert
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Your votes
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10 Earn DW-Peas
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Your recent activity
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The Idea Street currency
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Testimonials
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Earning DW-Peas
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Your portfolio
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Other users’ profiles
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Increasing your reputation
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Who’s online
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Decreasing your reputation
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11 Build a reputation
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16 Timed events
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Entering a Timed Event entry
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Buzz
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Commenting
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Teaming
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Voting
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Investment Time
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Timed Event leaderboard
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12 The Idea lifecycle
13 Trade shares
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17 Glossary
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1 Welcome to Idea Street
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Introduction Idea Street provides DWP employees with a way to contribute new ideas to various targeted categories created for the community. Ideas can be evolved, teams can be built around them, and users can review and assess them. Each idea goes through a series of stages, where it is required to meet minimum requirements to graduate to the next stage. During the last stage, an Idea Street investment board decides whether to take it forward or not.
[email protected] If you have any questions about Idea Street, please email
[email protected].
HT
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2 Post an Idea
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Do you have an idea? Click the “post an idea” link to get started with your idea.
The "post an idea” button can be found on the “All Ideas” page and on all category homepages. Once you have clicked on “post an idea”, simply fill in the required fields on the screen (ensuring you select the most relevant Category). After submitting your idea, you can always go back and edit your idea and improve it based on community feedback. Think of your idea as a living document. This is especially important when you receive suggestions or negative feedback and need to change or update your idea.
Using the Editor Using the rich text editor when posting your idea allows you to have more flexibility in how your idea displays. The top tab bar of the editor allows you to format your post, insert hyperlinks, insert images and video as well as paste text from Microsoft Word.
It is important to use the paste from Word icon if you are copying and pasting text from Word, so that the browser can properly read the text. To do this, click the paste from Word icon.
This will open a separate window where you can paste your text from Word. Copy what you want to add to the editor in Word, and then paste it into the window shown below and hit “Insert.”
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To add images to your post, click the tree icon.
This opens the image insert/editor window where you can click the browse icon to find pictures you want to use.
This will open the file manager where you can choose a picture from your computer or use one already uploaded.
Click the name of the image you want to insert and it will automatically load in the previewer.
Click “Insert” and the image will become part your post.
HT
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Idea Homepage Your idea has its own homepage, where you can view and edit your idea’s information and where other users can collaborate on your idea.
Idea Stats Graduation requirements for the current stage can be monitored from the “Idea Stats” widget on the idea’s homepage. Completed requirements show up in green; incomplete requirements show up in red.
The Idea Stats are only viewable for ideas that you have posted.
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Uploading Supporting Documents On the right hand side of your idea page you will also see a place where you can upload additional documents about your idea. Browse to find the file you want to upload- providing a title and a description for your document is optional- and click the “Upload Document” button. If the upload is successful, you should see a link in the “Documents” widget showing the document title or file name. You can make documents viewable only to users with certain roles (e.g. team member, expert, or moderator) within the community. Amend this by clicking on the padlock next to the document name.
Inviting Team Members As an idea owner, you can choose to invite team members to your idea. Other users who have similar interests can request to join as team members of your idea. Each idea will need at least 5 team members to progress from the “Teaming” to the “Investment time” stage. To invite team members, click the “recruit” link on your idea’s homepage, and then enter the name of the users who you think would make a good team member. You have up to 1000 preference shares in your idea to offer to other users to motivate them to promote and collaborate on your idea.
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3 Find Ideas
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Filtering and Searching for other Ideas By using the filtering feature on the “View Ideas” page, you can find other ideas you may be interested in. In the filter, you can search by category, idea author or keywords.
The filter can also be expanded by clicking the “advanced filter” button in the top right corner.
Using the advanced filter you can also filter by lifecycle stage, idea tags, user reputation, user role, and the dates on which the post either began or ended. The other option on the homepage is to sort the current ideas depending on what you are interested in.
The page will default to sorting by Recently Updated so that you can see the most recently modified content. The other sorting options are: Recent Ideas: Date of initial post Thumbs-Up: Number of positive votes Thumbs-Down: Number of negative votes
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4 Comment on an Idea
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Posting a Comment on an Idea On an idea’s homepage, you can post comments on the idea. There will be a “Post comment” field at the bottom of the page in which you can write your comment.
You can also post a reply to a previous comment by clicking the “Reply” link in the comment you want to reply to.
Editing a Comment You can also edit your posts by clicking the “Edit” link. The edit button can only be used when you are signed in and will only appear on your own posts.
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5 Vote on an Idea
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Voting Users can vote on whether or not they like or dislike an idea. Vote “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” using the buttons in the “Participate” box, located at the top of the idea’s homepage.
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6 Review an Idea
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Posting a Review In addition to simply voting, users may perform a more comprehensive review of an idea. The review screen can be accessed from the “submit review” button in the “Participate” box, or from the review widget, located on the right hand side of the idea’s homepage.
The weight of a review depends on the reviewer’s reputation; the higher the reputation, the greater the weight, and vice versa. Expert reviews have the greatest weight. You cannot review your own idea. Submit the review by clicking the “Post review” button at the bottom of the page.
Posting a Comment to a Review You can comment on reviews in the same way that you comment on an idea. If you would like to comment on a review, first click on the review. There is a button underneath the original review that says “post reply;” click on that to reply directly to the review.
You can also reply to a comment on that review by clicking “post reply” in the comment’s box. If you want to reply to both the original review and a comment(s), enter a title and your comment in the text field that says “Post Comment,” which is below all other comments. After entering your comment, click the “Post Comment” button to post it.
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7 Join an Idea team
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Becoming a Team Member If you find an idea that you would like to become a team member of, you can request to become a team member by clicking the “Become a Team Member” link on the idea’s homepage.
The owner of the Idea will approve or reject your request.
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8 Contribute to the Wiki
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The Idea Wiki Each Idea has its own Wiki page. An Idea’s Wiki page is an archive of users’ collected knowledge about an Idea. Any user can contribute to, or edit, an Idea’s Wiki page.
Viewing/ Contributing to an Idea’s Wiki To view or contribute to an Idea’s Wiki, click on “view Wiki” in the “Participate” box on each Idea’s home page.
If an Wiki page does not yet exist for an Idea, you will need to create it.
Click on “create it” or “edit” to create the page.
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9 Become an Expert
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“Experts” are users who are highly knowledgeable in a particular field/ category. Once an idea is in the Investment Time stage, it is the category Expert who will help to evaluate it and decide when it is ready to take forward to an investment panel.
Becoming an Expert The Idea Street admin can identify Experts, and add them to the Idea Street Expert panel. It is also possible for any user to request to become an Expert in a specific category. Click on “Be an Expert” on each category’s home page. An Idea Street admin will approve or reject your request.
Users must complete their profile details before they are able to submit a request to become an expert.
HT
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Earn DW-Peas return to contents
The Idea Street currency DW-Peas are the Idea Street currency. Each user starts with 25,000 DW-Peas.
Earning DW-Peas For different actions performed on the site, users earn an amount of currency. Members can earn for different activities, including posting content and ideas, reviewing, voting, and investing wisely in ideas. The more value you add to the site, the more currency you will earn. Action
Currency amount awarded
New account
25,000 DW-Peas
New user referral
5,000 DW-Peas
Vote (Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down)
10 DW-Peas
New idea
5000 DW-Peas
New discussion thread on sector message 1000 DW-Peas board New discussion thread on idea message 1000 DW-Peas board New review
200 DW-Peas
New comment on sector message board
500 DW-Peas
New comment on idea message board
500 DW-Peas
New comment on review
500 DW-Peas
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Build a reputation return to contents
Your reputation You earn a reputation based on your actions. Your reputation is directly correlated to your contributions, the feedback you receive, and the overall perception of the community of your contribution quality. Your reputation value can dramatically affect the outcome of different events as they relate to your earnings, status, and the results surrounding other outcomes and events where you directly (and indirectly) participate. The higher your reputation, the more impact you will have on the outcome of events.
Increasing your reputation If you continuously receive good feedback, have a good following of quality users who constantly engage with you, and have generally positive indicators around your membership, your reputation will be very high.
Decreasing your reputation If you do not contribute meaningfully, if you consistently post spam, if you don’t engage productively and produce good contributions, your reputation in turn will be very low.
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The Idea lifecycle return to contents
There are three stages in the idea lifecycle: Buzz, Teaming, and Investment Time. In each stage, ideas must reach certain graduation thresholds before it can graduate to the next stage. The graduation criteria may be altered depending on the number of users in Idea Street.
1. Buzz When the idea is entered on the system, it is automatically in the first stage called Buzz. Buzz This is when the community first provides their assessment of the ideas. It’s this assessment that determines whether the idea advances to the next stage. Users must create a “buzz” around their idea before it can progress. The criteria to advance from the Buzz stage to the Teaming stage are set relatively low, but at a level sufficient to filter out ideas with little chance of being implemented. In Buzz, there are four graduation tasks to be met within 45 days. Buzz Percentile [measures the amount of activity around an idea] Approval Rating [a rating of the ideas based on votes] Vote Count [number of votes] Qualified Page Views [number of page views. A user can have at most 1 page view for an idea every 15 minutes]
30% 30% 10 50
2. Teaming If the idea has met all the graduation criteria in the Buzz Stage it will automatically move to the Teaming stage. In this stage, the idea proposer needs to build a team of supporters around their idea before it can graduate to the Investment Time stage. In Teaming, there are seven graduation tasks to be met within 45 days. 30% 5 30% 5
Approval rating Team size Buzz percentile Conversation level [the number of conversations (comments between at least two people) on the idea] Number of posts [the number of comments] Qualified page views Rating [a reputation-weighted aggregate rating for each idea based on promote/demote votes and reviews posted on the idea]
5 100 3.0
3. Investment Time If the idea meets all the graduation criteria in the Teaming stage it will automatically be moved to the Investment Time stage, where you can begin to invest and trade in the idea. In the Investment Time stage, the Idea Market becomes the primary basis for valuing an idea. Whilst the idea is in the Investment Time stage an investment board will make a decision on the feasibility of the idea and either graduate the idea for implementation or archive it in the platform.
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Trade shares return to contents
Users can buy shares in ideas in the Investment Time stage. stage The initial price per share for an idea is determined by its strength in the prior stages. After going “public” on the Idea Market, shares of the idea can be bought and sold by employees. The buying and selling affects the share price of each idea.
Team member shares If you are invited to be a team member on an idea, you will be offered a portion of preferred stock in reward for supporting both the idea and the idea Creator. The idea owner starts with 1000 preferred shares which can be divvied up amongst the team members. The owner can keep some as well. Preferred shares are given as an incentive for the team members to help improve the idea. If the idea exits successfully, then all users are paid out based on their stock holdings.
Trading You can invest in the ideas in the Investment Time stage with your currency. The Idea Market functions much like a stock market. Employees buy and sell shares of ideas. Each employee can invest in any of the ideas based on how much currency they have earned in the system. You should buy into ideas which you like and believe can be implemented. You receive a payout of 100 points per share invested in any idea that graduates successfully. The buying and selling provide a signal into what ideas are capturing interest and what would be feasible to move forward with. You can see the trading summary on any idea page in the Investment Time stage by clicking “Share Summary”.
The initial share price for an idea is generated from an algorithm that takes into account the various metrics described in the previous section.
Payoff At some point after the idea has graduated to the Investment Time stage, a DWP investment board will decide to close an idea. At closing, they will indicate whether the idea has graduated through the platform successfully. If an idea has graduated successfully, shareholders will receive a payoff of 100 units of currency per share in the idea. It will also positively affect the reputation of those shareholders. If unsuccessful, shareholders will receive zero units of currency and their reputations will be negatively affected.
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The Leaderboard return to contents
The Leaderboard displays the top ideas, users and markets within the community based on a series of different metrics. This is a selection of the various “Leaderboard” statistics:
Top Ranked Ideas [stock “Leaderboard”]- Ideas in the trading stage ordered according to the stock price. Click the “More” link to see a full listing of all traded ideas. Most Popular- Ideas with highest Idea Street ranking computed by combining views, activity level, conversation level, approval rating, and review rating. Top Innovators- Users ranked according to their net worth. Net worth is computed by adding user cash balance to the most recently computed idea portfolio value. Valued Contributors- Members ranked according to the total number of positive votes received on posts submitted. The highest ranked users are those whose contributions have been well received by the community and have consequently built a high reputation.
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Network with other users return to contents
As you begin using on the site, you may find colleagues you would like to work with. There are social networking features of the site that allow you to connect with these colleagues.
My Profile “My Profile” contains information about you and can be found under the “My Profile” tab. When you click on the tab it takes you to your dashboard.
User Stats and Administration Widget The user stats and admin widget gives you a quick snapshot of your user statistics. The widget also provides quick links to edit your profile, and to upload any documents to your resource center.
Updating your Profile To update your profile, click the “edit profile” button in the upper left hand corner of the user stats and admin widget. You can enter in personal information, contact information, online profile, and a signature. You can upload your own avatar (the small square image that represents you on the site) by clicking the avatar bar to reveal the avatar upload area, or you can choose one of the default images. You can also change your password by clicking on the Change Password bar at the bottom of the page.
Uploading Files If you would like to upload a file, click on the “upload file” button in the user stats and admin widget. After uploading, you are given the URL where your file(s) can be found. This is in case you would like to add graphics to your posts; just upload the file and link it in your posts as instructed.
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Your Resume Click on “edit resume” on the left hand side of your dashboard to write and edit your resume information. Click on “view resume” to see how it looks to other users.
Invite other users If you have colleagues who are not on the site and who you think would be interested in joining the site, you can invite them from your profile page. Only people with email addresses ending in “@dwp.gsi.gov.uk”, “@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk” or “thepensionservice.gsi.gov.uk” can be added to Idea Street.
Your Ideas You can track the status of your ideas in the "My Ideas” widget on your dashboard. The widget provides up-to-date information on each idea’s current stage, rating, outstanding requirements (badges), and a quick link to view the idea’s homepage.
Your Watch You can choose to watch ideas, categories, threads, blogs or users. The “Your Watch” widget keeps track of the items that you are watching. You will receive a notification email for each new entry (thread, comment, etc.) created under any of your watched items. This can help you stay focused and updated on the information most important to you.
Team Members The “Team Members” widget will display any team member invitations you have accepted, as well as any pending invitations for existing ideas.
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Privacy Settings You can customise your privacy settings to your liking by using the widget labeled “Privacy Preferences.” Check the box next to “Allow members to send me emails” to allow other users to send you emails. If you want to give users the ability to view your profile, check the box next to “Show profile.”
Your Connections Your connections are other users whom you have added as connections because you want to work with them or want to make sure they know about your ideas or actions on the site.
A user will be sent an email saying you have requested to add him/her as a connection and can then choose to approve you as a connection. Once you have made a connection, the user and his/her actions will be listed on your profile so you can see what he/she is interested in and or working on.
Your Connections’ Activity Your connections’ activity includes any actions (posts, blogs entries, comments, threads or reviews) that your connections have made. Their most recent activity will show up on your dashboard. There you can see what ideas or activities your connections are involved in.
Your votes Your votes will show up on your dashboard along with the content that you have voted on and what your votes were. These will not be visible to other users.
Your Recent Activity Your recent activity includes any recent actions you have taken on the site. This will appear on your dashboard. It will say what action you took, and on what date and where the action was taken. This allows you to quickly reference your actions. You can easily find old posts, comments or reviews if you need to refer to them or modify them in any way. Your recent activity will also show up in your connections’ dashboards.
Testimonials Other users who know your knowledge and abilities may write testimonials to vouch for your qualifications. If you approve of them, they will be displayed on your profile.
Your Portfolio Your portfolio includes your various positions and values of holdings in the different types of markets where users participate:
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Innovation Portfolio – This reflects your holdings for different ideas in which you own shares, the base value (at purchase), the current value of each position, and the net gain/loss to date. Preferred Stocks – Preferred stocks are given to you when you become a team member of an idea. The idea owner can choose to give you as many preferred stocks as he/she deems appropriate.
Other users’ Profiles From another user’s profile page in the “Participate” box you can connect with the user, watch the user, email the user, or post a testimonial about the user: John Smith
Add connection – Adding another user as your connection will allow you to see your connections’ activities on your profile page, where you can follow their actions. Email user – If you want to quickly communicate with another user, click “Email user” to send an email to that user. Watch – If you choose to watch a user, you will get an email notification each time the user posts content on the site. If you are interested in a particular user’s project, this is a good way to follow it. Post Testimonial – Posting a testimonial for a user allows you to write an endorsement for that user. It is a good way to establish contacts on the site and help others learn about the quality of work of that user with whom they may not have worked previously or been in contact. Your testimonial is first sent to the user for approval before posting.
Who’s Online You can also check out who is currently online at the bottom of the “View All Ideas” homepage. This can help you collaborate more quickly on any idea or post.
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Timed events return to contents
Timed events are an easy way to get involved on the site. Post your entries, Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down other entries, and comment on entries.
Entering a Timed Event entry To enter a timed event entry or possible answer click on the Timed Event link on the right hand side of the All Ideas homepage, then click the “post entry” button on the right.
Commenting You can comment on timed event entries, just as you can to an idea.
Voting Vote up the entries you like and vote down the ones you don’t to help pick the winner.
Timed Event Leaderboard Access the timed event leaderboard from the main timed event page, not the “Leaderboard” tab. Click the “View the Leaderboard” link in the timed event page to view the timed event rankings.
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Glossary of Idea Street terms return to contents
General Approval Rating is a reputation weighted average of positive (1) and negative (0) votes. Buzz Percentile We compute the raw buzz by combining the number of posts and comments on an idea and qualified page views. The percentile is computed periodically (every 6 hours) over all currently active ideas. Conversation level The number of conversations (comments between at least two people) on the idea. DW-Peas The Idea Street virtual currency. Each user starts with 25,000 DW-Peas. Number of Posts Number of posts needed by other users to the idea owner’s idea before it is able to move to the next stage. Qualified Page Views Number of page views associated with a logged in user where a user can have at most 1 page view for an idea every 15 minutes. Rating A reputation-weighted aggregate rating for each idea based on promote/demote votes and reviews posted on the idea. Reputation Your reputation depends on the following factors: 1. Reputation of your connections, 2. Testimonials and reputation of the person giving you the testimonial, 3. Votes on your posts including ideas, 4. Reviews on your ideas, 5. Responses on your posts and the reputation of the responder Team Size Number of team members needed by an idea owner in order to move to next level
Leaderboard Most Popular Ideas Ideas with highest Idea Street ranking computed by combining views, activity level, conversation level, approval rating, and review rating. Top Innovators Users ranked according to their net worth. Net worth is computed by adding user cash balance to the most recently computed idea portfolio value. Top Ranked Ideas Ideas in the trading stage ordered according to the stock price. Valued Contributors Members ranked according to the total number of positive votes received on posts submitted. The highest ranked users are those whose contributions have been well received by the community and have consequently built a high reputation.
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