This week, we distill insights around the GE NFL Head Health Challenge - a $20 million open innovation challenge to mobilize innovators around head health. 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the iPad-friendly People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com

1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 11
GE NFL Head Health
Challenge

2. People’s Insights
100+ thinkers and planners within MSL- In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
GROUP share and discuss inspiring proj- projects at the intersection of social data,
ects on social data, crowdsourcing, story- crowdsourcing and storytelling, with a fo-
telling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP cus on projects that are shaping the Future
Insights Network. Every week, we pick up of Citizenship.
one project and curate the conversations
Do subscribe to receive our weekly insights
around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights
reports, quarterly magazines, and annual
Network itself but also on the broader
reports, and do share your tips and com-
social web — into a weekly insights report.
ments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
Every quarter, we compile these insights,
along with original research and insights
from the MSLGROUP global network, into
the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from our
year-long endeavor throughout 2012 to
provide foresights for business leaders and
changemakers — in the ten-part People’s
Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next:
Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engage-
ment.
People’s Insights People’s Insights People’s Insights
weekly report quarterly magazines Annual Report
Volume 2, Issue 10, Future of GE NFL Head
January - March, 2013 Citizenship Health Challenge

3. What is the GE NFL Head Health
Challenge?
In March 2013, GE and NFL launched the open The challenge launches amidst growing concerns
innovation Head Health Challenge to mobilize around the safety of professional footballers.
innovators around head health: to help diagnose CNN’s Chris Isidore notes the importance of this
mild traumatic brain injury and improve the safety initiative not only for the NFL, but also the larger
of athletes, members of the military and society public:
overall. The challenge is a part of the Head
Health Initiative a new four-year, $60 million “Experts say beyond the legal risks, the growing
partnership between GE and NFL to research the concern about football’s brain injuries could hurt
brain. the sport’s popularity. The threat of brain damage,
especially to young players, is prompting a growing
number of parents to hold their sons back from
playing competitive football…
“People outside of football, including injured
members of the military and those with
degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s, will also benefit from the joint
effort.”
How it works
Like most online collaborative social innovation
initiatives, the Head Health Challenge follows
a contest model in which GE and NFL post the
challenge on a platform and invites individuals,
groups of individuals or other organizations to
Source: nflgebrainchallenge.com
submit innovations.
Forbes’s Monte Burke explains the initiative: NY Times’ Judy Battista explains the
crowdsourcing process:
“There will be two parts. The first will involve a $40
million research project headed up by GE, designed “G.E. would run, with an initial investment of $20
to better diagnose mild head trauma and predict million, what it calls an innovation challenge,
its outcomes. The second will be two different asking inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists and
challenges, led by Under Armour, but accessible to academicians to submit ideas for how safety
anyone and called the “open innovation challenge.” equipment could be improved. The most promising
The first of those will also involve diagnosis and ideas would be selected, financed and brought to
prognosis. The second will focus on trying to design market, opening the field to ideas that have not
materials that help protect the head from trauma.” sprung from G.E. or helmet manufacturers.”
The $20 million prize money will be spread over
the two parts of the challenge. Part I launched
in March 2013 and calls for submissions by July
2013. Part II is scheduled to launch in the second
half of 2013 and continue into 2014.
Source: forbes.com
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4. Source: ninesights.com
Proposals are judged according to set of For instance, since the launch of the GE
technical criteria, and a panel of external medical ecomagination Challenge to find innovations
experts will advise GE and NFL on the selection in energy and sustainability, GE has committed
of awardees. The Head Health Challenge offers $134 million to 22 investments and commercial
two types of Guided Funding Awards designed to partnerships, granted $1.1 million in seed funding
enable collaboration between GE and NFL and to early stage companies and entrepreneurs, and
the award winners. Awards range from $100,000 acquired one of the businesses that entered the
to $300,000 and will support development of challenge.
proof of concept. Awardees will receive the cash
in installments – the first after agreeing to a
guided funding plan with GE and NFL, and the
second upon submission of a progress report
after six months. This structure instills the need
for accountability and protects the interests of
GE and NFL, while also providing a structured
approach for the award winners.
At the completion of the funding and concept
development, winners have the opportunity
to discuss additional funding or business Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF1UCsLn8Fs
relationships with GE and NFL.
In addition to the series of ecomagination
Collaborative social innovation challenges around sustainable living, GE has also
launched a Healthymagination Challenge to find
at GE solutions in the fight against breast cancer.
GE has launched several similar open innovation
challenges as part of its business strategy, to
co-create innovative and sustainable solutions
that create shared value. With this model of
crowdsourcing, GE is usually looking to invest
in or acquire the innovation, or promote it by
supporting it with its business scale.
Volume 2, Issue 11, Future of GE NFL Head
January - March, 2013 Citizenship Health Challenge

5. Why open Innovation Big data and sensors in
New this year is GE’s decision to launch the healthcare
challenge on open innovation platform Nine One of the possible areas of innovation in the
Sigma, which has a community of 2 million Head Health Challenge involves the use of
solution providers including businesses, sensors as a research tool. As Education Week’s
universities, government agencies and Bryan Toprek notes:
innovators. The challenge is also open to
innovators beyond the NineSigma community. “In an interview with the Associated Press after
Monday’s announcement, Goodell mentioned the
In a recent TEDx Talk, Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of possibility of players wearing helmets with sensors
open innovation platform Innocentive, highlights to help detect hits that could cause concussions.
the benefit of tapping into crowds: Such helmets are already being used by
“What we have created are systems where we researchers to determine the severity of hits during
build large facilities and large buildings full of youth-football practices, for instance.”
the researchers that we think can solve the most
important problems. We hire the best in the world
to work on those problems, but we all know the
fundamental limitation of that kind of system. We
couldn’t hire all the smartest people in a given field Source: bigstory.ap.org
if we wanted to, we can’t.”
In our previous People’s Insights reports, we have
On the Head Health Challenge website, GE examined the use of sensors, wearable tech and
shares its own experience with crowdsourcing: data to drive behavioral change and help people
make better decisions (see our weekly report
“The power of collaboration between diverse
on the Nike FuelBand. These technologies are
networks cannot be overstated. Our experience
now becoming more common as start-ups and
has shown us that at GE we don’t have all of the
big health care companies explore the use of
solutions, but rather the unique opportunity to
sensors and data as a research tool, to identify
seek out great ideas and accelerate their growth.
new patterns.
We can leverage our scale and expertise to nurture
innovation wherever its seeds grow.” GigaOM’s Ki Mae Heussner notes:
GE and NFL play complementary roles within “In the last couple of months, startups like Brain
their partnership. In an interview with Fast Sentry and X2 Bio systems, which use sensors to
Company, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell monitor head impact, have attracted funding from
noted the need for a partner to process the investors.”
proposals and derive solutions:
Heussner also notes:
“I must get several proposals a day: ‘We have a
solution,’ ‘We have the next best material,’ ‘We’ve “Already, big companies and emerging startups
got the helmet.’ We don’t have a disciplined system are leading the way in the smart use of data. At
to evaluate and learn from each of those, because GigaOM’s recent Structure: Data conference,
it’s usually not one or the other. Maybe it’s the Aetna’s head of innovation Michael Palmer talked
combination. That’s the challenge of innovation.” about how the company is using data to prevent
diabetes and heart attacks. Startup Asthmapolis
And, GE CEO Jeff Immelt pointed out NFL’s (which this week raised $5 million) is using GPS
potential to “make brain advancements a public data collected via sensors attached to inhalers
priority”: to help individuals, physicians and public health
officials uncover asthma-related patterns.”
“With a lot of research, you really want a catalyst so
other people will join in. Very few institutions have We cover the rise of data and sensors in our
the convening power that the NFL does.” annual reports on Behavior Change Games and
Collective Intelligence.
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6. People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary comment on other people’s content and
crowdsourcing platform and approach that collaborate to find innovative solutions.
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform insights and foresight approach, which consists
helps organizations build and nurture public of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
label communities around four pre-configured specific insights communities, and ethnographic
application areas: Expertise Request Network, deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Innovation Challenge Network, Research & Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
Insights Network and Contest & Activation capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
Network. Our community and gaming features insights from conversations and communities.
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab

7. For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com