City of Manor launches Manor Labs to crowdsource innovative ideas

On October 27, 2009, the City of Manor, Texas launched a new effort to crowdsource innovation in an effort called Manor Labs.

Manor Labs is a platform that allows individuals the mechanism to contribute new ideas and solutions for existing problems. Instead of constricting the innovation process to just agency employees, the City of Manor allows anyone to participate regardless of where they live. The benefit to the end-user is that they are rewarded with “Innobucks” for their participation in the innovation process. These “Innobucks” can be traded in for real products donated by local companies and partners, which provides users a tangible benefit for their participation.

In addition, Manor has found that most agencies are working on solving the same problems, however, no collaboration platform currently exists between agencies. As a result, the City of Manor will utilize Manor Labs to publish their research and development for other agencies to learn from.

For more information about Manor Labs, you can visit http://www.manorlabs.org or e-mail innovations@cityofmanor.org. You can also follow Manor Labs on Twitter and Facebook.