The open source movement has been very successful in creating tens of thousands of very useful software solutions. We explored what drives this success and how organizations can harvest the same approach. Humans become highly engaged when given the chance to share their ideas among their peers and within a larger community (both internally and externally). To support this approach, we constructed a web portal that embraces the open source innovation principles and facilitates the fostering, harvesting and recognition of employee ideas. In fact, the portal was developed using those very open source principles. And in the spirit of the open source movement, we share our approach and enabling technology with the community.

The approach is simple:

• Anyone can propose an idea (scratch an itch - as they say in the open source world)

• Others can easily browse, view and support those ideas (visibility)

• Ideas are tracked through three stages:

  ​ i) Idea - where an idea or project proposal is initially received.

  ​ ii) Proof of Concept (PoC) - where the idea is transformed into practice (e.g., prototype, pilot, presentation, ...)

  ​ iii) Impact - when the idea is recognized to have made a purposeful impact on the organization or open source community.

• Where recognition is easy to achieve even when juggling 100s (if not 1000s) of ideas and project proposals.

The Installation Guide can be found here:

The project is provided under the Apache 2.0 license. A copy of the license text can be found in the LICENSE.txt file located in the project’s top-level directory. Because this project is built on other open source components, different files may be under different licenses. As a rule of thumb, each source file should include a license notice that designates the licensing terms for that respective file (unless the file was autogenerated).

All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this software are for identification purposes only.

Disclaimer of Warranty / No Support: Wind River does not provide support and maintenance services for this software, under Wind River’s standard Software Support and Maintenance Agreement or otherwise. Unless required by applicable law, Wind River provides the software (and each contributor provides its contribution) on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties of TITLE, NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing the software and assume any risks associated with your exercise of permissions under the license.