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Starmind is an know-how trading community where users from all over the world join to pose questions on any subject they choose, in the hopes that another member of the site will have the skills or knowledge required to solve the question. The Starmind community has several thousand members and has received world-wide acclaim from both business and academic institutions, with a number of feature articles - a list of these articles is given on the Starmind blog [] Open innovation websites like Starmind are becoming increasingly popular for companies looking to out-source problem solving and find creative approaches to the business problems they face. There are three listed categories for questions: 'Business', 'Science' and 'Daily Life'. When a question is posed, the user that posed it usually uploads a cash reward transferable to any member of the site that solves it to a satisfactorily high standard. In addition, each new user has the option to pose up to three 'Pioneer' questions that have no reward. Users solve these questions in order to build up their reputations so that other solvers will be more likely to view the solutions they submit.

History
'Starmind' has its roots at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Zurich, Switzerland []. It was born out of the Undergraduate Opportunities Program or UROP. It is the brainchild of entrepreneur and neuro-scientist Pascal Kaufmann, who felt that the current model SiROP was an inadequate tool because it did not reach out to a global audience.

Since the pilot version was set up in 2006 Starmind has been steadily growing its user-base. It has been featured in several Swiss newspapers and websites.

Company
Starmind is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Members of the site that create problems to be solved are called 'Question Posers' and those that submit solutions are called 'Question Solvers'. A user is free to be both a poser and a solver. There is a feedback system in place whereby users are allowed to rate the performance of other users they come into contact with.

Each user has a profile page detailing information about themselves and their education. There is a messaging system in place so that users can send each other private messages, as well as adding each other as 'brainpower friends', in a manner similar to social networking sites such as facebook. Sometimes users of the site are called 'Starminds'.

As Starminds progress with their question solving and posing, they are given titles or 'fellowship awards' to document their achievements. The first award to be received is a Starmind Bronze fellow, and the highest accolade is to become a 'Starmind Master'. With some of the awards come vouchers for posing free questions, and Starmind Platinum fellows receives a certificate and a recommendation letter by an affiliated university professor. Starmind Masters are invited to attend the international Starmind awards 2010.

The community now has several thousand active users in many countries around the world, including Switzerland, the UK, Germany, France, and Italy as well as other European countries; India, American, Australia and China. Currently questions can be posted in English, German or Chinese. Over two thousand questions have been posed with rewards ranging from 'pioneer' questions that are solved for free to several thousands of euros.

As a differentiator, posted financial rewards can rise over time from a defined minimum to a defined maximum. User trade their know-how when the height of rewards and the time needed to invest for compiling a solution match.

The company has received funding from several organizations including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ] and the University of Zurich.[]

In December 2009 Swiss Bank UBS posted a national contest offering a 3000 EUR. reward for the most creative concepts on innovative Web 2.0 solutions to boost its banking services. The contest was won by Starmind Gold fellow Amancio Bouza.

The questions that have been posed on Starmind range from neuroscience, mathematics , philosophy and physics to simple lifestyle questions such as where to eat out in an attractive restaurant in Zurich.

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