Introducing Brainstorming Requests
One of the main goals we have in developing Seenapse is to make it easier for you to be exposed to unusual or unexpected mental associations during your ideation process, because we know that this is a great way to come up with fresher, better ideas.
We also know that unusual mental associations are hard to come by when you are immersed in a particular field, and the people you brainstorm with have similar cultural backgrounds.
In Seenapse, you can benefit already from thousands of mental associations made by people with very diverse backgrounds (we represent 100+ different countries, for example), just by searching for the topic you’re working on, and seeing what connections lead you to new and interesting avenues of thought.
Sometimes, though, you may find few mental associations to help you in your task — and this is where our new brainstorming requests come in.
When you make a brainstorming request, we ask other seenapsers from diverse occupations and countries to free-associate things to the topic you’re working on, so that, within a few hours, you can explore an expanded, divergent space that will increase the chances that you come up with more, better ideas.
What do you need to make a brainstorming request?
Just two things:
- Letting us know which topic or topics you’re interested in (or better yet, which of the already existing seenapses can be used as the starting points). We don’t need to have any details, and when we ask other seenapsers for help we never disclose who’s making the request. You don’t have to worry about anybody knowing what is it you’re working on, or for whom.
- Apply some of your credits to the request. How do you earn credits? Easy, by helping your fellow seenapsers when they make their requests. Every time you respond to a request by making a seenapse (that is, connecting whatever you free-associate), within the timeframe defined by the requester (usually 24 hours), you get 10 credits. And every time you make a brainstorming request, you spend 50 credits, regardless of the amount of seenapses that people create for you.
Remember, since the only things that are shared in Seenapse are mental associations —and not specific solutions to specific problems—, when you make a brainstorming request you still have to come up with the solution/idea yourself, and therefore it is your idea; you just benefitted from prompts or stimuli from the Seenapse community that led you to it.
Conversely, when you participate in a brainstorming request, you’re not making other people’s homework —you don’t even know what they’re trying to accomplish. So nobody cheats, nobody steals, and we all help.
As we’re piloting this new feature, both making and receiving brainstorming requests will happen via email, and we’re going to be tallying your credits offline. Later in the semester, you will be able to see your credits in your profile, and also to create a brainstorming request directly from Seenapse.
We’re very excited about this new feature and hope you are too!
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to ask questions, give us feedback, or just to say hi.
