Photo: Maritza Tortolero

The Association of Spanish Internet Users has awarded Ana María Llopis this year’s Internet Award 2013 for her career in the Internet and Innovation sectors. The prize will be awarded this coming May 17, coinciding with World Internet Day.

Apart from being the founder of ideas4all, in 1997 Ana María also founded Openbank, Santander Group’s online bank.

She is, of course, an active social media user who you can follow in various networks:

ideas4all
Twitter @anamariallopis
LinkedIn
Instagram
SlideShare
Her personal blog: Quatremots

Congratulations Ana María!

This Saturday, we will be joining forces with Earth Hour 2013, like we do every year, for the protection of our environment. Last year, “over 7,000 cities in 150 countries turned their lights off in their most important monuments and iconic buildings” in a gesture of support for the movement, and to create awareness of the need to save energy and use it responsibly.

This year, the challenge is even greater as we also try to promote the use of renewable energy and the reduction of CO2 emissions. We can all help make our Planet a better place.

If you too wish to take part, turn off your lights from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm this Saturday, March 23.

Join us!

Today sees the official launch of the ideas platform created by Santander’s City Council: enter www.santandercitybrain.com and take a look! You can sign up and help improve the city of Santander with your ideas.

The platform kicks off with a competition in search of “ideas that use current technology (Internet, Smartphones, Geolocation) to find solutions, improvements and suggestions that are original, innovative or useful. These ideas can be meant for any of the services, products or spaces that Santander provides for its citizens.” An iPad will go to the winner, and the three runners-up will win an iPhone 5.

Tell your friends and take part with your ideas!

We are pleased to announce the official launch, the next week, of the Santander City Brain, a platform created in collaboration with ideas4all.

The Santander City Brain will look to become an open and transparent space where all of Santander’s citizens can share ideas and projects that will help improve the city.

Apart from Santander’s City Council, the initiative has also enjoyed the support of IBM and Banco Santander, through its technology services company, ISBAN.

Smart cities are key to innovation in urban spaces and we are very glad to be able to take part in a pioneering project such as Santander City Brain. We encourage all of you to come and visit this new amazing platform.

Image seen on Ingeniería para optimistas

The large cities we know and live in are constantly growing and overrunning rural areas, but this unstoppable growth may have found a point of equilibrium thanks to the technology that will make major urban areas intelligent. This will help reduce excessive population and will make living together easier, as well as processes like distribution and resource allocation. We’re talking about Smart Cities.

New technology has finally reached a stage of development in which it can significantly improve the lives of a city’s inhabitants. A Smart City is one in which technology is made completely available to citizens through intelligent administration, government, economy, mobility, buildings…

There are already examples of Smart Cities like Málaga, Amsterdam, Boston, and rankings like the Top 10 Smart Cities in North America, or the Top 10 Smart Cities in Europe.

There is no unique model for a Smart City, and each city approaches the concept in its own particular way, with different projects and objectives.

The example we want to share here is Santander, a city that is looking to pioneer the movement in Spain inviting its citizens and entrepreneurs to take part in “Santander City Brain”, an open community of ideas in which citizens will be able to participate and, above all, submit projects to improve their city, which may be developed and put into practice.

We are very happy to announce that ideas4all will be the chosen platform for “Santander City Brain”, taking part in this innovative and pioneering project along with Santander’s City Council, ISBAN and IBM. For example, competitions will be organized for entrepreneurs with business projects for the city, with prizes and support to get them started. Now it will be Santander’s own citizens who will continue making their city one of the most intelligent in Spain, thanks to their ideas in different categories such as: energy efficiency, environment, sustainable mobility, city planning and building, etc.

As you probably know, the “Ideas Map” in ideas4all shows you where ideas are being shared in the world. What is most interesting is that you can see which country and cities give more ideas to the community.

But that’s not all you can find out using the Ideas Map: you can also see which countries and cities raise more challenges in search for a solution.

Here are the rankings, by country and city.

Check out this year’s top 10 at ideas4all.
Eyes up, here they come!

Again this year, the entire team at ideas4all wants to wish you a very happy holiday season and a wonderful 2013 in our traditional Christmas video: Let every change bring out new ideas!

Merry Christmas to all!

English subtitles available

Since ideas4all was born–5 years ago now–we have continued to evolve and look for new ways of offering our users (You) help in sharing ideas and improving the ideas of others. Our objective is to create one big meeting space for the world of ideas, innovative minds and anyone who wishes to share ideas and ensure something is made of them.

After listening to all your suggestions, shared through the category “Ideas to improve ideas4all”, on which we have been working for almost a year, we are now, at long last, launching the brand new design and functions.

The first innovations you will find are:

- You will be able to vote without being registered, making it far easier for you to share ideas with friends, who will be able to vote without being registered.
- Vote for ideas without having to access their full text, so that you can read more ideas directly from the results page.
- A new space for you to include a Bio in your profile, and a link to your blog or profile in social networks, so that the community can get to know you better.
- Decide where you want to receive notifications: email, twitter, your personal feed.

This is only the beginning– there will be more functions available soon, such as: Private and Public Rooms to share ideas in groups, or Private Messages between users. They’re almost ready!

Of course, we will continue having Monthly Challenges and competitions. We hope you like this renewed ideas4all that will make it simpler to share ideas and become part of one big creative community.

The first meeting with ideas4all’s B2B clients took place this week in Madrid’s Repsol Foundation. The meeting brought together companies with their own ideas social networks, either for their employees only or for employees as well as customers, as is the case with La Mutua. Companies like Repsol, Banco Sabadell, Acciona or Altran shared their most positive experiences. Each one presented excellent results, expressed at the meeting with statistics and data, as well as best practices in the resolution of challenges, improvement of services, or the proposal of new products… even new ways of adding social value.

Fernando Bueno, Organization and Innovation Director at La Mutua insurance company during his presentation.

Luis Martínez Díaz Repsol GLP Innovation sharing  Experience on idea generation for factories at  Repsol Perú and España.

The meeting featured a closing presentation by Ana María Llopis, ideas4all’s CEO, on upcoming trends in the open innovation sector.

We would like to send a warm greeting to all of you who share ideas4all’s enthusiasm for innovation. And a special thank-you to the companies sharing our path and motivating us to continue working in the world of ideas.