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Ideation on the Network is a way for a group of users to prioritize or to narrow down a set of ideas. Ideas can be sets of activities or concepts that your group wants to address, but due to resource constraints can only address a few at a given time.
An idea is a special kind of content. Like all social content, it can be discussed and shared. Users express their opinions about an idea by voting on it. When voting in favor of the idea, the system gives it 5 points, while voting down it removes 5 points.
Creating an idea is much like creating a document. You give your idea a title and type its content. As with documents, you can format the idea's content as you would apply formatting in any other piece of content on the Network.
Voting is only done on ideas in the "Active" Stage. Once a set of ideas is vetted, the stage can be changed by the group owner or forum admin to stages such as "Archived"; "For Future Consideration"; etc.
Everyone in the group can create (and see) an idea.The creator of the idea can set who can edit the actual idea. Not only can the admin or group owner change the stage of the idea, but they can also download an excel spreadsheet of all the ideas in a group. This spreadsheet includes the title, description, score, number of votes, number of comments, number watching, stage, author name, author email, and create date.
As users vote on an idea, their names (and how they voted) will be added to a list of whom voted. This list is displayed on the idea's page.
To Create an Idea, access the "Create" dropdown list and select the Idea action. The dropdown list can be accessed by either clicking on the Actions button located on the left side of any forum's banner or by clicking on the pencil icon that is to the left of your profile picture. Refer to the screenshots below for more help:
Clicking on the Ideation action will bring you to the following page, where you can title your idea, add details pertaining to its value, set it's publish location, and finally create the official idea.
