Can a Single Good Idea Save Detroit?

Earlier this week, the innovation platform OpenIDEO (slogan: "where people design better, together") announced the Vibrant Cities Challenge, the latest in a series of design competitions ranging from increasing the number of bone marrow donors to using technology to help human rights workers. Its first challenge partner was celebrity chef Jamie Oliver; the group has since worked with Amnesty International, Oxfam, Nokia, and Unilever, among others. Since launching August 2010, OpenIDEO has tackled eleven challenges and involved over 20,000 participants from 170 countries.

For the Vibrant Cities Challenge, OpenIDEO has partnered with Steelcase with the goal of exploring the rather broad goal of revitalizing cities. But like many of the other prompts listed on the OpenIDEO site ("how can we better enable inclusion of everyone," for example), this urban challenge, though noble, is far more geared to what IDEO refers to as the "inspiration" end of things than the solution side. We chatted with OpenIDEO’s co-lead and co-founder Nathan Waterhouse about how the Vibrant Cities Challenge came about and how (and whether) it transforms ideas into real change.