Spigit combines social network practices with a high dose of reputation management to determine the leaders in a community based on criteria such as "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" ratings. Members of the community are rewarded for their activity in the community with a virtual currency that is redeemable on gift sites such as Hallmark or internally.

Spigit's Java-based technology is predominantly used as a software as a service (SaaS), with a widget that integrates into Sharepoint pages. Spigit offers a Java and REST application provider interface (API). It is priced according to the size of the community. Spigit is now used by Fortune 200 companies, including IBM, Pfizer and Lloyds Banking Group.

The whole idea is built on the premise that innovation management is changing rapidly. In years past, a company would have a few brilliant technologists develop its technologies. If the technologies were a hit, the technologists would be rewarded greatly. In today's world, the entire community can participate. Managers can set ranking criteria. People's weight is determined according to their status in the community. Ideas get pushed up through the process as defined by the filtering and analytics. Along the way, community members are rewarded based on their participation.

Some additional Spigit features are:

• A dashboard that gives real-time results on activity, hot topics and contributions;
• Single sign-on for secure enterprise authenticatio;
• Workflow systems to manage ideas through the different stages of development.

Spigit is another company that is leveraging the huge Sharepoint installed base. We expect to see a number of new applications like Spigit emerge as the enterprise becomes more accepting of technologies that embrace the social Web.