HeroX

**Our Story** HeroX allows anyone in the global community to create a challenge, or propose a solution to a posted challenge. This capability to connect solvers with problems taps into the central tenet of open innovation: going to a wider community can provide richer and broader solutions than one’s immediate network. The concept and practice of open innovation is a relatively recent trend, but the use of a challenge to drive innovation has existed for centuries. One of the earliest examples was the 1716 Longitude Prize, which sought a technology to more accurately measure longitude at sea. Measuring longitude was a critical need to be able to navigate reliably across open seas and out-of-sight of land. A clockmaker named John Harrison recognized that being able to accurately tell time at sea would allow a ship to determine its longitude by comparing ship’s time with the local time based on sunrise or sunset. He went on to create the first marine chronometer, which in turn enabled an era of maritime-based trade and exploration. In 1800, Napoleon offered a 12,000 franc prize for a better method of preserving food, which was often spoiled by the time it reached the front lines of his armies. In response, Nicolas Francois Appert devised the method of sealing food in airtight glass jars and processing them in boiling water. This technique became the basis of the modern-day canning industry.