Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

1. What is spigit? What is the simulation engine? How does it work?

spigit is a platform that provides professionals the ability to showcase new ideas and innovations and in the process build their professional network. Companies and Entrepreneurs can obtain feedback-contributions-ratings from employees, partners and customers. Through our proprietary simulation they can build and refine an idea, find the right resources to contribute, create buzz, and calculate a multitude of targeted metrics to provide insight into viability and simulate the likelihood of success.

The spigit simulation engine measures and quantifies interactions on social networks. The spigit simulation engine captures dynamic feedback from all participants, tracking hundreds of dynamic events and through a series of algorithms, computes results producing valuable predictions and identifies key social connections to maximize professional and economic gains.

2. What are the 3 phases of the simulation?

spigit simulation takes ideas through three lifecycle stages before they graduate and move on to become successful in the real world. The first two stages, called Incubation and Validation, have specific requirements and milestones that must be achieved in order to move on to the next stage. The milestones require exceeding threshold levels set for team effort, idea quality, and the buzz level surrounding the idea.

When an idea meets all requirements for the first two stages, it enters the Emergence stage. In the Emergence stage, ideas enter the spock market, a virtual stock market in which spocks where interesting ideas are bought and sold, with spigits, at the current market price.

3. How long does the simulation last? When does it end?

The length of the spigit simulation is open ended, and ends when the founder of an idea decides that an idea has reached its peak market capitalization. While theoretically it is possible for an idea to continue far beyond the point where peak market capitalization is achieved, it is in the founder's best interest to end the simulation at a high point in order to maximize the spigit closing price for believers and investors.

High scores are calculated over the course of a season, which is typically three months for public ideas, and start and end at regular quarters throughout the year (i.e. Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, etc.) − the first season will start on July 18th and end at the end of September.

4. How does crowd-sourcing help to develop an idea or business?

Crowd-sourcing allows ideas and concepts to evolve and emerge through participation and contributions of a diverse audience. While subject matter expertise is relevant, it is also meaningful to gain feedback from customers, potential partners, investors, as well as gauge general public perception.

5. What are the different ways that I can participate?

You can participate in the spigit community as a general participant/professional, as the founder of an idea or company, or as an expert or moderator in various subject areas or sectors. Founders take their idea through the 3 stages of the simulation in order to gain valuable feedback from participants and achieve the highest market capitalization for the idea or company. Participants share feedback and contribute to ideas and posts in order to build their reputation index in various areas, as well as establish connections with other participants to build their professional network. Experts and moderators add subject matter expertise and quality content and maintain the integrity of the simulation and professional network. Expert status can be reached by achieving subsequent levels of participation and reputation.

Registration

6. How do I register?

You can register at www.spigit.com − click on the register button. You can get started by entering a few key fields to establish your account. Once you have established your account, you can login and build your full professional profile and start contributing ideas.

7. Does it cost anything to participate?

Presently participation is free to the general public for standard functionality. At a subsequent date, spigit will introduce premium features and services for participants and idea founders to maximize their potential of their membership.

8. What information is required for registration?

Only basic information is required to get started. This includes username, password, email, and who referred you if applicable.

9. What if I forget my username or password?

No problem. Click on the user login button, then click forgot password. Enter your email address. Your account information will be sent to you.

10. Do I have to be a member to contribute content?

You may view public ideas and profiles in any public sector, however, in order to post, comment, or rate ideas you must have a valid user account.

Posting an Idea

11. How do I post an idea?

It's simple − first identify the sector that best matches your new idea or thread. Click on post idea. Complete all of the necessary information for your idea and submit. Once approved, your idea is posted in the appropriate sector so participants can rate and contribute to your idea. You can edit your idea as needed through your profile and add content and documents as you go. The simulation game starts when your idea approved and available for public review.

12. Do I have to be a company to enter an idea?

Anyone can enter a new idea, product, service or company on spigit. All ideas are currently moderated and approved prior to posting. While anyone can post any idea, it is best to have thought through your idea enough to provide some meaningful insight on the value of your idea.

13. How is my idea protected?

This is a common question. spigit cannot offer any special patent protection at this time for new ideas. It is strongly suggested that you only post ideas, new products, services or companies when you are comfortable with publicly contributing them. This strongly applies if your idea pertains to delivering a technology, product or service that you expect to deliver commercially. The timing on this varies from person to person, whether it's when you have completed significant work to establish distance between competitors, can't find the time to make develop the idea but to at least get some recognition, etc. spigit does not currently provide patent services, however, please check for service providers in our network that could possibly help. You do, however, have the ability to protect individual documents you upload and elect to share with selected resources.

14. Who can see my idea?

As part of the initial launch, all ideas are public and everyone can see it. spigit has functionality will allow premium and enterprise users to set preferences on participation by specific users or sectors. If you set your preferences to only allow sector specific or invite only access, then your idea will be set accordingly.

15. How long does it take from when I submit my idea until it is posted on the site?

Currently this process can take up to 24 hours; however, this will eventually happen in real-time.

16. How many ideas can I submit?

You can submit as many good ideas as you can come up with. Remember though that this is a professional network, and your ideas are a reflection of you as a professional. Quantity is good as long as quality is not compromised.

17. What if the idea I submit falls into two or more categories?

You have to select one category where to post at this time. We are currently working on adding functionality for cross-category submissions.

18. What are the types of additional content I can submit?

Anything that contributes to evangelizing your idea is recommended. Videos, Schematics, Business Plans, and the like are all helpful.

19. What if more than one person has the same idea?

Ideas are commodities, and competition is good. spigit does not limit the number of submissions on any given idea. Having multiple submissions on a given idea provides credibility to the idea and increased exposure.

20. Can I withdraw my idea?

You can abort your idea in the first two stages. In the third stage, you can close your idea and end the simulation at your discretion, preferably at a point that is close to the high spock price to maximize gains for your believers and investors.

21. Can I make changes to my idea after I submit it?

Yes, your idea should be constantly evolving based on participation and feedback. You can add and edit content on an ongoing basis.

22. How will I know when my idea passes to the next stage of the simulation?

The “spigitometer” will let you know as you approach completion for Stages 1 and 2. Also, as you move through each stage, you will acquire a badge that represents completion of each milestone. You can track your progress against this to determine what else you must complete to pass to the next stage of the simulation.

23. What happens with the highest rated ideas?

The highest rated ideas (by market capitalization) at the end of each period are awarded the spigit Splash! Award - a prestigious honor. Award winners receive significant benefits and awards from our sponsors, as well as full recognition and visibility of their accomplishments among the community and publicly.

24. Is my idea eligible for awards across periods?

For ideas, scores for winning awards are based on highest peak market capitalization for the quarter. It is expected that not all ideas will be posted at the start of the quarter and may not achieve peak market capitalization in the originating quarter. Hence, ideas can be carried across quarters. However, in any reward period, peak market capitalization will be the peak market capitalization achieved during that quarter.

25. What if I think one of the ideas is offensive?

Any offensive or inappropriate content should be immediately reported to support@spigit.com

26. My idea includes adult content, can I submit it?

No, we do not accept submissions containing adult content. Any submissions containing adult content will be immediately removed. If you come across content that is offensive or inappropriate, please contact as support@spigit.com − reporting functionality is currently under development and will become an embedded feature in the near-term.

27. Why aren't participants contributing to my idea?

The first to stage of the game are dedicated to achieving minimum participation and quality requirements. If your idea is good and you qualify it well, then the spigit community will help you meet those requirements and generate good buzz. It is in the best interest of participants to contribute quality content, as good feedback is reflected in their reputation rating and is paramount to building a meaningful professional network. Keep in mind, it is also your responsibility is to interact with the community to maintain that buzz and build support. The more content you contribute, the more you post threads, and the more you respond to you audience, the greater the return. Also, you should attempt to accurately tag your idea as well, so your idea can be identified through association and search.

Posting a Thread

28. What is the purpose of threads?

Threads provide opportunity for commentary and discussion on specific ideas, sectors and the community. Participants can start threads and participate to build their spigit bank, and are recognized by the community for the quality of contributed content, which is factored into different reputation scores associated to their profile.

29. How do I post a thread?

It's simple − first identify the sector or idea that best matches your new thread. Click on post thread. Complete all of the necessary information for your idea and submit. The community can now rate and contribute. Participation is quantified by the spigit simulation engine. You can edit your thread as you go.

30. Who can post a thread?

Anyone who is a member of the spigit community can post a thread on spigit. All threads are currently moderated and approved prior to posting. While anyone can post any thread, it is best to post threads that are meaningful and relevant, as they are reflected in your spigit reputation rating.

31. Who can see my thread?

As part of the initial launch, all threads are public and everyone can see it. spigit has functionality will allow premium and enterprise users to set preferences on participation by specific users or sectors. If you set your preferences to only allow sector specific or invite only access, then your idea or sector and subsequent threads will be set accordingly.

32. How long does it take from when I submit my thread until it is posted on the site?

Currently this process can take up to 24 hours; however, this will eventually happen in real-time.

33. How many threads can I submit?

You can submit as many good threads as you can come up with. Remember though that this is a professional network, and your threads and contributions are a reflection of you as a professional. Quantity is good as long as quality is not compromised.

34. What if the thread I submit falls into two or more categories?

You have to select one category where to post at this time.

35. What are the types of additional content I can submit?

Currently threads do not support additional documentation.

36. Can I make changes to my idea after I submit it?

Yes, your thread can be edited as needed.

37. What if I think one of the threads is offensive?

Any offensive or inappropriate content should be immediately reported to support@spigit.com

38. My thread includes adult content, can I submit it?

Rating & Voting

39. On what content can I rate, comment or contribute?

Almost all user-generated content can be rated, commented, and contributed to. This includes public idea approvals and ratings, idea threads and comments, as well as sectors threads and comments. This functionality is also being applied to blogs.

40. Why should I contribute?

By contributing to those ideas, sectors and threads where you can add value, as a participant you are only helping yourself by building your reputation as well as key relationships. Your contributions are reflected in your professional profile and are an indicator of your level of expertise and standing.

41. Can I rate my own idea?

No, you cannot rate your idea. However, you can start threads and respond to comments, which are strongly encouraged as these are reflected in your effort index, which is factored into the stage 1 and 2 milestone as well as the spock price of your idea.

42. If I change my mind on an idea or post to which I have contributed, can I change my contributions or rating?

Yes, based on feedback, contributions and ratings of the community, you may change your opinion of an idea and likewise change your rating.

43. How do I earn a badge?

Badges are earned by users and ideas by achieving various levels of success and specific milestones in the course of the simulation. Badges are representative of quality contributions, participation and effort. To learn more about user badges click here. To learn more about idea badges, click here.

44. How are my contributions reflected in the valuation of ideas and user reputation?

Your contributions are critical to the engine determining the valuation of all quantified indexes, values and metrics for ideas, sectors, participants, the community, and yourself. Spigit measures hundreds of dynamic factors in determining valuation of all parties. In this regard, spigit's professional community is completely content driven and based on participation and quality.

45. What can I do to increase my reputation?

Reputation is computed based on your participation, quality of feedback, quality of sources providing feedback, the quality of your network, etc. The more quality contributions you make and quality feedback you receive, the higher your reputation index will be.

46. What if I begin to receive negative feedback to my idea? What can I do?

Constructive criticism is good, and should be expected from time to time. Communicating with your skeptics and putting their concerns to rest is critical if you want your idea to be accepted at a public level. The more you do to support your idea, the more believers you enlist, the more effort you put in to evangelizing your idea, the greater your likelihood of success will be.

On a side note, not all ideas are great ideas. So maybe feedback is good before you jump too far too fast!!

Points (spigits)

47. How do I earn currency on spigit?

You can earn spigits by rating, commenting, and contributing content and investing your spigits in the spigit spock market simulation. Ratings, comments, and contributions each have a pre-determined value that either increases or decreases based on feedback quality and ratings. Hence, the more quality content you contribute, the more spigits you will earn. You can then invest your spigits in emerging ideas that you think have the best chance of success. By investing in the best companies, you can quickly grow your spigit bank.

48. What can I do with the currency?

Spigit currency is currently an indicator of performance, along with reputation ratings. The top participants based on these indicators over a reward period (typically three months) will win the spigit Splash! Award and receive all of the merits and accolades for the period. We currently working with a number of vendors on a spigit exchange program to allow participants can exchange their spigits for great rewards and prizes.

49. Can other people see my earnings?

Yes, as part of the simulation spigits earned are viewable by all participants.

50. If I have multiple accounts, can I transfer earnings?

No, to maintain fairness and credibility spigits are not transferable.

51. How long is my currency good for?

Spigits are perpetual and last as long as you maintain an account.

Building Your Professional Network and Reputation

52. How do I build my professional network on spigit?

The more interactive you are in the community, the more opportunities you will have to connect with people and add them to your professional network. Or, you can build your professional network on spigit by reaching out to members and inviting them to join your network, or by inviting new members to the community. spigit is designed to not only allow you to connect with people you know, but also provide opportunity to identify and connect with other professionals who share similar interests or have complimentary skill sets.

53. What is my reputation index and how is it calculated?

Your reputation index is a computed measure of your participation within the community and various ideas and sectors. It is calculated based on a number of factors that include participation, quality of contributions, participant feedback, overall reputation of your network, and others.

54. Can I control who is part of my professional network?

Yes, connections are validated by both parties, so you can control who becomes part of your network.

55. Can I limit participation and ratings to contributions from within my professional network?

Yes, you can separate out participation and ratings of your network for any idea or sector. For your own ideas, spigit offers the ability to create invite only ideas which you can control and limit participation to only those connections in your network. spigit is also working on introducing functionality that allows users to view idea rankings, quality, and scoring based only on contributions made by connections in network. This will be part of a release in the near-term.

56. What information can I include in my professional profile?

Currently your professional profile includes user generated content including job history, education history, and biography, as well as spigit provided content including participation metrics, reputation index, and professional network. spigit is also adding professional endorsement capabilities.

57. How do I become an expert or moderator?

spigit is configured so users will achieve expert status when the reach 600,000 spigits and a reputation index of 85. If you reach these thresholds and wish to participate as an expert or moderator, please contact us at expert@spigit.com

58. What effect does my reputation have on the simulation?

When spigit computes ratings on ideas, comments and feedback, your user reputation has a net effect on that is weighted according to your reputation index. Hence, the greater your reputation index, the greater impact you will have on ideas going through the simulation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

Registration

Posting an Idea

Posting a Thread

Rating & Voting

Points (spigits)

Building Your Professional Network and Reputation

Other Questions

General

Registration

Posting an Idea

Posting a Thread

Rating & Voting

Points (spigits)

Building Your Professional Network and Reputation

Other Questions