Idea development, collaboration, and feedback: ThinkCloud

[Thenior]

One thing I really appreciate about this forum is that not only are people pretty opinionated, but they can also present their opinions from a well informed perspective, and in a helpful way.

People have ideas all the time. When they're at work, they think "man, it'd be nice if we had some software that did _____", or when you're working on a project, "If they just made a tool that looked like ________". But nothing ever goes any further than that. Many people, even though they aren't exactly content with their current jobs or situation, aren't motivated enough to innovate and be creative. I fear our society as a whole is used to too much input and stimulation, instead of creating output.

So I'm working on a community website called ThinkCloud. Basically, ThinkCloud is a website that helps people share and collaborate on their ideas by connecting them with other complimentary-skilled users, and getting feedback through a simple voting / award system. It's social entrepreneurship that helps you connect, collaborate, and share your ideas with other thinkers and entrepreneurs.

Here are some of the bullet points:

• ThinkCloud uses a self moderating system. Basically, users can submit Idea Projects (e.g. New wind turbine generator), and can also submit Questions (e.g. Would utilizing the outer circumference be a more efficient use of energy?) as sub categories to the Idea Project.
• Idea Projects, Questions and Answers can all receive votes, increasing the privileges the user has, such as the ability to moderate other posts, or to downvote.
• Users also receive Badges for accomplishing certain tasks on the site (such as Editing 10 posts, etc.)
• As Ideas and Questions receive votes, they are naturally moderated and rewarded. These votes can be turned into points for various services, such as web hosting and development, accounting services etc (sponsored services entrepreneurs can use). Top ideas receive minor grants and investment.
• Though self promotion isn't allowed ("Check out my service, I can do that for you"), if someone answers a question that receives high votes, the original author of the question will be gently notified about possibly using this persons services. It's like a friendly lead-generation service.
• Since Answers can be upvoted, a match-making system will match people up with valid questions. For instance, if I indicate I am a SQL database coder, I might get matched up with SQL DB questions. Anyone can answer anything, the system just naturally encourages like-minded categories.
• ThinkCloud also provides free resources and webinars for helping people get through the basics of refining ideas, testing the market etc.

So, I have three questions for the community:

Do you think this type of service would have an audience?

Do you think you would use it?

How would you change/add to it?

[Isaac]

I like the idea of a question matching system. I've been thinking of making one for a while, but lack the time.

[snoopy]

Make sure that you think about the intellectual rights involved, make a policy concerning it, and make the policy extremely clear, including popup warnings and such.

While you're doing that, make sure that you get a lawyer involved.

I like the idea, but it's asking for lots of trouble over intellectual rights. You could try to come up with something similar to the GNU/GPL, but I don't know how well it would port to physical goods. If you try to make a policy where you assume ownership of all ideas posted, intelligent people will be afraid of you getting rich on their ideas. If things aren't clearly defined, I'd expect endless lawsuits by people trying to get a piece of the pie of the ideas that actually take off.

[Isaac]

Lately I've been thinking of an "unsocial" network, where you're basically given a javascirpt based desktop, running in a browser.

Just to make this post end quickly, the point is to create (software, art, or plans) within this environment with a variety of tools. Sharing to other accounts will be done through shared drop boxes between users. A drop can also be shared with the public, accessible with a URL.

Maybe you could offer this?

[Thenior]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I wanted to reply earlier, but I changed my account email and got locked out.

Isaac, that's a really interesting idea. Kind of like a glorified whiteboard. I've used something like that in Lync, but perhaps facilitating idea-brainstorming tools, and using a browser would give it a helpful twist.

Snoopy - I've thought about that, and I think it's an important next step in getting feedback from potential users. Part of it, too, is that users don't need to share all the ins and outs of their idea. They can just present the general concept, and ask specific questions if they want to. This might also only have a limited appeal for beginning entrepreneurs - individuals who have huge ideas typically keep it all under wraps, especially when getting venture capital.

Thanks for the feedback - anymore input would be really appreciated.

[Krom]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I wanted to reply earlier, but I changed my account email and got locked out.

Sorry about that, my email randomly decided to file the DBB activation requests to the spam folder... I noticed your account was deactivated when I logged in to the control panel yesterday and fixed it manually, then went looking for why I didn't get the email.