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Open Sourcing Innovation

Posted by michael on from the dream-big dept.

Super_Z writes "Reading an old issue of The Economist, I came over this - whynot.net - a forum for ideas - effectively open sourcing innovation. Doing so, these ideas can hopefully be adapted faster and on a broad basis. Now if I can only get someone to take up and produce my radarguided laser mosquito trap."

37 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Half Bakery by eupheric · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I prefer the Half Bakery. All the innovation, half the feasibility!

  2. What? by Doomrat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm guessing the the "inspiration" for this project involved a random selection from a hat full of buzzwords. I'm getting fed up with people getting credit for adapting a paradigm such as open source and applying it to something you wouldn't normally associate it with. Just once I'd like to see a project such as this backed by examples of successful output.

    1. Re:What? by nukey56 · · Score: 4, Funny

      You're looking at it, bud. If it weren't for slashdot.. well, we'd all be in our basements doing.. alright you win.

  3. I thought of that first!! by nevek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now if I can only get someone to take up and produce my radarguided laser mosquito trap.

    That was my idea, it came to me right after the Hamburger Earmuffs!!

    The only problem with a radarguided laser mosquito trap is that it will also fry whoever is being bitten by a mosquito at the time,

    well thats not always a bad thing!

    1. Re:I thought of that first!! by AvoidTheNoid · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hamburger Earmuffs? Too bad mine will be out on the market while you're still grappling with the pickle matrix.

    2. Re:I thought of that first!! by alandrums · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hamburger muffs. Hmmm. Could do wonders in the realm of foreplay. Wouldn't have to worry about your girl accidentally biting your ear too hard, and it might actually give you incentive to let the foreplay go on longer than normal (which I'm sure many women would like). You could tell her, "you're not getting any until you've eaten all of my, errr, all of the meat...." However, this would be terribly detrimental to those of us with vegetarian girlfriends.

      Thank god for Morningstar!

  4. Cf: GlobalIdeasBank.org by ivi · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Global Ideas Bank has been around for quite a while (in Internet time ;-)

    There are several other, similar sites as well.

    Is there a portal to such sites... yet? :-)

  5. Why not.... by paragon_au · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Goto whynot.com
    2. Steal idea
    3. ???
    4. Profit!

  6. Spying? by Uber+Banker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A nice community idea. The site seems /.ed so I can't check... but what prevents someone/some company with low moral standards heading over there, getting ideas and patenting them/slightly changing them and pretending they came out of the R+D department?

    Good idea, but I am cautious.

    1. Re:Spying? by rzei · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wouldn't the board hold then prior art? Of course one can get inspiration from anywhere, but if a similiar patent is filed after it's been on the board, I guess the patent is pretty meaningless.

  7. whynot.net? by Repugnant_Shit · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because the site is down!

    Or...Because using .NET is embracing the Beast!

    --
    Vote for global prefs bug
  8. open sourcing by markov_chain · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did anyone else read the "open sourcing innovation" as "outsourcing innovation"?

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  9. Re:Open source being used in Genetic Research by ivi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just today, Australia's ABC had a program -
    "In the National Interest" (avail via Audio
    on Demand) on Open Source methods being
    transplanted from S/W dev't to scientific
    research in genetic engr'g, etc.

    So... call it all the names you like...
    it still seems to be doing some good, eg
    giving folks in remote/isolated places of
    developed countries or developing countries
    opportunities to contribute to progress of
    State of the Art.

    It apparently works.

  10. Why not? by nukey56 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slashdotted before 20 comments.. it must have been overwhelmed by free thought. Crashed by will power, be it.

  11. Houston, we have a problem by Faust7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Doing so, these ideas can hopefully be adapted faster and on a broad basis. Now if I can only get... ...a better server, people would flock by the millions!

    --
    The coolest voice ever.
  12. Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Which is why "intellectual property" is such a bullshit concept.

    Anyone can have good ideas, it's actually putting it into practice which is the difficult bit. Intellectual property implies that you can have an idea, patent it and then charge anyone who actually wants to put it into use. You should have to produce a *working* prototype for anything you want a patent on.

    --
    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
    1. Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult by Otter · · Score: 3, Informative
      Anyone can have good ideas, it's actually putting it into practice which is the difficult bit. Intellectual property implies that you can have an idea, patent it and then charge anyone who actually wants to put it into use. You should have to produce a *working* prototype for anything you want a patent on.

      I don't know where you get "implies", but in fact you can't say, "Hey, I thought of a radar guided laser mosquito trap!" and patent it. An implementation is necessary. (If the patent officials do their job properly, which the frequently don't, but that has nothing to do with the validity of the concept.)

      Except for the emphasis on working prototypes, the current system is exactly what you want.

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    2. Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult by jfengel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Both ideas and implementation are difficult and important phases of invention. The ideas phase can often be done by people without money; the implementation usually requires investment. The goal of patents is to encourage everybody, not just those with money, to participate in the ideas phase, and provide a way for them to synch up with those in the implementation phase. By giving a patent to a person with an idea, those with money can't just take the idea; legally, they have to buy it.

      (You do, of course, have to have the idea fully worked out before it's a saleable item; it's only the rarest ideas which can be considered truly novel without a detailed plan for implementation. The border between novel and not-novel is badly defined and very ugly.)

      The same idea applies to copyright. I, as an author, can write a book, but it takes a publisher to actually make money with it, since it takes a lot of money to get a book published (editing, printing, distribution, advertising, and the monetary risk of the fact that all those things happen up front.) The author owns the copyright and sells it (or leases it) to the publisher in exchange for a cut of the sales of the physical books.

      The law protects the copyright owner as owning property. Although it isn't like real property in every respect, it shares many common features: the right to sell it, the limitation on who may use it, the ability to sue if ownership is violated.

      Such is the concept, at least. In practice, when the law gets involved, money talks. One can certainly quibble with the implementation, even to the point of declaring the flaws in implementation more important that the benefits, but I don't think the concept itself merits being called "bullshit".

    3. Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

      it takes a lot of money to get a book published (editing, printing, distribution, advertising, and the monetary risk of the fact that all those things happen up front.)

      Not to the extent anymore. CafePress Self Publish handles printing and online distribution, and you can scale advertising up gradually: a K5 ad here, a Google ad there, etc.

      Although [copyright] isn't like real property in every respect, it shares many common features: the right to sell it, the limitation on who may use it, the ability to sue if ownership is violated.

      Copyright also resembles real property (as opposed to personal property) in other ways: there exists a limited number of "land" (due to the finite length of a work and the similarity doctrine), and it doesn't expire (due to the Eldred decision).

    4. Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I don't know where you get "implies", but in fact you can't say, "Hey, I thought of a radar guided laser mosquito trap!" and patent it. An implementation is necessary.

      Actually, incorrect you do not need a working example; except in certain special cases- IRC the patent office only accept perpetual motion machines patents if accompanied by a working model :-).

      A patent is an *idea* that is being patented. It's your own problem if your idea doesn't actually work.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    5. Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult by jfengel · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's quite an insightful observation: I've never entirely understood why copyright is a property whose rights expire.

      It's been suggested that the reason is that intellectual property isn't a right, but rather that ideas (not being physical objects) are community property and that the government establishes the fiction of property rights with a limited term to encourage people to innovate.

      If so, IP rights are their own thing, and not bound by any other understanding of property. But there are important things one wants to ensure in your fiction of intellectual property, the most important being the right to trade it and protect it, at least during the term. Otherwise it has no value and the fiction is worthless.

      Some would say that's good, and point to Linux as proof that people will innovate in the absence of special property protections. That's a complicated topic which we're sure as hell not going to solve in this forum.

  13. Ideas are cheap by heironymouscoward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but turning them into reality is brutally hard work.

    Honestly: one lunch with some intelligent company and a little wine can produce enough ideas for five years' work. No big deal.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature
  14. Radar-guided laser mosquito trap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's no such thing as radar-guided laser mosquitos silly.

  15. ShouldExist by Nomihn0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Should Exist has a very strong little commmunity centered on actually carrying out the ideas that they come up with. I seriously suggest checking them out.

  16. To benefit the community, all is well by Nomihn0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The philosophy behind many of these "idea sites" is to make good ideas/products public so that do-gooders can realize them. If a corporate pirate steals an idea from such a site, it is only half of a crime. This is because, although they took the idea without permission, the product is eventually created - thereby achieving what the board sought in the first place.

  17. The Ultimate Secturity System by AvoidTheNoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    This site has the ultimate security system

    It crashes whenever somebody goes to it...nobody can steal their ideas.

  18. should exist? by Ramses0 · · Score: 2, Informative

    See also http://shouldexist.org, for ideas that (well), should exist. :^)

    Based on scoop (the same engine that runs Kuro5hin), and been running for a few years now. There's some neat stuff within there.

    --Robert

  19. All I ask for... by ccarr.com · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...is bats with frick'n lasers strapped to their heads!

    --
    I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. BB
    1. Re:All I ask for... by Parsec · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bats would normally eat those mosquitos... just install a bat house on your property.

  20. whynot.com is prior art by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    But once product or process ideas are published on whynot.com, this means nobody can turn around and patent the broadest form of the idea. Of course, engineers who implement the ideas can patent the specifics of their inventions, but they can't get a monopoly on what's been published.

  21. Which is why we need a way to patent the ideas by Adolph_Hitler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We need a way to patent the ideas or protect our ideas from being patented.

    Otherwise a site like that is useless. Currently it costs too much money to patent anything, so only the rich CEO can afford it.

    --
    People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
  22. It Helps To Get Free Assistance by osewa77 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For developers/inventors who would like to try to concieve and develop a product that requires the contribution of a large number of people, who do not have the support or money of large corporations, Open Source could well be the right way. The core of any product, is the *idea* that differentiates it.
    says me, seun

  23. SlipHead.com by Telluride · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is another great Idea Board called SlipHead Design.

    They have some pretty cool ideas on there and really seem to have the 'right feel' of what a good idea board should encompass.

  24. SlipHead.com by Telluride · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Have you seen SlipHead.com? It is similar to Half-Bakery but the format is a bit better.

  25. related sites by tinkerton · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here is the list of related sites from whynot.net:
  26. Paper and practice are quite different. by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If all you do is write software you might not agree, but when you are trying to invent something, what goes down on paper is what is plausible, what might or should work and frankly that's often just bullshit which skims over the real showstopping implementation problems.

    The need for a real working prototype which actually demonstrates that it can target and zap mosquitos successfully with a real laser would force inventors to actually go through the process of solving the many and real problems.

    It would make it nearly impossible for patents to be overly broad.

    It would mean that the patent would have to have enough *real* information in them for a competitor to build a working clone when the patent has expired.

    --
    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
  27. You're right, by tinkerton · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's just the trap!