Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

22 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!

  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. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.
  11. 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".

  12. 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
  13. Radar-guided laser mosquito trap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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

  18. related sites by tinkerton · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here is the list of related sites from whynot.net: