I agree, this is a great concept. I read about the Web site in Business 2.0 magazine just today. I write a weekly newspaper column read by thousands here in the eastern New Mexico and west Texas region, I plan on telling the folks about the site. The more people who participate in this project - the more interesting the Web site will become. It's our job to get out there and promote the project!

To give credit where credit is due, our inspiration for this site is Jutta Degener's HalfBakery.com, a slightly tongue-in-cheek take on the open-source ideas concept. Your contributions are what will make this site succeed.

Love this idea! Someone once said "great things can be accomplished, if nobody cares about getting the credit".

Really like this idea itself. There are many great ideas that die out of frustration...this site will at the very least, give people an outlet for these ideas.

Yep, love it. Wish there was a way back to the home page from anywhere, though.

Still, lots of fun! I like half-bakery, too.

I also saw this in Business 2.0, a magazine that I find I get courtesy of my subscription to Red Herring (RIP).

I like the idea, and I find that exploring ideas is good grist to the intellectual mill.

A friend of mine once asked how did I get so many good ideas. My response - I like to think, and when you think, you get ideas. The trick is to throw away the bad ones.

As to business ideas - the good businessman gives/throws away any idea he doesn't have the resources to bring to market, no matter how good.

Cheers

When I used to travel 3 weeks a month I would always hear people talking on planes about how this new such and such invention was their idea first. They had this sense that someone stole their valuable idea and robbed them of some potential earnings. After hearing these comments I would always remind myself "Ideas are a dime a dozen, but application is a rare treasure". Not sure where I heard that, but it's definitely true and this site proves it. Awesome application Ian and Barry, congratulations!

Yes, it's fun to read some of the ideas and post feedback but other than that, the only value this site will have is if some number of ideas here get funded and developed. The site is rudimentary at best. A section should be added for success stories that come out of the ideas. If there aren't any successes, then this site will simply fade away into the net-ether like so many others.

This forum has so much more potential than just engineering problems and commercial solutions.

My comment is due to an engineering solution(?) I proposed, to do with the Middle East, four days ago has had no response from this site and seems to have dissappeared...

Whatever...

Yeah, good work. I have a idea. Why not add a "users logged on" # bar somewhere so people can see how much traffic this site gets and when. I would say how many hits it gets, though I'm not sure if that would work the same way.

I just joined. Many of the ideas already exist or have been proposed well in the past.

So one of the major things lacking, which would lead this community to 'self-improve' is due diligence and background research.

I can singlehandedly point out many precedents and problems for most of these ideas in the comment section, but I don't want to be the only wet rag.

So, besides the "comment" section, there should be a set of hyperlinks to related and existing ideas, like halfbakery, for the main idea itself.

I agree; it's a great concept. But it's perhaps not as easy as it sounds. Are people for instance willing to let go of potentiel sources of income? If the answear is yes though, I'm sure we would experience a technological boom.

(Sorry for my lack of good spelling - I'm Danish)

Not only it makes the ideas spread, but this would be a wonderful place to prevent the "dumb patents" from being granted for trivial improvements, or "obvious" inventions. It would be a useful place for "prior art" searches in the future. Bravo!

Great idea, but I'm a bit afraid that this site will become a mess after a while. On most forums I've visited there are so many who go 'off-topic'. And that's a problem, since it's so time consuming and confusing to read all those off-topic messages...

I would like to propose a moderator (or a group of moderators) to check the quality and relevance of ideas and comments. Maybe we should vote for relevance of a comment or idea and get rid of the unrelevant stuff?

There should also be the ability to edit your own comments.

Agreed, excellent concept to share ideas.

What I'd like to see as well though, is a means to move the good and great ideas shared here along the road and into adoption in society.

As Bill Joy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems was quoted in Fortune (Oct. 13, 2003) saying:

“The hardest part isn’t inventing the solution, but figuring out how to get people to adopt it”

Agree, I also think each company should create their own “whynot?” website. This will give the internal employee to discuss their ideas. Perhaps the website should be based on few categories, such as cost saving, new business model, management, new revenue, operation excellent and customer intimacy. Each employee can post their comments or ideas, this will save companies’ million of dollars, improve employee moral and stay above competition.

Open-source engineering (in non-software fields) will be the way of the future for talented people to apply their talent to a hobby while benefiting the community. Read the excellent Wired article Open Source Everywhere.

This site is a good idea, but in its present form will get nowhere. To succeed it must apply the teachings acquired with 10 years of open-source software engineering. I would suggest, for each project:- clearly separating the discussion and the development sections.- The discussion section is thread-based, à la slashdot.org, not moderated, open to anyone. People are encouraged to search past entries and to follow existing threads.- The development section is steered by a small committee of experts (sometimes a single person). Development work is open to anyone to read and contribute. Contributions are peer-reviewed. Decision as to accept a contribution into the main “development tree” lies with the steering committee.

Then there is the problem of intellectual protection. Whereas software is easy and cheap to protect (simple copyright), open-source engineering work may require patent protection, which is expensive. Somebody will have to pay for it (charities, foundations, governments, philanthropists...)

As a software open-source contributor, I find the experience both thrilling and ruthlessly meritocratic. The operating model really is that of academic research. I recommend anyone to take the ride.

//This concept is great!//

But hardly novel. It's been happening for years over at the halfbakery.

I am skeptical that it will be possible to collectively produce ideas brought forward in a forum such as this.

It's also important to be aware that the internet is used by people from around the world. If you want to create jobs for your "fellow Americans" then posting things on the web may not be the best way to go about it.

And as RayfordSteele pointed out, it's annoying to not be able to edit comments!

For all of you constantly complaining about how this site is a less functional rehash of Halfbakery, I'd just like to say a few things:

1) If you don't like the site, and think it's boring, repetitive, etc, then why are you here?

2) The Halfbakery is a great idea, but it's not quite the mecca of online, open source brainstorming that some people seem to think it is. It's nothing but online brainstorming, and *because* it's a good idea, I think it's great that another website with a similar goal but different atmosphere and audience has been created. Part of the glory of the net is that anyone can create their own site, and us users have a plethora of sites to choose from. There's a reason there are a million Livejournal type sites. I like the Halfbakery, but I really like how I don't have to dig through posts like "Fartpower" on Whynot.

3) No one is claiming the idea behind this site is brand-new, original, or unique. Quite the opposite, actually, as the note "inspired by Jutta Degener's Halfbakery" points out. Can you people actually be so arrogant as to think everything on and about the Halfbakery _is_ unique?? People come to both sites (and others out there I don't know about, I'm sure) to discuss ideas, and be assured that before someone suggested something on here OR Halfbakery, someone else in the world had thought of it before. But I'm still glad someone posted it on a website for me to see and ponder.

1) To try and figure out why this place exists.

2) //I really like how I don't have to dig through posts like "Fartpower" on Whynot// Yet. How can you be sure this won't happen? If your answer is faith in the moderators, how do you know the type of ideas they'll leave in will be worth reading? I've read quite a few that were a waste of time. (Flash Microwave comes to mind - an idea that is simply a "wouldn't it be nice" type of idea without actually proposing a solution.)

3) If it's not unique, why is it here? Seems like having to search through multiple near-copies of the same site is wastefull.

I'm sorry I'm being so hard on this site, but nobody has helped me understand why this site exists.

(Sorry, I meant Flash Cooler.)

I don't think the existence of more than one site with similar goals is wasteful. I think, rather, that different types of users will sort themselves out, and while that happens, each site will develop its own identity and feel which will appeal to different groups of users.

It's ridiculous to me that the existence of similar sites is a problem. I'm glad that there are a million different literary journals out there, just as I'm glad there are a million livejournal, Apache, and Perl sites out there. It's variety and even though they're frequently "about" the same thing, I'll prefer one journal/site/etc to another. It's ironic that this sort of small-minded, intellectual and stylistic proprietariness is popping up over an open source website.

As for whether or not posts like "Fartpower" will appear and remain on the site, that will remain up to the moderators/owners of this site. Hopefully, this site will remain seriously constructive (as opposed to Halfbakery, where ideas are supposed to tread the line between jokes and seriousness), but we'll see. As for what I'll do if I decide the moderators are using poor criteria for judging which ideas are worthwhile and deserve to be left in, then I'll move on and stop visiting, as I've done with a lot of other websites which no longer interest me (example: Salon.com). In the meantime, I'm happy to read and contribute when I can to something that I feel is worthwhile. Again, if you've already judged this site as wasteful, then why continue stopping by and adding to the discourse?

The arguement over who will have better mods and more serious ideas should be moot. Halfbakery shouldn't be looked down upon because they don't have to take themselves seriously. Because, when one looks at one of the essential ingredients of invention it is not being serious. Which I would have thought could have been covered in the name "why not."

If the mods are really more strict about what goes in then the website will be weakened by moderators who feel that they know better than the poster. For example, the greatest inventions and ideas come from mistakes and unintended actions. For a mod to feel that he or she knows an idea is irrelivant or badly named could be a problem for the future progression of this site.

Unlike the halfbakery, I feel that this site has a strength in the ability to accept the more 'blue sky' ideas that are normally deleted due to the fact that current technology doesn't allow for them. The basis for my reasoning is that predicting the future is darn near impossible for this species in its current place in time and revolutionary ideas could be around the next corner. Thus, making the more far off ideas more relevant.

If I had thought of a space telescope before people were able to put objects into space, my idea would have been deleted.

Blackholeapult

I too think this site is a great idea. However, I think it should have a proper discussion site on how it might be improved. I agree that it needs links to take you back to the top and the ability to edit one's own comments once posted.

I also think it should carry a warning that once posted on here then you will not be able to patent the technology. Also that by generously posting your idea free of charge, you may actually hinder its implementation - if the idea requires a big investment to get it off the ground that is unlikely to be financed without the protection of a patent to ensure that the investment is recouped. However, heaps of ideas are not patentable, and ideas which save consumers money but reduce profits for manufacturers and service providers can be shared here. Got the means to make an everlasting suit? I don't think it will be taken up (see movie The Man in the White Suit) or a drug that actually CURES people - I don't think so - though the makers of Zovirax, the cream which you dab on cold sores as soon as they appear makes them go away with one or two tiny applications really does what it says on the tin - the resulting problem of lack of repeat sales is overcome by the need to carry it around at all times and the tiny tube it comes in - result? you lose it and have to buy another - clever eh?

Anyway, a great site with "sticky" content (in the nicest possible meaning of the word!).

Wait a sec, not so fast! Where is the binding obligation to provide recognition to originator of concepts, and to this site as the purveyor of them, for the ideas that may eventually be put to fruition?

I didn't see one when I came to the site. I didn't agree to one when I read some of the ideas. And, I didn't confirm one when I signed up for an account.

I love the site and the concept. But "why not" create the last bit of recognition protection for its members by binding visitors to give credit where credit is due if they find a concept that they are able to manufacture or put forth?

Otherwise, isn't this just another message board among the millions? Of what value would this collection of forms and people have over say a chat session on a popular web portal? If there’s one thing that seems easier to give away than an idea, is an opinion of it. Without an obligation to itself and its members, how can this site be of better value?

We can track yea/nay of the opinions and compare our stats to the other mass of faceless aliases. Pardon me if I am missing the point, but that just seems highly suspicious to me that without some type of binding agreement, this concept is at best, an organizational tool to stroke the egos of the obsessive!

What makes this concept-rating site not just another glorified, “Is This ____, Hot or Not” mutation? I’m sure these are questions already being hashed out. I'm eager to join the discussion and I look forward to what ideas it may foster.

Kind regards,Ernesto Gluecksmannwww.infamia.com

This concept is great!is a vague and mileading titlefor an idea.

DaleW, To answer your original thoughts, if you want recognition for your new inventions you need to patent the ideas as yours first to stop others from stealing and managing the credit. Surely that is what many of your peers and competitors in engineering and electronics do to be successful? What you do after that is your own business, or not as the case may be if you want others to take the ideas on to production.

This is an interseting website, more of a forum from what I am reading so far rather than an exchange of brainstorming ideas, and I did read the preview page where it asks for 'constructive criticism' if any is to be made.

So my constructive critiscism about this site is it is very difficult to navigate around, it has no 'back to home' button and limited link buttons to navigate you from one article to the other. I keep having to use my browser back buttons to navigate and it's doing my head in. Hmmmm!!

Four suggestions to improve this site!

1) use a wiki format to enable collaboration. Maybe link a wiki to each idea/topic. Here is a HelpPage that explains how to work a wiki. Twiki and Zwiki are two wiki variants that I like.

2) use a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) in-browser HTML editor so that we can more easily add links, bullet lists, etc. to ideas and comments. This is easy and a no-brainer to setup, see:http://www.interactivetools.com/products/htmlarea/"

3) show statistics for each idea and rank them by popularity (views and comments). See http://sourceforge.net and look down the left-hand column for an example of how they rank software projects by activity.

4) include a "email this idea to a friend" link on every idea. This encourages sharing and will draw more people to the site!

Nate Johnsonbetterdifferent.com

I don't think they need more people at the moment, I heard they had a 100,000 hits this last month. They do need to make it easier though and more user friendly. Maybe they are over-whelmed by the interest and did not envisage such problems?

Cool, comment editing has been allowed. That's a definite plus.

As a very new log-in, I really like what I find. My idea of the "greatest potential benefit" for all, would be to allow (by mutual consent) people to contact each other in the pursuit of making an idea into reality. You know there are people out there who would not mind risking some capital and work with the idea-giver. Wouldn't that be beneficial for the society at large and a wonderful"pat on the back" for the originators of this web site?Gordon Max

DaleW:

Perhaps I missed it, but I don't think anyone mentioned this yet:

To be sure you get credit for the ideas you aren't going to develop, put them in a form to be copyrighted and then publish them.

This site accomplishes that. :-)

Good point. I feel like this could be my second home. A lot of like minded people out there, just hard to find in everyday life. I appreciate the efforts and insight of those who put this site together. Steele

Yes I love this and am already addicted.

I'm glad I found this site... I've actually had a similar idea but with a narrower scope. Also, has anybody else here had an idea they later found out was already in the works? Seems to happen to me all the time.

I just read about this site on the alumni class notes of one of the founders. The idea as such is great but I think this site is dying, regardless of such desparate attemts at publicity. Maybe if it were reconfigured as a Wiki with loggingthen people would just kill the entries that they to be be old ideas and edit the old comments that are repeats or irrelevant. In the end, a new reader would get "just the beef"!!

You do of course realize that there is no mechanism for reimbursement for any ideas utilized from this website. I could claim any and all of the ideas for myself and dispute that anyone here contributed anything unique and useful.

I won't of course.

But had this forum gone a step further to create a legally binding Disclosure form, track the ideas, look for incidence were someone steals an idea and sues them according to patent pending standards. Then it would be a great site. This would encourage use of ideas here by entering in an agreement with the inventor for royalty payment on the idea, and then paying the website a percentage to monitor and maintain professional ethics related to invention.

I have a concept idea thats interesting a new type of innovative housing concepted different for extreme weathers twisters and floodwaters even fires this documented idea is for investors in new product developments my name is kermit williams contact me if your interested you can mail to adress evawilliams@sbcglobal.net .

Yesss, But how can we make it pay??

Let's ORGANIZE!!

Reply to my email

SRB

Yeah, "jobs for my fellow Americans"... I thought this was a .net site. Try underage children in taiwan.

Hear Hear!

I was hoping there was a site like this, a place where you can post and respond to ideas. Creative thought should always be encouraged.

I like the intelligent, knowledgable people I have seen on this site, and their intelligent responses to suggestions. Compare this with some of those strictly political sites, where the standard response is a nothing but a personal insult.

I agree, but it could be improved. For example, it could be usefull something if you could upload a picture, or better yet, a drawing.

I agree, but it could be improved. For example, it could be useful sometimes if you could upload a picture, CAD drawing, etc.. or be able to fix your previous posts (Sorry, I posted my last one too quickly).

I REMEMBER READING AN OLD BOOK BY MARWIN SMALL - I DO NOT REMEMBER THE TITLEIT WAS A GREAT LITTLE BOOK - NO WONDER IT IS NOT PRINTED ANY MORE -THE SAYING "FIND A NEED AND FILL IT" HAS GREAT RELEVANCE FOR EVERY INVENTOR

Dale W's initial comment seems way more generous than I am. The reason 'why-not' is simple. This site is a way to give away free intellectual property. Once a 'real' inventor (developer?) or company reads your idea and patents it, you'll be sad that you don't get any credit or royalties.

Same as Dale W, I have a few inventions in my head, but I'm not willing to blurt them out for other people to have until I've decided that I won't ever do anything with them.

As for many of these ideas being already made, yes, this is true, but it seems the majority of these ideas come from non-technical people, so they don't know that they exist already.

The name of the site is "Why Not?" and many of the ideas posted are really worth thinking about. Since the internet isn't age specific I suspect a lot of the ideas are from children and as such really need to be told why an idea is or isn't so good.

For the rest of us being able to present your idea to a panel of people of different backgrounds, training, and world view is a great way to learn what you may have overlooked.

Great website, I love posting some little bit of knowledge on subjects. Keep the ideas moving. Though I do wish there was some way to make money at this. I could do this all day.

fantastic ideas here