Ideas from the ether
We are busy reviewing two hundred-plus ideas from the ether. Whilst we are still deciding which ones to develop further, here’s a selection from those that we probably won’t.
“Here’s to alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.” So following on from that somebody suggested the simply divine and world peace achieving:
Free beer
That’s all it said. Just “Free beer”. Whilst I agree with the intention I only have access to The Economist Group’s content. If this actually was for Red Stripe maybe I could do something.
We have quite a few along the lines of…
Solicit free business ideas from naive contributors to build a website that makes tons of cash. Offer them a token subscription if their idea “wins”.
and
DO YOUR OWN WORK.
more…
Do you own god-damned thinking…
and more…
get a proper job
We know the problem with our terms and conditions which obviously helped us get ideas like this:
You want my idea?
How about 20% of the royalties and joint rights on any IP?
How about you getting a clue? If you don’t value my idea, you don’t GET my idea.
and the divine…
Too many MBA weenies claim ideas have no value, while their usually mistimed and misplaced misfires deserve 6 & 7 figure salaries. So the key idea is to truly value those that do, and sack the parasites that don’t. You don’t pay, you don’t play with my idea. Get used to that because I need you less than you need me and it doesn’t cost anything to keep you in the dark.
PS Independent of your little checkbox, you have no rights to use this idea in any form unless you respect it by agreeing to my terms. These are my terms and conditions and supplant your terms and conditions in all respects. Reading these words signals your agreement.
I’m not actually sure of that but by reading it I think we may not be able to revenue-share with our web-based innovating friends. It was an open question, but perhaps it’s answered now.
None of us have MBAs by the way.
Solicit free business ideas from naive contributers to build a website that makes tons of cash. Offer them a token subscription if their idea “wins”.
That’s a great idea. Thanks. I’ll see if I can get The Economist Group to do that. Erm hang on…
The team’s absolute favourite:
A universal jeans identification system.
Favorite pair of jeans been through the wash too many times?
You have the cash to replace the jeans, but where did you buy them?
What style are they?
How in the hell will you be able to buy a replacement pair?The solution: a universal jeans identification system. Give each style of jeans from each manufacturer/company a unique ID, and then compile some sort of searchable database. Different ID numbers could be given for boot cut/straight cut, color of jeans, men’s/women’s, etc. That way I can find a replacement pair for these damn jeans that now have a hole in their pocket…
Make the database searchable online, and charge a buck or two if a consumer searching for a pair of jeans finds a match from a seller.
I can say no more.
Much of the content of the Economist is of course free-market speculation and wishful thinking. In other words, anyone reading it is not looking for information, but light entertainment.
Actual entertainment value delivered is not reliable.
In other words, it would not be a big loss if the Economist were not to be distributed and published. The Internet is good for information transfer. But if there are too many distracting sites, those sites that offer reliable and useful information suffer: they are “drowned out”.
Conclusion. Keep the economist.com domain name. Make it show a blank page. Shut down the printed version.
Predicted Benefit: Less clutter increases the value of real information.
Good night - you’ve been beautiful.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:47 am
There’s a reason you are suffering more abuse than you have to. If you listen, really listen to what is being said, you might hear a consensus that you would do better to take a more conversational approach. People out here disdain little corporate rewards like free subscription. They would prefer to simply, honestly and transparently engage in conversation. Talk to us. Listen to us. Humanize your approach.
March 15th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
One thing we remind each other of is that we have a six month deadline and six people to take something to market. It’s a big target.
March 17th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Every time some one posts an idea, make it a blog entry. Give a permalink. Let others comment. You can probably do a bit of filtering (for bad content and spam). I posted an idea, made a copy of the text and posted it on my blog too. I some how that my ideas go into a black hole and someone, I do not know how good will judge its relevance.
A better idea is to define a microformat (or even a simple structure) and ask people to post it on their own blogs and ping you. You not only get an idea, may be a few comments, but also get the context of the contributor to decide.
Is this an idea? May be.
March 17th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Why the deadline? Ideas (like this one) take a while to percolate in the blogosphere.
March 17th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Here are a few ideas to make your idea spread better:
- Use a better html editor (the kind used by most blogs) that allow links, videos, images. Who says that ideas must always be words?
- Talk to a few A-list bloggers. They will help spread. Even if they simply mention it, it is good enough (you might have done this already)
- I found this through my Google alert (on innovation). You may want to repeat the previous step through a few blogs on innovation. They are easy to find.
- Define a tag and ask people to use it (for wordpress, technorati, digg, del.icio.us )
- Suggest categories - they get many people started. Also provide allow people to define their own categories (pick a few areas)
- What specific areas are you looking for in ideas? If I know what they are, it is easy to contribute
March 20th, 2007 at 5:16 am
I also think deadline may not be good for brainstorming,esp. for such a large structure as Economist. Why not try to prolong the deadline to allow us more time?
I still don’t have tangible idea in shape,however, in my humble opinion, this project shall put more emphasis in how to connect intellectually with the youngsters in emerging markets like China and India, because although they are economically developing quickly,esp. China, many people still don’t really embrace free market, perhaps ’cause they are ignorant, or perhaps they are basically opposed to it. In either case, the future of the world will be mastered by people who are still young, why not take every chance to let them feel and think the real logic and advantages of free market when they are still vague about the world. That’ll do good to the world. Please keep me in contact for further tangible idea.