Project - The Radical Idea Clearing House (RICH)

In my last post, I mentioned that the most valuable thing that Mankind produces, in the sense of our only truly Human-only contribution to Universe, is that of unique ideas, and maybe more precisely, previously un-thought ideas.

But what to do about them? How do we use these new ideas to better the world for us all? How do we get credit/paid to think and come up with these ideas? I think Bucky had a great idea with his "life fellowship in research and development" (see previous post) but where does the money come from? It would be great to think that someone with huge amounts of money (Think the Bill and Linda Gates foundation) would see this as a great idea and step up, but do you think that is as unlikely as I do? Before I tell you how I think it might happen, let me mention the notes I had left over from the last post. They were:

1) Profit from thinking/ideas
2) Need more outlets to make profit from ideas.
3) Outlets that assign value to creative thinking.

So, if I could answer those three things (and I am sure there are more issues that all of you brilliant people could come up with) then I would be on my way to giving a home to the previously un-thought ideas.

1) The first issue is mostly addressed by Bucky Fuller as having a "Fellowship" for people to think. In fact he suggests fishing as the ideal time to come up with new, great ideas. Wanna get paid to go fishing? You should be able to! But where does the money come from? I think it would be great to see if that could be kickstarted by a large foundation, but I would hope it is unnecessary. If these ideas are as valuable as I think they are (And I like Bucky's odds of 1 in 100,000 pays for the other 99,999 fellowships), what if we can get this started by just finding that first good idea?

2) This is the idea I just had that got me writing here. Read the title of this post again, and this should make sense. More on this later.

3) Easy, I hereby assign value to your ideas. Whatever they may be, they are unique in Universe, and therefore supremely valuable.

I think you see where this is going.

I want to start the Radical Idea Clearing House© (RICH) based on the premise that eventually, one good idea will fund all of the people involved, including myself. What wealth do I have to bring to the table to get started? Definitely not the cash of someone like a Gates, but I have ideas, time, skills, and this series of tubes called "the internet". So, in lieu of a foundation/patron/VC giving a lot of money to get this started, I am going to start this by myself and as proof of concept and as a way of putting my wealth where my mouth is, I am going to give this idea away.

To add an Idea to the RICH, one needs to submit the following information, with as much detail as possible:

1) General concepts/goals
2) Benefits to Earth/Humanity/Universe
3) Potential costs to Earth/Humanity/Universe
4) Costs to Earth/Humanity/Universe of NOT implementing this idea
5) Specifics
6) Needs
7) Next Steps towards implementation

These will be fleshed out later, as you will see in:

====================

Radical Idea Clearing House© (RICH)
(Idea Submission #1 by Graham Linn, Thinker #1, (07/22/2006))

1) General concepts/goals
Publish, in open-source/creative commons style, ideas from members (Thinkers) for peer review/improvement with the end goal of having these ideas implemented to the benefit of Humanity as a whole.

The Radical Idea Clearing House (RICH) should be an online accessible collection of the World improving ideas of its users. As such, it would also become a location for individuals, corporations, foundations, or even venture capitalists to come to find ideas that could use assistance (mental, physical, or financial) and improve the World for Humanity in the process.

2) Benefits to Earth/Humanity/Universe
A good idea, well implemented, makes Earth a better place for all. The more radical ideas that get implemented, the better it is for all of us.
Even small ideas, well implemented, can have profound effects.

3) Potential costs to Earth/Humanity/Universe
The resources necessary to implement the Radial Idea Clearing House should be relatively minimal. As this is primarily a web-based, software idea, most costs will be in the form of time invested by the participants. This should be mostly distributed so as not to put too much of a burden on any one person.
The hardware involved could be recycled from other projects, and even the necessary power could come from renewable sources.

4) Costs to Earth/Humanity/Universe of NOT implementing this idea
Ideas, being the most valuable contribution of Humanity to Universe, are priceless and if lost, or not acted upon, the costs could be immense.
Since this Idea (The Radical Idea Clearing House) could have an impact on unlimited ideas, and losing any of them could be extremely expensive, collectively, the costs of NOT implementing this Idea would range from unacceptably high to infinitely expensive, depending on the ideas NOT implemented and lost from not having a place to have them implemented.

5) Specifics
Since The Radical Idea Clearing House should be accessible from the internet, in order to reach the largest number of Thinkers, It will need to start as a hosted web server. The software that runs on this box should include at least the following functionality:
a) A web-based front end which provides Thinkers, the public, and interested parties access to the Ideas therein and provides Thinkers access to and a way to modify Ideas that they are working on either solo or collectively.
b) A database to which individual Thinkers can add personal data, for project tracking, credit/acknowledgement of Ideas, contact information for compensation if so desired, etc. This should also provide for some sort of encrypted signature that can help track individual Thinkers' contributions on projects other than their own.
To make the submission of ideas simpler, there should be a standardized (and updateable) form to help focus on the basic questions that need to be answered.
c) A collaborative environment, where Thinkers can add and change their idea statements over time and can collaborate with other Thinkers on their Ideas. Something similar to a wiki-type environment would work well. I would like to see a way to color-code changes, so that it is possible to see who and when someone has made a change. Each Thinker could choose their own unique color at registration time. This way, you could look at collaborative text, and at a glance, tell who has been working with you on what sections. This color coding could also "fade" (approach closer to black-on-white) over time, possibly based on calender time, possibly based on number of views by other registered Thinkers. The software could also use this to track which are the most active Ideas both by numbers of Thinkers involved and by the amount of changes in an Idea.
d) A weighted ranking system for Ideas, incorporating an element of user input as well as things like cost/benefit differences, degree of feasibility, outstanding issues/problems, ease of implementation, etc. Anything that could be put into the database, and evaluated by a formula, should serve as the basis for an idea's baseline ranking. That Idea can be promoted or demoted, by the registered Thinkers, especially as problems are introduced or solved in the Idea. This ranking system should help get as many good ideas implemented as possible by showing those interested in developing them further, the Ideas that are most ready for further development.
e) Payment enabling. I would like to think that just seeing your idea improve the world for Humanity (and yourself in the process) would be enough. However, until things change, we still need money to provide for some needs.

I would suggest that anyone/any company who takes an idea from The Radical Idea Clearing House, and makes a profit from it, would voluntarily take some of the net profits (maybe as little as .5%) and return that to the Thinker that posted the idea in the first place. If people see that they can do good AND get paid, we should see more people posting more ideas. This would also be a great place for a collection of organizations that could use further funding so that if a Thinker would like, they would have an easy way to find an organization they believe in and donate their earnings.

Additionally, a donation (out of the net profits from an idea) to The Radical Idea Clearing House itself, would be used to provide for the infrastructure of the RICH, and if there was enough funding available, to start a foundation to give out Bucky's Lifetime R&D fellowships to the most productive Thinkers until such point as every user of The Radical Idea Clearing House is receiving a fellowship.

As a way to keep track of Thinkers, I suggest giving out a unique Thinker number, upon submission of your first verified Idea to The Radical Idea Clearing House. A simple task for a new user, or even someone having a little creative block, would be to go through the queue of incoming ideas, briefly check them for validity and uniqueness, and submit them for further review. After an idea passes this stage, its Thinker will either be given their unique, sequential number or credit for the submission of another Idea. This is the point at which an idea (lower-case i) becomes an Idea (lead-capital I) and is tracked from this point out as a project.

As the collection of Ideas grows, there will come a need for a way to connect with other Thinkers that have knowledge in areas that you do not. I could see individual Thinkers take on the task of helping to clarify individual issues with Ideas into general fields (electronics, programming, manufacturing, political, etc.) with a place that someone with specialized knowledge could go to look at solving individual issues, without having to try to solve all problems in one Idea.

6) Needs (This would be a place for a standardized form for things any Idea might need. This would also help focus the Thinker to help kickstart the Idea into implementation)

Hardware
To start with, one server, hosted on a static IP address, running the software further described below. I see the scalability of this set-up to be important, and hence should be considered carefully from the beginning.

Software
The software needed falls into two categories:
Infrastructure - General running of The Radical Idea Clearing House, including databases, forms, payment tracking and website.
Social - More specific to ranking of ideas, charity tracking, donation acceptance, etc.

Labor
Financial - We need someone knowledgeable about Non-Profit/Not-For-Profit organizations, foundations/corporations to answer questions about the best way to set up The Radical Idea Clearing House.
Hardware - Originally, one person to set up and maintain the first server for RICH, growing as needed.
Programming - This is the place that I see the largest need in the implementation of this idea. At this point, I need further feedback from other Thinkers, as to how to approach implementing this, and what the needs are for further programming requests/requirements.

Social
Advertising - It would be nice to think that viral marketing, cross-linking in the blogosphere, and maybe a good Digg experience would be enough to launch this Idea into the public consciousness. And, for all I know, it might be! If not, in order to reach a large enough number of Thinkers to reach a critical mass of ideas, some form of slightly more aggressive advertising might be necessary.
Marketing Materials - I would like to be able to provide 50-100 free business cards to anyone who registers as a Thinker at The Radical Idea Clearing House (With additional cards either cheap, free, or somehow "earnable" via work for RICH). The front side would have the Thinker's name, Thinker number, any contact information that they would like, the URL to RICH, and one line that has the title "Idea Title". The back side would have some very basic fields in a table form to quickly capture the essence of a spur of the moment idea, with the URL to a direct submission area of the RICH site. These cards would be used by the Thinker, whenever they overhear a good idea. By handing the card to someone, and telling them that there is a place to see good ideas come to life, they not only advertise RICH, but bring a new idea to the table as well. If there is anyone working at a printer that might have extra printing capacity to donate, contact me.
Publicity - News, print, podcast appearances, online repository of "Who we are" info, etc.

7) Next Steps towards implementation
If all of the above needs were addressed, The Radical Idea Clearing House would be an entity poised to make the World a better place.

At this point, I need two things:
1) Feedback on this idea. Will it fly? What am I missing? Where could it be improved?
2) Manpower. I need help figuring out how to implement the software ideas I have outlined, and getting them to a functional place where other Thinkers can contribute. This Idea would be a perfect test case for how to make this process work. Anyone have a couple spare brain cycles to donate to the cause?