Your IP can be very valuable in a market where you can be beaten on the battlefield by kids working from their bedrooms. Especially if you have an idea that you think will rock the socks off eveyone who sees it. If that's you, then don't post it on the internet after reading this article! That said, don't be an idiot and conceal everything about your idea from those who are trying to help you, or you will soon find yourself without those people who want to help.

don't be an idiot and conceal everything about your idea from those who are trying to help you

We all hord ideas

Hording ideas is a common practice of any aspiring entreprenuer. Looking at my current ideas list - I use Asana - that I began in August last year, I have posted a total of 29 ideas. In less than 6 months I have horded a fair number of ideas that will sit there for some time to come, helping no-one, hoping that one day I will find the time (or the even skills for some of them) to see them to completion.

I am no superhuman, I can only work on one or two ideas at once if I am to see them done properly, so I have a whole handful of ideas which need a home. Some of the ideas aren't even in my own field of expertise, so they definitely aren't going to magically make themeselves into real products. We need to be honest with ourselves when we look at our large idea lists, for due to time contsraints or skills required some of those ideas will never be created by us, but could they be created by someone else?

The open world

Cliche as it sounds, most things in the world are moving toward becoming more transparent. Goverments and other agencies can no longer hide the dirty secrets quite so easily as they used to. A few years ago no-one would have dared place such personal info on Facebook as they currently do. How about ideas? I think people are moving away from the realms of secrecy, and will be more open to sharing their ideas as time goes on.

My first shared idea

So lots of talk, can I live up to it? Heres my first shared idea. The idea for this blog post originated from an idea I wrote on my list in August titled "GitHub for ideas". As a developer, GitHub is the perfect means to collaborate on and share code, so my first instinct was to think of GitHub when I wanted to create a website to collaborate and share ideas.

The idea for this blog post originated from an idea I wrote on my list in August titled "GitHub for ideas"

For anyone who has used GitHub you know what I mean. For those who don't, here is a quick explaination.

Sites already doing this

After a quick Google search, I cam accross one site that grabbed my attention.

Idea Share. This side was similar to what I was imagining in an online idea platform, apart from one thing. It's for your company. Thats great, and very beneficial to any company that uses it I am sure, but I want to share my ideas with the world.

If you know of any other sites which I have missed (very likely) please let me know mail@benwigley.com.