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Author of the article here. If everyone monetized everything our industry would collapse. It's a balance. Innovation and monetization are different beasts. So

Author of the article here. If everyone monetized everything our industry would collapse. It's a balance. Innovation and monetization are different beasts. Some ideas are so awesome they just have to be shared. Techies are smart enough to think bigger if they really wanted and make computing better. I hope my example sets a precedent. Sharing your idea may make technology better than if you kept it secret.

sparkie 13y ago
I agree about the need for sharing, it's disappointing that those with profit driven motivation can ruin it for us though. Anyone with plenty of money could take one of your brief idea descriptions, implement the basic idea and apply for a patent on the idea - preventing you from using your own idea in future even. Those small descriptions do not serve as prior art in the US patent system. Putting ideas out there like you've done should automatically put them in the public domain, and void any later attempt for overly broad patents to cover the same ideas. I put many of my own ideas out there, usually in discussion threads though, as I'm not a blogger. There's some overlap between ideas I've had myself and your own ideas, such as the package-manager for package-managers, I've discussed several times and experimented with implementation. It just demonstrates further that ideas that are ready for introduction aren't "inventions" at all: they're inevitable next stages of the evolution of ideas. Yet someone who has the money can claim they invented it, and use the legal system to prevent everyone else using it.
- samsquire 13y ago
  The HN community could form an idea hub to host and protect ideas and monetize them as products to fund further ideas and products.
  - sparkie 13y ago
    Interesting proposition, but do you have any idea how this could actually work? Where would funding come from initially? Would this be a for-profit or non-profit organization? How would we reach a consensus on anything, given the diversity of the community and other communities? How would we protect ideas, other than developing them? (since this can already be done by anyone, given the resources). I can't picture how we could create such system in a society built around the complete opposite, where the government backs corporations and fails to acknowledge the innovations of individuals, unless they pay for it. On a side note, I have many ideas that I've not released, not because I'm worried about someone stealing them, but because they're so far outside any mainstream convention that I'd be seen as a raving lunatic by many if I published them.
    - pawelceranka 13y ago
      > [..] I'm [not] worried about someone stealing them, but because they're so far outside any mainstream convention that I'd be seen as a raving lunatic by many if I published them. Today? :) If they are really that crazy, this alone is the reason to release them into the wild... and you will feel better to. Ideas are only alive when they are free (as in released) ;p
    - sigkill 13y ago
      >On a side note, I have many ideas that I've not released, not because I'm worried about someone stealing them, but because they're so far outside any mainstream convention that I'd be seen as a raving lunatic by many if I published them. This is a very good reason for why your idea should be put up for everyone to see. No, I don't mean that they should think you're a lunatic, but because of how awesome it would be if someone just picks up the tiniest bit and develops it.
      - rasur 13y ago
        To go further, a lot of the worlds good ideas (and their inventors/discoverers) have been thought of as lunatic at some point in their existence. It's almost a prerequisite! ;)
  - pawelceranka 13y ago
    Concept of Idea Hub is pretty interesting. For me there is an angle that I haven't really seen explored i.e. a place to collaborate on (develop) high level concepts related to CS and CS applications. Very much alike to what you'have done in some points in your list. E.g. how to apply patterns/concepts from game design to other more traditional fields (your GP examples). I would love to see a place for collaboration centered around this approach--an idea incubator. I see it married to a platform leveraging experimentation around some of those ideas in lean startup style:)
huntaub 13y ago
I'd love you to check out Airdispatch (http://airdispat.ch http://airdispat.ch) - we are hoping to solve both #1 and #2. Any feedback would be appreciated!

sparkie 13y ago

I agree about the need for sharing, it's disappointing that those with profit driven motivation can ruin it for us though. Anyone with plenty of money could take one of your brief idea descriptions, implement the basic idea and apply for a patent on the idea - preventing you from using your own idea in future even. Those small descriptions do not serve as prior art in the US patent system. Putting ideas out there like you've done should automatically put them in the public domain, and void any later attempt for overly broad patents to cover the same ideas. I put many of my own ideas out there, usually in discussion threads though, as I'm not a blogger. There's some overlap between ideas I've had myself and your own ideas, such as the package-manager for package-managers, I've discussed several times and experimented with implementation. It just demonstrates further that ideas that are ready for introduction aren't "inventions" at all: they're inevitable next stages of the evolution of ideas. Yet someone who has the money can claim they invented it, and use the legal system to prevent everyone else using it.

samsquire 13y ago
The HN community could form an idea hub to host and protect ideas and monetize them as products to fund further ideas and products.
- sparkie 13y ago
  Interesting proposition, but do you have any idea how this could actually work? Where would funding come from initially? Would this be a for-profit or non-profit organization? How would we reach a consensus on anything, given the diversity of the community and other communities? How would we protect ideas, other than developing them? (since this can already be done by anyone, given the resources). I can't picture how we could create such system in a society built around the complete opposite, where the government backs corporations and fails to acknowledge the innovations of individuals, unless they pay for it. On a side note, I have many ideas that I've not released, not because I'm worried about someone stealing them, but because they're so far outside any mainstream convention that I'd be seen as a raving lunatic by many if I published them.
  - pawelceranka 13y ago
    > [..] I'm [not] worried about someone stealing them, but because they're so far outside any mainstream convention that I'd be seen as a raving lunatic by many if I published them. Today? :) If they are really that crazy, this alone is the reason to release them into the wild... and you will feel better to. Ideas are only alive when they are free (as in released) ;p
  - sigkill 13y ago
    >On a side note, I have many ideas that I've not released, not because I'm worried about someone stealing them, but because they're so far outside any mainstream convention that I'd be seen as a raving lunatic by many if I published them. This is a very good reason for why your idea should be put up for everyone to see. No, I don't mean that they should think you're a lunatic, but because of how awesome it would be if someone just picks up the tiniest bit and develops it.
    - rasur 13y ago
      To go further, a lot of the worlds good ideas (and their inventors/discoverers) have been thought of as lunatic at some point in their existence. It's almost a prerequisite! ;)
- pawelceranka 13y ago
  Concept of Idea Hub is pretty interesting. For me there is an angle that I haven't really seen explored i.e. a place to collaborate on (develop) high level concepts related to CS and CS applications. Very much alike to what you'have done in some points in your list. E.g. how to apply patterns/concepts from game design to other more traditional fields (your GP examples). I would love to see a place for collaboration centered around this approach--an idea incubator. I see it married to a platform leveraging experimentation around some of those ideas in lean startup style:)

huntaub 13y ago

I'd love you to check out Airdispatch (http://airdispat.ch http://airdispat.ch) - we are hoping to solve both #1 and #2. Any feedback would be appreciated!