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Worldwide collaborative innovation

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nImagine being able to tap into a worldwide resource of ideas and innovation concepts, contributed by a mix of amateurs and experts from a range of different industries and business disciplines, without ever leaving your PC. That’s the basic premise behind IdeaConnection.com, an “innovation, idea, and problem solving resource” created by Vancouver-based Online Data Services:


IdeaConnection facilitates individual and corporateninnovation, ideas, and solutions by offering access to an international pool ofnthinkers. It is designed for use by anyone seeking a solution to a problem. Thenproblem can be simple or complex. This is a destination where ideas percolate.

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This is how it works: A problem is posted; a sum of money isndeposited. The solution seeker then reviews the problem solvers CV’snonline and selects and invites one or more people to collaborate to solve thenproblem. Funds are distributed to the participants upon a successful solution.

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“I’m inspired and excited by the number ofnbrilliant people signing up to solve problems.” says founder and CEOnScott Wurtele. “I expect that in 2008 we will see 2000 people makingntheir living solving problems on IdeaConnection as well as many thousand morenparticipating part time. This is a wonderful opportunity for thinkers to showcasentheir talent, earn extra income, and introduce themselves to corporations thatnthey may wish to work with.”

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IdeaConnection is also a place where people buy and sell ideas,ninventions, and intellectual property. Unlike other such web based services,nall submissions are screened, making it worth while to pay to search thisndatabase. Problem solving collaboration is presently being done by anfew large corporation’s proprietary websites; IdeaConnection.com isnavailable for the rest of the world…”

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Unlike other “open innovation” sites (i.e. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk site comes to mind), there looks to be some serious money involved here. As the creator of the site explains above, upwards of 2,000 people will be able to “make a living” by contributing to real corporate projects sometime within the next 12 months. For the sake of argument, we’ll assume that “make a living” means at least $50,000 per year. That’s 2,000 users x $50,000 = $100 million per year in revenue!

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[image: IdeaConnection.com]

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