Developing Ideas in the Internet Age

A blog entry appeared in a major woodworking journal recently with regard to a change that has come about concerning the development of ideas, especially with new forms of social interaction brought about by Internet-based social networking. I actually wrote a comment.

The entry can be found here.

http://blog.woodshopnews.com/tbaw/?p=744

The writer's viewpoint is generally in favor of what is now normally referred to as crowdsourcing, where ideas are solicited from a group of people. This is obviously now much easier within Internet groups using Twitter, Facebook, or an online forum for example, and is a concept that has grown in popularity. Read any history about major inventions though, and one gets the idea that sharing ideas so freely wasn't always popular. Most famous inventors were at one time or another involved in a patent lawsuit against a competitor. In fact, patents are specifically awarded to protect someone who intends to materially profit from his or her own unique idea.

So now if someone crowdsources an idea though, then because ownership of that idea no longer belongs to any one individual, I suppose that any profit from that idea would have to come from the implementation of that idea through manufacture. Most practicing artisans I know are both proud and protective of the ideas that give their work its own identity. Ideas are intellectual property, so to me the idea of crowdsourcing may not apply to all people in all situations.