Let me start out with some initial disclosure. I'm fully on board with Mike Masnick that execution is the key and an idea has little value. But does it have no value? Is the heart of much intellectual property law protecting things of little or no value? How does someone monetize a novel idea and set a real economic value to it? I am very admittedly lazy, I have good ideas (or so I am told) but have no ambition to execute upon them. Does my intellectual output have any value?
To help frame the conversation, I am making the following idea public, no intention of patent, or any other such nonsense.
I feel there is a great deal of money to be made by a new metaphor in local entertainment. Current web sites all do the same boring search, if you know what you are looking for you may be able to find it. However, if you build on the idea of a College Bulletin Board, there are brand new possibilities. A communal wall of cultural events (i.e. Bars and Bands) where advertisers compete for your attention with compelling artwork / playbills....
I've never seen anything like it, but it is an obvious metaphor to me to create interesting communities.
Now someone may be doing this and not executing on the idea very well. Or someone may read this and decide to create a site.
The question becomes, if someone reads this, creates a successful site, and makes a million dollars, am I owed anything? Should inspiration be rewarded? Is there a marketplace for lazy thinkers? What is the ethics of building on an idea, does the innovator owe the originator anything? Should society reward ideas even though the originator performs no executiion?
