We have podcasting and vodcasting. So why not ideacasting? Ideacasting is just the act publishing your business/product/design/anything ideas on a regular schedule.
Why we need it:
Everyone gets ideas, and we all have ideas that we keep locked away, usually in the backs of our minds. We hold onto them tightly just in case someday we ever get around to making them happen. But what usually happens is… nothing. They just sit there, taking up space. And that’s space that could be used for other ideas!
Also, it’s one thing to have an idea… it’s another thing to execute it. A lot of the ideas I come up with are ones that I just want to see made. I don’t need to own them, I don’t care who makes them, and it does me absolutely no good to keep them tucked away. Besides, I don’t think there’s a shortage of good ideas.
There are a few people already doing it. Patrick Curry is a game designer who ideacasts video game concepts. Ironic Sans blogs quirky-yet-inspired ideas all the time, usually accompanied by sweet drawings (somebody make this man’s pac-man napkin holder with ghost salt and pepper shakers ASAP).
So “ideacasting” is just me giving it a name for myself (well, and for you). One of the cool things is you get to hit two birds with one stone - you get fresh content for the blog, and you get to purge the ideas in your head to make room for new ones. Plus, there’s always an extra bit of motivation when you know that you’re not the only one who’ll see it.
By turning ideacasting into a routine, it’ll also work your subconscious, getting you to look for ideas more often. All you bloggers out there know what I mean when I say that the phrase “this would make for a great blog entry” crosses my mind all the time.
How it works:
The great thing is that anyone with a blog can do it. There’s nothing to install, no software to learn how to use, and no microphones or recording devices to sync. All you gotta do is write your ideas down. And do it regularly. I’m going to try to post at least one concept per week.
In addition, I like Patrick Curry’s format- I think it’s a good way of breaking down the trains of thought, so I’m adopting a similar one (as you can already see).
Final thoughts:
Consider this is the first of (hopefully) many ideacasted concepts from me. I have a few I’ve accumulated from the past (they’re briefly scribbled down in a journal somewhere), so already, there’s no shortage of things to write about. Consider this a challenge to you too. Got a blog? Start an ideacast. Some of the ideas that come out of this could range from the half-baked to the near-impossible. But hey, who cares? That’s what ideas are.
How about “Thoughtcasting.” You know… just posting your thoughts about stuff.
That works too! but isn’t that just blogging? :)
I agree Jack. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I’ve been working on some product ideas recently and I’m using a blog as my means of sharing the idea with some people at work. One of my thoughts for pursuing the idea is to basically open up the blog to everyone and invite people to contribute thoughts, sketches, etc. I will still be responsible for bringing everything together but it could be the product development version of web 2.0. I’m loving your new site by the way.
Brilliant! What if someone steals your idea though? Flip side, what if someone helps execute your idea. Now that would be awesome. First idea post going up!
i love the idea of ideacasting.
what do you think of having a central hub (site)where ppl can add their ideas and users can rate the ideas (a la digg,threadless, etc) and the top ideas will be reviewed by a panel and see if the idea can become reality.
In regards to michael’s concern of other stealing your idea; ideas can be licensed under creative commons.
Definitely! There’s a site called half-bakery (http://www.halfbakery.com) that does this very thing.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, but having a central hub doesn’t mean as much if you don’t have anyone that can actually execute the ideas. A good example of this working effectively is http://www.mydreamapp.com: they had a call for ideas for mac applications and they’ve rounded up a team of developers to make the 3 winners.
Also, I don’t know if ideas themselves can be licensed under CC - the executions of them can though - the text and images describing them, but the idea itself is too intangible to license.
instead of cc…
The same legal jargon as threadless can be implemented:
http://www.threadless.com/submitterms.html
Love it. Ogilvy’s John Bell has a similar “category” on his blog, the Idea Bar:
http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/the_idea_bar/index.html
Cheers,
S
Cool! Thanks for the link!
Also check out www.creativitypool.com , www.idea-a-day.com and a new one too ifonlytheywould.blogspot.com
great concept Jack