An interesting analysis. I agree that ideas are valuable, and after considering the issue, probably the only reason they have a market value of zero is because there is no good way to trade them.
I think you are on the right track with your proposed solution, but I think we can improve it:
Basically, ideas are interesting. If you publish ideas, a lot of people would go and read them. So there is your market. And you also note that the value of an idea decreases as it spreads, so that property can be leveraged to generate a competitive market.
So what you could do is generate the ideas and keep them exclusive. Someone can pay to look at an idea, and if they like the idea, they can buy it. If they don't buy, the idea gets released to the public.
I can see why this hasn't been attempted before, because there are some difficult issues that need to be dealt with. I do think that it could be done and made to work, so I might actually play around with this one and see what falls out. ambition, send an email if you'd like to play with me.
I agree there are difficult issues, this thread has unearthed several!
I will be honest though -- I thought of this in the context of poppysan's post, in which he or she claimed significantly greater-than-zero value for an idea. My own personal philosophy would be opposed to the idea market I proposed above, though. I believe that if someone is unable to execute on an idea, they should give it away. For that reason, I'd be unable to execute on constructing an idea market. My heart wouldn't be in it.
If you do play with it, I bet many people here would be interested in the result.
Ideas of people have a history of execution are worthwhile. Also, these people may vet ideas proposed by others. This is essentially how YC works -- the prototype is the idea displayed, not executed -- PG is the veter.
One can simply move this to an earlier stage. One must establish oneself (or one's group) as an expert in a specific area, then have persons submit their ideas to your organization. You review them, and offer them to sale to interested parties.
This is essentially how VC works but I believe it could be re-encapsulated at an earlier stage, esp. with software engineering projects which are primarily idea drivien.
To the doubters out there, this is simply specialization of labor in a growing industry. Not everyone should attempt to do anything. Compare journalism. Editors, Writers, Editoralists, Proof Readers, Managers. All work to some degree with the text. We have only one job at the moment - coder/programmer.
i wanted to write on this from a long time .... thanks to ambition to bring this up ... and thanks to murrayh for supporting it .... can i get email id to contact both of u - murrayh ur email id is bit confusing - can u pls clarify for us ...
Now lets discuss this in detail - i truly believe that idea is always worth something - this is NOT a chicken or egg situation because u just cant execute anything w/o having an idea - u cant have a team in place to execute something w/o an idea - so its clear that idea comes first and then the team and then the execution.
Also idea is not yet traded openly because there are issues in getting idea protected - let me tell u that ideas do get stolen ... trust me !!! What if u put 100 ideas on your web-page and nobody pays for it but still goes ahead uses it in some other part of the world???
But there are ways to deal with this kind of situation - it just requires a motivation and persistence ...
Also people say ideas are worth nothing is because most of the time there is no explanation or analysis or research done to support the idea - also we have a habit to value the idea only when it comes from a popular source else we dont even bother to listen to it. If an idea comes from pg then people will listen to it, but if the same idea comes from a guy on the street then our doubts take precedence.
Conclusion : Ideas are much more worth than what a normal belief is - you cant execute anything w/o having an idea - idea generates creativity - it generates dreams - and If you can't dream, then you can't WIN !!!
I think you are on the right track with your proposed solution, but I think we can improve it:
Basically, ideas are interesting. If you publish ideas, a lot of people would go and read them. So there is your market. And you also note that the value of an idea decreases as it spreads, so that property can be leveraged to generate a competitive market.
So what you could do is generate the ideas and keep them exclusive. Someone can pay to look at an idea, and if they like the idea, they can buy it. If they don't buy, the idea gets released to the public.
I can see why this hasn't been attempted before, because there are some difficult issues that need to be dealt with. I do think that it could be done and made to work, so I might actually play around with this one and see what falls out. ambition, send an email if you'd like to play with me.