Those fantastic ideas that you have had and explained on the back of a napkin or envelope.
The Napkin Ideas System is here to help everyone decide if they should be treasured and developed, or cleared away with the plates.
This process can only work because we already find, form and fund ideas coming from university R&D labs. Napkins extends the process to before the laboratory , for those ideas that didn't go into the lab, as well as first contact with lab based research.
The NAPKIN ideas system works by asking you a couple of SIMPLE questions to get the rough basis of your idea, without going into the full detail. Just like you would explain it to a friend, over a meal or drink. No fuss, no 'right' or 'wrong' way to do it, just getting the point across.
You post the idea, and we send you back a unique receipt that 'fingerprints' the idea and other bits you have given us so you can come back to it, and we can know it belongs to you.
But first we have to have an 'identity' for you, and for that, we use your confirmed email address.
People who have registered an email address (and confirmed it) get to look at napkins that are open to review. Some napkins get restricted as to who is allowed to review them initially so you may not see the full list.
The reviewers get to put their vote weight behind an idea, and in some limited instances , a bit of cash to prove the point.
Ideas that get backing and votes get the feedback that maybe they are worth pursuing further, like a formal disclosure and enter the system on the pathway to becoming a real implemented project.
1: It is easy to assume that the Napkin idea is a throw away and not serious. Be careful. If your idea goes forward, then your email address, the subject of your napkin and the descriptions you use could be with you for a long time.
What may start off on a napkin could end up being a household name.
2: Explain the problem you are trying to resolve. People have to care about fixing the problem for the solution to be of any interest. A fantastic solution to a problem no one cares about will not get a lot of support.
3: It helps if the solution pays for itself, or potentially makes a profit. Not all solutions are money makers, but if the problem is big enough, and the solution is good enough, there will be communities that support the effort to help the solution mature to the point where it is self supporting. On the other hand if there is a direct route to a profit, then there will be people eager to lend a hand and get a share of the rewards.
4: Don't give away the secret of success in the solution. You need to balance enough of how it is workable without giving the exact details of how it would be done. This is probably the hardest part of the process, but if the problem is one that people care enough about then you will get the support needed to work out the details.
If they get some serious interest then, onwards and upwards, they go through the Disclosure process which is a lot more detailed, but by that point you already know that there is interest enough to make the effort worth while.
If they fail to raise any interest then over time they sink to the bottom of the lists and may be withdrawn by their author, or may suddenly be catapulted to the top if the problem they address suddenly becomes the problem of the day.