sententia

This is an explanatory post about the Idea Factory section of Sententia, linked from the top navigation. It also gives general information about the Creative Commons License which governs all the content on the site (hint: it’s all free) and how you can submit your very own ideas and guest posts.

The Idea Factory was spawned as a result of the post Building a Flying Machine. For backstory, check there; for more information on the items listed above, read on.

What is the Idea Factory?

The Idea Factory is a free repository of half-baked (or fully baked, or quarter-baked, or overbaked, or … well, you get the idea) ideas and innovations.

More specifically, the Idea Factory is where I can record and share ideas that come to me, in varying stages of completion. I tend to come up with all sorts of ideas at all sorts of times; sometimes, they come to fruition. Other times, I tire of them before taking them as far as they could go.

So rather than hoarding all of my ideas, once I’m done with them, I’ve decided to put them here: on Sententia, in posts prefixed by “Idea Factory.”  The posts will be sporatic, but hopefully they will provide value.

What Are the Factory Floor Rules?

The ideas you find here and all throughout Sententia are being given away freely; I’ve licensed everything under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.

What does that mean?

Basically, it means that you are free to use any of my ideas for any purpose that you can imagine (legal, preferably); you can share them, modify them, build upon them, sell them, etc. The only criteria is that you attribute the idea to me — basically, point people to where you got the idea from, so that they can hopefully benefit from Sententia as well.

Another I’d like, although it’s not required, is to see what you do with any of my ideas. How you used it, what your experience was, how it turned out, that sort of thing. I recommend leaving a comment on the post that you got the idea from. By sharing with others, you can create and get involved in some great discussions. Either way, I’d love to see what you come up with — it’s always fun to see your ideas come to life.

You never know, by sharing and discussing the ideas, it may provide a really cool idea-stimulus for the “implementers” in the crowd — and may even spur on some new ideas for me, which I can then feed back into the community. Win-win!

Why Free?

Giving away the ideas and content on Sententia for free really was a no-brainer for me. I’m sure that some think it’s kinda silly — if my ideas are worth sharing (which I hope they will be), why not sell them? I have a bunch of reasons, but here are some I can think of off the top of my head…

• Because if I’m not planning on using the ideas, why not put them out there, in case someone does want to build on them? Call it paying it forward, calling it creating and delivering value, or just call it sharing, it seems to make sense.
• Because for me, the fun is in coming up with the idea, and once I’m “rid” of an idea, I can move onto the next one. Since I never seem to have a shortage of ideas, clearing them out without having to worry about monetizing them is faster.
• Because it allows me to provide value for people in a way that’s different from the value provided on the rest of Sententia. The rest of Sententia can be a bit cerebral at times; this will allow me to provide concrete value as well.
• Because I do currently run ads on the site, and while currently I don’t make any money off of them, that may change in the future (hopefully enough to cover the cost of hosting the site). I’d rather be unobtrusive with a few ads than be clamoring for money all the time — it just doesn’t sit right with me any other way.
• Because I can!

Now, I know that there are some people out there who — despite all that — probably feel like they are stealing my ideas if they build upon them, especially if they find a way to monetize it themselves. That’s not really a concern for me; you can’t steal what’s freely given. But if it’s really that important to you, feel free to make a donation that reflects the value that you feel you got. If you feel like an idea is worth $0.10, that’s fine. If you feel like it’s worth more, then I won’t complain

Can I Share My Ideas?

I’m always eager to feature great ideas and relevant posts on Sententia — whether as Idea Factory submissions or on the rest of the site. Any guest posts will be noted as such, with a link back to your blog as well.

Here are some guidelines that I strive for specifically in my own Idea Factor posts (and also on the rest of Sententia), which give you some things to consider:

1. Is it useful? It doesn’t matter if it’s useful to a wide audience or a niche group, but your idea/post should be relevant to someone. Maybe it’s a problem you’ve seen in your job that you’ve got a potential solution for, or maybe it’s something that you’ve identified as a useful tool but you just don’t have the time or desire to flesh it out completely. Both would be great starting points.
2. Is it actionable? Especially for Idea Factory posts, actionable ideas are better than vague ones. Basically, we don’t want ideas about ideas, but ideas about solutions which can be acted on. Try to give insight into a problem that readers really care about — and that they can then go and fix.
3. Is it complete or self-contained? Of course, one of the keys of Idea Factory ideas is that they don’t have to be fully finished. But they should be a good portion of the way there — enough that someone would have enough information to take it and run with it. You can also write about complete ideas, but I’d like to make sure that (for now at least), they remain just that — ideas.
4. Is it well-thought-out and well-written? I may have done alright in high school English, but I’m certainly not the next big thing in writing. My writing isn’t perfect, but I do like to try to put together a well-composed piece that has taken some time and attention. Especially because we’re in the “business” of sharing ideas, those ideas should be thought-out and clearly explained. And try to remember to spell-check!
5. Is it okay if someone takes this idea and makes millions off of it, and I never see a cent? If not, this isn’t the place for you Your ideas and posts will be posted under the same license as all the rest, so they’re freely available for any purpose so long as you’re attributed.

That’s it! If you think you’ve got a great idea that you’d like to share, drop me an email via the contact form at the bottom of the page. Let me know what you’d like to write about and why you think it fits into the Idea Factory. If you’ve got a writing sample (your own blog, maybe), that’s helpful too. It may take me a day or two to get back to you, but I will get back and let you know if I’d like to see some more!