An idea shared is an idea worth something

[Ewan McIntosh]

Part three of a series of posts on the elements that have made the best propositions to 4iP work well.

One the big questions about 4iP is what the 'iP' stands for. On a simple level, it's Innovation for the Public. On a metaphorical level it's Internet Protocol, the technology that we're interested in making things happen that change people's lives. The more complex nod is to Intellectual Property. But 4iP is not about us accruing tons of your Intellectual Property - it's about turning it into reality. The biggest challenge for potential producers of ideas, is to share them in the first place.

Me'colleague Alice Taylor in C4 Education was lucky/fortunate/jammy enough to get herself across to Japan for last month's TGS conference. Happily, she's blogged everything, so that we can forgo the cramped conditions of Seat 36A for fourteen hours. She reveals how Japan's gaming industry is in need of some more collaboration if it is to survive. The Japanese games industry is currently losing favour on its own d... and is seeking a way out. What CESA chairman and Squeenix President Yoichi Wada has found is that the Japanese industry has lost its crown as the number one games industry in the world. He said that Japan's loss of leadership position in the global games industry is due to a number of things:
• A weak link between games and other creative industries, like movies, television and manga. The US is much more powerful in its intermedia relationships, like between Hollywood and games.
• A weak link with games and education. Japan feels games have their niche position and aren't a fit with education: this is a failing and needs to be remedied.
• The "closed" attitude of Japan: little collaboration, little use of hubs like GDC and such. Little export of company names, people, relationships. Communication between teams within companies is bad enough, he says, let alone further beyond borders.

Without collaboration, without sharing your ideas with those from other parts of the industry, other potential funders and developers, it makes it really hard to move forward into new and exciting creative areas. It makes the creative process that Sam describes near impossible, since finding out the lay of the land with multiple parts of the same industry is a pre-requisite to achieving something anywhere close to original.

But where are the visible collaborations between gaming companies and television cos, television cos and Artificial Intelligence, AI and gaming? 38minutes is attempting to be more than a talk shop, having already encouraged a few superb collaborations which could soon be leading to both major and minor commissions. But the culture of non-disclosure that seems prevalent in some areas of the industry and in parts of academia could already be slowing down the process of getting money out of the door for great ideas.

Paul Arden had it spot on: Lying in a drawer [an idea] is useless. Worse than useless, it's a complete waste of space. Ideas have to be applied before they're recognised as good ideas. Even a bad idea executed is better than a good idea undone. The longer it is used the better the idea is considered to be. That is why the wheel is reckoned to be the best idea ever.

You can submit your ideas to 4iP in writing or by hyperlink over at the submissions site. The terms and conditions should reassure you that your proposal is yours throughout the submissions process (your proposal is not, as the T&Cs say, considered as user generated content, and is given the respect and confidentiality it's due). Next week, we'll be taking a look at how best to use that limited space to get your ideas in, and why a short written pitch could be more desirable than more traditional means of getting your idea across.

In the meantime, though, don't sit on your ideas. If you were unsure about which organisation to come to first with them, more and more folk are realising it's on their doorstep.

Pic: This idea will self destruct...

[Darryl Collins]

Interesting post Ewan. Whilst I agree that collaboration and co-operation are essential to create great products, I would urge a degree of caution in trying to make that some sort of condition of support. In my experience, often the best and most useful collaborations are informal and ad hoc i.e. not a shotgun-marriage-of-convenience! I cringe when I hear bureaucrats talk of collaborations - they often see this as a fixed and formal matter, not a flexible and challenging meeting of minds with peers and mentors.

[Graham Maclachlan]

We, at Blipfoto actively seek advice and collaboration from friends, colleagues and users. The point being that although we know where were going, we're flexible enough to look at any good ideas that might help us get there quicker or by a more interesting route. If that means being more open about discussing development ideas well so be it, life is full of risks and you either trust people or you don't. We try to trust and so far we've not been let down. Surely it's these creative interactions that move everyone's projects along?

[Mark Rock]

Of course, Stuart has forgotten the ill fated quiz company that Channel 4 set up after 'being informed by' ideas from external companies and spun off into a separate company owned by 4Ventures. Ostrich Media. The rest, as they say, is history......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/oct/31/citynews.channel4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_Media

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Its context that matters. In a Channel 4 context, whether its TV or 4iP ideas, I have never really been asked to sign an NDA, nor would I. The system is more open, albeit still closed in terms of the crowd sourcing approach. In games devlopment, the NDA is like a talisman and often a bit gestural. Many very good and potential 'sharing' people see the NDA as a protective mechanism others as a way of stating their importance (or lack of self confidence about ideas).

Its worth stopping and thinking this through. Channel 4 has no in-house development, coding or production facilities - none. In order to steal an idea, we would have to spin out some staff, set them up in an external office and then contract them to do the 'stolen' idea. Under the existing terms of trade the spin-out would own the IPR in the online space in any case. That feels like a very long, convoluted and costly scenario and won that is fataly flawed, if the intention is to gain commercially. Working with the originator is much simpler, and so sharing ideas, where the C4 staff member is morally and contractually obliged to improve the idea with no gain to themselves, allows the idea to grow and improve. In 15 years of ideas-devlopment I've never come across an idea that did not benefit from this shared endeavour, and never has an idea come perfectly formed.

[Steven Livingstone]

This is an excellent post and something we should take note of. I remember the days of First Tuesday where the buzz word was "NDA". My mantra (borrowed from Google).

Release Early, Release Often.

My preference (and not everyones) over the years has to be to write something that shows what you're trying to do - makes it very easy to demonstrate your idea.