Climate For Change?

I’d like to get your input on a idea that I have been turning over in my head for a while now on how to create a killer app for wide-scale change that begins to pool the themes we have been discussing to date; crowd-sourcing; interdisciplinary collaboration etc. Clearly a nice and easy one to start your day!

Now I know there are many endeavors already in play here… really there are many… and they’re all contributing something special and doing fantastic work across the world today. For example, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t ‘tip my hat’ to the greenXchange or Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams from Wikinomics fame for their many wonderful insights on this subject. I also recently came across the work of entrepreneurial deign for extreme affordability at Stanford University (not quite crowd-sourcing but definitely interdisciplinary collaboration).

So to get the conversation going around this and to see if you have some of your own ideas on how to shake things up a little, let me share with you some thoughts that I have on the subject…

Firstly, I love the TED format for idea sharing and believe there must be a way to both leverage this and develop it further to create killer idea exchange and greater collaborative idea development.
Consider for a moment if we ran a parallel version of TED (TEDexchange?) based on only 2 or 3 ideas being presented (perhaps the TED wish ideas?). The rest of the conference was then dedicated to developing and driving some practical structure into how to get these ideas up and and working inside a period of 6 months.

The next step would be to push each of these ideas through a series of brainstorming sessions comprised of a wealth of diverse talent; in-person and online. Given the pull of TED and the caliber of the participants it wouldn’t be too hard to create an environment like this. These brainstorming sessions could take the form of multiple functional tracks which, when combined, form the basis of a rudimentary go to market plan. They would include, for example, a track on product development, a track on marketing for impact, a distribution and alliances track, a financing track, a ‘how to work with governments’ track etc etc – whatever was deemed appropriate.
At the end of the live conference, each track would then morph into an online-only version made up of opt-in communities and headed by nominated leaders from the conference itself. This would then create an environment that would enable the idea to be worked to conclusion.

So net net – this idea combines brainstorming at the intersection of different fields of expertise as well as innovatively leveraging the wisdom of online crowds (via polls, discussions and debates) to steer a radical and beautiful idea to a more promising and successful future. Sure it would take a lot of organizing, a lot of support from organizations like TED and a great deal of promotion via the media, but you have to dream big right?

So is this realistic? Overly ambitious? I’ll let you decide.  Also please send any other ideas you may have for the crowd-sourcing killer app.

Stay tuned!