The Swiss open innovation platform
where problems find solutions
SWIP’s Idea projects are about sharing and conversations. They are the first step in implementing our vision of innovation from the ground up. We want to make that process as easy as possible.
Helping Others Fosters An Innovation Community
Individuals who want the crowd’s help create an Idea outline. They describe their concept. They describe the kind of help they need. Compensation is always a possibility should the work warrant it. Many Idea project creators simply want diverse feedback.
All members of the SWIP community will see the Idea Project. You can find them in the Discover Projects section of the SWIP site. Our matching algorithms base recommendations on the skills in your individual profile.
Anyone can contribute to an Idea project. Submit comments or simply give the project a rating. As an active member of the SWIP community, your reputation grows the more you help others.
Sharing Creates Freelancer Opportunity
This is what sets SWIP apart from traditional freelancing sites. Our unique combination of social network, sharing economy, and crowdsourcing fosters community. An Idea Project you help today could become a paying Assignment or a Challenge opportunity tomorrow. Supporting individual innovation at the ground level unlocks opportunities for everyone.
So go ahead. Check out the latest Idea Projects. Share your ideas and help the innovators who share with you.
What happens with Ideas? How much is an Idea worth?
Did you know that 97% of all patents never make any money? And if you count all the Ideas where it wasn’t even attempted to execute, it is probably close to 99.9% of all Ideas that are worthless. An Idea is worth absolutely nothing until somebody picks it up and brings it to life.read more...
Lots of people have lots of great ideas but then never do anything about it. Some because they are already pretty happy with their current situation and don’t like to take risks for an uncertain vision. Some because they don’t know how to execute their vision and are simply overwhelmed by the sheer mass of things that need to play together before their idea, no matter how brilliant it is, has a chance to work out. Worse than not knowing how to get it done, is the lack of faith that it can be done anyway somehow, even if you don’t know how at the moment. This results in fear to pick up the phone or hit the keyboard to contact people who can help. The fear to talk with other people is often fuelled by the fear to be betrayed.
Way too many people let that fear guide them. As a result they either do nothing at all or spend way too much thought and energy for protecting their idea instead of determining its potential market success. Amazing amounts of time and money are wasted for a patent, just to get a certificate that turns out to be nothing more than wall decoration.
Patents become useless wall decoration for the following reasons:
- The inventor didn’t figure out how much the cost of making that product influences its price and only realize after the patenting that no one can afford their new product or that their invention to improve a certain thing or process makes that thing or process way too expensive.
- The inventor didn’t check whether there is enough market potential to attract investors or partners.
- Not enough feedback was taken in to determine whether an idea is actually useful and how much people would be willing to pay for it.
- Lack of sales drive to call up people and offer the invention to investors or customers or licensees.
- Legal and regulatory issues were not considered.
- etc.
Way more important than a patent is getting the right people together to make your vision come true. These days an innovation immediately involves skills combinations from various fields like i.e. software engineering, it architecture, mechanical engineering, physics, chemistry, business administration, legal, sales and marketing etc. etc. If you are not great at all of that and capable to get it all done alone, don’t worry. Nobody exists who can get it done all alone. Also most of the inventors who made it weren’t born rich, so they also couldn’t simply hire the best to get it done. So it takes much more than an idea.
At swip.world we want to help you to get your vision come true.
Do you have an Idea which you want to pursue?
Do you need help or do you have an idea you would just love to see come to live, while you don’t really have the time and energy to pursue it yourself as your current situation is already pretty busy and happy?
If the former is the case we will soon get amazing tools implemented that will connect you to the right people and help you to make your vision come true. Come back in a couple of months and check out our progress.
If you would just like to get some feedback to see whether your idea is worthwhile to be pursued or if there will be people offering you help or giving you tips or making you aware of potential problems, post it here and get in touch with our creative community.
If you have an idea for a product that you would love to buy, but have not really the ambition to start a project, we suggest you post it here for the community to pick it up. If the idea gets enough likes, we will try to develop it with the community and licence it to a big corporation who will get it out in the marketplace. If that happens we will share the success of the licencing with you. Share your idea and see what happens.
Yeah I guess you want to know how much you get. Well, to be honest, we are trying this part for the first time. We don’t know yet how much we will get and how many people will contribute with how many hours and add which value to bring it to live. What we can promise you is that we will do this in a very transparent process that shows each contribution for each step in the process and then work out a formula together so every contribution gets its fair share. The first few projects we work out together like this will be our joint learning to develop the best possible model of innovation and reward for people who have great ideas without the ambition to launch a start up around the idea. Be one of our pioneers and invite people to join.