You've spilled cranberry juice on your mother-in-law's oriental rug and she'll be home in an hour. Think you might be willing to spend $2 to learn how to remove the stain?
Rob Brazell, Brad Baldwin and Von Whitby have staked their futures on that willingness to learn. They believe that intellectual property will be at the heart of the new economy and people will begin selling their knowledge, creativity and experience, rather than just their time. So they've created a Web-based company, IdeaExchange, where anyone can post an idea for a $2 monthly fee, set a price and wait to see what sells.
For $9 a former IRS auditor will tell you how to avoid an audit; you can learn to erase ketchup stains for $2. A young man came up with an idea that makes guitar strings last longer, while a college admissions director posted "five things that can kill your application's chances." Aside from screening out the illegal, the tasteless and the blatantly stupid, people are welcome to post any ideas someone might want to buy, according to Baldwin, general counsel for the company.
The ideas are rated by people who buy them, so it doesn't take long for a bad idea to disappear. And the first purchasers of an idea that hasn't yet been rated can get a refund if it's not what it purported to be.
Different people have different talents. That's what IdeaExchange hopes to tap into. It means learning how to grow prize-winning tomatoes from someone who consistently wins ribbons at the state fair, rather than from someone who's trying to sell a commercial fertilizer, Baldwin said.
If an idea sells on the Web site, www.ideaexchange.com, the company gets 20 percent of the sales price. That's a bargain, according to Whitby, chief financial officer and president, because there's virtually no overhead for the seller. The idea only has to be posted once, and the Internet creates unlimited potential buyers, stretching across all borders into cyberspace. If an idea doesn't sell, the person posting it can drop the price. Prices can also be raised.
The site is being billed as the first "intellectual commerce exchange." But Whitby's description is a bit simpler. "If e-Bay is the roll-up of all the flea markets in America, we're the roll-up of all the barbecues," referring to the casual exchange of ideas that occurs at a backyard gathering.
E-Bay made it possible for people to sell miscellaneous personal belongings in an efficient way across geographic borders. IdeaExchange tries to do the same thing with ideas. People are also welcome to sell their products, but the real emphasis is on knowledge.
The concept came about after Brazell in 1996 co-authored "The Idea Economy," a book based on the tenet that what you know will be as important to you economically as what you can do.
"Most people have good ideas, ideas that have some value, but there has never been a marketplace for ideas. We thought perhaps technology could bring to bear a new marketplace where ideas could be prepared, presented, marketed and sold," Baldwin said.
The Internet has opened floodgates of potential that simply never existed before, Whitby said.
It's part of an unusual niche on the Web, one that doesn't really have a name. Some call it intellectual property. Others prefer the designation idea commerce, or i-commerce. It is in that realm that people already have been able to pose a question and offer a small reward for the answer or use one of the information-based search engines like Inforocket.com or AskJeeves.com to find the answers to questions of fact. Some sites in that corner of the Web offer one-on-one interviews, "my time for your money." You can buy or sell scientific knowledge and patents or locate experts.
"We think our opportunity lies between the facts and the intellectual high-end scientific sites," said Baldwin.
It is at IdeaExchange that someone can post a 45-page primer on how to put a business on the Internet. And someone else can buy it for $7. A number of buyers have purchased a guide to "covering your tracks on the Internet." Any idea can be sold over and over and over, and that is the strength of the site, Whitby and Baldwin say.
"You sell me a Beanie Baby, I have it and you don't," said Baldwin. "Sell me your idea and we both have it."
A separate area on IdeaExchange is dedicated to improving the world. People with ideas for ending world hunger or saving the rain forest, for instance, can post them at no cost. And there's no cost to look at them, either.
The trick for this company is getting enough people to post their ideas to make the site lucrative. So far, more than 1,500 ideas have been posted, and the trio constantly seek new sources. For instance, they've launched a college scholarship program, advertised with inserts in campus newspapers. In addition to earning money if an idea is sold on IdeaExchange, students can get points for posting ideas and for getting others to post their ideas. The points can be redeemed for a wide range of prizes, including scholarships.
The privately held company has also launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to attract both people who are looking for new ideas and those who might have an interesting in selling them.
E-MAIL: lois@desnews.com