I created a Google group called “Opps Abound” to share all kinds of useful things I come across and today I decided to email about a site called Quirky.com.  It’s a site that allows you to participate in the invention process, whether you want to submit your own idea or just contribute to others.  You get rewarded for participating by getting credit for the amount of contribution you gave towards the development of a product.  That’s called % influence and that percentage determines how much you earn from the sales of the product once it’s finally complete.

It’s pretty cool because consumers can come up with the products they wish existed and tweak the details, from what material it’s made of, to what it’s called, to what features to include and exclude.  Plus, you get some kickback for helping out and how awesome does it feel to look at a product and be able to say, “I helped create that”?  I love that the inventing process has been reinvented here, and is a very crowd-sourced and social process now.