dnwddll's question about what to do to help avoid having one's idea stolen was going to be my first post. Now I want to know about the advice he received from the replies in this respect: if you are conducting research on your idea, whether online or off, aren't you running some type of (idea) exposure risk to a certain degree by having to define or explain your model to some body or source of information? In other words, in order to find out if you really have a unique idea you have to "bounce" it off some authority or person, right?

From that first inquiry above I would like to segue into another question that could have been my first as well: are there any groups, organizations, possibly even individuals out there that feature a well known, public record or recorded history of recognizing great ideas and then successfully working with, helping the people with the idea? Not an angel investor or business manager but something more like a person or group with vision, experience and connections that when the idea is grasped it's not a matter of trying to get it to work but rather because of its magnitude and benefit, making it work, no matter what.

Perhaps I am ignorant or I am being naive but there must be something out there like what I just described.

i.scotlandyard

>aren't you running some type of (idea) exposure
>risk to a certain degree by having to define or explain your
>model to some body or source of information? In other words,
>in order to find out if you really have a unique idea you have
>to "bounce" it off some authority or person, right?
>
>
>From that first inquiry above I would like to segue into
>another question that could have been my first as well: are
>there any groups, organizations, possibly even individuals out
>there that feature a well known, public record or recorded
>history of recognizing great ideas and then successfully
>working with, helping the people with the idea?

-
I've dealt with this issue a few times in the past, both personally and through clients. I'm often introduced to people as they are developing their ideas, and security is far to often ignored.

The most effective way of really solidifying yourself as the originator of an idea is also the most effective way of getting it started, plaster it everyplace, in it's full version. Share your exact idea with the world! Twitter, Facebook, a blog, your profiles everyplace. Once you've told the world your idea, it's hard for someone else to claim it's theirs, and you've also exposed it to as many eyes as possible, which is often one of the greatest things you can do to any seed-level venture.

-Tom, SporkBit.com