Hi all,

Many of you have been asking us what’s going on with the existing market tests, Gwabs and BigHal, as well as the next steps for IdeaWarz.

The team is currently focusing heavily on the next rev of IdeaWarz. Mining the top ideas from our pool is one of the most important pieces of our business model - which is why we need to nail it.

Our existing market tests, Gwabs and BigHal, are going to be extended into September. We may do another market test soon but our first priority is getting the next rev of IdeaWarz.

For further discussion visit this thread in the forums.

Hey Community! We’ve hit another huge milestone: Cambrian House has just awarded the first Royalty Points for artifact completion! We’re extremely proud to pass 13 Royalty Points (and along with it a portion of ownership) to Robby_ for his copy submission (artifact #1152)! Robby_ went above and beyond the call of duty, making great suggestions and changing the tone of the site. Robby_’s tag line defines the new Prezzle: “e-presents wrapped in e-motion!” For that, we are thrilled to award Robby_ the first RPs for artifact completion.

But Robby_’s submission was only the tip of the iceberg. His new copy will mark huge changes within Prezzle – the first step towards Prezzle 2.0. With another 68 Prezzle tasks and 302 Royalty Points available in NorseForge, there are plenty of Royalty Points still up for grabs. If you would like to earn fame, glory and profit, like Robby_, check out the Prezzle Project page and own your piece of the Prezzle pie.

Prezzle not your thing? Don’t forget there’s the world’s first crowdsourced book (101 Must See Hollywood Moments) which can you can also contribute to and own!

Hat tip to npullan.

Glory Points have been awarded!

Hats off to everyone that worked hard on all of the NorseForge tasks these past few weeks. With a staggering number of people Declaring Intent and 10 submissions one can easily tell that those 3 tasks were well received.

We were proud to reward all submitters with Glory Points. To help the Royalty Points submitters, on their journey to becoming millionaires, we gave $1 as a token of our appreciation.

A special round of congratulations will have to go to AndyDoan for his FAQ and Coder4Christ with his Ask the Queen submission! They earned their glory!

Over the last couple of weeks one thing became clear: there were not enough tasks.

On that note, we would like to share with the world and our Community the creation of 75 new NorseForge tasks. Most are for Royalty Points. Others for Glory Points.

So what are you waiting for? Get paid – earn your first dollar today!

Hat tip to npullan.

Once in a while, when the dust settles between releases, we actually get to do some thinking. This week we have been thinking a lot about IdeaWarz - specifically how to make it better. We know IdeaWarz isn’t perfect (and we thank all of you who keep reminding us every day

This post is about sharing with you some of the thinking we’ve been doing, and getting some feedback. So without further ado, let’s review some of the areas IdeaWarz could be improved, goals for the next version, and what we propose going forward.

What could possibly be wrong?

The biggest problem with current version of IdeaWarz is that there is no finality.

All the ideas are in an open ended battle with no end in sight. We did not expect to have over 5000 community members and 2200 ideas this fast. When we launched back in June, our goal for the website was 100 community members and 1000 ideas. We’re not complaining - this is a good problem to have . 2200 ideas however, is too much to rank all at once.

Having so many ideas battling all at once means the truly good ideas aren’t getting enough eyeballs in front of them. We want the top ideas battling each other, not random weak ones.

The other challenge with an open ended battle tournament is the complexity of the ranking algorithm. Trying to create a ranking algorithm that takes into account the age of an idea, it’s relevance or weighting (whatever that means), and determining who it should battle next gets non-trivial really quick (and it still doesn’t nail the essence of what we’re trying to do).

The current version of IdeaWarz also lacks real incentive for people to pick the winners. For the wisdom of crowds to work properly, we need people to have a vested interest in the outcome. Currently it’s too easy for people to vote without caring about the result. We need to make the crowd care.

Finally, adding some rails to the process to give battles a sense of finality is something we have wanted to add from the beginning and are only now getting around to.

What can we do better?

First thing we want to do is make the ranking process more transparent. People should be able to clearly see the life cycle of their idea from the second it is submitted, to the moment it is picked for commercialization.

Secondly we want to find a way of reducing the number of ideas battling at once. Currently there are just too many. We need to be able to find the good ones fast, and let the bad ones go even faster. This will make the battles more efficient and interesting.

Third, we want to add a little more rhythm and ritual into the battles. Having battles and tournaments on some kind of schedule will give people that sense of finality, and leave them looking forward to the next skirmish.

Here’s what we’re thinking

Basically we want to move from an open ended free for all to a tournament model. That means groups of ideas battling each other over a certain period of time, with one winner declared at the end. This is similar to what threadless.com does with their t-shirt design competitions. Time boxing also adds rhythm and ritual. It closes the loop and gives people finality on their idea’s journey.

We think the life cycle of an idea could look something like this:

Week 1 : Accept ideas

• For an entire week just accept new ideas.
• There is no ranking at this point.
• They are simply collected and stored.

Week 2: Rank collected ideas

• Collected ideas are now opened up for their first taste of battle.
• Table napkin style battles would randomly choose ideas to fight.
• Results would be collected and rankings kept private until the end of the week.
• The top 32 ranked ideas (or top 5% which ever is greater) would progress to the next battle.

Week 3: Skirmish

• Out of the top 32 ideas, voters get to pick three.
• People’s votes are collected throughout the week.
• Idea submitters get an opportunity to expand and promote their idea to entice voters.
• Once again voting results are kept private to avoid group think.
• The winners then proceed to the 3-way.

Week 4: 3-Way

• Out of the three ideas left, voting members are asked to pick the best idea.
• This idea is the chosen one. It represents the single best idea submitted this week.
• There can be only one

The winner is then eligible to be commercialized via a market test. Hallelujah!

How often would we run the tournament?

We are thinking weekly or bi-weekly.

If we ran it weekly that would mean a new product market test every week. The nice thing about the weekly tournament is it keeps the number of ideas battling reasonable. The disadvantage of a weekly tournament is we lose some of our hype (it’s not as exciting having a winner every week).

Thoughts?

The Experience

Last thing I want to share for now is a little bit about the experience. We want the IdeaWarz tournaments to be fun, rewarding, full of fame, and all about the thrill of getting your idea commercialized. A key part of that will be giving people the tools and data to watch their ideas progress through the skirmishes and battles.

To this end we are looking at adding data feeds where people can receive stats and updates on things like:

• Battles won
• Battles lost
• Comments added
• # of views

Then people can specify how often they would like e-mail updates (hourly, daily, weekly) to keep tabs on how their ideas are doing.

Things we still need to work out

Wild Cards

MJ really wants us to have the ability to inject a wild card idea into a tourney at any stage. This gives us an opportunity to mix things up, and do tests on ideas we think are hot, but not sure about.

Existing ideas

Whatever new system we go with, we know we have 2200 existing ideas that need to be worked in. We haven’t decided how to do this yet. We could select the top ones and bring them over to seed the first battles. We could systematically take some ideas every week and battle them. Or we could throw them all into one big tournament (as a kind of a one off) and see how they do. We have lots of options here. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about these ideas.

What happens to the losing ideas?

They get the boot. If cases where we have more then one truly outstanding idea, we may make an exception and promote two. But for the most part we really want to find that one diamond in the rough. People can always re-submit ideas, but we would encourage tweaks and changes to give them a better chance of surviving.

What about a stock exchange for ideas?

We are still playing with the idea of having a stock exchange where people actually trade on the value of an idea like a stock. This is still a ways off, but once we get our battles sorted out, this may be the next step.

What do you think?

Here are the top questions we would love your feedback on (along with anything else you can think of):

1. Should scores be kept private during weekly battles to prevent herding?
2. What should the length between tournaments be (1, 2, or more weeks)?
3. Would you like to see a trading system for ideas / Royalty Points?
4. What role would link / e-mail promotes would play in this style of tournament?
5. What other experiences do you think would be fun and rewarding?

We know there are a thousand details still remaining to be worked out, but before we go pro on the idea, we wanted to hear from you.

Note: For further discussion on this topic please use the Cambrian House forum there here.

Viking toast to Aidan and Andy

Aidan Rogers and Andy Doan have posted we think the first public podcasts on Cambrian House.

Primordial Soup is a show where these two guys talk about idea submissions in IdeaWarz, while holding the fire to our feet telling us where we are moving too slow, and how we can make things better.

I highly recommend checking out their material, and sending them feedback on what your liked and potential future topics for their show.

Episode 1 (Prezzle, GWABS, BigHal … and more)

Episode 2 (Security mail, Shout!, Prosper Insurance … and more)

More on this later (taking a much needed day of with family).

Note: This week Aidan joined Cambrian House as a full time team member. We haven’t had time to make an official announcement so till then this will have to do. Welcome aboard Aidan!

When you join a startup, family and friends don’t understand why you work harder than anyone they’ve ever met. They don’t understand why you are tired at your kid’s birthday, or why you suddenly started falling asleep at the movies. They don’t understand how you can operate on such little sleep, or why you push yourself as hard as you do.

This can lead to tension because your friends view everything you do as work, while you view it as a calling. You simply feel compelled.

This calling is similar to the calling an athlete feels when they train for the Olympics.

It’s funny, because as soon as you tell someone you are training for the Olympics (and not working for a startup) a certain magical, mystical aura seems to fill the air. Images of the Olympic rings and gold, silver, and bronze medals come to mind. Happiness, joy, pain, determination, and a host of other powerful emotions flood to the surface. People look at you admiringly – wow, an Olympic athlete. They admire your determination, and encourage you on your journey. They understand why you push yourself so hard, and sacrifice so much. You are going for gold.

But joining a startup is a lot like training for the Olympics.

1. Both are all consuming.
2. Both span similar periods of time (4 years).
3. Both demand a lot of hard work, time, dedication, and pain.
4. Both force you to make sacrifices.
5. Both are extremely addictive in their own unique way.
6. Chances of failure in both are high.

People joining startups share a lot with Olympians. Both pursue goals and glory for which they are willing to work extremely hard, and dedicate a good portion of their lives. They realize the risks, and accept the consequences of failure. They also love the journey, and look back on their pursuits as some of the best years of their lives.

So the next time you are taking heat from a friend or loved one about how they never get to see you anymore, try explaining in terms of athletes training for the Olympics. You both make great sacrifices, and you are both going for gold.

Hat tip to Sarah.

Hiya all,

It’s been an exciting week watching people sign-up and declare intent on projects like Prezzle and the website Glory project (over 78 so far). The forums have been lively, there’s been great discussion and debate, and our to-do list continues to grow by leaps and bounds (holidays are overrated anyways).

One question I felt compelled to blog was how we view the topic of collaboration and Royalty Point distribution.

First off we want to be super clear that collaboration and helping others is something we totally want to encourage and reward. Discussion groups, private messaging, and forums are the current tools of choice, but we know we have work here and want to make collaborating better and easier for you.

Basically we want contributors to be able to share Royalty Points with those they feel have really helped them out. Maybe they helped fix a particularly nasty bug in your code. Or perhaps they designed the killer graphic that made your submission stand out just that much more against the crowd. Whatever it was, if you feel obliged to share with others we want you to be able to that.

So if you are fortunate enough to receive Royalty Points, and you feel obliged to share with others, let us know and we will make it happen. It’s good karma to share, and who knows, one day you may be on the receiving end from a grateful individual.

Note: For further discussion on this thread can be found in the General Discussion forum.

So it appears that crowdsourcing is in the news again. Today’s Globe and Mail, a nationally distributed newspaper, featured a beefy article about crowdsourcing, mentioning the likes of iStockPhoto, YouTube, Threadless and Zazzle, alongside (hopefully) your favourite crowdsourcing company, Cambrian House. Our fearless leader, MJ, is quoted several times, talking about crowdsourcing.

Here’s an interesting little thought from the article, Community:

“In grocery stores, in movie theatres, and in lineups at the gas station, it’s possible that we are surrounded by co-workers with whom we will never have to attend a staff meeting, who won’t use up all the paper in the photocopier, and who won’t show up drunk at the company Christmas party.”

Hey Community – today’s release has been paused.

We made an 11th hour decision about the promised features. We didn’t want to release features that we didn’t feel were up to snuff. We’re working on them, and when they do come out, they will be full of rocking-ness and worthy of your usage (a power blackout and internet problems from 2 different ISPs didn’t help.)

Speaking of rocking-ness, did you check out the 3D sketches of a Diet Coke/Mentos powered rocket gigatrix posted in the forums? Remember, there will be no Diet Coke to Space (in rocket or geyser form) without more signups. So do Tell a Friend.

Cheers!

‘We can restore the power of intent through a return to the true self, or self-actualization. People who attain self-actualization reestablish their connectedness to the non-local mind. They have no desire to manipulate and control others. They are independent of criticism and also of flattery. They feel beneath no one, but they also feel superior to no one. They are in touch with the internal reference point that is their soul, and not their ego. Anxiety is no longer an issue, because anxiety comes from the ego’s need to protect itself. And that anxiety is what interferes with the spontaneity of intent. Intent is the mechanics through which spirit transforms itself in to material reality.’ – Deepak Chopra

We believe intent matters. We are not perfect at aligning ourselves the way Deepak describes above, but we try.

Intent matters because what we intend comes to pass. If we intend a universe of abundance, we will see one. If we intend to create a community in which anyone can participate and share in the rewards, we will.

The universe conspires for us. It’s dropping us hints all the time. Everyday it weaves seemingly non-connected coincidences and random happenings together into a tapestry of choice and opportunity. It wants us to succeed.

Can you think of a time in your life when an opportunity or coincidence occurred that at the time seemed random or lucky, yet on reflection realize it reflected your hearts deepest desires and aspirations?

There is no such thing as luck – only intent.