Got a problem to solve? Why reinvent the wheel when you can steal someone else's great idea?

Whether you're a business guru trying to find new ways of beating the competition, or a community champion trying to tackle crime or pollution, there are a raft of incredibly innovative tools on the net to help solve tough issues.

This week I'm going to share some of my favourite "tools for starting thinking infections", and places to collaborate with natural allies who have faced similar challenges and found creative ways of solving them.

This show is dedicated to my colleague, Bright Idea Society "illuinaire" Adam Petrillo, who survived the tragedy in New York on September 11th not by accident but serendipitous design. May your big heart and bright ideas shine on ...

Idea Stimulation Tools

1) Innovation Network

InnovationNetwork is based on the idea that one way of changing the world starts with creating work environments where people can work on important challenges and be their full creative, collaborative selves. Some of their idea stimulation tools include:

Idea Workout Gym
Mindmapping in 8 Easy Steps
Creative Thinking Smog Test

2) Good Morning Thinkers

The past month has been extraordinary. We've been afraid, numb, angry, resolute. It occurs to us that something has happened for which there is no "rewind button". We need to do something, but what? That's the challenge that the "Good Morning Thinkers" are currently tackling.

Amazing Grace and Chuck
A Thousand Questions for the New Millenium
The Library (archives of past ideas and responses)

3) Advanced Practical Thinking Training

Dr. Edward de Bono is best known for his "Six Hats" approach to lateral thinking. He offers a pragmatic set of tools to get people and organizations thinking outside of that proverbial box. This website offers a launchpad to Dr. de Bono's own unique brand of thinking infections. Some helpful starting points:

Thinking Methods
Six Thinking Hats® - Lateral Thinking
Six Thinking Hats® for Schools

4) The Bright Idea Society

An "idea commerce" community designed to connect businesses and organizations looking to solve specific problems with a society of "professional thinkers" and their grey matter collateral. Get paid for your bright ideas.

Find or Share Ideas
Idea Contests^TM
Protect & Develop Ideas as Products

5) Idea Exchange

Another marketplace for buying and selling ideas.

6) Seth Godin's "Idea Virus"

When my daughter was four years old, she crawled into my lap with a troubled look and announced that she was sick. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me that she had a "thinking infection" because when she went to bed at night her brain just kept right on working. I was dumbstruck at a child's ability to put so eloquently into words that thing which vexes creative minds. I've since used the term "thinking infection" to describe many of the challenges I've posed to people trying to solve tough problems in communities around the world. The irony was not lost on me when a four-year-old's words were echoed in one of the internet's greatest thinkers, Seth Godin. A colleague at the "Bright Ideas Exchange" where I interact, Seth coined the term "Idea Virus" and built an entire critical thinking empire around it on the web.

Seth's Idea Virus PowerPoint Presentation
Unleash Your Idea Virus
Seth's "Idea Virus" book online   (PDF format)

7) What's In a Meme?

Nearly 30 years ago, evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins proposed this theory: The fundamental components of ideas act just like genes, competing for brain space the same way organisms vie for breathing space. He called these basic idea-bits "memes."

Dawkins' reasoning opened a whole new field of thought called memetics. Various scientists and idea merchants picked up the meme idea and ran with it. Unleash Your Idea Virus -- the Fast Company cover story by Seth Godin -- applies the meme theory to 21st-century marketing strategies and concludes that infectious branding tidbits like Budweiser's "Wassup" tagline and Pet.com's sock-puppet mascot spread among the populace like voracious viruses. Godin proposes that marketing and memetic savvy, combined with the broadcasting abilities of the Internet, allow business ideas such as Hotmail and Evite to grow at a staggering rate that pre-Internet word of mouth alone could not achieve.

8) Expand Your Mind

This challenging site blends logic, science, philosophy, and mythology using a series of clever exercises and logic puzzles that allow you to explore lateral thinking and expand your mind. (The author is still working on particular essays within this site).

Logic Problems

RESOURCES FOR YOUTH

1) ThinkQuest Internet Challenge

The ThinkQuest Internet Challenge is an international program for students ages 12 through 19 that encourages them to use the Internet to create information-rich Web-based educational tools and materials.