Collaborative Online Idea Synthesizer with Pluggable Methodologies

The architecture is defined by a workflow or project methodology, which becomes a separate management product in and of itself, and of which players may also contribute. Some methodology plugins may prove better than others, so good idea-synthesizing methodologies become perhaps as praised/prized as good ideas themselves.

The first step, depending on the methodology plugin in use, may be something like 'define the problem space'. This is a stage in which many contemporary individually-contributed ideas are frequently generated without even touching the sides. Said stage is more likely skipped altogether due to an assumption along the lines of "the problem is already obvious, let's just get on with providing a solution".

Beyond that, the methodology defines what happens to arrive at the output product (ie, an idea worth holding up to the world). How it happens, who is involved, the resources, timing, effort, and any methodology-specific stages, methods, techniques or procedures, are entirely up to the methodology. Perhaps there should be a default collaborative idea-having methodology for this venue, just to get the ball rolling. Similarly, there should be available some nifty online tools to utilise for the various activities that comprise professional-level idea generation.

The 'release' stage is probably not quite the end result, and would resemble a 'critique' stage, and itself might act like the halfbakery does now in that it gathers input from non-participants (who are nevertheless equally likely at that stage to become late-process participants through contribution).

As you can probably see, the idea is slightly decoupled from the individual ego in this process, and emphasises not only the team but the application of the methods.