This is a great initiative ! Thought I'd call out, for the benefit of people here, that IDEO[1] (the largest design consulting company in the world, for those that don't know) had launched OpenIDEO[2] a few years ago with pretty much the same goals -- crowd sourcing solutions to solve ^big^ questions.<p>They went on further to provide the platform/framework as a service[3] for example with OpenPlanetIdeas[4]<p>I feel it is a good thing to focus effort in this manner and I hope this sort of thing picks up steam.<p>If you are interested in this sort of thing, you should definitely check out openideo.com<p>disclaimer: I worked on openideo for a while and I'm pretty proud about not just the 'work' that I did but what it stood for and what it achieved.<p><pre><code> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEO
[2] https://challenges.openideo.com/
[3] http://oiengine.com/
[4] https://challenges.openideo.com/blog/congratulating-sony-open-planet-ideas</code></pre>
Also, you need to cough up $10000 p.a. to become a supporter and be invited to join the sessions...that leaves many a good idea/thinker locked out.