Suppose that while working on something mundane, you stumble upon something that is brilliant and could change a field, nay, the world if it indeed is what you think it is. Suppose also that this something is related to a field in which you have no clout and no formal training - a field in which contributions from perceived dilettantes are ignored with abandon. The question is twofold:<p>1)How do you share this information with the world, overcoming the perceived noise from people like you?
2)How do you protect this brilliant result from theft?
First, if you have no formal training there could be something you're missing, so don't get your hopes up too high.<p>Second, find out "if it is what you think it is."<p>I wouldn't worry as much about protection until you're further along. Despite what you think, if this is truly revolutionary, you can scream the idea from the rooftops and no one will care. If something is within the expected field, research is all over it, but if it comes out of left field, it's not given a glance.
1) publish it, and/or publish it with a co-author with clout in the field. that would require you to prove the idea to someone with clout.
2) if you plan on monetizing the idea, create a company and have the people you release the idea to sign non-disclosure agreements.
1. You have to decide whether this is something you need to protect for financial reasons. If so, patent, copyright, trademark or whatever before you tell people.<p>2. If it's not, then just publish the darn thing.
Nobody can steal what you choose to give away. If it would save or significantly improve lives, publish it under some appropriate license (try GFDL) and then start telling people.
You can protect your brilliant idea from theft by executing. Alternately, patent it and be a litigious SOB, but this requires a patentable idea and substantial money, typically.
How about publishing under a Creative Commons license:<p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/license/" rel="nofollow">http://creativecommons.org/license/</a><p>Cheers
if you have discovered something invaluable then the last people you need their opinion is ours.<p>unfortunately though, you dont know what you really discovered until you tried to implement it, and most of the times thats where failure lies.<p>so implement it and protect it if it works
then let the world/us know