Is it feasible to create an "Idea Exchange" to monetize idle but potentially valuable ideas that otherwise go to waste?

Clearly there is a way to do this and many efforts exist and have for years. It is nice to see the links in the above responses and the activity that is going on right now. Would like to see more of that on this topic. A quote that I like is "Ideas are in the air". Not all ideas are obvious but many come to light very quickly in the very connected world we now live in. They have a shelf and holding on to too many of them doesn't really work well most of the time. Open sharing is still a bit counter intuitive and goes against many people's instincts. But some of the most successful and impressive among us either outright share ideas or make something grand of shared ideas out there. I think it is not so much of whether this will happen to a much greater degree, but when it happens. Right now there is no clear winner nor model, but many people are trying this. And things are quickly advancing in this area. Jeff http://www.DesktopAnywhere.com

There is only one way to find out. Why don't you try creating it?

When it comes to entrepreneurship, having and sharing good ideas is the price of admission.

Most new ideas have limited value in and off themselves. Execution is 99% of the value.  The 1% value of a new idea is very difficult to manage in a shared way because of its inherent psychological weight. Ideas are significant as starting points. They are where we develop our hopes and dreams to grow ourselves and the world into something better. A system for sharing ideas must properly account for the personalized value of hope in new ideas. Simultaneously a successful idea exchange would make the most of the limited value of new ideas by positioning them appropriately for consumption and use by others. A system that truly overcomes these 2 constraints has not yet been developed, though there have been some interesting efforts.  An approach that I am interested in is a system for organizing all forms of business ideas into. Business ideas would be broadly grouped as successfully executed, unsuccessfully executed, new/current development and new/not yet attempted. Business ideas are essentially solutions to human problems. I am imagining the categorization of all human problems.   Existing businesses would then be organized into these categories, identifying them as solutions. New ideas would then be organized as proposed solutions to unsolved human problems.

Brendan and Vivek and others are right : 1. Millions of ideas coming from everyone on the planet are lost every year. They're not shared. They're not assessed. They're not implemented. 2. These ideas, even though they can be pure gold, are worth nothing because noone is going to pay for them as they are just basically one sentence of 10 words. To put an end to this massive waste of ideas that could make a difference (even 1 out of 1000 of the millions mentioned above), people should share their ideas for free with brands/public service/entrepreneurs capable of implementing the ones that make sense to everyone. That's exactly what we do at http://braineet.com where people around the world are sharing thousands of ideas that would actually make their lives simpler and smarter. And major brands like Nespresso and Taco Bell, as well as entrepreneurs are listening to them to assess how to move these ideas forward. I hope it helps.

I'm actually the CFO of a start-up (http://Collabovate.org) that is trying to do this exact same thing, only we are aimed at helping people find resources to foster their ideas for social change, not commercial gain.  I think there is a huge market for both (social and commercial), and sometimes they cross streams.  We are currently struggling with how to develop a platform where people feel comfortable giving up their best ideas to, well, basically strangers.  Our thought process is that, because our platform is to strive for social change, people will be more willing to share their ideas.  I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this.  Feel free to drop me a line at Ramsay at Collabovate dot org.

Your idea is realized! (Kind of). My startup, eHUub, is like an eBay for documents. In fact, I want to make it as big as eBay or Amazon.   eHUub is platform where you can put out your professional documents, either for sale or for free.  You can publish documents by yourself (we call them private document) or in collaboration with others (we call them wiki documents). Private documents can be for free or for sell. Private/free documents can be edited only by you and the public can view them for free. In private/for sell documents, the public can see a summary/snapshot of the document you want to sell. Only the buyer will see the full content. Wiki documents are like Wikipedia, any eHUub user can edit the document.   As you participate, we will automatically build your professional profile so that you can showcase it for future career opportunities, or if you are interested in purchasing the documents, your profile will help you to attract high-quality professional. In the process, you will also network with peers in your industry, build high-quality documents, learn best-practices in your industry and make money.   Full disclosure. I have been working on this idea before I read your post. However, I was thinking fixed-price sell only. I like your bid-type sell and may incorporate it in the future   I am going to launch my MVP beta soon. Stay tuned!   By the way, is my mentor. Edit: Here: http://www.eHUub.com

There are a lot of interesting answers here, but in my mind this is one of the things an ideal patent system should be able to take care of. I'm not going to get into an argument of what should be patentable and what shouldn't, but in some weird universe (ours?) I can see patents as concretizations of good ideas that have a much more open market than currently exists. Have you heard of problem solving boards like Innocentive? They are a market for solving problems people put up as challenges; I could see them being able to market abstract ideas as well with some form of peer review and credit system.

I think plenty of people have attempted this before. One example I have seen is http://thinkgeek.com idea factory http://www.thinkgeek.com/geeklabs/ideafactory.shtml Its certainly an approach which is worth considering. I suspect the reason it hasn't already changed our world is that: Similar things have been going on through history via various forms of commerce and networking The idea is the easy bit. To elaborate on the latter, inventors and thinkers are often very attached and protective of their ideas (thus the "he stole my idea" mindset you hear from many people).  In practice, many people could have/have already come up with the same idea.  The hard bit is actualising  it, and delivering it for public scrutiny - the real acid test. Real artists (inventors, geniuses, entrepreneurs, craftsmen, programmers) ship. Many of them fail a dozen times before they have their "overnight" success.