Global Ideas Bank

Way back when (it was in 1979 but I was only about three years old, OK? Can it really be a quarter of a century? Yoikels!) I had a magazine which had as a feature a department called 'Partly Baked Ideas'.

The idea of PBI was for readers to send in ideas which, although not necessarily fully formed, the person who had had the brainwave would still like to get out in the public domain. My co-editor and I thought it might spark ideas and action for things that would help improve the world; we were dealing with 'social invention' as it's called now.

I've been thinking for a while that a PBI department would be a good thing to initiate in the Almanac, but I'm pleased to see that it won't be necessary because there's a group called Global Ideas Bank who are doing much the same thing, and doing it with more energy and resources than I'm sure I could muster. Worth bookmarking.

From the website:

"The Global Ideas Bank aims to promote and disseminate good creative ideas to improve society. It further aims to encourage the public to generate these ideas, to participate in the problem-solving process.

"These ideas we term social inventions: non-technological, non-product, non-gadget ideas for social change. These are a mix of existing projects, fledgling initiatives and new bright ideas ..."