Just say you had a brilliant website idea which would obviously make you millions by this time next week - how would you go about it ?
You know zilch about setting it up, but initially don't want to ask for help for fear of the concept being nicked. Are there patents or do copyright principles apply ?
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The number of different web based search engines, email clients, auction sites etc. would tend to imply it's a free-for-all.
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The first step is the name. You have to buy the name from a domain name registration company.
Ie www.mybright-idea.com.
You have to make sure know one has it, then buy/register it, and as long as you keep the payments up no-one else can have it.
www.123-reg.co.uk/order?domain=mybrightidea.com&search=search&ajax_enabled=true
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But that doesn't prevent someone else creating a website that does exactly the same thing, but with a different name, does it?
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no, but on the net most important thing after the idea, is the name. As far as the idea goes, you can't say if it can be copywrite or patent protected till you know what it is. Generally speaking, a website is a service, and you can't copywrite the service it provides, only the name.
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>> You know zilch about setting it up, but initially don't want to ask for help
>> for fear of the concept being nicked. Are there patents or do copyright principles apply
>> ?
>>
Are you asking how to avoid something like this
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13044182
happening to the person who knows "zilch" about setting it up?
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Dont "Intellectual Rights" apply in any shape or form?
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>> Dont "Intellectual Rights" apply in any shape or form?
>>
They MAY do if you can afford to fight these types of battles:
news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57465449-37/samsung-loses-bid-to-lift-u.s-sales-ban-against-galaxy-tab/
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Somebody that isn't me once said, probably sagely, that a brilliant idea poorly executed is worth ten thousand dollars, whereas a lacklustre idea brilliantly executed is worth a million.
I think that means more effort into slickness and visual appeal/ease of use, and less into the core concept. And it's probably easier to protect the former.
Some would argue it's all Apple have ever done.
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Usually its very difficult to prove there are intellectual rights. Facebook is a social media site, there are hundreds of those because you can't copywrite the idea of a meeting point, the case involved there was the actual code. You have to have unique features.
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Well wasn`t there some "System" you could use that basically involved writing it (your idea) out fully, seal it in an envelope in the presence of a "reliable Witness" eg Doctor or such,(who would sign it across the seal), then post it to your solicitor for safe keeping. In the event that the same idea appeared later, you had sealed proof that it was your idea first.
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OK, now the next tricky bit: how do you find a geek or two that really would know how to put it together for you. How much money too?
Keeping the name secret is easy enough as to start with you simply call it Boatrace Book, fBay or Fiends Re-united.
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I assume it's all hypothetical etc.
You do realise that the like of Google, Facebook, Amazon etc have massive data centres across the world to host their services. In the case of Amazon with it's EC2 infrastructure they host a lot more than just Amazon services.
Back to the last question. What skills are needed depends on what it is you're proposing. You're going to need storage, compute, Internet access with high bandwidth, etc. and I assume there's going to be databases, web services and a lot more to implement it.
Knocking something together on a virtual environment as a proof of concept should be simple. And then maybe move it to a hosted service like Amazon's EC2.
If you're serious about this and have an idea that will make money, and you will need help getting it off the ground I'd seriously consider someone like our very own Stephen Khoo.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 3 Jul 12 at 18:20
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It could well be a workable idea, but who knows about making any real money though.
The strangest things seem to make money on the web when others just bomb. I agreed with Alan Sugar on "The Apprentice" about that proposed site that gave you a shopping list for a recipe. How on earth would you get more than a couple of dozen people interested in that I thought. Any fool can do his or her own shopping. Well, it seems someone has offered about £150,000 to get the chap started.
Back to Project Dulwich - it wouldn't need masses of computing hardware as I suspect it might tick over with maybe a hundred or so posts/transactions/events a day. It would be local with the possibility of scaling up to a country full of effectively local ones.
What did it cost to get this site up and running I wonder ?
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See what I mean when I say "the strangest things seem to...."
I've just nicked this from a new post here: "I need a cheap tablet for web access and angry birds"
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An Angry Forum Posters game would have plenty of prospective players.
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>> What did it cost to get this site up and running I wonder ?
This site uses Stephen Khoos existing forum software and therefore no cost as it was already developed. It also runs on Khoo Systems' hardware and is not expected to pay. Also uses bandwidth they have out of their data centres (that's not free either).
So basically Khoo Systems is running this for free for us. Although some income (not much) will come from the adverts. But adverts can make lots of money - Google makes it's money from their advertising business - that's what Google is of course.
As for your idea - I'd hazard a guess if you can get someone technical interested and they take a share of the business it won't cost much. Pay someone and you're talking tens of thousands.
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Protect website idea and how to set it up. - Focusless
