One of many nice ideas sites

Are there other sites like Good Ideas? What does the landscape of ideas sites look like? Here is a quick description of the types of sites in this sector we see:

Targeted Ideas Sites: Many organizations have turned to “ideas sites” to generate consumer or constituent feedback. These include Dell’s “IdeaStorm“, Starbucks “My Starbucks Idea“, and other company sites. They are typically focused on a narrow topic with a defined audience.

Global Ideas Sites: Some sites gather the best ideas of pundits, such as TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival and The Ideas Project. There are also a number of commercial ideas sites such as Springwise and Betterific.

Contest Sites: Many organizations run contest sites, including large initiatives such as the XPrize Foundation and Ashoka’s Changemakers. Some companies provide tools to this sector, including IdeaScale.

Answers / “How To” Sites: There are a number of very successful “answers” and “how to” sites online, including Quora, Answers.com, eHow, and Yahoo Answers.

“Best of” Sites: Many media sites present annual (or periodic) “best of” lists compiled by their editorial staff.

All of these sites gather and rank information, but are quite diverse in terms of objectives, topics, community involvement, longevity, and other dimensions. We hope Good Ideas has a useful role to play.

Feel free to describe other good efforts in comments below.

As you gear up for the college football bowl season and NFL playoffs, here are four remarkable good ideas you may not know about the gridiron:

1) Don’t worry about strength

In football, the strongest team will typically win. But what is strength? Stanford football — known for its extremely physical play — doesn’t focus directly on strength. The focus is on flexibility, balance, and things like ankle mobility. Here is a great feature from the New York Times. http://nyti.ms/1hRyCMB

2) Don’t Pick First

Professors at the Yale School of Management show that highest picks in the NFL draft perform worst dollar for dollar. Late first round and high second round picks do best.  http://bit.ly/c2Bzbf

3) Never punt

Statistical analysis is clear: coaches punt and attempt field goals way too frequently. It’s much better in almost all situations to keep the ball and go for it on fourth down. http://nyti.ms/1bEVMFX

4) Diagnose concussions with a stick and hockey puck

Concussions from football and other contact sports are difficult to diagnose and quantify. A new approach developed in Michigan uses, amazingly, only a dowel and hockey puck combination to diagnose concussions remarkably accurately. http://nyti.ms/16JStHk

OK — now back to the game…