ideasbut

Ideasbut is a term used in innovation discourse to describe a lightweight, participatory approach to capturing, organizing, and evaluating ideas within organizations and communities. It emphasizes open participation, rapid submission, and egalitarian evaluation rather than formal, hierarchical vetting.

Typical elements include a simple submission form, tagging for categorization, a public idea board, and a lightweight voting or scoring system to surface promising ideas. The usual workflow comprises submission, triage to identify actionable concepts, discussion or refinement, and planning for implementation. Some implementations support versioning and asynchronous collaboration.

Ideasbut is applied in corporate teams, universities, and open-source projects as a way to lower barriers to ideation and increase transparency in the decision process.

Advocates highlight inclusivity, speed, and traceability of ideas, while critics warn that ideas can accumulate without sufficient curation, and voting dynamics may privilege popularity over merit. Proponents often recommend complementary moderation and clear criteria to maintain quality.

As a flexible concept, ideasbut can be adapted with stricter scoring rubrics, designated moderators, or integration with formal project-management tools.

See also idea management, open innovation.