"There is a certain element of mob mentality (ala Digg) that may ... hinder actual progress," said commenter Megatron. "The internet is great for giving everyone a say, but it tends to bring out the wackos." While commenter Morgan noted that you risk alienating many of your constituents if you pay too much attention to the type of people who would participate in a site like Oh Boy Obama -- which as we said would likely be the most fervent campaign supporters.

Kuhl's "Fix Washington" campaign is essentially the same idea -- a user generated political think tank -- but on a more local level. Dr. Denny at Scholars and Rogues isn't buying it. "Rep. Kuhl has reduced the American system of government to a reality game show," he wrote. "He's asking for his constituents to do his thinking for him."

However, like Oh Boy Obama, Kuhl's idea isn't necessarily a bad one -- though it does have faults. Kuhl is actually following two of our rules for crowdsourcing. He's realized that crowds are better at vetting content than creating it -- though he's asking for idea submissions, the real meat of his project is in letting users vote on the best from a preselected list. And therein lies his second smart move -- he's realized that not everything can be democratic and will be selecting the five top submissions himself.

Kuhl's idea also has the same problems as Oh Boy Obama. It's very unlikely that most of his constituents have ever even been to his web site, which means that the people submitting and voting on ideas are likely not the best representation of his district. Further, it will be interesting to see how he'll verify that the people voting on and submitting ideas actually are his constituents. However, as Tip O'Neill said, all politics is local. Kuhl's idea, while not perfect and perhaps just a publicity stunt, is a novel idea that puts a little extra legislative power in the hands of the voters at a local level... should they choose to participate. I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

The authors say that an open government data platform would lead "toward an ecosystem of grassroots, unplanned solutions to online civic needs." Eventually, the authors think that data mashup tools will become so commonplace and easy to use that people will no longer need third parties help them consume the information they seek. Instead, they'll be able to tap into the open government data layer and create custom applications with it on their own time. Think: Dapper for government.

That's a compelling vision of the future of open government, and one that makes a lot of sense. The idea is something like CSS -- which separates the display code of a web site from the content. A government data platform would separate the content from the task of displaying it, which the commercial and non-profit spaces are likely better suited for than the government itself.

Better online access to government data is something that all three candidates still in the US presidential race support, though Barack Obama seems most receptive to a radical idea like this one, saying on his web site that he plans to make "government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities."

Easy access to the massive amounts of government data would very probably lead to some compelling mashups and consumer services. We recently wrote about a new massive scale data mashup called PolicyMap that could likely benefit from something like this, for example. What do you think? Does a government data platform make sense? Should the government get out of the web site development business? Let us know in the comments.

No, I don't mean my idea personally (although I do have some ideas for the company), but rather the collective ideas of every Starbucks loyalist, hopped up on caffeine. Simply put, My Starbucks Idea is a socially driven marketplace for Starbucks-related ideas that will help the company reinvent itself.

You know better than anyone else what you want from Starbucks. So tell us. What’s your Starbucks Idea? Revolutionary or simple -- we want to hear it. Share your ideas, tell us what you think of other people’s ideas and join the discussion. We’re here, and we’re ready to make ideas happen. Let’s get started.

All you need to do to participate is sign up on the site using a username, password, and an email address. Once you're logged in, you can post your idea in one of 13 categories:

Every posted idea immediately shows up in the recent ideas queue, where it is voted on in a Digg-style manner. If it gets enough votes, it gets 'promoted' to the popular ideas list and top all-time list, from which Starbucks employees and management pick the best ideas to actually implement in stores. If your idea catches someone's eye, it will be labeled as **under review**, and if they actually decide to implement it, you will see a **coming soon** tag next to the idea.

A complete list of ideas that are going to be implemented can be found in the ideas in action section of the site.

Overall, the site is an absolutely great idea. In many ways it is very similar to Dell's IdeaStorm which I similarly praised. Every company could benefit from its own implementation of a socially driven marketplace for ideas, especially major consumer brands such as Starbucks and Apple, which have developed an incredibly loyal core following. Such marketplaces can help companies capitalize on the passions of their their most important fans and deliver on the promises of the next big thing without huge research budgets.

My Starbucks Idea has been a huge success so far, just like Dell's IdeaStorm before it. Approximately a month after launching, the site has gotten a plethora of great idea submissions from Starbucks-lovers, and the most popular submissions have gotten tens of thousands of points (votes) and hundreds of comments. As long as Starbucks keeps letting the community freely voice its opinion and keeps implementing the crème de la crème of the community's ideas, the company has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Disclaimer: I own Starbucks stock.

While a million bucks might be out of the price range for many art collectors, the Wants For Sale project has done surprisingly well since it debuted earlier this year. The couple has so far collected a Nintendo Wii, some Xbox games, a fancy sushi dinner at trendy New York hot spot Nobu, some clothes, a gym membership, and a handful of food items, among other things. They're still waiting for someone to fund the iPhone they covet.

The idea is innovative, and one that is likely to only work once. But of course it wouldn't have worked at all if Justin and Christine didn't have the primo illustration skills that they possess (they also do commissioned paintings of things other people want).

Wants for Sale was so successful that it even gave birth to a spin-off project, Needs for Sale, which is the same basic premise, but with all proceeds going to charity. Between the two sites, the artists have raised over $2800 for various charitable causes this year.