I have an Evernote notebook that I call "Web Ideas," where I keep ideas for sites and apps that I think should exist. Often, I'll see a story that someone, with more resources and people, has built something very similar to one of my ideas.
This used to frustrate me a little bit, because I felt like I would never have an idea that I could build before anyone else; but from another perspective, it was also kind of exciting, because it confirmed that I had some good ideas about the future of the web.
So, recently, I saw this story: The Founder of Wikipedia is Building a Community Run News Website. And I thought, that was my idea! But again, glad to see that it's happening.
The idea is basically crowdsourcing news reporting, similar to the way Wikipedia crowdsourced an encyclopedia. Here's a link: https://www.wikitribune.com/
I wrote that idea in my "Web Ideas" notebook one day after reading some long story online, and feeling like they were missing some really important details. I thought, people should be able to submit a question, and other people could upvote it, and then the original reporter, or anyone else, could submit an answer linking to a source.
Jimmy Wales, the site's founder, had a different motivation, and I don't think his site describes the exact functionality above, but still, it's a very similar idea.
For me, I think there's another takeaway, some lessons for any of us who feel like we're just watching everything happen so fast, while we're basically standing still:
- Pay attention to and believe in your ideas.
- It's OK if you're not the one who's the first to do something. Celebrate anything you see as a positive change in society.
- Ask, how can I play a role in the trends that are happening that I care about? (For example, by joining Steemit, or maybe by supporting the brand new WikiTribune.)
- Keep learning, and look for opportunities--an opportunity might look like a very small step at first, but, as someone once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
For me, that means continuing to learn to code, building things, and . . . my next first step, contributing to an open source project.