Last month's issue of Inventors Digest introduced Edison Nation, the suite of free online services to help inventors. Just in case you didn't get around to checking it, you can still learn more and sign up for free at www.EdisonNation.com.
Edison Nation was developed by the same people who created the PBS invention reality television series, Everyday Edisons. Inventors featured on Everyday Edisons are selected at one of five casting calls held around the country each season (See Page 31 for upcoming schedule).
Edison Nation brings that casting-call process online with a Gold Member feature called "Commercialize My Product."
Gold Members can submit their inventions to the Edison Nation team for review and, if selected, the same team responsible for commercializing the products on Everyday Edisons will take on your invention.
On Everyday Edisons you can literally bring in a sketch on a napkin or a completed product. Edison Nation, however, only accepts inventions that have at least reached a manufactured sample or factory-quality prototype level of completion.
Each new inventor increases the chances of success for all products across the board, said Dave Campbell, president of Everywhere LLC (the team responsible for commercialization of the products on Everyday Edisons and Edison Nation).
Because it's all online, Edison Nation "casting calls" are held every day. The fee is $75 per submission.
The fee helps offset a portion of the administrative costs of reviewing each idea, according to Edison Nation. It also helps weed out some of the ideas that just aren't serious enough to consider.
So what if your idea is stuck somewhere between that napkin-sketch stage and a manufactured prototype? Edison Nation Gold Members receive priority status at all Everyday Edisons casting calls with an appropriately named Gold Pass.
All Edison Nation Gold Members need to do is print their custom Gold Pass, bring it with them to the casting call, and they will be given priority status.
A Gold Member feature that I'm particularly excited about is an online library of Inventors Digest. The online library (in Adobe PDF format) includes all issues dating back to January 2006, Best of Inventors Digest volumes 1-20, Inventors Digest newsletters dating back to 2005 and more than 30 product spotlight features.
And your monthly fee includes a subscription to Inventors Digest.
The people at Edison Nation said they intend to roll out new Gold Member features several times a year.
Two features in the works are "Innovation Station" and "Learn from the Pros."
"Innovation Station" is essentially a matchmaking service between major retailers or global consumer-product companies and independent inventors. Throughout the year, Edison Nation will post innovation challenges sponsored by these companies. If your idea is selected, you will be rewarded with cash and other prizes. If your invention makes it through consumer testing, a sponsor may even develop it for market.
Edison Nation is one of the first online platforms that applies crowd sourcing to consumer-product companies. The theory of crowd sourcing is that if you ask 100 random people to solve a problem, you will receive more innovative solutions than if you were to ask 100 engineers to solve the same problem because the engineers are more likely to have similar backgrounds and tools.
As the benefits of crowd sourcing become better known and accepted at major companies, Edison Nation is poised to help you get involved.
"Learn from the Pros" is a library of original video interviews from experts in innovation. The current lineup includes Amazon's Jeff Bezos, vacuum revolutionary James Dyson and U.S. Commissioner for Patents John Doll, among others.
While the majority of Edison Nation features are available for free at www.EdisonNation.com, a Gold Member upgrade can be a valuable tool.
