This blog is going to be about things I think you should know about. Now that could be websites, causes, sports, movies, etc... The list could go on and on.
The first thing I would like to share is a company I recently learned about. I can't remember where I saw an article about this company, but I really like them. The company is called Quirky The basic idea of their company is making "invention accessible." Everyone at one point has said, "I wish I had something that could do this." This website is a place for you to submit that idea and have it made. So say you have an idea for something that would make your life easier, but you don't have the means to make it yourself. What you do is, go to their website, submit your idea and if they like it enough it can be made into an actual item. Once these ideas are made into actual products, you get to buy them.
The first time I visited their site I actually bought two different things. The first thing I bought is called MugStir. I couldn't believe it when I saw this on their site. Every time I drink coffee I use a spoon to stir it and just leave it sit in my cup. I am so excited to use this product. Now when I stir my coffee the spoon can hang on the outside of the cup, instead of in my way inside the cup.
The second thing I bought is called Thor. Now unless you live in Minnesota, like I do, or another wintry state, you won't ever need this. But every single day in the winter I have to scrape my windows. With this product it scrapes both ways. Hopefully it will make my window scraping easier.
If you have an idea and want to submit it there is quite a process that it has to go through to be made. I'll keep it quick and just give you an overview of the process. First, you go to the website and submit your idea. Then the idea is voted upon by the Quirky community. If it makes it past that step, then the Quirky staff evaluates the idea. If they think it is great they will try and make the product. Once they have it engineered it goes on to pre-sale. Pre-sale is where they need so many people to say they will buy it before they actually make the item. Once the pre-sale limit is met it goes into production and is sold and shipped. Go here and click on learn for their explanation of the process.
During the research, design, and engineering faze, the community of Quirky gets to "influence" the decisions made about the product. This is actually pretty fun to do. Some of the ways you can "influence" are voting on what product they should design next, answer questions about products that are in the development stages, and coming up with ideas for a certain topic, like bathrooms.
To join the community and start influencing and inventing go here and click on community.
I highly recommend you go to this site, join their community, buy some great stuff, and start inventing.
In case you didn't already click on a link to their site, here it is again. Quirky
Have fun!
