MyTorontoIdea.com

There are quite a few of these social media sites appearing, where companies are getting ideas from customers, such as MyStarbucksIdea.com and Dell’s Idea Storm.

On the site, users can post ideas and rate and make comments on ideas others have posted. Similar to Digg.com, the ideas with the highest ratings float to the top, where the ideas with the lowest ratings sink to the bottom. On the Starbucks site, executives then respond to some ideas on the site. For example, the site has the executive in charge of food responding to popular ideas about having healthier, higher fiber snacks.

One of the most popular ideas on the site is to have free wireless access in stores, with hundreds of users saying they would go for coffee more if they could access the internet there without additional charges. It got my vote . All of these ideas could come in handy for Starbucks given their recent earnings sink (21% in May).

I recently heard an executive from an automotive company saying that he now felt like his brand and his product development had become a democracy, with a lot of voices speaking out, rather than a dictatorship, which is how his company traditionally operated.

I find these sites very interesting and strategically sound. The best application I can think of for a site like this is a civic application. Imagine a site that could collect ideas about how to improve a city that isn’t always working like MyTorontoIdea.com or even a country. Instead of voting for candidates, people would vote for ideas. Obviously I am not saying this would replace the political process, but it would definitely be a great input for it.