I think i got a great idea for a social networking site. Its great except the fact that i got no website development skills nor do i have the funds to pay someone to develop it for me. Can someone provide some insight and advice how do i go about this? Mainly I'm looking for info on how to develop the site and then the legal aspect, as far as how do i keep people from stealing my idea. Thanks !
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Social networking site development
- Thread starter NYRangers11
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How much time do you have, and are you a quick learner? There is quite a bit to learn about web design, development, databases, etc, to pull it off well.
Maybe you could make proof-of-concept using JomSocial or something similar? It is a plug-in for the Joomla CMS that is designed to creating your own "social networking" web site.
http://www.jomsocial.com
As for protecting the idea, you should talk to a patent lawyer. It may or may not be patentable, in itself, but there might be certain ways you implement those idea(s) that could be.
This gets really pricey quickly, too, so count the costs before you get too excited.
Good luck!
Maybe you could make proof-of-concept using JomSocial or something similar? It is a plug-in for the Joomla CMS that is designed to creating your own "social networking" web site.
http://www.jomsocial.com
As for protecting the idea, you should talk to a patent lawyer. It may or may not be patentable, in itself, but there might be certain ways you implement those idea(s) that could be.
This gets really pricey quickly, too, so count the costs before you get too excited.
Good luck!
Without the knowledge to do it yourself, and limited funds, you're already at a disadvantage.
The route you'll most likely have to take at this point is to use a software like Dolphin (link here), which is an open source community building tool. However, you'll still need to pay for hosting and a domain name at the very least (say 100 a year). Beyond Dolphin, there are themes and plugins which either are open source as well, or you'll need to pay for. Depending on your budget you may want to look into purchasing themes and plugins to give the site a more professional look and feel.
I'm not a lawyer, so i can't speak to the legal side of things.
Good luck!
The route you'll most likely have to take at this point is to use a software like Dolphin (link here), which is an open source community building tool. However, you'll still need to pay for hosting and a domain name at the very least (say 100 a year). Beyond Dolphin, there are themes and plugins which either are open source as well, or you'll need to pay for. Depending on your budget you may want to look into purchasing themes and plugins to give the site a more professional look and feel.
I'm not a lawyer, so i can't speak to the legal side of things.
Good luck!
Ideas are cheap. Everyone has some. To get your idea patentable you have to get it into some useful form.
I cut and pasted the response below from the last thread that asked this question:
You cannot copyright ideas... implementation is what counts. If you feel your site is fundamentally different than the other sites out there today, launch a limited beta (to prove implementation) and find a mentor with corporate experience.
It is worth looking at the social media frameworks suggested in the previous posts, but if a pre-existing framework can do what you want without a lot of modification your idea is probably not different enough to warrant a patent.
Understand that if you bring in someone else to develop the idea for you, that person will eventually wind up owning the majority of the rights to your project. It is all about who can make it work, not who thought of it first... Otherwise I would hold a patent for a perpetual motion machine.
Remember also that patents must be defended to remain valid. If someone does copy your site, you need to have the financial footing to go after them.
My advice is this: if your idea is so amazing and wonderful and you think it would benefit others don't worry about patents and copyrights and instead focus on making something people will use. "Open source" your idea. If it is successful, alternative opportunities to make money from it will present themselves...
I cut and pasted the response below from the last thread that asked this question:
You cannot copyright ideas... implementation is what counts. If you feel your site is fundamentally different than the other sites out there today, launch a limited beta (to prove implementation) and find a mentor with corporate experience.
It is worth looking at the social media frameworks suggested in the previous posts, but if a pre-existing framework can do what you want without a lot of modification your idea is probably not different enough to warrant a patent.
Understand that if you bring in someone else to develop the idea for you, that person will eventually wind up owning the majority of the rights to your project. It is all about who can make it work, not who thought of it first... Otherwise I would hold a patent for a perpetual motion machine.
Remember also that patents must be defended to remain valid. If someone does copy your site, you need to have the financial footing to go after them.
My advice is this: if your idea is so amazing and wonderful and you think it would benefit others don't worry about patents and copyrights and instead focus on making something people will use. "Open source" your idea. If it is successful, alternative opportunities to make money from it will present themselves...