The Value of Sharing Tools and Resources Knowledge

Today I saw a post at ReadWriteWeb about a Wiki started by Songkick’s Ian Hogarth so that startups could collectively share tools and resources used to run their companies. Here’s the link to the Wiki which is a good resource, but I once had a vision of something grander along these lines. I have actually given this quite a bit of thought in the past and even had a startup idea to actually create a website where companies could create profiles to share knowledge of web tools, services, methodologies and more, to collectively help one another. How meta right? When thinking this through further I had concerns about whether companies would actually be willing to interact and participate in sharing this knowledge.

From the Read Write Web Post (re: the Wiki)

That advice and openness makes this a valuable resource for startups, so they can focus on building their product and not get sidetracked on questions like “Does anyone recommend a CRM?” As Hogarth argues, “I’m a big believer of trying to focus on your core competency (in our case tour dates) and then partnering with the best class companies elsewhere.”

Primarily regarding web tools and services, it can be a pretty painstaking process to research and find the right one. In my work for X PRIZE Foundation I have to not only find great tools and services, but also have to consider many free, open source, or low cost tools. We are a non-profit so I do my best to try and limit the budget we allocate to these so I can put it to better uses. Recently I joined a really interesting service called BagCheck which is a community to share and discover interesting and detailed lists of items around a given topic. In testing out the site I create a “Bag” called Great Web Services to Help Run Your Business. In it I provide a list of many of the tools and services I use at X PRIZE. So basically my vision would be to have a site dedicated to this specific niche where companies, startups, nonprofits and even freelancers could collectively share their knowledge so that we could make tool and service discovery a much easier process. Perhaps I should rekindle this startup idea…if only I had the time.