Linus Pauling, scientist and two-time Nobel Prize winner, once said: “To have a good idea you must first have lots of ideas.” How often do you brainstorm about a solution? When do you really tap on the wide expertise of people and the creative minds of a crowd? Normally it takes a workshop to brainstorm on ideas in a wider circle. The participatory web offers here some new ways to generate ideas and solutions to address development challenges. In a previous post we looked at interesting open collaboration projects, another approach is idea competitions.