If it’s a question of intellectual property, then document it! Write about it, get it ‘on the record’ somewhere (got a blog? written an academic paper?), and then go forward. Make the discussion process *part* of the documentation process, if you’re that paranoid. Often doing research and writing will help you clarify even further why your idea is awesome (which will come in handy when it comes to selling it to other people).

In any case, it doesn’t really matter. You had an idea…so what? The person who implements, and implements well with some luck, wins.

I shared my revolutionary idea on recruting web 2.0 with someone 3 years ago. a few months ago, I noticed that someone in my town of 100k people had implemented the idea and had filed for a patent. Coincidence? I think not.

Even if someone steals your idea and benefits from it, you have done that person service. you can always come up with a new, perhaps even better idea or you can do the idea also and compete with the other person.

after all, you would have thought about the idea more than the other in the first place and may even come up with a way to improve on it.

Matthew, I want to thank you too, because the last paragraph made me realise a lot. I was always struggling with problem of hiring employees but I was afraid of them stealing my knowhow. I am doing websites of many kinds and I would need full time employees, because I have many ideas. But I don’t want to do some final processing of their jobs. I want them to know how the whole process is done and be independant and work for me. The problem is, that with my kind of work, it’s not hard to do it for yourself. I would teach them all the earning process and I am afraid they would go on their own. But maybe I am still overrating people and I should view them more from the lazy point of view. I am now risking with some employees and will see how it comes. It seems like the only way how to learn something. Dip my hands to the reality of knowledge sharing.