I recently covered Spigit, a complex but very interesting prediction engine and community that's designed to help startups home in on workable ideas and plans. At DemoFall, there's another company like it launching: Virtual Ventures (site not live yet). If you want to play pretend VC, check it out.
Viral Ventures was followed at the DemoFall conference by IdeaBlob, a site where you can share your ideas with the crowd to win prizes. Reminds me of those matchbook and comic book ads: "Are you an inventor?"
I like prediction engines, and certainly crowds can be smart. But I think that if companies start to rely on games to vet their business models, they're asking for trouble. Wisdom of the crowds? Sure, I'll listen, but mobs don't build iPods.
Discuss: You too can be a venture capitalist: Virtual...