A few months back I promised myself I wouldn’t write about another social network unless it could be termed as ‘interesting,’ and Incuby is certainly no exception to that rule. Currently in a private beta and ‘rigorous development’ mode, which they were kind enough to let us have a peak at, Incuby is a social network for inventors and creators alike to share their ideas and products with each other and gain feedback.
For entrepreneurs and inventors, Incuby is a good way to ‘test’ their creations, prototypes, and ideas with a live community before perhaps revealing it to the world. The idea is that they’ll be able to co-exist. The site currently contains a blog-like structure, all with ratings, categories and a ‘Most Popular’ section. Inventors can have their own profile, add each other as friends, and submit their inventions with a complete description, photos, and videos.
The folks at Incuby have been touring across the U.S. and meeting inventors all around to gain feedback — ironically, they hope to be the last ones to do this and save other inventors costs and effort associated with doing the traditional attending/presenting at trade shows and gaining feedback from others – giving the whole community a platform to do so.
Opinion
Incuby is a superb niche social network that just might catch on within the inventor community — if it isn’t already showing the signs of doing so. Another group of people I can see this benefiting are the hardware DIYs who make cool things and want to show it to others like themselves and have them build upon their creations. Sure, such a thing will never be something for the hundreds of millions of people online, but if it affects a small community of innovators who might then go on to affecting hundreds of millions, isn’t it indirectly the same thing? 
