This is a great initiative ! Thought I'd call out, for the benefit of people here, that IDEO[1] (the largest design consulting company in the world, for those that don't know) had launched OpenIDEO[2] a few years ago with pretty much the same goals -- crowd sourcing solutions to solve ^big^ questions.

They went on further to provide the platform/framework as a service[3] for example with OpenPlanetIdeas[4]

I feel it is a good thing to focus effort in this manner and I hope this sort of thing picks up steam.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, you should definitely check out openideo.com

disclaimer: I worked on openideo for a while and I'm pretty proud about not just the 'work' that I did but what it stood for and what it achieved.

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEO
  [2] https://challenges.openideo.com/
  [3] http://oiengine.com/
  [4] https://challenges.openideo.com/blog/congratulating-sony-open-planet-ideas

Also, you need to cough up $10000 p.a. to become a supporter and be invited to join the sessions...that leaves many a good idea/thinker locked out.

Start another effort where you pay less money, or no money, to become a supporter. There are plenty of problems in the world. No one should feel locked out. Just get off your ass and quit complaining because someone else decides to do it differently than you would.

I still don't know what it is from the website...

I think it'll be a conference.