Currently, there's no way to post something like “Hey, I think it would be interesting to study X” and get replies like “I'm a researcher at ABC Corp, we like your idea, and we're already running a similar study, so we'll capture some data for you” or “I'm an undergrad/1st-year grad and I like your idea. Would you like to collaborate with me and my advisor?”

If there were a forum to publish such half-baked ideas (even earlier than what CHI Work-in-Progress requires), I feel research can progress much faster.

Interesting post Manas. I believe in the same philosophy but I don't know if I agree with your view that in academia “new ideas and untested directions are undervalued”. If by new ideas you mean software, then yes, merely developing novel tools is often considered an insufficient contribution in academia. I think that is ok because that is the role of industry, to develop tools and make them accessible to people on a large scale. What bothers me about academia is work that is purely theoretical is often considered a contribution. To me there can be no theory without practice.

(Sharoda posted this to Facebook; I re-posted it here. —Manas.)