About

What is Floc?

Flocculation is a process in which small, dispersed particles are brought into contact and come together to form larger aggregates called flocs.

The same is true for people with ideas. An idea rarely becomes something meaningful on its own. It needs other people, knowledge, resources, places to test, funding — often things you didn’t know you needed.

Floc brings together the pieces an idea needs to move forward:

Ideas — what could be built
People — who could help build it
Opportunities — what could help make it possible

The expertise and resources needed to realise an idea often already exist. The challenge is finding the right people who have the skills, resources and motivation to get involved.

Floc allows you to match your ideas with people who have relevant interests and expertise. It also lets you browse existing sustainable ideas from others and find ones where you can contribute. And it allows organisations — whether investors, foundations, companies, universities or others — to find people, ideas and potential partners.

Three ways to develop an idea

Not every idea should be developed in the same way, so Floc offers three development choices. The Idea Lead chooses one and can change it as the project evolves.

Public development — Open source. The project is public and applicable project material is shared under an open licence, so others may build on it and create their own solutions from it, with attribution.
Public development — All rights reserved. The project is visible and discoverable so it can attract people, feedback and resources, but no open licence is granted and it is not available for independent reuse.
Private development — Confidential. The project is access-controlled and visible only to the Idea Lead and participants invited under confidentiality terms, which keeps the option of exploring IP protection open before publishing.

The Idea Lead remains the Project Lead and decides what to share, who to work with and how the project moves forward. Read the full explanation of sharing, ownership and protection.

Contributions, credit and history

People help a project by joining its team, solving a task, offering expert feedback, or adding a record of a prototype, test or realisation. When the Idea Lead incorporates that work, it is credited by name in the project's change log and version history, and it shows up on the contributor's own profile as part of their track record. Roles — Project Lead, Core team, Collaborator, Contributor — are shown on the project so it is clear who did what.

Confidential projects keep the same kind of record, but only for the people who have access to them: a private, permanent log of invitations, accepted confidentiality terms, and access granted or revoked, which the Idea Lead can export. If a project later becomes Confidential, its outward-facing history is reduced to public-safe information only, because confidentiality is applied as it stands today, not as it stood when the work was done.

Opportunities that make it possible

Good ideas and good people are often not enough on their own. A prototype needs somewhere to be tested, a pilot needs a partner, a next step needs funding.

Opportunities are concrete offers from people and organisations that can help: access to facilities, equipment or data; invitations to collaborate; funding and investment; challenges and open calls looking for solutions; and jobs. They sit alongside Ideas and People, so an idea can be matched not only with the people who could build it but with what could make it possible.

Build a track record by building things

Floc is a professional network shaped by what people actually do.

Profiles show skills, interests, Ideas, collaborations and contributions, so expertise becomes visible through real work — whether someone leads their own Ideas, joins others, or responds to Opportunities. Organisations can find people based not only on what they say they can do, but on what they have actually helped to build.

Icons on Floc

A few icons carry a specific meaning on Floc. Wherever they appear you can tap or hover over them to see the same explanation in context.

StageWhere one outcome of an idea is in its development, from the initial Idea through Conceptualisation, Technical design and Prototype & validation to In use.
Private development — ConfidentialThe project is developed behind access control. Only a safe public summary is shown until the Idea Lead grants access under confidentiality terms.
People involvedEveryone who has shaped the project: the project team plus everybody whose contribution has become part of it.
FollowingMembers who follow the project and see its updates. Tap it to follow a project yourself.

From idea to outcomes

An idea can develop into many different outcomes. Each can move from Idea through Conceptualisation, Technical Design and Prototype & Validation to In Use, changing along the way.

In Use describes one implemented result, not a final version of an idea that was perfect from the beginning. Not every outcome follows every stage, and not all development has to happen publicly on Floc.

Ideas move forward by connecting with the right people, expertise, organisations, resources and Opportunities. Floc is built to make those connections, so that more sustainable ideas turn into something real.