March 12, 2008 @ 10:13 am -- The Open Project Database Organization is applying for Google's Summer of Code program. GSoC funds college students to work on open source projects. Read about our suggested projects here here.

February 5, 2008 @ 12:10 pm -- The InventionDB team has just launched a Facebook App that allows you to display your InventionDB projects to your Facebook profile. Similar to Facebook Photos, your friends can view and comment on your projects via Facebook.

January 28, 2008 @ 11:43 am -- Today we updated the software that runs InventionDB to OPDB 1.2. This has a number of bug fixes and the new ability to receive project publications from other OPDB communities installed at different universities.

October 13, 2007 @ 5:48 pm -- We recently updated the Open Project Database website with more information about the software and organization that powers inventionDB.com.

October 13, 2007 @ 5:46 pm -- Open Project Database Organization is participating in SHDH 20, a silicon valley get-together for programmers to work on their projects.

September 19, 2007 @ 9:35 am -- With the re-opening of inventionDB.com, we have some news items to share...

Firstly, InventionDB's code is now Open Source. We call the underlying architecture Open Project Database, and if you are interested in using our code to run a project/resource database at your own organization, please let us know.


Secondly, Open Project Database is now recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The organization will always improve the code base and will always run this public site, inventionDB.com.

September 11, 2007 @ 8:42 am -- InventionDB is online and upgraded to OPDB 1.1 now. This includes some anti-spamming features and many bug fixes. Welcome back!

January 8, 2007 @ 11:30 pm -- InventionDB is partially disabled for maintainence and security audit. As such, no login or user account creation is possible at this time. Also commenting is disabled.

This is a one-time event while we do a major overall of the system. We expect to be back with full access by March 1, 2007 (possibly much sooner) and be back and better than ever.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact Michael Rosenblatt (michael@inventionDB.com) with any immediate concerns.

October 28, 2005 @ 2:35 pm -- The New iPod Contest! InventionDB will award a new iPod to the best project entry between now and December 10th, 2005. The prize is a new iPod 30 gig, and yes, it's the one that does video! Get your entries in early as you will want time to refine them before the deadline! The rules and criteria are posted here.

October 25, 2005 @ 10:08 pm -- Congratulations to Gauri Nanda for winning an Ig Nobel Prize for her invention, Clocky! The Ig Nobel homepage states "Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK."

Clocky, an alarm clock that rings and runs away, will help you wake up because you have to chase it to hit the snooze button! Read about Clocky in Gauri's own words in her inventionDB entry here.

September 6, 2005 @ 12:03 am -- We need your help! We were moving full speed ahead on the next software update (Beta 0.80), our minds jam-packed full of ideas and ambitions, but then we stopped to think. We thought "what do the people want?". We didn't know. Then we cried.

The problem is, we have many ideas on how to improve InventionDB, but we need all of you to help set priorities. Better edit tools? Better search? Categorization, dare we say? Our goal is to provide the best free project documentation and sharing site on the internet. Tell us what you care about most. E-mail me directly: michael@inventiondb.com. End our sorrow!

August 17, 2005 @ 11:47 am -- Beta 0.70 is now online! We have been working hard to improve the user interface. Additionally, 0.70 provides users with the option to append Creative Commons licenses to projects. This feature is accessed through the project edit pages.

Beta 0.70 also brings many bug-fixes and improvements, but we always want to do better. So please always contact us with your feedback, suggestions and bug reports!

July 6, 2005 @ 9:57 am -- "Give the inventionDB a little time and I may not need my Dad anymore," says Jeremy Lyon of Futurismic.com. InventionDB is getting a great response in the blog community, and we're not standing still. Keep sending your bug reports and suggestions! We have some very exciting feature releases coming over the next few weeks and months!

June 29, 2005 @ 10:04 am -- Congratulations to David Merrill for winning the first InventionDB contest! Be sure to check out his winning entry, Face Control for Electric Guitar. David will receive a Apple iPod Photo as his prize. Stay tuned for future InventionDB contests and design competitions.

June 20, 2005 @ 3:29 am -- The first InventionDB contest ended on 6/15/05, and saw many excellent project entries. Judges are currently reviewing each project that was submitted, and we will announce a winner on 6/22/05. Definitely scroll through the projects listing to see all the neat new projects!

June 20, 2005 @ 2:47 am -- InventionDB.com was posted last Friday on Make Magazine! Check out the posting, and the rest of Make Online at http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/06/inventiondb_wik.html

June 1, 2005 @ 11:00 am -- InventionDB Beta 0.65 is now online. This release introduces Crosstalk - a multithreaded bboard that can be built into any project page. To activate Crosstalk for your project, simply select Edit for the project, and select the Crosstalk access level from the pulldown menu. Crosstalk can be limited to the project team only, or it can be open to the public to view and/or post.

May 4, 2005 @ 1:47 am -- Announcing the first InventionDB Contest! The prize? A 30 gigabyte iPod Photo! Submissions must be in by 6/1/05. Check here for full details!

May 4, 2005 @ 1:46 am -- A lot has happened over the past few months! Many bug fixes, and new features (like comments on projects!). Beta 0.6 is now up and running.

December 27, 2004 @ 11:20 am -- Alpha 0.5 is now up. Many bug fixes, and now users can leave comments on projects and resources (activate the comments tab for your projects from the edit page). You can have comments emailed to you too - just change select the setting in your Account Preferences. Additionally, weblog posts now record the posting author.

More updates soon!

December 10, 2004 @ 7:50 am -- The InventionDB Alpha is now open for new user signup.

We're working on development full-time now, so please help us out by reporting any bugs or suggestions so we can make this the best project-blogging tool available!

Send reports to: michael(at)inventionDB.com

October 26, 2004 @ 3:10 pm -- I just added Google Ads to some of the pages. This is mainly an experiment to see if it enhances the site. Since our site content is resource-focused, and because Google matches ads to content, a lot of the ads turn out to be things that we would want to know about anyway, thus increasing the usefulness of our site. Please send any comments or feedback my way.

October 20, 2004 @ 4:59 pm -- New updates to the system today! Version Alpha 0.4 installed. Now you can add multiple photos to an entry (check it out). You can now upload source code and movie files on projects. A number of small changes and fixes have been added too.

September 28, 2004 @ 8:18 pm -- After a brief delay due to travel, we're back on track with development. New features and bug fixes uploaded soon. Keep sending the comments and suggestions!

September 21, 2004 @ 11:33 pm -- Good news, new features! Now you can create weblogs for projects and your personal page. Just go to the edit page and click the 'edit weblog' link - you can post a picture with each entry. Changing a password now requires the original password. Picture uploading with capitolized extensions (JPG), now works.

September 18, 2004 @ 9:09 am -- Welcome UMass Robotics I students! If you don't have accounts yet, be sure to email me michael@inventionatelier.com. I'll reply within 12 hours, but usually much sooner. Also if you have trouble with anything (a few have found issues with photo upload), just email me a note.

September 9, 2004 @ 4:28 pm -- This is my first news entry. Check it out Rahul. I learned a bunch of PHP and HTML in one day. Even though I probably couldn't have done this without your code as example -- and by the way, you write very well organized, but sophisticated code -- I still feel accomplished. This opens up whole new possibilities now. I feel like I've made a new friend.