Seems like you have to have a starting point in order to get direction for your project from users/customers. The initial idea doesn't have to be stellar, just something fairly specific. I hear posing the idea as a question helps.
Pasting a big bulletin on the web that says "What do you want me to make?" would likely be useless. (Or would it? There's something to try...) The domain is too big; trying to gathering the web into a room and giving them a blank whiteboard might generate a lot of ideas, but how many of them would you be interested in? In fact, isn't that kind of what the web is to begin with: a big whiteboard with a bunch of ideas written on it? So which ones get your attention?
Solve some problem that you're interested in, place it in public view, foster communication with the users/customers, and listen. Building something specific ("hey, here's a web-based classifieds system..."), getting people to use it, and giving them a place to critique it seems to be a good way to get people to tell you what they need built.
Building a prototype and then getting people to use it is like writing that initial phrase on a white board, circling it, and asking every one on the web to generate ideas. Interested people will cluster around the idea and talk about it. Some of the talk will be horrible, and some outstanding -- but it will likely be more focused than if you just ask the web "what should I make?"
Pasting a big bulletin on the web that says "What do you want me to make?" would likely be useless. (Or would it? There's something to try...) The domain is too big; trying to gathering the web into a room and giving them a blank whiteboard might generate a lot of ideas, but how many of them would you be interested in? In fact, isn't that kind of what the web is to begin with: a big whiteboard with a bunch of ideas written on it? So which ones get your attention?
Solve some problem that you're interested in, place it in public view, foster communication with the users/customers, and listen. Building something specific ("hey, here's a web-based classifieds system..."), getting people to use it, and giving them a place to critique it seems to be a good way to get people to tell you what they need built.
Building a prototype and then getting people to use it is like writing that initial phrase on a white board, circling it, and asking every one on the web to generate ideas. Interested people will cluster around the idea and talk about it. Some of the talk will be horrible, and some outstanding -- but it will likely be more focused than if you just ask the web "what should I make?"