We will attempt to connect solution-writers to others with similar ideas from the beginning. This idea will more fully flourish when the Dialogue Network for Action is launched.

Solution compatibility will be assessed based on overlap in the various descriptive "tag” categories (funding, outcomes, actions, and aspects). From the beginning, every participant will be encouraged to contact people whose solutions are similar to theirs, and to make concerted efforts to combine their proposals with those that are similar or compatible to theirs. Combining similar solutions will make it easier for people to help each other develop, refine, and finalize their individual ideas, and also make the site more interesting and easier to read.

For example, a plan to regulate the pharmaceutical industry might be combined with a plan to reorganize the way medical research is financed and overseen. Solutions to all six aspects of the health care problem mentioned above might conceivably be merged between a number of proposers and presented in a single finalized proposal, to which the authors can agree. If members of a particular group are not able to combine their ideas, then those who don’t want to merge can submit their proposals separately and the readers who evaluate them will make the choice of which should go on to the action phase.

Ideally, participants will eventually form clusters of proposers that decide to merge and finalize perhaps many proposed solutions between them. Some might prefer another proposer’s ideas better than their own and will simply join with them. Specific groups or individuals might blend their ideas and keep the best of each in the final product. Some proposers will reach out to search for and join with others who have posted similar ideas before they start to write their own. There will be strong incentives to combine solutions to get the most comprehensive and best possible product. Each combined proposal will include some issues that are not covered in the others. Therefore, combined proposals for solutions will have a much better chance of getting selected by enough people so that they can meaningfully participate in the Action phase of the program.