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I don't have a PhD, and I'm not a researcher who is affiliated to any academic institution. However, for the last few years, I have been working on a simple and promising looking model in Web Science that seems to resolve a lot of problems with webmasters' incentives on the Web. A while back, I came across a paper from a supposedly prominent research professor who, in the paper, uses almost identical starting assumptions as mine, but stops short of the model which I have developed. I believe the problem that he was trying to solve will actually be solved by my model. Moreover, I watched an online presentation given by him in which he was explaining that he was planning to explore ideas that would have landed him squarely in my model's territory. However, that presetation was given 10 years ago, and I don't see any publications by him in this area subsequently.

Now, the issue is that in the world of academia, I'm literally a nobody. Should I even bother emailing him, with the thought of a collaboration, given the huge asymmetry in qualifications?

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I do not see how contacting this person by sending an email could hurt you. Worst case scenario, you will not receive a response. Good luck!

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    Right. But just to slit a hair in two, there might be a chance the the professional researcher behave unprofessionally stilling the idea. This is just a remote possibility.
    – Alchimista
    Commented Aug 7, 2021 at 10:23
  • @Alchimista Unfortunately, you are right (but you cannot start all collaborations believing you will be cheated).
    – Aolon
    Commented Aug 8, 2021 at 5:03
  • Agree. Just the current situation is a bit more critical. But I agree, it is the same answer I would have given. Corrige: slit reads split.
    – Alchimista
    Commented Aug 8, 2021 at 8:10

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