TIE Interest Groups are formed by members who are interested in working on problems in a particular area. For example, people who are interested in working on ways to increase access to communications technology might form one group, while people who want to make roads that are easier to maintain might create a different group.
Interest Group members sign an Intellectual Property Agreement not to divulge the ideas used in the group’s work to anyone outside of TIE. They pay a small fee to gain access to the group's cell. They then work together as an online community to develop ideas that can be applied in real life. Their ideas may become a physical object (or series of related objects) or simply a concept about interactions that can make something work better – a better way to share the “costs” and “benefits” of a project, for example.