Copied and pasted from my local wiki.
Disclaimer: these ideas were quickly jotted down and probably sounded a lot better when I wrote them. It’s unlikely I’ll be working on any of them. Anyway, have a read, let me know what you think…
Browser Audio Dashboard
Multi-person constant-audio and interactivity application for browsers. NOT like Skype - this is more like some of the WOW plugins that provide virtual collaboration environment around a shared activity. I believe this idea was inspired by Joi Ito.
Life Choices - Your Alternative Life
Not sure if this is a startup, but…this is a service that records your life choices and then offers you a look at the alternative life - or lives - that your unpicked choices might have lead to.
You enter some initial status information, as well as your personal goals. The site then generates several possible future choices based on this information (using, say, an expert system or some training data). You pick a choice - what you think you’ll do next. The site makes a note of this and then, say, 10 minutes later, offers another choice.
Example: you set your status to “I’m at home surfing the web” - the system offers the choices: Call a friend, go out to a bar, go to the gym, go for a walk, keep surfing the web. Just throwing this out there - could modify the possible choices based on what you’ve done in the past.
The site maintains a record of your choices, but it also shows a record of choices you didn’t make. By using the life choices of other users on the site, it can shows what your particular unpicked choices may have led to - your alternative lives. It can also show what other people did when in your position. Get your friends on board and when you reach an impasse, ask your friends to make a choice for you etc etc.
Downside: Lots of graph manipulation. Privacy hell? How is this valuable?
Project promotion and management platform for hobbyists
It would be awesome if there was a service that allowed hobbyists to promote and manage their projects. It would be a service that allows hobbyists to setup and promote projects, and describe exactly what they are doing and the kinds of people they want help from. It also allows the hobbyists to manage their projects as they go along. Others could browse projects in their areas of interest and then get in touch with people doing something cool.
Not quite a volunteer service, not quite a recruiting tool, not quite a todo list, not quite a social network, but a combination of all of those into something new. Making money: could such a platform work for virtual corporations?
A Property Management Company That Doesn’t Suck #2
The Problem: I’m trying to lease a property to live in. Been looking for about two weeks week. My budget is only, ooh, about $20,000 PER YEAR. Despite this, I’ve received, so far, replies from about 10 to 15% of the companies I have contacted. None of them seem particularly enthusiastic to help me (”We’ll let you know in a week” etc etc). This seems kinda weird, doesn’t it? I mean, if I go into a restaurant I can get served (usually) right away. The waiter/ess is (usually) happy to be there. The food is (usually) very good. I’d say about 90% of all restaurant transactions leave me feeling pretty damn happy. Why is that spending $20 is a more satisfying experience than spending $20,000?
DIGG for entertainment - not based around mindless link clicking:
- Deals with games, video, images, slideshows, as well as the usual links and the like. There is also a game that backs up and improves user engagement with rewards and additional administration rights.
- Valuable because none of the current link tools really offer good game embedding. Can possibly offer payment to producers (via mochi ads).
