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HN: Share an unused idea

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Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#21

Post by photon_off »

sirwitti wrote: post #20

groups. create a group by setting it´s name. join a group by knowing its name. send messages to everybody in the group. get contact info of everybody in the group. create/accept/reject dates/deadlines. share comments/links/files this is for people who where at camps, workshops, classes, university, play in bands, work on any type of project together,... sounds interesting?

Yes. I've been infatuated with this idea for 3 years now. Specifically, having the groups centered around threaded forum-like discussion. So many times I've wanted to throw up a temporary forum online, and I just could never find an easy enough way to do it that didn't require lengthy registration and administration.

It would be nice if I could just tell someone, go to "foobar.com/" and we'll discuss it there.

I have a killer domain for the idea, but sadly have always been too busy working on other projects. To tell the truth, I'm a bit intimidated by working on forum software. Last time I tried, I feature-creeped myself to burn-out.

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#22

Post by photon_off »

malandrew wrote: post #11

Social Babysitting. A social network where parents fill out a profile of themselves and their child and the site tries to match up parents with children of similar ages and interests. The parents then can meet one another, check out each others homes and introduce the kids to each other to confirm compatibility. Once that is done, these mutually compatible parents can rely on each other to babysit each others kids wh…

Very cool idea. Like couch surfing.

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#23

Post by sharadgopal »

sirwitti wrote: post #20

groups. create a group by setting it´s name. join a group by knowing its name. send messages to everybody in the group. get contact info of everybody in the group. create/accept/reject dates/deadlines. share comments/links/files this is for people who where at camps, workshops, classes, university, play in bands, work on any type of project together,... sounds interesting?

http://groupspaces.com/ does most of what you mention.

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#24

Post by smbwrs »

A mobile app that allows users to create ad-hoc points-of-interest maps, both public and private, based around events.

My inspiration came from spending time at the Brimfield Antique Show this year. My lady wanted an easy way to note specific vendors with items she liked and wanted to revisit, but the iPhone Maps app only let me drop one pin at a time, for some unknown reason. This lead me to imagining a map of the area with dozens of pins dropped by all sorts of people, with tips ("this lady is willing to haggle", "don't get your hopes up, this guy wants twice what his stuff is worth") and recommendations ("avoid the seafood place. trust me."). It's a little Foursquare-y, but less about, "I'm here" and more about, "let me tell you what I've discovered."

I imagine something like this could be used for all sorts of things, from large concerts like Coachella or Lollapalooza to keeping track of where one parked in a parking garage. The idea scales from personal location tracking to a sort of event-focused hive mind of wisdom.

Of course, it is entirely possible this already exists, and I just didn't check the App Store throughly enough. But if it doesn't, it should. I'd use it. We were at the Topsfield Fair last night; it would have been wonderful to know exactly where the maple cotton candy vendor was, or to expect an unbelievable wait before riding the ferris wheel.

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#25

Post by malandrew »

maguay wrote: post #16
malandrew wrote: post #12

UserVoice for congressional districts as an alternative to lobbyists. The idea is to use technology to disrupt traditional lobbying to the point that it is more difficult for the bad lobbyists to have a negative impact. With the science of reputation and filtering systems getting better by the day, one solution might be a service that makes everyone a potential lobbyist. There are about 118,000 citizens per pair of e…

This would be really, really great. The biggest challenge would be to get people really using it, but if it was as widely used as UserVoice is today, it would definitely get attention. And webapps that would change society for the better would be really exciting to work on.

To be honest, I don't think that would be all that hard if you use the bowling pin strategy (naming credit goes to Chris Dixon.

Open up the system for only one congressional district at a time. Opening it up countrywide could kill it due to perceived inactivity. Instead you start with the congressional district where Silicon Valley is located. There's a lot of very smart people there, who typically have strong political views and are active about them. Those are prime early adopters.

Those early adopters will also include many of the best and brightest tech and product minds who will give the best feedback early in the life of the product (just like with Quora, Forrst and Dribbble).

Once it has a high level of adoption there, it should be making national news already. You then roll it out slowly over the most politically active congressional districts one by one until it's used all over the country. I would also choose strategic "trend setting" cities with high levels of political activism such as NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc. shortly after the congressional district where Silicon Valley is located.

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#26

Post by malandrew »

photon_off wrote: post #22
malandrew wrote: post #11

Social Babysitting. A social network where parents fill out a profile of themselves and their child and the site tries to match up parents with children of similar ages and interests. The parents then can meet one another, check out each others homes and introduce the kids to each other to confirm compatibility. Once that is done, these mutually compatible parents can rely on each other to babysit each others kids wh…

Very cool idea. Like couch surfing.

To be honest, I think one of the hottest spaces today is social sharing in the real world. There are so many possibilities it's mind-boggling. In this case and the dog one I posted below, you are sharing personal responsibilities. However, I think most of the potential is in sharing personal capital expenditures that are almost always at a low-level of utilization for most of the population. For example:

-- Sharing cars/bikes

-- Sharing toolboxes (in an apartment building for example)

In fact, I think the apartment building is the perfect size unit of sharing for a lot of goods. The key challenge is developing the interfaces and mechanism that prevent the tragedy of the commons.

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#27

Post by maguay »

malandrew wrote: post #25
maguay wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be really, really great. The biggest challenge would be to get people really using it, but if it was as widely used as UserVoice is today, it would definitely get attention. And webapps that would change society for the better would be really exciting to work on.

To be honest, I don't think that would be all that hard if you use the bowling pin strategy (naming credit goes to Chris Dixon. Open up the system for only one congressional district at a time. Opening it up countrywide could kill it due to perceived inactivity. Instead you start with the congressional district where Silicon Valley is located. There's a lot of very smart people there, who typically have strong politi…

Sounds like a great strategy, and trying to target the early adopter crowd would definitely be the best way to get buzz going early. With it being 2 years before the next presidential election now, it'd be a great time to start getting it going. When are you releasing it? :)

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#28

Post by maguay »

malandrew wrote: post #11

Social Babysitting. A social network where parents fill out a profile of themselves and their child and the site tries to match up parents with children of similar ages and interests. The parents then can meet one another, check out each others homes and introduce the kids to each other to confirm compatibility. Once that is done, these mutually compatible parents can rely on each other to babysit each others kids wh…

That could be a very cool ideal. Might even end up being a way to meet like-minded people in your age range ... slight side bonus. As with any social project involving people, it could backfire, but definitely should be something that could scale big over time.

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#29

Post by sirwitti »

sharadgopal wrote: post #23
sirwitti wrote: post #20

groups. create a group by setting it´s name. join a group by knowing its name. send messages to everybody in the group. get contact info of everybody in the group. create/accept/reject dates/deadlines. share comments/links/files this is for people who where at camps, workshops, classes, university, play in bands, work on any type of project together,... sounds interesting?

http://groupspaces.com/ does most of what you mention.

thanks for the link! i didn´t know it yet though i researched a while on the topic. :)

Re: HN: Share an unused idea

#30

Post by malandrew »

maguay wrote: post #27
malandrew wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I don't think that would be all that hard if you use the bowling pin strategy (naming credit goes to Chris Dixon. Open up the system for only one congressional district at a time. Opening it up countrywide could kill it due to perceived inactivity. Instead you start with the congressional district where Silicon Valley is located. There's a lot of very smart people there, who typically have strong politi…

Sounds like a great strategy, and trying to target the early adopter crowd would definitely be the best way to get buzz going early. With it being 2 years before the next presidential election now, it'd be a great time to start getting it going. When are you releasing it? :)

Unfortunately I'm not working on this idea. I gave it and the others in this thread away to community because I'm currently working to make one of my ideas a reality and I already have a second one planned for when I'm done with this one.

On top of that I'm not living in the United States right now. I plan to return one day, but at the moment I live in São Paulo, Brazil.

By all means feel free to work on it, share it with others or whatever. I'd be more than happy to advise anyone who wants to work on it.

I have way more time than ideas. New ideas appear daily. I wish I had as many skills as ideas.

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