Awesome, well my ultimate goal is for people to love it!
Thanks for starting one of the most active and engaging threads in an area I can contribute to!
To be honest, I'm not even sure what you're asking.
Though, it's not clear that it would be valuable to convince you either?
Hey, this is exactly what I was looking to convey, but in less words and more concise ideas. Thanks.
Plus, this video is great: http://vimeo.com/25380454
posting bounties to problems, and actually getting things done by throwing money at it until it goes away.
Well said, potential tagline:
"Incremental bounties for instrumental solutions."
paranoid disclosing ideas to a third party where I pay them a buck to make one and they can sell the finished product for ten
The idea is to bring abundance to awesomely executed ideas. Right now, it seems like much of the silicon valley is more obsessed with the idea of making things happen than actually making them happen. Besides, it's the idea multiplied by the execution that creates value. And thankfully, startup ideas are not patent-able.
Early adopters will always have to pay a premium to pioneer new areas of innovation. With time, the goal would really be to lower the barriers to awesome ideas entering the market, both physical and startup-related.
The bottom line is that you could then get a product for ten dollars when the alternative would be you getting nothing and being eternally annoyed at whatever issue initially motivated you to post in the first place.
A Backwards Kickstarter
A crowdfunding & crowdsourcing platform where you go to post your problems that you'd like to be solved, products that you'd like manufactured, programs or services that you'd like to be made, and how much you'd be willing to pay for it.
This takes LSM validation principles and reverses it - don't waste time finding out what the market wants - have them tell you, then
focus on fulfilling it.
The closest thing to it that I'm aware of would be Quora , except every upvote on a question (idea) represents $10. Everything is editable a la wikipedia. This would enable you to view trending ideas in realtime. You can give unlimited upvotes to ideas because it is deducted from your 'bank' of credits that would be linked to your PayPal or Credit Card.
Alternatively, you can follow ideas for free, and optionally receive notifications on updates or immediately actionable items that match your domain of expertise.
On the fulfillment/programming/manufacturing side, anticipated trajectories of certain categories could create clarity as to what students could best invest their time and efforts in.
If you are interested, message me and I can share more details, mockups, etc.
I'd love feedback, remembering that 'criticism is the cornerstone to progress', and 'if version 1 isn't embarrassing, you've released too late.'
Other ideas that probably wouldn't make a lot of money
Welcome to the internet page
Accountability Engine - many have an easier time helping other people than they do themselves, why not trade tasks at 5 min, 30 min, and 1 hr intervals? Alternatively, everyone in your group has to post a series of 3 screenshots or images of the progress that they've made towards two publicly declared goals. I want to make inaction inexcusable.
Your liaison in XYZ - want something shipped to or from a friend? Need someone to represent you in another country?
Intelligent alert system - Hey, you've just spent 10 minutes on Facebook - how about you work on what you should be working on instead?
AnswerMe - Questions? Ask them via text or email, and it will automatically be posted to Quora, ChaCha answers, and just for laughs - Yahoo Answers. At the end of the day or week, the answers are forwarded to your email or texted direct. If you're a premium user, it costs cents to post to Amazon's Mechanical Turk (and they have an API!) and only a couple dollars to post on Odesk to get hours worth of research. (I regularly hire people at $3.33/hr in India, since standard of living is so much lower.)
Odd ideas:
Relationship advice hotline - text or call a phone number, direct connect with someone that can help
LevelUpLife - Lend a GoPro camera necklace to someone, have them wear it to a social occasion or work environment situation, then advise them specifically on how to be funnier, happier, or better in some way that they choose. This can also be done with a personal recorder or iPhone in their pocket for more seamless suggestions.
Self-selecting from an audience that took the time to read this is likely worth connecting with, if at least online. If you happen to be located in the bay area, I spend most of my time in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Palo Alto, and am happy to meet up for tea or join you during an event with anyone who is even slightly curious.
Disclaimer: You may end up with photos of your face,, learning how to card manipulate, contact juggle, or flip a butterfly knife.
Version 0.1 can be for Skype conversations. Imagine the heightened 'super power' ability to discreetly (or not so discreetly) pick up on this during your personal and business Skype chats.
I wear a GoPro camera around my neck for a life-logging project, and have tried it with a wifi (EyeFi) card. If you want live video or pics, the battery lasts around 1 hr for 1picture per 5 seconds. If you want video at 30fps at 960p, the interchangeable batteries last about 1.5 hours and records about 5.5 hrs on a 32gb card (max size supported)
The files are huge, cumbersome, and do little for me.
I have been entertaining the idea of a version that recognizes your mood throughout the day with your webcam, and plots it over time based on what type of tasks you were performing. Over time, your laptop could suggest transitioning from certain tasks to others based on your expressions to optimize for personalized productivity and mood.
Affectiva's Affdex is a company to look to for this, and has a great demo that plots your expressions over time while watching commercials: http://www.affectiva.com/affdex/#pane_overview
Another idea is to make lending out laptops free if the user agrees to having essentially no privacy - you'd sell the information and user expressions as they experience certain sites back to the companies that would pay for this program and reap a healthy profit along the way! (A part of which you'd totally send to me.)
This could be a sustainable way to get more internet enabled laptops into more hands and push people to become more contributing, creating members of society rather than the majority passive consumers that we experience today.
Version .1 of this laptop program could be lending out old/donated/extra laptops under the condition that the lendees who use the laptops create 1 thing a day of notable worth to themselves (or one project per every x hours). So everyone is held together by incrementally improving themselves and creating projects of value that are auto uploaded from a certain folder into a community of people who give each other feedback, etc.
Look forward to talking about this next time I see you in person Marcello. Also typing about this here for anyone else that happens to be reading, feel free to find me on Facebook.com/AltonSun to further the conversation.
Awesome question: I imagine after a threshold of investors approve of a given proposed solution, work is commenced at an agreed upon % rate upfront vs. delivered afterwards, on a per project basis.