Idea dump #6

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From time to time I come up with ideas which, for whatever reason, I can’t work on right now.

Rather than jealously guarding these ideas, I’m going to post them here in regular bursts, in case someone out there wants to run with them.

Most importantly, sharing your ideas triggers something unexpected: it forces you to come up with new ones.

 

Office Printer As A Service

Maintaining your own office printer is tiresome and costly. If you get a decent printer, it’s expensive and toner cartridges will easily add up and cost many times more.

I’d gladly pay a rate per page (or print job) for a service that printed my documents on a top-quality colour laser printer and mailed them to me in the normal post – within 1 or 2 business days.

Bonus points for software that actually installs as a printer on my Mac so I can print like normal, and just wait for the printout to come through my door.

 

Git For Everyone

The Git version control system, simplified and re-made for everyday users who work on Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc.

They’d open a file (branch), make their changes and save (commit) and then the owner could choose to merge those changes in (pull requests). Of course, the entire change history is retained and documents can be reverted back if needed. Great for audit purposes and collaboration across teams.

Lots of organisations could the add power and simplicity of Git to their document management with such a system.

 

All previous idea dump posts are here.

 

Web-snooping bill could trigger powerful new tools

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The UK government’s plans to surveil every person in the country with unprecedented powers over email and web traffic are astonishing.

But, it might not all be bad news.

This move could be the catalyst for a whole new market of software: software which allows normal people to protect their privacy online.

A simple, easy to use email encryption plugin, or a consumer-friendly version of Tor are possible and could find a huge new market: everyone in the UK.

Tools like PGP and Tor are powerful but hard for the ‘normal’ user to understand, install and use. In the same way that it’s always been possible to use rsync to back up your computer – Dropbox made it simple.

Such a privacy product could be made to allow regular, non-technical people to protect their personal data online.

If you’re looking for an idea to start a web business around, maybe personal privacy is a good place to start.