Category Archives: Idea dump

Idea dump #5

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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.

 

AutoMarket – grocery shopping, rebooted.

Grocery shopping is a pain. Do it in real life and it’s a nightmare. Doing your shopping online is way more convenient, but once you’re using one supermarket website there’s a large ‘cost of switching’ to set everything up again on a rival site.

AutoMarket would be a managed, clever household grocery service – a layer on top of all the supermarket sites.

From learning your basket and learning the similarities between types of products, it could aggregate your shop over multiple retailers, taking advantage of special offers and delivery discounts, to give you the best possible price.

You could tap items on a tablet to say they’re used and AutoMarket would learn the general frequency of purchases and plan ahead for you. ‘Fire and forget’ shopping.

Revenue could come from retailers vying to be listed and offering promotions.

 

Peer-to-peer Insurance Exchange

Take on the world of insurance and make it fair, simple and equitable. This would be a platform for matching investors (insurers) with consumers (policyholders). The system could spread risk at both ends of the market.

Revenue could be substantial from just a tiny % of all transactions through the platform – plus the market would find the fairest price possible for customers.

 

 

Idea dump #4

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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.

 

 

Media-Agnostic Content Engine (MACE)

‘MACE’ would be a new kind of content management system (CMS), or rather a CMS framework, that doesn’t care what kind of content a user throws at it – or what kind of device is requesting it. It would load content from its database, recognise the kind of content (video, image, a product in a store, a location, etc) and re-purpose it on the fly for the device in question (caching popular versions for future use). Open source contributors could add plugins or modules which would allow MACE to deal with new content types and new presentation devices.

With this approach it would be possible to install one CMS and use it to manage video, text, blog posts, products, 360° product images, and so on – across the enterprise from one central web control panel. Furthermore, the system would auto-detect clients and serve an appropriate version of the content to desktop computers, tablets, smartphones, e-readers, etc.

Heavy use of in-RAM caching at the server side could make MACE perform as well as any other CMS as popular ‘reversions’ of content would be kept in memory and addressed with a simple key/value store approach.

 

Outdoor AdWords

A mesh network of screen media devices connected to an online ‘bid for time’ auction platform.

Companies could bid for display time, add a location, upload their ad content and it would be published and displayed in the real world at roadsides, subway stations, in the street, and so on.

This could open up display advertising to smaller players who couldn’t normally afford the large cost and lengthy bookings of billboard campaigns.

A secondary bidding strategy, similar to Amazon’s ‘spot instances’ would allow more price-conscious advertisers (likely small businesses) to bid on un-used display time and have their ads displayed for as long as the demand remains below their bid price.

 

 

Idea dump #3

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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.

 

 

Social Sync

A web service that you sign up to, then add and remove social accounts for any compatible (API-enabled) service. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

Then, the application will silently and automatically keep your networks in sync – whichever you post to. Rules and knowledge of the content compatibility will ensure photos on Facebook are added to Twitpic and Tweeted, that links shared on Twitter are copied to LinkedIn and so on.

Think: ‘clever sync for social media’.

Or: ‘Rsync for social’.

 

Haptic Gas Pedal

Haptic feedback works with a user’s sense of touch by applying forces, and vibrations through the control surface. It’s an extra way to give the user a ‘feel’ of what’s happening on a device.

Car manufacturers could implement a series of distinct haptic tones which can be felt through the foot when accelerating – designed to teach the driver to drive more economically.

A ‘reward’ vibration could be felt after a period of economical driving, while an ‘angry’ buzz would be felt if there was hard driving or braking.

 

Proximity Password

If you’re at home, using the web through your own encrypted wireless connection, then you’re ‘safe’. Assuming this, a browser or OS could automatically authenticate you on websites you visit.

Effectively, a master password for your keychain linked to your WiFi credentials. If you’re out and about, then you’d still need to enter passwords – but while at home, it’s fine to auto-authenticate with sites.

If an attacker is using your computer, on your wireless: you’ve got bigger problems to worry about first.

 

 

Discussion on HN.