social bookmarking idea of the day – I’d Buy That!
so lots of people do what i just did (and am doing now… MY META FRIES YOUR BRAIN!!) and say “hey it’d be cool if blah” and then nothing happens because making ideas happen is a skill that is much rarer than just making ideas up.
but the complexities of actual production and distribution aside, one of the things that keeps people from feeling compelled to invest much energy in their ideas is the fact that it’s hard to really gauge how ridiculous something is, and it’s hard to know how much things should cost.
i therefore present a fun web 2.0 challenge:
a website and associated blog-ready button a la rss, digg, del.icio.us, or technorati with interaction as follows:
P “the Rock” Rastinator is reading blogs at work and happens over kynthia’s sweet idea about a daylight schmavings time alarm clock. he clicks on the button below the post that says “I’d Buy That!” and a little box comes up that says:
Good Idea! I’d buy that for [dropdown menu – “actually, you’d have to pay me”, “less than $10”, “$10 – $25”, “$25 – $50”, “$50 – $100”, “lots!”].
maybe then there’s a follow up that says “Seriously?” and gives choices like – “i mean, maybe, if i already bought new outfits in secondlife that month”, “as long as i don’t get fired for reading your blog first, beeyotch”, “really truly”, and “if i’m lying you can have my firstborn child”.
it would also be fun to have sister services to handle responses like: “that already exists, dumbass” and “hey, that’s my idea!”
because those would undoubtedly crop up, and it would be sweet to start linking related ideas together because folks could join forces and/or throw themselves off of buildings because their life’s work has already been accomplished.
i’m not saying market research would be totally replaced, but it would give people some fun data to start with and i bet we’d see some really interesting stuff happening as a result.
and like all things intarwebbian, it would only get more interesting when other people made the next thing better.
apparently when i procrastinate when i know i should writing, i come up with ideas!
either i should stick with being a designer, or my entire graduate education has just been revealed as a huge diversionary plot by my subconscious…
i pick both!
November 5th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
How’s the novel coming? No progress reports a la Carter?
November 5th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
“if i’m lying you can have my firstborn child”
I’d say the top category should be “really, if you can deliver that, and it works, I guarantee I will pay the amount indicated”. Unless, of course, someone else did it first and the person already has one. :)
Fascinating idea, to be sure. I’ll be thinking about how it might work…
November 5th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
thanks for the nudge there, dr. p. really. :) it’s coming. i have been writing every day and not worrying about how it will come together. which is my goal for the week. but no, i don’t think i’m going the serial route. i unfortunately have neither a time-traveling protagonist nor a seven-year lifespan on which to credit or blame my discontinuity. and really i just need to know that i am writing only for me right now. i hope to post updates, though. starting next week. yell at me again then. :)
and my david, i love that you picked that neither my use of “beeyotch” or the assertion that we should start a sister program called “that already exists, dumbass” to circle with your red pen, but my failure to specify that “no, the promise is actually that i will pay what i am officially indicating as the value of this transaction – do not let my hyperbole confuse you!” raised alarms in your mathematical brain. :) you’re an asset to the world in so many ways. if you brainstorm further, let me know. there’s actually a chance i’ll be in bloomington this spring, so we might have some time to hack it out…