Innovation Incubator

Okay, here's my list of ideas, posted in a not entirely random order. Some of these have been experimented with before, but could be improved or expanded. Others would need manpower to obtain the information necessary, as it may not all be immediately available online, but is in the public record.

1. Mapping your news - news/wiki site with traditional and Google Maps based interface.
2. Follow The Money 1 - A tool to cross reference government contracts based on political contributions and the resumes of government office holders.
3. Hyperlocal wiki - A wiki/news site focused on a small area run by a news organization with both user and professional content.
4. Lifestyles of the Rich and Elected - Tracking how elected officials and top policy makers live. Pictures of houses, clubs they belong to, boats, resumes, etc. Compare education and income to the average of their electorate based on census figures.
5. Who owns your town? - Using Google Maps, track ownership (and change over time) based on public records. Can also incorporate lawsuits, ratings of property owners, etc.
6. Primary Source - This is more of a philosophical decision rather than technical implementation, but I think it's something more organizations ought to do: post all primary source material along with stories: transcripts, recordings, unedited videos, etc. There would likely be some instances where this isn't possible, but it would put more information in people's hands.
7. Follow The Money 2 - Tool to locate who holds government contracts and what services they provide through Google Maps so you can tell locally who makes money from the government.
8. Public news tip - Users can post news tips publicly onto a Google map run by an organization. This is really just an extrapolation of the standard news tip feature, but make it public with timestamps and able to be viewed by location.
9. Bring the war home - One of the problems in understanding war and violence in other countries is that Americans often don’t know the terrain or locations. To give people an idea of what the violence is like, map the violence over a locale they know well. In our geographic area, overlay Baghdad on top of the greater Kansas City area. Visitors to the site could see what the death and destruction would look like mapped out in their own backyard. Idea could be extrapolated to almost any major conflict or disaster.
10. NewsFutures - This one is kind of a gimmick, but could be fun to play with: Forecasting tomorrow’s news based on today. Analyze tags and keywords associated with stories on a news website to forecast what likely stories will appear tomorrow.

I, Chris Raine, humbly submit to the thousands of eHub readers ten ideas that will, in all likelihood, have a major impact on the lives of you and those close to you, and will quickly and drastically alter the ultimate destiny of humankind forever.

Idea One: Graphic Emoticons for Text Messages. For far too long, text messagers have been unable to fully convey the emotional impact...OK, I'm kidding. Here are the real Ten Ideas.

1. A Facebook application that incorporates the Blackboard Virtual Classroom into students and professor's Facebook profiles.

2. A Facebook application that incorporates a "news" section into a profile, allowing Facebook users to get news on certain topics or from certain geographies while browsing their profiles.

3. A program that allows schools to send alerts and messages, like "Enroll today!" or "Gunman on Campus!" to a student's Facebook profile.

4. A Facebook app that allows users to post information about local bars on their profiles, including the ability to rate drink specials, bartender efficiency, how crowded the bar was, the guy/girl ratio, etc. I feel this is a very, very important issue.

5. A website or service that would allow people to communicate with doctors and get medical advice and information without scheduling a doctor's appointment. This would likely be aimed towards lower-income people or those without health insurance.

6. A wristwatch with a wireless digital news feed that scrolls across the face. The news feed could be customized to deliver the news you want. Where cell phones are tacky, watches still ooze class.

7. A feature for Google Maps that allows users to plot "mass-transit-only" travel plans. This feature could also quickly expose the lack of good mass transit in most American cities, particularly when a user gets the "Get off bus - walk 5 miles" message.

8. A program that distributes very cheap digital video cameras to citizens in certain trouble areas of the world - Baghdad, Beirut, New Orleans, etc. These cameras could be used to record everyday events, then dropped off at kiosks where worthy videos are uploaded to a website and shown to the world.

9. A website/service that aggregates and provides exercise and workout information. Users could enter their workout goals, how long they can spend exercising, their desired "stress" level, etc. and the program would produce a workout program for them. This probably already exists in some form, but mine would be free!

10. A flying car that uses a personalized digital character that knows everything to tell you where to go and what to do. The car also contains a "language service" that will translate any language, anywhere via a wireless connection, as well as a 3-D display of your destinations that allows you to virtually visit somewhere before actually going so you can figure out if there are bars or "neighborhoods with graffiti" that you'll want to avoid. Oh, and the car actually produces fuel when you travel, and the fuel can be used to cure cancer and heal sick babies. Its only exhaust is beautiful rainbows.

Hmm..

A few of these are more like starting points for concepts we could use. All of the ideas are Web-based, I think.. some are for brand new pages while others would be additions to existing sites. Some of these are probably taken, egads!

1) Community wiki over a Google Map platform

This is my favorite idea, one that multiple people will probably bring up. A tool like this one could provide background information, news stories or statistics for buildings, streets, or other map items. It could also filter auto wreck statistics, pinpoint crime, or just be a tool for the “What the heck is that building?” question. We’ve talked about this one substantially, and I really love it – it’d be an easy-to-use one-stop application for reporters, community members or anybody with itching curiosity about a city. It would also heighten community awareness and act as a tool for township newcomers.

2) Mad libs for the citizen journalist

The typical “news story” has a few key characteristics: the lead, the nut graph, and the body. However, the average-Joe-gone-amateur-reporter doesn’t have the expertise in constructing the prototypical story like the trained journalist can. So, a code maybe could be written to assist in creating a community-oriented story. The “citizen journalist” fills in the who, what, when, where and why to a story. The code creates a simple lede. Details, quotes and information fill the body of the story. The article could then be uploaded to a wiki, where any user could edit it to further clarify, add information or simply rearrange the story. It’d be a tool to get the real important stuff in a story right to the top, and then allow the user to edit from there.

3) Comment-driven news sites

Often, comments left by users at the end of an online news story prove more interesting than the story itself. This also creates user interaction, interest, involvement and can highlight controversy in a community. A comment-driven Web site could prove more useful to community members than the news site itself. By sorting stories primarily based on discussion and highlighting discussion over the article itself, community members could be more interested in a story – why it’s important, how it affects them and why they should care. The page could actually be in a blog format, with users posting feedback and linking to the story, followed by comments from other users.

4) Video-oriented comments on news sites

Similar to a comment-driven news site – in fact, it could be implemented in a comment-driven site or used on an as-is news site. Instead of users simply leaving comments, users would be able to post video responses (similar to the YouTube video response). An image of a person adds character, credibility and an image to the person with something to say. It would also add personality and show the passion a person has in response to a story INSTEAD OF USING CAPITAL LETTERS TO TALK LOUD. So, it’s a simple idea to give more voice to users.

5) News ticker for those too lazy to look online

A big element of news is how the reader receives the “package” – it’s the reason why newspapers are still sticking around with decent readership. It’s also the reason why news sites can be so difficult to navigate. So, a desktop ticker would be an easy, efficient way for people to get the news that they want by signing up for specific topics or types of stories. Google news could be an easy streaming feed, or it could be for any news Web site the reader wants. It’d be an easier way to communicate news directly rather than having to prompt the user to come to a news Web page.

6) News background site for those hesitant to jump in

Here’s a prime example: I asked my girlfriend if she was familiar with the Rose trial that ended about a month ago – she said she wasn’t, although I know that she’s seen the headlines. When I told her the background on the trial, her interest was sparked. In this case, a Web site with information about this Rose character who burned down an apartment complex and killed a few people would have come in handy. So many people are reluctant to begin reading the news because there is so much going on. If the background information could be summarized simply on a site, more people may want to begin to keep up with the times in a community.

7) Why not a news application for Facebook?

This is almost self-explanatory. Facebook is growing so quickly that it makes sense to put news somewhere on the main page if the user wants. What better way to spread important community information from a specific source?

It wouldn’t even need to be Facebook-driven. Simply getting a social network to discuss news topics would be enough. Or, a social network of news junkies asking other news junkies about topics they may be interested in. This would add depth and interest to topics and make them more relevant.

8) Category-driven news aggregate

This seems like a simple idea. Everything on the Internet is unorganized as-is, so there should be an aggregate that puts together news and Web sites. The site could filter all of the links into categories so viewers can browse as they see fit.

9) Stumble Community

A stumble upon for a community could link to news that other readers give good ratings, or it could link to community Web sites that people are interested in. Whatever it links to, it could sort your interests by category and use a rating system to direct Web traffic.

10) Compare and contrast the daily feeds

This may make a better addition to an already-existent Web site – being able to compare and contrast different news networks by having the top headlines placed side-by-side. Personally, I’ve always viewed the best way to get the whole truth in news is by getting it from a variety of sources, so this would be a good way to see the Times’ main points versus the Washington Post’s, or even Fox News. What fun!

1. The Tocqueville Blog Model
In his 1840 book, Democracy in America, French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville described America’s media as a series of small, independently owned printing presses that each presented news with overt bias and vehement criticism. Tocqueville accredited the energized climate of participatory democracy in the U.S. largely to this media model. Today, blogs are quite similar to the presses Tocqueville described, except whereas in 1840, a citizen of a small community might have access to five or six news sheets that all presented different perspectives on similar topics and issues, modern Internet users have access to millions of blogs that have different perspectives on topics and issues. The problem is, where to start finding out about the different perspectives on news?

The Web site I propose would be an aggregator of blogs and similar nontraditional news content that would divide its content according to topic, and feature reports and opinions about issues and events that came from perspectives all across the social and political spectrum. Instead of reading a mainstream news report about an abortion law that features comments from sources on the religious right and the moderate left (which mainstream media have pretty much decided are the only two sides to the debate), you could read about perspectives from Marxist philosophers’ blogs that oppose abortion completely on ethical grounds, or from conservative libertarians who oppose government interference on personal matters, and from other perspectives that don’t fit within the cookie cutter frame that mainstream media have delineated.

The site would determine which blogs to feature and from which perspective they approach the issues with an algorithm that would be supplementally refined by editorial decision and user-generated feedback. The point of the Web site would be to allow the perspectives of non-official people (who rarely appear in mainstream media as sources) to inject their informed opinions into media discourse, thereby moving politics back into a realm in which average people can participate. This Web site could be used for any scale of coverage, from international affairs to local politics.

2. BlogSource
MyBlogLog is a social network for bloggers and blog readers that connects people with similar interests to blogs they like to read and/or write. Blogs currently have political power not because they have a large audience that they affect, but because they are read by people who do have large audiences: traditional journalists. Journalists more and more often go to blogs to gauge public sentiment, and BlogSource would facilitate this process by selecting blogs based on quality of content, organize them according to topic, and notifying journalists of what they’re discussing via RSS feeds.

Many blogs that discuss news events are not maintained by people who report the news. Rather, they’re maintained by people who comment on the news. BlogSource would be much like MyBlogLog in that it connects bloggers and groups them according to topic/interest, but it would monitor the content on its blogs and send it to reporters. Say John the Journalist writes a newspaper story about abortion, and fifteen BlogSource bloggers discuss it in their blogs. Furthermore, another ten discuss abortion in general (or whatever new development John had reported on in the first place). BlogSource would aggregate all of these blogs and send their sentiments back to John, who could consider these new ideas when he reports in the future, or who might even be prompted to re-report on the issue.

3. ActivistWiki
If there’s one group of people that has been derided and ignored by mainstream media throughout history, it’s been social movements. Mainstream media depend on the status quo so they can stay in business. Social movements work to alter the status quo, which is bad for business. Web sites like IndyMedia have done amazing things to allow social movement members the ability to report on issues they deem important on their own terms, but to read the articles on the site often leaves even a malcontent like me scratching my head, wanting some background information. A wiki that gives background information on social issues would be indispensable for someone who’s interested in finding out about social movement issues and activities but has missed the last couple anarchist meetings at the punk house. For instance, an IndyMedia report about an anti-IMF demonstration could link to a wiki page that describes what the IMF is and why people are protesting against it. The site could also feature all related news articles that have been posted about stuff related to the IMF.

4. Google maps showing offending businesses.
This Web site would allow users to post information about businesses’ practices that might be less than ethical, but are things businesses (and mainstream media) don’t make a big effort to share with the community. Shady employment practices, histories of unbridled sexual harassment, use of sweatshop labor, animal rights violations, and other stuff like that would all be welcome, and this information would be overlayed on a Google map so you could see that, although Weaver’s on Mass Street pays their workers a decent wage and even offers health benefits to its janitor, next door at Chipotle, they’re serving up genetically altered and abused chickens packed in tortillas with vegetables covered in pesticides that were picked by undocumented workers who make 5 pesos a day.

5. CopWatch
This would be a content receptacle for people who feel they have been mistreated by police officers. They could tell their stories and file complaints to authorities and the media using standardized templates (officer’s name, badge number, physical description, etc.). Of course, video is always welcome. Hell, we could throw this one over a Google map too.

6. CutePets RSS
This program would scour the Internet for pictures of adorable pets of all species and send them directly to animal lovers who cherish adorableness. Before you laugh, note that this is probably the most profitable of all the ideas I’ve listed here, because people will pay money for convenient cute pet pics.

7. Survivors Speak
This would be part of a larger news site. It would allow rape victims to submit anonymous accounts about their experience(s) to an editor who would publish them online, and who would play gatekeeper for the comments section.

The number of rapes that go unreported is mortifying. Not only does this leave society with scores of unpunished rapists, but it also effectively creates a culture of silence that protects them and does little to discourage others from raping. Rape victims have plenty of reasons not to tell other people about their experiences, and many of these deal with having to face the person they’re telling. Anonymous forums for survivors already exist on the Web, but this section would project the voices of victims (or even regretful attackers) into public discourse and increase the level of conversation about a topic that is not often conversed about in public. It would allow people to tell their stories anonymously to the public without fear of reprisal.

8. Blogger credentials
This Web site would offer press credentials and other services to bloggers who agree to post their content on the site. It would also offer copyediting and reporting tips to citizen journalists. The editors would exact minimal control over the messages in the content, and bloggers would be free to reject any prescriptions.

9. Cheap health service database, overlayed on Google maps
This site would feature wiki-style content about health care providers who offer service to poor and uninsured people. It would allow user feedback by people who had received care, forums for discussion about how to attain medical help cheaply, and would feature a Google maps section so people could find the health care providers nearest them.

10. Open Letter Facebook app.
This Facebook application would be designed to facilitate the production and distribution of letters to editors, to politicians, and petitions. It would provide a format, offer links to contact information of officials, and would regroup petitions and letters after they had been distributed through Facebook via friends contacts in order to compile all signatures before the letter is sent to wherever it is going.

I, Sam Knowlton, graciously donate to tens of eHub readers ten ideas that will, in all likelihood, be appropriated for another's gain under the ruse of an educational experiment. May god have mercy on my soul.

1) "Affinity nets." Analyze Facebook/MySpace profiles to determine the probability that terms are cross-referenced. (I.e., 20% of profiles listing "Beatles" as a music preference also list "Rolling Stones.") Repeat the process for every term in every profile. Map the data using each term or phrase as an individual point distanced from each other point based on the probability of its cross-reference. Eventually, the data would resemble a star map, where any point could be surrounded by a circle that would enclose terms that are likely to be an "affinity" for those listing the center term. The radius of the circle would be inversely proportional to the likely strength of the affinity. This could serve to generate all kinds of marketing data, or used to create recommendations.

Or, if you're crazy, make a three-dimensional map and paint your face blue.

2) Facebook rental/apartment guide including reviews, recommendations, and roommate searches/match ups. Maybe, like 8) below, prospective tenants could bid for rental price/location.

3) Or, as the Facebook crowd ages, a Facebook real estate listing service overlaid on map communities.

4) "Face to Face," a Facebook dating program. Online dating is a multimillion dollar business now. Maybe by using profile/friend information, the chances of getting hooked up with a 45 year old overweight programmer with a Hitler 'stache can be reduced. Use the data harvested in step one to match affinities and use degrees of separation to identify possible enclave overlapping.

5) Facebook tutoring program. This could be a match-up program or an interactive virtual classroom.

6) FaceBid. An auction program within Facebook or an app that integrates eBay functionality into Facebook. Honestly, the whole marketplace concept would probably be more effective if it was auction-based. Auctions create imminence, which encourages bidding and the perception that things are, in fact, being bought and sold.
6a) Also, if it's not already being done, integrate this functionality specifically for textbooks. Facebook seems like the natural place.

7) "Facet." Maybe I can fix your computer...Maybe you can fix my car? Maybe people can advertise non-formal skills they are adept at to leverage personal proficiency.

8) A site/database of jobs that allows prospective workers to bid down the hourly wage they would be willing to receive to perform the job. Obviously some other parameters would be needed to ensure employers end up hiring someone competent. This could likely reduce wages, which sucks, but maybe not...

9) Print-on-demand newspaper boxes. These would reduce the amount of unused newsprint that is discarded/recycled, largely (if not completely) cut out distribution costs and automatically customize to any level of usage. These could update by the day, hour, minute or second. Cost may be expensive upfront, but when factored against the complete removal of classical distribution costs, may be more feasible.

10) Integrating the site which allows anyone to submit content based on zip code to be rated, edited, reviewed by other users, with 9) above. Thus, local content can be placed on the front page and new higher-ranking stories can be placed as additional content. Thus the same pool of content can produce an infinite number of editions instantly, with no additional costs of customization/distribution.

There it is. My cerebral sacrifice to the Knight Foundation, its sublicensees and "any person with some interest." Hope you fockers know what you're doing.

-SCK out.