Just watched an episode of Numb3rs, where an FBI agent solves crimes with the help of his brother who is a math genius. And very often, the math prof uses math to determine the relations and connections between people.
So that got me thinking: The rise of social networking software gives police a very powerful tool to store and organize information about criminals. Criminals very seldom act alone - they have, as have all of us, a social network: Be it "business" relations with other criminals, be it family ties, be it rivalries. Having a good idea of the social network of a criminal could be very helpful to catch a fugitive. So the police would simply have to create a social network like Facebook for all the criminals they know about (since, unfortunately, the criminals can't be expected to enter the information themselves). But I guess that most of the information that would go into such a criminal network is already available in police files. The innovation (if it really is one and doesn't already exist) would be to organize and, most importantly, visualize this information in a new way.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Automatic Podcast of long articles
Situation: I am very interested in the fact that more and more written content is available online but that in my opinion a lot of people dont like to read long texts while sitting in front of their screen and already posted an idea about that earlier.
Idea: My new idea is very simple: how cool would be a software that would automatically read to you long articles? I then could simply click on "read me this text". I know that this software doesnt yet exist and must be very complicated that it doesnt sound like the announcement of an arriving train on track 3 at the trainstation.
Idea: My new idea is very simple: how cool would be a software that would automatically read to you long articles? I then could simply click on "read me this text". I know that this software doesnt yet exist and must be very complicated that it doesnt sound like the announcement of an arriving train on track 3 at the trainstation.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Reading Blogs (and other stuff) in public
Another great example of how the online and the offline media world are slowly converging: Last week, the "BildBlog", a watchblog for the german "boulevard" newspaper BILD and as far as I know the most popular blog in Germany, organised a public reading of selected posts in Berlin - and 600 people came to listen.
Of course, that would not work with every blog - but there are certainly enough blogs out there that would be great to listen to. And why stop at blogs? Downloadable audio editions of newspapers and magazines are becoming increasingly popular, so I can imagine that people would enjoy a public reading of a really good reportage, maybe with additional pictures in a slideshow?
I am convinced that media companies focusing on quality journalism will have to create such new forms of content distribution if they want to stay in business. If they do a good job, they will create a unique experience and may even be able to expand their customer base.
Of course, that would not work with every blog - but there are certainly enough blogs out there that would be great to listen to. And why stop at blogs? Downloadable audio editions of newspapers and magazines are becoming increasingly popular, so I can imagine that people would enjoy a public reading of a really good reportage, maybe with additional pictures in a slideshow?
I am convinced that media companies focusing on quality journalism will have to create such new forms of content distribution if they want to stay in business. If they do a good job, they will create a unique experience and may even be able to expand their customer base.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Cooking 2.0: The real recipe database
This idea is somehow so straightforward that I'm almost sure that it exists somewhere. But I haven't found it yet...
I love cooking, and I own a considerable amount of cookbooks. But most of the time, when I'm cooking just for me, I don't use the books, because I haven't planned ahead, but just bought stuff that looked good in the store, without really having an idea what to make with it. So I find myself very often in my kitchen, looking into my freezer and wondering how I could combine all the stuff that's in there (or at least most of it) into one dish.
That's were a web-based recipe database, a real one, would come in handy. And with real I mean a database that allows users to enter a number of ingredients, and maybe a limit on preparation time, and then returns a list of recipes that match all the criteria. While there are a million recipe sites and blogs out there, I haven't found something like this - but I think demand for it would be huge. Collection of recipes could be easily crowdsourced, users could rate and comment recipes... the usual 2.0 stuff. And revenues would come, of course, from advertising. The site could also be interesting for restaurants who, instead of just buying ad space on the site, could upload a few of their recipes and hope that they "go viral", which would probably attract some guests.
I love cooking, and I own a considerable amount of cookbooks. But most of the time, when I'm cooking just for me, I don't use the books, because I haven't planned ahead, but just bought stuff that looked good in the store, without really having an idea what to make with it. So I find myself very often in my kitchen, looking into my freezer and wondering how I could combine all the stuff that's in there (or at least most of it) into one dish.
That's were a web-based recipe database, a real one, would come in handy. And with real I mean a database that allows users to enter a number of ingredients, and maybe a limit on preparation time, and then returns a list of recipes that match all the criteria. While there are a million recipe sites and blogs out there, I haven't found something like this - but I think demand for it would be huge. Collection of recipes could be easily crowdsourced, users could rate and comment recipes... the usual 2.0 stuff. And revenues would come, of course, from advertising. The site could also be interesting for restaurants who, instead of just buying ad space on the site, could upload a few of their recipes and hope that they "go viral", which would probably attract some guests.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Twitter reporting
Once again, this is not really an idea I had but rather a trend that seems to be emerging. But it seems to me that there is some potential...
When I first heard about Twitter several months ago, my first reaction was: Why would anybody want to post 160-character messages on the web just to tell the world what he or she is doing? The site seemed to be just another proof that Web 2.0 is all about shameless self-promotion and digital exhibitionism. And I still think that there is no need for an average person (for example, me) to use Twitter on a regular basis. But I think it could be a very powerful tool for online journalism.
Twitter, of course, is already used for liveblogging from (mostly tech) conferences. There are media companies that are posting there headlines to Twitter (which is very easy using Twitterfeed). The site would be a perfect tool for journalists all over the world reporting on current affairs. At the moment, for example, the correspondent of the Zurich-based Neue Zürcher Zeitung is (as far as I know) one of the few German-speaking journalists in Rangun, where tensions between protesters and Burmas regime are growing day by day. He could - in addition to his articles - send regular updates and informations to Twitter (and his newspaper could integrate the feed into its website). Twitter could also be used for communication between reporters and the newsroom. And, with Twitters just launched tracking feature, users can create personalized mobile news feeds.
UPDATE: Just read this very interesting post on how a pharma company could use Twitter for a marketing campaign. Not sure if this would work, but the idea is quite cool.
When I first heard about Twitter several months ago, my first reaction was: Why would anybody want to post 160-character messages on the web just to tell the world what he or she is doing? The site seemed to be just another proof that Web 2.0 is all about shameless self-promotion and digital exhibitionism. And I still think that there is no need for an average person (for example, me) to use Twitter on a regular basis. But I think it could be a very powerful tool for online journalism.
Twitter, of course, is already used for liveblogging from (mostly tech) conferences. There are media companies that are posting there headlines to Twitter (which is very easy using Twitterfeed). The site would be a perfect tool for journalists all over the world reporting on current affairs. At the moment, for example, the correspondent of the Zurich-based Neue Zürcher Zeitung is (as far as I know) one of the few German-speaking journalists in Rangun, where tensions between protesters and Burmas regime are growing day by day. He could - in addition to his articles - send regular updates and informations to Twitter (and his newspaper could integrate the feed into its website). Twitter could also be used for communication between reporters and the newsroom. And, with Twitters just launched tracking feature, users can create personalized mobile news feeds.
UPDATE: Just read this very interesting post on how a pharma company could use Twitter for a marketing campaign. Not sure if this would work, but the idea is quite cool.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
iPods DJs
Situation: everyone has an iPod or wants one. But not everyone has a huge collection of mp3s at home. You then have a few choices, most common: 1) you copy some music from a friend (which we would never do...) 2) convert all your CDs into mp3 files (which takes a long time and is a painful process) 3) you buy the music online, e.g. in the itunes store. It can be hard, to fill 80 GB of space with music.
Idea: why not offering an extra service to fill the iPod that you just bought with the music you like. The music would be legally bought online and individualized to your needs.
Target Group: upper class, older people (here is my favorite target group again...), bankers, consultants, guys who want the fashion tool iPod but would be grateful for some help to get good music on.
Idea: why not offering an extra service to fill the iPod that you just bought with the music you like. The music would be legally bought online and individualized to your needs.
Target Group: upper class, older people (here is my favorite target group again...), bankers, consultants, guys who want the fashion tool iPod but would be grateful for some help to get good music on.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Trade your insight
Situation: In the last years, there has been a lot of buzz around Prediction Markets. These virtual markets work exactly like stock markets, only that instead of real stocks, the probability of future events is traded. Prediction Markets are already a very common tool to forecast the outcome of elections (here is one set up to predict the outcome of Switzerlands parliamentary elections held in October). You can buy and sell stock from every party participating in the elections. The final price of a stock will be equivalent to the percentage of the vote that the party wins. There are a lot of reasons why prediction markets usually work better than other forecasting tools, for example polls. First, because it is a market where you can win or lose, people have an incentive to really give the answer they think is right. Second, whereas in polls every opinion is equal, in prediction markets, people with more insight and knowledge will trade more (and more risky). This means that their opinion carries more weight in the forecast.
Prediction markets are also increasingly being used by businesses. Many companies have internal prediction markets where employees try to forecast, for example, sales. There are also quite a few companies who have specialized in setting up prediction markets.
Idea: To my knowledge, there neither is nor has ever been a prediction market for trend forecasting or consumer research. Firms still rely on marketing experts or focus groups to predict upcoming trend or evaluate new products. But I think that prediction markets would be a wonderful tool for market research, especially for predicting trends. The interesting part about a trend prediction market would be that traders would not trade with an existing and predefined set of stocks (as in the election market where the set of stocks is defined by the parties participating), but would be able to create their own stocks and sell them in the market. This guarantees that the market will not only tell the company which trends are likely to become big issues in the future, but also tells them about trends they maybe haven't even thought about before (an outcome that is, of course, also possible with a focus group, but much less likely because of distorting factors like group think).
The big challenge in creating trend markets or markets evaluating new products will be to find the right subset of traders. The set has to be focused and suited to the task at hand (there's no point in letting rural people from China trade if you want to predict trends for urban westerners), but it also must have a certain degree of diversity (if it doesn't, chances are that the group of traders suffers from a systematic bias and does not produce the right outcome).
Business model: Ideally, you already have an existing network of people (hint, hint) which could be used to trade in a trend market. I don't see trend markets as a stand-alone business, but rather as one of many different tools that can be used in trend research. However, a company or organization with access to a high-profile network of people (more hint) could sell access to this network and its trend markets to marketing and advertising companies (super-hint).
Problems: The idea seems somewhat obvious so I fear it has already been tried somewhere. And there is one problem within a trend market: Whereas in election markets the value of a stock can be defined very precisely (it's just the percentage of the vote the party got), it's more difficult with trends. Trend stocks would have do be defined very clearly. For example, it would be difficult to trade a stock stating that "social networks will be huge in the future", because it's not clear what "huge" means and when the "future" is. Because the final value of the stock after trading ended depends on whether the event it predicted really became true, stocks would have to be defined in a way that can be measured. To stay with the example, the stock would then have to state that "one year from now, 30 percent of the population in developed countries will be active users on a social networking platform".
Prediction markets are also increasingly being used by businesses. Many companies have internal prediction markets where employees try to forecast, for example, sales. There are also quite a few companies who have specialized in setting up prediction markets.
Idea: To my knowledge, there neither is nor has ever been a prediction market for trend forecasting or consumer research. Firms still rely on marketing experts or focus groups to predict upcoming trend or evaluate new products. But I think that prediction markets would be a wonderful tool for market research, especially for predicting trends. The interesting part about a trend prediction market would be that traders would not trade with an existing and predefined set of stocks (as in the election market where the set of stocks is defined by the parties participating), but would be able to create their own stocks and sell them in the market. This guarantees that the market will not only tell the company which trends are likely to become big issues in the future, but also tells them about trends they maybe haven't even thought about before (an outcome that is, of course, also possible with a focus group, but much less likely because of distorting factors like group think).
The big challenge in creating trend markets or markets evaluating new products will be to find the right subset of traders. The set has to be focused and suited to the task at hand (there's no point in letting rural people from China trade if you want to predict trends for urban westerners), but it also must have a certain degree of diversity (if it doesn't, chances are that the group of traders suffers from a systematic bias and does not produce the right outcome).
Business model: Ideally, you already have an existing network of people (hint, hint) which could be used to trade in a trend market. I don't see trend markets as a stand-alone business, but rather as one of many different tools that can be used in trend research. However, a company or organization with access to a high-profile network of people (more hint) could sell access to this network and its trend markets to marketing and advertising companies (super-hint).
Problems: The idea seems somewhat obvious so I fear it has already been tried somewhere. And there is one problem within a trend market: Whereas in election markets the value of a stock can be defined very precisely (it's just the percentage of the vote the party got), it's more difficult with trends. Trend stocks would have do be defined very clearly. For example, it would be difficult to trade a stock stating that "social networks will be huge in the future", because it's not clear what "huge" means and when the "future" is. Because the final value of the stock after trading ended depends on whether the event it predicted really became true, stocks would have to be defined in a way that can be measured. To stay with the example, the stock would then have to state that "one year from now, 30 percent of the population in developed countries will be active users on a social networking platform".
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)