IdeaWarz Tournament of Champions is over, and Jay’s OGGTours has earned the title of…

“Best Idea Ever!”

“The Wheel?”
Oh that’s great… if you’ve got a flat surface to roll on.

“Washing your hands before performing surgery?”
Soap doesn’t grow on trees you know.

“Passing current through a small thin wire so that emits light?”
My grandfather sold candles, my dad sold candles… me and my children make our livelyhood selling candles… how are we going to eat!?!

What do those ideas all have in common? They can’t hold a… candle …to OGGTours!

I first submitted this idea to Cambrian House about a year ago, with very little effect. At that time the idea was all so scattered. But after spending some time thinking through the concept, I decided to resubmit. And whoa, what a difference a year will make! This time it has been a very positive experience. Mostly because of the handful of Cambrian House members who have signed up to join the OGGtours team. We have really hammered the idea out in the CH business forums, and are presently developing a working business plan.

I can’t overstate how helpful the team members have been. I mean, I really feel that we have something going now. What started out as a jumbled idea, has taken shape within the Cambrian House Community.

-Jay

What are OGGTours?

Jay submitted his refined OGGTours idea to Cambrian House on August 9th, proposing a website where people could collaborate on audio guide to the world’s most interesting destinations.

Audiotours have been done, but making them open source and collaborative is a compelling twist. Imagine a Wikipedia-like collection of audio tours, open for everyone to improve upon. Who knows best what Dildo, Newfoundland is like, than one of it’s happy inhabitants?

Jay then flipped his OGGTours idea into a Cambrian House Business, allowing him to recruit a team of collaborators.

Their OGGTours website is now live, and Jay is looking for audiotour submissions, and moderators! Do you like traveling? Ranting about the city you live in? Or do you lust for power, the ability to reject inferior audiotour contributions? Then give Jay a shout!

The Prize

Sean Wise is more than just Cambrian House’s Sexiest Man of the Year. He also has excellent phone manners, lives eats and breathes VC, and knows how to turn a bidness into a business!

Sean will be giving Jay 3 hours of advice. Having had Sean in our office, our advice to Jay is… don’t take it all in one lump! 1 hour of Sean is like guzzling a liter of Jolt. Best to let its full impact be absorbed by your body, so that you are fully recovered before you take the next hit!

Jay will also receive 2,500 Cambros. If your new to Cambrian House, you might ask “what is a Cambro?”

A Cambro is the unit of currency Cambrian House members use to buy and sell services. Jay could offer any amount of Cambros to encourage people to create audio tours and perform moderation functions. Or he could cash all out, and blow it on hookers and blow! Either way… the economy gets a boost!

Jay, Cambrian House is betting OGGTours will do to DRM protected audiotours, what Wikipedia has done to Encyclopedia Britannica! Which, if you’re not entirely clear, is pretty much what Ivan Drago did to Apollo Creed in Rocky IV.

Weekly Rounds

Its been a long time since we’ve had weekly IdeaWarz. You guys missed it. Some more than others! Well, it is back in action and there’s Ideas in there just begging to be commented on! Quite a few! Tons… it’s kinda scary.

Update - Video Now Ready!

This is your last voting round! If you’re not dizzy with anticipation, you should be! In fact, you should be dizzy with anticipation, and busy voting! So which 2 ideas are the crowd’s favorites?

The Serious Gaming Institute

Annex 2.0 by Game

“For middle and senior high school students who would prefer to learn from serious strategy games and MMOG’s, the Annex 2.0 is a virtual institute that gives students access to a selection of virtual classroom game experiences designed to introduce mandated science and social studies curriculum. Unlike the traditional school curriculum delivery, Annex 2.0 gives students the ability to apply knowledge, and be recognized for higher order thinking as an avatar experiencing both fantasy and real world environments.”

Game just returned from meeting with Grade 11 science students, where a test of his FoulPlay board game and a pitch of the Annex 2.0 concept was well received, and he got some great feedback.

Open Source Audio Guides to the World

OGGTours by Jay

“For anybody who wants to experience the sounds and stories of a particular destination, the OGGTour is a sort of ‘audible Wikipedia‘ that provides travelers with informative media about a particular location. Unlike standard audio tours, OGGTours allows users to refine tour content through audio comments. These ‘crowdsourced’ audio tours can then be listened to on location with any Mp3 player or mobile device.”

Jay has a website launched which allows for upload, download and indexing of audio clips. And recently, he demonstrated how an iPhone can be used to access OGGTours!

Jay is currently looking for Audio Tour Moderators who can supply the first iteration of a tour, and then manage the integration of additional crowdsourced material so that the tours are continually improved.

Who Got Beat?

Mob4Hire by Fish99, and BlogMashing.com by TechGuy. Both excellent ideas, and we congratulate Fish99 and TechGuy for making it as far as they did. If you’d like to help out on their businesses, then ask to join their teams!

Who Got Beat Worse?

Cambrian House staff. Someone had the silly idea of brining a couple fitness instructors down to our office. They made us do physical activity for 2 hours, apparently forgetting that we don’t “exercise”. So we did that. We exercised. For 2 hours. Now it’s welcome to buffsville!

As any contestant in IdeaWarz Tournament of Champions (TOC) will tell you, its not all sunshine and daisies. Sure, when you are first admitted the screaming fans, the fame and the thrown underwear is all very exciting. But there is a dark side…

Eventually people start asking tough questions about your idea. And if they don’t… then Cambrian House employees brainstorm up some. And then post the video questions on your matchup page.

Yeah! Bam! That just happened!

Game, fish99, jay and techguy… you just got served! Served a fistful of questions!

A word of advice. Some will tell you not to panic. Well meaning individuals mostly. But don’t listen to them. Panic.

There’s a new sheriff in town. A question asking sheriff. And what does his trusty six-shooter fire? Is it answers? No. It shoots more questions.

Who is Out?

• Angelic Crowd by LoveTech
• Guerrilla Distribution by Fitzpatrick
• Transitio by gregbd
• Hospital Connections by Gods_Light

Even though they’re out, they still deserve a hearty congratulations for making it so far.

4 Ideas = 2 Matchups

This week, do Gord and Blue jump out of a plane and record their IdeaWarz video while floating down to the earth under a couple of enormous parachutes? No, we sure don’t. I don’t even know why you would think of such a thing. But we do hang out in a stairwell for a bit! See for yourself…

The Tournament of Champions is a different breed of cat. Head to head. Mano-a-mano. Two ideas enter each matchup, one idea leaves.

Some have said that such sport is inherently cruel. A cock fight is a cock fight, be it roosters, gladiators, or ideas. Some say that such blood sport demeans the spectators as much as the participants.

I think not!

Witness, if you will, the 8 ideas felled in the first round of IdeaWarz Tournament of Champions:

• Not Spots by Matthias
• Exceptional Universal Site by Saigon
• Crap-E-Cards by TravellingGuy
• nO nAmE yEt! by fossiloflife
• BeerSphere by bliss
• Business Startup Web Portal by CraigH
• AdSqueeze by scrollinondubs
• Open Render Network by Kevin_Cox

They may be bruised and battered. But they’re only dead if the contestants believe they’re dead! 16 ideas enter Tournament of Champions, and 1 idea emerges victorious. But that doesn’t mean the other 15 aren’t viable. Some already have alpha websites up!

If fact, if you were to ask any of the competitors above, I’m sure they’ll all tell you the same thing. Chicks dig scars!

(That LoveTech’s Angelic Crowd advanced to the second round made that line easier to deliver.)

8 Ideas Now In Battle!

Congratulations to jay, LoveTech, Game, Fitzpatrick, techguy, gregbd, Gods_Light and fish99! They’ve all advanced to Round 2 of Tournament of Champions…

Contestants, remember… your matchup opponent would love nothing more than for you to comment politely on how good their idea is, and how you can’t find any issues with it. But such is the path to defeat!

Constructive criticism of your opponent’s idea (text and/or video), is the surest way to victory! And, of course, making sure your own idea and comments are updated to reflect any questions directed at yourself.

(Shameless self promotion doesn’t hurt either.)

8 Ideas = 4 Matchups = Not a lot of voting.

That’s right, there’s only 8 ideas to vote on! Only 8 contestants to offer constructive criticism to!

IdeaWarz Tournament of Champions (if you are a non-contestant), is a chance for Cambrian House community to put idea promotion on hold, and see what existing ideas can be improved and turned into businesses. Is your idea properly tagged? Do you have jobs created which need to be completed? Have you recruited a team to help implement? Have you joined another business team, to offer up your skill set?

Community Videos

This week some Tournament of Champions participants submitted comments via video. Ever wondered who has the nicest video equipment of the 16 original TOC contestants? I’m guessing scrollingondubs! See for yourself…