There’s a plethora of web tools for bands to promote themselves, from SellABand to ya ole faithful MySpace (where Rupert Murdoch spends all of his time promoting his band… ensuring Fox News remains Fair and Balanced is just Rupert’s day job).

But what about determining the optimal towns for your band to tour in? Callum’s Please Play Here will eradicate this problem!

Please Play Here is a website that links the three vital people who make gigs happen; bands, fans and venue owners. Please Play Here allows fans to choose where their favorite bands will play.

Fans express their interest in bringing particular bands to their hometowns, either by voting, ranking or showing some form of commitment to the band. Bands performing to empty venues will be a thing of the past!

Callum needs technical support to get Please Play Here off the ground, so if you’d like to offer assistance give Callum a shout. Even if there’s an obstacle or opportunity you think he’s overlooking and just want to give him a head’s up, you can still comment on the idea.

We Play Favorites

• Truly collaborative team computer games by PhilipH
  

  A new generation of computer games that encourage COLLABORATIVE multiplaying between teams of friends. Computer games have long been accused of producing competitive loners with no interpersonal or social skills, despite the fact that they usually place players in situations that would in the real world bring them into contact with many people.

  While I’d venture complex collaboration can be found already in many games, PhilipH has started an interesting discussion about how collaboration can be encouraged and rewarded in games.

• eMedical Assistant by MAH
  

  Provides assistance in resource management based on current patient statuses/conditions. Keeps hospitals and medical care facilities operating optimally.

  While working in ER, MAH noticed overflowing information hubs, and nursing staff wishing pertinent information was more readily available.

Worst Idea of the Week

Adeclicious by Me_ sunk like a stone in a sack full of kittens.

Something like the million dollar homepage, but different. A clean, nice, and easy to use websites only with ads, but, first of all, not annoying ads, second of all organized in groups of relevant topics.

Callum and GroundLoad Phone It In

If you’ve ever met Blue or myself, there’s probably one thought that crossed your mind… the backs of our heads are facinating!

Have you seen the backs of our heads? Sometimes I wish I was someone else just so I could get a better perspective! Well THIS week we have something special. We like to call it “back of head extravaganza!”

You have to see it to believe it. It will BLOW YOUR MIND.

Even Callum, who video Skyped with us to discuss Please Play Here didn’t get to see the back of our heads… the backs of our heads were simply too much for him, so we chose to face the webcam!

Also, GroundLoad (Anthony) shares some thoughts on community management. Maybe the flaming-bag-of-poo Prezzles we sent to new Cambrian House community members were not the correct approach.

Ya live, ya learn.

Until next week: Share your ideas. Give us your precious, precious feedback…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!

This week’s top rated idea by Cambrian House community is Open Problem Bank by Niansu:

For inventors who are looking for problems to solve the Open Problem Bank is a structured database of open technical problems that you can browse. Unlike patent databases our product allows searching by a specific problem.

Blue and I discussed Open Problem Bank with Niansu via Skype, and found the best points of reference to be Innocentive and Cambrian House.

Niansu’s proposal to tag and index problems could be considered an “open” version of Innocentive, which secures its challenge details behind a “log in to proceed” and intellectual property agreements. This is great for protecting companies which are looking for solutions, but it comes at the cost of blocking content from Google, and quick problem review by non-members.

Cambrian House offers open access to proposed solutions (”Ideas”), but the only structure we offer for unsolved problems is our forums. “Take it to the forums!” is the oft-heard phrase uttered by myself whenever an incomplete solution is submitted as an idea.

Certainly Cambrian House would benefit from a more structured workflow to direct members towards concerning the early stages of problem/solution brainstorming. Niansu proposes a Wiki as a possible mechanism.

TravellingGuy (Todd) is adding a public wiki to Cambrian House, and we’ll see if wiki is a helpful structure for any stage of problem or idea articulation.

We’ll give Niansu the first heads-up when this goes live, and perhaps he can help us create some sample structures which illustrate how problems can be documented and tagged.

Gord and Blue are Not Antisocial

• Stalker PLUS by CaptainEd
  

  The easy way to harass and annoy your ex without the hassle of finding 12 new pay phones every day. Does making 56 calls in one night sound like a walk in the park? Stalker PLUS will do it for you, in an untraceable voice and from a phone number in Serbo-Croatia if need be.

  Usually when there is a disagreement involving Gord and Blue, it is because Blue is wrong, and Gord is right. But this time with votes, idea comments and inappropriate idea flags, the Cambrian House community’s thoughts on Stalker PLUS are in stark contrast to Gord and Blue’s.

  Well I guess the Cambrian House community is just packed with socially well adjusted people in healthy relationships! Good! Great! Happy for you all!

• myLove by herodot
  

  myLove is a website on which you can leave your “I love you” message to your loved one (privately or public).

  Ultimately a marketing exercise more than any technical challenge, myLove could be a series of extremely niche love sites (as opposed to the ugly ILuvYou and infinitely broad Hallmark type sites.

• Fantasy Sports Leagues for Colleges by MoonDog
  

  For college students who like to compete in fantasy sports the Fantasy Sports College League is a fantasy sports website where that college students can compete directly with rival conference students.

  Word on the street is, fantasy sports is a 2 billion dollar industry. Word on the street is, college kids love their fantasy sports leagues. And what we’re hearing at Cambrian House… from the street mind you… is there’s no website dedicated to school vs school competition.

Worst Idea and Disabled Member

Relation between professionals of the luxury and individuals by Jibrils was ranked lowest by the Cambrian House community this week.

Purpose:
To promote the relationship between professionals of luxury according to their area of activity and individuals.

Jibrils did update the idea content in response to queries such as…

PeeJayEl ~
This goal statement is not entirely clear, what do you mean by “professional of the luxury”. I suspect English is not your first language, so I’ll cut you slack, but I really don’t get what you’re saying.

But ultimately I still can’t fathom the idea’s title or description. Except that, personally, I like luxury. But that’s just me.

And PowerfulMask was given the boot due to his activity surrounding Gateway of Us. Promises of “u can earn a trillion dollars” coupled with a Bazaar listing of his business for “$1,000,000.00″ called into question his sincerity.

“Who knows how many zeros are in a trillion?”

No one really knows. It is one of those mysteries of the universe…

Car of the Luxury

• Walking and chewing gum.
• Patting your head and rubbing your belly.
• Wanting out of Iraq and voting republican.

…all challenges to be sure. But they’re nothing compared to driving a car and hosting IdeaWarz…

<God I miss BLINK tags>At the same time!</God I miss BLINK tags>

Blue was able to host, drive and almost avoid several pedestrians! Join us in the lap of luxury, Blue’s 2001 Dodge Neon. It’s not power windows we clamped the camera to, ’cause we be keepin’ it real!

Until next week: Share your ideas. Rate this week’s ideas…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!

Scientific studies have shown: ducks are funny. So what better mascot for Richexclaim’s comedy website built specifically for kids aged 4 to 16? Answer: No better mascot.

For kids who are funny, think they are funny, want to be funny, want to find out what’s funny, and/or want to find out why something is funny the Pun Duck website is a portal that satisfies these cravings.

Do you want your kid learning about comedy on some filth-ridden comedy spam site? Not only will they end up installing some sort of spyware on your beloved computer, it won’t be long before you hear Andrew Dice Clay quoted in your house!

“Jack and Jill went up the hill, each with a buck and a quarter. Jill came down with two-fifty.”

You don’t want your child talking like that! Which is why it is utmost importance Richexclaim’s Pun Duck be developed as soon as possible! Kids need a safe place to learn about comedy. Give Richexclaim a shout if you can help.

“I want my son to grow up with a good sense of humor and to be able to see the right side of life.”
- Siddey

“Need help from the CH community deciding whether there should be premium memberships or to rely on advertising for revenue. Also, will folks pay their…um…bills?”
- Richexclaim

“If I hear any more awful duck puns I’ll go quackers.”
- PhilipH

Do it for the children!

Brenden Joins us to Discuss This Week’s Ideas

• Sore Dancing Feet? by lindi_barber
  

  A pair of fold away flip flops to fit in girls handbag to slip on after a hard night of dancing in heals!

  Blue is adamant that comfortable shoes are a sign of weakness, yet Gord and Brenden believe this says more about Blue than about the idea.

• The google model for Essential Products by FreEssentials
  

  Benefiting from economies of scale, we purchase large amounts of essential products in order to decrease the cost per unit for our company. Similar to a magazine, FreEssentials will then sell advertising space placed the packaging on a per ad basis.

  Watch Blue squirm with boredom. Will Blue fold her Fresca can into a shiv and drive it into her own heart to escape the torture? No. Think about it. You would have heard about it on the news if that happened!

• X Prize by Jai (Oooh! Short names!)
  

  I am the Director of Prize Development for the X PRIZE Foundation. As part of my job, I am constantly exposed to innovative and maverick thinkers, many of whom have very compelling ideas for launching new prizes. Unfortunately, the very best prize ideas are rare, and few pass our intensive screening process. So, it is important to build a constant pipeline of prize idea submissions. I am hopeful that though Cambrian House and the emerging field of crowdsourcing, we can draw from the participation of many communities to mine the most promising business plans.

  We all agree X Prize is a cool thing, but figure this forum post is a more appropriate venue for X-Prize brainstorming.

Worst Idea Of The Week

The Email @ Symbol by Astronut was ranked lowest by the Cambrian House community.

Who hasn’t had a bad idea? I say, let the man who has never suggested a bad idea cast the first stone!

(Of course there is no such criteria for voting down on a bad idea.)

How To Record Skype Video: With a Video Camera!

Ah Skype! When I point a video camera at a monitor to record video conferences, I feel like I’m traveling back to a simpler time…

“Gord, did you enjoy the Blade Runner final cut last friday?”

“I never saw it! I’m back in a simpler time, when no one was capable of hosting video conferences, let alone recording on digitally! As far as I’m concerned the only version of Blade Runner I know is the one with Harrison Ford yammering on endlessly through the whole thing! It is a blessing, and a curse.”

To join Brenden, Blue and myself in this historic display of technological prowess, you need only click on the video below!

Until next week: Share your ideas. Rate this week’s ideas…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!

Jeff Howe’s upcoming crowdsourcing book is naked and needs a superfly outfit before it hits the Red Carpet later this year.

His publisher, Random House UK has set out to “coversource” the UK version of the book. So if you’re a Photoshop Pro or a Doodling Diva submit your design and see if the crowd’s votes bubble it up to the top of the crop!

What’s at stake? The chance to see your design hit book store shelves (won’t your mom be proud!) and £500 ($1000ish US).

What are they looking for? You can find the creative brief here.

Why would they release creative control to the crowds? Posing an open call to amateur and veteran designers alike, then allowing the masses to vote on the best will help Random House UK (and Jeff) ensure the book’s look will appeal to a wide market.

After all, it’ll be 100s, 1000s or tens of thousands of potential consumers that choose the design, not a select few people ’round a table in London. Which is pretty cool, I must say.

So - go get your creative juices flowing! If you’d like to collaborate with other Cambrian House members, let us know if we can do anything to support you.

To vote on designs, go here

Jeff: we’re here to support you in this busy time as you round the corner to the finish line. We can’t wait for the book. Good luck!

Perhaps you’re familiar with the phrase, “You can’t believe everything you read on the world wide web”. Well its not true. You can believe! But you’d be wrong.

Wikipedia is constantly being altered by people with questionable motives. The White House website keeps removing historic content. And even Cambrian House, that bastion of accountability, has been known to replace spammy forum posts with random insults. Where will it end!?!

<deep voice> It ends at WebDSign… right now! </deep voice>

Or at least once the WebDSign software suite is built.

Natmaka has scoped out (and written a few snippets of code) illustrating how the dynamic content of the web can be sealed with a certificate, alerting readers to any alterations to the quote on the original website, or misquotes on other websites which attempt to replicate the seal.

These snapshots can be commented on and rated in a fashion similar to DIGG or REDDIT, except the commentary can be limited to a portion of a web page (or multiple conversations can be held over independent portions of web pages), and newcomers to the conversation will know what the original snippet looked like when the discussion first started.

WebDSign is also a reputation framework. When you put a seal on web content, comment on a seal or rate its quality and reliability… people are going to want to know how trustworthy you are.

The end result is greater accountability on the web, while preserving anonymity.

Check out Natmaka’s WebDSign PDF slide deck and project summary. Review his idea submission and offer feedback, then consider joining his project team!

Blue and Gord’s Insanely Awesome Favorite Ideas!

• Blue likes: Claim A Date by MarkDykeman
  

  Allow individuals to lay claim to any particular date in history. Certain dates will be free, others will be sold via auction or “buy it now” similar to eBay functionality.

  Why is it awesome? Once you’ve sold all the good dates, launch another site with a different URL and sell them all again! Mwahh hahh hahh hahhh!

• Gord likes: C2Hear by scrollinondubs
  

  C2Hear would be a simple web-based service that offers synchronized subtitle transcripts via mobile phone and enables hearing-impaired individuals to follow the movie dialog in a normal theater.

  Why is it awesome? The viewer is not dependent on any theater’s participation, and neither is scrollinondubs!

• Blue likes: Killer Bees! by Kevin_Cox
  

  For all who fear killer bees the killer bee website is a site that is devoted to killer bees. Unlike other websites that hardy cover killer bees our product is devoted to them entirely.

  Why is it awesome? What part of Killer Bees don’t you understand?!?

Network Solutions is Holding My Domain!

There’s frequent discussions in our community about what is the best domain name for a business, and swapping info on what domain names are available. I’d suggest, if you see a free domain that you know you’ll be wanting in the future a good rule of thumb is: buy it.

If you’re not careful about which site you use to determine if a domain is available, you could return a day later to buy the domain only to find it was acquired automatically by a domain squatting bot. They monitor the domain for traffic, and might just decide to keep it.

And recently Network Solutions (NSI) was found to be “front running” on domain searches. If you use NSI to determine if a domain is free, you’ll find yourself unable to buy the domain from anyone else for 4 days. This can be quite entertaining, as you can now have Network Solutions park on any domain containing trademarked names or tasteless humor you like!

By holding and releasing these domains, NSI has exposed them to domain tasters, and you could find your domain held not just by Network Solutions for 4 days, but by a bona fide domain squatter… permanently!

And if you thought THAT was interesting…

…then do we have a video for you! Natmaka monitors us via Skype as we discuss WebDSign. What he lacks in microphone and webcam hardware he makes up for with rapid touch typing skills!

Also, I have a new shirt.

Until next week: Share your ideas. Rate this week’s ideas…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!

Richexclaim finds the current crop of project management books rather arid so he is crowdsourcing a themed project management book entitled Fiddler on the Project.

Using rich themes of the story and songs of “The Fiddler on the Roof” to convey ideas and principles of Project Management. Create this book collaboratively, using a wiki.

If you’d like to check out Richexclaim’s work so far, and perhaps contribute a chapter, you can head straight to his wiki and pitch in!

Blue and Gord Pick Their Favorite Ideas

• Gord likes: AllRight Plug-In by JuPolimeno
  

  CUnlike the traditional way of selling MP3 or paying huge radio royalty fees our product could offer a way to get money from music trough a unique Pay-Per-Day-Of-Listening basis with the Community saying how much they want to pay.

• Blue likes: Job swap by jobby
  

  A job swap website where people who are annoyed with commuting so far or want to swap jobs are able to browse similar profiles and exchange information with potential job swappers.

Disabled Member of the Week

Is it wrong to steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family? No, of course not.

But what if your family doesn’t like bread. What if, instead, they prefer timely IdeaWarz updates and blogs? Is it wrong to unplug an Ethernet cable from the back of a computer clearly marked “out of service”, copy the IP settings of the broken machine onto your laptop and then prepare to shoot an IdeaWarz video with Blue via webcam?

No, clearly it is not.

And yet here in a 3 star resort in a small fishing village an hour away from Puerto Vallarta (Mexico), I’ve been kicked off the resort’s internet cafe.

I was told by plugging in directly to the network, I had access to the resort’s accounting computers and could create untold havoc. How reassuring! Here let me give you all my credit card numbers!

(Seriously though, it is a lot of fun here. More fun than Cambrian House you ask? MJ doesn’t stand behind a counter all day serving Tequila I respond.)

Until next week: Share your ideas. Rate this week’s ideas…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!