Hello!

There are certain things out there… on the internet. Things you do not want to see… ever.

And any one of them could be waiting for you at the other end of a hyperlink! Its a wonder people still have the guts to click any more… but a solution has been proposed by Interviewables!

We have Digg, we have Reddit, we have Stumbleupon, etc. All of these sites and extensions were created to bring the good and relevant sites to the top. But what is also needed is a way to tag the bad sites and bury (or Berry) them.

Create an extension for Firefox and IE that will allow a user to tag a site or page as bad. They would be voting to have the site buried (or Berried). Of course it would be up to the site owner to remove it or not.

Interviewables imagines groups of like-minded people tagging objectionable sites. By installing the toolbar, and trusting such a group, a user can be alerted visually when any link on their page leads to objectionable content.

Google wants relevant data that people actually want to see. That’s why pages from Digg and Stumbleupon rank so well. Our data will offer the same only in reverse. Between Digg, Stumble, and Berryit, the web might actually begin to resemble something worthwhile.

BerryIt is imminently do-able (compared to telco infrastructure plays and Ann Coulter). Open source libraries already exist for constructing browser plug-ins, and sites such as del.icio.us have already collected reams of tagging data. This means the browser plug-in can rely on Del.icio.us tagging data for now (via their API). A functional prototype could be constructed by focusing on the browser the plug-in.

Yay for immediate gratification of front-end user-experience coding!

If you’d like to work with Interviewables on this project, join his team or drop him a line.

Favorite Ideas - IScenic.tv and something by threeg5

• IScenic.tv by Vancouverbluz
  

  take life casting and to turn it into scenic explorer tv. A crew will go hiking into the Grand Canyons many trails while putting everything on video.

  Blue thinks there might be some compelling opportunities for interactivity in the final product, depending on the technology used to perform the video capture. I believe there’s no barrier to entry when shooting travel footage, so consider videotaping your next trek.

• TV Game Show Type Reality by threeg5
  

  You are hunted by “X” number of people. A helper has the “eyes” of the hunters (because they have cameras on them) and can aid you in navigation. There are boundaries and a big prize at the end. If people want to see the hunted they watch on TV and if they want to see each individual hunter/helpers view they can do so via the web.

  Blue never got to speak as once I started talking about it I just wouldn’t shut up. She might have liked it too, who can tell?

These ideas and more are discussed, while to struggle to be…

Keeping it Real

Just ask Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Todd Courtnage or Brad Pitt: It’s not easy keeping your ego in check when you’re idolized by millions!

Recently I got a chance to ask Sarah Blue how, despite all her fans and wealth, she manages to stay so grounded. Her response?

“No autographs.”

Until next week: Share your ideas. Give us your precious, precious feedback… Take a look through Cambrian House Bazaar and Forums for projects to participate in…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!

Hot on the heels of Cambrian House community member EpiPenner’s “BeeGone” (the beehive mismanagement software suite) comes Scoobie’s proposal for yet another beekeeping app. But the goal of this software is to keep the bees healthy.

Crazy?
 
I thought so too, until I discovered a whole subculture of “beekeepers”. Instead of screaming and running at the sight of a honeybee, these fools actually allow bees to form “colonies” in hives. Why? Well it is their belief that under the proper conditions, bees will produce the golden substance which we all know as honey.

Well you and I both know honey comes from a supermarket, not a magical “beehive”. But before you completely shut the door on this madness, consider these facts:

• Hobbyist beekeeping is becoming more and more popular. By the year 2037, it is predicted to have more practicing members than Scientology!
   
• Beekeepers must keep their hive healthy, or the hive will attack in anger! In the worst case, the queen itself will emerge from the hive and battle the beekeeper to the death.
   
• The cost of supporting software sold to a stung-to-death beekeeper is zero dollars.

Scoobie says the existing beekeeping software doesn’t meet his expectations. Existing software is either too expensive, out of date, or no longer supported. This is an opportunity created by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a recent phenomenon where bee colonies suddenly disappear.

Unpollenated crops and unmet demand for honey are the immediate impact of CCD. Because beehives (on average) operate less efficiently due to CCD, there is a need for more hives and so more beekeepers.

Tom Cruise, take note!

If you’re interested in helping identify or prioritize features, assist writing a design document or get your hands dirty doing good old software development, then offer to join Scoobie’s Beekeeping Software project!

Scoobie Skypes In

Scoobie was extremely helpful in the creation of this week’s IdeaWarz video, going so far as to shoot footage of his hives!

Until next week: Share your ideas. Give us your precious, precious feedback… Take a look through Cambrian House Bazaar and Forums for projects to participate in…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!

Did you know paper receipts are responsible for more rain forest destruction and CO2 emissions than the entire coffee and mining industries combined? It is truly staggering!

“I had no idea!” you say.

“That’s a lot of destruction…” you ponder.

“Is that even true?” you ask.

No, it isn’t true. But it sounds plausible. Especially if you read it really quickly and move on.

Beyond that, paper receipts are filling our nations wallets with space that could be occupied by cold, hard, cash! And then… when you finally need to expense those receipts you’ve been carrying around… they’re vanished! The Receipt Fairy’s expense account knows no bounds.

Rather than hunting down and exterminating The Receipt Fairy, Interviewables proposes bypassing paper receipts entirely. A central database would be populated via updates from enhanced POS terminals. Certainly once the receipt line items were centralized, all manner of mutually beneficial services could be provided to both customers and marketers.

Inverviewables sees creation of the receipt line item tracking service as the first step towards adoption.

A merchant isn’t going to want this on his own. There will need to be a need from the consumer to push this.

Identifying the chicken-and-egg challenges, and mapping out incentives for each party will be key to upgrading such a significant chunk of infrastructure. Certainly if there is a compelling reason for customers, merchants and POS vendors to participate before the system is widely adopted, eventually the system will be widely adopted.

To help Interviewables build the tracking service, implement a 3rd party POS module, or even help map out how each party in a sales transaction can be encouraged to participate, head on over to No More Paper Receipts and chime in!

Blue and Gord Like Stuff

Rock Band, front row seats, cute little kittens… and good ideas! (Also, Blue likes cheese. But for the purpose of this blog entry, we’ll focus on ideas.)

• Caraoke by dotcomcowboy
  

  An easy to install, aftermarket car audio system that includes either an integrated LCD or AV Outputs that would allow you to connect it to an in-vehicle LCD display.

  Blue believes this is intended for car passengers, as it would be unsafe to drive while reading lyrics. Gord believes so long as an air-guitar is not incorporated into game play, the game would have acceptable survival rates.

• Crowd Sourced Magazine by zer0
  

  With all the bloggers, photographers and design artists available on the web something truly amazing could be created, something to rival traditional magazines. A real paper magazine. Something I could show to people and say I had a part in this, instead of some cryptic web address they probably wont ever visit.

  While reading up on this, Gord compared it to Checoslovaco’s idea Wiki Word Networks which is a plan to pull together infrastructure to enable endeavors such as Crowd Sourced Magazine possible.

Lockdown, Construction and Tow Trucks

Think only homeless people and prostitutes stand around on sidewalks? Not true! Video bloggers are often known to “hang out” on sidewalks when a conference call occupies their orange couch.

Until next week: Share your ideas. Give us your precious, precious feedback… Take a look through Cambrian House Bazaar and Forums for projects to participate in…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!