I want a service that would:

Do an automatic podcast or a one-click podcast of what you deem worth (by subject/object/group tagging, attributes searc, social/historical/geographical belonging, topics tree parsing and popularity/voting) to my handheld. I pay a subscription fee, but i'm a happy commuter. And guess what, my monthly flat payment, covers the licensing and copyright fees as well (ergo the business plan).

Love your thinking Deckard, obviously a fellow commuter. Happy to thrash out some ideas with you.

Since much of the world's info is already "webified" basically having an "intelligent agent" running all the time collecting predefined information and delivering to our PC, smartphone, whatever... is most definitely doable.

The web is designed for users to 'pull' info from servers to our desktops. The web pushes content to us when we subscribe to sites, blogs etc.. usually in the form of email.

this could be the next 'big idea'. so how do i help??

"Thinking about how i would love a daily newspaper that was specific to me but didn't have to read it online (could read it on the bus)."

I like this part better then your idea itself. more focusing on the news. I wouldn't want to print it myself, but if I could go to a some place that sells news paper and I could go there and show them my ID or give them my personal number and they would be able to print that on the fly for me. That would be great.

this would mean this site has to make a deal with a shop that sells newspapers. But it could work. The 'edge' is that you take it offline, I think the market is not so crowded over there. You might even find a newspaper to partner with. They have money and have trouble dealing with the new media world, so they'll try 'anything' :).

I would like an automatically printing blog and news digest. So, the application would configure my PC and printer to wake up at 7:00 AM, print out recent blog posts and news stories (and advertisements) from my favorite blogs and newspapers. As you said, for reading on the bus.

I'd love to help develop the concepts for the to-do list portion of this app / site / service. There should be categorized ez-forms that include everything from birthdays to reminders for when to perform basic home maintenance tasks. Ads or links to sponsor's sites included in each form or as a facet of your daily to-do list could help generate revenue. Many sites, like 1800Flowers do this already, but in separate emails and only if you give them that info.

I stay pretty focused on work most of the time, so that's why I'm so intent on something that would help me manage this portion of my life. I was going to submit a separate entry, but the concept seems to work well with your idea - which also happens to be positioned well in the rankings at the moment =p

I have had www.myyahoo.com customized for years and there I receive the news that I want from a list of media that I have chosen. I access it from my cell phone too.

Lately, I've expanded this by using the RSS features of my browser.

Maybe I am not getting the differential point of the idea fully. Can you explain more?

Hey Robby - you bagged me on the other idea for responding and then ask me to respond here :)

Differential aspects
Program can collate/print pages not otherwise provided to start-up pages (yahoo, netvibes, pageflakes) like details from your website statistics (things requiring a log-in)

Emphasis on delivery systems not otherwise well-formulated at the moment - i.e., decent print format (daily print out) or podcast (aka deckard's idea).

Emphasis on print archiving (be able to print summaries from previous days, weeks etc)

Daily summary automatically generated and printed each day (including those pages requiring a log-in)

In the future, I imagine this expanding to be able to produce a monthly magazine - made up entirely of self-relevant content.

Hope this clears it up a bit. There isnt really a huge leap from existing start-pages to what I am talking about. The fundamental new component is the publishing aspect. I dont want to spend my life on the computer checking every single page I like. But I am happy to read a summary while I am on the bus everyday, be able to make scribbles and notes on it. I still paper and notepads a lot and this functionality cannot be replaced on the computer for me.

I think this is an idea that has been born out of necessity :).
Hoping this one makes it through!

my.yahoo.com.

What's this "offline" thing people are always talking about?

Definition:

Offline is where I would like to spend more time.

Yes, my.yahoo.com and all the other start pages have taken care of the web version of this. This idea is about delivering content in alternative means, print, PDA, podcast (deckard). Print media is not dead and I would much rather receive updates in ways that I can read on the bus or listen to on a walk. Sitting in front of this infernal machine saps life.

Yep, I want it..

I hope it will also include recent comments from the forums have posted... as well as threads I have started.

It'll also be nice if it'll keep track of the score of a CH idea, or Threadless submission, and other similar ever-changing internet things.

voted it up.

what my Dad wants is a cell phone that rings, you answer, you talk, period.

similarly, a service like this could have a version for people who are not interested in programming machines. very very very user-friendly interface. no, it's not the interface for everyone, and certainly not for this crowd. but (shock, horror) there is a market out there for people who don't like mucking about with yahoo and such like. (this would just be one variation on your overall product).

wish this board had an edit function.

I was comparing my Dad and his desire for a simple cell phone to the newsprinting service you proposed here PsychSplash.

My point being that if this product you propose had as an option a super-simple user interface, it would de-mystify the technology and thus broaden the market to make people like my Dad interested in using it.

Sorry I was not clear first time. Cheers & good luck with the idea.

may the road rise to meet you my cambrian brother.

This idea really is just my.yahoo.com or google's personalized homepage or netvibes or etc etc etc

I think if the idea were just creating print copies of RSS feeds it would be a better idea because it hasn't already been done(that I know of).

I can't see us making anything simpler to use than my.yahoo.com If you don't know what rss is and can't copy the feed into my.yahoo.com then you probably don't want to read what comes in an RSS feed either.

Hi Techguy - the emphasis of the idea is on delivery systems that are different such as printing/podcast, mobile, email pdf. I agree that the core system is the same as my.yahoo netvibes etc. I have used those services for quite a while and developed the idea based on those models.

If the interface simply requires users to mark which sites they want to keep updated on, then they do not need to know anything about RSS or loading a feed. It is like adding a site to your favourites but instead of actively having to visit it again, it is added to your "print" list.

RSS is dry and lifeless - someone needs to bring some life to the medium

PsychSplash!
You really do understand what an intelligent agent's main job could be! Now, what if your secretary, on top of her summary job, would also help me make sense of all the data that will have been collected? Uncover underlying schemes, current trends, emerging ideas, wisdom of the crowds, ... Kudos to you!
I have this Gahlaiba idea which could be a perfect companion to your project. How about merging them?
Cheers,
jmm403

I checked out my.yahoo.com again. If you use my.yahoo.com you don't have to know anything about RSS feeds. In fact, the rss feed is a small link on the site. All you have to do is browse through a list of categories (or even most popular) to get info on the my yahoo page.

Turning a blog or feed into a podcast is available from a few websites like: http://www.talkr.com
http://www.feed2podcast.com
I'm not sure if those technologies can be leveraged to work with multiple feeds or how that would work, but seeing how this technology might help see how sites could be changed to multimedia.

I'm a little confused, because this is labeled as "new" but everything appears to be six months old.

I'm not sure "online secretary" is a clear description.

For instance, I think of a secretary as someone who helps with my appointments.

cool so hows it going? any service up yet?