I think the first part is already in place but I LOVE the second one. I wouldn't have to go looking for flyers. I would know what is on sale. The store could add directions to reach the product (in the centre aisle).

This is a great idea!
This is a great video!
I'm impressed with the work you've put into this!
Hurrahmaza!

Thank you, Fell free to vote

Is anyone better at making a logo? I am not lol... That logo is just using word, I will see if I can hop on to a photo shop computer.

i don't think it's viable as a solution to the problem you described in the brief (automatically keep track of new & old business associates) because it's too broad a solution.

essentially you broadcast your contact info on a PAN, with others having the chance of opting out to different degrees (ie limit to contact info, no ads, etc), while being open to receive info from others at the same time.

i'm assuming that the "opting out" thing is in order to thwart spam and/or focus on information that is essential to you.

since spammers are not really conscienscious to begin with, they'll prolly just tag the ads as "firstname/lastname", and suddenly you have an address book full of Mr Pump Dump and L. Argep. Enis.

This goes for any transmissions that you'd like to filter (only certain category of businesses, people active in your area, companies smaller than 15 people, etc), which in the scenario you present is easy to both get around for nefarious reasons, as well as muck up (oops, i put the "city x" info in the "state" info, and was then filtered out because you only were interested in people from city x)

You can of course throw programmers at this and create anti-spam plugins and filtering, but that might be a hard sell if you want a smooth system that unobtrusively keeps track of people. Imagine all the hassle of email, and the trouble people have organising their inboxes (let's assume that you have 99% efficient spam filtering) and which email goes where - the only reason we put up with this is because email is a necessity today.

i imagine coming home and docking the blueberry, and have a list of sixty people popping up. lets assume you're receiving from everyone at a certain event, even people you have nothing in common with, and did not even talk to. that's additional noise that you have to navigate: "did i talk to peter from toadcorp or was that patrick?"
even if you include portraits, you've already said that you don't recall faces well, and the image might be out of date anyhow, and might not help you.

the idea is good, and if you look at the toys and games that work on PAN networks they are interesting and fun (gameboys and whatnots), but they require user interaction and have a very limited purpose (just connect). the connection part isn't difficult, it's how to navigate the information that is transmitted.

a solution that i see to the problem you describe is a brute force approach: at a convention, you might create a local version of this function by creating a file with up-to-date image and personal info & affiliation available as a download to cell-phone / pda / laptop, and then create a simple interface that allows notes to be taken or other input (record a conversation and tie it to the persons convention profile, tick them off of a list of "people i've meat", etc), but this requires a lot of initial work to get a system that would work on many platforms, was unobtrusive to use, and the results of which would readily be accesible on other platforms. in essence it's just a modifiable, highly specialised, directory.

as for the shop idea, it is a neat thing, but that is another project all together (the businessman might go to a meeting turning on bluetooth or wifi, someone just going shopping might not even know how, giving you a limited democraphic) and i think it's not so much a technological issue but rather a practical research into customer behaviour and ROI with your solution vs. in-store ads.

by broadcasting this info only on a LAN, you're not really harnessing the power of the cellphones/berries either - sms/mms ads are already here, and i'm sure best buy already has enough customer info (or the ability to buy it) to be able to do a targeted weekly sms/mms campaign. they might in fact make it default whenever you sign up for a membership card or what have you.

and the objections to spamming and filtering apply here as well.

it's not my intention to spend my first post on being nasty or putting you down, but i think that my objections are valid. i recognise the issue that you describe in your brief, but i'm not sure that you have defined the problem well enough to work on a solution.

cheers

Thank you monocultured, You bring up some really really good points, and I don't have all the answers, but I hope to work with a team (maybe someone like yourself) to over come these obstacles, and create an amazing program.

when it pertains to networking--->
the following does suffice:
-------------
a working blackberry
+
*email signatures*
--------------

Now in the realm of exchanging business card info and downloading flyers like you suggested. Well using bluetooth has its drawbacks and leaving it open to be amassing all that information will lead to a flood of information transmitted to your device. Like monoculture mentioned earlier.

--------------
I had a very similar idea 2 years ago. But instead of BlackBerry, it incorporated transmission of business cards and catalogs via miniature keychains where the information was stored in RFID tags.
I never really embarked on that idea, but i noticed someone capitalized on it. So I guess I was not the only one thinking in that perspective

-------------

btw i am bad with names myself

however I keep a lil note in my "Memo Pad" on my blackberry
and keep track of names as such.

what about a www.classmates.com type website for blackberry users

they can update their information there.
- when you send a link from that website to any user and they add you to their "address book"... then information is extracted from that website.

i know it's vague

Thank you generic_idea_machine, I like a lot of your points. RF business cards are not a new thing my old palm has that function... but you have to pointed the two devices at each other and wait way two long till they exchange the card. It didn't work, but what got my brain thinking of how to make this idea better.

I like your idea of a classmate.com type website for networking... do you mean to send a link to the blackberry that would bring them to the website... this would eliminate the amount of info need to be transfered. making the swap quicker... Am I way off track or is that what you are suggestion?

Thank you generic_idea_machine, I like a lot of your points. RF business cards are not a new thing my old palm has that function... but you have to pointed the two devices at each other and wait way two long till they exchange the card. It didn't work, but what got my brain thinking of how to make this idea better.

I like your idea of a classmate.com type website for networking... do you mean to send a link to the blackberry that would bring them to the website... this would eliminate the amount of info need to be transfered. making the swap quicker... Am I way off track or is that what you are suggesting?

Np dude

Yeh ransfer through RF is cumbersome (in light of what you said).

//I like your idea of a classmate.com type website for networking... do you mean to send a link to the blackberry that would bring them to the website... this would eliminate the amount of info need to be transfered. making the swap quicker... Am I way off track or is that what you are suggestion?//

yep, all blackberry have browsing functionality.

you click on a link

it brings you information about a particular user

When you add them to your "address book" all the other information related to them (phone, website) is added to your address book

Blackberry browsing and some java code can make this happen

This is a really good idea! But wouldnt it be a little expensive to send out all those adds and stuff because the people would always have to be hooked up to the web to recieve this stuff and that would cost alot of money for people... Just my thought :)

Excellent idea and has everyones know, the best ideas comes from real life and real situations.

So, this is for extroverts?

How many people would really welcome stores sending ads to them (the flyers) on a machine they have to pay for - isn't it just like junk faxes?

How many people would broadcast their personal information indiscriminately while wandering around on any given day?

Who pays for all this?

Obviously there are people who really like this idea but as a privacy-loving non-Blackberry user, I would not subscribe to a service like this. Literally, you would have to pay me to take it.

Do you have a big enough market out there? Who is the target customer?

Thanks!

beaty man!

Hey Jill thanks for the comments!

Networking is huge, and thats where I see this being used. But you don't broadcast your info everywhere you go... you selected if that is on or off. I know what you mean I don't want to give my business card to someone I pass at the mall.

with the ad feature that is something that you can control, for me I hate using 411 (directory assistance). I would like to walk though a store that I visit often and have their info in my cell phone so when I am driving around and don't have a phone book I don't have to pay the $1.50 to use 411 (directory assistance).

My target is the business man that is trying to get his name out in the business community. Networking events are really big, and there are a lot of business cards exchanged, I think we could sell Wireless HandShake to them to.

Thanks GL, your intelligent response much appreciated.

As you can tell, it doesn't seem like something I personally would use, but so what! I am trying to see it as a product that would have a natural market.

In controlled environments - e.g. a conference, a lecture hall, a party, an event - it could be a fast upload of tags for everyone who's there and then you could optimize your in-person networking I suppose.

Seems like a geo-based mass e-mail kind of thing. I think it might be a good add-on for conventions and events, for example.

Is there nothing like this now?

Jill that is an amazing idea! you tag your self with this program and at a networking event you say what kind of people you are looking to network with... when you get near someone that has a tag you are looking for it could beep or vibrate to alert you... that means you can network with people you are looking to network with

Jill is that what you mean?

because thats really really interesting!

I think there are similar comments or ideas along this line (the line of tags etc) within CH though to my knowledge I have not directly copied one of them.

What I was thinking is that you could communicate with the people you want to meet, set up your dance card so to speak, mini-appointments, not that formal, like "meet you at the fountain in 10 minutes". The alarm / buzzing mode would be good too, more spontaneous.

Good call Jill

Would you be interested in joining this project?

Jill

I absolutely love the expanded idea you chimed in with...

I've been to quite a few developer conferences over my career, that idea would absolutely take flight. Id be willing to bet there isn't anything like this available today.

Target Market: business professionals [introverts especially]

Revenue Stream: free/subscription based service, free for your first conference, nominal fee for additional conferences and events.

Please keep me posted on this... I want in.

great idea with a exclusive videos

Just to throw another spin of this into the mix.. Imagine if you were able to just display a barcode, or special symbol of sorts, use te photograph feature to capture it - and then download the information of the person, by translating the image, or barcode, to the data in an online database?

Also, if you were to just have an electronic device, to collect, and transmit your preprogrammed information, then when you meet people who you want to exchange information with, instead of sharing business cards, you could just swipe your cards together, and they would be able to "communicate" the data between each other by being brought into close contact with each other.. Like security passes, that just get tapped onto a console...

Then you could store a few hundred people's information at an event, and then just download their data, in digital format, directly into your addressbook...

I really could not decide but I voted for it anyway.

I think this is a few ideas in one, and it might be better to split them apart, because they would have a different target market.

1. Contact info between business associates
2. Info from (and to?) stores and such
3. My addition -- people you meet, or whom you'd like to meet socially

No. 1 is the closest to your original idea and problem that you want to solve. But some of the same aspects could apply, especially to No. 3.

As someone else brought up, most people wouldn't want to broadcast their info. A couple of people brought up ways to narrow down the number of "handshakes."

Here's another possible way to do so: some kind of tag system. People could tag themselves and also limit which tags they would accept.

Conceivably, to cut the potential for spam, each person would be limited to some number of tags.

WOW

A lot of comments, a lot of good comments! Can I ask how many people would buy this?

I don't know any of the people involved and just try to look at the ideas based on their strength and weakness.

I think people that are in marketing may like this idea. But most people, to be honest, don't want anyone that they don't know to blast ads into their devices.

I unfortunately will not want this service and will in fact consider it as spam.

Again, GL, I hope you don't get offended by my comment.

You have been able to exchange vcards by Bluetooth for years so the core of this is in place.

The software needed to spray the business card out woudl just be a variant of a Bluejacking script or one of the Bluetooth chat programmes.

The problem I see is the scatter gun approach, leave this on accidentally and you will be broadcasting details everywhere.

My preference would be a java script for my phone that automated the card exchange via bluetooth, saving me the tap tap tap scan tap tap code tap tap tap code that I need to do to swap cards now. One screen click to say i want to swap cards, an automated scan, on click to choose the device I am swapping with. The device then exchaneg data and file the data in a predetermined area of the memeory.

The challenge is making this compatible with all handsets.

If an online tie up is wanted, then Plaxo woudl seem to be most logical.

Forgot to spell check and add that there are several blue tooth advertising solutions e.g. : http://www.bluetooth-advertising.co.uk/

The idea is great. I agree the SNS aspect and retail should be split. I worked at Classwave wireless where we developed a mobile services platform that enabled such applications. Back then in 2000, the idea was you would walk into a hotel with a BT-enabled PDA and could checkin from the handheld device and go straight to your room. We were in early trials with a major hotel chain at the time. The concept also included walking by a store, seeing what specials there were etc. Some of the challenges were long connection times with associating two BT devices but that may not be a big issue now.

I had a similar idea on the networking side back in 2002 when I was coming up with my concepts for social networking tools. My idea was that my handheld would have a some pre-set information and my photo but not my contact information, nor name, maybe just a handle. This way private informatin

The idea was to find others closeby with which I have common ground. For example, we went to the same high school, we come from the same hometown, we share a hobby or an interest, etc. On the far end the software would search my network and those participating in the service and find those people in the crowd who I am only seperated by one or two degrees by searching our contact lists. Once there was a match the devices would play the same audio file or you could chat with each other and arrange to meet at a specific spot.

The important thing in networking is to establish relationships not just collect contacts. Part of establishing a relationship is to quickly find some common ground, shared passion, etc.

If I'm at a networking function or conference, I really don't want to meet everyone. You could easily extend your idea to include a preset list of interests, hobbies, etc. and match in that way.

Back in 1998 in Japan, they came up with the lovegetty which allowed people to find others with similar interests in close proximity.

There are wireless tag companies that I looked at several years ago. I cannot recall the name but they were providing short-range wireless tags for finding people with similar interests at a trade show/conference.

Here are a few links in the area of wireless badges which may help to extend the idea:

http://ttt.media.mit...arch/276badgeocg.pdf
http://www.cs.duke.e...es/12-app-social.pdf
http://www.aeroscout.com/
http://www.expansys.ca/p.aspx?i=136538
http://www.boston.co...ess_badges_supplier/

Another item to add is that once you've established contact with someone, provide the ability to quickly tag them and add brief notes. This is the most important thing, most people do it on the back of printed business cards today. For example, 'divorced, 2 kids, grew up Ottawa, loves tennis, watches Survivor. send info on new tennis club, kids party place'

The beauty of your approach using your existing device is that you don't need anything extra, just software and a BT-enabled device.

Great video and great idea!

I'm looking forward to help refine it if you move forward. One of my strengths is in analysis and coming up with a good definition of what needs to be built.

Hit submit too soon, the second paragraph should end "This way private information is not being broadcast to everyone in the area. Doing that opens up huge issues and could be a show stopper for this idea. Instead, once a social connection / initial relationship is established, you can share the vCard/phone numbers/email address. Just like if you're at a club trying to pick someone up. You chat first and then exchange phone numbers later. Oops, I guess today it's email addresses or IM IDs these days, I'm showing my age ;)

Another note. I always try to get a photo of people because I'm also challenged with remembering names. I have over 3,800 contacts (not relationships) and have a hard time remembering who is who.

Most cell phones and now blackberries have cameras on them so the ability to quickly take/share/associate a photo with the person could be an extension. In business networking events, at least in N.A., I don't think it's socially acceptable to take someone's photo but I would love it if I could take a photo of each person I met!

I would not want anyone spamming me by BT. It wouldn't mind the idea if someone wanted to do it and I agreed to it, but not wide open. BTW, did you know all 72xx series RIMs have a bidirectional IR interface but the software never used it? Dunno about current models such as Pearl or Curve - as BT would seem t be the way to go...

GL: I too have thought of something like this with a little twist. I cant program or such but I would like to be on the team. Rah!

Why restrict the idea to just a software for cells, etc. Maybe its own device?

Also, I see the classmate thing.

I love this idea and you have my vote.

The main reason why you can not do this.
The FCC has regulations over cell phones and there are many other legal restrictions.

I like it.. but I would be scared of spam and tracking info.

]V[oogy

Actually, Kevin Cox is wrong. If a cell phone has FCC approval, then anything done with it's certified compliant software and radio protocol stack, including Bluetooth is fair game. Some cell companies even left the BT in promiscuous mode by accident! It's just software - and the the application level - it is not illegal.

http://www.favorgoods.com offers enormous variety of world's leading brand sporting goods at rock bottom prices, we provide with the customers worldwide Qulity goods, Free shipping, and Quick delivery.

Good idea.
I do not know if the sales or subscriber payment infos has been brought up , but an interesting thing of this project is to me the possibility to partner with all kind of companies having an activity , something to sell -;), in the geogrophical locations the eventual contact establishes : ads by nearby mc donald's or WH enabled spots/logos in restaurants / places that have free wifi spots (for bluebooth no needed of course...).

What about adding this service into a GPS based existing solution also, click on Wireless Handshake (or the alternative GPS Handshake) in order to provide some social or business networking choice event ?

Nice idea anyway.

Strange how technology makes it easier to connect with someone half way around the world than it does to meet your neighbor.

Nice one!!

Thanks Firefox

I like your idea GL...seems interesting. I also have amnesia with names! lol

This idea is great and very helpful in a businessworld where we meet different people from different places. The tendency is that we would have very hard time in figuring someone whom we've met before.

With the possible emergence of this technology, I bet most if not all of the businessmen would really go for this. Good luck to GL!

Even though I not a blueberry user, I can see the usefulness of this idea. I travel frequently and am amazed by who I end up sitting beside. This type of technology would make waiting in an airport potentially very productive.

well i like it it's much more easy for biz man build relationship with others particularly as Jill pointed in some specific party or conference.

Nice idea GL,
I have to say everyone is talking about this 2nd part the idea about stores and flyers, but I must be missing something because I dont see it in your idea write up... did I miss something?

Okay, I am in Marketing/Customer Relations and this is something I have kicked around myself as an idea... well a version of the "shop" idea, but i like the networking idea of this..

Just one thing first, i feel that this is a ton of info to send and receive for units and it would be a great deal more efficient if your idea had people store their info on a website and sent a link to it rather then all of the info, then you can get permission to access whatever level of it later. And the idea od being able to add notes when saving is both a great one and vital.

I agree that you very much need to divide the ideas, focus on one and make it great then work on the next....my advice is stick to the networking model.
The only thing is, for the "store" idea to work it would have to be managed a great deal more then the straight networking. I sincerly believe this because you meet them and you either want to get info or you don't, but when it comes to business marketing, it has SOOOO many facets and viables that change per person, per business, per city, per day of the week...etc etc etc.
Marketing a store or product when it is simplified and not thought out becomes things that we all hate "spam".... unwanted information that pisses us all off.
Marketing of a product or service that is thought out, positioned properly and "desire" or "need" driven is now consumable and welcomed

I think a very well designed Marketing tool, that would be third party driven would do very well. It would be up to the Marketing company to make people comfortable enough and desire the products enough to "turn on" the function on their MDA's and phones, but this will take a lot of work and constant monitoring to move with the consumers.

Hello hichriso

Thanks for the comment. This idea has changed from the original one I submitted, originally one of the main pilers of the idea was to allow stores and other marketing company's to send info the uses. I got ride of that side of the business because I of the comments from the community.

Are there any bluetooth experts here? I think this idea is a worthy goal, but I SUSPECT bluetooth doesn't let device-to-device communication without an explicit OK from the owners. Is it possible to transfer data between 2 not-yet-introduced devices?

If not... maybe when a roaming bluetooth device is spotted (but no access granted) the NAME of it is checked against a web db, to see what the tags are. So you have to give your bluetooth a GUID name. Certainly the list of nearby bluetooth device NAMES can be accessed by an app?

I don't beleive directly in a lot of automatically ifno you send and can receive. You need a quality dialogue in the end.

Maybe a more nice feature is to be able to set your mobile in the status: "I'm open for a conversation" Now when you go into a lunchroom, you can find easily the persons who are free and in for a conversation and let the blue tooth scan which is persons has the matching tags before you ask to to take a sit somewhere.

To get round the problem of spammers, too many contacts, etc discussed above, what's wrong with simply popping up a message asking me if I want to accept a card from someone? Admittedly it's less automatic and less natural to use, but if it's well-done it might still be of benefit to some people.

Hmm - re-reading my post, it's not obvious how what I suggest is any different to the business card feature most phones come with anyway. With my suggestion the SENDING would be automatic but the RECEIVING would not. As a further refinement, hopefully the phone would be able to collect new cards for review in a spare moment rather than requiring immediate attention, in the same way that I can deal with missed calls at my convenience.

PhilipH I would like to note that the idea has now changed to adapted your input. Originally this was included but I must have deleted it sorry.

This idea is viable to developed countries only.

I don't want to read al these comments....

Marketing: yes that is correct, and I do not know why you would think this idea is for poor Ethiopian children?

On my Trio I can all ready send my contact information on my smartphone as a business card and send it wirelessly to other devices using infrared or Bluetooth.

"If a cell phone has FCC approval, then anything done with it's certified compliant software and radio protocol stack, including Bluetooth is fair game."
Also, my FCC comment was about maliciously interfering with the communications of cell phones. You are talking about a completely different barrel of apples.

i like this...you certainly got my 5 stars!

just a quesiotn...what was the big difference this idea have improved since your first try?

Melissa_G:
Originally this idea focused more on the business card and marketing (it would send out marketing info as you walked into a store) side of things. Based on the input from the community the idea has evolved to be more of a networking TAGing tool. So the core of the idea is still there but its different from what people may have read before.
Now thats not to say we may not look at the retail marketing thing down the road but for right now, I am working on the TAGing.

monocultured said everything that I was thinking (and a whole lot more, he made some really good points) but I just wanted to add that I don't think I would appreciate this service. It's not that it isn't a decent idea, its just that I am still trying to figure out how to use my treo in the best ways. Adoption by large groups of people doesn't seem possible at this time.

Here is how to do this on the Treo Entreprenew

First make a business card:
1: Add a new contact with your own information.
2: Save this contact information as a business card.

Then to send it:
1: Go to the business card entry in your phone book.
2: Open the expanded menu.
3: Go to the record menu then go to select business card.
4: Go to beam business card from the record menu.

You can also just go to beam card if you have it as default.

Thanks for that G_L - hearing that my comments have been some use makes writing them all seem just that little bit more worthwhile! :-D

hope this idea will win the weekly round...

5 stars for you again!! you have lots of ideas in this round...huh!

Good luck then...

I apologize. I'm new. It says at the top "Winner of the Friendly Giant Tournament" does that mean this idea has already won ?

Xroll Idea Warz use to have a different formate. Ideas were selected to appear in each round, this idea got to the semi finals. It didn't win.

Anyways how is this different then what my Trio and many other phones can all ready do?

Gods_Light, I resubmitted this to IdeaWarz for ANDROID specific brainstorming. ANDROID allows you to broadcast your location data directly to other ANDROID users, or to a site which can consolidate data. AND control over BlueTooth is granted. So people in general vicinity can be detected, and then when you are very close to them, BlueTooth could kick in.

Such capabilities could either be used to have direct friends connect ("Hey we know each other, are in same airport, and bored out of our minds!"), friends of friends or people with mutual interests meet up ("You hate circus midgets! So do I!").

But I think that is going to be a bit obvious. Gods_Light, your automated biz-card swap is different.

Jill's suggestion of having an app automatically sort nearby people looking to meet in priority, so that meeting people at a convention type situation can be organized to best meet everyones needs.

whoyouknow has a good suggestion of taking photos to help remember who's who. I'd suggest facial recognition software might help you identify someone from the photos stored on your phone (if you are only trying to recognize from a collection of 300 photos, then automatically presenting user with 5 closest matches might be viable). That could be a last-ditch effort to remember someone who is not running this app themselves, as if they were they should already have been identified for you.

Gods_Light, I wasn't too keen on this idea before, but that was because I didn't believe access to all the necessary features on a phone to make this idea practical were available. It may be upcoming devices will allow control over GPS data, Bluetooth and camera. So I'd like to reconsider this idea with that in mind.

Very practical and useful idea. I can see people using this, good luck!

I think this idea focus in business people, so it stands out from basic friend finder.

In the context of a more open OS, this could be achievable and very useful, however, it's still at the mercy of Android's limitations. I like this has more substance than most of the other re-defined Android suggestions.

That was meant to say, "I think this has more....."

Curse you lack of edit button....curse you.

In addition to what Goosie said about "I am open for conversation" I would like to suggest an Incognito button. That way, if you want to protect your privacy and be some place without every one knowing about your presence, you could click on the Incognito to All button.

Also, you could have an Incognito to Ads, Incognito to Business Acquantances, Incognito to Friends buttons.

When you meet a friend, both of you could hit the Incognito to All button and enjoy a private conversation.

So, you are just Bluejacking? or Is this now yet another social network?

I read about half-way through the comments but wanted to get my thoughts (and vote) down before I had to leave. First off I think it is a great idea...

In addition to some of the feedback I think another piece of the puzzle is the ability to immediately relate the newly added 'contact' with the event in your calendar or lacking such a thing prompt for an event. Personally I meet a great deal of people and though they may be present in my address book that point of reference on when I met them is key to having an inspired conversation with them later. Think of it as a journaling feature that perhaps can be turned on and off.

GREAT IDEA!!! Good Luck!!!

Gordon Mcdowell comments gave me more careful consideratin to weigh my vote...
from the merits of this IDEA against the other I can only give 3 stars.

ภาคว�'ชาว�'ทยาศาสตร์ประยุกต์และสังคม ว�'ทยาลัยเทคโนโลยีอุตสาหกรรม สถาบันเทคโนโลยีพระจอมเกล้าพระนครเหนือ = 2stars พนักงานมหาว�'ทยาลัย

2pts.อาจารย์

I though I would look up the layman's definition for Bluejacking. To better explain my post above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluejacking

People spend a ton of money trying to date. The #1 application in my mind to begin with is dating. People would pay for the service to not miss out on any opportunities. Invite me to work on this! I got tons of ideas.

Check this out:

http://www.bluelon.com/index.php?id=117&backPID=115&tt_news=46' target='_blank'>http://www.bluelon.c...=115&tt_news=46

http://www.bluelon.com/

These guys are either close to doing this idea - or are doing it. Even so, that doesn't mean you cannot do it better!

Chris

I've read most, but not all of the above and think the idea is great! The no. of posts generated makes me believe the idea is a worthy one. The concerns re. unsolicited communications are valid and we can see that illustrated in the comments above. Be it BT, WiFi, or whichever other wireless protocol, the problem needs consideration... I don't believe these to be insurmountable though. For example imagine the application on your phone (running in the background) is configured to receive only information that you have requested. ie. you are going to the mall in search of 'tennis balls.' Before you leave you enter 'tennis balls' into the search field in the program. When you arrive at the mall and walk past the sports shop your phone alerts you to the availability of 'tennis balls' nearby. Further to this you have thereby allowed 'particular' rather than 'general' access to your radio and wont receive "spam". The idea could of course be expanded to include many items that you are looking for (and these might turn up in places where you might not think to look). More, the same approach might apply to persons you are happy to meet (ie. those in your address book). You may not be aware of their close proximity but your phone is! Location based services like this are about to boom...Great, get on it!

So, GodsLight are there any updates, it would be nice to hear back.

I've seen a number of attempts at such a service fall apart in the past. I personally think it was due to underdeveloped technology at the time, and lack of other users to encounter.
Regardless of what I just said, keep in mind that people are still talking about the viability and showing strong interest in it, so it seems to be a matter of doing it right, and the user-base being wide-spread enough to make it work.

Example: I used livejournal for five years because it worked well and was easily customizable and was constantly being developed. The point that I switched exclusively to MySpace is when I recognized it was much much easier to identify the people that I wanted to connect with, even though I was, and have continually been over the past two years, very frustrated at how poorly designed and coded MySpace is.

Social networking works when there are significant numbers of people to connect with. People are willing to pay for services when they can use them without having to think about how. So find the people, make it exceptionally easy to use, and iron out the downfalls that those before you have faced and it can work - because there are still people clamoring for such a feature/service.

A link and some comments for reference:
http://socialsoftwar...ooth-to-make-friends
The article references 'Serendipity' created by MIT Grad student, Nathan Eagle. His project utilized Mobule.com, which he created, to host the cards and relevant matching information. There was a lot of press on this in mid-2004, but as of today, and several months ago when I first discovered his project (also having remembered that such a concept was popular in Japan nearly a decade ago) , this project doesn't seem to be active in any sense.

You should search for articles with interviews of Eagle's ideas, there was one I explicitly remember about the spark for the concept, where he recognized, after several weeks of needing help on a project, that someone he was already regularly encountering was knowledgeable in the area he was needing help in.

Also, on the privacy front... read this article. It absolutely blew my mind on privacy issues. I would consider it a required read for the endeavor you're planning out.
The Intelligent Convention - by Theresa L Ford - http://www.cattail.nu/convention.html

the idea is great!
it would be better to categorize & schedule the tags as say you are in a conference & you recieve onle those you need.secondly scheduling helps to go with your plan of work.

You can also try micoformats (microformats.org)to be incorporated into this it will bring you more options of adoption & usage across mediums.

the point you need to consider is how you will scale the idea above bluetooth chat,friend fiender etc.

the idea is great!it would be nice to hear back. http://www.tiffanylife.com/

This is a good idea but the execution is risky like said earlier. Blasting ads at people will be a sure turn off as it is almost transparent that it is really only to make you and your team money because of the deals that have to be made with the companies that are allowed to advertise through your model. One thing that might be interesting as a solution to that would to have only targeted advertising based on either a persons contacts or the places they visit. In order to do that though you have to consider two things...1.) the sheer volume of advertisers that would be needed and 2.) the amount of people that would have to actually have the device. To market the device to people you would have to have an equal balance of people you meet/ads you could benefit from. Go heavy on either side of that and you'll scare people away.

As a bit of an aside- perhaps you should sync up with the US government and incorporate this into the National ID card. Sad to say but this is where we're headed and the question I pose is "did you see that Will Smith movie?" Just some things to think about.

Very well thought out idea though and for that I will tip my hat at you.

Havent read all the posts above, so my apologies if this is redundant...

http://www.zurado.com/

The link above may be able to do proof of concept. They only limitation is their current model is running on windows media devices only.

Havent read all the posts above, so my apologies if this is redundant...

http://www.zurado.com/

The link above may be able to do proof of concept. They only limitation is their current model is running on windows media devices only.

this sounds like a really good idea

I really like this idea.. sounds like you got a good idea with this one :)

wow..i just posted a similar idea before seeing this..i can see that this is already hot discussion topic..i want to add some of my ideas here as well for discussion

- A website where we would store a users' business cards electronically.
To do this either the user scans his cards and takes a picture from his phone and would email to us. We would use some character recognition to save the contact details electronically.

- Users can go online and change their details (change in ph no etc) and that would change with everyone in their network.

As far as proximity networking using any PAN is concerned we could some *digital signatures* which would be assigned to you once you register with our website..so when you use a Bluetooth for *handshaking* you will be looking for these signatures..once those matches then a transfer would take place

Great idea, perhaps the technology needs to have its kinks worked out and it may work through an entirely different process than originally conceived.

What matters to me is the simplicity of the idea and the instant recognizability if it worked the way one would like.

Perhaps storing info on a web profile and connecting it with a gps enabled phone. That way you could just browse "who's near me" and see little dots of the people around you at the airport who might be worth approaching for an airport concourse-style conversation.

I think I saw a "dating profile" product that broadcast within a certain distance for strangers to connect in bars in NYC, featured on that Dragon's Den show...

I think I saw a "dating profile" product that broadcast within a certain distance for strangers to connect in bars in NYC, featured on that Dragon's Den show...

Hey. My first comment on the website. I like the idea or parts of it:) Actually, I think that the possibility to navigate a shop is cool. Now, I may be suggesting something that already exists, but:
Why don't we get away from the cell phone concept. Imagine a wireless enabled shopping cart, which lets you navigate around the shop. Yes, the shopping carts will need to be buffed up, but with current state of technology this may not be so expensive. You key in the stuff you want to buy into your wirless enabled shopping cart and it leads your way to finding the stuff. Of course it also pops up with suggestions to buy other things as one goes. This may not be great for buyers, but could be interesting for the stores. One can use the same tagging scheme as suggested by your idea. For example "sweater, warm, natural, size XL". It can also consult on a specific good if you just key in the code. For example: you key in the code and it let's you know whether any more of your size of that good is available or different color. Let's the shops save on consultants:) Did I go in a wrong direction?

Brendan,
I very much like this idea, and think it has some legs to it. Dividing up your original idea and not being afraid to put off part of it after feedback from the group shows a real willingness to go with the flow. My own idea is somewhat related, (in part anyway) to the abandoned piece, and the piece you are keeping central is a winner. I liked Jill's input earlier about conventions...perhaps the end users aren't your real customers here, and the conventions are? Instead of selling the system, you lease it out to conventions as a means for them to ease networking for their constituents. The idea of using for speed dating in a specific venue is also worth pursuing...again, lease the system to the venue, (bar, nightclub etc.) You could even add in a ranking/voting mechanism for the users to pick their best matches...or have the system do it with some sort of heuristics on the back end based on the profiles of the users at the gathering. I would be interested in working on this idea in some capacity...I have experience as a enterprise software product manager at a company that built an IT Asset lifecycle management system...not exactly in the same space, but the mechanics of the job are similar...

cool idea gl

I think this is a great idea! You don't need to go very far to locate like minded people in a crowd. It'll sure cut down alot of time.