100 Days Of Ideas

Wow. Day 100... Can't believe we made it. 

Today's idea is really something that's been kicking around in my head for awhile and that I've been actively working on, but I wanted to end on a personal note rather than some random idea. 

The kernel of the idea is to create an immersive, interactive space that takes in a wide variety of inputs from the users (i.e. the audience) and, through some crazy algorithms, that information affects the space. 

That is a pretty general description so I'll get a little more specific with an example. Members of the audience enter a medium large room wearing a bracelet that helps track them and pulls data like heart rate and maybe temperature. The space consists of a combination of projections and moving features (walls, sculptures, etc). 

As people move around and begin to interact with the art, the art begins to interact with them. The main question I want to raise is, does the audience influence the art or does the art influence the audience? The answer isn't black or white, it's in between, but that's the space I want to explore. 

I would also like to have a couple of programmers working during the exhibit to program in new behaviors and reactions, almost as EJ's (Experience DJ's). The EJ's will be able to observe common behaviors and code them into the project to cause something to happen, or they could experiment with different behaviors of the art to see how people respond.

For me, this blog was an excuse. It was an excuse to think of 100 ideas, write it out, and share it. This blog was also part of something Casey and I did called "100 Days of Hustle". The idea was to devote some time to side projects every day. It was an excuse to work on our own projects, to say no to other things, and to talk to people about all the silly things we wanted to do. It was something we completely made up so we could focus.

Sometimes we want to do things but it gets blocked by either what our internal self will "think of that", maybe what other people will think of it, or just due to a lack of structure or context around it. Sometimes there's just no medium to explore the conversation, idea, or activity.

Find excuses to do the things that you want to do. It helps.

At the end, make stuff up. Create "30 days of eating well" if you want to get fit. Give it a name. Create something so you can say no to other things. Sorry, I can't go to that because I'm working on that idea. With the internet, join things and make up groups. Start a project.

There are some incredible resources out there for students, such as Khan Academy and TED-Ed. These sources have gone beyond the textbook by providing video lessons and explanations. 

However, there are times when an expert isn't what's needed. I think a great add-on to these services would be explanations by other kids and students. 

The videos would likely be a little imperfect, but that's exactly what you want, a student explaining something to you with close to the same understanding you have rather than an expert unconsciously assuming you know certain things.

Any educator will know the moment where you think 'how do you not get this?' or 'why don't you already know this?' Good educators will respond to that moment by trying to put themselves into the students mindset to understand what they're getting stuck on. But the educators approximation of the students mindset will always be a little off.

Imagine if a student, who has just made a breakthrough in understanding, could record her thought process, what wasn't making sense, and how she got through it. This would be useful for that student later, when she forgets that moment of clarity, and to students everywhere. 

Google Now is meant to monitor everything that I do so it can recommend me a bunch of things in a timely manner (reminders, weather, traffic, etc).

It would be cool if some app monitored everything that I do and recommended me cool apps/services or even just things that I should think about. It could even be just random facts about locations I'm walking by. They'll likely stick if I learn the facts at location. 

There's a lot of useful devices and services out there that never get pitched to me in the right time or location. So there's an issue of my demand not lining up with the available supply out there. In building this blog, I've found that a bunch of stuff I initially "thought of" already exists. It just takes a good amount of time to review everything and look for it.

The idea is that I don't want to get a weekly list with the top X 10 apps out there. It would be better if I could get the top 10 apps out based on the things that I do, things that I search for and do online, and things that I like (this could be sourced in many ways). 

When I was younger, one of my favorite books to look at was Anne Millard's A Street Through Time. The illustrated book looks at one particular street over 12,000 years, covering events like the Viking raids and the bubonic plague. 

While walking around lower Manhattan today, I wondered what the streets I was walking on looked like 5, 10, 100 years ago and thought about A Street Through Time.

In the US, a lot of stuff happens in Congress that goes largely unnoticed. A part of this is the volume of bills going through on a regular basis and the difficulty to keep track of everything. A story does get picked up here and there, but that's pretty much it. 

I think we need some service that displays (in a very clear and easy to visualize way) all the bills that are going through Congress and allow users to vote it up or down. So I'm thinking of some visualization map that shows different categories, timelines, popularity within the service, etc. The service would have to be secure and require some type of registration. An identifier like a social security number would have to be linked to each account to avoid duplication and spamming. 

Besides this main identifier, users would be able to log in using their Twitter or Facebook account (or something of this sort). The idea here is to, first, expose in a more clear way what Congress is voting on. Second, this allows people to get engaged and voice their opinions, even if only in a simple manner. This is no scientific poll, but it would be a good starter to get the public opinion and the younger generation involved.

Networks like Facebook and Twitter also have a wide range of users, so the population would not be very narrow. And given the demographic information that you'll be able to gather, you could breakdown down the opinions and tendencies into several types of groups and categories. 

Throughout the 100 days, Casey and I touched on a few ideas for Citibikes (Day 3 and Day 25). After a conversation with a friend, Welles Borie, I wanted to put up one last related idea. Credit goes to Welles on this one.

Citibike should put out a few two-person bikes! This would be a great ride for friends or couples. It also makes it for a stronger group experience.  

I’ve written previously about Innovation Spaces and Rafael has written about more Innovative Coffeehouses, and this idea builds off of those ideas a bit. 

There is a pretty cool event happening in NYC later in April called Raising the Bar during which a bunch of professors are going to give talks/lectures at 50 bars around New York. 

I think this is an awesome idea, though I wasn’t able to get tickets in time, and I’d like to see more things like it. What if certain bars had an open mic night for ideas? 

For one night a week, the bar would become a TED talk. People would have a certain amount of time to share their idea/project and answer a couple of questions. The events could also feature ‘headliners’ or popular thinkers (like the university profs) to bring people in. 

This idea came up during a conversation I had with my sister today. She wanted to share something with me that she knew one of her friends had posted on Facebook. The issue was finding it. 

Some time ago, venture capitalist Fred Wilson talked about how he really liked the more recently implemented Twitter favorite button. Like the Facebook Like button, it's an extremely easy way to say "hey, I liked your picture/comment/post/etc". Leaving comments or re-sharing everything you like is usually difficult or can become spammy.

On the online world, I think Snapchat needs to incorporate some kind of "like/favorite" button. Just a simple way to let the other side know that you loved their snap. Sometimes the circumstance or situation does not allow for you to respond with a snapchat back. And just saying "Great XX" is cognitively much "harder".

This "ease of feedback" idea could also be taken to the physical world. On Day 65, I talked about implementing verbal feedback recorders at retail stores. Taking this to the next level, how about putting two big buttons on your exit door?

Did you like your experience today?

BIG LIKE BUTTON and possibly a BIG DISLIKE BUTTON.

When in Boston, I love running along the Charles River. The same applies for the West Side highway in New York.

Running on pavement is not that great though, so I'm one of those people who try to run in the grass/dirt next to the sidewalk/pavement area. I help create those uneven and ugly trails on the side.

This idea piggybacks off of Rafael’s idea from day 27 about bundled items in the supermarket. 

This idea is to have that as an online delivery service, either on-demand like Seamless or as a weekly/monthly service like BirchBox, or both. You could order online, add/swap ingredients to account for preferences, indicate how many portions you need and then get all of the ingredients delivered to you. 

I like the idea of a tunnel that people walk through and there are screens on the walls. This could be a tunnel in a subway or, say, a mall. It then reflects your silhouette on the wall and has the reflection of your face. Lastly, it adds gear to the silhouette.

All of a sudden, there you are walking with a Nike shoe, or an iPhone in your hand, maybe a Gucci bag, or it could be some watch or hat.

It's advertising that's interactive. You see the gear on you, and maybe it becomes  a part of you or you like it.

I have noticed that a lot of monthly 'box' services have been popping up, like BirchBox (grooming products), Mistobox (coffee) and Tasting Room (wine).

I was thinking of other things that could fit into this curated, monthly delivery model, especially things that aren't consumable goods, and came up with Imagination Boxes.

Imagination Boxes would be a monthly delivery of a small project or kit. Geared towards children, it's purpose would be to inspire creativity and imaginative thinking by supplying the framework of a particular project. 

Instead of a starter kit with tons of different parts, Imagination Boxes would contain only the parts needed for that month's project so that the task does not seem so overwhelming. At the same time, if a child loves a certain project and wants to extend it, parents could find resources on what the next steps would be, or maybe even order an extension kit and have that put on their cue. 

It is very difficult to constantly come up with new projects for kids, so I think parents would love to have some help. Also, the monthly delivery builds anticipation and excitement. 

The other day I saw someone driving on the street with a flat tire and no clue that they had one. I've seen this numerous times as it can sometimes be hard to tell if you have a flat or the road is rough/bumpy etc. 

The solution? A tire pressure monitor that gets displayed inside the car. Just like the check engine light, the check tire pressure light would indicate low pressure in the tires. 

I'm thinking of a service where you (a foreigner) hires a local person to go shopping with you. They speak the language and know the local fair prices. You pay them a fee, but you still save money overall.

Valve's workspace is made up of tables that have wheels (see their handbook). This allows their employees to easily move around and work on different projects. Different places on the work floor become hubs for different projects.

It would be cool if some coffee shops picked up this idea. People would then be able to easily move around tables and work on things together. While one can probably move the tables you see now, the wheels would also add a certain incentive to mingle and work on groups.