Lots of ideas : some big & some small I got the following email yesterday from Tim Holborn . I have known Tim for a while and have had regular chats with him over the years. His email makes for interesting reading - lots of innovative ideas, some big & some small, looking for commercialisation, or at the very least to take them to the next stage. The email reminded me of the the small things meme that Robert Scoble has been speaking about recently. I asked Tim if I could post his email and he would “be honoured”, so have a read and if something sparks an interest, get in touch with Tim. ________________________________________ From: Timothy Holborn Sent: Wednesday, 16 February 2005 4:43 PM Subject: “Seek Entrepreneur” - find and recruit entrepreneural people for your organisation!!! To Whom It May Concern; Some of you I know well, whilst others I’ve spoken to on occasion. I’m an innovator / inventor / Digital Media Specialist. Over two years, I’ve so far failing to find a position and I’m having difficulty with HR processes.  I’ve spent this time proactively getting involved in developing products - none of which have ended up earning me a cent.  But a lot of people have said I’m a nice guy or an “idea’s engine”.  Pity there’s no actual business title for an “idea’s engine”…  It’s not like seek, My Career, or any HR company knows what to do with an “idea’s engine”…  Maybe the procedure is to send them for a discussion with the marketing department – so they can get some new ideas? Through this experience, I’ve learnt - one must have money, to make money (The Golden Rule - he who has the gold rules), that a qualification is more useful than skills / knowledge, and that most companies prefer to use other people’s work – to then make something of their “own”, rather than buying it from anyone. Etc.  It’s cheaper in the short term and possible (on average) in the long-term as well… Therefore, I cannot afford to spend a further 6 - 18 months, developing any of these ideas into products.  From experience, the framework; business plan, data modelling, financials, marketing, prototype – everything needed for commercialisation, then needs to be pitched to the market (people like you) – which only serves only to have something “like” it appear on the market a couple months later, becoming another financially devastating project… I’m sending to you.  I wish you all the best.  Hope it helps to support your staff. The Entrepreneurial HR group of Products I believe that there are many entrepreneurial people being similarly screwed by big companies, and probably finding it difficult to attract employment positions. I believe that a “entrepreneurial” targeting option may be a beneficial service to offer, as the meta-tags associated to these individuals may be significantly differentiated from many current job profiles have more to do with educational background, standardised low-risk profiling, and upper-level corporate experience (internal staffing) rather than the potential for the applicant to be recognised as a creative sales drivers. It is a key assumption that such profiling of entrepreneurial people, is differentiated enough to provide for a job listing / profiling / assessment system better suited to such industrial developers. Image Based Search Engine. Utilising Technical algorithms, such as contour based image recognition, object based recognition, etc.   A Search Engine could be developed that would support picture input (whether a frame of video or still image) so that people could search images, based on an image input… This could be useful for a whole range of applications.  But I think the most profitable, could be just a plain search box function. Intelligent batteries Most Digital CE (Consumer Electronics) devices now carry both Data Storage & Electrical storage cards.   This Idea proposes a product which facilitates both within a singular casing, enabling a rechargeable, removable – digital + electrical storage device.  I believe this type of device, if well implemented has the capability to become as ubiquitous as an “AA” Battery.  Plus, it may help lower overall production of plastics, which makes it environmentally friendly.  The Recharger could have a USB Connection, allowing uploading of images and recharging of the Electrical capacity simultaneously. Computer expansion port for displays A standard Port, for the back of television devices.  This Computer expansion port allows Computer MFG’s (manufacturers) to design a Standard Computer size, which can be plugged into the back of televisions and flat-screen monitors. Generally, computers are upgraded every 3 – 5 years, whereas a television / display can be suitable for 10 – 25 years. In Essence, it is like an Expansion port for computational upgrades, to be made for output devices.  Standard interfaces would be needed between the Monitor device, and the Computational port – however on the back of the computational device, could be more specialist ports. Digital Receipt System for retail POS Systems (Point Of Sale) The Ability to offer a Digital Receipt at the point of purchase, rather than a Paper receipt.   This would help collate information for Tax time.  It would also reduce paper usage / wastage, whilst it would probably be cheaper in the long-term for organisations to publish Digital rather than Paper. Telephony over IP - TOIP VOIP is now beginning. TOIP – I see as the next step, Telco’s offering a new type of number, and similar to the numbers provided for Home, Business and Mobile.  A TOIP Phone number would be connected via an “enabled” internet connection, and a consumer may connect via their computer device, a standard household telephone enabled with a suitable adapter or a new type of phone which may connect via Ethernet or other types of broadband technology.    The Primary format change between TOIP and POTS (Plain old Telephone Service) is that a TOIP Address would have greater flexibility to offer dynamic “features”. Such as Global Roaming, Document Transmission, Video Conferencing Standards, and a dynamic web based interface.   Discussion on this topic is currently being published at the Australian Communications Authority Web-Site.   However if it were to begin, I would think an international organisation of Telecommunications companies would have to produce the “standard”, I also believe some work in this area has been initiated already. Television Channels Ideas Preface; As digital channelling comes forward.  There is an opportunity to make more content, distributed though niche channels such as VOD, Internet delivery and PPV.   This brings an opportunity to develop Niche, global content, which traditionally has not been recognised as viable “6pm” television events… The Awards Channel The awards channel would cover awards of any-type, and compile an archive of these events – along with associated information of the award winners.  Part of the revenue for this venture would be sourced via Advertising of related corporate, whilst other revenue options could be sourced via subscription revenues… The Conference Channel This Channel is devoted to conferences of all kinds. There are many conferences happening every week, throughout the world.  This channel is devoted to providing access to such conferences and associated material.  Conferences help organisations and individuals keep track of current events, leaders, technologies, strategies, etc. Messenger Idea “The Sims Vs Messenger” A little face or person, which could be placed in the “Picture” component of messenger and interact with “smiley” commands… This face would replicate the “smiley” faces each user sends to each other. The face would be built by the user, designed via a group of options; they would be able to build an imag