A Startup A Day

My boss gave a ridiculously inspiring speech for the Harvard Commencement this past weekend.  Go read this: http://viralvoice.net/2007/06/11/bill-gates-harvard-commencement-speech/

OK, for those of you who didn’t read it, here’s a quick excerpt:

“Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause – and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?”

The basic premise behind Bill’s speech is that many of the world’s big problems are unresolved not because of a lack of caring, but because of a lack of awareness.  My idea is a response to that – a site where users are matched with specific, actionable issues that need more attention and given incentives to become a champion for their cause. 

It’s a little complex to explain in just a few paragraphs, but here goes.  First, a new user would come to the site and would be assigned to a very specific cause with a set deadline.  For example, the issue wouldn’t be “disease prevention in Africa”, it would be “help 5 infants receive a polio vaccination in a village in Tanzania by August 30th”.

Instead of just asking for donations to solve the problems, the goal for the end user would be to generate awareness for their issue.  Each activity would have a target number of points, and users would recieve points for performing various awareness tasks.  For example, the issue I mentioned above may have a goal of 250 points by August 30th.  A user might earn 20 points for posting about the issue on their Facebook profile, and 1 point for each friend who clicks on the Facebook add-in as a sign of support.  Of course, the Facebook add-in (or any awareness campaign activity) would also have a link to donate actual money towards the cause.  Also, each point would go towards the ultimate goal of the site: generate a total of one billion awareness points (aka voices) to motivate all users towards achieving a common goal.

Once a user achieves the target number of points, they would receive a “badge of honor” and the site would make a donation to fulfill the initial task.  Users would then be assigned a new task at the next challenge level, which would have more points and/or a shorter timeline.  Over time, users could build up their level and work towards acheiving bigger and better badges.

I’ll end with another quote from the speech:

“Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever. They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and that’s why the future can be different from the past.”

One Billion Voices

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Here are a bunch of made-up stats to scare you into joining the fight against global warming:

• - Computer screens account for over 100 trillion megajoule-hours each year
• - It takes 16 times as much energy to power an all-white screen vs an all-black screen
• - 13 million barrels of oil a DAY would be saved if Google were to change their background to solid black instead of white.  That’s equivalent to 1 million trees, 200 thousand kilotons of coal, or 8,366,001 spotted owls.

Scared yet?  You better be.  But don’t despair, hope is on the way!  My idea is a series of environmentally friendly screen savers and desktop backgrounds.  How can a screen saver save the planet?  Well, a computer screen is made up of millions of pixels that are comprised of three lights.  When all three lights are on, you see white.  And when they are all off, you see black.  By having a screen saver that is mostly black, you end up saving more energy than if the screen saver were white or a combination of other colors.  (see, I’m not totally making this up!)

The screen saver or background doesn’t have to be solid black.  It could be a pattern or picture comprised of low-energy colors that would raise awareness around the energy saving power of the “Screen Save The Planet” campaign.  

What do you guys think?  Come on, Screen Save the Planet – that’s catchy!

<insert semi-witty story here>

Today’s idea is a browser plug-in that can be used to tip an interesting site using their existing advertisting.  Here’s how it would work.  The plug-in would be a single “Leave A Tip” button that lights up when it detects AdSense ads on a page.  If you enjoy the site’s content, you can click the button and it would psuedo-click the ads, opening them discreetly as new tabs.  The great thing about this (besides being ridiculously easy to implement) is that you’d be able to reward sites that provide good content without implementing some sort of complex micro-payment system.

Sorry for phoning this one in, it’s been a long day!  Too bad, ’cause I actually kinda like this idea. 

 If you’re confused right now, go here.  That’s OK, I’ll wait.  Back?  Good.  On to the idea.

Forget Web 2.0 logo generators and l33t translators - today’s idea is an lolcat builder.  The concept is pretty straightforward.  You upload a picture (or choose one from the gallery) of your cat, dog, baby, etc..  You enter a caption (or choose one from the gallery) to be tranzlatd into ur vry own lolcatz capshun.  And presto – within nanoseconds you’d have your very own lolcat image available to set as your desktop wallpaper or share with your friends.  Or, better yet, why not purchase a personalized t-shirt or mousepad featuring your creation?

OK, you caught me.  I’m a sucker for lolcats and I’ll come up with any excuse to post an lolcat pic.  Speaking of $100, one of my ideas is currently in 4th place over on the IdeaWarz contest with only 4 days, 14 hours left to vote.  Support me and my incredibly noble quest to win a hundred bucks - vote today!