Let's hear it people... if you have a concept or a business your working on then give us the 5 min brief and let it be set upon by the wolves. We promise to try to help you find a way to make it work.

And if you're not keen on sharing the idea please read this.

http://martinjwells.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/get-over-yourself/

Ok.. why not. Heres a breakthrough idea for someone I had this idea for a competitive debating platform.. could use the tangler technology come to think of it.

There are a lot of opinionated people out there, who love nothing more than to clash with their opposite number- so the idea is to create an interactive environment where people can argue their point. People argue in 2s for a set period, and others can vote on the winner.   Depending on the outcome, one side is credited a win /loss... (ie we argue about an aspect of the war on terror. You're for, I'm against. You're voted the winner of this bout, so the 'For' side of the argument is credited with a win (being more right)... other staticistical elements could be captured also, so as to develop detailed user profiles...

I think there might be something like that out there.... I remember someone telling me abt it

Anyone? 

http://convinceme.net/

Thought i dont immediately jump to saying a competitor is a bad thing, especially if they're doing a bad job.

The gang of three is the single biggest cause of malformed social systems in western society.... the structure of convinceme.net can only lead to one of two outcomes  (no matter which style of 'debate' you choose I would guess...banality or hardening of the opinions... the format doesn't really allow for much more I fear.

I think a competitor is always a good thing.... its hard to show proof of concept when one is unique... people almost always have to judge things relative to something else... better yet is  the Magic of Three -  its most easy to fall into a trap of saying these two aren't the same thing at all if there are only two (or worse, the polar opposite of  'that's the same as  x and x didn't work') but with three you its easy to compare, contrast, see the strengths and weaknesses of each, and what they are each optimized for.  So you always want two competitors .... and then you collectively get better with time in a market co-evolution.

Hey thats a cool site.. very similar to what I had in mind. Very cool.

Having now seen the idea in action.. it comes across a little dry. I would have angled for something a little more.. fun and free flowing if thats possible. Convinceme.net doesn't seem like a place I personally would go to burn some idle moments. 

I agree. Competitors are only a problem if you've got a highly inferior business.... otherwise its all positive My current business has... I dunno... 40+ competitors just in australia... but then local search is the flavour of the month so its to be expected. Still, it helps me sleep at night knowing that my competitors are educating and growing 'my' market- its time and money I don't have to spend...

So i think an online debating business is ok, but I struggle to see the compelling need.

Which makes it an audience product, and thus relies on having a LOT of people to really make money.

Any ideas on increasing that audience (distribution, partnering, etc)?

Hrmm... hadn't really thought about it.. a lot of work for an idea 

5 Minute analysis: Having looked at convinceme, i'd  probably be looking to  focus on a niche group (such as uni students,  tech geeks, couch-politicians) and/or try leverage group/factional pride to try and get some viral growth. Alternatively, I might look to create it as a value add type arrangement, like  a blog widget or an aggregation tool. The goal would be to get people excited / heated about their opinion, but create a sense of achievement and status- particularly amongst people they consider friends/peers. Convince me does some of those things, but I think it could be more compelling.

OK here is something that has been in the back of my mind for a few months... haven't given it much thought or research yet...

OK if someone wants to email you... they can go to any PC in the world... and type in one address and get you...

but... if they want to call you... the number changes in every country to some extent.

Imagine a global phone number.... walk up to any phone anywhere in the world... type in one number and get an individual or business... no international dialing codes.. no country code... just one number from anyphone anywhere in the world.

Skype are already doing this somewhat with SkypeIn, but they are still UK based phone numbers... I haven't ever used a satelite phone, so I'm not sure how dialing one works on them....

I understand  has almost no chance of being implemented.. but I think with the changes in telephony - it will happen one day.

The way I see it working - a certain number prefix is reserved in every country, this is then conencts to device(s) & a process that can driect/forward the call to the individual.

The actual physical part of taking the call can be up to the user to choose.... divert to cell phone, skype, etc etc... the actual technology is there to do this already..

The thing is you could generate revenue right away, through the sale (or rent) of the numbers . with the operation date TBA.

I have roadside assitance for my BMW motorbike that is valid anywhere in the world..... There are 3 pages of contact details... Imagine just one number.

a few issues that jump to mind:

1. numbers as contact id's are really a deadspace. They're slowly being replaced by more sophisticated multi-part social connections (skype friends). Ultimate numbers are just a hack.

2. the telcomms industry would be significantly resistent to this because they basically don't like anything that stuffs with their existing models.

3. getting user adoption would be really hard - and there doesn't seem to be win-win scenarios to generate business in the low volumes.

Hey Mitch you might be interested in GrandCentral for that one number idea

Yes... there are a lot of pitfalls.... ..the lines between different communication methods are blurring more rapidly as time goes on.... how long before there is only one?

There was a 'cutting edge' telephony idea about 18 months ago that was being trialled at a university here in aus.. the concept was similar, basically a phone number that was bound to a url- put the url into your phone it calls the business, put it into your browser you see the site. One piece of information, allowing multiple contact points. Can't recall the name of it though...

OnMyCity.com is a community social network platform that allows churches, schools, businesses and other local communities to come together. Our communities are branded by our members and include many powerful tools. Please check it out and give me some feedback.

mygripeis.com is a new venture where people are encourage to gripe about things in our society that needs to be changed. Hopefully we can forward the posts and comments to the 'powers to be' that can right the wrong.

My Pitch:

Transitions is a small business development tool kit that helps entrepreneurs evolve and develop their business throughout its life cycle. It integrates the principles of business coaching to guide you in building your business model, profitable financial plan, and actionable project plans in a single web application.

I am also crowdsourcing my Transitions idea over at  CambrianHouse

http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-promoter/ideas-id/YML2KNa/

Wow, some of these are great ideas. We should create topics to discuss them I think.

Thanks for creating this opportunity Marty.

FYI:

I am pleased to announce that I won this weeks IdeaWarz at Cambrian House (CH)! The other day I wrote about my the evolution of my business transformation project.

I have also been crowd-sourcing this idea over at Cambrian House, a Web 2.0 community for entrepreneurs to collaborate, cooperate and connect with one another as well as refine our ideas. Cambrian House is a pretty cool community. Each week they hold a competition and the one with the highest votes wins the competition.

Last week, I jumped in and decided to enter the competition. All I did was use the tools they provided, interacted with the community, based on feedback - refined my idea - and I won! I won $100 bucks and the chance to enter the Tournament of Champions - the winner gets some funding and promotion of their idea. Pretty cool.

Innovators & Early Adopters

What I think is neat is that CH is a active crowd-sourcing Community of innovators and early adopters. Which I increasingly see as my target market.

Check out my Cambrian House profile, and join. There is no cost and a very active community. Got an idea? Why not test the waters and see what the crowd thinks?

any one online in this discussion group

Sure.

Okay I've got one - a virtual car dealer for private car sellers. So the company takes care of everything a car yard does - like organising financing, transfer payments and fees - effectively an online car yard. The only reason people buy from a car yard is for the financing and assurance things are legit as well as it being easy - imagine if a third party could could do this.

Actually, that's not too bad. Certainly would upset the dealer system, always a good sign if you're upsetting people.

How does it work practically though? How do they guarantee the car? How do they make money?

I'd love it as a seller, but I'd be suspicious as a buyer... tho that would be easy to get around, no worries

well...the big money to be made is on the financing, although as a start-up, might want to get some insurance to cover the risk or even just arrange deals through the banks until you get some traction. could also work on a percentage fee on the deal. There is also risk with doing work on a car - like mechanical checks and stuff - and then the seller walking away, so you would need to make them vulnerable and a net loss for them to walk away before you spend money checking them out and getting certificates. couple it with a website, you could make money on the type of profile their ad appears on the site (discounts if they use your full financing package, etc). You could force people to create accounts, as a way of "matching" people, and at the same time, collect valuable data about the market and demograghs. could also whitelabel the whole process, and do what 3eep is doing - a platform they sell to businesses as part of their existing established brand and infrastructure, who then sell to the consumers

dek- this is made FOR the buyer. Being helping a mate out with a car lately and another colleague recently - it's so painful. Also the seller benefits because they get a better audience (ie, more interested because of all the boxes being ticked) without getting such a big discount on their deal. As I said, it's the financing where the money is.
 

Not for me though - too small time. Okay, back to study!!