In the spirit of a project-based semester, I have found myself taking part in a number of playful discussions about Big Tech Ideas in the past week or two. After carefully plodding through my actual semester-long projects, there’s something refreshing about busting out a wide brush and painting big old pictures with it. Feasibility? Yawn, who cares. Here are some DOPE IDEAS destined to blow up the online world and make everything amazing.
Dope idea #1: NETBOOKS. (Credit shared with my friend Gerald for this one, as long as with any of the other hundreds of people who have probably already thought of this.) An online membership service wherein you have access to 50-100 carefully selected texts each month. Readers can write notes in the margins, participated in monthly book groups, stuff like that.
Obstacles: Copyrights, actually having the books, the monthly fee might be too price-y.
Dope Idea #2: DIGITAL ADVENTURES. People volunteer to lead video tours of exotic locales in real time while on vacation. Why post instagram pics that only make people jealous and miserable, when you could Skype anyone who wants in and livestream to the digital community?
Obstacles: Do waterfalls have wifi?
Dope Idea #3: WATCH A MOVIE WITH __________________. Directors, producers and actors tune in for shared one-time only free (or ticketed?) online viewings of their movies with a live discussion board with Q and A. The special guests share commentary while the film is playing. There would be plenty of ad opportunities, and this would be a good promotional tool for upcoming sequels or whatever.
Obstacles: Um, NONE, this idea is perfect. (But like… could already exist?)
Dope Idea #4: BEING A REASONABLE CITIZEN & HUMAN APP/MOOC. A MOOC that has alerts a couple times a year for the most basic important human political/finance things you should be doing, i.e. alerts for rent at the end of the month, voter registration deadlines for your state, how to do your taxes, when new laws pass and it would be embarrassing not to know them.
Obstacles: It would not be fun to use this app at all, condescending premise (but I need it).
To piggyback on the last point... 
December 10, 2014 at 12:57 am
I am one of the hundreds you mentioned in dope idea #1! I have been really interested in social annotation for a while and think it has a lot of potential for use in distance book clubs, etc. For your MOOC idea, is this a course that teaches you these citizen responsibilities as well as provides reminders?
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December 11, 2014 at 4:06 pm
Amo,
These are all fabulous! I think you should get started making these happen 🙂 (another project, just what you needed right now)!
P.S. Your writing is so DOPE and clever!
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