GridLines

Traditional print media is quite limiting. Books, newspapers & magazines are fairly limited in how they can present information, and very limited in how the reader can interact with that information.

In transitioning to the on-line world, print publications have largely kept these limitations. Explicit attempts to break free of these self-imposed boundaries (Such as the much-vaunted New York Times "Snowfall" feature) are largely exercises in distraction: The addition of animation and visual effects to a linear, long-form narrative is hardly going to revolutionise the way that we consume media; The accordances are still the same; the communication is still one-way; and the journey through the story is still linear.

The web itself, with it's promise of a non-linear, branching navigation style, was a powerful, exciting and revolutionary concept when it was first introduced ... but what has happened to that revolution? Where has all the excitement gone?

Ultimately, we were let down by our brains: We are simply not quick enough to digest and process information that branches and expands exponentially, and we lack sufficient short term memory to combine it all into a coherent whole. In recognising these fundamental biological limitations, we have fallen back on traditional, linear storytelling, but have we fallen too far back?

There may be a half-way house. What if we could come up with a way of presenting information that goes beyond linear narrative, but is more restrained than a full-blown exponentially branching tree of possibilities? This is not a new idea. Some comment systems limited the depth of threads to preserve the navigability of the conversation as a whole -- and this works, by and large.

Many years ago, I envisioned a print newspaper that presented stories as arguments; editorials for two competing points of view presented on opposite pages of a double-page spread. More recently, the same thought recurred to me while looking at how Google+ lays out it's stream of articles, multiple tall, thin columns of text ("cards") arranged across the page.

I wonder if there could be mileage in combining these concepts - something that goes beyond a linear narrative, yet something that remains constrained to a two dimensional page; a branching, non-linear debate, but with strong limitations on the amount of branching that is possible; and the length of each point/post; a discussion forum and a venue for debate that restricts and guides commentators for the benefit and convenience of the reader. A medium within which text retains it's primacy, but that introduces (restrained) graphical and diagrammatic elements to assist in navigation; and to provide reference points for the reader.

I think that this would be a really interesting experiment to do.

The bastard child of twitter and snapchat

Each message can only be 6 characters long; and only lasts for 6 seconds before it is deleted.

Hyperkinetic dysfunctionality on steroids. Or speed. Same difference.

Assembly Apps.

Lots of app ideas; plus a really novel way of getting an implementation together:

https://assemblymade.com/

Should be a good way of sniffing out future directions & (possibly) identifying synergistic commercial opportunities.

Niche enterprise software

http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/07/big-name-software-could-be-killing-your-productivity/

Niche enterprise software

Optimising employee productivity using tools from the quantified-self movement.

The thesis is simple: the right amount of sleep; a good diet; a short commute; a supportive home environment, a suitable work environment (noise levels, light levels, temperature, as well as variations of these over the course of the day); a balanced & well-matched team and effective leadership all contribute meaningfully to attaining and maintaining optimum productivity levels.

However, different factors have a different impact for different individuals, so planning productivity improvements needs to be done on an individualistic; tailored basis.

We can use existing tools from the quantified-self movement to help individuals understand which factors are more important for them, and under what circumstances, to allow individuals and businesses to optimise their productivity and happiness, combining tracking technologies with psychometric surveys & genetic screening to try to tailor productivity enhancement programs for individuals and businesses.

Peer-to-peer smart asset exchange

There is a lot of talk in the media about BitCoin; but most of the discussion around the technology treats it as if it were only a currency.

In reality, it is actually a more general purpose technology; the first (and most common) application of which is as a currency.

In reality, the technology is actually about ownership -- without the need for a central authority of any kind. The decentralisation is considered a good thing, because a central authority necessarily creates a single point of failure; increasing systemic risks.

The same technology that underlies BitCoin can also be used to implement any system where ownership is a key concept.

Some people have put forward the idea of "smart property" where BitCoin-based tokens are used to denote ownership of (and control access to) physical goods. However, in my mind, the most obvious thing that springs to mind is stocks and shares, since they are (at least potentially) entirely electronic.

Now, obviously, real stocks and shares are heavily regulated, as is the trade in all financial instruments.

However, we could create something that acted in a somewhat analogous manner; excepting that all legal and contractual controls are replaced by cryptographic guarantees. (If we went down this route, we would have to be prepared to pause for a bit at some point to sort out the legal position; but others have done this sort of thing before, and it should not be too big a problem, as long as we show good faith and act with appropriate levels of probity).

Now it is not clear what form this might take.

Initially, I am imagining something like a BitCoin wallet that is controlled by a committee. Spending money requires a majority vote from the committee. Voting rights are controlled by tokens that can be bought and sold. All of the mechanics are implemented in a peer-to-peer manner; using similar technology to BitCoin itself. This would be somewhat crudely analogous to the way in which a private company operates, where the owners form a board of directors, who collectively have the final say over the company money is spent.

It would also be interesting to think about how we could implement bonds with BitCoin technology: I.e. create transactions today that are executed at some point in the future; regardless of the funds currently present in the wallet. (Digital I.O.Us.). This infrastructure could power lots and lots of interesting applications.

Finally, it would be good to think about peer-to-peer auction technology for arbitrary instruments. Obviously, we would need to tread carefully here, lest we end up facilitating trade in illegal goods (a-la-Silk Road) - but there are a ton of really interesting applications here - not least of which is the autonomous-vehicle-logistics leasing idea.

A technique for generating smart start-up ideas

Smart start-ups don't try to change the course of history themselves; they simply latch on to a change that is already happening and just surf the tidal forces of change.

For example, EveryScreen Media was riding the smartphone revolution - they were building a product into an emerging market so they didn't have to unseat any incumbents; they didn't have to create the market themselves, all they had to do was not fail. And it worked.

If we can, we should try to do something similar. Try to foresee a demographic or technological change that will happen over the next 2-6 years, then (this is the hard bit) work out what kind of business opportunities that change will unearth.

For EveryScreen Media, it was the ad-tech opportunities created by smartphones. Perhaps the next big thing will be wearable computers (Smart watches; Google glass): What opportunities will this unearth?

It is fairly straightforward to extend this to domains other than Ad-Tech, and should provide a good conceptual tool for generating smart start-up ideas.