Software Projects

1. Live Data

Or: Google for Live Data.

It’s suprisingly hard to find live data. Google basically connects you to all cached information on the web. If what you need changes at all regularly, you are out of luck for instance:

• Crowds at a particular locations
• “Best” company, restaurant, school, program, etc. Of course this is subjective but even if there was 1 specific answer, it changes all the time
• Have they started X yet at some event? Did this artist go on? Did they start yet? Are they late?

There are certainly instances of “Live” data on the web. Earthquakes for instance is actually the only free source I can find. Location of Airplanes (if you pay for the data), traffic (waze - no api), are available but those are only two very specific instances in high demand. What about live data that is not in such constant high demand?

Part of the problem is that for any indexer to have information ready, it has to be uploaded. If you want to know if a speaker is late at a presentation, someone or something has to physically be there to input the data into the system. With Google, they are essentially giving you information that someone has done the work of uploading to the web.

In face this entire thing could be reframed as: Google as what its marketed as - indexing the worlds information. Google right now indexes the internets information - that which has been uploaded to the internet. This in theory would be the worlds information at the fingertips of a computer program, given in api format.

The problem is that this is not a tractable startup idea really as it stands. Its not a product. Where do you start? Do you manually grab live data 24/7 from some source and hope that people find it and use it and pay for it so that you can afford to eat while constantly monitoring this data source? The incredibly valuable ones such as traffic and airline information have already been handled. And I think this is how you would go about it, find the most valuable live data sources and provide apis for those and make sure the unit economics work out, then move on from there - expanding scope horizontally.

2. Band Map

I want a map showing current locations of artists. That way you can see who is in your city as well as look at where your favorite artists may be located if you are planning an impromptu trip. This is another example where live data is the key.

3. Collage Maker

If you had to make a collage, how would you do it? I used GIMP which worked but it was a bit choppy (moving huge images around on a massive canvas). I dont think most people know how to use GIMP. There are a few tools on the internet but they all make you choose from pre-set photo layouts so you cant really be creative with sizing, placement, or rotation of the photos. A simple utility where you can add photos to a canvas, drag them around, scale, rotate, maybe add background color, and save off the photo would be very useful for the 1 or 2 times per year you want to make such a collage. I looked into using the canvas html5 element and concluded that its not really the right tool. This seems like the most promising example to go off of:

4. Decentralized Analytics

Dapps need analytics too. Im not sure how this would work but the first time I saw Open Bazaar I was interested in knowing who was using it, who was buying, who was selling, what pages were getting the most views and from where. Since the app is distributed, the analytics should be publicly viewable as well.

5. Community Discussion of Spotify Songs

I kind of enjoy youtube comments. Especially on a song that I really like, I like to see that other people enjoy it too and what they have to say about it. Spotify takes this away. Because spotify isnt open (the best way to do this would just be with a spotify extension), the only way I can think to do this is to have a seperate web-app where you can search by spotify url and it gives you all youtube comments for that specific song. This reminds my of my request for better reviews.