Drive:Activated : ideas, web apps

Idea: end-to-end project development platform

Sam — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:47:00 GMT

A while back I was brainstorming ideas for a project to keep me occupied during the break. I'm a big fan of brainstorming and mindmaps, so I opened up MindManager (great program by the way) and started stormin' away. Things were going well, and soon I had a few solid leads that I wanted to follow. Being the indecisive person that I am, I asked a mate for some opinions on the leads I had and to add any thoughts he had.

He didn't have MindManager, and I didn't want to do it via clunky email, so I thought, hey, let's use one of those collaborative web 2.0 mindmapping sites! (It was a real lightbulb moment, I tell ya.) I uploaded the MindManager file on to MindMeister, set collaboration rights, and away we went. Or so we thought - the collaboration feature was still a bit half-baked back then, so it wasn't much better than emailing.

I downloaded the mindmap back into MindManager (so I can use it when I don't have net access), and started planning the lead I had chosen. Now, as good as MindManager is, it really doesn't cut it for me when it comes to project management (unless integrated with Project or Outlook, which I didn't want to do).

Without any other project management tool on my computer (and I didn't want to resort to Excel), I looked online. There were the usual ones, including Basecamp, goplan, huddle etc.

Thinking that this was a real hassle, and a bit of forward thinking told me it was only going to be harder, I realised I had discovered a real issue when it comes to executing projects. There is no service available out there that provides a complete feedback loop for a project, from the brainstorming and development stages, to the delivery and customer feedback stages, and all the way back to the starting stages for version 2.

The only solutions out there only solve parts of the loop - e.g. MindMeister for brainstorming, Basecamp for project management, kluster for crowdsourcing and feedback, maybe ning for a social network/forums, wordpress for a blog, the list goes on - but none that integrate the entire loop together. But that's the way it should be - integrated. Ideas that were brainstormed and accepted should appear on the project todo list, feedback from a prototype should flow back to the brainstorm and management stages for improvement, and frequent problems reported in forums should be added to the planning stages for resolution in the next version. We shouldn't have to jump through hoops to be organised - it should be done for us. And users should feel like they're part of the process, not a victim of the numerous systems in play to solicit feedback which probably gets lost anyway.

In other words, its crowdsourcing meets project management. And for those who have been reading, yes, I called this project, loopboard.

Features could include:

Brainstorming

Mindmapping
Whiteboards
Lists

You could make it so you can insert 'dynamic' sections into your mindmap/whiteboard, so say, the top 10 bugs are visible and become part of your planning process automatically. Or maybe a dynamic section with the top 10 news items from your competitors.

Project management

Milestones
Goals
To-do
File-sharing

Maybe even integrate with basecamp via their APIs for this. Be able to selectively make things public so not all your plans are revealed if necessary.

Crowdsourcing

user profiles

friends
roles in projects
fans of projects
skills
personal details
blog

discussions - will be tightly task-driven, e.g. anything pertaining to a particular milestone will be associated with that milestone, anything about a particular to-do list item, will be linked with that. Will have discussions page that draws out all the discussions going on, but it will be obvious when viewing a particular thread what that thread is linked to. Will have quick interface to translate a discussion point into an action task.
project profiles

description
team members
goals
announcements (facebook wall-like)
blogs (project plus relevant team member entries aggregated)
needs (e.g. investment, manpower)

wiki/knowledge base
ideas - complete with a voting system

Take a look at kluster - seriously, that's probably the best crowdsourcing platform I've seen by far. I love the cute jargon, the interface, and the investment models and algorithms.

You should be able to choose whether to make your project public, invite-only, or private. Users can have different roles, with different rights. Although to really harness the power of crowdsourcing, the project should by public, and accept input from everyone.

jobs and services directory - companies can pay to advertise and gain exposure to the projects; members can advertise their skills as well.
specialised application modules or APIs to allow for that to happen

software bug tracking systems
donation tracking systems
review systems
voting systems
specialised feedback systems

The platform should be as general as possible, so that it can be used for software projects, fundraising projects, or even projects like opening a new restaurant. Although it's probably worth concentrating on particular uses at the beginning.

Yes it is a project with a very wide scope, and is maybe trying to do too many things at once, but from a user perspective, it's a big step up from what we have right now, which are generally disparate systems only connected by us spending time and effort.

Like the idea I posted a few posts back, this one's free to a good home as well - I'd definitely be interested in something like this though.

Idea: online personal trainer marketplace

Sam — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:47:00 GMT

A while ago, a mate and I were brainstorming ideas to link in his work out/fitness/health/sport fetish with the web, with the view to form something financially viable out of it. We saw lots of fitness community websites out there like traineo, gimme20, peertrainer and sparkpeople, but they're all focused on bringing ordinary people together. Problem is, there is no real authority like a personal trainer, available on these websites to provide personal attention and reinforcement that what they're doing is right for them and their goals.

The personal training, or health and fitness market in Australia is booming at the moment as the media continuously tell us 24/7 we're in the middle of an obesity crisis (which, as a uni student, seems like complete crap if uni students are any representation of the wider community). So in response, personal training is being spruiked as some kind of wonder job, where you can be in complete control of when you want to do what where, yet still get 'great pay' (the only ad worse than those radio ads are the sex help ones). Heaps of people are doing these courses, and if my bets are anywhere close, not all the graduates are experiencing the good life promised.

This led us to the idea of an online personal trainer marketplace. After all, personal trainers who choose to go it alone can place an ad in the paper, or on ebay, or some other classifieds website/newspaper, but honestly, how many people look there, and if they do, will they have confidence in the transaction?

Kind of like onforce.com for IT technicians, the personal trainer marketplace, codenamed reboundNOW (domain not available anymore), hooks potential clients up with trainers. But it doesn't stop there - it provides a full set of tools to faciliate clients to carry out their routines and to keep track of them, and for trainers to be able to keep an eye on their clients to make sure they're doing the right thing. And of course, it'll have some nicely integrated community, social networking magic sprinkled on top to pull people together.

So as a trainer, you'd add a profile on reboundNOW, providing information on yourself, qualifications, specialities etc. You may even choose to start a blog or podcast with tips or journal entries to help assert your skills. Your qualifications will be checked by reboundNOW, and marked as such when passed. Trainers will be charged to list their profile for x months, and then a small fee for each client they enlist. They are free to set their fees as they wish on top of that.

As a potential client, you can then look through all the profiles, filtered by location, skills, sex, specialities etc. - kind of like a dating site, but with more class :) You would have the ability to talk to them before committing, or maybe even talk to their existing clients. Once you've decided, you can then work out pricing and other details, confirm the relationship and organise a fitness survey.

You will then have access to the extensive exercise library in-built into reboundNOW, complete with video demonstrations, as well as a useful exercise tracker that lets you keep track of your routine and your performance and changes over time. You can print out the work out to take to the gym, then report the results back into the system, along with any comments.

Your new trainer will have access also, allowing them to update your routines to match your performance and needs, as well as communicating with you to see how you think you're going. They can also prescribe exercises not in the library by adding their own.

If you choose, you can also make your exercise tracker public, or available to certain friends so they can keep track of you and motivate you when you need that extra boost.

There will also be a shared calendar between you and your trainer, allowing you to block out times that you're busy, so you can work out when you can meet in person for a session.

Other functionality may include:

groups - can be groups between people with similar interests across reboundNOW, or groups for group sessions with the trainer.
events - allows people or groups to easily organise and hold events, complete with mapping and suggested routes.
forums - again, can be sitewide, or trainer specific; allows users to talk, share stories, tips, ideas and provide motivation.
payments - makes it easy for clients to pay for their trainer's services and/or products, allowing trainers to accept payments from credit cards without further hassle.
business analysis - for trainers to see how their numbers stack up easily, and helps with any business requirements they may have.
store - a one-stop shop for fitness-related products.
diet - a recommendation and tracking module for the client's diet.
goal setter - allow trainers and clients to set goals and track achievements together.
measurement tracker - track measurements like weight and fat index over time, and visualize improvements.
body image tracker - post images and see changes to your body over time.
competitions - challenge clients (sitewide, or trainer specific) to a particular goal, and be rewarded for achieving it.

There are heaps of other things that are possible, but the goal is to keep clients and trainers using the website even after they have met. They won't be prevented from sidestepping the website, but hopefully the features will provide enough benefits to both trainers and clients such that the minor extra cost will be worth it.

The monetizing strategy is fairly different to most other fitness community websites, which generally focus on either a direct cost to the client for the website features, or advertising. reboundNOW instead offers something that can't be replaced by another website - a trainer. And as the site offers benefits to both the trainer and the client, the relationship is stickier.

The closest website we found that did this (mind you, this brainstorming was done a while ago), was iTrainHarder.com. However, iTrainHarder does not have the concept of a marketplace - trainers can bring their clients on to the platform and get similar features, but it doesn't seem as community oriented, and rather than try to encompass the entire relationship to make it a one-stop-shop, it only focuses on certain aspects.

I think there's potential in this, if it's executed well, in consultation with people in the industry. My mate and I never really got round to getting this off the ground, and we're now both engaged in other endeavours, so the idea, which I'm sure isn't exactly new, is free to a good home :)