Web 2.0 Idea: Personal Twitter Statistics

The initial Twitter demographic consisted of pr representatives and social media evangelists. Though they have thousands of followed/followers, the true audience is unknown. Similar to targeted web site statistics which allow for more accurate analysis of audience demographic and the degree of success of transfer of information, a service for Twitter (in-house or third-party) is needed. There will be a growing audience since there has been an increase of companies using the service.

Market: Business-related Twitterers

Expansion:
- SEO Optimization
- Service to Increase Exposure

Cell Phone Idea: Speech Controlled Device

A cell phone is limited by both size and cost largely by its display. With the increase in popularity of culturally-acceptable Bluetooth headsets, cell phones sans displays can be manufactured cheaper, more efficient, and more convenient. The solution is to use text-to-speech for input and speech-to-text for output. For areas where it may not be appropriate for speaking, there are headsets which read vibrations in vocal chords.

Market: Low-Tier, Global Cell Phone Market

Expansion:
- Output to portable projectors
- Integration with other modular products (i.e. module for phone, module for display - cheaper to upgrade)

Web 2.0 Idea: Free, Open-Source University

Problem

With the average college tuition rising to $30,367 in the US, many people simply cannot afford college. Not only does this burden the federal financial aid programs, but it also prevents eligible students from receiving a quality of education which meets their potential.

Furthermore, Obama has set economic policy as a priority before overhauling education reform. With unemployment at 7.2% and underemployed workers at 13.5%, the lack of expendable income restricts the possibility of further eduction.

Details

We plan on aggregating online, open-source courses by the top universities into a curriculum that produces a highly-qualified workforce. Not only will there be no cost to the student, but students will benefit from working on real-world problems.

With a full course, grade, and performance system available online, students will be able to access all available content and the system will be available to schools who provide course content (such a system, on average, costs $275,000 annually). Instead of resumes, all students' work will be available for employers to review, while we will also provide tools and an extendable API to quickly evaluate a student's performance.

Along with video lectures, written assignments, and interactive labs, we also ask students to work on real-world problems presented by companies. Students will interact with companies to evaluate issues and provide solutions, while companies benefit from the design, completed work, and a basis for evaluated work performance.

Social Value

It is an established fact that education and socioeconomic state is closely linked. We plan on benefiting students who cannot afford or cannot access education, both domestically and worldwide. Furthermore, we plan on trying to provide jobs to students who have completed the curriculum.

Market Research

Course video lectures and course documents are available for some basic courses by universities such as MIT's Open Courseware Consortium and Stanford's Engineering Everywhere and are aggregated by Academic Earth. There is a proposed university, University of the People, who targets third-world countries. We differ by combining a solution for students, companies, and universities and also focus on certification and performance, whereas the University of People focuses on mass education.

Business Model

Monetization is through two parties: Companies and Universities. We plan on integrating an innovative hiring system with the school CMS to provide jobs for students upon completion. Companies will pay a small fee for each hire, as typical with hiring bounties; however, the largest source of income will be real-world problems. Similar to the research/grant system, companies will pay the university to solve particular problems, and students gain crucial job experience. Though the course CMS is completely free to Universities who provide content, we will allow other universities to use the system for a small, annual fee in comparison to commercial alternatives.

Since it is also a non-profit, we also plan on applying for government grants and offering the ability to donate.

The largest fee will be to develop a content management system which will provide video lectures, written assignments, interactive labs, professor instruction, performance reviews, and hiring. We may be able to modify existing an open-source CMS or find a company donor which will provide a commercial CMS.