Ideation #1: Time In A Bottle
Note: I’m starting a new series of “Ideation” posts where I just throw out startup ideas I’ve had that I have no time and no inclination to work on. The point is to get them out there in a succinct enough manner (3 questions, 3 answers) so I don’t have to waste mental shelf space. If you run with any of these ideas, attribution is all I request, but cash/equity/paid advisor/dinner is acceptable also.
Time in a Bottle:
What is it?: Increasingly, people are watching television while they have their laptop open. Time in a Bottle is a DVR for the real-time web, or, a DCR, digital conversation recorder to time-shift live experiences on the internet. For those who enjoy watching the stream of real-time stream conversations (Twitter, Wave, Facebook, etc.) while they watch their favorite DVR’d shows.
Why does it matter?: People enjoy the psychic benefit of enjoying a simulated “live” event with like minded people. Those moments do not need to be lost in the ether, they can merely be time-shifted and pre-filtered, leaving only the best social commentary to bubble up to the top post-hoc. Spam and junk are removed via crowdsourcing and the stream is clean. Each DCR user can add to this recorded stream, making the conversation accretive and even more valuable over time. Time in a Bottle is the best of all commentary for the show you are viewing.
How does it make money?: The biggest problem with DVR’d shows is that networks do not get paid for commercials that are fast forwarded (technically, they get paid for all commercials played via DVR within 3 days of the original broadcast). By syncing the DVR and DCR playback, there is more of a propensity for viewers to watch the commercials to keep the two in lock step. Conversation bursts increase during the commercials. Online ads can be synced into the DCR playback from the same advertiser pool the networks use (or better yet, competitors), making a seamless impression experience at the highest point of engagement.
