Re: Any progammers looking for a killer app to develop? How about a voice enabled forum?

How about a forum where the initial author of a thread is the moderator for that thread?

Seems to me that would be the single-most useful way to control (in-thread) flame wars, and massive divergance from the original topic and other (very common) nonsense.

Matt wrote:
>
> Any progammers looking for a killer app to develop? How about a voice
> enabled forum?
>
> One of the most powerful, exciting, and engrossing experiences on the
> Internet is the Forum. The first great Internet forums were the
> Usenet newsgroups. Usenet is still a powerful force, but many
> different types of forums are also very popular (such as message
> boards like Vbulliten and XMBforum).
>
> I love forums. Love em love em love em. My web site has a great one.
> But I think the time has come for an important and breakthrough
> evolutionary advance in Internet Forums. I will describe the idea to
> you, and I hope you will take the idea and run with it. Create this
> product. Develop it. Make millions of dollars. I offer this idea to
> you-because I am not a programmer-and I want this to be made.
>
> The idea is pretty simple. Any fairly savvy application developer
> with some skills in MySQL should be able to do this. Whoever does it
> right will make a lot of money.
>
> I want someone to simply improve upon the Internet forum technology.
>
> The amazing power of a forum is that you can walk into a forum and
> have a conversation. You can ask a question and get insightful,
> funny, and interesting answers. You can then reply and have a
> dialogue. You can do all this at your own pace, your own convenience.
> You can ignore people who don't interest you and you can be as patient
> as you want in replying. It is a wonderful thing. And the time has
> come to liberate this experience from the necessity of a keyboard and
> full powered computer. The technology is here, we just need to take
> advantage of it.
>
> This is what I want.
>
> I want to be able at any time of day, whether driving my car, or doing
> dishes, or hiking through the woods -to ask a question of the world.
> I don't want to have to find a computer, go to the website or
> newsreader, and type up my question. I want to just be able to say
> outloud, "What is the fastest any human has ever travelled?" or "What
> the heck does a county commisioner do?"...and I want my question, an
> mp3 recording of my actual voice, immediately posted in a forum. And
> then I want to receive responses-but not responses i have to go sit
> down and read. I want to hear the responses, in the voices of those
> listening to my question.
>
> Imagine, you could be driving in your car...and you have a question.
> You simply say out loud, "Post this question: Can anyone give me more
> details about the Xbox2? Or "Can anyone tell me real quick how to
> make tomatoe soup?" Or while reading a history book...you could say
> outloud, "Post this question: "Was Wyatt Earp a real person?"
> Whatever you are interested in. For whatever reason you communicate
> with people in Forums, you could do it-but simply with your voice-at
> any time anywhere.
>
> After you post a question, you might hear a little beep in a few
> minutes letting you know you have responses. Then you could just say
> out loud "Play replies" and the replies would start to play-not in a
> computer voice but in the actual voice of the people answering
> you-because they would be using the same technology.
>
> With this type of voice message board-you could have engaging,
> interesting, convenient, and fairly natural conversations over the
> Internet. The experience could be liberated from sitting at a
> computer-and it would be enhanced by being able to hear human
> voices-rather than reading text. You could have all the fun and
> convenience of natural conversation-but enhanced through the reach and
> expertise and convenience available over the Internet.
>
> That is the concept. It may seem daunting, but the technology already
> exists and is available. All this idea requires is a MySQL based
> message board (such as the XMB Forum) and a pretty basic client side
> application. The SQL database could store all the voice messages in
> mp3 format. The client side application would run on a pocketpc phone
> or palm phone.All this application would need to do is
>
> 1) interface with the MySQL database (the message board). Be able to
> upload and download the mp3 files in the appropriate thread-and play
> them on demand.
>
> 2) encode into mp3 format as people recorded their posts.
>
> 3) This part is optional, but would be the ultimate addition: be able
> to recognize some simple voice commands such as "Record" "Post"
> "Replay" "Skip" "Next" "Back".
>
> Thats it. If you can program or hack MySQL and make pocketpc Apps,
> then you can make this amazing voice enabled internet forum.
>
> Limitations:
> Bandwidth for moble internet access is an obvious limitation. But
> remember, voice forums will be just as fun and convenient on desktop
> computers and where high bandwidth is available.
>
> Webstorage. Voice messages will be much bigger. The MySQL database
> will grow fast. But hey, it will be so fun, I think users will be
> willing to pay the message board host a little to help cover storage
> costs. Another alternative is to delete or archive all messages after
> 3 days-limiting discussions to fairly current threads.
>
> Ok thats it. I know this will arrive someday. But why not sooner
> rather than later? Any programmers out there interested in a little
> project like this? If so, go for it. Make millions. I maintain no
> copywrites on this idea. But if you are going to run with this idea,
> please just let me know so I can use the forum on my website.
>
> The best way for this to be developed is through an open source
> project. Anyone who wants to collaborate on this project with other
> programmers feel free to post on my website to make contacts. Or just
> go for it if you already know how to do something like this. Good
> luck. I look forward to hearing all about it!
>
> Go here to find other people to help collaborate on this project:
> http://www.thesearchforwisdom.com/community/boards/viewthread.php?tid=104
>
> Submitted by Matt Ready
> http://www.wisdomproject.net

-- 
Bret Pehrson
mailto:bret_at_infowest.com
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