Posts Tagged ‘new idea’
Scheduled cell phone silencing
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
[Here is an idea sent over to incubaker from Omead K. Capistrano Valley Senior. Thanks for sharing your great idea Omead!]
The problem: A few weeks ago my phone went off in class because I had forgotten to silence it. I had gotten into the habit of silencing my phone during the week, and leaving the ring tone on over the weekend, but for some reason I had forgotten to silence it that Monday morning. This got me to thinking…
The Idea: Why can’t we schedule when our phones go on silent? I was thinking it could be an option on the calendar; for each appointment you could choose “silent” or “not silent”. I thought that this was so simple that it must be on some phone somewhere and looked it up online…to no avail. Hopefully this turns up within a couple of years.
portable office
Friday, July 13th, 2007
Why do we still have to go to work? 
I am not meaning in the sense of not working at all, but with the same technology options at home that are available at work, why not? I think we need to get over the stigma of feeling that we need to show face at work while I understand that certain roles need to be physically there but there are so many that don’t. I had a chance to visit Sun Microsystems last year and they talked in depth about the virtual workplace and how they are downsizing physical campuses in favor of virtual remote workers. This was not simply a cost cutting move to save occupancy and utilities cost, they talked about employee retention and reducing their environmental footprint. With all this new technology, there should be no gap between our abilities to perform our jobs in either location. Sun offers this option to almost all employees. It’s all about empowering your employees with responsibility and accountability; we don’t need to big brother the right people.
I recently started working a few days from home and I couldn’t be happier. I actually didn’t mind coming into the office but in all honesty, I am a lot more productive working from home. I noticed how many hours I wasted in meetings and socializing. I may not work as many hours anymore, but per hour, I am able to accomplish so much more work. Personally, I don’t have a great space (or home office) to call my own and is the only thing I miss about having my small cube at work.
These days, its funny to see so many people using coffee shops as “sudo” offices where they operate their small or personal business amongst hundreds of random people everyday. I have seen people write books, design buildings, and write computer code at Starbucks. With free broadband hitting all major stores and cities, why not? Boston has taken some cues from San Francisco and has starting offering free hotspots all over the cities starting with historic Faneuil hall.
The Idea: So how about a business that provides out a rented space in a hip location where remote or independent business individuals can come and do work. This service could also compliment a larger firm who doesn’t want to start up new locations in certain cities and use it as part of a domestic expansion strategy. So I am thinking a trendy space that incorporates innovative designs with desk space, VOIP, technical support, T1 broadband, food, gives you a physical address and phone number. A place you can bring clients if needed, conduct interviews but at the end of the day, a place that helps you focus on your business. You pay one monthly membership and never have to worry about stocking the paper, cleaning up, or paying 20 bills. Provided you have a membership, office staff will file incoming faxes, setup global teleconferences while allowing you to come in and out as you please. I am thinking open spaces with many desks but closed areas if needed, and maybe a locker systems of sorts to store personals. It would be a work hub. With many fixed costs and lease agreements, there would be lots of hurdles getting the necessary cash to fund startup and first few years of operations. Achieving scale and traction could be difficult in non urban areas, but this is something that I think we will be seeing in the near future.
Young at art:local art exhibit
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
Sotheby’s has reported a huge boom in international art sales and Fast Company published an article how Americans in general are more concerned with art, furniture, getting nice stuff that has meaning etc.
I am not quite an art connoisseur, but I am starting to feel my apartment walls are a bit too mature now to host the ‘beer’ and ‘hot-girl’ posters that once littered my dorm room. So out of the need to decorate my own apartment I noticed what I feel is a good opportunity to bring together artists and consumers. Of course there are already many ways in which art is exchanged in today’s society but to be honest I do not know where I fit into the market.
Art Galleries: I have found most art galleries are extremely expensive and most of the time pretentious and uninviting to younger clientele. There was a recent article in the Boston Globe about young entrepreneurs opening successful galleries; however art pieces tended to stay in the $2,000 plus range (this helps cover the expensive real estate prices that galleries tend to absorb). Galleries bring in some top art; however my interest in art doesn’t stretch quite that far into my bank account.
Online: In my price range I may be better suited for some art off of craigslist, ebay or sites like artycity, or artshole (UK). One benefit is I can communicate directly with the artist. However, I would find it hard to judge something that I could only see online.
Furnitures / Decoration Stores: The easy option would be a store like IKEA. But while it is a great place for neat decorations, it would only takes a couple days before you and your friend’s apartments are identically unoriginal.
The idea: Rent out a boutique, loft, open space or borrow a friends (clean) apartment for an evening or even a few days. Gather up local artists from colleges, art institutes, and the others from the artistic community and ask them to participate by displaying their best pieces. The art could be sold on consignment with a fair percentage of sales going to the host to cover costs, earn a profit or at best, raise money for a charity. Artists benefit from displaying their work in a nice space for free and providing them with some exposure, and a little bit of cash for their hard work.
For me one of the most rewarding aspects of buying a piece of art is that it is unique and carries with it a certain story. A story best told by the artist. This idea lets the purchaser speak with the artist if they are at the event, and if not, at least know they are local and perhaps meet up for a coffee.
The toughest part will be getting people there. Perhaps a DJ, nice atmosphere, and a co-sponsorship with local art schools could do the trick.
I could not find one, but if you know something like this that already exists in the Boston area, please let me know 
