July 11, 2005
I've been intrigued for some time about how "Big Brother" may soon come in the form of "little brothers." That is, with everyone soon carrying mobile devices that capture sound, video, and high resolution stills, the Neighborhood Watch system just got a seriously powerful shot in the arm. And I'm not talking about snapping pictures of shady operators casing your 'hood. I think citizens can put retailers, their policemen, their teachers, road ragers and drunk drivers, their babysitters, and whomever publicly misbehaves, on notice. We're now potentially more accountable to our fellow man than ever before, and it came full-circle: we once lived in small towns and communities that whispered a lot, then we moved to the big city to get away and "get our freedom", and now that perceived anonymity could soon be gone!
If I had a little extra time and money, I would love to start an entity to enable broad indexing capabilities of data captured on mobiles. To date, its been kinda haphazard... moblogs aren't terribly interesting or empowering for publishers or their viewers. But what if i could send "vigilante.org" a picture of a road-rager who just cut-off a poor old lady in her Chevy Nova. Wait a sec, this guy has been snapped 2-3 times a day for the last year.. his plate number is publicly available on "vigilante.org" for everyone to see.. Hmm, wonder what his insurance company will bill for his next year of coverage?
"Vigilante.org" could make an overlay mapping service that indicates all kinds of fun things about your area.. like traffic, late night activity, ohhh.. what about the cell-strength for every mobile phone company in a particular area? If my phone can send to some central index how many bars of signal there is wherever I and everyone else on T-Mobile goes, I probably would have gone with Verizon or something. Thankfully we're not only able to put John Doe on notice, we can put our service providers and businesses on notice too! The BBB should be all over this!
And on a ligher-note, worldwide scavenger hunts would be fun. It could be a global 3D game where users offer points (or cash??) to people who can capture items on their "wish list" of things to capture on camera. yikes! everyone joins the paparazzi! i love jonathan strauss' project: http://hollywoodwalkofshame.net/.. looking forward to seeing it develop over the coming months.
If I had a little extra time and money, I would love to start an entity to enable broad indexing capabilities of data captured on mobiles. To date, its been kinda haphazard... moblogs aren't terribly interesting or empowering for publishers or their viewers. But what if i could send "vigilante.org" a picture of a road-rager who just cut-off a poor old lady in her Chevy Nova. Wait a sec, this guy has been snapped 2-3 times a day for the last year.. his plate number is publicly available on "vigilante.org" for everyone to see.. Hmm, wonder what his insurance company will bill for his next year of coverage?
"Vigilante.org" could make an overlay mapping service that indicates all kinds of fun things about your area.. like traffic, late night activity, ohhh.. what about the cell-strength for every mobile phone company in a particular area? If my phone can send to some central index how many bars of signal there is wherever I and everyone else on T-Mobile goes, I probably would have gone with Verizon or something. Thankfully we're not only able to put John Doe on notice, we can put our service providers and businesses on notice too! The BBB should be all over this!
And on a ligher-note, worldwide scavenger hunts would be fun. It could be a global 3D game where users offer points (or cash??) to people who can capture items on their "wish list" of things to capture on camera. yikes! everyone joins the paparazzi! i love jonathan strauss' project: http://hollywoodwalkofshame.net/.. looking forward to seeing it develop over the coming months.
