As noted earlier, there will be a Live Meeting on April 10 at 9:00 AM (new time - please note)

 

 

 

 

 

Have you thought about mashups INSIDE the box?  The TV 'box'?  Picture yourself watching a political debate.  The candidate you do not like takes a verbal swipe at your favorite candidate. You feel the remarks are not even true, but what can you do about it?

 

Consider making a mashup with the broadcaster to enable text messages to be displayed across the bottom of the screen, (like sports scores are sometimes displayed).  If the race is really tight, you could charge $20.00 per one line of text to go across the screen and still get many takers.  You'd need to filter for FCC type regulations, but according to overseas broadcasters who have done this sort of thing with a close replica of a popular US reality TV show, the audience became more engaged in the show, watched more often and the revenues from the text messages were substantial.

 

How many people would be willing to pay to speak their mind about a political debate?  Critical sporting match up?  Reality TV show? 

 

This may not work in the USA, but it has already been successfully used in at least one country.

 

Interesting...

 

 

Here’s an interesting idea…

Interested in public works projects?  This was not done in our Sandbox, but it’s an interesting idea from Scandinavia that has potential to work elsewhere.  And it could work in related situations, too. 

 

In today’s “green” world, you can help make public transportation more practical.  Passengers would know exactly when to leave their office or home to catch their bus without catching a cold in the process.  Rather than have the fine people of Chicago or Iowa or elsewhere get frost bite while waiting for the bus or trolley, make a mashup!  Enable a mobile or smart phone to accept a signal from the vehicle as it passes by each stop.  Mr. Smith will get a ping from his smart phone, telling him the bus is two stops from his.  He has just enough time to leave his warm office and walk to the bus stop.

 

Ms. Jones sets her smart phone to give her 5 stops’ notice.  She has worked it out so that she has a minute to finish and save what she is doing, catch the elevator and meet her bus.  This maximizes her time, even if it isn’t freezing outside.

 

How do you get paid?  Sell a license for the service to the city of Fargo or the state of New York, or wherever your new product will be utilized.

 

What else could you do in public works?  Tornados tracked on maps, accessible via smart phone?  Hurricanes?  Tsunamis?   Maybe FEMA would be interested in tracking floods or a pandemic.  There are many more ideas out there for those who don’t want to get bogged down in billing millions of people for only a few dollars a month…sell it once for the greater community. 

 

Take 20 minutes of today’s commute to ponder…what ideas can you come up with?

                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll bet a lot of you have wondered about the Connected Services Sandbox, but didn’t get any farther.  Let me ask you this…

 

Is your company a leader in INNOVATION?  

Do you have a great technical team? 

Do you have experience with telco?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, join us for a technical or business (or both) webinar! 

Business – April 10, 2008, 8:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time.

Technical – May 15, 2008, 8:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time. 

Details to follow when we get closer to the events!

 

 

Greetings to the blogosphere from the Connected Services Sandbox!  We’re coming up on springtime – a perfect time to get back into the Sandbox …without the Participation fee 

Honest!  We have waived that fee, we’ve added more MS products, more promotional activities, were updating our website, adding more benefits (including a multi-tier tech support plan designed to fit a wide range of needs), adding scenario-based RFS/RFIs, and more.

  

If you’ve already decided to join the Sandbox, click

here csmashups@microsoft.com to request a Participation Agreement!