5 posts tagged “photos”
Here's an idea I had a while back for a new web startup - since I know I'll never get around to implementing it, I'm offering it up for grabs to anyone who wants a chance at fame and fortune. After all, I'd rather a site like this actually exist than just sit percolating in my head.
Site name: What the Hell (or Heck) Is That?
Premise: Have you ever seen something, but not known exactly what it was? Maybe you're curious what that big humming box is behind your office building (it's a transformer) or what kind of bird it is that keeps dive-bombing your car (it's a redheaded woodpecker). Well, thanks to the magic of the internet, now you can find out exactly What the Hell is That?
How It Works:
- Any registered user can upload a picture to the website. Ideal for cameraphone pictures, as you can moblog while on the run. However, you can also email or use a in-page widget at your computer, if you prefer.
- The photos get loaded onto a "Can You Identify This?" page that is constantly updated. Registered users can take a stab at identifying the object of interest in the photo, filling out a small web form that has categories like:
- Object Name
- Intended Use
- Difficulty in Identifying Object (Very Difficult - Difficult - Moderate - Easy - Very Easy, etc)
- Once a user has entered information identifying an object, the photo goes into a Voting queue, where registered users can vote on the accuracy of the identifying information. This could be as simple as a thumbs up/down for usefulness of identifying information down to a rated scale for how accurate the user was.
- When enough users have voted positively for an identification, you get a notification via the medium you used to submit the photo with the results. You can also check the individual item's page on the site in the meantime, if you want to see the status as it updates. New identifications can be turned off at any time, and will automatically be shut off at a predetermined time period (assuming there is already a valid identification in place).
How The Site Makes Money:
- Like many sites out there, I think this would probably work best on an ad revenue basis. Make it free for users to register/upload/identify/vote, so you get a big base of people involved, and then make money off the advertisements served.
- How do you get people interested in identifying/voting?
- Besides the fact that I think there'd be a lot of people interested if you just turned it into a game of some sort, with rankings/scores, you could also institute some sort of profit-sharing mechanism. For each picture that someone identifies "correctly" that gets a certain number of corroborating votes from distinct users, they get some small fraction of a cent. More difficult pictures yield a bigger profit for identifiers. (Restrictions would have to be put in place to prevent botting, but I'm sure these could get figured out.)
- You could also have site-sponsored contests - prizes for people that identify a certain number of items, or identify long-outstanding unidentified items, or items that the site administrators decide to post at random intervals.
So, what do you think? Does this sound viable? Anyone want to take it on? I figure there's some new college grad out there burning to get moving on a big project like this - I've provided the outline for the service, now all you have to do is go implement it :-) After all, the next time someone asks me "What the hell is that?", I'd rather not have to say "I don't know" when instead, I could leverage the power of the internet to help me get my answer.
What is your daily commute like? What is the weirdest thing you've seen on that commute?
Submitted by E.
I'm slammed here at work, and it's not much better at home right now, what with getting ready for the new baby. So my QotD answer today is just a repost of previous entries I put up a while back. See? I'm prescient - I answer the odd QotDs before they're even announced!
(For the record, I saw Mr. Duct Tape's car the other day, and his window is still going strong.)
Snapped this on my way home and thought it was cool.
Anyway, I'm hoping there are many more of these contests in the weeks to come...it's definitely better than spending the time wishing the thermometer would drop below 104 degrees!
1. Take a self portrait using a mirror and a very bad camera angle. Think about your average teenager's MySpace profile picture and you're on the right track.
Mirror? Check.
Bad camera angle? Check.
Camera in photo so you are positive it's a self-portrait? Check.
Slightly out of focus? Check.
Weird awkward smile that would look right at home on a MySpace page? Double-check.
2. Show us the "Welcome To" sign for where you live.
I drive past this one almost every day. It's always struck me as a bit of overkill in the signage department. But I guess someone in the city council has a nephew or brother that prints street signs, or something like that.
3. Show a cellphone being used by someone/something that shouldn't be using it.
I swear I wasn't copying TheOcho's post with this one! My daughter LOVES to pretend to talk on the phone. She will use anything as the pretend phone, including but not limited to: a shoe, a playing card, a matchbox car, a plastic teacup, and a computer mouse. However, she ADORES my cell phone (must be all the pretty colors and buttons). She isn't allowed to play with it (other than for this picture) anymore since the time I caught her one button-press away from erasing all my contacts.
Strangely, she refuses to talk to anyone on a real phone. I think the voices scare her.
4. Take a picture of a sure sign that the world is ending (don't post a pic of a sober Lindsay Lohan, I know that it's either a picture you didn't take this weekend [since Lindsay was last sober 10 years ago] or completely fake).
I was all set to take a shot of an article about the French kid who got arrested for translating Harry Potter into French - after all, what is a better indication that the world is ending than a kids' books publisher pressing charges against a kid? Then I caught sight of these guys this morning on my neighbor's lawn.
The guy bent over? He's been trying to start that weed-whacker for about 6 minutes. Before that, he tried to start a different one (same model) for about 5 minutes. Shortly after this picture, he realizes that he has to HOLD DOWN THE TRIGGER on the weed-whacker while pulling the cord to get the motor to start. His partner in crime on the riding mower was completely oblivious to the whole incident. Now, normally, I wouldn't think anything of this (especially if it was someone in my family trying to figure out how to run one of these things). But remember - this guy is part of a PROFESSIONAL LAWN CARE team. His JOB is to use the weed-whacker, probably dozens of times DAILY. You know the world is coming to an end when the average Joe can get a job doing something he has no competence for, and nobody (or almost nobody) seems to notice.
Yod, I know you said no photoshop, but I didn't want to get sued for libel, so I put black bars over the name and number of the lawn service in this publicly-posted picture. I still have the untouched original, though, if you need to ensure I wasn't doctoring anything.
5. Show us something over 100 years old.
Well, actually, not so much funny as creepy.
Shot from my car on the highway this morning....
...Still, I can't help but wonder if maybe the dolls hung themselves up on the trailer, hoping to hitch a ride south, at least as far as this trailer would take them...
My Groups
-
MP3 Share Updated: 2 minutes ago
-
Election 2008 Updated: 17 minutes ago
-
PHP Updated: 1 hour ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
