Education, healthcare, banking and innovation
Released under a creative commons license on Flickr by dgray_xplane
It is always fun discussing new product ideas, solutions to existing problems and potential new markets. A couple of markets that consistently crop up in discussions I have had lately include: education, healthcare and banking.
Healthcare
Healthcare is an emotive subject, especially in the US, and a space ready for some new innovation.
“Don’t listen to the naysayers. The time to jump into healthcare IT is now, said Frank Moss, director of new media medicine at MIT’s Media Lab.”
This is easier said than done due to the complex nature of the market. I am interested in learning more about this space and as part of my research came across a few start ups:
CoRetail: a possible option for empty store space?
With the continued rise of online shopping, Amazon’s recent $5 discount if you left the store and bought with them, eBay countering with a $10 offer to return, Groupon launching a buy local promotion, and considering this interview with Marc Andreessen on his predications for 2012; there can be no doubt retail is going through a phase of serious distruption.
With high street vacancy rates rising in the UK and here in Canada – at least in my neighbourhood – plenty of empty stores, combined with new retail ventures choosing to go online due to cost and reach; I am thinking through a simple idea which, for lack of a better title, I’m calling CoRetail.
Bluejac: All bread 1/2 price until closing
The idea for Bluejac came while waiting in line at a bakery in Leamington Spa – an assistant behind the counter pulled out a piece of card and wrote All bread 1/2 price until closing and put the sign in the window. When I asked him if this happened every day, he replied, ‘Each day is different depending on sales that day’.
This triggered a simple idea.
As he was not sure what would be left, if anything, towards the end of the day perhaps it would be possible to build a web service which could help get the word out to interested shoppers in the vicinity, when the sale was on?
Abelwire: private communication through dedicated channels
The concept behind Abelwire arose from a personal need to share family updates and photos, towards the end of 2010, in a completely private, very simple, service where the participating users owned their own data.
To achieve this, I wrapped a bundle of email addresses and/or mobile phone numbers in a unique access id, this access id formed a channel. There is no public on this service. Content could only be shared via a channel where it is restricted to the members of that channel. Search was restricted to channels and it was only possible to view the profiles of those people who are in the same channel(s).
Hi there
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