Call this crazy and I’d be fine with that. But I have a concept and would like feedback.
The net is very poor at answering a simple question I frequently have… where can I go right now? Or next Thursday at 10 o’clock? I have a vision of an imbedded calendar in every organization, business and individual on the web, in which I can friend whatever site has things important to me. So I then punch in Saturday 6-10pm and find out everthing that is going on at that time: The museum I like has a traveling Dali exhibit, my favorite restaurant has a steak special but closes at 8pm, I could serve a meal at the voluteer soup kitchen until 7pm or I could shop at the Target Store and get 25% off on a camera but only until 9pm. Oh, and Sam is off on vacation so don’t bother contacting him.
There are calendar sites now but they seem to be very limited. Facebook was a better answer to “how can I interact with people I know?” I think this could be huge for the question “what can I do?” Commercial businesses would love to be a part of this - it would drive customers to them. Ditto organizations and non profits. Individuals could friend others and then share when they are busy and when available, etc.
I would definately never use the “c word” (calendar) in this. Calendars as currently used are tied in most people’s minds only to work schedules, to-do lists and going to the dentist. Dreadful stuff. Instead this needs to be marketed as all the choices in the world I can do at any point in time.
Clearly a big problem launching this would be scale: getting the calendars imbedded in enough sites/accounts so it was useful. But since things we do relates closely to physical proximity, I think this could be launched first from a single community and advance from there (again like Facebook’s past). The commercial implications of this are HUGE. Advertisers would be looking at the holy grail: people who want to do and spend. Right now.
My questions: What am I missing that would make this not work? Does anyone else see this as potentially huge? Who do I partner with? (I’m nothing but an idea guy…)