
Get started, entrepreneurs. You're living in an exciting time. - dean
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/technology/10pogue-email.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
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amichail
Do you think that web 2.0 services will eventually result in a surveillance
society, much as you would get by putting surveillance cameras everywhere?

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staunch
Not sure why you got modded down. That's definitely a valid question. If we do
put our lives on the internet, all the major world governments will certainly
build and maintain profiles on all of us. They'd be stupid not to given how
relatively simple it is. And the spy agencies have far better point of view.
They can even do the difficult IP address -> SSN mapping.

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asher_gm
and it'll be even easier with wider adoption of IPv6

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staunch
His ideas for trying to map real world everyday problems directly on the web
strikes me as naive -- the approach taking by lots of dot bombs. He'd probably
be excited about a site that allows you to split the tab at restaurants.

I think the exciting web stuff has mostly been products that create totally
new user behavior and lack direct analogues in the physical world.

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asher_gm
I would disagree with your sentiment. I think the sense of wonder and endless
opportunities put forth by the author perfectly describes a nontechnical user
of new web services. While you may say it is naive, I would say it is genuine
and pure.

Consider the "Epidemic Watcher" idea. This could be easily implemented with
the Google Maps API, tied to a medical news aggregator and partnered with
WebMD. Now it may sound silly to watch a particularly nasty strain of the
common cold march its way across the Midwest, but the idea becomes vastly more
interesting when you start to plot SARS, Avian Flu, West Nile, etc.

Combine News articles and a graphical geological representation of an
infections march and I think you might actually have a winner on your hands.

Although, the vast majority of the sites visitors may be hypochondriacs at
least you have a good idea who to target your advertising to.

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staunch
The "Epidemic Watcher" could be a "winner" in what sense? Even if it was
popular it would only play a minor (mostly unimportant) role in most of our
lives. This kind of idea is like paying your parking tickets online. It'd be
nice, but it wouldn't be life-altering.

Things like YouTube/Flickr/MySpace influence lives and cultures in significant
ways. Those are the kinds of things that make the internet so exciting to me.

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asher_gm
It would be a "winner" to me, not _only_ because it played a "minor even
completely useless" part to your life but because it would be interesting to
even a small sliver of people online. Look at the long-tail on a site like
this. You could host it easily without major snags for three hundred bucks a
month. If you only play a 0.5% margin for 10 years this application could very
well pay off. It's niche I understand, it doesn't have the mass appeal of the
"major" players right now. But consider the vast amounts of people that are
getting online each year. That niche sites user base grows proportionately.
And the real kicker is that a niche site has a very narrow set of users.
Making them easier to profile and easier to sell adverts too. Think of the
deal you could make with TheraFlu or Tamiflu. Thats why its a winner.

If everyone waits to make the next big thing then most of us will be waiting
the rest of our lives.

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far33d
Isn't there already a web2.0 twitter type site that tracks illnesses just like
pogue describes in this article?

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adrianh
Yes, indeed: <http://whoissick.org/sickness/>

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Alex3917
IIRC, this idea was proposed by Fred Wilson on his blog a few months before
this site launched. Not sure if the founders got the idea there or
independently. Either way, Pogue's idea here isn't that original.

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danw
Is there a reg free link please?

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dpapathanasiou
Crop everything to the right of the ? in the url and it won't ask for
registration.

I.e., visit <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/technology/10pogue-email.html>

