X-prize founder Peter Diamandis is developing The Rocket Racing League, an aerospace and entertainment organization that will host Nascar-style rocket racing in three-dimensional tracks in the sky. [via TED blog]
Stanford has launched a Wiki, which is viewable by the public, but only editable by students.
UC Berkeley has also just announced a partnership with Google Video to offer lectures free-of-charge to the public.
Brad Templeton of Brad Ideas has a suggestion for companies that offer an automated menu with speech recognition or touch-tone commands via a 1-800 number: offer a range of different 800 numbers that indicate you’ve been to the website, and can even potentially indicate what you have done on the website. As Brad says, many times the automated system will tell you to visit the company’s website, and this can be frustrating if you have already tried to solve the problem, or complete the transaction via the web, and just need to talk to a real person, and still have to navigate a maze of menu options etc. For example, a web page could say, “To amend this order in a way that can’t be done HERE, Call 1-800-xxx-yyy, press 3, wait for voice and enter your order number 123456 and then the pound sign.”
Click-to-call features also have much potential to improve the customer-experience: Switzerland-based SKY-click which launched a couple months ago offers companies a web-based call center solution for click to call features via Skype.
[UPDATE: check out Bob Sutton’s post about trying to cancel an order with HP!]
There are two underwater hotels scheduled to open in the next 18 months. [I’ve previously posted about Ithaa, an underwater restaurant in the Maldives.] The Hydropolis in Dubai will cost $550 million to build, and the Poseidon in Fiji will cost $80 million (Check out their websites). Nightly rates will start at $1,500. [Thanks, Erick Schonfeld]
SoftKinetic is commercializing technology that recognizes gestures and body movements for 3D gaming - very cool. The technology uses an off the shelf infrared camera for depth perception and a proprietary algorithmic software program, which can accurately interpret what the body is doing.
Check out this video demo!
Speaking of branded entertainment…
Check out this M&M’s Flash game. [via neatorama]
I was up in San Francisco today for the Red Bull Air Race, and Blue Angels exhibition. Someday soon I hope to have the capability to post video on the site - I captured some good footage, but in the meantime here’s some YouTube footage of a prior Air Race.
The Red Bull Air Race is really an amazing experience to watch live, and an incredible and very innovative brand building effort. The Jumbo-Trons, soundtrack, and commentary really add to the experience. They also had booths where you could play flight simulators, so you can experience the thrill of piloting a high performance aircraft through a Red Bull race course.
Something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time is the potential to assist brands create innovative branded entertainment at live events. For example, at hockey or arena football games etc., they have the dance cam, a half-time show etc., and I think there’s a lot of untapped potential here. For example, imagine seeing this girl and other circus de soleil caliber performers at basketball game halftimes, as a show presented by [choose your brand]. Or, there could be a team of fans playing against a “professional” team (of women in bikinis) in bouncy bounce volleyball, as a competition presented by [choose your beer]! Remember closely following the Bud Bowl during Super Bowl game commercial breaks? Now imagine watching during halftime — instead of generic commercials — real live branded entertainment from the venue! It would be great for brands and fans and sports franchises.
Target, in a direct mail promotional campaign, is mailing a coupon flipbook, which contains an entertaining flip show animation, in addition to coupons for product discounts. The book certainly garners more attention and permanence than simply an envelop of coupons. Check out this video of the flip book in action!
A friend of mine said this weekend that the things I have on SHARKRIDE! are “weird.” (I have good ears.)
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it was at first greeted sceptically. The head of the telegraph company Western Union labeled it an “electrical toy.”
Nolan Bushnell, the legendary founder of Atari and Chuck E Cheese, told me that when he originally pitched the concept of Chuck E Cheese, most thought it ridiculous: “Why would people want to go to a restaurant with a huge RAT mascot?!” It was one of the fastest growing restaurant concepts of all time.
When Ruth Handler saw a doll of an alluring adult woman, essentially a perverted plaything for men, on a vacation in Switzerland, she immediately sensed opportunity. But her colleagues at Mattel were skeptical, “Why would a parent buy a doll with BREASTS?” “Children play with baby dolls - not adult sex toys!” More than a billion barbies have been sold.
Most people thought Ted Turner was crazy when he launched a 24 hour news channel. “Most people poo pood the idea,” he says.
Who would have thought that yet another search engine in 1999 would be a success, with AOL Search, Lycos, Excite, Yahoo, Go To (Overture), Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, Infoseek, HotBot, LookSmart, MSN Search, Magellan, Web Crawler etc. already competing? Google couldn’t even license its search technology, so it was forced to go at it alone. Of course, in hindsight, Google’s technology was vastly superior, and the “simplicity” of its search page and purity of its results garnered incredible loyalty.
Beanie Babies?? An under-stuffed animal that looks like “road kill,” Ty Warner was told, “would never sell.” He’s now worth $4.5 billion.
So, are your innovative ideas “weird,” or “visionary?” (…or perhaps both?)
