There are many social networking sites on the web. Each of them targets a specific audience. We have Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Periscope, Snapchat, to name a few popular ones. The list of unpopular ones is even longer.
The challenge of conceiving a new social network site is quite daunting. Let’s face it. Do we really need another social network site? Our team decided that if we are to develop a new social site, it must target a specific audience. We needed a niche market that was still relatively untouched in order to compete with the so-called big boys.
Akin to all great engineers and developers, we decided to put our thoughts and ideas on a whiteboard or in our case, a white sheet of paper. Some of our ideas included:
- Social Graph – Utilizing social network and a user’s social graph as a means of confirming one’s identity. It would be a digital signature as such that can be used to sign documents, verify a user or even perform authenticated transactions.
- Adventure Game – Create an adventure game with a simple storyline. The game, however, can be expanded via crowd-sourcing to take whatever path or direction a user wishes. Our idea will be a platform upon which other users can collaborate and extend.
- Social Place – A social site that searches and find places or businesses close to a user. Users can then rate the businesses or share reviews.
- Music Bands – A social network that allows musicians or music lovers, in general, to form music bands online. They can then play their instrument as a part of the band and everything would be streamed online.
These were only some of our ideas (others did not make the cut) and admittedly they needed to be refined. The key was to generate ideas. After much debate and arguments for and against each idea, the team made a decision. Music bands or Jamz as it would later be called. This is our big idea. The next step will be to expand on it and to do some research. As always, please continue to follow this blog as we develop our product and its portfolio.
