|
I am working on an idea to increase blood donations, as a background project, and I'll be continuing on that whether I receive a free ticket or not. In our local Ruby community, one of our guys asked for blood donations for a family member, and we started discussing possibly doing a group development project to help. I posted some ideas for a social web app that could help back in May: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Houston-RoR/message/2493 The group project never happened, but I think it has some real possibilities. I started to approach the local blood banks and their social media advocates, but then I realized the idea is too hard to visualize for non-developers, and the protocol is just complicated enough that a prototype was needed. I am working on a demo, and I'm learning about the simplest (hah!) Facebook app. The basic idea is that when A holds secret information about B, and A cannot release it, there should be a protocol for B to use a secure token presentable to A to confirm that claim. Thus, A is maintaining data security by not actively releasing the information, but B cannot lie about the information because the claim is verifiable. My ulterior motive is by posting in this thread, I might recruit someone else that finds this project interesting, or knows details about protocols as described above. At BoS, I'm sure I would absorb a lot of new details about marketing social software and what techniques work to help spread apps among friends. My consulting business is slow and I'm in a pre-startup phase on a bigger project, nailing down the IP, so BoS is way out of my price range. In fact, if I got a free ticket, I'd get there but I'd also be immediately googling for a cheap couch in the area. |