Ideas meeting: May 9th, 2016

Present: Ariel, Edward, Paul, Corin, Kris, Jason, Stephen, Wes, Guven, Cimarron, Sebastian
Chair: Luke
Minutes: Sandra

1) Ariel:  Kidney failure prevention
Challenge: early stage detection
Idea: device/test/ways to detect protein levels in urine that hint at kidney problems and allow people to react early enough to prevent lasting damage

Ariel: Kidney problems are often diet related (sodium); Taiwanese have a high propensity to kidney problems (diet related)
Corin: suggest tracking diet (taking pictures of food and submitting them via an app) and getting feedback
Arielle: suggests submitting pictures of urine colour
Paul: suggests that it doesn’t necessarily have to be an app, but could be as simple as handing out a card with a colour spectrum for people to compare their urine to
Luke: raises the question, if it is feasible to create a test that’s cheap enough to be accessible for the general public and how to go about educating the general public/raising awareness; Luke suggests that Ariel should talk to a nephrologist friend of his (Emily F. at open science network)
Corin: suggests a type of litmus test that can be thrown into the toilet
Kris: mentions that there is a dipstick test and suggests that it would be great to put more different tests into one dipstick to get more bang for your buck
Luke: suggests doing a feasibility study
Corin: mentions that kidney issues could also show in the face (skin color) and suggests  that there could be an app that analyses your face
Kris: mentions that facebook already scans pictures for signs of depression
Edward: mentions that we should look at it like a doctor would – input more data, urine test, images, diet – in the background could be a doctor to analyse the data
Corin: suggest to create awareness by creating  easy to remember slogans
Wes: mentions that blood is more accurate than urine
Sebastian: suggests that there should be an add-on for a phone to measure blood
Cimarron: suggests installing testing mechanisms in urinals
Luke: mentions a  sensor in a urinal for the detection of creatinine
Cimarron: idea to put it in a public urinal is problematic because of privacy (employers, insurances etc. are interested in learning about your health)
Corin: suggests to measure it further “downstream” to detect broader tendencies in a neighbourhood without identifiying individuals.
Kris: https://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/urine-protein/tab/test/

2) Guven: Customisable product platform (Krakle)
Challenge: How to break into the local market
Idea: A platform that allows small businesses to offer customisation of their products, e.g. cake shops, insurance companies, wedding planners
Status: the platform is supposed to launch in 2 weeks; it was developed and tested in Turkey with positive results, but Guven finds it difficult to get traction/interest in Vancouver

Corin: suggests to find two or three digital agencies (companies that build websites for other companies) to start using Krakle and cascade from there
Kris: mentions that it’s important to define the value for digital agencies
Paul: suggests to have a look at Mobify
Corin: has a contact for Guven and offers to talk after the meeting
Edward:  talks about customisation options for websites, which are easy to build – asks what is the value of Guven’s solution?
Luke: mentions that Guven needs to find businesses that are struggling with the problem that he’s offering a solution for; people don’t want to learn something new, it needs to make their lives easier
Guven: mentions that this is directed to amateur/small business owners (cake makers, wedding planners, etc.)
Edward: suggests that the problem needs to be complex enough to make Guven’s solution necessary
Corin: says that there are plenty of agencies/sites (eg. Rocket) that already offer this - and more - as part of their service
Kris: asks about the positioning, differentiation from other solutions --> Guven says that with his solution you can change/adapt your workflow easily, whereas other solutions don’t allow that (or only against a high price)
Kris: asks if it works with Wordpress --> not yet; Kris mentions that a client of his (flower arrangement for head stones - Flower Halo) may be a potential user, but they are not technical and they wouldn’t want to learn something new – so it would have to be compatible with Wordpress (and other similar platforms)
Luke: suggests that it needs to be super easy for non-technical people; it needs to be an end-to-end solution that doesn’t depend on the user’s technical abilities
Guven: he made three interfaces to cater to peoples’ preferences (folder based and others)
Wes: suggests to walk from door to door and explain it to small businesses
Luke: suggests free support for the first 10 customers, which help refine the product
Guven: thinks about giving support for free for the first customer of each category
Corin: mentions that the price of the product needs to take into consideration that the support costs money/time (monthly fee)
Luke: suggests not charging for the support/product, but take a part in the sales
Stephen: suggests a different business model: 25$ for implementation, 10$ per hour for support; only turn it into a plug-in once the idea is proven
Guven: offers different packages involving hosting
Jason: suggests that people could become contributors to the service

3) Sebastian: Tinder for vacation packages
Challenge: Finding the perfect vacation package
Idea: Create a Tinder-style app that allows you to swipe your way to the perfect package, including flight, accommodation, sightseeing trips; includes algorithms that help with the next suggestions; swipe left/ right for yes/no

Kris: mentions sunwing.ca
Luke: swiping helps the database learn, swiping also allows to identify matches (vendors could get feedback on popular products and create an offer based on that)
Sebastian: could be a player on the sharing economy (for event accommodation, Airbnb) --> Stephen says that it sounds really labour intensive
Stephen: the swiping could be the unique value (swipe yes or no for all inclusive – yes/no, beach – yes/no and so on, and swipe yourself to a result)
Luke: swipe yes/no on add-ons (rental car, vip bar ticket); hotels that the users swiped yes on could offer incentives to the user to win his business (Sebastian would sell the data to the hotels, etc.)

4) Jason: Resource platform for teachers (Jason is a French and Science teacher)
Challenge: All teachers need teaching materials/resources
Idea: An online platform that offers resources for teachers of all disciplines all in one place, including annotations

Question: What need do teachers have that is not met by commonly available resources?
Jason: If you want to teach you have to either inherit resources from a predecessor or create them yourself; the idea is to collect resources, have them voted on and make them available to teachers (or those who want to be teachers)
Kris: mentions classcentral.com (list of free online classes); mentions Free University Courses/MOOC (Aggregator of the aggregators)
Luke: suggests an education wiki (instead of wordpress based online presence), free for teachers to use, compensate people in credit for the use of their lesson plans; reputation value for frequently used lesson plans (or number of students that were taught using this plan)
Jason: Students could also access the plans by subscription
Cimarron: suggests a diagnostic feature for course recommendations; mentions gamification aspect of duolingo where you can get your individual diagnostic of your linguistic weaknesses
Wes: could be useful to review lesson plans
Edward: mentions overlap with his idea; people could contribute to the education wiki; more interaction with the community; alternative to standard teacher / student relationship; more interactive; open source; different categories (idioms, vocabulary, conjugations, pronunciation)

5) Edward: language efficiency app
Challenge: language learning is not personalised and efficient enough
Idea: an app that helps language students to make their study more personalised and efficient

Edward: main challenge is memorizing words and how to apply them in real-life situations; students should be able to build up their own word lists (customised based on interests); users can input sample sentences; community can contribute examples and recordings of different pronunciations; up-voting, down-voting for good contributions/bad contributions
Luke: mentions speech recognition -->Edward says that he would like to integrate a recording/playback plug-in
Corin: Asks what is the most important thing to solve for Edward?--> increase of learning efficiencies, customised learning based on your knowledge and capabilities or circumstances
Ariel: asks about target group -->Edward says it’s universal
Corin: suggests to make an initial test and then create training based on that
Kris: mentions Lucas, who’s fluent in over 30 languages, and who’s working on a tool that tries to beat Google translate on the contextual level -->suggests to Edward to talk to Lucas
Corin: suggests to concentrate on Chinese market for TOEFL to turn it into a business
Luke: suggests cooperation between Edward and Jason--> Edward focuses on the data set, Jason comes in afterwards
Kris: suggests for Edward and Jason to look into https://moodle.org/

6) Sandra: Raise awareness around sustainability matters

Challenge: There are many people who may want to live more sustainably, but don’t know how, or feel discouraged thinking that they can’t make a difference
Idea: Find a way to raise awareness and offer easy to implement advice on more sustainable practices in everyday live

Luke: Find a way to gamify and socialize sustainability – share and compare with social network: How many bottles have you recycled this week? (social merit) -->get people to submit ideas; up-vote/down-vote useful tips/practices
Corin: Set up a sustainability score; calculate carbon removed from the atmosphere through sustainable practices (e.g. gas calculator)--> progress could be visualised through a growing tree (compare Car2go tree); or actually plant a tree as a reward; show the scale – 1 flight vs X amount of recycled bottles? What’s the real impact of using a metal straw versus a disposable straw?; work with peer pressure (now 65% of your neighbours recycle bottles)
Wes: highlights differences in recycling practices across municipalities; mentions that you can’t drop off styrofoam in Vancouver, but you can in New West --> how to minimize trips to recycle depot? Ariel: mentions facebook group “Nifty”
Kris: mentions tipping point pricing on sustainability items – once one thing tips it’s bought
Suggestion: credit card data (purchasing history) mapped to sustainability --> airmiles for sustainability card; banking platform tells you how you can recycle your purchases; suitable, more eco-friendly opportunities could be promoted
Suggestion: Provide information about how many and which parts of a popular product are recyclable? (i.e. iPhone)
Suggestion: become an authority or a sustainability coach in the field; create an environmental working group to independently audit products
Corin: Cultural shift: pick one needle mover topic (e.g. food waste); monthly topics; yearly topics
Luke: we need events (booth at farmers market, meetup groups) for the people who have not yet adopted a sustainability model – offer practical steps
Suggestion: Take major themes to scale (environmental impact, health)
Kris: suggests to offer a subscription of a monthly sustainability package ($20 subscription) in cooperation with companies like e.g. the soap dispensary
à companies put sustainable products (e.g. metal straws) worth more than 40$ and the package includes a write up about the product/sustainability matters
Jason: Reach teachers that raise awareness with children (sustainability package for teachers); Jason offers to cooperate with Sandra --> offer workshops in schools or communities
Stephen: Get sponsorship, get grants, fundraising to ensure viability; a blog lends authority

7) Kris: How to find your top passion and master a domain in life?
Many people in Kris’ network are moving away from financial goals in life (comfort and luxury) and move towards a more ideal driven lifestyle.
Challenge: How to find what your top passion or calling is? How to master a domain in life?

Luke: Get up, dress up, show up
Kris:  asks what do people do to find motivation/discipline?
Corin: often the lack of discipline can be a pointer (why am I unmotivated?); question the goal
Paul: maybe it’s a pointer that you’re not that into it, if you find it hard to discipline yourself; tries to marry hobbies/interests and work to avoid the discipline issue -->you’re motivated because you love what you do
Corin: Think of your live as a series of blocks and parts and fit them together rather than trade off parts against each other
Paul: it’s harder to plan for the future, if you don’t follow the traditional path
Cimarron: work/life should be less separated; do something good for yourself (go for a swim in the sea) first, and then do your work
Kris: Harvard business review – work life balance is a zero sum game
Luke: plays tricks on himself; he knows he won’t regret doing something, but will regret not doing something
Kris: mentions a headband that monitors his sleep (Zio – defunct company)
--> journal your sleep and then look at the data
Kris: invites people to the Biofeedback lap to participate in the sensor project (add link); talks about the “watch state” that is part of the circadian rhythm
--> Luke has a contact for a clinical trial
--> Kris mentions RFID temperature sensor; with enough temperature sensors maybe you could average core temp.

8) Kris: How to satisfy your needs (based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)
Challenge: today we often satisfy our needs in the higher levels of the pyramid, but lack needs in the levels below (e.g. sleep, sex, adequate food, health)
Idea: find a way to tackle the problem and create a sustainable way to solve it
Paul: suggests Tinder for needs based on Maslow
Luke: gamify, peer comparison
Cimarron: app could offer solutions/recommendations depending on what’s missing (e.g. sex – recommend tinder, food – recommend food solution)

9) Cimarron: Optimization of small scale crop fields
--> Will present some other time

10)Luke: contact metadata
Challenge: we have lots of contacts, but often not enough information to leverage them
Idea: find a way to attach details about a person, which are relevant to you, to their contact information
-->will talk about it next week

Next Week:
Stephen - minutes - Kris - Chair