dracule
February 25th, 2009, 02:48 AM
I honestly dont know where to go with this idea so I thought I would just bounce it off of the very internet savvy people at Ubuntu forums. :)
Anyways my school is having this contest to create a business. Naturally I wanted to do a Web 2.0 business so my group came up with the idea of like Wiki books on steroids. Where it is a user generated text book specifically for language learning, but with it totally revamped to push the idea of user interaction between people. Wikibooks doesnt cut it because you cant communicate with others, but forums dont do it because it is incredibly disorganized. so my group has come up with some really dynamite ideas that hell if i had the time I would actually make the site because it sounds ******* awesome.
Anyways so the basic concept is that we will get investors to front some cash to pay people to write the first like 5 chapters of 4 languages or something just to get a base down. Then as the site took off people could go in add new chapters or sections and edit old ones and it would be self sustaining.
But i dont know a good business model for it. I have a few ideas:
First, the site can have these things, but for now lets just say they are called Tokens. All users start up with a set number of Tokens. Answering a question will gain you Tokens, asking a question will subtract Tokens from your account. If you put in a request that also subtract Tokens. If a user gets impatient, he can buy Tokens instead of answering questions to refill his “Token Account”.
Users can be on tiers. Lets just call the tiers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Users just starting out are on tier 1, and as they edit sections, write new sections and help others, they gain points. Eventually they will get enough points to move up a tier. One benefit of being higher up is that your votes will be worth more in the request voting thing (if a tier 1's vote is worth 1, then a tier 2's will be worth 1.2, and 3's will be worth 1.4 etc.) Also we will have to think of other advantages of increasing in tiers. The point is that if a user doesnt want to answer questions and write sections, that user can buy his way up to the next tier. (Also at the end of each month, users get demoted one tier, so each month that user will have to pay).The plan is that the service will be free and equally accessible to everyone rich and poor. This business model basically says that if you are committed to the site, you have more privileges on the site. Users submitting sections and answering questions show that they are serious about contributing. Users buying their way up show that they are serious about using the site. If you want the benefits of a higher but dont have money, you can simply answer questions and contribute. So everybody wins, except those people that dont want to contribute to the site.
Or we could just put ads on the site. Or we could make it where only tier 1 people can see ads.
I just dont know how practical it is in real life. I was hoping someone here that had some experience or something could comment.
Anyways my school is having this contest to create a business. Naturally I wanted to do a Web 2.0 business so my group came up with the idea of like Wiki books on steroids. Where it is a user generated text book specifically for language learning, but with it totally revamped to push the idea of user interaction between people. Wikibooks doesnt cut it because you cant communicate with others, but forums dont do it because it is incredibly disorganized. so my group has come up with some really dynamite ideas that hell if i had the time I would actually make the site because it sounds ******* awesome.
Anyways so the basic concept is that we will get investors to front some cash to pay people to write the first like 5 chapters of 4 languages or something just to get a base down. Then as the site took off people could go in add new chapters or sections and edit old ones and it would be self sustaining.
But i dont know a good business model for it. I have a few ideas:
First, the site can have these things, but for now lets just say they are called Tokens. All users start up with a set number of Tokens. Answering a question will gain you Tokens, asking a question will subtract Tokens from your account. If you put in a request that also subtract Tokens. If a user gets impatient, he can buy Tokens instead of answering questions to refill his “Token Account”.
Users can be on tiers. Lets just call the tiers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Users just starting out are on tier 1, and as they edit sections, write new sections and help others, they gain points. Eventually they will get enough points to move up a tier. One benefit of being higher up is that your votes will be worth more in the request voting thing (if a tier 1's vote is worth 1, then a tier 2's will be worth 1.2, and 3's will be worth 1.4 etc.) Also we will have to think of other advantages of increasing in tiers. The point is that if a user doesnt want to answer questions and write sections, that user can buy his way up to the next tier. (Also at the end of each month, users get demoted one tier, so each month that user will have to pay).The plan is that the service will be free and equally accessible to everyone rich and poor. This business model basically says that if you are committed to the site, you have more privileges on the site. Users submitting sections and answering questions show that they are serious about contributing. Users buying their way up show that they are serious about using the site. If you want the benefits of a higher but dont have money, you can simply answer questions and contribute. So everybody wins, except those people that dont want to contribute to the site.
Or we could just put ads on the site. Or we could make it where only tier 1 people can see ads.
I just dont know how practical it is in real life. I was hoping someone here that had some experience or something could comment.