Half Baked Ideas are a new category of content that you will see on this blog from time to time. Shout out to Steve P. Young of the Mobile App Chat Podcast for this name and concept. I’ve been listening to his podcast for a few weeks, and he always ends each interview by asking the developer to give out some “half baked ideas”. I had written this particular half baked idea months ago on my personal blog, but I felt it might be a cool feature for App Battleground. Also, if you have your own half baked idea that you would like to share, drop us a line on our contact page and we will see if we can make this feature more interactive!
The following app idea was spawned in a brief moment of inspiration. I have no plans to develop this idea into anything further. Feel free to develop it out on your own if you so choose!
Tic-Take
Debate / Opinion Video App
Idea: A social video platform that allows users to share short 3 minute takes on questions that have a “pro” or “con” stance. An additional component for live debates between 2 users. Gamified. (Mobile & Desktop)
Is there a market?: Yes. Debate / opinion shows are amongst the most popular on any medium. The internet is rife with people who debate passionately on variety of topics – most specifically, politics, sports and religion. However, most of this debate currently takes place on forums or social media platforms. There are a handful of video debate platforms in existence, but they do not appear to have gained traction.
Competitors: Deeyoon, MeeVSyou, DebateHall
Why haven’t existing video debate platforms gained traction?: Current video debate platforms have a few problems:
1. Live debates only.
In order for this format to work, you need to have a large user base to ensure that each user has at least 1 other user to interact with on any given topic. Otherwise, their experience will be poor since there may be times when there is no one around to debate with.
SOLUTION: QuickTakes – a system in which users can share quick 3 minute “takes” on a topic/question of their choosing. This will allow users to create content even when they do not have a challenger for a live debate. These would be ideal for a mobile app, as live debates are probably not the most technologically feasible on mobile devices at the moment.
2. Poor discovery engine.
The current video debate platforms have atrocious discovery engines. At the moment, DeeYoon simply has a chronological list of archived debates. MeeVSyou has no discernable way to discover content. DebateHall has a generic navigation system.
SOLUTION: Utilize a system of tagging to allow the community to categorize content. Rank high quality content and debates in descending order.
I visualize this working kind of like Quora, where there is ONE question under which users can debate or share their takes. For example, the question “Who will win the Super Bowl: 49ers or Ravens” can only be asked once. Any time a new user attempts to create this question, they will be directed to this “thread” under which they can share their takes or challenge other users to a live debate. The live debates and takes will be archived under this thread, with the most popular ones (based on upvotes) will be at the top.
3. No Incentive to debate.
Other than the desire to share your opinion and debate, there are no outside incentives to use the services.
SOLUTION: Gamification. Allow users to gain points and levels based on their participation in live debates and takes. Users can use these points to purchase “power-ups” that can be used during live debates to gain an advantage against your opponent. In addition, as a user levels up, new “power-ups” are unlocked. Highest level users can perhaps enter a revshare program (similar to YouTube Publisher) in which they will receive a portion of revenue from ads on their content.
In addition to gamification, the other incentive to join this platform would be to gain authority on a topic. This is a major component of the Twitter post extention platform Sulia (See: http://sulia.com/channel/miami-dolphins/) Journalists were routinely using this platform in order to become recognized as a “leading expert” on their topic within Sulia because it helped them gain visibility and authority on their topic. A similar mentality is present on Quora.
On TicTake, users will try to outrank other users on a topic in order to maintain their status as an “expert” on a topic that is important to them.
- QuickTake – A 3 minute “take” on a question or topic.
The QuickTake is split into 3 “takes” at 1 minute each, with a conclusion at the end. - TakeDuel – A live debate.
Users can challenge other users to a structured debate on the topic or question of their choice. Users can find challengers by browsing through the topic channels or by tweeting or sharing an invite to their challenge via social networks. The live debate will have a traditional debate structure between 2 opponents that will not exceed 10 minutes in duration. Other users can view these debates live and once they are archived. In both cases (live and archived), users can vote on winners of each round and of the overall duel.
During the duel, each challenger will have 5 slots in which to set their “power-ups”. These special cards can be purchased with points either accumulated from their activity or those purchased in the store.
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So what do you think? Does this idea have any potential? What features would you add or remove? Share in the comments!
Steve Young says
Thanks for the shout out Shane. Your post is very detailed into the idea. 🙂
Shane Kittelson says
Thanks Steve! Love your podcast. I hope you don’t mind that I used the term “half baked idea” for this kind of post. I was trying to think of alternatives, but I couldn’t think of any!