Ideas for the world, FREE!
Akshaya Murthy
Akshaya is a serial entrepreneur with an interest in all things tech. He also heads a large team at Wipro Techologies, India working on software quality. His experience spans manufacturing, media, gaming and retail software. Ideabing.com is his second venture in the media domain. AKshaya can be emailed at akshaya.murthy atideabing.com
Homepage: http://www.ideabing.com
Posts by Akshaya Murthy
The Rent Nightly Business Is Hotting Up – Meet Metroflats
Sep 8th
The rent-your-home-to-strangers business seems to be bringing up more and more startups to the fore. Airbnb is arguably the biggest with presence in almost every nation in the world. We had featured another NYC startup – Localbigwig and now there is another! Introducing Metroflats. Metroflats says it all in the name – rent a flat in a metro area. Metroflats gives the same services as localbigwig and airbnb but in a smaller number of cities within the US. Started by two business graduates and serial entrepreneurs – Avisha and Shamoon, Metroflats boasts of the finest places you can rent in cities like NYC, San Diego, Orlando and Miami.
There is nothing new about new businesses popping up when a concept seems to start working but these guys seem to e a little different - targeting the higher end of the vacation rental business. The listings are almost all north of $100 a night competing directly with the upper segment of hotels. Come on, those Hiltons deserve some competition! Check out metroflats at metroflats.com
Boxes Going Green? All Over The Place?
Sep 8th
Oh well, it was Lifebox, then UPS and now Ebay. Ebay is now giving out in its green boxes. But hang on – this one’s a little different. Ebay is not going to ship your stuff in it but is just going to give the box to you. The box has space for you to write where its from and a message to a person you are handing it to. The concept is that you will use the box to give someone something and in turn that someone uses it to give someone else, something else. Confused yet? Yeah, I can understand. Ebay’s Skype buyout was as confusing. But now the good part – if each of the 100,000 (only??) boxes being “given away” is reused 5 times Ebay estimates that we will save about 4000 trees, 2.4 million gallons of water and conserve enough energy to power 49 homes. Nice thought but the lucky few who get these boxes better use it at least 5 times! Images after the break.
Simple Design That Saves Lives
Sep 7th
This design would win any safety design contest hands down. The “safety plug”rides on the success of “simplicity”. Yes – the same factor the iPhone succeeded on. The design simply covers up the naked power points on a plug to make something safe even more safer. Designed keeping child safety in mind i think this is one of the best designs I have come across. Images after the break.
Human Feces + Design = Prosperity
Sep 5th
This is one of those ideas that we wonder why it was not thought of before. A simple concept that can change the face of life as we know in developing nations like India and Bangladesh is what we want to write about today. The problem we are trying to solve is a difficult one – toilets. A country where more than 50% of the population does not have access to a sanitary system makes life a little odd to imagine. As the designer of the concept make shift toilet describes it – human dignity is what powers as humans. Lack of a sanitary system means lack of human dignity. Progress in such a situation is very difficult ordeal.
The concept places a portable toilet system at home which has a removable waste tank. Basically, you crap into the tank, take it to the nearest bio digesting facility and get a clean tank to take back home. The feces then powers a bio gas generator that extracts methane gas out of it and converts the slurry into usable fertilizers. This simple concept breaks away any need for water lines or a sanitary system to keep the place free from filth. We hope this works well! Images of the concept and videos after the break.
Move Over Airbnb – Localbigwig is here
Sep 4th
Airbnb.com – the home share service can be credited with creating a market that existed only in the nooks and crannies of craigslist but that doesn’t mean competition is far away. Localbigwig, another home share/rental service is here to disrupt this way business is done. While airbnb.com boasts of numbers localbigwig boasts of smaller numbers but “great people”. Their punchline “it’s not the place, it’s the people” clearly puts the message across.What’s the point if the place is pretty but a psycho killer lives there? Localbigwig screens homeowners before a listing and hence is a BIG leap in terms of a sense of security. Guests planning to stay in localbigwig homes will also be screened for security purposes. What also distinguishes localbigwig from the competition is that its provides home owners the support to maintain and clean up their homes once guests have left.
Building a network based on good service for both owners and guests is certainly a great step forward in catapulting the brand beyond just being another player in the industry. Localbigwig is currently limited to the NYC area. They plan to go national very soon. Go check out Localbigwig at localbigwig.com
Infovideo: Asteroids Discovered In The Last 30 Years
Sep 3rd
The last 30 years (1980 – 2010) have really been massive for the space science community. We have discovered and documented more heavenly bodies in the last 30 years than mankind has in documented history. Ted Bowell and Associates created the asteroid orbital elements database to precisely track every asteroid that we have discovers in the last 30 years. All this has culminated in a brilliant video that can be considered a time lapse video of asteroids and their movement within the solar system in relation to the planets. So, how many asteroids did we discover in 30 years? About 500,000 o them. Video after the break.
Something’s Cooking At Ideabing- Ideabing Idea Book Published
Sep 3rd
We have changed our logo to something fresher and published a book called The Ideabing Idea Book – Volume 1. The massive 390 page book contains all the posts on Ideabing from Jan 2010 to June 2010. Whats more? The book is free for download in digital form. Feel free to distribute the book anyhow you want – printed, email, whatever makes you happy. We will be churning out 3 editions a year – one every 6 months and one for the entire year. We will keep it free as far as possible. More exciting things happening this fall on Ideabing – stay tuned.
