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Ask HN: Rate this startup idea: group calendar for things you're "anticipating"

8 points by wanderboy ↗ HN
I've been busy working on a different startup, but this idea has been floating around in my head. What I would like to build and use is a calendar where I can add all of the events that I'm looking forward to - movie premieres, video game releases, album releases, product releases (like the iPhone 4), television shows, Web shows, etc.

If your event title (ex. Fable 3 Release) is similar to something another person entered, the system would ask you whether you'd like to "piggyback" onto the event.

From the event page, users can write comments (discussion), add pictures, links or other information.

Three separate calendars on the Web app: -your personal calendar -a composite of your "friends'" calendars -a "public" calendar - where the most popular events go.

Why I'd like to build this: it would be fun to track what's happening this way, but it would be even more fun to see what other people are getting excited about. After that "bee" campaign for Halo 2, I couldn't believe that almost all of the people around me weren't waiting for its November release date. I'm sure that my friends had similar events in their life. Even though I don't have a lot to be excited for tomorrow, I'm sure one of my friends does - and maybe it's something that would interest me.

Monetization strategy: most likely, would get organizations to put a sponsored event on each day's calendar (promoting an event) similar to the way that Twitter's promoted trending topics are "real" topics, but are just given a boost by the promotion.

I'm sorry this pitch is so poorly put-together, but I wanted to get the full extent of the idea onto the page.

What are your thoughts on this idea?

7 comments

[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 29.3 ms ] thread
ssclafani
http://Plancast.com, which launched last November, does exactly this.
wanderboy
I think I may have seen that. Still - aren't they focusing more on real world "events" (conferences, demo days, etc.) than on more "trivial" things like product releases?
ssclafani
From Mark Hendrickson, the founder:

“We shy away from using the term “events” because we don’t feel it’s very appropriate for the scope of activity we’re trying to capture. While our users may be interested in posting more formal, organized parties and whatnot to Plancast (and we certainly encourage them to), we want them to also feel completely comfortable sharing more informal plans (getting drinks, seeing a movie, going to the zoo, traveling to new york for a week, attending a conference, etc)."

http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/plancast/

I wouldn't be surprised if you had read that TechCrunch article. I once woke up with what I thought was a great original idea only to realize after some searching that it was exactly like startup I had read about on TechCrunch a couple months earlier.

daleharvey
This is something I have been looking for for a while, in the local tech community we are trying to organise all the upcoming tech events, and we have been looking for a calendar application that would support the ability to share and filter events between lots of people, being able to see who else is going to the events would be a massive plus. Currently using google calendar but it is a massive pain.

(worth mentioning at this point that its probably not something we would want to pay for)

* http://techmeetup.co.uk/

wanderboy
dale - is plancast what you're looking for?
daleharvey
yeh I went to check it straight out from the other comment, it looks perfect so far, thanks
petersauer
Great idea, Dale. :)

Check out Plancast and let us know if you have any feedback.

Peter

Plancast.com/Peter