Ask HN: Twitter is to text as [insert-future-app] is to actions?

3 points by quizbiz ↗ HN
Imagine seeing how an investigator does research on his computer live? Or seeing what Paul Graham does on his pc? Being able to learn from it and discuss it. Creepy but interesting, no?

I have an idea for an app and very little means to create so I ask for opinions and how you would proceed. I am disclosing everything with trust in this extraordinary community. If nothing else, I hope to turn this one crazy idea into a learning opportunity. Perhaps it can be a communal effort.

What if there was an app which you could turn off and on with one click that tracked everything you did on your computer. Very creepy is the obvious answer but isn't that what people thought of facebook and twitter?

v.1 would be a browser plugin that would track the URLs you visit and the amount of time you visit them for. Your profile on the app would include a live list, a version of your web history. For starters, only those who you send access to would see it. Celebrities in the future might leave it completely open. v.5 could publish the fact that you wrote a page on word in 25 min, 5 of which were spent watching a video on youtube.

I envision a social grander to this. Analyzing workflows and time management techniques. Watching what you do more carefully and learning from that. Seeing what others do and learning from that. I for one would like the motivation it would provide. Knowing my real name would be attached to what I do would be a great incentive to stay on task and make sure I spend my time wisely.

The core question here is can people get over the privacy and creepiness issue?

2 comments

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I am not sure it's a good idea. You have time to think and edit what you write on Twitter and FB(I hope!), but being tracked real time is more like a compromise of personal space. Also, I think Skype already have a feature to share screen.
I might be able to "get over" the privacy and creepiness issue if I saw some benefit to the service, but I don't. I don't see any reason why I would want to share this information with others, or why I would care about anyone else's stream. Then again, I don't use Twitter or Facebook either.