New Product Development

I am working on a product that solves a problem for writers. Editing on computers was a big breakthrough, but a problem I experience is at some point scrolling back and forth in a chapter gets so confusing that I have to print out the chapter and review it in paper.

Once in paper I make notes of what to move where, what to delete, what to add, then take all that back to my computer and make the changes, starting with the last page working backwards, because the other way around will so distort the page order as I move forward, I'll never follow my notes.

I understand one is supposed to make a outline and write from that, but schools are wrong to teach this to those of us with the gift of ADD/ADHD, because that is not how we work. We are creative and messy. So my solution is to adapt video whiteboard technology to writers who have my gift.

In essence I want to get say 30 pages of a chapter up on an interactive whiteboard at once. While I was checking these out in Hong Kong 2 weeks ago at a trade show, the problem was one of pixels on editing white broads. Theoretically we can get maximum 10 pages readable on one 70" board. For 30 pages, I'd have to string 3 boards.

Also, the editing software would have to accomodate showing that many pages at one time in an editable mode. That software may not exist yet, and ideal would be if googledocs could do it.

A list participant recommended I check out 60" hdtv screens. There are no real high end electronic stores (except Apple) but BestBuy bought high end retailer Magnolia hifi, and sure enough they acted like a high end store when I came in and tried to buy my idea. According to the staff, all I will get with a 60" screen is 60" of wysiwyg from my computer screen. I had 4 guys messing on the problem (I purposely visited on a sunny friday afternoon, place was empty and there was even a pesky comcast salesman trying to sell me too since I was looking at 60" tvs... finally they sent the problem to their "commercial" division, and I spoke by phone with these guys, who will go to their suppliers and look to see if there is anything available to solve my problem. (this, as a process, somehow feels familiar.)

So far the problem gets down to pixels. On a 60" screen, you cannot get a sheet that has been reduced to 8 x 11 readable... but the rumor at best buy was, sony etc have actually produced prototypes that can do it, and dumped the idea since it does not serve the home movie viewing market. Well, I am a different application. I salivate at how much money they must have spent, and that somewhere in a Fukuoka garage is sitting a 90" screen that can resolve a 8x11 sheet....

As I proceed on this I'll update the blog.

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