To set up a web site that has a list of all zip codes in the US. If you click on any of the zip codes a wall will appear. Anyone can publish whatever they want on this wall. The idea would be that people from a certain zip code would go to the wall and post things they would want to share locally. In my case my zip code is 10024. I might want to share something with my immediate community that has relevance to that community ("I think the gravel in the dog run needs to be replaced"); Or it could be a poem. It could be photos. It could be graffiti. I think this idea might have an interest for teens that are looking for some sort of community where they could freely post either with attribution or anonymously , but that does not have the barriers to linked membership, (Facebook or Myspace friends sharing with their friends, vs a wide open post- more of an on-line town square). Once the wall fills up a little cartoon truck will drive over to the wall and a small man with a mustache and overalls will come out with a can of paint. He will paint the wall white and then people can start to draw on it again.
People could "travel" to other areas by clicking on other zip codes. Someone might want to travel around and tag every wall in their area or a different area. I think the idea of local segmentation could build a sense of community in that area. Of course you would not be required to post in your real zip code and if you wanted to post regularly in another zip code you could develop an on line persona that is completely separate from your reality. But perhaps that is a fun thing to do. This is a pretty wide open idea that could go a million different ways.
One idea that I thought of to promote this project would be to commission a graffiti artist to design a shirt that also includes the name of the web site (for example localgraffiti.com)- Then you would hire some models to go to SoHo or Los Angeles and hand out the tees to people that look like opinion makers. If the tastemakers wear the shirt people might want to go to the site and check it out. After that the idea might take on a life of its own.
Something I like about this project is that you could make the web architecture for one web site and then segment it for all of the zip codes in the US. You are making many sites but once you design it one time the programming to duplicate it should not be too bad.
From a financial perspective I think there is money in this idea. Once a zip code becomes populated you could offer the buildings surrounding the wall for rent for a nominal price- say $10. So if you had a real store and wanted to promote it you could rent that space on the site with your name and then people might see the name and remember that store. You could also rent the name to whoever wants to rent it to set up a fake store or an idea store to sell their idea. It might be easy to set up a self service on-line kiosk for people to rent space on that page.
Who knows if this idea will make money (I pitched my brother and he said that it was a cool project that would not make money). But let me know your thoughts and if anyone wants to do it please let me know because I would like to check it out!
All the best,
Eric
