Product idea - like it or hate? | Hacker News Reader

Product idea - like it or hate?

4 pointshajrice8 comments

Hey hey hey! I've had a product idea for a web app for some time now. I'd really love to hear your input on this.

Basically it's time management for students. We all know that most students are pretty bad at time management. Now what do you think about a web app that would cost $10/semester for students and they could either send a message via cell phone/twitter it via cell phone with the message (example: "math test 101 #next friday") and that would be added to their personal timeline. They'd get sms/email alerts when they have a test coming up.

SO, they can either login to the web app and update it simply by typing a human message like "do homework for #tomorrow", or send a twitter message with that content and it'd be added to their personal timeline.

Please tell me what you think about this idea. Do you like it? Would you use if (if you were a student)?

Thanks, Emil Hajric.

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My startup Classleaf http://classleaf.com leaves it up to the teachers to put in homework and tests and whatnot. (Also has email notifications in the development version, which can be sent to regular sms.)

I had a failed startup called Student Concourse (academic homework/grades/tests/events/everything management) and what we found out from it was that students don't like to take time to plan. Users used it for a day then they stopped using it because it was annoying to put in content.

It's easier for the teacher to put it in and for the student to receive the sms without needing to do anything but subscribe to the teacher's inputted class events.

The hardest part is actually getting the person to WANT to manage their time. Once that happens there are tons of ways to do it. Consider the iPhone. It's just as easy to enter something into the calendar as it would be to text your server.

A better system might be one that focuses on the teachers providing most of the input and the students subscribing to their teachers events.

I want to manage my time, but I always forget that I have better things to do when I have a moment to sit down and waste time on reddit or comic books. I wouldn't mind a service providing an interstitial before a blacklist of time-wasting sites with my interactive to-do list on it, perhaps with a lens flare over the more urgent items or something. That isn't this program, but it'd be useful to me.

Why focus just on students? Maybe make a general calender/sms applications, then do small customizations for different groups.

You could have a student calender or a family calender.

Good point. I'd argue that families have a larger need for a shared calendar. "Don't forget to pick up Joey at 3pm" is a real problem and using the fridge to communicate is not the best approach.

It's not really about the idea, it's about getting it done.

Students hate paying for things. I think it will be very hard to make a paid model work on a scale that would see any kind of real revenue. The problem is only exacerbated by the fact that there are already a lot of similar free services out there.

I really don't think when I was a student I could have justified paying for a service like this.

That being said, I think it's a neat idea.

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