I’m thinking about a media player/writer that consumes a sequence of 140 character microblogging posts that contain TinyURLs. The viewing area of this application shows the specified video, audio, image or text. The URLs are decorated with the start point and end point of the quoted material.
The player can be pointed at purchased lists, personally created lists, shared lists, dynamically created lists, and real-time lists from affinity groups or individual authors. The lists can be filtered to show only video, only audio, only images or only text. Of course, one can select any combination of media types as well.
It’s also a writer, these same microblogging posts can be composed, URLs constructed and attached, and then sent to the real-time stream. It can also create sequences and share them. Other controls include:
- Rewind
- Fast-Forward
- Slow-Motion
- Pause
- Skip to next
- Skip to specified keyword
- Mark, and return to Mark
- Loop
- Copy and Paste
- Auto-Scroll text at specified reading speed
All devices, mobile or stationary, are supported– as are all syndication formats RSS, Atom, etc. The viewable output can consumed on iPhones, Android devices, Kindle, Chumby, computers, televsions and GPS devices.
Some additional uses for the system might be:
- Turn-by-turn GPS directions
- Cooking Recipes
- Assembly instructions
- Music instruction
- Any kind of education / testing content
An example of a live two-way sequence might be: I send you a sequence that shows you how to get from where you are to my house. You get halfway there and don’t understand the next instruction. You ping me with a question about that part of the direction sequence. I respond in real time with a clarification. With the additional clarification you’re back on track. The instruction set we discuss, either via text or voice, exists in a format we both can access and reference any point in the sequence.
Think of it as XML for content.