I've been carrying this around for a year and finally mocked it up. Maybe a YC or other incubator application, however I am an old geezer with a family and committments so that might be an additional challenge. Please contact me off list if you have any interest. Thanks.
www.newsppl.com
I'm uncertain how appropriate it is for this to be news related. If you're doing a story on Burma, I want you to be in Burma, not in San Francisco sipping a Latte, posting an ad such as "Myanmar: $100 for picture of demonstrating anti-government crowd". That just seems like a recipe for non-trustworthy information. You are asking for evidence (pictures) to fit your theory (the story you intend to write). That isn't how good science is done, and I would think it's not how good reporting would be done either. You even go so far as make the sources anonymous, which takes even more credibility away.
However... I do see merit in the idea of a geo based Mechanical Turk type job board, that's not news oriented. If I'm a web designer or an advertiser, and I want a picture of a can of Coca Cola in front of the Salt Hotel in Bolivia, than this seems perfect for that sort of thing. If I'm a movie writer, and I want to know how many drawers the card catalog in the west wing of the library of congress has, because I'm using it for a plot point, than your service would be perfect. I just don't like it for news.
Thank you for your feedback. The idea IS to be able to find someone in Burma, or anywhere on earth. Their geo-location wouldn't lie, but I suppose anything can be hacked. It is supposed to be in real-time and location based exactly so that "stock" information is not returned to the requestor. Too, the sources may be anonymous, but credibility could be built under any username.
I was thinking the same. Also, all kind of bets among friends could be quickly resolved with this service. There are really infinite use cases here (you could check the weather with this for instance), not to mention the "dark" side ... you know "I want a picture of boobies and the Eiffel towel in the background" :)
Posting this is a good start. Finding talented people(not friends or acquaintances prior) randomly to help develop an idea for free is very challenging. Even more so if you have no technical skills. If you do or do not have technical skills just start up this project on the side. A few hours every weekend. It may take longer but you will be glad you did this! If you have no technical skills go to odesk.com and hire someone. This is what I did and along the way I taught myself front end languages and the person I hired in India is now my partner & friend.
I started out with zero technical skills and have learned a little (x)html and css along the way, enough to run my own sites. I now have larger goals. I got completely free technical support initially by spending my time in places (on the web) where people wanted what I had to offer (in my case: information, wisdom about specific topics).
It is refreshing to see someone post their idea outright at the earliest stage. Most people would be far to worried that their idea would be ripped off by someone before they have started which would rarely ever be the case.
