Suppose I was sitting around with my friends or family binging on YouTube videos together on a computer when an idea struck me that would make the experience better.
I do not want to build such a product or patent it myself. I don’t know whether it would work or how they might implement it. It’s just a bare idea. Instead I want my friends to vote on it and for YouTube to consider trying it out – I want it to exist so that I can use it. And I want to get credit online for having suggested it (props!) even if YouTube was already working on it. Or maybe YouTube is running a contest over social media to gather feature ideas and giving out prizes (hint hint @YouTube). Where could I post such an idea where YouTube’s lawyers won’t be afraid to let their engineers look. Now I can post it on ideaphore and then post an ideaphore link on twitter or facebook directed @YouTube. That way, both YouTube and I agree before they see the idea on the terms under which my idea can be viewed. Now my friends can view it and vote on it to tell YouTube whether they also would want this feature.
In this case, I am posting my idea for free, dedicated to the public for YouTube and anyone else who sees it to use freely. https://ideapho.re/ideas/32-youtube-google.html Who else wants a feature like this?
On https://ideapho.re, I post an idea “for:” @YouTube @Google “that” I call the “YouTube Rotary” which makes sharing videos easier and more fun. The “idea is:”
YouTube should have a “rotary” feature where a group of people can share videos they love, taking turns. Each person can select a playlist and their videos play to the whole group one at a time. This can be done locally or over the web.
Locally, a group of friends would sit around a tv (e.g. with chromecast), a computer screen, or their phones and binge-watch YouTube videos. This could be automatically detected by the youtube app if, say, multiple people are casting to one device over wifi. Each person would create a queue on their phones with the ability to add and remove videos. Each person’s videos are played from their queue either on the common screen or on the screen of the individual phone who’s turn it is. In the latter version, everyone would sit around in a circle and take turns pointing their phones to the group. “OK watch this trick shot, it’s epic.” Of course, there could be the occasional permitted override that goes something like “OOH OOH, I know one we HAVE to watch after this, it’s just like this one but better, let me skip ahead.” Maybe limit “skip aheads” to 2 or 3 per hour?
Over the web, multiple people (even strangers) can enter a “theater” where certain kinds of videos are being played by other users in that room. This can be based on a theme or a general theater created just for friends. In the theater, individuals can watch videos in that theme, comment in real time, and add their own suggestions to the queue. All videos selected by participants are played equitably so everyone gets a turn but perhaps weighted toward first to arrive and higher user rating.
Here are a few more ideas for the implementation of a theater: A “skip” button on everyone’s screen could be used to monitor whether a large number of people in that theater want to skip the current video. Rooms should be limited by content rating – not allowing videos rated higher than the threshold – with the rating threshold displayed near the link for the room. There could also be “showroom theaters” where only one youtuber gets to select the videos played. Artists could use this to debut albums in real time with their fans meeting them in the theater at a set time. Or a sports venue could use it to post and play instant replays to augment an ongoing television broadcast. Videos in a showroom start playing for everyone as soon as, and in the order that, the “projectionist” adds them to the list.
Perhaps YouTube could acquire one of the startups that are trying features like this already such as watch2gether.
ideaphore 