Dumb Idea of the Day

I’ve published the very first version of ShareALot.org, which is a site to help the unemployed work for each other.  It basically is a tool to try to implement my dumb idea where we use the internet to help the unemployed.  I could use good feedback, so if you get a chance, check it out.  Thanks!

I’m interested in doing my part to help the ailing economy by creating a barter-like web site.  You may have seen recent interest in sites like U-exchange.com. I find these sites very interesting, but hugely limited.  For example, one young girl is trying to find a way to pay for her braces to be maintained, since her father can no longer afford the dentist.

She says her braces are falling apart.  She’s willing to trade cleaning services, and that’s great, so long as there’s a dentist near her who needs their house cleaned.  In general, simple two-party barter trades are too difficult to set up, which is why we invented money.  But what happens when you have no money?  What this girl needs is a way to accept an IOU from any of the millions of working mothers who are desperate for some day-care and cleaning help, and to be able to get her teeth fixed by passing along those IOUs in trade, or to sell them for enough cash to pay for the work.

I think this is doable, and can be done legally.  The rest of this post is a long-winded brain-dump of my first thoughts on the boring technical details… They are really rough.  I could use help improving them.  Anyone interested in helping, just e-mail me at bill@billrocks.org.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Stimulus Plan ambitiously aims to double the installed base of alternative energy in a short three years, so these should be exciting times.  However, just throwing money at the problem is a bit like saying “Anyone who wants to invade Iraq will get a 50% tax credit on their expenses.”  It wont get the job done, at least not done right.

For example, First Solar just broke the $1/watt barrier.  At this manufacturing cost, we could dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil while reducing our greenhouse emissions.  However, production at this price depends on cheap availability of a metal called tellurium.  First Solar bought about 4% of the world’s supply in 2007, probably enough for a gigawatt or two of new solar panels.  To make a huge dent, we want to scale up to a good fraction of a terawatt, and the math doesn’t work out.  Also, First Solar has little interest in selling it’s panels for under $2.50/watt, and Obama’s plan gives them reason to believe they can maintain that price.  Dell sells dozens of user-customized models of PCs at under 10% margin.  Why does First Solar need > 100%?  We also have limited production of Indium, a metal used by competitor NanoSolar, who also produce super-cheap solar panels.

Scaling up these technologies rapidly should involve government-scale planning, the way we scaled up military production in WWII.  Take the best technologies (meaning cheapest for the most part) in wind, solar cells, solar thermal, nuclear, geothermal, and cookie-cutter replicate them across the land.  Instead, we’re just going to give First Solar and others a reason to continue charging too much for their products, while expanding slowly, and at tax-payer expense.