"Graduation Authentication Links" Proposal for Linkedin/Facebook/MySpace

Here is my proposal for Linkedin/Facebook/Myspace to gain market share with a new business/product..."INFRASTRUCTURE for GRADUATION AUTHENTICATION LINKS" THE NEED: With social networks (Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace) accelerating in popularity and utility in the business world, legitimate alumni of prestigious universities need authentication and bogus alumni need to be exposed. We only want legitimate alumni to be able to claim credit for graduating our alma mater. Liars hurt our reputation. THE SOLUTION FOR THE COLLEGE: There is a crucial role college alumni associations can inexpensively play to address this growing problem. Add an "Graduation Authentication Link" page to the their alumni websites. It could work like Linkedin.com's "View My Profile" buttons. <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/optevi" ><img src="http://www.linkedin.com/img/webpromo/btn_viewmy_160x33.gif" width="160" height="33" border="0" alt="View Dan Abrams's profile on LinkedIn"></a> (once you're signed in you can see all the graphic "badges" they make available) http://www.linkedin.com/profile?promoteProfile=&trk=mypro_badges THE SOCIAL NETWORK'S ROLE: 1) Provide the technical infrastructure to enable this feature. 2) Sell this service/software as a turnkey solution for colleges to customize/tailor with their own logos & graphics. Pricing as low as $2k plus a $1 per user/per year would be extremely attractive to colleges. There could be discounts/economies of scale for mega-large universities (like the University of Michigan) and still bring in thousands of dollars per college multiplied by over a thousand colleges and you get millions in revenue for negligible cost. 3) This also provides a seamless transition/influx of new customers to their own service. It's like Microsoft's Windows encouraging MSOFFICE. THE SYSTEM'S ACTION PLAN: 1) One the system is in place, Active/"Dues-Paying" members of the a given college's alumni association are sent an email inviting them to participate in the "Graduation Authentication" system. Interested members "opt in". 2) That list of opt-ins is put into a simple database (provided by social network vendor) and random passwords are generated for those people. Emails with password-links are sent to those opt-in members inviting them to update their "Graduation Authentication Page" with very limited & optional information (upload a photo, city of residence and maybe even links to that member's pages on other social networks, liked Linkedin/Facebook/Myspace) and of course they can change their password. I strongly urge that these pages NOT include contact information (for fear of nefarious marketers scraping data for undesirable purposes). 3) Those members who have now signed up get to include personalized "Graduation Authentication Links" on their own social network pages and job application emails. 4) People hiring (maybe especially those who are not alumni) can click on those links to see the limited, public pages of members and thus authenticate the graduation of the applicant (who is a legitimate, dues-paying member of the their alumni association). THE BENEFITS FOR COLLEGES: A) Encourages alumni to join (and pay dues to) their alumni association in order to get this benefit. B) Continuously drives traffic to alumni association websites (from people clicking on the G.A.L.s to check on the validity of degree claims). C) Most importantly, you are now providing a valuable service to give credit only where credit is due. Valid graduates get proof and liars are discouraged from claiming those college using this service as the institution from where they got their degree. D) Since some version of this kind of service is inevitable, why not be the first to implement it and get credit for being a pioneer? (to the best of my knowledge I came up with this idea but it's entirely possible there is/was/will be "simultaneous creation" or maybe you've already been thinking about this for years). NOTE - I pitched this to the president of the University of Michigan Alumni Association over a year ago (early 2008). ALSO NOTE (OTHER POSSIBLE MARKETS) - This service could similarly be sold to professional certification organizations, unions, trade associations or any group with selective membership where authentication would be appreciated.

Tiered-Length Hinges for Easy Assembly

I had a little brainstorm while assembling a folding bookshelf that was to be connected by hinges (like a multi-paned free-standing wall screen/divider with 3 hinges along each intersection). My idea is so utterly obvious that I can't imagine I'm the first person to come up with it. So if it already exists it should really be everywhere (especially because it's so simple I can't imagine it could get good patent-protection). NOTE: The pins were already welded to one side of the hinge which were L-shaped (one side to interface on top of the other side). It was very unlike how you might imagine a regular door hinge with 4 or so intermeshing sections that you would put together and subsequently put the pin in after (which also would solve the problem). PROBLEM: If all of the hinges & pins are exactly the same length (as they were in my bookshelf) then lining them all up to insert simultaneously is surprisingly difficult. When you line up the first hinge you can't quite put it in until you line-up the second and the third exactly at precisely the same moment. It's easy to miss one where the first two hinges set up fine but the third misses entirely necessitating another try. Very frustrating. HERE'S "MY" SOLUTION: Tiered-Length Hinges. If the first hinge's pin was substantially longer than the the second (which in turn would be longer than the third) then you could slightly slide the first hinge's pin in and then guide in the second hinge's pin and then guide in the third. Though maybe there's some minor incidental cost for non-standardization. Sketch it out if my non-visual description is too confusing. You'll see my solution works. Of course, the old and utterly basic way of having the pin inserted separately works too. But that wasn't how they designed my bookshelf. "My" idea for tiered-length hinges is just another meme I hope will enter the zeitgeist and make the world a little bit better.