Random Egg - Where ideas hatch! - Public transit touch screen directions

Participate

You must register to lay eggs and vote. Registering is easy and requires just a username and a valid email address. Click the "Register" link in the top right of the page. I WILL NEVER SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH ANYONE!

1. Vote: You can vote for any egg you like. You can vote for both incubating and hatched eggs. You can only vote for an egg once.

2. Lay an Egg (optional): If you feel inspired, just click on the "Lay an Egg" button and submit your idea (egg). When you lay an egg it is immediatly viewable on the "Hatched Eggs" page. Any member can vote on any incubating egg. You are limited to one vote per egg.

3. Nurture eggs (Advanced users only): Take an idea and make it a reality! Send me your story and I'll post it on the site!

The Site Structure

1. Fresh Eggs Page: These are eggs submitted my registered members. Once a fresh egg receives 3 votes, it moves to the front page and is called "Hatched."

2. Hatched Eggs Page: These are eggs shown on the front page. They have received 3 or more votes while "incubating" on the Fresh Eggs Page.

What's with the Categories?

Coming up with a category system was one of the most challenging things about making this site! Most systems ended up with categories that were too narrow which meant most ideas could go in multiple categories. The other problem was avoiding being too vague or potentially leaving out a large segment of ideas. Also, since it is impossible to predict what kind of ideas will be submitted, it is very difficult to settle with specific categories.

In the end I realized that all ideas benefit someone, and I think asking the question "Who benefits from the egg?" can be answered by either "The world," "society," "individuals," or "business." I fully realize that the system is not perfect. If you can think of a better way to concisely organize ideas, I would love to hear it!

What are tags?

Tags are words that represent a longer text. For example, if I wrote a 3 paragraph story about the impossibility of time travel, I might use the tags "time, travel, space, science, philosophy." These words would be tagged on to my story so if someone searches for "space", then the story would be in the results. Tags are generally considered more useful and more flexible that categories because a subject rarely fits neatly into just one category.

Please use tags when you submit a story! In the long run, having great tags will make your story much easier to find on the site!

Tags are also a better way to classify your egg than categories are. As you will no doubt notice, putting your egg in a category is much more difficult than finding a few tags for your egg!

The inspiration for this idea came from the New York MTA system, but could easily be implemented by any complex public transportation system.

This idea is primarily aimed at tourists and people not familiar with the system.

A map of the subway lines is shown on a large touch screen. The touch screen is interfaced with a ticket machine. A subway rider is prompted to touch the station they are going to (start point is given by location of screen).

Now, the route is highlighted and directions, including transfers, is displayed. Furthermore, the ticket with the correct fare (one way or return) has the directions printed right on it!

Additional feature: Prompt for a cell phone number and rider can receive directions by SMS text message.

This system could also be available on official transit website.