As a former entrepreneur and a compulsive innovator, too many ideas of new businesses tend to leak out of my mind. Most of them are very so-so and I will not implement them. But it would be stupid not to recycle them in my process of open-sourcing my quest for networked intelligence. In simpler words : let’s share with you some more or less stupid business ideas. They will come into my usual wishlist. Your comments will be very much appreciated. Let’s start with an idea on … recycling laptops into digital frames.

If you read Slashdot, you will be familiar with this kind of digital frame. The idea is that many do-it-yourself guys can turn old laptops into digital frames displaying holiday pictures as slideshows in the living room. Let’s consider the facts :

• laptops are expensive to recycle and a dangerous waste for the environment ; users companies and retailers (or cities) pay for getting rid of them
• DIY guys can turn them into digital frames
• I’d like to have such a digital frame equipped with a wifi connexion in order to display the pictures freshly taken from my digital camera
• the digital frame might be the ideal companion for digital cameras (more than printers ?)
• this business idea has already been implemented but I imagine this is a quite a small niche market.
• In France, the Envie company « recycles » jobless people into experts in recycling electronic equipment.

Why not implement this business in Europe with a lower cost solution : either offshore or locally within the social economy sector ?