‘Democratic’ is a word few would use to describe Hollywood decisions, but Cowrite, a collaboratively written movie script, is here to change that. After two sentences that describe the mood and plot (‘Napoleon Dynamite’ meets ‘Pineapple Express’, starring an awkward teenager caught up in a dangerous conspiracy), the organisers put the public in the driving seat. Anyone is open to submit a 10-page portion of the script, provided they do not belong to the Writer’s Guild of America and have paid an entry fee of around USD 10.

The contest was announced in December 2008, with the opening ten pages to be selected by Cowrite’s judges and uploaded to its website for all to see by 29 January 2009. The story will build from there, with the judges selecting and uploading the best ten-page addition every fortnight over six months. Each of the 11 selected writers will receive USD 2,000 prize money, with USD 5,000 is reserved for the overall winner, who will also rewrite the first draft. Writers will also receive a share of the royalties should the movie go into production.

The project is the brainchild of Benderspink, the management and production company behind the 1999 flick American Pie. It’s shaping up to be an engaging project from start to finish, as fans wait for each fortnightly installment, passionately debate the changes made in the rewrite and spread the word to build hype before the film is released. The movie’s innovative creation process will certainly create press attention, which could make it more likely to succeed at pitch and (hopefully) the box office.

Given that everything these days can be written, designed and produced by your customers, providing affordable labour as well as die-hard fans, what aspects of your business could you relinquish control over? (Related: Angelic crowdsourcing — Online auditions for a crowdsourced movie.)

Website: www.cowritescript.com
Contact: www.cowritescript.com/contact_us.php

Spotted by: Miranda Lopez

We've written about several mobile applications to help consumers navigate the world around them, but a new one from UK travel and leisure site Lastminute.com goes a step further by taking advantage of the built-in compass in the T-Mobile G1.

Lastminute.com's nru—short for "near you"—is designed to give users of the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 a narrowly focused and continuously updated view of things to do around them, from bars and restaurants to cinemas and cafes. Users begin by downloading the application from the Android Marketplace—currently, it's available only to UK consumers. They can then launch it on their G1 anytime they're looking for something to do, and the technology will show them what almost looks like a radar map indicating entertainment venues nearby. Closer establishments are shown in the center of the map's field, while those further away are indicated along the outside. A combination of GPS, compass and accelerometers creates an entirely physical interface, so as the user moves and points the phone around in different directions, they see different information. The application gets much of its data from Qype, and for each restaurant, users can even see the deals currently on offer and book a table through Lastminute.com's fonefood service. A video demo illustrates how nru works.

Since T-Mobile's G1 is the first to include a built-in compass, nru is one of the first of what will likely be a long line of applications to take advantage of the technology. Lots of opportunities here, both for consumers and for businesses wanting to be found. One to experiment with! (Related: Using pictures to give directions — Mapping the 24/7 economy — Nightlife mapping tool uses GPS to reveal hotspots.)

Website: labs.lastminute.com/nru

Offering an experience that's as close as possible to the real thing, Be At TV offers full-on video coverage of some of the world's hottest clubbing events. Be At TV, aka b@, is a slick IPTV and social networking site that covers clubs, events and DJs such as the Space Ibiza Opening Party or Annie Mac at London's Big Chill House. The site displays footage from four camera angles simultaneously, showing the DJ booth, individual clubbers and the momentum of the dance floor in all of its glorious and gory detail, accompanied by a live recording of both the DJ's set and the whoops and cheers of the party people.

It's then over to the clubbers themselves to use the footage as the basis for their social networking: logging their attendance at events to chat with the people they randomly met, tagging their appearances in videos and sharing clips by embedding them in emails and web pages. The footage is also proving useful for those who want to preview a club night or get in the mood before heading out.

By combining professional video reporting with social networking elements, b@ is creating a convergence between one-off offline experiences and continued online interaction, while promoting events and artists to a wider audience. Time to find other live events that are ripe for being taken to the next level of online coverage?

Website: www.be-at.tv

Spotted by: Ali Gunning

Music fans continue to play an ever-increasing role in the music industry, as we've chronicled on numerous occasions before. Similar to GoodStorm's MixTape and Mixaloo, a new London-based service lets music fans have a hand in selling the music they love.

At People's Music Store, music fans can set up their own online storefronts for recommending and selling their favourite music. Creating a store is free, and while owners don't get paid with money the way they do on MixTape and Mixaloo, they do earn free MP3 downloads. People's Music maintains a licensed catalog of a variety of electronica, rock and other types of DRM-free music for shopowners to sell. When someone visits a store on the site and buys music based on the owner's recommendations, the owner gets rewarded with points—equivalent to 10 percent of the retail price—that can be redeemed toward music at other stores on the site. Artists and labels, meanwhile, are paid a full cash royalty for every sale. Labels represented on the site include Warp Records, Ninja Tune, kranky and Domino Records; artists include respected names like Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Autechre and Amon Tobin. Pricing begins at 99p per standard track and GBP 7.99 per standard album.

If there's anything people love more than having their say, it's being rewarded for that input—not to mention a chance to earn the respect of countless like-minded twinsumers around the world. Next, People's Music Store plans to begin including user-generated audio content for sale through its storefronts as well, according to its FAQ—now that could really be music to prosumers' ears! ;-)

Website: www.peoplesmusicstore.com
Contact: info@peoplesmusicstore.com

Spotted by: Murtaza Ali Patel

Pop-up cinema is something we've been seeing for a few years already, but typically only in areas with the infrastructure to support the large screens it relies on. A new effort from equipment provider Open Air Cinema, however, uses inflatable movie screens to bring outdoor film to remote areas in Africa.

Last month, Open Air Cinema launched a subsidized program to provide NGOs and small business owners in Africa with its CineBox Global, a portable, durable solution that comes with everything needed to distribute information, education and entertainment on an inflatable, outdoor movie screen. Screen sizes range from three to 12 meters; blower fans, generators, digital projectors, DVD players, sound mixers, cables and carrying cases are also included. The equipment can all fit in a vehicle the size of a Land Rover, and all components are 110/240 compatible. Open Air's kits have already been used by the United Nations and FilmAid in refugee camps in Kenya and Tanzania, for example, as well as to show the Oscar-nominated documentary War/Dance to thousands of people living in an isolated refugee camp in northern Uganda. The screens are also used for “Hillywood,” the traveling Rwandan film festival that features filmmakers from Rwanda and other African states, with attendance as high as 10,000 people per showing.

Stuart Farmer, president of Utah-based Open Air Cinema, explains: “With the infrastructure challenges that are common throughout Africa, we are offering NGOs an effective and enticing new medium to deliver critical information and needed entertainment. Our inflatable movie screens and systems can be made available anywhere, even in the bush, so NGOs can now deliver consistent messages—through training films about AIDS awareness or women’s rights or an entertaining movie to help elevate the morale of those in the audience.”

Open Air's subsidized program includes detailed training, technical support and reduced pricing, which also varies based on choice of components. More information and applications for the program are at www.openaircinema.us/humanitarian.htm. The company's screens, meanwhile, are available for branding with a logo or organization name. One to sponsor, partner with, or otherwise get involved in....? (Related: Internet-in-a-box for areas without electricity — Solar-powered cellphone kiosks for Ugandan women — See-saw power.)

Website: www.openaircinema.us/humanitarian.htm
Contact: info@openaircinema.us

Spotted by: Bonnie Larner