Sure, but registries don't have to just be focused on "find once stolen". Who wants to fill that in?
Velospace is a great example of a registry based on people loving their bike and wanting to share it. People use it even without the trace functionality. It didn't need to overcome any network effects, people love posting pictures of their bike online and talking about it only second to posting pictures of cats.
What I'm saying is:
Build something that has such a great utility without your bike being stolen, such that if that unfortunate event occurs you already have a record of the provenance constructed.
If someone builds that, then I will email my 22,000 London cycling contacts and tell them to put their details in. And then I will post on my forum, and then I will email other forum admins (and I know a fair few personally) and say... this is awesome, tell your users too.
And people will do it, because they love posting readers wives pictures of their bikes online and would love to do so yet again and talk about it.
And with all of the avid cyclists reached pretty quickly, the utility cyclists would follow naturally as more blogs, forums and magazines say, "use this awesome registry to keep your bike safe".
Seriously, I'd champion it. I might even build it... #4 on my list of startups to make if Microcosm fails.
Velospace is a great example of a registry based on people loving their bike and wanting to share it. People use it even without the trace functionality. It didn't need to overcome any network effects, people love posting pictures of their bike online and talking about it only second to posting pictures of cats.
What I'm saying is:
Build something that has such a great utility without your bike being stolen, such that if that unfortunate event occurs you already have a record of the provenance constructed.
If someone builds that, then I will email my 22,000 London cycling contacts and tell them to put their details in. And then I will post on my forum, and then I will email other forum admins (and I know a fair few personally) and say... this is awesome, tell your users too.
And people will do it, because they love posting readers wives pictures of their bikes online and would love to do so yet again and talk about it.
And with all of the avid cyclists reached pretty quickly, the utility cyclists would follow naturally as more blogs, forums and magazines say, "use this awesome registry to keep your bike safe".
Seriously, I'd champion it. I might even build it... #4 on my list of startups to make if Microcosm fails.