A couple weeks ago I had an idea for a new service, but I'm not sure it's something others would find useful or if it would be accepted as an authority.<p>Basically, what I'm thinking is a service where people could do things like store notes, pictures, recordings, etc. and each item would be stored in such a way so that it could not be later altered (was thinking MySQL archive tables).<p>For example, the idea came to mind when my wife moved out a few weeks ago. Every time we have a conversation I feel like I need to document it, e.g. "Just spoke with X and stated that abc" and have that stored on a server of a non-biased company somewhere so that if the situation gets to the point of legal counsel being brought in I could put together a sort of log or journal of what's been said and when.<p>If this was something that could be useful, I could build out mobile apps that could take recordings and submit those or even automatically forward text messages from selected individuals. I would, of course, want something like triple redundancy on the databases to ensure nothing is lost.<p>But, like I said earlier, I'm not sure such a service would be helpful to others or if lawyers/courts would even consider the information worthwhile or admissible.<p>What say ye, all wise HN community? :)
If such a thing existed, it would have helped this guy: <a href="http://huff.to/kKIGDa" rel="nofollow">http://huff.to/kKIGDa</a><p>The important part is in the grey box. The guy went to a notary public and legalized a statement that he could later use in court.<p>You could take your idea further and actually charge users to have their submission automatically notarized, after they prove their real life identity, of course (there's already a startup that offers to certify users' identities, anyone remember the name?).
You can use<p>- private tumblr blog<p>- catch.com<p>- evernote<p>- google docs<p>- emacs org-mode + dropbox<p>etc.<p>If you record everything on audio tape or talk only using phone and record it. Or you use gtalk only then legal bodies might take it seriously. But no one is going to take notes written by you seriously.<p>Is it legal to record phone conversation without other persons consent? I don't k now.
I know my parents would have paid quite a bit for something like that when they were still raising kids. They talked about it every time there was a disagreement about who said what.
The key part is allowing both parties to sign the content as accurate and then lock it down. Without both parties signing I suspect it would carry little weight legally.