That idea has always fascinated me - the multitude of "hidden" small businesses and markets totally off the radar of hackers, and therefore effectively Terra Nu

That idea has always fascinated me - the multitude of "hidden" small businesses and markets totally off the radar of hackers, and therefore effectively Terra Nullius for smart, curious hackers like Patio11: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_nullius http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_nullius There are so many tech-illiterate people controlling so many markets and so much wealth. Anyone who's ever worked at a small or off the radar business (or even a Fortune 500 company) knows how many backwards, inefficient processes (and people, let's face it) that are there just waiting to be disrupted. Andressen's famous essay on software eating the world does it much more justice than I can: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190348090457651... As software expands its reach more and more into the real world through mobile, RFID, and the "Internet of things", it's just going to accelerate. It would be fascinating to see any resources HNers might have on trying to discover these areas that have been under-served by tech so far. I've read plenty of articles on the actual development process (many by Patio) once you identify an under-served market, but best practices on how to find a big list of potential areas (that may or may not be promising) to investigate would be interesting. Maybe something like an Atlas of the small business world?