Ask a Question, get an answer. Give an answer, get a reward.

by Alexandros on June 5, 2007

Hey people,

Just wanted to announce the second Idea Contest 2.0 event (you can check videos of the previous one here), is coming up on Thursday, 7.00 p.m., October 18th at the Swedish American Hall, located at 2174 Market Street, in San Francisco.

In this event we will provide a platform for entrepreneurs to exchange ideas in a format designed to provide a win/win situation:

Any entrepreneur can ask a question, set a reward for the answer, and let the audience try to win the reward by answering the question. The rewards are up to the entrepreneur, but they don’t have to be material. They could be expertise or even networking resources. So someone could ask a question about getting VC funding and reward the person who answers it with his expertise on marketing or his connections with developers. It’s a simple and efficient way to barter skill sets, benefiting both parties in the equation.

The event will last a couple of hours (till about 10 p.m.) so given the finite time at our disposal if you want to make sure you’ll ask your question at the event you may send it beforehand at: ask@theideacontest.com and be put on the list. That does not guarantee you’ll get a spot at the live event, given the amount of questions submitted, but in case you don’t get a chance to voice your question at the live event, I will post your question at the event’s blog and meetup site, and that way you might get it answered by the community online. If you send a video, I will gladly embed it appropriately given the right code.

Who is this event is for:

For Businesses & Entrepreneurs:

Your tech business has a problem or needs an idea. You want an innovative solution, a fresh perspective from people outside your company. You are tired of consultantese. You want something new.
Enter Idea Contest 2.0. Pitch your problem at our new event to the brainstormers participating and enjoy access to the creative minds of the Bay Area even if they work in companies other than your own! Give an incentive for the potential winner (cash prize, a job or stock) sit back and get ready for some surprisingly interesting feedback or the solution you were looking for. Interested in participating? Sign up!
A good environment for all sorts of uses in addition to the one mentioned above: You’re looking for a creative employee? Pitch a problem that only an employee that deserves to work in your company would solve, and see who can step up to the challenge. You’re a recruiter? Select people by seeing them in action. Your startup is missing a developer? Ask a question only the developer you’d like on your team would be able to solve and see if he’s in the audience.

For Creative Thinkers:

Ideas are running amok in your head. You want an outlet, a problem, a challenge, and perhaps a job. Enter Idea Contest 2.0. In our next event you’ll hear companies pitching problems or needing ideas and this is your opportunity to seize the moment and show them what you got. Perhaps at the end of it you’ll find yourself with a new job, some stock or cash plus something to brag about to your enemies and rejoice with your friends. Are you up to the task? Sign up!

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Satisfying a Market can Bridge a Generation Gap.

by Alexandros on March 24, 2007

Perhaps the majority of the generation that was born around 1945 have made it through half of their lives without intimate acquaintance of a major invention: the computer. And it is not just the computer, but all the peripherals and gadgets that have grown around the computer and of course the Internet which is not merely another gadget to master but a portal to a different mode of living which connects you to millions of people throughout the world in many diverse ways. From membership in social networking communities, to instant messengers to niche sites regarding some eccentric hobby or fetish, being part of the internet and the world wide web community alters the way you view the world.
But many of these persons can hardly operate the mouse, let alone join social networking communities. They are being left out. Some of them don’t care much, given that they’ve been around long enough to have managed pretty well without those things. However, computers, the internet and the world wide web has entered the mainstream so it has got the generation of the 50’s curious. Just what are those people doing in front of their laptops or punching away at their Blackberry’s all the time, they wonder.

The generation of the 50’s does not know – and wants to learn. Do not make the mistake of looking only in the capitals of the world and the top branches of business. Those people had to learn how to operate a computer and use the web. I am mostly referring to those who never learned because they didn’t have to. To them computers, PDA’s and other gadgets are devices that have become familiar yet no less inscrutable. Their interfaces require a prior acquaintance that younger generations take for granted and cannot understand why someone wouldn’t “get it”. Right there you have an emerging market that its satisfaction will actually achieve a worthy cause: making the generation of the 50’s part of the 21st century by helping them become proficient in the tools that allow for world wide communication, knowledge exchange and co-operation.

To make it easier for the generation of the 50′s to enter the computer age interfaces should become more intuitive. That doesn’t mean making them any less efficient or watering them down. It means making them better. Advances towards that direction are already on the way with pioneers like Jeff Han creating the novel hardware that will enable the interface of the future. Take a sneak peak here:



As Han says in his presentation in the past we had to adapt ourselves to technology now we can make technology adapt to us. By making things more intuitive to a wider margin of people we not only give those people the opportunity to participate in the developments of the 21st century but we also widen the online market by adding another demographic category.

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