Re-cap: The Amazon Start-up Challenge (2007)
Old news now, but worth mentioning
Last month, the Amazon Start-up Challenge took place with a great deal of hype and excitement, and some stiff competition. Apart from being the first ever “Web Services-user-voted” contest, it was also the first contest in which the winner would receive as much as $100,000 (half in cash, half in Amazon Web Services account credit).
BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.