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Startup 2.0 - I finalisti



Ci siamo. Mercoledì saranno annunciati i vincitori della competizione per nuove imprese web europee promossa dalla Spagna, Startup 2.0. Ahinoi, nonostante diverse candidature, non ci sono startup italiane tra le 10 finaliste che saranno valutate dalla giuria di cui faccio parte.

Segue l'elenco dei finalisti con una breve descrizione per ognuno.



1. iFoods, http://www.ifoods.tv (Ireland)
Our website features over 130 professionally produced, high quality
video recipes filmed with our resident chefs Niall Harbison and Pieter
Plaetinck. Both our chefs have cooked in some of the finest
establishments and have cooked for the likes of Bill Gates, Donald
Trump, U2, Tom Hanks and many more. The website also has a social
community of food lovers who can upload their own video recipes, share
photos, build their profiles and interact with other food lovers. Our
service is completely free for all users and is based on an
advertising model.

2. UnLtdWorld, http://www.unltdworld.com (UK)
UnLtdWorld is aimed at connecting social entrepreneurs, social
innovators, socially-minded people and organisations that invest their
efforts in changing the world for the better, and enabling these
audiences to find and share targeted information. Most social networks
are built around relevance of contacts and on the view that "doing
good"  is a special interest. UnLtdWorld is about commonality of
purpose and fostering new connections and matching information through
the power of community and relevance of context and content. Above
all, UnLtdWorld is based on the principle that social entrepreneurship
is a defined market, and the platform aims to complement market
dynamics and add value to real world activities. UnLtdWorld also aims
to provide critical insight into social entrepreneurship. We do this
mainly through the Research Lab, the world's largest focus group of
social entrepreneurs, and the first mapping and graphing to directly
and deeply integrate within a social network. All data in the Lab is
accessible through APIs, for comparative analysis and for dynamic use
within external data-sets, mash ups and applications. On UnLtdWorld
members can connect with others, search and share resources and
opportunities, find and list services and products, share answers to
key questions, create and join groups, promote and find events and
lots more. The site also integrates a microblogging platform and
differentiating functionality which intelligently matches members
based on parameters of similarity such as location, interests and
skills. Established in March 2008, the site is now nearing 5,000
registered members in 80+ countries. One in three members logs in
every day, and spends an average of 10 minutes on the site, viewing in
average 12 pages each day.

3. Bubok, http://www.bubok.es (Spain)
Bubok.es is a powerful yet simple and efficient Spanish-language
online self-publishing website that allows anyone to become their own
editor and publish their own books for free in less than 5 minutes.
Bubok.es provides authors, businesses and small editorial companies
all of the tools necessary to publish and sell books online in both
printed (via Print on Demand) and digital formats (pdf downloads)
without any minimum print run requirements. Key Benefits: - Author
takes control of the entire editorial process (book format, design,
price, promotion) - Author earns 80% of profits from book sales -
Author webpage to promote books (including RSS, Video, Pictures) Note:
Beta version launched April 16, 2008. Next upgrade will integrate full
Web 2.0 Community features

4. Geospace, http://geospace.hu (Hungary)
In the Geospace word the community can add places, pictures, reviews
and videos on the map. Users can create profile. Mark there friends,
add pictures, tags to profiles. Site has a POI export feature which
enable the users to export all places to a GPS device. Also there is a
mobil version which help to use the site on the go.

5. AllRise, http://www.allrise.com (Israel)
AllRise.com was built to solve two problems: 1. There is not one good
place to release the tension society creates. 2. In the age of web 2.0
users get the chance to speak what ever is on their mind, but a good
way to debate, argue or discuss does not exist out there. AllRise.com
allows users to participate in two main aspects of the site: 1. As a
prosecutor - presenting a problem to world. 2. As "the people" -
having the power to debate, convince the community and vote for their
opinion to make it count in the final out come. Users can sue on
behalf of themselves, "the people" or on behalf of anyone else. They
can sue anyone they desire... work related, relationship issues,
government related issues and etc... We take a lot of pride in our
debating system which allows users to create a real debate, different
from any forum or commenting system. Users will be able to track the
entire debate, other people debates or just their own.

6. Planetaki, http://www.planetaki.com (Spain)
At Planetaki you can create planets: places where you can get new
content from blogs, news sites, photoalbums, etc. Your planet can
either be public or private. Using planetaki is extremely easy: posts
come into a single column and die after 7 days. You can keep them if
you like and you can also email them to someone if you like. All this
without any need to know what RSS means.

7. Talicious, http://www.talicious.com (Germany)
TALICIOUS is a talent community website that allows people to share
their talent, communicate with other interesting people and be
discovered by scouts or agencies who can easily search the site.
TALICIOUS was born out of the idea to give talented people the chance
to show the world their talents and if they want to, be discovered.
Anyone who has a talent can upload media (video, audio, image or text
files) to show his or her talent. The media is categorized by the
talent to make it easier for others to find, and to create groups for
the talents to compete in. The average rating determines the talents
position in the category.

8. Learnit, http://www.talicious.com (Czech Republic)
In under 3 months, pre-funding, we have produced a tool for learners
which caters for different learning styles via visual, vocal, aural &
written exchanges. Users can share with others via their expertise of
their native language in our social network. You can use it to learn
20 languages. Our mashup includes Oddcast & MyVox, with heavy use of
Ajax. Learnit is a Google gadget, initially developed for MySpace
(OpenSocial version) & Facebook. You can put it on your website or
blog. We are a UNESCO, 2008 Year of Languages project supporting rare
languages via a WIKI.

9. Zilok, http://us.zilok.com (Belgium)
Zilok is a centralized online rental marketplace, an ebay for rental
in a certain way. Zilok allows anyone, whether individuals or
professionals, to rent or offer for rent anything in a few clicks! If
you need a special tool for a weekend, a fancy purse for an evening or
an extra bike for a visitor, all you need to do is search and select
the item you want for rent, at the most convenient location. A
geolocalisation tool present any item offered for rent nearby. We are
providing for both individuals & professionals an ideal platform to
offer in seconds any item for rent, so people have a quick and
convenient access to anything they could possibly need on occasion,
for rent. The whole rental process happens online so that the
reservation of the item happens online and the acceptation by the
owner as well. A calendar presents the availability of the item
directly online. A desire to stay on the cutting-edge of technology,
urban living and the practical concerns of less storage space, gaining
access to luxury goods, and an environmental impetus against
overconsumption all contribute to a booming interest in renting rather
than acquiring. Zilok has been created to structure this new trend in
consuming, by offering a simple yet powerful online rental platform,
giving everyone access to all the possible rental resources around.
Our mission is to offer a new alternative to the classic "buy "or
"sell" option for all types of goods.

10. Wolpy, http://wolpy.com (Spain-Switzerland)
Wolpy is a just launched social network to share your travels
experiences. It lets you keep a track of your visited places, see them
in a map, and add reviews of them. You can also explore where your
friends have been and which is their opinion of their visited places,
see which places you have in common with other users and make some
research of your destination before travel there.

Pubblicato il 19/5/2008 alle 8.31 nella rubrica Web 2.0.

Il Cannocchiale, il mondo visto dal web