My-Currency, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

My-Currency.com, showcased at DEMO 07, to launch today!

My-Currency.com is a new web site designed to utilize prediction markets and social applications to help professionals build and maintain reputation. If you are not sure what that means, you are not alone! A press release from Market Wire on January 25^th pointed out that the new site had been selected as one of the 68 products showcased at DEMO 07.

I was not sure what to think about a press release that says nothing about the company reported on. I assumed, as you would, that a highly prestigious conference would only demonstrate state-of-the-art products. The DEMO 07 company description stated, and I quote:

“My-Currency, initially focused on housing, is a destination that leverages community to aggregate information and knowledge on such things as houses, neighborhoods, and property values. Our platform enables people to interact, collaborate and connect. In so doing we help consumers make better decisions while identifying and promoting people with proven knowledge and expertise.”

I think all that means that lots of real estate people can tell you a lot about houses, but I may be wrong. I was a little amazed to find that the cost to register for these conferences is over $2000 per session. I wonder why there can't be a conference or web site that showcases technology and does reviews, without having to charge directly for the service. That is a commentary for another post, but it is something to think about. Very high credibility, focused on presenting sites or products, with absolutely no biasI Hmmm!

The Visit!

Undaunted (well almost daunted), I decided to visit the My-Currency site to just let you all know exactly how great it is. The site is basically a real estate blog or forum community at the moment. The premise of promoting “intellectual currency” is intact, but there is currently little or no information available. I know, give it a chance, it was just launched! I think this is why companies have Beta testing, is it not?

To give you an idea of my dismay, I did a search for “house” on the internal search bar. Search Results for ?house'= 0 Wiki Matches. I did manage to find a nice 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath house in San Francisco! There were 25 photos of the house too, and it was really nice. The bookmark tab led me to the house, which was evidently a listing by a real estate agency. That's a big surprise to you I bet?

The people tab produced no people, the answers tab revealed a few questions and a post about sfchicken? The blog does have a few comments (almost useful) about neighborhoods, and some of the posts even had photos.

In conclusion, I just wonder how this site was selected by DEMO. According to the DEMO site:

“Our award-winning Executive producer, Chris Shipley and a team of experts separate the innovators from the hype. They painstakingly screen hundreds of companies to uncover 70 emerging technology companies that show the most promise.”

I am laughing out loud as I think what my next statement might be for our readers. The only thing “appropriate” I can think to say is that I am sure they had to look hard to uncover this stinker! My only advice for you and DEMO would be to cover this one back up. If all it takes is $2500 and a half ____ed press release to launch your site into Web 2.0 immortality, we had all start saving your lunch money. Too bad I already gave out this quarter's “stinker” award.