»venture» 2012: 140 business plans submitted

Of the 140 business plans, 1 in 4 is from the “digital world” meaning, it is a software or web & portal project. It seems the American, and more recently, European success stories in this domain have encouraged young entrepreneurs. From Facebook to DeinDeal – the founders are stars and perceived as role models.

 

In 2004, the term “Web 2.0” gained popularity through the “O’Reilly Media Web 2.0” conference in San Francisco. Much discussed then, many “Web 2.0” fundamentals appear in the business plans of today. “User-created content”, “social network”, “mash-up”, and “interoperability” are mentioned frequently and prove to be more than “buzzwords”. Perhaps today, the famous World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee wouldn’t say “Web 2.0” is a mere “piece of jargon – nobody even knows what it means” (2006).

 

However, to Berners-Lee’s credit, it seems that “Web 2.0” today is implemented much more broadly than as defined by its founders. Almost every business plan includes some sort of (digital) business intelligence, a digital interface, “crowd intelligence” or at least mentions a computer chip. The Prize Awards Ceremony will take place on May 24 at the ETH.