Trading Your "Junk"
Posted by: kmikeym
Chris Samarin has an idea to reduce clutter and "save the world". He started SwitchPlanet.com as a "social media trading website" where people exchange the things they don't want for things they do, all for free, and can then make donations instead of paying fees which are given to charity. Of course, you still have to pay postage. It looks like the idea started with Switchdiscs.com (interview), but that URL now redirects you to switchplanet.com, as most likely people wanted to be able to trade more than just movies and videogames.
SwitchPlanet.com has it's own internal currency called "SwitchBucs" (where did the 'K' go?). Since "One SwitchBuc holds a value of $1" I don't see why they need an internal currency at all. Why not just call them "Dollars"? (I guess that way they never have to refund a person's "real" money.)
Much like the similar Peerflix.com, the problem with a concept like SwitchPlanet is that everyone has a lot of crappy things, and no one wants to trade the really good stuff they have. SwitchPlanet makes it a little hard to see what is out there, and there is the annoying aspect of them listing items people own but don't want to switch! In the DVD comedy section there is a LOT of television series up for sale, and the prices seem very high. The lowest listed price for "Fun with Dick and Jane" is 13 SwitchBucs (which is also $13.00) and the highest is 67!?
Just as another test I checked to see if there was any Nirvana in the CD section. The only available item is "With The Lights Out", which retails for $59.98 on Amazon (there is an affiliate link on every page) but is 70 SwitchBucs. This system is very odd. The same thing happens with Call of Duty 2 for XBOX360, the Amazon price is $39.99 but even with six people offering it, the prices range from 40 to 77. On the blog, there is an entry about the Switchbuc Calculator, which implies the price is anywhere from $1 to $0.30.
It's an interesting idea, and I love an alternate currency as well as the idea of trading instead of buying, but I don't find it a compelling service. You can earn SwitchBucs but you can never convert them back to cash, so once you invest some time into the system you are trapped in it. The only way to "cash out" would be to get some items and then sell them for money somewhere else.
I like Netflix because it's so easy, and I don't have to own all the DVDs. This service creates the burden of more stuff you have to deal with, and there is that barrier of having to deal with postage and packaging. It's nice that they are just facilitating the transactions (with guarantees!) and earning money via ads and affiliates links. I think these swap-sites are limited. You'll get a few super-users that supply the most stuff, and a lot more people who hardly ever use it. You might be able to pull in some nice income that way via ads and such, but I don't think it will be able to grow beyond a small community.
Digital Design Tournament Calls Portland's Best Artists
Posted by: kmikeym
Nerd.Blog guest post by Melissa Delzio
Cut & Paste has partnered with Adobe to bring our digital design tournament series to six cities in the US (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, San Francisco) and five cities across Europe and Asia (Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Tokyo). (see the Cool Hunting Video.)
The Portland tournament will be held on September 21st.
Eight designers will have the opportunity to showcase their talent and compete in three, single-elimination rounds. Their work will be webcast globally and projected in real-time for the live, Cut&Paste audience. Onsite and offsite viewers may vote online or by SMS to award an Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection Suite to the winner of our Audience Prize. An all-star judging panel will decide our C&P Champion, who will receive our Jury Prize, a newly released Wacom Cintiq interactive display. Judges this year include:
Kristan Kennedy, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Joshua Berger, PLAZM magazine
Jose Cabaco, Wieden + Kennedy
Jason Bacon, UNKL/Big Giant
Eric Lawrence, Ziba Design
Our call for entry deadline is July 17th, 2007 and we'd like to invite you to enter to compete online at www.cutandpaste.com.
