Just over a week I was at the NASA Ames Participatory Summit, something I'll write about later, and met Mark Jannot the editor of Popular Science Magazine. He had just finished giving a talk on a new service they had just launched a couple of weeks ago called the PopSci Predictions Exchange (PPX). Here's how they describe the service;
"Welcome to the PPX, the first place to bet on the future of science and technology. It's easy and free: Log on, and we'll give you POP$250,000 in our virtual PopSci Dollars. Use that money to buy propositions you think are likely to happen. If other traders also want to buy, that proposition's price will go up, and you'll make PopSci bucks. Expand your portfolio with bets on energy, space, consumer technology and extreme science, and compete against other players for prizes and bragging rights."
What a cool interactive service that encourages learning about so many different things.
You'll learn how stock exchanges work and in particular the futures market and emerging technologies and follow the trends. The questions is, will the PPX be an accurate measure of what will happen in real life?
With over 8000 members signed in just the first two weeks they appear to have a winning Web 2.0 service up and running. So what company will be spending my $250,000 of virtual money? I'll keep you posted on how I do.