Starmind Blog

Starmind has created a new up-to-date presentation, giving an overview of the functionalities and an insght into the concept and possibiltes of Starmind. Starting with the initiation of the site, you can also read about the early stages of Starmind, its business modell, Starmind partners, interesting facts and the new release Starmind 2.5.

All you need to know about Starmind in a nutshell:

Download the presentation in English

Download the presentation in German

On november 9, 2010, Starmind signed a cooperation contract with the Swiss advertising agency Matter & Gretener and the Behavioral Economics Consultancy Group Fehr Advice & Partners.

Matter & Gretener is a Swiss advertising agency located in Zurich, whose core services are marketing, creation and advising. Fehr Advice & Partners, a Behavioral Economics Consultancy Group, also located in Zurich, specialises in supporting organizations by giving stretegic advice, following there own Behavioral Economics Approach BEA™.

From now on, Matter & Gretener and FehrAdvice & Partners will develop and implement marketing and communication measures for Starmind, aiming at reaching as many talents all over the world as possible. Starmind is happy to announce this cooperation, which will soon deliver first examples and results.

Pascal Kaufmann, Dr. Bettina Volz and Dr. Roland Bühlmann from alumniBasel

On september 16, 2010, alumniBasel closed a collaboration agreement with Starmind. After the ETH alumni and the UZH alumni, now also member from alumniBasel have free access to Starmind. The Alumni association of the University of Basel was founded in the year 2005 by the university council, the university rectorate and the faculties and is the university orientated and professional alumni association of Basel University.

Starmind, as exclusive marketplace for know-how and solutions, is only accessible by invitation or to members of partner organisations. From now on, alumniBasel is one of them and therefore, alumni from Basel University, identified by an alumni email address, can exchange their knowhow and find answers to their questions on Starmind. Also, Starmind helps to increase the visibility of outstanding talents and strengthens the expanding Alumni network.

We welcome the new Alumni members on Starmind!

On october 4, 2010, the new Starmind Release 2.5 went online. It entails a veriety of improved and new functionalities, which make Starmind even more user-friendly and fun to use:

New Starmind homepage

There is a new layout, displaying Starmind and its functionalities in a clear, structured and fresh way. Furthermore, the processes have been simplified, allowing our users to work easier and faster and making Starmind an even more efficient tool.

Starmind question categories

New, there are two categories of questions to chose from: Know-How questions with a fixed reward of EUR 10 and Brainpower questions with a self-adjusting reward starting at EUR 100. This categorisaton allows question posers to define the type of answer they are looking for and also gives question solvers an idea of how hard the question is to answer and what kind of knowledge is required.
Further, new editing options have been implimented, making it possible for users to define their questions more precisely by adding pictures, links and formatting. The new release also entails improved algorithms that allocate possible question solvers to a question even faster and more precisely, finding the perfectly qualified question solver with the best set of knowhow for every single question.

On Monday, October 4, 2010, Starmind hosted Web Monday at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Zurich-Oerlikon.

Web Monday at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Oerlikon

Web Monday is an informal, non-commercial, and completely community-driven event that aims to connect those people who are shaping the future of the internet. Inspired by the culture of the American high-tech sector at Silicon Valley, it started out in Cologne, Germany in late 2005 and since its inception, has spread fast: meetings are now being held on a regular basis all over the world. Nurturing the local web 2.0 and internet startup scenes, Web Monday’s 100+ meetings have attracted 1,000+ repeat participants so far, and good things have come out of it. Anyone involved in web 2.0 or neighboring fields who is interested in learning and sharing with others is most welcome to join.

Pascal Kaufmann talking about Starmind at Web Monday

At the event, Pascal Kaufmann, CEO and founder of Starmind, introduced Starmind at the Artificial Intelligence Lab in Oerlikon where Starmind Ltd. has its roots.

Another presentation was held by Cécile Oberholzer and Dominik Schmid, who presented simfy.ch, a German music discovery and sharing platform that has just launched in Switzerland. A further guest speaker was Prodosh Banerjee, who presented YouDo, a new social utility, which makes the process of finding skilled people to help us fulfill many of our wishes, an easy and reliable process. There was also a special guest from the UK, Jon Bradford., who is the founder of Difference engine, a startup incubator, looking for promising startups to participate in an intense business development program.

Thanks to our guest speakers and everyone who was involved, the Web Monday hosted by Starmind was a complete success with very interesting presentations and discussions. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this event!