Silicon Prairie News

Great stuff - really looking forward to Thursday.

Time to start the campaigning for singlefans.com write-in.

Dan Kenney's Buzz Shoes get's my virtual vote, though I think the name needs work.

Emily Kaminski's pharmacy pitch comes in at a close 2nd.

Isn't Jonathan Sharp trying to re-invent openID, openAuth, opensocial and Portable Contacts?

Mike Hesse's idea sounded interesting, but the pitch was poor. Needs less technical speak and more "Here's an example of what it could make better"

This is brilliant thinking. The best idea that gets my vote as number one. The idea to save money beats out new services. This Friday when I have to decide wether I will get another month of medicine will hinge on the price. And if the answer is not enough money to afford it, I just might be Abe to change it to yes if I knew the next store was affordable this month? Will you be able to track when the named drugs a due to be availabe in generic too?

Ok , I'll state the obvious, vote emily Kaminski

I'm really impressed by Emily Kaminski's idea! What an excellent way to research local costs on prescription medications. This is something that can be overwhelming to many, and it's easy to just settle for the prices offered at the pharmacy you've been going to for years. Lower prices on regularly consumed medications can make a huge difference for many individuals in our community!

bradley campbell's idea is the most relevant in my opinion:
it's no-bull, and relevant economically, ecologically and it's material in a real world kind of way... it's a no-brainer if you ask me...

Spam, spam, spam.

Wait for the competition to get further explanation. Everyone seems to be loving this pharmacy website but it is such a small market of people. Making money off of advertisements on that? Not going to happen.

Agreed with Derek above: OpenID already exists. Sorry.

Let the people present their plans further. Some of these ideas seem quite complex for a 60 second pitch that may end up wow-ing us: Mike Heese & Ben Schaechter's ideas seem like the only two I would really like to see more on. Perhaps more on Dan Kenney's shoe idea...although I don't see the concept requiring much more explanation.

Alex Gates' is interesting...but again, I see a problem with people actually using it. Some nifty ideas, but few economically *viable* ones.

Scott Kroeger's idea sounds like Ebay & Amazon. Already done.

Okay, I'm done. Can't wait to see more tomorrow night.

Some amazing Nebraska born ideas! I like Emily's idea of the pharmacy pricing information. Makes sense and seems like it could be useful. It's amazing how the prices can be so different in the same town.

Bradley Campbells idea seemed to be the most relevant and would have the largest impact on how we live our lives - Affordable housing is hard to come by and this idea could not only work here in the U.S but across the globe! We need more ideas like Brads - ideas that are willing to be bigger than life and solve some of our current days biggest issues - thanks Bradley - awesome company and idea;

I would think that this would be a 'green' solution and could probably be funded by foundations to make this even more affordable! Brilliant!

There are some absolutely fantastic ideas in here, congrats to everyone already on getting nominated to pitch and good luck Thursday.

Thank you Jeff and SPN for helping organize this, what a great event.

I vote for Emily Kaminski's pitch because eventuality, everyone ends up with a prescription. Whether it is for a child, a parent or even a granparent; having a way to find out where to go or how to get the prescription filled cheapest is a great idea.

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the great comments and "votes"... If you want to show your support for one of the ideas, we'd love to see you at Nomad tomorrow (Thurs, Feb 12th) at 7:30pm!!! Get there early to mingle with all the finalists, as well as the rest of the Silicon Prairie News crowd -- investors, entrepreneurs, designers, creatives, and otherwise cool people!

I am really looking forward to the presentation tonight. It's going to be fine. The way I figure it though, if you don't need the prescription idea, you may no longer be a poor college student and you might not yet be impacted by the economy. The dollars in drug sales at any given pharmacy is a real number of prescriptions for people that a physician assessed a need. And each of those pills are used to heal a real number of people, and people are deciding if they can follow their Dr.'s advise.
But back to business.. your right...waiting to hear the expanded ideas.

Slow down here, folks! You're all assuming that someone can flip the switch on for this 'prescription drug' idea and magically everyone will have access to this incredible database that tells where to get cheap prescription drugs in your city. This isn't the case! Clearly a service like that relies entirely on a thriving web community to provide *up to the minute* and, very importantly, *accurate* data. Without it, you have no value and nothing to offer!

You can't simply pump investment capital into an idea and expect a community to magically appear and fill this database. This idea relies completely on this variable. Completely!

Think about it. Someone could say "Hey, I'm going to make a web community so people can find the (insert adjective)est (insert noun)! People need this! Look at the economy! Poor college kids! Yay! This idea is great!

Sure, it sounds great - but the major hurdle is the abundance and accuracy of data. Period.

There are plenty of other ideas on this list that that don’t rely such an incredibly hard to attain "web community" – these ideas could see a direct benefit to the prize money.

I also really liked Emily's idea of helping people find the best prices for prescription drugs. That's a huge issue.

Thanks for encouraging these cool ideas.

I'm pretty sure Emily's supporters are just coming to SPN in droves to try and initially woo people to her idea. I completely agree with Megan. You can claim to make any website about anything--we'll see if she can actually make it viable tonight with her pitch.

There is another SteFanie M.? Who are you Stefanie??? I would love to meet another Stef w/ an F.

Scott, it already exists. http://www.shopittome.com

Emily Kaminski is my 54 billion dollar winner. It's the time to end money game on people's health.

(just to state the obvious)

This is exciting.

It is my hope that things will remain upbeat and positive tonight, despite the fact that there is money involved here. It's certainly tough to put yourself out there with an idea, so cheers to all the finalists for having the courage to do so.

I agree with Zach's statement. I have to tell you, I never had to go through this process, I was very lucky, but I'm sure it takes a heck of a lot of guts to put yourself out there like they all have so I hope everyone treats these people with respect and appreciation and doesn't try to go Simon Cowel on anyone, cause unlike the contestants on Idol, I'll drag you out by your ear and throw you into the soon to be snowy streets.

I love Emily Kaminski's idea of consumers being able to compare pharmacutical drugs. The healthcare system today is an intricate web of unknown costs and we're paying for it - literally! Knowledge is power. Go Emily!

Anyone game for trying to webcast the event tonight? I'm stuck in Lincoln...urrr.
Some great comments here and most will be settled tonight. 60 seconds just opens up the idea, the 5 minutes shows how it's actually going to shake out and be a money making idea.
Also, great ideas are cheap...but a solid team behind it is priceless. This is partially why I'm most excited to hear more about Mikes ideas...already has a team of 3 engineers!
I'm also interested to see the money making part of Emily's idea. Would be tough to get local pharmacies to sign on, and good,relevant Google ads would be hard to come by. Can't wait to hear the winner.

Kudos to the 100+ people who came out last night. What a great event! It was awesome to see the enthusiasm and exchange of ideas. Keep up the good work!

Just wanted to say job well done to the spn guys - great event with a lot of positive energy. I was really impressed with the overall level of passion and preparation exhibited by the contestants. I was most impressed though with the buzz shoes concept - it is so brilliantly simple my only concern is surely this already exists? If not...get it patented man!

I hope a all the best for these contestants. May the best man win!