The “authorizing” signature is as ingrained in our culture as the handshake. We sign on the dotted line. We sign here. We sign there. We sign our life away.
Seattle’s DocuSign made its name porting that oldest of identity verification methods over to the digital world. But last weekend, the software-as a-service provider did something it had never done before. As “All Things D” reports: “The company filled coolers with beer, rented a nacho machine and opened its doors to a bunch of hackers who would vie for $25,000 in prize money to build new uses for an old service.”
According to Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Tom Gonser, the goal is to create new use cases for the digital paper technology, including an emerging profusIon of tablet devices. “From a strategic perspective, we are going to put a lot more effort on the consumer side of this business than we have in the past,” he said. “In replacing paper, you have to integrate with any system that paper interacted with.”
Contesting in the “prize fight” there was a plug-in for Google’s Gmail, a budding solution for signing NDA’s on the fly, a developer who wanted to end the paper permission slip for school activities and even someone trying to enable authors to digitally sign individual copies of e-books. The overall winnerWas the inventor of a solution for signing petitions, perhaps a precursor to electronic voting.
Watch the video with Evan Jacobs, a former developer for Amazon, whose hackathon entry–Kindlegraph–allows authors to send a personal message and verifiable signature to an individual Amazon Kindle e-book reader. DocuSign needs people to pay attention to the cost-efficiencies and cost-effectiveness it facilitates. [24×7]
Cut your Commute with Zebigo
zebigo.com, a new website launching this week, is matching drivers with empty seats with people who need rides. “We only send you a minute or two out of the way. You pick somebody up. Through PayPal, rider pays driver,” Russell says.
The riders leaves their car at home. Zebigo takes a fee from every ride, and drivers get paid. They also get to drive in the carpool lane. But the obvious question is – how does Zebigo keep dangerous strangers out of your car?
“You got background checks, riders and drivers – both get background checks if they want,” says Russell. “You can choose who you want to ride with. You get to see a sort of Amazon or eBay style rating system.”
Women can choose to only ride with other women. Or you can only pick up, or ride only with people who work for the same company you do.
This week will be the first test for the idea as Zebigo starts recruiting new users.
Will drivers and riders feel safe enough to cash in on the savings?
Zebigo.com is already on line if you would like to check it out.
The official launch is this Wednesday. [24×7]
