Current Events:
Funding Amount
$500,001-$1,000,000
Funding Round
Series B
Funding Details
The company closed Series A capital raise of $1 million and is currently raising Series B capital of $6 million.
Competitors
Platester, Groupon, Foursquare, Gowalla
Product Description
Bump.com is a safety, marketing, membership and communications platform that allows users to connect online and offline via unique identifiers, including license plates, mobile phones and online profiles. Bump.com offers Web and mobile messaging tools for consumer and commercial markets. Connect any existing digital profile with your offline real world unique identifiers at BUMP.com, enabling your license plate and mobile phone to become a link to the world you are interested in.
Market Opportunity
Over 250 million registered vehicles in the US. (DOT) 115 most popular social networks - average user base, 13 million. Over 2.7 million car enthusiast club members (150 car enthusiast clubs in the U.S., with an average member size of 18,000). (Google NA) eMarketer estimates that marketers will spend $2.4 billion to advertise on social networks worldwide in 2009, a 17% increase over 2008.
Vizerra (Monday)
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bitbop (Wednesday)
As a venture capitalist, you can only fund one entrepreneur. Which one would you fund? Vizerra (Monday), TuneUp Media (Tuesday), or today's: Bitbop (Wednesday)?
Vizerra (Monday's pitch) 0 Votes 0%
TuneUp Media (Tuesday's pitch) 18 Votes 100%
Bitbop (Wednesday's pitch) 0 Votes 0%
Total number of people voted: 18
Debates in Economics
Should the Minimum Wage Be Increased?
Chapter 2 Economic Systems and Decision Making
Section 1 Economic Systems
Section 2 Evaluating Economics Performance
Section 3 American Free Enterprise
Chapter Overviews
Section 1: Economic Systems
Economic systems help societies provide for the wants and needs of their people. Three major economic systems have evolved over the years: traditional, command, and market economies. In the traditional economy, the WHAT, HOW, and FOR WHOM questions are answered by tradition, customs, and even habits handed down from generation to generation. In a command economy, a central authority answers the three basic questions. In a market economy, decision making is decentralized with consumers and entrepreneurs playing a central role. Most economies in the world today feature some mix of traditional, command, and market economies.
Interactive Graphic Organizers: Chapter 2, Section 1 - Reading Strategy
Suggested answers to graphic organizer:
Market Economy: people make decisions based on their own self-interest; high degree of freedom; private ownership of resources.
Command Economy: central authority makes economic decisions and owns resources; low degree of freedom.
Similarities: to prompt you with the basics, both must decide what, how, and for whom to produce; both face scarcity. What can be added to the mix?
Pursuit! On the Trail of Economic Growth
Welcome
Four hundred years of New England history tell us much about how economic growth occurs. pursuit! puts you hot on the trail of this phenomenon by helping you discover the key ingredients of growth. Travel our Timeline with one of our special guides on a fun hunt for the many things that enable us to have a rising living standard. There's a lot to learn from New England's bumpy but amazing growth path. So, pack your bag, pick a trail, and get in pursuit!
How to Play
Pick a "Trail." Each trail explores a different time period with 8 questions based on New England history. Pick a "Guide." Your guide keeps you energized and on track! Answer the questions by searching the Timeline. Click the left/right arrows and century tabs to navigate. To find some answers, you'll have to click on the events for more information. Bonus: ONLY if you get at least 7 of the 8 questions right, your guide performs a "special trick" to celebrate!
1. We will divide the class into three teams for each of the three trails. There are three historical periods surveying four hundred years of historic economic growth. Each group may pick one historical period.
2. There are six guides. You may "meet" as many guides as you wish before making your selection.
Cf. http://www.economicadventure.org/pursuit/index.htm
Systems Explained for (Farmers) Dummies Using Two Cows, 3:57
In-class assignment: pick your favorite "cow" and explain its characteristics, provide examples, and describe its advantages and disadvantages.
The fundamental principles of the different types of economic, political, and social systems explained via a simple example using two cows. You heard right, COWS. If you know what a cow is and are aware of the fact that they produce more than just steaks for your dinner, or products such as milk, you are good to go and should have no problem understand the concepts: think a traditional, a command, and or market economies.
FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.
BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.
FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.
PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.
RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.
CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.
DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.
PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.
LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.
PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.
SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.
Why It Matters, p. 32
The BIG Idea
Guide to Reading, p. 33
Section Preview
Content Vocabulary
economic system
traditional economy
command economy
market economy
market
capitalism
mixed economy
The Spectrum of Mixed Economies
Cf. http://glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/socialstudies/in_motion_08/epp/EPP_p40.swf
socialism
communism
Academic Vocabulary
stagnation
allocate
emphasizing
Reading Strategy
Comparing and Contrasting
Companies in the News
McDonald's and Hindu Culture
Traditional Economies, p. 34
Characteristics
Examples
Advantages
Disadvantages
Reading Check
Describing
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a traditional economy?
The Global Economy & You, p. 35
Command Economies
Characteristics
Examples, p. 36
Advantages
Disadvantages, p. 37
Reading Check
Market Economies
Characteristics
Examples, p. 38
Advantages
Disadvantages, p. 39
Reading Check
Identifying
What are the main characteristics of a market economy?
Mixed Economies
Characteristics
Examples, p. 40
Advantages
Disadvantages, p. 41
Reading Check
Explaining
How can you explain the range of mixed economies in the world?
Section 1 Review
Case Study
The Home Depot
Resources
MARKET AND COMMAND SYSTEMS, 12:44
Cf. http://learnecon.info/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=10
BULGARIA - From a Command to a Market Economy, 4:43
Cf. http://learnecon.info/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=11
1.1 Quiz
Cf. http://learnecon.info/moodle/mod/quiz/attempt.php?id=137
IBM Corp. has launched CityOne, an online interactive simulation game designed to enable local government officials find innovative solutions for energy, water, traffic, banking and retail problems in their communities.
Players can explore more than 100 simulated crisis scenarios in CityOne. The solutions must balance various financial, environmental, social and budgetary goals. The solutions include technologies such as business process management, service reuse, cloud computing and collaborative technologies.
Cf. http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8/cityone/index.jsp
HW email to gmsmith@shanahan.org or hand in hard copy.
1. What are the main characteristics of a traditional economy? (hint: what, how, and for whom).
2. Why might command economies lack consumer goods?
