(Almost) live from the Imagine Cup 2008

Anyone who has been to my Facebook page recently will be aware that I'm currently in Paris, where I'm reporting live (via jetlag) from the Imagine Cup 2008 world finals. For those who don't know what it is (which included me a few months ago), the Imagine Cup is an annual event staged by Microsoft and partners that challenges university students from around the world to create interesting and innovative applications and business ideas using the Microsoft technology platform. I'm here as a guest of Microsoft, and spent much of the last two days talking to judges and contestants (including a group from Australia). There is no doubting that the event is heavily Microsoft-centric, but as they're paying for 371 students from 61 countries to be here (along with me and a bunch of other journalists) then I suppose that's fair enough. The theme this year is the environment, with the competing projects skewed accordingly - another reason I was keen to come across.

I spent the first part of today talking to participants and judges in the Rural Innovation award category, which is designed to encourage students from emerging markets to develop projects that will benefit their communities. The South African project seeks to coordinate information relating to the operation of private bus lines. The Columbian entry involves making it easier to manage reforestation projects, while the Indonesian team has developed a system for submitting and correlating reports on environmental issues.

I'll try and put a few more posts up relating to the event while I'm here, and am certainly keen to see what the students from places as far-flung as Uganda and Brazil have come up with.