Today started an countdown to an event called "Touching the future" which aimed at being the 1st European NFC competition. It is organized in conjunction with the European Near Field Communication Developers Summit which will be held on 18 April 2007 during WIMA 2007 at Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. This competition is about designing services themed on the "simplicity of a touch". What seems to be important is the innovation in terms of interaction between people using a mobile device, objects and services. People interested in this might have a look at the call for contribution:

Track A - Present - The most ambitious and successful service in Europe * Actual implementations and/or real life demonstrations with a minimum of 15 users * Evaluation criteria: process improvements, cost savings, and/or improvement of service * (existing/realized pilots, demonstrations and/or services in use with min 15 users)

Track B: Future: Future - The most innovative NFC proposal in Europe * Most innovative new service developed by student or industry teams * Evaluation criteria: creativity, innovativeness, business potential * (New ideas and innovations - no user experience required)

Competition categories in both tracks include, but are not limited to, the following areas: # City Life (public services, transport, payment, tourism, etc.) # Personal Wellness and Healthcare (bio-mechanical sensors, other medical applications) # Information/Entertainment (art, music, advertising, gaming, etc.) # Enterprise solutions (retail, inventory control, logistics, security, etc.)

Submission Deadline: 12 March 2007 at 1pm CET

Why do I blog this? Since my interest in NFC as a peculiar way to interact with new types of objects (such as blogjects), this is Well related to the workshop we had at NordiCHI with Timo Arnall, Julian Bleecker and others. Also, from an innovation standpoint, I am curious to see what can come up from this sort of competition and whether this is model to consider for designing new things.