About

Who am I?

My name is Jose Augusto and I live in Lisbon, Portugal, Europe.

I have a degree on Computer Engineering (expertise on Computer Graphics) and created my first web company the moment I saw Mosaic, back in 1994. Having been using the Internet for some time, I saw Mosaic and thought: wow, this is the first time I see Design on the Internet! And Design means it will reach everyone. I also began bloging by that time. Most of my posts are archived on archive.org and are very fun to read today.

I am unemployed right now or self-employed managing some web outsourced web projects. No big deal for being unemployed. I see it as an opportunity. Portuguese writer José Saramago also began writing books when he got unemployed and ended up winning a Nobel Prize. Far from comparing with him, I am just saying that sometimes, unemployment makes people follow their own dreams and create their own projects.

I am also a consult on new business ideas. Visit my site ZapFuture and tell me what you think.

Why am I doing this?

Because I have a children charity aid project and I wanted to find a way to found it. I knocked at many doors before, but without any success. I tried many institutions, including Google.org or The Melinda Gates foundation.

The project has an unusual, rather aggressive way of approaching the World Poverty problem and I thought that was not very well accepted by the sponsors.

Read more about the project on Fosterage.org.

Again, why am I doing this?

A friend asked once to choose from one of the following: Fame, Power or Money? I won’t hide I selected Fame. So, I could also be doing this for Fame. I see Fame as a way to reach people, as a way to make people wanting to hear what I have to say. And I have a lot! I have written for several years for a big magazine and enjoyed the feeling a lot.

How will the money be used?

1. Pay for site expenses: hosting, promotion, payment fees and eventual technical assistance or coding improvements
2. Pay for the TV ad broadcast
3. I’ll keep some for myself
4. The remain (and I hope it will be a lot) will be used to my project Forestage.org kick start

If the project fails to raise enough money to item 4), how will money be used?

If, for any reason, I find I can not kick start my project, I will use the collected money to foster a group of selected children for a selected period of time. All info will be posted online on the site Fosterage.org and available for all people who donated to follow. One of the already established organizations on the field will be used.