[US] Are You From Generation Zuckerberg?

Internet entrepreneur Marc Ostrofsky, best known for his sale of Business.com in 1999 for $7.5 million to eCompanies which landed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive domain name ever sold, has launched a video contest called R U Gen Z (Generation Zuckerberg) to encourage youth entrepreneurship.

The R U Gen Z video contest encourages students and struggling job seekers with the drive and desire to be their own boss to embrace their Zuckerberg-like passion for entrepreneurship. In these videos, students are invited to express frustrations with today’s economy and tout the benefits of being one’s own boss by submitting their own videos.

“While students today are uneasy over the job market, they do not understand that in this period of economic fluctuation, armed with the immeasurable online resources, students are actually presented with an opportunity unlike any generation before,” said Ostrofsky. “The R U Gen Z contest seeks to unnerve, entertain and prove that those who work for themselves will create the next generation of great wealth.”

“The job market sucks, the jobs that you can get suck, moving back in with your parents in the suburbs sucks. What doesn’t suck is being your own boss before you even graduate college,” says Armen Suny, R U Gen Z advisory board member and University of Houston student. “This contest will demonstrate the power of the internet and opportunities for students like myself.”

You can submit your video from now till April 1, 2011. Entries will be judged by a group of panelists made up of students from the University of Houston’s Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, who will assess the videos on  messaging quality, level of entertainment, originality, number of views and comments on YouTube, and sharing. The first place winner will receive a prize of US$5,000.