AMIX is nothing more and nothing less than an attempt to create the first efficient market for information. If its current prospectus and goals seem modest, I suggest this is not a consequence of the potential of the venture but rather of the belief on the part of its principals that the concept is so robust that it can establish itself as a viable, self-sustaining business even with a very limited initial scope.
The information age has endowed information--knowledge, with the value previously reserved for physical property. Yet, as usual, our institutions--the software of civilisation--have lagged in evolving an efficient market in which this new commodity can be exchanged and hence assigned a value. AMIX is such a market. It was conceived and designed by people with a deep understanding of the role of markets in an economy and of their functioning in valuing abstract commodities.
To the person seeking an answer, existing online services provide plenty of information but few answers. To a potential provider of answers, there is no market to which he can bring his knowledge to offer to those in need of his talents. In economic terms, the market for information and answers is inefficient; it has high transaction costs for both buyer and seller and fails to provide the valuation feedback to both which is essential to make informed decisions. AMIX is an efficient computer-mediated market for matching buyers and sellers of information. The utility AMIX provides to the Information Age is as self-evident as the function of currency futures in the post-Bretton Woods era, yet equally difficult to invent and understand before the concept becomes so commonplace it's considered trivial and obvious.