Good assumption, but we're doing more with it than that. There's also an "activities as recipes of items" aspect we're working on.
We don't want to just push more crap from amazon on users. We want to help users become aware of activities they could be doing with the things they own as well.
"789 users that own a MacBook and a DSL camera are doing photography. Maybe you'd like to try it"
Haha. Sorry. Pretty much all your activities can be broken down into a recipe of the things you do them with, the place you do them, and a description of what it is you do.
It will help you find something to do with your possessions in the place you live. E.g., if you have a bike, it might suggest you right critical mass on the last Friday of the month. If you have a dog attend the people with dogs party at your local park this weekend. I can't really come up with a great example myself, but once it's in action, I can see some pretty interesting "recipes" of place, items, people and activities arising.
Value insofar as monetization, is obviously affiliate income from retailers. We're planning to establish an API for any retailer that wants to sign up to add their link to an item's page, which is also helpful to users so they can sort by price and compare retailers.
We don't want to just push more crap from amazon on users. We want to help users become aware of activities they could be doing with the things they own as well.
"789 users that own a MacBook and a DSL camera are doing photography. Maybe you'd like to try it"