Uncov seems like a risky idea for a group who are about to launch a startup themselves. Sure it gets them press, but they also inherit ill will and an audience looking to call them on it when their product doesn't live up to their rhetoric.
Its not a web 2.0 startup and I think thats the point of Persai. Persai from what I hear is going to be fairly void of the things that make up the 2.0 web dance. Its be a web application that actually does something of value for the user.
Another web application I admire is Amigo created by the folks at Carsonified (was known as Carson Systems). Instead of spooging loads of ajax everywhere and calling them platforms and technologies, actually build something someone can use.
You talk as if uncov is some kind of calculated move to get them press for persai. This kind of thinking pretty much forgets the fact that people usually start sites like uncov as a hobby, or as they would put it, "for the lulz." They probably had no idea they'd be even as popular as they are now. The amount of attention it's getting now only suggests that maybe they have a pretty good point.
I definitely didn't mean to suggest that I think they did Uncov in a calculated move for press. I don't doubt that it arose organically as you suggest. I just think it goes to show that doing something like Uncov can be short sighted.
I'm not really sure that attention is a good indicator of having a good point. Bill O'Reilly gets a lot of attention. It's not necessarily because he is making good points.
