Prestasi tim merah putih di ajang Piala AFF menular ke toko online yang menjual pernak-pernik tim nasional.
http://bisniskeuangan.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/12/31/11131470/Toko.Online.Raup.Berkah.Ajang.AFF
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Friday, December 31, 2010
Database Tumbuhan Dunia Ada di Sini!
Ahli botani asal Amerika Serikat dan Inggris, Rabu 29/12/10 kemarin, meresmikan pembuatan situs database tumbuhan terlengkap di dunia.
http://sains.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/12/30/21035632/Database.Tumbuhan.Dunia.Ada.di.Sini.
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
http://sains.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/12/30/21035632/Database.Tumbuhan.Dunia.Ada.di.Sini.
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Porsi Iklan Media Online Naik 400 Persen
Porsi iklan di sejumlah media "online" via internet di Indonesia dinilai mengalami kenaikan signifikan pada tahun ini.
http://bisniskeuangan.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/12/31/08100544/Porsi.Iklan.Media.Online.Naik.400.Persen
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
http://bisniskeuangan.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/12/31/08100544/Porsi.Iklan.Media.Online.Naik.400.Persen
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Google As A Carrier. It’s Not A Question Of “If They Will”, But Rather “When They’ll Try”
CNNMoney published an interesting piece by David Goldman this morning entitled, Google: Your new phone carrier? In it, Goldman lays out what he sees as the preliminary steps Google has taken to become a wireless carrier themselves down the road. He also gives some reasons for why they would and would not want to do that. In my mind, the concept is much more straightforward. Goldman ends the title of his piece with a question mark — but it should be a period.
It's not a question of "if" Google will try to become a carrier. It's just a matter of "when" they'll try to.
Now, to be clear, that doesn't mean I think they'll actually be able to become a carrier. The biggest hurdle there has nothing to do with the technology needed, the money needed, or the expertise. Rather, the major issue would be the government. Would they allow Google, already one of the biggest corporations in the United States, to enter a new area that could extend their control (particularly in the advertising space)? Probably not. Actually, I have a feeling it might have more to do with Verizon and AT&T lobbying dollars influencing the government to block Google in such a cause.
But again, Google will try. It may be a few years from now, but it's inevitable.
Here's the key blurb of the CNNMoney piece, far down:
It's not likely in the immediate future. Google's Android is the hottest item in the mobile market, and the company relies on carriers to adopt its software and drive customers to its search site.
But it's a real possibility down the road. The Federal Communications Commission recently failed to enact strong Net neutrality rules for the wireless community. That leaves open the option for carriers to restrict their subscribers' access to some of Google's offerings.
Without the net neutrality safeguards in place, the carriers will make moves to restrict certain services down the road. YouTube is one example. Google Voice is probably another. There will likely be a dozen others.
Interestingly enough, it's none other than Google who will share a big part of the blame for this happening. Not only did they leave Android so open so as to allow for the carriers to do whatever they want, but they also teamed up with none other than Verizon to dream up the current bogus non-rules the FCC just voted to adopt for wireless access.
But what if it is just a big "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" scenario? What if Google saw teaming up with Verizon as the only way to move at least part of the net neutrality debate forward (as Google CEO Eric Schmidt has more or less stated) and realized that it was inevitable that they'd be competing with them in wireless down the road? It can't be ruled out. And at the very least, the partnership may be a bit of bet hedging — a way to ensure continued money-making just in case they can't enter the wireless space down the road.
Remember that Google has does some sly manipulation of the space in the past. In 2008, they put up a huge bid to buy a portion of the wireless spectrum that the FCC was opening. But Google had no intention of actually winning with that bid. Instead, they big just enough ($4.6 billion) to ensure that the open device and application rules would be put in place on the spectrum, no matter who won the rights to control it. And who won those rights? Verizon (and AT&T to a lesser extent).
While Google and the carriers may seem all buddy-buddy now, in the not-too-distant future, they will likely be at odds with one another. The reason will be that the carriers will begin restricting what Google thinks should be open. And Google will have to make some moves to open things up once again.
Rumors of Google buying one of the smaller U.S. carriers, namely Sprint, have been around since at least 2007. Those rumors pop up every year, and they will likely only intensify going forward. One issue there is that it would only solve the U.S. problem. Of course, given the state of carrier control in this country, it is likely the problem Google will want to solve first. The other bigger issue, again, is the government blocking such a purchase.
Instead, Google may simply try to buy up chunks of spectrum from others. Or build out their white space initiative, the so-called "WiFi on steroids". Or maybe they'll dream up some other new technology to try to end carrier dominance. This is the company behind self-driving cars, after all.
Remember, Google is already entering the ISP game with their fiber optic broadband test. Why? Because the state of broadband in this country is pretty piss poor thanks largely to de-facto regional monopolies in place. The next, and more important step is for them to take to the skies. And for largely the same reason. And Google will try to. It's only a matter of time. I'm just worried that like most things they're attempting these days, it will be easier said than done.
[photo: flickr/woodleywonderworks]
CrunchBase Information
Google
Verizon
AT&T
Information provided by CrunchBase
It's not a question of "if" Google will try to become a carrier. It's just a matter of "when" they'll try to.
Now, to be clear, that doesn't mean I think they'll actually be able to become a carrier. The biggest hurdle there has nothing to do with the technology needed, the money needed, or the expertise. Rather, the major issue would be the government. Would they allow Google, already one of the biggest corporations in the United States, to enter a new area that could extend their control (particularly in the advertising space)? Probably not. Actually, I have a feeling it might have more to do with Verizon and AT&T lobbying dollars influencing the government to block Google in such a cause.
But again, Google will try. It may be a few years from now, but it's inevitable.
Here's the key blurb of the CNNMoney piece, far down:
It's not likely in the immediate future. Google's Android is the hottest item in the mobile market, and the company relies on carriers to adopt its software and drive customers to its search site.
But it's a real possibility down the road. The Federal Communications Commission recently failed to enact strong Net neutrality rules for the wireless community. That leaves open the option for carriers to restrict their subscribers' access to some of Google's offerings.
Without the net neutrality safeguards in place, the carriers will make moves to restrict certain services down the road. YouTube is one example. Google Voice is probably another. There will likely be a dozen others.
Interestingly enough, it's none other than Google who will share a big part of the blame for this happening. Not only did they leave Android so open so as to allow for the carriers to do whatever they want, but they also teamed up with none other than Verizon to dream up the current bogus non-rules the FCC just voted to adopt for wireless access.
But what if it is just a big "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" scenario? What if Google saw teaming up with Verizon as the only way to move at least part of the net neutrality debate forward (as Google CEO Eric Schmidt has more or less stated) and realized that it was inevitable that they'd be competing with them in wireless down the road? It can't be ruled out. And at the very least, the partnership may be a bit of bet hedging — a way to ensure continued money-making just in case they can't enter the wireless space down the road.
Remember that Google has does some sly manipulation of the space in the past. In 2008, they put up a huge bid to buy a portion of the wireless spectrum that the FCC was opening. But Google had no intention of actually winning with that bid. Instead, they big just enough ($4.6 billion) to ensure that the open device and application rules would be put in place on the spectrum, no matter who won the rights to control it. And who won those rights? Verizon (and AT&T to a lesser extent).
While Google and the carriers may seem all buddy-buddy now, in the not-too-distant future, they will likely be at odds with one another. The reason will be that the carriers will begin restricting what Google thinks should be open. And Google will have to make some moves to open things up once again.
Rumors of Google buying one of the smaller U.S. carriers, namely Sprint, have been around since at least 2007. Those rumors pop up every year, and they will likely only intensify going forward. One issue there is that it would only solve the U.S. problem. Of course, given the state of carrier control in this country, it is likely the problem Google will want to solve first. The other bigger issue, again, is the government blocking such a purchase.
Instead, Google may simply try to buy up chunks of spectrum from others. Or build out their white space initiative, the so-called "WiFi on steroids". Or maybe they'll dream up some other new technology to try to end carrier dominance. This is the company behind self-driving cars, after all.
Remember, Google is already entering the ISP game with their fiber optic broadband test. Why? Because the state of broadband in this country is pretty piss poor thanks largely to de-facto regional monopolies in place. The next, and more important step is for them to take to the skies. And for largely the same reason. And Google will try to. It's only a matter of time. I'm just worried that like most things they're attempting these days, it will be easier said than done.
[photo: flickr/woodleywonderworks]
CrunchBase Information
Verizon
AT&T
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qtzfqlKF_qw/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
6 social media business trends to watch out for in 2011 | VentureBeat
http://venturebeat.com/2010/12/29/6-social-media-business-trends-to-watch-out-for-in-2011/
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Yext Organizes The Anti-Google Local Advertising Alliance (Screenshots)
Google, as you may have heard, is making a big push into local advertising. It is currently offering $100 million in AdWords credits to new small businesses that sign up and promotes Google Places results for all local searches. Quite frankly, this is scaring the shit out of competitors like Citysearch, Yellowbook, SuperPages, WhitePages, and Yelp. They all rely on Google search results for people to find a good portion of their listings, and if Google displaces them collectively for local business listings, their businesses will be destroyed.
In local, Google is already a big snowball getting bigger and bigger. So how do they fight back? They enter into an anti-Google alliance, of course. The company organizing this alliance is Yext, a New York City startup which specializes in pay-per-call advertising for local businesses and dashboards to help them manage their reputations and listings online. On Monday, it will launch a new feature called "Tags" which will let small businesses highlight their names with a little tag and customizable message across about a dozen local listings sites. Launch partners for this "Tag Alliance" (I like my name better) will include MapQuest, Citysearch, Yellowbook, Local.com, SuperPages, White Pages, MerchantCircle, and Topix, with more to come.
If these tags sound familiar, it is because Google also offers similar sponsored tags to small businesses for $25 a month. Whenever a local business advertising with tags comes up in an organic search result or on Google Maps, a yellow tag with a line of text appears beneath its listing to help it stand out. Now, Yext is offering basically the same product across all the other major local search and listings sites on the Web for $99 a month per business location. Yext will end up splitting that 50/50 with its partners where the tags will appear. But from one dashboard (see first screenshot below), small businesses will be able to create tags, activate them across all the partner sites, and change them or take them down at will. And this is just the first step.
Since launching its reputation management system, Yext Rep, last May at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, the company has signed up 30,000 local businesses for the free product with no marketing. Tags will become a new tab/feature on Yext. Eventually, businesses should be able to update their tags not just on Yext but from any of the partner sites, and with one stroke update all of their tags universally across all the partner sites. And while it is starting with tags, Yext hopes to convince its partners to share more data and allow businesses to change their listing information or upload new photos in one place and see the changes replicated everywhere else.
Below is the Yext Tags dashboard page and a couple examples of what the tags look like on SuperPages and MapQuest:
CrunchBase Information
Yext
Google
Information provided by CrunchBase
In local, Google is already a big snowball getting bigger and bigger. So how do they fight back? They enter into an anti-Google alliance, of course. The company organizing this alliance is Yext, a New York City startup which specializes in pay-per-call advertising for local businesses and dashboards to help them manage their reputations and listings online. On Monday, it will launch a new feature called "Tags" which will let small businesses highlight their names with a little tag and customizable message across about a dozen local listings sites. Launch partners for this "Tag Alliance" (I like my name better) will include MapQuest, Citysearch, Yellowbook, Local.com, SuperPages, White Pages, MerchantCircle, and Topix, with more to come.
If these tags sound familiar, it is because Google also offers similar sponsored tags to small businesses for $25 a month. Whenever a local business advertising with tags comes up in an organic search result or on Google Maps, a yellow tag with a line of text appears beneath its listing to help it stand out. Now, Yext is offering basically the same product across all the other major local search and listings sites on the Web for $99 a month per business location. Yext will end up splitting that 50/50 with its partners where the tags will appear. But from one dashboard (see first screenshot below), small businesses will be able to create tags, activate them across all the partner sites, and change them or take them down at will. And this is just the first step.
Since launching its reputation management system, Yext Rep, last May at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, the company has signed up 30,000 local businesses for the free product with no marketing. Tags will become a new tab/feature on Yext. Eventually, businesses should be able to update their tags not just on Yext but from any of the partner sites, and with one stroke update all of their tags universally across all the partner sites. And while it is starting with tags, Yext hopes to convince its partners to share more data and allow businesses to change their listing information or upload new photos in one place and see the changes replicated everywhere else.
Below is the Yext Tags dashboard page and a couple examples of what the tags look like on SuperPages and MapQuest:
CrunchBase Information
Yext
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/r6roPdeShgM/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
How Are M&M’s Made? – And Other Weird Interview Questions From 2010
Glassdoor.com, a venture-backed online career and workplace community, has self-reportedly culled through tens of thousands interview questions that job seekers have shared on the site in 2010, and selected a number of weird ones.
Some of them are pretty bizarre, some are downright hilarious.
Go to the Glassdoor blog for the top top 25 oddball interview questions, but below are the ones from technology companies, since I reckon you'd be most interested in those.
Don't forget to list some grueling interview questions you've had to answer in your career in the comment section!
"How many basketballs can you fit in this room?" - asked at Google.
"If you could be any superhero, who would it be?" - asked at AT&T.
"Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make?" – asked at Facebook.
"If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?" – asked at Amazon.
"There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?" – asked at Apple.
"How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?" – asked at IBM.
"You have 8 pennies, 7 weight the same, one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the one that weighs less in less than 3 steps." – asked at Intel.
"How many bottles of beer are drank in the city over the week?" – asked at The Nielsen Company.
Pro tip, you can view the answers given by job seekers for the listed interview questions as well. Some of them are quite amusing as well.
Also check out Glassdoor's List of Naughty and Nice CEOs (TCTV).
Alright, Monthy Python time (thanks, commenter):
CrunchBase Information
Glassdoor
Information provided by CrunchBase
Some of them are pretty bizarre, some are downright hilarious.
Go to the Glassdoor blog for the top top 25 oddball interview questions, but below are the ones from technology companies, since I reckon you'd be most interested in those.
Don't forget to list some grueling interview questions you've had to answer in your career in the comment section!
"How many basketballs can you fit in this room?" - asked at Google.
"If you could be any superhero, who would it be?" - asked at AT&T.
"Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make?" – asked at Facebook.
"If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?" – asked at Amazon.
"There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?" – asked at Apple.
"How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?" – asked at IBM.
"You have 8 pennies, 7 weight the same, one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the one that weighs less in less than 3 steps." – asked at Intel.
"How many bottles of beer are drank in the city over the week?" – asked at The Nielsen Company.
Pro tip, you can view the answers given by job seekers for the listed interview questions as well. Some of them are quite amusing as well.
Also check out Glassdoor's List of Naughty and Nice CEOs (TCTV).
Alright, Monthy Python time (thanks, commenter):
CrunchBase Information
Glassdoor
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/EZe6bFcmte0/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Three Words: Simple, Fun, Viral
Making the rounds on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr right now is Three Words, a super simple but mighty fun application created by teen tinkerer Mark Bao. What does it do?
Well, it tells you who you are in three words, at least according to the people that visit that Web page, that is.
When you first go to the site, you can sign up through Facebook Connect, and you'll get a link that looks like this: http://threewords.me/robinwauters. On that page, people can describe you in - you guessed it - three words, and you can even customize your page with a personal background and avatar if you're into that.
On Hacker News, meanwhile, Bao explains how he built the app, and asked the community what he should do now. Evidently, Bao also took to Quora, where he explained how the simple Web app went from a simple link on Facebook to a viral machine.
He says the biggest growth so far has come from Twitter and Tumblr, and also from Facebook, and that he's built the app specifically to spread virally by incorporating a low enough barrier to entry as well as a mechanism to entice people who describe other people to make a Three Words page for themselves too.
And of course, everyone knows people love to know what other people think of them (you can do so anonymously on Three Words, by the way, so go wild on my profile if you wish).
Funnily enough, he could easily make the service even more viral, in my opinion, by simply adding some buttons so people can easily spread their custom profile link to various social networking services once they've signed up.
Lets hope the site stays in the air long enough for you to try it out - there are definitely some scaling issues that need to be resolved.
Well, it tells you who you are in three words, at least according to the people that visit that Web page, that is.
When you first go to the site, you can sign up through Facebook Connect, and you'll get a link that looks like this: http://threewords.me/robinwauters. On that page, people can describe you in - you guessed it - three words, and you can even customize your page with a personal background and avatar if you're into that.
On Hacker News, meanwhile, Bao explains how he built the app, and asked the community what he should do now. Evidently, Bao also took to Quora, where he explained how the simple Web app went from a simple link on Facebook to a viral machine.
He says the biggest growth so far has come from Twitter and Tumblr, and also from Facebook, and that he's built the app specifically to spread virally by incorporating a low enough barrier to entry as well as a mechanism to entice people who describe other people to make a Three Words page for themselves too.
And of course, everyone knows people love to know what other people think of them (you can do so anonymously on Three Words, by the way, so go wild on my profile if you wish).
Funnily enough, he could easily make the service even more viral, in my opinion, by simply adding some buttons so people can easily spread their custom profile link to various social networking services once they've signed up.
Lets hope the site stays in the air long enough for you to try it out - there are definitely some scaling issues that need to be resolved.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8Ng1-Xm7glM/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
WPP Buys Obama’s Campaign Agency Blue State Digital
Blue State Digital, the communications firm responsible for coordinating President Barack Obama's online fundraising and social networking campaigns in the 2008 election, has been acquired by advertising giant WPP. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Blue State Digital is a digital agency that helps form online strategy, and advocacy, membership and fundraising campaigns for nonprofits, educational and cultural institutions, political campaigns and corporate brands. According to a release, Blue State Digital's revenue has grown more than 30% per year since its founding in 2004 (and the company's strategy and technology has helped raise $800 million to date).
Blue State Digital's clients include HBO, The American Red Cross, Harvard University and AT&T. One factor that made BSD appealing to WPP is its proprietary technology suite that integrates tools for online fundraising, advocacy, social networking, constituency development, email marketing and content management. The company also consults on web design and strategic communications.
CrunchBase Information
WPP
Information provided by CrunchBase
Blue State Digital is a digital agency that helps form online strategy, and advocacy, membership and fundraising campaigns for nonprofits, educational and cultural institutions, political campaigns and corporate brands. According to a release, Blue State Digital's revenue has grown more than 30% per year since its founding in 2004 (and the company's strategy and technology has helped raise $800 million to date).
Blue State Digital's clients include HBO, The American Red Cross, Harvard University and AT&T. One factor that made BSD appealing to WPP is its proprietary technology suite that integrates tools for online fundraising, advocacy, social networking, constituency development, email marketing and content management. The company also consults on web design and strategic communications.
CrunchBase Information
WPP
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/0f-3zzNsd-Y/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Google Incar Pendapatan dari UKM
Menyasar bisnis lokal dengan aplikasi pencarian lokal melalui Google Place.
http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/it/2010/12/30/brk,20101230-302747,id.html
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/it/2010/12/30/brk,20101230-302747,id.html
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Q: What Does Quora Mean For The Future Of Blogging? A: Business As Usual
As many of you have noticed, we (and by "we", I mainly mean "me") have been using Quora a lot as a source of inspiration for story ideas. Some people seem to think this is a great idea. Others seem to think it's the end of TechCrunch, blogging, and the world — perhaps not in that exact order. But here's what it really is: business as usual.
One reader, Elias Bizannes, tweeted the following yesterday, "Blogging 3.0 according to @parislemon 1) Follow the founders of Quora 2) Spend all day on Quora 3) Rehash voted-up Quora posts on TechCrunch". My response to this was as follows, "@EliasBiz so was blogging 2.0 doing the same thing on twitter? and blogging 1.0 doing the same thing on blogs?"
My point, again, is that Quora is simply a new medium for what's been going on since the beginning of blogging. And, to an extent, you could argue since the beginning of writing in general. That is, there needs to be a nugget of information that sparks a story. For the past 10+ years, many people have relied on other blog posts for this. For the past three years or so, many people have used Twitter for this. And now people are starting to use Quora for this purpose.
This process usually starts with blogs (like TechCrunch) and then eventually moves to the mainstream media. The same thing will happen here. In a year, CNN will be reporting information coming from Quora. Why? Because it's a great source of information.
On it, you'll find people like high-profile executives Steve Case and Reed Hastings candidly answering questions about the companies they are (or were) involved with. You'll also find former employees of companies giving insightful nuggets of information about those companies. It's really no different than if they each blogged about these things. But they aren't doing that, likely because it's the question itself that sparks them to answer. And the fact that all of these answers are connected in a centralized, filtered location makes it much more powerful.
That Quora answers can be lengthy (unlike tweets, which are limited to 140 characters) has brought up some unease as well. Aggregators, like Techmeme, have started linking directly to threads there. Other sites, such as Silicon Alley Insider, have started republishing entire Quora answers. But again, that's no different from the norm. That site also regularly republishes full blog posts found elsewhere.
We don't do that type of full republishing, not because we think it's bad, it's just not what we do. Instead, when an interesting Quora thread pops onto my radar, I like to think it over and write it up in a way that I would any other story. That is to say, I like to inject my own words and opinions and expand on the thought.
The other day, Robert Scoble wrote a post wondering if Quora was the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years? I still would definitely give the edge to tools like WordPress and Blogger, and then to Twitter (which serves as both a source of information and a means to distribute content), but Quora, at least as it stands right now, is the next step in the evolution.
It's not just that it's Yahoo Answers reborn, it's that it's Yahoo Answer done right. It utilizes several things that other social services have implemented over the years and ties them all together in a way the surfaces excellent information.
There's always been a concern that as Quora expands its user base, it will get less useful, but all indications are that it has been expanding rapidly in recent weeks — and guess what? It's actually getting better.
In other words, expect more posts based on information found on Quora, not less. And expect that trend to spread across the web. Just like it did with Twitter. Just like it did with blogs. It's all about the information, not the medium.
[image: Disney]
CrunchBase Information
Quora
Information provided by CrunchBase
One reader, Elias Bizannes, tweeted the following yesterday, "Blogging 3.0 according to @parislemon 1) Follow the founders of Quora 2) Spend all day on Quora 3) Rehash voted-up Quora posts on TechCrunch". My response to this was as follows, "@EliasBiz so was blogging 2.0 doing the same thing on twitter? and blogging 1.0 doing the same thing on blogs?"
My point, again, is that Quora is simply a new medium for what's been going on since the beginning of blogging. And, to an extent, you could argue since the beginning of writing in general. That is, there needs to be a nugget of information that sparks a story. For the past 10+ years, many people have relied on other blog posts for this. For the past three years or so, many people have used Twitter for this. And now people are starting to use Quora for this purpose.
This process usually starts with blogs (like TechCrunch) and then eventually moves to the mainstream media. The same thing will happen here. In a year, CNN will be reporting information coming from Quora. Why? Because it's a great source of information.
On it, you'll find people like high-profile executives Steve Case and Reed Hastings candidly answering questions about the companies they are (or were) involved with. You'll also find former employees of companies giving insightful nuggets of information about those companies. It's really no different than if they each blogged about these things. But they aren't doing that, likely because it's the question itself that sparks them to answer. And the fact that all of these answers are connected in a centralized, filtered location makes it much more powerful.
That Quora answers can be lengthy (unlike tweets, which are limited to 140 characters) has brought up some unease as well. Aggregators, like Techmeme, have started linking directly to threads there. Other sites, such as Silicon Alley Insider, have started republishing entire Quora answers. But again, that's no different from the norm. That site also regularly republishes full blog posts found elsewhere.
We don't do that type of full republishing, not because we think it's bad, it's just not what we do. Instead, when an interesting Quora thread pops onto my radar, I like to think it over and write it up in a way that I would any other story. That is to say, I like to inject my own words and opinions and expand on the thought.
The other day, Robert Scoble wrote a post wondering if Quora was the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years? I still would definitely give the edge to tools like WordPress and Blogger, and then to Twitter (which serves as both a source of information and a means to distribute content), but Quora, at least as it stands right now, is the next step in the evolution.
It's not just that it's Yahoo Answers reborn, it's that it's Yahoo Answer done right. It utilizes several things that other social services have implemented over the years and ties them all together in a way the surfaces excellent information.
There's always been a concern that as Quora expands its user base, it will get less useful, but all indications are that it has been expanding rapidly in recent weeks — and guess what? It's actually getting better.
In other words, expect more posts based on information found on Quora, not less. And expect that trend to spread across the web. Just like it did with Twitter. Just like it did with blogs. It's all about the information, not the medium.
[image: Disney]
CrunchBase Information
Quora
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/v_lJLAvjNPQ/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Interview With Ollie From NulisBuku.com
It reminds me of Lulu.com where i was so excited at. I can finally publish my own book/mag. For the sake of sharing and fame. Or for some extra dimes.
A few years back, I almost got scammed. A site providing a place to upload poetry is offering my poetry to be published. It must have been my day, somebody finally see my poet inner talent. Or so i thought.
The gist is, publishing a book is an exclusive right. It's not everybody's right. It's both time consuming and pricey. It's almost like setting up a company. We invest our money and aiming seriously to make profit. It's a job, not a hobby.
Successful company are those making the impossible become possible. Writing can be a hobby, but book publishing can't. It is obvious, Lulu and NulisBuku does not believe this. NulisBuku are founded by those know how painful it was to publish a book. So rest assured they are set to make it easy and possible for everyone else.
Let's confirm to Ollie.
Is it true that I can publish my book in just 1, 2, 3?
Yup! All you have to do just sign up on our website http://nulisbuku.com for FREE, then upload your soft copy book (in PDF format) to Nulisbuku.com, proofread it and if everything's okay, you can see your book in Nulisbuku.com marketplace for all people to buy. The publishing process should only take maximum 3 days if you don't have any revision after proofread.
How hard is it to actually publish a book via a regular publishing company?
Regular publishing company has their own idealism in selecting books, spesific marketing strategy and limited number book to publish. That's why new writers will find themselves waiting for months before they know if their script is successfully approved for publishing. And it's not easy to get published because of several reasons that I mention earlier make the publishing company select the scripts real carefully.
How can you make it so cheap?
We have our own method to make it possible. My partner, Brilliant Yotenega, has experience in printing industry for almost 10 years. Together with Angeline Anthony and Oka Pratama, we make print on demand, really happened!
How many years of research to get nulisbuku up and running?
Has been on my dream to do list for 2 years, and execute it for 5 months (operational & technical side)
Are you still bleeding or already taking profit?
We're taking profit from day 1
Day 1? Gross profit or net profit? how could it be possible?
It's gross profit. It's possible because we have a clear business model. For every books sold, we got certain percent of royalties. I must say in Nulisbuku early age, the business is sustainable and live from its own sales.
How are you making profit margin?
From printing margin & book royalties
Can you describe the pipeline in NulisBuku kitchen and which part took the most energy to run?
There are 2 kind of order.
First was from Writers. For every book submitted, our administration will confirm first for writer to make their first proofread version and manage the payment. The print order then goes directly to our production team. They will receive order, preparing the selected paper (we have 2 option, HVS & novel paper), print the script and cover, binding, wrapping, packaging and sending it to customer.
The second kind of order we get from normal customer or reader. The process is similar, but the quantity is up to the customer's order.
Our energy running mostly to operational process. Every piece of the book matters. To control the quality, doing it one by one and making each book a masterpiece in short period of time to keep up with customer's expectation is our challenge.
I believe, most of your author at the moment are early adopters (which is also a writer) which may not demand much as long as they can have their book published. But later on, you'll eventually need to cater commercial-writer (aiming for profit from day one). How do you plan to handle this change? It is surely a market you should embrace to expand NulisBuku.
Yes, we already hosted Ika Natassa, a best selling author and Jed Revolutia, that looking forward to profit from day one. We encourage people to do the marketing for their own book and we will create offline events, not only about how to write, but also how to sell. We might add channel of distribution through partnership and have plan to create Nulisbuku (offline) Library in cafes & restaurant all over Indonesia.
How many years until we can see nulisbuku in full scale?
We're expecting 2011 or early 2012 to scale
Do you see extra monetization channel in book publishing?
We already see several models of monetization channel and it will involve brands as well
Do you own your own payment gateway?
No, we plan to have partnership with the current payment gateway
Do you meet any difficulties with NulisBuku online store aside from lacking payment gateway?
We will simplify the registration process because we get several input in that section. Other than that, we'll do more improvement in 2011. We're expecting to sell ebooks version of Nulisbuku.com books as well and might add several new templates for photo books, recipe, etc.
If you are to look for one (payment gateway), what will be your fitting payment gateway criteria?
Must be easy to implement, easy to use by the customer, no initial fee and cheap fee per transaction :p
If you are about to partner with local startup, which one is it and why?
We're interested to partner with local startups that already play in ebook business or have hardcore writers or readers community or have a strong marketplace to showcase Nulisbuku books
OK, last but not least. Any advice for fellow startup founder-wannabe?
First, identify your passion. It's something that you'll do, after you have everything in life fullfilled. Create a startup idea out of your passion. Then make clear plans on how to make it come true. Network, come to #StartupLokal events, so you can get advice from the experts in your selected field. Give schedule and target to launch your startup. Even when it's not perfect yet, launch it anyway. Because perfection is a journey. *wave to Nulisbuku beta logo* Good luck!
Nulisbuku.com already have so many evangelists that form their own communities based on projects held by Nulisbuku. #99writers was an event that we create to launch Nulisbuku.com at Indonesia Book Fair 2010. 99 writers launch their 99 books that they've prepared in 9 days in one stage! They continue on supporting each other through twitter and blogs. #writers4indonesia also one of our project to help Indonesian disaster victims. 300 writers wrote 300 short stories compiled in 17 books! All royalties goes to charity arranged by Nulisbuku.com. The #writers4indonesia community is growing even to BBM groups To accommodate the passion of our writers, we create a forum http://forum.nulisbuku.com
Thanks a bunch Ollie.
Further question can be placed in the comment box. Hopefully Ollie herself and NulisBuku friends can answer your curiosity.
Artikel Terkait:
Startup Goes to Enterprise Market, How. Startup selalu mulai dari sesuatu yang kecil. Jarang ada yang...
Gimme The Badges! Badge harusnya tak bisa luntur atau ditukar dengan barang. Badge...
What Is Your Business Again? What was your business again? Facebook bilang: cool business. Facebook...
A few years back, I almost got scammed. A site providing a place to upload poetry is offering my poetry to be published. It must have been my day, somebody finally see my poet inner talent. Or so i thought.
The gist is, publishing a book is an exclusive right. It's not everybody's right. It's both time consuming and pricey. It's almost like setting up a company. We invest our money and aiming seriously to make profit. It's a job, not a hobby.
Successful company are those making the impossible become possible. Writing can be a hobby, but book publishing can't. It is obvious, Lulu and NulisBuku does not believe this. NulisBuku are founded by those know how painful it was to publish a book. So rest assured they are set to make it easy and possible for everyone else.
Let's confirm to Ollie.
Is it true that I can publish my book in just 1, 2, 3?
Yup! All you have to do just sign up on our website http://nulisbuku.com for FREE, then upload your soft copy book (in PDF format) to Nulisbuku.com, proofread it and if everything's okay, you can see your book in Nulisbuku.com marketplace for all people to buy. The publishing process should only take maximum 3 days if you don't have any revision after proofread.
How hard is it to actually publish a book via a regular publishing company?
Regular publishing company has their own idealism in selecting books, spesific marketing strategy and limited number book to publish. That's why new writers will find themselves waiting for months before they know if their script is successfully approved for publishing. And it's not easy to get published because of several reasons that I mention earlier make the publishing company select the scripts real carefully.
How can you make it so cheap?
We have our own method to make it possible. My partner, Brilliant Yotenega, has experience in printing industry for almost 10 years. Together with Angeline Anthony and Oka Pratama, we make print on demand, really happened!
How many years of research to get nulisbuku up and running?
Has been on my dream to do list for 2 years, and execute it for 5 months (operational & technical side)
Are you still bleeding or already taking profit?
We're taking profit from day 1
Day 1? Gross profit or net profit? how could it be possible?
It's gross profit. It's possible because we have a clear business model. For every books sold, we got certain percent of royalties. I must say in Nulisbuku early age, the business is sustainable and live from its own sales.
How are you making profit margin?
From printing margin & book royalties
Can you describe the pipeline in NulisBuku kitchen and which part took the most energy to run?
There are 2 kind of order.
First was from Writers. For every book submitted, our administration will confirm first for writer to make their first proofread version and manage the payment. The print order then goes directly to our production team. They will receive order, preparing the selected paper (we have 2 option, HVS & novel paper), print the script and cover, binding, wrapping, packaging and sending it to customer.
The second kind of order we get from normal customer or reader. The process is similar, but the quantity is up to the customer's order.
Our energy running mostly to operational process. Every piece of the book matters. To control the quality, doing it one by one and making each book a masterpiece in short period of time to keep up with customer's expectation is our challenge.
I believe, most of your author at the moment are early adopters (which is also a writer) which may not demand much as long as they can have their book published. But later on, you'll eventually need to cater commercial-writer (aiming for profit from day one). How do you plan to handle this change? It is surely a market you should embrace to expand NulisBuku.
Yes, we already hosted Ika Natassa, a best selling author and Jed Revolutia, that looking forward to profit from day one. We encourage people to do the marketing for their own book and we will create offline events, not only about how to write, but also how to sell. We might add channel of distribution through partnership and have plan to create Nulisbuku (offline) Library in cafes & restaurant all over Indonesia.
How many years until we can see nulisbuku in full scale?
We're expecting 2011 or early 2012 to scale
Do you see extra monetization channel in book publishing?
We already see several models of monetization channel and it will involve brands as well
Do you own your own payment gateway?
No, we plan to have partnership with the current payment gateway
Do you meet any difficulties with NulisBuku online store aside from lacking payment gateway?
We will simplify the registration process because we get several input in that section. Other than that, we'll do more improvement in 2011. We're expecting to sell ebooks version of Nulisbuku.com books as well and might add several new templates for photo books, recipe, etc.
If you are to look for one (payment gateway), what will be your fitting payment gateway criteria?
Must be easy to implement, easy to use by the customer, no initial fee and cheap fee per transaction :p
If you are about to partner with local startup, which one is it and why?
We're interested to partner with local startups that already play in ebook business or have hardcore writers or readers community or have a strong marketplace to showcase Nulisbuku books
OK, last but not least. Any advice for fellow startup founder-wannabe?
First, identify your passion. It's something that you'll do, after you have everything in life fullfilled. Create a startup idea out of your passion. Then make clear plans on how to make it come true. Network, come to #StartupLokal events, so you can get advice from the experts in your selected field. Give schedule and target to launch your startup. Even when it's not perfect yet, launch it anyway. Because perfection is a journey. *wave to Nulisbuku beta logo* Good luck!
Nulisbuku.com already have so many evangelists that form their own communities based on projects held by Nulisbuku. #99writers was an event that we create to launch Nulisbuku.com at Indonesia Book Fair 2010. 99 writers launch their 99 books that they've prepared in 9 days in one stage! They continue on supporting each other through twitter and blogs. #writers4indonesia also one of our project to help Indonesian disaster victims. 300 writers wrote 300 short stories compiled in 17 books! All royalties goes to charity arranged by Nulisbuku.com. The #writers4indonesia community is growing even to BBM groups To accommodate the passion of our writers, we create a forum http://forum.nulisbuku.com
Thanks a bunch Ollie.
Further question can be placed in the comment box. Hopefully Ollie herself and NulisBuku friends can answer your curiosity.
Artikel Terkait:
Startup Goes to Enterprise Market, How. Startup selalu mulai dari sesuatu yang kecil. Jarang ada yang...
Gimme The Badges! Badge harusnya tak bisa luntur atau ditukar dengan barang. Badge...
What Is Your Business Again? What was your business again? Facebook bilang: cool business. Facebook...
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Navinot/~3/u4JTVdSctTk/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Monday, December 27, 2010
31 Desember Terakhir Penyampaian SPT 2009
Direktorat Jenderal Pajak mengingatkan kepada seluruh wajib pajak yang hingga saat ini belum menyampaikan surat pemberitahuan SPT tahun 2009.
http://bisniskeuangan.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/12/27/15391115/31.Desember.Terakhir.Penyampaian.SPT.2009
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
http://bisniskeuangan.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/12/27/15391115/31.Desember.Terakhir.Penyampaian.SPT.2009
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Gurihnya Bisnis Lobster Air Tawar
Siapa bilang pekarangan rumah sempit membatasi anda untuk berkreasi bisnis. Misalnya kreatifitas Fahdiansyah Rambe, yang menyulap pekarangan rumahnya dengan menangkar lobster air tawar dan menjadi bisnis yang menggiurkan.
http://www.detikfinance.com/read/2010/12/27/101025/1533129/480/gurihnya-bisnis-lobster-air-tawar
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
http://www.detikfinance.com/read/2010/12/27/101025/1533129/480/gurihnya-bisnis-lobster-air-tawar
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Chrome is Ready for Business
Since we launched the Chromium project over two years ago, we've been hearing a lot of feedback from IT administrators who want to manage and configure Google Chrome. Of course, we were eager to do what we could to help them get Chrome deployed inside their organizations.
Today, after talking directly to administrators and testing the features extensively with other organizations, we believe the first set of features is ready for prime-time. Both Chrome and Chromium are now manageable through Group Policy objects on Windows, plist/MCX configuration on Mac, and special JSON configuration files on Linux. We polished up the NTLM and Kerberos protocol support, and created a list of supported policies and administrative templates to help administrators deploy. For users needing access to older web applications not yet qualified for Chrome, we also developed Chrome Frame, an Internet Explorer (TM) plug-in that provides Chrome-quality rendering for the broader Web, while defaulting to host rendering for any web applications that still require IE.
No feature is really useful to an administrator without great documentation, so we wrote articles to help admins in the configuration and deployment of both Google Chrome and Chromium. We also documented answers to the top questions testers encountered when deploying.
Even though the first set of features is done, we still have a lot more we'd like to do. We have some interesting ideas that we're working on, including more policies to manage everything in the content settings and authentication protocols, and interesting new ways to deploy policy cross-platform. But we could use your help: please try out the new features by checking out the documentation, downloading the MSI installer, and filing bugs. And let your administrator know to give it a try and let us know what they think.
Posted by Glenn Wilson, Product Manager and Daniel Clifford, Software Engineer
Today, after talking directly to administrators and testing the features extensively with other organizations, we believe the first set of features is ready for prime-time. Both Chrome and Chromium are now manageable through Group Policy objects on Windows, plist/MCX configuration on Mac, and special JSON configuration files on Linux. We polished up the NTLM and Kerberos protocol support, and created a list of supported policies and administrative templates to help administrators deploy. For users needing access to older web applications not yet qualified for Chrome, we also developed Chrome Frame, an Internet Explorer (TM) plug-in that provides Chrome-quality rendering for the broader Web, while defaulting to host rendering for any web applications that still require IE.
No feature is really useful to an administrator without great documentation, so we wrote articles to help admins in the configuration and deployment of both Google Chrome and Chromium. We also documented answers to the top questions testers encountered when deploying.
Even though the first set of features is done, we still have a lot more we'd like to do. We have some interesting ideas that we're working on, including more policies to manage everything in the content settings and authentication protocols, and interesting new ways to deploy policy cross-platform. But we could use your help: please try out the new features by checking out the documentation, downloading the MSI installer, and filing bugs. And let your administrator know to give it a try and let us know what they think.
Posted by Glenn Wilson, Product Manager and Daniel Clifford, Software Engineer
http://blog.chromium.org/2010/12/chrome-is-ready-for-business.html
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
WebGL now in Beta: here comes the 3D web!
We're happy to announce that WebGL is now on by default in Google Chrome's beta channel, with some shiny new demos to show off what the technology can do.
WebGL is a 3D graphics API for JavaScript that developers can use to create fully 3D web apps. It is based on the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, which should be familiar to many 3D graphics developers. Google, Mozilla, Apple, Opera and graphics hardware vendors have been working together to standardize WebGL for over a year now, and since the spec is just about final at this point, we wanted to get our implementation out there for feedback.
While you may not find much WebGL content on the web, we expect developers to quickly create a lot of content given the power and familiarity of the API. To inspire developers and give users a taste of the kind of apps they can expect in the near future, we've worked with a few talented teams to build a few more 3D web apps:
Body Browser, a human anatomy explorer built by a team at Google as a 20% project
Nine Point Five, a 3D earthquake map by Dean McNamee
Music Visualizer, a jukebox that synchronizes 3D graphics to the beat of the music by Jacob Seidelin
You can find these and other demos in the new Chrome Experiments Gallery for WebGL demos. Now that WebGL is enabled in the beta channel, the Chrome Experiments team is looking for your cool WebGL app submissions to show off this slick technology, so don't forget to submit your cool 3D apps!
Posted by Kenneth Russell, Software Engineer
WebGL is a 3D graphics API for JavaScript that developers can use to create fully 3D web apps. It is based on the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, which should be familiar to many 3D graphics developers. Google, Mozilla, Apple, Opera and graphics hardware vendors have been working together to standardize WebGL for over a year now, and since the spec is just about final at this point, we wanted to get our implementation out there for feedback.
While you may not find much WebGL content on the web, we expect developers to quickly create a lot of content given the power and familiarity of the API. To inspire developers and give users a taste of the kind of apps they can expect in the near future, we've worked with a few talented teams to build a few more 3D web apps:
Body Browser, a human anatomy explorer built by a team at Google as a 20% project
Nine Point Five, a 3D earthquake map by Dean McNamee
Music Visualizer, a jukebox that synchronizes 3D graphics to the beat of the music by Jacob Seidelin
You can find these and other demos in the new Chrome Experiments Gallery for WebGL demos. Now that WebGL is enabled in the beta channel, the Chrome Experiments team is looking for your cool WebGL app submissions to show off this slick technology, so don't forget to submit your cool 3D apps!
Posted by Kenneth Russell, Software Engineer
http://blog.chromium.org/2010/12/webgl-now-in-beta-here-comes-3d-web.html
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Send & Receive Money From Twitter & Facebook Friends With Dwolla
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Dwolla
Quick Pitch: Dwolla is a peer-to-peer payment platform that allows social network users to exchange money quickly and at a low cost.
Genius Idea: Hey, remember that fellow who spotted you a drink at last night's social media drinkup? If you want to pay him back but you're more likely to know his Twitter handle than his e-mail address, Dwolla might be a good service for you to check out.
Dwolla is a simple service that lets you connect to Facebook and Twitter to send and receive funds. Once your checking or savings account is linked to Dwolla and your social network contacts are imported (an automatic process that occurs programmatically behind the scenes), you can send money to any of your Facebook friends or Twitter followers.
Peer-to-peer payments are hardly a new concept, and startup Dwolla isn't the first company to devise a way to send sums through social networks. Still, this iteration has its merits.
Pay Me, a peer-to-peer payments Facebook app, rolled out back in 2007 with Paypal integration. And TwitPay has been around since 2009. Paypal itself launched a Facebook app called Send Money in 2009. But all of these apps are currently out of commission, as far as their intended purposes are concerned.
Here's the thing: The second you show people a way to send money online, scammers will find a way to take money online using your app. It's a principle analogous to Newton's third law of motion, and nearly as inviolable.
So, many of these social money-sending apps have been repurposed as charitable fundraising apps. But other parties are working on the social money-sending problem, including Buxter (a Facebook app from online payment system ClickandBuy) and Paypal, which announced micropayments and Facebook integration a couple months ago.
While Dwolla bills itself as "Paypal without the fees," it actually does charge per transaction; however, in this case, it's the recipient who pays a small fee of $0.25 per transaction regardless of the amount sent.
The startup allows for "hub" pages, microsites any user can create for requesting or sending money.
We're not at all sure that Dwolla is scam-proof; in the end, users still have to know and trust the people and organizations they're sending money to something that should be carefully scrutinized when social networks come into play.
In the end, only time will tell if Dwolla has the sticking power its predecessors have all lacked.
Here's a demo video of the Dwolla founder sending money to Sean Parker:
---------------
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
---------------
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Image courtesy of Flickr, mikemcilveen.
More About: dwolla, facebook, money, p2p, startup, twitter
For more Startups coverage:
Follow Mashable Startups on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Startups channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
Name: Dwolla
Quick Pitch: Dwolla is a peer-to-peer payment platform that allows social network users to exchange money quickly and at a low cost.
Genius Idea: Hey, remember that fellow who spotted you a drink at last night's social media drinkup? If you want to pay him back but you're more likely to know his Twitter handle than his e-mail address, Dwolla might be a good service for you to check out.
Dwolla is a simple service that lets you connect to Facebook and Twitter to send and receive funds. Once your checking or savings account is linked to Dwolla and your social network contacts are imported (an automatic process that occurs programmatically behind the scenes), you can send money to any of your Facebook friends or Twitter followers.
Peer-to-peer payments are hardly a new concept, and startup Dwolla isn't the first company to devise a way to send sums through social networks. Still, this iteration has its merits.
Pay Me, a peer-to-peer payments Facebook app, rolled out back in 2007 with Paypal integration. And TwitPay has been around since 2009. Paypal itself launched a Facebook app called Send Money in 2009. But all of these apps are currently out of commission, as far as their intended purposes are concerned.
Here's the thing: The second you show people a way to send money online, scammers will find a way to take money online using your app. It's a principle analogous to Newton's third law of motion, and nearly as inviolable.
So, many of these social money-sending apps have been repurposed as charitable fundraising apps. But other parties are working on the social money-sending problem, including Buxter (a Facebook app from online payment system ClickandBuy) and Paypal, which announced micropayments and Facebook integration a couple months ago.
While Dwolla bills itself as "Paypal without the fees," it actually does charge per transaction; however, in this case, it's the recipient who pays a small fee of $0.25 per transaction regardless of the amount sent.
The startup allows for "hub" pages, microsites any user can create for requesting or sending money.
We're not at all sure that Dwolla is scam-proof; in the end, users still have to know and trust the people and organizations they're sending money to something that should be carefully scrutinized when social networks come into play.
In the end, only time will tell if Dwolla has the sticking power its predecessors have all lacked.
Here's a demo video of the Dwolla founder sending money to Sean Parker:
---------------
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
---------------
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Image courtesy of Flickr, mikemcilveen.
More About: dwolla, facebook, money, p2p, startup, twitter
For more Startups coverage:
Follow Mashable Startups on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Startups channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/obNgimuReA4/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
MMC Ventures Injects $2.32 Million Into Online Children’s Wear Retailer Alexandalexa
MMC Ventures has invested £1.5 million (roughly $2.32 million) in AlexandAlexa, a UK-based online retailer for luxury children's wear, selling premium brands such as Ralph Lauren Kids, Burberry Kids, Little Marc Jacobs and Junior Gaultier. MMC said in a statement that it is taking a "significant minority stake" in the business.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wCfRoRkcQbQ/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Teradata Buys Marketing Automation Software Company Aprimo For $525M
Teradata is to acquire Aprimo, a cloud-based integrated marketing software maker, for approximately $525 million including the assumption of roughly $25 million of cash at closing. Aprimo delivers a suite of integrated marketing applications to more than 150,000 professionals worldwide, and says more than 36 percent of the Fortune 100 relies on its solutions for integrated marketing management.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2whtenowqls/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011
Jesse Thomas is the CEO and Founder of JESS3, a Creative Interactive Agency. JESS3 designs products and experiences for brands like Google, Nike, Facebook, MySpace, C-SPAN, Microsoft and NASA.
"Likes," views and followers were all the rage in 2010. Despite the social media community emphasizing engagement instead of reach, media agencies quickly learned that engagement doesn't scale easily, making it difficult to sell. Enter Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. As consumer use of social media spiked, the leading social networks retooled their advertising products to satisfy the newfound demand from brands. Instead of fizzling out like the popular online communities of yesteryear, they are driving toward profitability after several years of trying to figure out what they wanted to be when they grew up.
On the flip side, as consumers incorporate social media more into their daily lives, alternatives to the "big three" in the form of niche and location-based social networks have increased in appeal. Advertisers willing to experiment with media campaigns on these networks will have a distinct advantage moving forward as consumers become desensitized to text, display and even rich media ads. Whether they choose to go big or small, the social web equips advertisers with significantly more consumer data points than ever before to improve the targeting and relevance of online advertising.
Below are six predictions for digital advertising in 2011.
.
---------------
1. Local Advertising Becomes Relevant Again With Location
---------------
Location-based advertising will continue to grow in 2011 as Facebook expands the technology with its location platform, Places. In addition to Facebook, many other players in the checkin space, including Foursquare, Yelp, Shopkick, and last but not least, Google, will condition shoppers to expect a deal or coupon for alerting friends of their whereabouts. Relevance will distinguish these services from each other as the two biggest players, Facebook and Google, have the most powerful social graph data to customize deals for consumers. Don't count Groupon out, though. It more than makes up for its comparative lack of technology with brand equity and scale, as its massive sales force will remain dominant in 2011 by further monetizing local commerce beyond the recently launched self-service platform.
---------------
2. Silicon Valley Will Be the Next Madison Avenue
---------------
The coolest job in advertising used to be working for an agency in New York City or Chicago, but these days the dreams jobs are at Facebook and Twitter. Not unlike Mail.ru Group (formerly Digital Sky Technologies) attracting top bankers from Goldman Sachs, as Facebook and Twitter start generating more revenue, advertising and marketing talent will start heading West to cash in.
---------------
3. Influencers Will Be the Celebrities of the Social Web
---------------
Consumers are constantly scouring the social web to decide where to eat, shop and stay; so it comes as no surprise that brands are desperately analyzing Twitter, blog posts and reviews to understand not only who has the largest audience, but how much influence individuals have. YouTube's Partner Program is being joined by new services such as Klout to create an official layer of social credibility.
Klout scores are being used by The Palms Hotel in Vegas to gauge discounts for hotel guests, including through the "Klout Klub," which "will allow high-ranking influencers to experience Palms' impressive set of amenities in hopes that these influencers will want to communicate their positive experience to their followers." Creating thoughtful ways to leverage your influencers is the thing to focus on. People have always said it's cheaper to keep and please the customers you have, than acquire new ones.
---------------
4. Small Will Be the New Big for Social Networks
---------------
Despite Mark Zuckerberg's unwavering belief that an open and connected social web is best for society, early adopters are starting to experiment with new platforms designed to communicate and share media with smaller audiences. Path has shown us the potential of limiting our social networks to 50 people. Fast Society is a new iPhone communication service that allows the user to create small groups to text with on the fly, and the groups last for three days. Facebook also realizes some of us may prefer communicating with smaller networks. Facebook's new Groups feature allows us to segment our friends into personal, professional and interest-based communities, and openly engage in conversations not meant for our mother or colleagues to hear. Watch for more of these smaller, closed networks to launch in 2011 as people seek deeper connections online.
---------------
5. Brands Will Become More Like Media Companies
---------------
Social media has empowered brands to break their own news instead of relying on advertising or PR to disseminate their message. As brands become increasingly comfortable with social media on the whole, more budget and attention will be focused on high quality content created specifically for the social web. We will see more Facebook Pages like Skittles that appear to employ comedy writers to keep the content fresh. It would seem that "a brand's best bet in social media is randomness."
---------------
6. Facebook "Likes" Will Be Important for Your Brand
---------------
While it's still unclear exactly how much a Facebook "Like" is worth to a brand, the following video sums up why Facebook is so important.
Brands will be tripling down on Facebook advertising in 2011, and the process for acquiring Facebook "Likes" has evolved to accommodate this increase in demand. Instead of doing A/B testing between two photos to see which generates more Facebook "Likes," the savvier brands and agencies are leveraging technology that can simultaneously deploy 10,000+ ad variations to yield the lowest CPA (cost per acquisition) of those "Likes."
---------------
More Business Resources from Mashable:
---------------
6 Ways to Market on Foursquare Without a Location
HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
5 New Online Services Perfect for Small Businesses
4 Top Employers for Social Media Professionals
What Does Web Design Say About Your Small Business?
More About: advertising, facebook, MARKETING, Opinion, predictions-2011, social media, social media marketing, twitter
For more Business coverage:
Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Business channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
"Likes," views and followers were all the rage in 2010. Despite the social media community emphasizing engagement instead of reach, media agencies quickly learned that engagement doesn't scale easily, making it difficult to sell. Enter Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. As consumer use of social media spiked, the leading social networks retooled their advertising products to satisfy the newfound demand from brands. Instead of fizzling out like the popular online communities of yesteryear, they are driving toward profitability after several years of trying to figure out what they wanted to be when they grew up.
On the flip side, as consumers incorporate social media more into their daily lives, alternatives to the "big three" in the form of niche and location-based social networks have increased in appeal. Advertisers willing to experiment with media campaigns on these networks will have a distinct advantage moving forward as consumers become desensitized to text, display and even rich media ads. Whether they choose to go big or small, the social web equips advertisers with significantly more consumer data points than ever before to improve the targeting and relevance of online advertising.
Below are six predictions for digital advertising in 2011.
.
---------------
1. Local Advertising Becomes Relevant Again With Location
---------------
Location-based advertising will continue to grow in 2011 as Facebook expands the technology with its location platform, Places. In addition to Facebook, many other players in the checkin space, including Foursquare, Yelp, Shopkick, and last but not least, Google, will condition shoppers to expect a deal or coupon for alerting friends of their whereabouts. Relevance will distinguish these services from each other as the two biggest players, Facebook and Google, have the most powerful social graph data to customize deals for consumers. Don't count Groupon out, though. It more than makes up for its comparative lack of technology with brand equity and scale, as its massive sales force will remain dominant in 2011 by further monetizing local commerce beyond the recently launched self-service platform.
---------------
2. Silicon Valley Will Be the Next Madison Avenue
---------------
The coolest job in advertising used to be working for an agency in New York City or Chicago, but these days the dreams jobs are at Facebook and Twitter. Not unlike Mail.ru Group (formerly Digital Sky Technologies) attracting top bankers from Goldman Sachs, as Facebook and Twitter start generating more revenue, advertising and marketing talent will start heading West to cash in.
---------------
3. Influencers Will Be the Celebrities of the Social Web
---------------
Consumers are constantly scouring the social web to decide where to eat, shop and stay; so it comes as no surprise that brands are desperately analyzing Twitter, blog posts and reviews to understand not only who has the largest audience, but how much influence individuals have. YouTube's Partner Program is being joined by new services such as Klout to create an official layer of social credibility.
Klout scores are being used by The Palms Hotel in Vegas to gauge discounts for hotel guests, including through the "Klout Klub," which "will allow high-ranking influencers to experience Palms' impressive set of amenities in hopes that these influencers will want to communicate their positive experience to their followers." Creating thoughtful ways to leverage your influencers is the thing to focus on. People have always said it's cheaper to keep and please the customers you have, than acquire new ones.
---------------
4. Small Will Be the New Big for Social Networks
---------------
Despite Mark Zuckerberg's unwavering belief that an open and connected social web is best for society, early adopters are starting to experiment with new platforms designed to communicate and share media with smaller audiences. Path has shown us the potential of limiting our social networks to 50 people. Fast Society is a new iPhone communication service that allows the user to create small groups to text with on the fly, and the groups last for three days. Facebook also realizes some of us may prefer communicating with smaller networks. Facebook's new Groups feature allows us to segment our friends into personal, professional and interest-based communities, and openly engage in conversations not meant for our mother or colleagues to hear. Watch for more of these smaller, closed networks to launch in 2011 as people seek deeper connections online.
---------------
5. Brands Will Become More Like Media Companies
---------------
Social media has empowered brands to break their own news instead of relying on advertising or PR to disseminate their message. As brands become increasingly comfortable with social media on the whole, more budget and attention will be focused on high quality content created specifically for the social web. We will see more Facebook Pages like Skittles that appear to employ comedy writers to keep the content fresh. It would seem that "a brand's best bet in social media is randomness."
---------------
6. Facebook "Likes" Will Be Important for Your Brand
---------------
While it's still unclear exactly how much a Facebook "Like" is worth to a brand, the following video sums up why Facebook is so important.
Brands will be tripling down on Facebook advertising in 2011, and the process for acquiring Facebook "Likes" has evolved to accommodate this increase in demand. Instead of doing A/B testing between two photos to see which generates more Facebook "Likes," the savvier brands and agencies are leveraging technology that can simultaneously deploy 10,000+ ad variations to yield the lowest CPA (cost per acquisition) of those "Likes."
---------------
More Business Resources from Mashable:
---------------
6 Ways to Market on Foursquare Without a Location
HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
5 New Online Services Perfect for Small Businesses
4 Top Employers for Social Media Professionals
What Does Web Design Say About Your Small Business?
More About: advertising, facebook, MARKETING, Opinion, predictions-2011, social media, social media marketing, twitter
For more Business coverage:
Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Business channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/E31IbGram1k/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Salesforce Acquires E-mail Contact Management Startup Etacts
Etacts, a Y-Combinator startup in the contact-management business, has been acquired by Salesforce for an undisclosed amount.
The startup's product attempted to bring advanced customer relationship management to its users' personal e-mail contacts with a modicum of simple features and a slick Gmail integration.
When we first covered Etacts shortly after its February 2010 launch, we were impressed with the product's simplicity and usefulness. By parsing Gmail contacts, Etacts was able to provide its users with interesting and actionable data, such as how many e-mail conversations you've had with someone, when you first contacted someone, the amount of days since last contact and even people you'd been out of touch with for a while.
However, the service stopped accepting new users not too long ago and will cease operations entirely within the next few weeks. The founders left a simple message on the Etacts homepage stating, "We have decided to pursue other opportunities and will be shutting down our service on January 31, 2011."
Etacts' investors include an all-star list of successful entrepreneurs and angels, including Ron Conway, YouTube founder Jawed Karim, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter and others.
Salesforce's last acquisition was Heroku, a cloud platform for Ruby devs.
---------------
Reviews: Delicious, YouTube, gmail
More About: acquire, acquisition, Etacts, Salesforce, startups, y combinator
For more Business coverage:
Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Business channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
The startup's product attempted to bring advanced customer relationship management to its users' personal e-mail contacts with a modicum of simple features and a slick Gmail integration.
When we first covered Etacts shortly after its February 2010 launch, we were impressed with the product's simplicity and usefulness. By parsing Gmail contacts, Etacts was able to provide its users with interesting and actionable data, such as how many e-mail conversations you've had with someone, when you first contacted someone, the amount of days since last contact and even people you'd been out of touch with for a while.
However, the service stopped accepting new users not too long ago and will cease operations entirely within the next few weeks. The founders left a simple message on the Etacts homepage stating, "We have decided to pursue other opportunities and will be shutting down our service on January 31, 2011."
Etacts' investors include an all-star list of successful entrepreneurs and angels, including Ron Conway, YouTube founder Jawed Karim, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter and others.
Salesforce's last acquisition was Heroku, a cloud platform for Ruby devs.
---------------
Reviews: Delicious, YouTube, gmail
More About: acquire, acquisition, Etacts, Salesforce, startups, y combinator
For more Business coverage:
Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Business channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/HxwYAqc9ARM/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
After Failing To Acquire Groupon, Google Said To Be Sniffing Around Smaller Rivals
Google wants to be in the online group buying space, badly, and with good reason. The company may have not succeeded in purchasing the current leader in the space, Groupon, which has spurned a $6 billion buy-out offer in a bid to stay independent and shoot for the stars, but it seems determined to get in on the action - through acquisition - regardless.
According a report from the New York Post, citing a source familiar with the matter, Google is talking to smaller Groupon rivals about a potential acquisition.
Companies like LivingSocial and BuyWithMe, both privately-held and backed by tens of millions in venture capital, are some of the names that are dropped in various reports, but there are of course plenty of smaller Groupon competitors to go around.
LivingSocial, for one, seems an unlikely target - it has just raised $175 million from Amazon.
BuyWithMe has raised $21.5 million to date, and interim President David Wolfe told the New York Post that he wouldn't comment on whether he was speaking to Google, saying only that he believes Google definitely needs to enter the coupon advertising market (we agree).
Another potential bet in our opinion could be Whaleshark Media, which operates a marketplace for coupons and deals and owns Deals.com, CouponShare and Deals2Buy, among other sites.
The company just raised roughly $90 million to pursue its roll-up strategy, and Whaleshark Media also just acquired coupon search engine company RetailMeNot.
Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Needless to say, we're all over this.
CrunchBase Information
Google
BuyWithMe
LivingSocial
WhaleShark Media
Information provided by CrunchBase
According a report from the New York Post, citing a source familiar with the matter, Google is talking to smaller Groupon rivals about a potential acquisition.
Companies like LivingSocial and BuyWithMe, both privately-held and backed by tens of millions in venture capital, are some of the names that are dropped in various reports, but there are of course plenty of smaller Groupon competitors to go around.
LivingSocial, for one, seems an unlikely target - it has just raised $175 million from Amazon.
BuyWithMe has raised $21.5 million to date, and interim President David Wolfe told the New York Post that he wouldn't comment on whether he was speaking to Google, saying only that he believes Google definitely needs to enter the coupon advertising market (we agree).
Another potential bet in our opinion could be Whaleshark Media, which operates a marketplace for coupons and deals and owns Deals.com, CouponShare and Deals2Buy, among other sites.
The company just raised roughly $90 million to pursue its roll-up strategy, and Whaleshark Media also just acquired coupon search engine company RetailMeNot.
Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Needless to say, we're all over this.
CrunchBase Information
BuyWithMe
LivingSocial
WhaleShark Media
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/q5znGYdWJ9A/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
500 Startups Announces First Winners Of Its $250K Twilio Micro-Fund
Earlier this year, 500 Startups, the seed fund run by Dave McClure, announced that it was creating a $250,000 micro-fund dedicated to companies that were based on Twilio's telephony platform (Twilio is one of 500 Startup's portfolio companies). Today it's announcing the first three winners, each of whom will receive $10,000 in return for a 1% stake in the company.
The three companies are Textaurant, OrderMapper, and Voicendo. Textaurant is a service that lets restaurant customers put their names down' for a table without having to sit around on a restaurant bench for 20 minutes. Instead, they receive a text or voice message (via Twilio) when it's their turn (this sounds like an alternative to those vibrating gizmos that some establishments hand out). The company says that there's been a 5-15% decrease in no-shows for restaurants on busy nights that use the service, and that most customers are happy to give the restaurant their phone number to take advantage of it. Come to think of it, I'm surprised this kind of SMS-service hasn't taken off sooner.
OrderMapper helps restaurants create mobile applications that customers can use to order food, including the completion of credit card transactions. Orders are delivered to restaurants via fax, email, Point of Service, or phone numbers (again, Twilio) and OrderMapper already powers Round Table's mobile app. The company is planning to launch an API called OrderWiki, which will let other developers hook into the service.
Finally, Voicendo offers a dashboard that lets businesses route their incoming calls and text messages using a variety of rules (which can be quite complex). Rules can be set up using a drag-and-drop interface, and businesses can incorporate options like Text-to-speech instructions and menus.
In addition to the winners, Twilio is also announcing the full set of advisors for the Twilio fund, who include:
Joshua Schachter
Jay Weintraub
Lane Becker
Dave Schappell
Manu Kumar
John Musser
For interested startups, the program is actually still accepting submissions through December 31.
CrunchBase Information
Twilio
Information provided by CrunchBase
The three companies are Textaurant, OrderMapper, and Voicendo. Textaurant is a service that lets restaurant customers put their names down' for a table without having to sit around on a restaurant bench for 20 minutes. Instead, they receive a text or voice message (via Twilio) when it's their turn (this sounds like an alternative to those vibrating gizmos that some establishments hand out). The company says that there's been a 5-15% decrease in no-shows for restaurants on busy nights that use the service, and that most customers are happy to give the restaurant their phone number to take advantage of it. Come to think of it, I'm surprised this kind of SMS-service hasn't taken off sooner.
OrderMapper helps restaurants create mobile applications that customers can use to order food, including the completion of credit card transactions. Orders are delivered to restaurants via fax, email, Point of Service, or phone numbers (again, Twilio) and OrderMapper already powers Round Table's mobile app. The company is planning to launch an API called OrderWiki, which will let other developers hook into the service.
Finally, Voicendo offers a dashboard that lets businesses route their incoming calls and text messages using a variety of rules (which can be quite complex). Rules can be set up using a drag-and-drop interface, and businesses can incorporate options like Text-to-speech instructions and menus.
In addition to the winners, Twilio is also announcing the full set of advisors for the Twilio fund, who include:
Joshua Schachter
Jay Weintraub
Lane Becker
Dave Schappell
Manu Kumar
John Musser
For interested startups, the program is actually still accepting submissions through December 31.
CrunchBase Information
Twilio
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RPwHBThJTFo/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Egnyte Now Helping Businesses Sync Over 5 Billion Files
We haven't covered file storage and synchronization service Egnyte before, but it's been around since 2008, and is now syncing roughly 5 billion files with more than 500,000 user licenses. In other words, there are quite a few people using it.
Egnyte can best be described as a Dropbox-like service that focuses primarily on helping small and medium-sized businesses sync their files. But it isn't entirely cloud-based. Instead, it's using a so-called hybrid solution, where businesses keep a Network-Attached Storage device linked up to their office's computers, which serves as a local cloud' — all files are synced and backed up on this local, network connected hardware. Because these files are available on-site, Internet access isn't required to access them, and latency is minimized. These Local Clouds can consist of Netgear ReadyNAS devices, or VMware-based virtual appliances.
But this same, local cloud' NAS is also hooked up to Egnyte's servers, and any changes made between the client computers and the files on the NAS are also synced up to the web for remote access. Once these files are in the cloud, company admins can enable file sharing between employees and also to business partners, who can be given restricted access to specific files. This cloud portion also serves as a remote backup, and files can be accessed from Macs, Windows, and mobile phones.
So why would a business use this over other sync apps? CEO Vineet Jain explains that when you have a team of seven or eight employees, where all necessary files can be replicated across everyone's computer without running into storage constraints, than solutions like Dropbox and Sugarsync are fine. But he says that when it comes to managing storage for fifty people, or hundreds, then that can become untenable, which is where Egnyte comes in.
Jain says that the company has focused on SMBs from day one, and that Egynte is increasingly drawing larger clients. Egynte used to see an average order size of around six seats per account — now, over the last two quarters, that number is trending up toward over 25 seats per account. He also says that monthly recurring revenue has been growing 20% month over month for the last seven months.
Egnyte was founded in 2006 and has raised over $6 million in funding, including a Series A round in July 2009 from Maples Investments and Polaris Venture Partners.
It's worth noting that Dropbox recently launched Dropbox for Teams, which makes it better suited for multiple users under one main account, and its 1.0 release includes selective sync (you no longer have to copy all synced directories to all linked computers). But it seems like Egnyte's service is, at this point at least, catering more directly to larger businesses. There's also a Sugarsync for businesses and Syncplicity for businesses , but none of these use the same hybrid storage model as Egnyte.
CrunchBase Information
Egnyte
Information provided by CrunchBase
Egnyte can best be described as a Dropbox-like service that focuses primarily on helping small and medium-sized businesses sync their files. But it isn't entirely cloud-based. Instead, it's using a so-called hybrid solution, where businesses keep a Network-Attached Storage device linked up to their office's computers, which serves as a local cloud' — all files are synced and backed up on this local, network connected hardware. Because these files are available on-site, Internet access isn't required to access them, and latency is minimized. These Local Clouds can consist of Netgear ReadyNAS devices, or VMware-based virtual appliances.
But this same, local cloud' NAS is also hooked up to Egnyte's servers, and any changes made between the client computers and the files on the NAS are also synced up to the web for remote access. Once these files are in the cloud, company admins can enable file sharing between employees and also to business partners, who can be given restricted access to specific files. This cloud portion also serves as a remote backup, and files can be accessed from Macs, Windows, and mobile phones.
So why would a business use this over other sync apps? CEO Vineet Jain explains that when you have a team of seven or eight employees, where all necessary files can be replicated across everyone's computer without running into storage constraints, than solutions like Dropbox and Sugarsync are fine. But he says that when it comes to managing storage for fifty people, or hundreds, then that can become untenable, which is where Egnyte comes in.
Jain says that the company has focused on SMBs from day one, and that Egynte is increasingly drawing larger clients. Egynte used to see an average order size of around six seats per account — now, over the last two quarters, that number is trending up toward over 25 seats per account. He also says that monthly recurring revenue has been growing 20% month over month for the last seven months.
Egnyte was founded in 2006 and has raised over $6 million in funding, including a Series A round in July 2009 from Maples Investments and Polaris Venture Partners.
It's worth noting that Dropbox recently launched Dropbox for Teams, which makes it better suited for multiple users under one main account, and its 1.0 release includes selective sync (you no longer have to copy all synced directories to all linked computers). But it seems like Egnyte's service is, at this point at least, catering more directly to larger businesses. There's also a Sugarsync for businesses and Syncplicity for businesses , but none of these use the same hybrid storage model as Egnyte.
CrunchBase Information
Egnyte
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Zi7_PXsqPAM/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Monday, December 20, 2010
Hotel Tonight Fulfills Some of Paul Carr’s Fantasies (Actually Safe for Work)
A few weeks ago Paul Carr and I had one of our many bitch sessions about the woeful state of the online travel industry- particularly as it pertains to hotels. My dream company was one that gave you an envelope of essentials upon arrival in a new country- things like a local burner phone with your hotel number programmed in, a metro card and small local bills for tipping. Paul's dream company was a place where you could book very last minute hotel rooms all for one set price.
Hotel Tonight is almost Paul's dream company. In fact, I like it better. It quietly launched on the iPhone and is a simple way to do just what the name says, book a bargin hotel at the last minute for one night. So far it is live in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and groups its hotels into three categories: Hip, elegant or basic. I was hard pressed to come up with a hotel that didn't fit in one of those three categories- and they're so much clearer than "luxury" which everyone in the hotel industry throws around but few truly posses.
Because it's a last minute buy and it's only for one night, you can get some great deals- roughly what you'd get on Priceline or HotWire, and you get to see the names before booking. Right now there are more than fifty hotels in the system and some current deals include $159/night at Ace NYC, San Francisco's Nikko for $120 a night, and the Thompson Beverly Hills in Hollywood for $149 a night.
Hotel Tonight was incubated in a company called DealBase, a competitor to Kayak. Hotel Tonight founder CEO Sam Shank originally was just looking to build an iPhone version for the site. But he found for it to really utilize the mobile medium, he needed something built from the ground up in a different way- even building a new backend system. Interestingly Hotel Tonight isn't much of an aggregator, it's a throwback to the online travel agents that aggregators like Kayak and DealBase disrupted.
Hotel Tonight doesn't flood you with information, rather it gives you the basics you'd need to know when you are headed to a hotel for the night. Things like whether it offers roomservice and how much the cheeseburger is, or whether there's a mini-bar and what's in it. (Too pricey and you might run by an In-and-Out and a liquor store on the way.) Staff members have stayed in all the hotels and written the simple editorial content themselves.
Shank has measured that it takes 80 taps the first time you set up an account and book a room, versus 300 taps for a computer-based online travel agency. On a second visit it takes just four taps and under ten seconds, versus 100 taps for a computer-based online travel agency.
The most obvious question is how many people want to book a hotel at the last minute, but Priceline says it's a whopping 80% of their bookings. Shank expects more staycations and last minute local hotel purhcases, say if your in-laws are driving you nuts or you've had too much to drink at that Holiday party. Just like other iPhone apps have convinced people it's ok to be spontaeous with entertainment and dining, he's hoping the app will encourage people to be more spontaneous travelers.
Of course, for that to happen Hotel Tonight has to have very solid inventory and always have good deals in stock for every city in which it operates. If someone gets burned once at the last minute and has to scramble for a place to sleep, they won't want to rely on the service again.
What would worry me more is how much money and time it'll take Hotel Tonight to expand to a meaningful enough number of cities to make it a popular, well-known default app when someone needs a good deal at the last minute. I can think of a hundred times in the last year I would have used this service, but none of the examples were in New York, San Francisco or LA. Like OpenTable or Yelp learned, building local network effects can be a long slog. But I love to see anyone solving the hotel market with more than aggregation and crowd sourcing.
Hotel Tonight is almost Paul's dream company. In fact, I like it better. It quietly launched on the iPhone and is a simple way to do just what the name says, book a bargin hotel at the last minute for one night. So far it is live in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and groups its hotels into three categories: Hip, elegant or basic. I was hard pressed to come up with a hotel that didn't fit in one of those three categories- and they're so much clearer than "luxury" which everyone in the hotel industry throws around but few truly posses.
Because it's a last minute buy and it's only for one night, you can get some great deals- roughly what you'd get on Priceline or HotWire, and you get to see the names before booking. Right now there are more than fifty hotels in the system and some current deals include $159/night at Ace NYC, San Francisco's Nikko for $120 a night, and the Thompson Beverly Hills in Hollywood for $149 a night.
Hotel Tonight was incubated in a company called DealBase, a competitor to Kayak. Hotel Tonight founder CEO Sam Shank originally was just looking to build an iPhone version for the site. But he found for it to really utilize the mobile medium, he needed something built from the ground up in a different way- even building a new backend system. Interestingly Hotel Tonight isn't much of an aggregator, it's a throwback to the online travel agents that aggregators like Kayak and DealBase disrupted.
Hotel Tonight doesn't flood you with information, rather it gives you the basics you'd need to know when you are headed to a hotel for the night. Things like whether it offers roomservice and how much the cheeseburger is, or whether there's a mini-bar and what's in it. (Too pricey and you might run by an In-and-Out and a liquor store on the way.) Staff members have stayed in all the hotels and written the simple editorial content themselves.
Shank has measured that it takes 80 taps the first time you set up an account and book a room, versus 300 taps for a computer-based online travel agency. On a second visit it takes just four taps and under ten seconds, versus 100 taps for a computer-based online travel agency.
The most obvious question is how many people want to book a hotel at the last minute, but Priceline says it's a whopping 80% of their bookings. Shank expects more staycations and last minute local hotel purhcases, say if your in-laws are driving you nuts or you've had too much to drink at that Holiday party. Just like other iPhone apps have convinced people it's ok to be spontaeous with entertainment and dining, he's hoping the app will encourage people to be more spontaneous travelers.
Of course, for that to happen Hotel Tonight has to have very solid inventory and always have good deals in stock for every city in which it operates. If someone gets burned once at the last minute and has to scramble for a place to sleep, they won't want to rely on the service again.
What would worry me more is how much money and time it'll take Hotel Tonight to expand to a meaningful enough number of cities to make it a popular, well-known default app when someone needs a good deal at the last minute. I can think of a hundred times in the last year I would have used this service, but none of the examples were in New York, San Francisco or LA. Like OpenTable or Yelp learned, building local network effects can be a long slog. But I love to see anyone solving the hotel market with more than aggregation and crowd sourcing.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8SbBf79JVhU/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
22 Essential Resources for Android Owners
If you have an Android device in need of apps, boy do we have some tools and resources for you. The holidays are fast approaching and whether you're stuck at your grandmother's house or working overtime, we've got a list of Android apps and tools to help you have a little fun, while away the hours, or get that last piece of work done and out.
This list has a wide range of apps including popular games like Angry Birds, photography tools like FXCamera, and business apps like Box.net.
Read through for some sweet pics for your Android device and let us know in the comments below which were the most fun (or useful).
---------------
6 Essential Android Apps for Business Travel
If you own an Android smartphone, you can make your life a lot easier with apps that enhance your business productivity while you're on the go.
Access Your Business Documents from Your Android Device
Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box.net has just released its Box for Android app to the Android Market.
New Android App Controls YouTube on Your TV
YouTube's made-for-TV product, YouTube Leanback, now has a complementary remote control in the form of a mobile application — YouTube Remote for Android.
Dr. Seuss Apps Come to Android
Whether you have a little one to entertain or whether the little one within you is still going strong, you'll be pleased to know that two Dr. Seuss apps have arrived in the Android Market just in time for the holidays.
9 Free Mobile Apps for Exploring New York City
Want to get the most out of NYC (or just find the nearest public bathroom)? These nine free apps can help you navigate the big apple.
10 Mobile Apps for Movie Addicts
For those who want to get the most out of the movie watching experience, check out these 10 mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.
HOW TO: Start Developing for iOS, Android or Windows Phone 7
We've traversed the web, the bookstore and bugged our developer friends to find some of the best resources — online and off — for the beginning mobile app developer.
10 Amazing Android Photographs
We've been really impressed with what people have been snapping with iPhones, so we decided to take a look and see whether Android owners were also coming up with the goods.
5 Mobile Apps for Finding Great Movies
With hundreds of cable and satellite channels, 30-screen multiplexes, and lots of online video sites, answering the question "What should I watch?" can be difficult.
Why You Need an Android Device This Holiday Season
Got your eye on a new smartphone for the new year? Here's why we love our Android devices on a variety of carriers.
The Mobile Photo Sharing Boom Is Here
Entrepreneurs and investors are now starting to build or invest in mobile-only photo sharing applications that take advantage of better mobile cameras. Here's why.
So You Got an Android Device This Holiday Season: Now What?
Here's a concise list of the Android apps and accessories that we couldn't live without.
8 Best Android Apps for Photo Editing
If you're looking to do a little more with your device's built-in camera, zoom in on these handy photo editors.
8 Best Android Apps for Health and Fitness
Whether you want to get in shape or stay that way, your trusty Android and these eight apps can help.
5 Amazing Android Apps for Baseball Fans
Tis the season baseball season of course. Keep up on all the stats, scores, and insider info with these great apps. It's like having Peter Gammons in your pocket, only way cooler.
HOW TO: Turn Your Android Phone Into a Killer MP3 Player
Just because you shun the "iMusic" lifestyle doesn't mean you can't keep an awesome tune library at your side. Check out these tips for transforming your Android phone into a music hub.
5 Free Android Apps for Web Developers
Need to check some code or write a script on the go? Unchain yourself from the desktop with these handy and free developer apps.
6 Free Android Apps That Will Make You Drop Your iPhone
Sure, the iPhone has thousands of great apps. But it doesn't have these!
7 Mind-Blowing Free Android Apps
Not all apps are about utility. Some are just plain awesome. Check out the ones in here.
Twitter for Android: The Official/Unofficial App Smackdown
Which is best? The developer offerings, or Twitter's recent official release? This post puts em to the test.
Free Multiplayer Android Games [3 of the Best]
As the mobile gaming market grows, so to does the potential for mobile multiplayer action. Check out these three interesting offerings.
3 News Apps for Android Compared
While news reader apps abound, official mobile apps from established news organizations are still scarce. Here's a look at some that are leading the way.
Image courtesy of Flickr, lwallenstein.
More About: android, Android apps, App, apps, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, roundup, social media
For more Mobile coverage:
Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Mobile channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
This list has a wide range of apps including popular games like Angry Birds, photography tools like FXCamera, and business apps like Box.net.
Read through for some sweet pics for your Android device and let us know in the comments below which were the most fun (or useful).
---------------
6 Essential Android Apps for Business Travel
If you own an Android smartphone, you can make your life a lot easier with apps that enhance your business productivity while you're on the go.
Access Your Business Documents from Your Android Device
Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box.net has just released its Box for Android app to the Android Market.
New Android App Controls YouTube on Your TV
YouTube's made-for-TV product, YouTube Leanback, now has a complementary remote control in the form of a mobile application — YouTube Remote for Android.
Dr. Seuss Apps Come to Android
Whether you have a little one to entertain or whether the little one within you is still going strong, you'll be pleased to know that two Dr. Seuss apps have arrived in the Android Market just in time for the holidays.
9 Free Mobile Apps for Exploring New York City
Want to get the most out of NYC (or just find the nearest public bathroom)? These nine free apps can help you navigate the big apple.
10 Mobile Apps for Movie Addicts
For those who want to get the most out of the movie watching experience, check out these 10 mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.
HOW TO: Start Developing for iOS, Android or Windows Phone 7
We've traversed the web, the bookstore and bugged our developer friends to find some of the best resources — online and off — for the beginning mobile app developer.
10 Amazing Android Photographs
We've been really impressed with what people have been snapping with iPhones, so we decided to take a look and see whether Android owners were also coming up with the goods.
5 Mobile Apps for Finding Great Movies
With hundreds of cable and satellite channels, 30-screen multiplexes, and lots of online video sites, answering the question "What should I watch?" can be difficult.
Why You Need an Android Device This Holiday Season
Got your eye on a new smartphone for the new year? Here's why we love our Android devices on a variety of carriers.
The Mobile Photo Sharing Boom Is Here
Entrepreneurs and investors are now starting to build or invest in mobile-only photo sharing applications that take advantage of better mobile cameras. Here's why.
So You Got an Android Device This Holiday Season: Now What?
Here's a concise list of the Android apps and accessories that we couldn't live without.
8 Best Android Apps for Photo Editing
If you're looking to do a little more with your device's built-in camera, zoom in on these handy photo editors.
8 Best Android Apps for Health and Fitness
Whether you want to get in shape or stay that way, your trusty Android and these eight apps can help.
5 Amazing Android Apps for Baseball Fans
Tis the season baseball season of course. Keep up on all the stats, scores, and insider info with these great apps. It's like having Peter Gammons in your pocket, only way cooler.
HOW TO: Turn Your Android Phone Into a Killer MP3 Player
Just because you shun the "iMusic" lifestyle doesn't mean you can't keep an awesome tune library at your side. Check out these tips for transforming your Android phone into a music hub.
5 Free Android Apps for Web Developers
Need to check some code or write a script on the go? Unchain yourself from the desktop with these handy and free developer apps.
6 Free Android Apps That Will Make You Drop Your iPhone
Sure, the iPhone has thousands of great apps. But it doesn't have these!
7 Mind-Blowing Free Android Apps
Not all apps are about utility. Some are just plain awesome. Check out the ones in here.
Twitter for Android: The Official/Unofficial App Smackdown
Which is best? The developer offerings, or Twitter's recent official release? This post puts em to the test.
Free Multiplayer Android Games [3 of the Best]
As the mobile gaming market grows, so to does the potential for mobile multiplayer action. Check out these three interesting offerings.
3 News Apps for Android Compared
While news reader apps abound, official mobile apps from established news organizations are still scarce. Here's a look at some that are leading the way.
Image courtesy of Flickr, lwallenstein.
More About: android, Android apps, App, apps, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, roundup, social media
For more Mobile coverage:
Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Mobile channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/FIpjh5iXQUA/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
PriceArea, Si Mesin Pencari Produk
Saat ini, ada situs lokal yang khusus menyediakan layanan pencarian barang-barang yang sedang ditawarkan sejumlah situs e-commerce.
http://tekno.kompas.com/read/2010/12/20/04035875/PriceArea..Si.Mesin.Pencari.Produk
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
http://tekno.kompas.com/read/2010/12/20/04035875/PriceArea..Si.Mesin.Pencari.Produk
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Hostel With Me for Google Wave
Web Reservations International has launched the first collaborative travel booking on Google Wave.
Hostel WithMe' application launched on Google Wave.
World's first real-time collaborative accommodation booking tool.
Detailed information, photos as well as live availability of 24,000 hostels and other budget accommodation from Hostelworld.com
Discuss and vote on each hostel with everyone who's going. Columbus Internet, the company behind the trip-planning applicationTravel WithMe, and Hostelworld.com, the world's leading provider of online reservations to the budget, independent and youth travel market today announced the launch of Hostel WithMe, the world's first real-time collaborative accommodation booking application.
Hostel WithMe utilizes Hostelworld.coms vast inventory of properties in 180 countries, which each include detailed descriptions of the facilities and high-quality photos. Live availability and pricing information is available on all the accommodation presented and a link is provided to allow secure credit-card booking. Google Maps and Google Streetview are also integrated so users can check out the location and area surrounding their accommodation.
When several people are using Hostel WithMe simultaneously, and one of them views an accommodation, this is visible to all the others in real-time. If the accommodation is potentially suitable, it can be added to a shortlist of proposals, which each person can comment or vote on.
Hostel WithMe is also an ideal tool for organizing travel for a group. The organizer can identify appropriate accommodation in advance, and then submit a list of proposed accommodations to the group for commenting and voting. For the first time, the 89 percent of people who don't travel alone (only 11 percent do) can use the internet to conveniently make joint decisions on their accommodation.
Hostel With Me is provided as a gadget within Google Wave. Google Wave account holders can find Hostel WithMe in the Google Wave Extensions Gallery or go to www.goo.gl/GPFo.
Santina Doherty, VP of commercial development at Hostelworld.com, commented: "As market leaders in the budget accommodation space, Hostelworld.com is committed to innovation and the use of best-of-breed technology, which is why we're excited to be partnering with pioneering products like the Hostel WithMe app. By allowing our product to be available through the app on Google Wave, a whole new audience can now enjoy the value and choice that is featured on Hostelworld.com."
Share this on del.icio.us
Digg this!
Share this on Facebook
Share this on FriendFeed
Share this on LinkedIn
Submit tip to N4G
Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon
Tweet This!
Related posts:
Developer Spotlight: Wave-vs.net A while back in January I wrote a post titled...
WOW! Free Preview Evaluation of Itensil The other day my friends over at Itensil contacted me...
New Google Wave Gadgets Getting Much Better Lately the gadgets that have been released for Google Wave...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Hostel WithMe' application launched on Google Wave.
World's first real-time collaborative accommodation booking tool.
Detailed information, photos as well as live availability of 24,000 hostels and other budget accommodation from Hostelworld.com
Discuss and vote on each hostel with everyone who's going. Columbus Internet, the company behind the trip-planning applicationTravel WithMe, and Hostelworld.com, the world's leading provider of online reservations to the budget, independent and youth travel market today announced the launch of Hostel WithMe, the world's first real-time collaborative accommodation booking application.
Hostel WithMe utilizes Hostelworld.coms vast inventory of properties in 180 countries, which each include detailed descriptions of the facilities and high-quality photos. Live availability and pricing information is available on all the accommodation presented and a link is provided to allow secure credit-card booking. Google Maps and Google Streetview are also integrated so users can check out the location and area surrounding their accommodation.
When several people are using Hostel WithMe simultaneously, and one of them views an accommodation, this is visible to all the others in real-time. If the accommodation is potentially suitable, it can be added to a shortlist of proposals, which each person can comment or vote on.
Hostel WithMe is also an ideal tool for organizing travel for a group. The organizer can identify appropriate accommodation in advance, and then submit a list of proposed accommodations to the group for commenting and voting. For the first time, the 89 percent of people who don't travel alone (only 11 percent do) can use the internet to conveniently make joint decisions on their accommodation.
Hostel With Me is provided as a gadget within Google Wave. Google Wave account holders can find Hostel WithMe in the Google Wave Extensions Gallery or go to www.goo.gl/GPFo.
Santina Doherty, VP of commercial development at Hostelworld.com, commented: "As market leaders in the budget accommodation space, Hostelworld.com is committed to innovation and the use of best-of-breed technology, which is why we're excited to be partnering with pioneering products like the Hostel WithMe app. By allowing our product to be available through the app on Google Wave, a whole new audience can now enjoy the value and choice that is featured on Hostelworld.com."
Share this on del.icio.us
Digg this!
Share this on Facebook
Share this on FriendFeed
Share this on LinkedIn
Submit tip to N4G
Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon
Tweet This!
Related posts:
Developer Spotlight: Wave-vs.net A while back in January I wrote a post titled...
WOW! Free Preview Evaluation of Itensil The other day my friends over at Itensil contacted me...
New Google Wave Gadgets Getting Much Better Lately the gadgets that have been released for Google Wave...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheShinyWave/~3/zmsPXmhIH6w/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Google Wave – How Things Went Wrong!
I have been fairly silent on this site for quite a while, every since I came back from Google I/O 10 actually. To say I was disappointed with the announcements surrounding Google Wave at the I/O would be a profound understatement. I didn't want to come back right away and start hammering on Google for how, I feel, they have dropped the ball on what could be such a valuable business tool. Instead, I wanted to take some time and think about the whole problem.
To be fair, the developer team should not be the ones that are the whipping boy here. But, like the actors and actresses that fight for paparazzi time in the beginning.you can't complain when that comes back full circle. This is, of course, in my mind the first problem that I have with Google Wavewhy are the developers out in front of this! Google should have a clear business plan for Google Wave and have Management and Public Relations folks out explaining how they envision Google Wave being adopted.
But, let me take a step back. Google Wave was, to me, a great leap in bringing Web 2.0 to the business community. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it is the biggest advance for business computing since Virtualization. Moreover, Virtualization is a great example of a business model Google Wave should be trying to follow. I have been harping for a long time here about how Google Wave is best suited for small to medium workgroups that have to collaborate on a specific work-flowsee my post on Gravity as an example of what I mean. However, the argument that I hear most often to counter that thought is that the business community is usually the last to adopt new technology. Ok., how then do you explain Virtualization. It was adopted by business early and almost universally. Now, of course, businesses are really pushing the limits of what they can do with Virtualization, including the military (which is always the last to adopt new IT tech).see Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) as an example of what I mean. My point being, that when a product is identified as being a business multiplier and marketed properly to the business community they are indeed first adopters.
Unfortunately for Google Wave, the Google Development Team does not seem to embrace a business vision for Google Wave. They continue to think of it as a social tool for the cloud. I strongly, strongly disagree that it has any real value in that realm. I would be focusing all my efforts on building an appliance that businesses can purchase and connect to their private servers. You build specific extensions that support their specific workflows and mass market the savings that will be realized by business when they adopt. You only have to take a quick visit to any of the Virtualization companies websites to see the myriad of offerings they have to support businesses that want to adopt virtualization.everything from product, certification, consultants, etc. This is the model that will make Google Wave successful. But it is not a model that seems to be of any interest to Google.
Why is that you may ask. Well, I think, that Google's real business model is all about the ads. Everything else that they do is only about how to support the ad end of the business. Thus, they want you to be in the cloud all the time, they want to you to be going to webpage after webpage and viewing more and more ads. They have no interest in building or marketing something that takes you farther away from their ads. So, I doubt very much that we will see a Google Wave appliance any time soon. So, rather than aggressively market Google Wave to business and talking about how a Wave appliance would benefit business they flounder around trying to make a case for real-time comments/blogging, etc. They need to get serious and think of this technology as a serious business multiplier. Make the case that any business that does not have Wave is just losing money and not being efficient.
There is a real business model here for somebody to build a Wave appliance and market it. I think that Microsoft will probably pick up on this in their next round of development for Office 2012 and beyond. Microsoft understands the enterprise community and is never one to let somebody else's good idea go to waste.
I am confident that we will eventually see real-time collaboration at the office with business using their own private servers. Unfortunately for Google, it does seem that they will not be the company that brings that to market. Again, in my mind, it is the only real logical mass use case for Google Wave. Everything else is just fluff and not very serious or useful.
Time will tell if I am right or wrong. In the mean time, I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject, so please leave a comment below.
Share this on del.icio.us
Digg this!
Share this on Facebook
Share this on FriendFeed
Share this on LinkedIn
Submit tip to N4G
Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon
Tweet This!
Related posts:
Where is Google Wave Going? As somebody who has been…well overly evangelistic about Google Wave...
Google Wave: Top 10 Improvements for 2010 In May 2009 at I/O 09, was launched to much...
Google vs Microsoft vs Apple: 3 Development Models for Google Wave I find it very interesting how the big three in...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
To be fair, the developer team should not be the ones that are the whipping boy here. But, like the actors and actresses that fight for paparazzi time in the beginning.you can't complain when that comes back full circle. This is, of course, in my mind the first problem that I have with Google Wavewhy are the developers out in front of this! Google should have a clear business plan for Google Wave and have Management and Public Relations folks out explaining how they envision Google Wave being adopted.
But, let me take a step back. Google Wave was, to me, a great leap in bringing Web 2.0 to the business community. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it is the biggest advance for business computing since Virtualization. Moreover, Virtualization is a great example of a business model Google Wave should be trying to follow. I have been harping for a long time here about how Google Wave is best suited for small to medium workgroups that have to collaborate on a specific work-flowsee my post on Gravity as an example of what I mean. However, the argument that I hear most often to counter that thought is that the business community is usually the last to adopt new technology. Ok., how then do you explain Virtualization. It was adopted by business early and almost universally. Now, of course, businesses are really pushing the limits of what they can do with Virtualization, including the military (which is always the last to adopt new IT tech).see Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) as an example of what I mean. My point being, that when a product is identified as being a business multiplier and marketed properly to the business community they are indeed first adopters.
Unfortunately for Google Wave, the Google Development Team does not seem to embrace a business vision for Google Wave. They continue to think of it as a social tool for the cloud. I strongly, strongly disagree that it has any real value in that realm. I would be focusing all my efforts on building an appliance that businesses can purchase and connect to their private servers. You build specific extensions that support their specific workflows and mass market the savings that will be realized by business when they adopt. You only have to take a quick visit to any of the Virtualization companies websites to see the myriad of offerings they have to support businesses that want to adopt virtualization.everything from product, certification, consultants, etc. This is the model that will make Google Wave successful. But it is not a model that seems to be of any interest to Google.
Why is that you may ask. Well, I think, that Google's real business model is all about the ads. Everything else that they do is only about how to support the ad end of the business. Thus, they want you to be in the cloud all the time, they want to you to be going to webpage after webpage and viewing more and more ads. They have no interest in building or marketing something that takes you farther away from their ads. So, I doubt very much that we will see a Google Wave appliance any time soon. So, rather than aggressively market Google Wave to business and talking about how a Wave appliance would benefit business they flounder around trying to make a case for real-time comments/blogging, etc. They need to get serious and think of this technology as a serious business multiplier. Make the case that any business that does not have Wave is just losing money and not being efficient.
There is a real business model here for somebody to build a Wave appliance and market it. I think that Microsoft will probably pick up on this in their next round of development for Office 2012 and beyond. Microsoft understands the enterprise community and is never one to let somebody else's good idea go to waste.
I am confident that we will eventually see real-time collaboration at the office with business using their own private servers. Unfortunately for Google, it does seem that they will not be the company that brings that to market. Again, in my mind, it is the only real logical mass use case for Google Wave. Everything else is just fluff and not very serious or useful.
Time will tell if I am right or wrong. In the mean time, I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject, so please leave a comment below.
Share this on del.icio.us
Digg this!
Share this on Facebook
Share this on FriendFeed
Share this on LinkedIn
Submit tip to N4G
Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon
Tweet This!
Related posts:
Where is Google Wave Going? As somebody who has been…well overly evangelistic about Google Wave...
Google Wave: Top 10 Improvements for 2010 In May 2009 at I/O 09, was launched to much...
Google vs Microsoft vs Apple: 3 Development Models for Google Wave I find it very interesting how the big three in...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheShinyWave/~3/ugskk0YA9cE/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Next Year - Third Year of Presidential Cycle!
The history of the Four-Year Presidential Cycle is that the stock market tends to experience its worst corrections and bear markets in one or both of the first two years of a president's term, and then be positive for the last two years of the term.
In fact, studies have shown that if investors were to stay out of the market for the first two years of each presidential term, and then buy and hold for the last two years they would substantially outperform the market over the long-term.
So, obviously the presidential cycle has a big influence on the stock market. Administrations of both parties tend to allow corrections of excesses to take place in the first two years of their terms, and then pull out all the stops with economic stimulus to make sure the economy and stock market are recovered and looking good when re-election time rolls around. That in turn usually results in the economy being overheated, and the stock market being over-valued again, and the cycle repeats, with the next administration then allowing those excesses to be corrected in the first two years of its term.
However, as the last four years have shown, there are sometimes exceptions in the shorter term. The 2007-2009 bear market began in the third year of the Bush administration and continued down through the fourth year, and the market has been up quite strongly for the first two years of the Obama administration.
The obvious question is whether the cycle has reversed this time. If the market was up for the first two years of the term will it be down over the last two years of this cycle?
The answer is that it's not likely.
I studied the market going back to 1915. There were seven other instances when the market was up for both the first and second year of the cycle. It did not affect the history of the last two years of the cycle usually being positive. Only once was the market then down for the third year. That was in 1923, and the Dow was down only 3.2% for the year.
However, I also went back to 1900 to check out the market's performance in the third year of the cycle regardless of what it did in the first two years, and found that third years of presidential terms were not impressive prior to World War II.
I count five times out of the first ten presidential cycles from 1903 to 1939, or 50% of the time, that the market was down in the third year of a president's term. Two of the declines, in 1903 and 1907 were actually bear markets, with the market being down 22.4% and 37.7% respectively in those years. It was also down 53% in 1931, the third year of Herbert Hoover's administration (during the severe 1929-32 bear market).
But all of those negative third years were prior to World War II, not in the post-1950 modern market era.
However, it can be misleading to only look at the market's year-end levels to determine risk, as doing so does not take into account the corrections that can take place within a year.
For instance in 1987, the third year of President Reagan's second term, the market was up 2.3% for the full year. Easy enough to buy and hold through?
Definitely not. The Dow reached a new record high in August of 1987. But it then topped out into a serious bear market that culminated in the October 1987 crash. In that three-month decline the Dow lost 36% of its value, and panic prevailed. Even Wall Street conceded that the market was probably headed lower, and that the similarity to the 1929 crash might result in the economy falling off a cliff into another Great Depression. There were probably few buy and hold investors left by the time the market instead recovered to close up 2.3% for the year.
So I also checked out the intra-year corrections within other years, and nothing like 1987 occurred in the third year of other administrations. With the exception of 1987, between 1943 and 2007 the short-term corrections within a third year averaged only 8.5%, with the worst being 16.1% (in 1971).
So, although it's not quite the sure thing Wall Street is assuring us of, it is true that at least since 1940 the third year of the presidential cycle has always been a positive year with only relatively small 'drawdowns' in corrections during the year, with the exception of 1987.
That does not mean they are necessarily wildly positive years. Some of the third years, while positive, were only marginally so, for instance 6.1% in 1971, 4.2% in 1979, 2.3% in 1987, 6.4% in 2007.
However, based solely on the Four Year Presidential Cycle it does look like 2011 should be a low-risk year, even though the first two years of the cycle were already quite positive.
Of course there is always the possibility other factors, maybe even the current high level of investor bullishness that may have already factored a positive 2011 into stock prices, will become a larger factor than the Presidential Cycle this time around, as happened in 1987.
But whoever said that investing was easy? And yet, it's usually easier when the odds presented by the Four-Year Presidential Cycle are in your favor.
Join the conversation about this story
In fact, studies have shown that if investors were to stay out of the market for the first two years of each presidential term, and then buy and hold for the last two years they would substantially outperform the market over the long-term.
So, obviously the presidential cycle has a big influence on the stock market. Administrations of both parties tend to allow corrections of excesses to take place in the first two years of their terms, and then pull out all the stops with economic stimulus to make sure the economy and stock market are recovered and looking good when re-election time rolls around. That in turn usually results in the economy being overheated, and the stock market being over-valued again, and the cycle repeats, with the next administration then allowing those excesses to be corrected in the first two years of its term.
However, as the last four years have shown, there are sometimes exceptions in the shorter term. The 2007-2009 bear market began in the third year of the Bush administration and continued down through the fourth year, and the market has been up quite strongly for the first two years of the Obama administration.
The obvious question is whether the cycle has reversed this time. If the market was up for the first two years of the term will it be down over the last two years of this cycle?
The answer is that it's not likely.
I studied the market going back to 1915. There were seven other instances when the market was up for both the first and second year of the cycle. It did not affect the history of the last two years of the cycle usually being positive. Only once was the market then down for the third year. That was in 1923, and the Dow was down only 3.2% for the year.
However, I also went back to 1900 to check out the market's performance in the third year of the cycle regardless of what it did in the first two years, and found that third years of presidential terms were not impressive prior to World War II.
I count five times out of the first ten presidential cycles from 1903 to 1939, or 50% of the time, that the market was down in the third year of a president's term. Two of the declines, in 1903 and 1907 were actually bear markets, with the market being down 22.4% and 37.7% respectively in those years. It was also down 53% in 1931, the third year of Herbert Hoover's administration (during the severe 1929-32 bear market).
But all of those negative third years were prior to World War II, not in the post-1950 modern market era.
However, it can be misleading to only look at the market's year-end levels to determine risk, as doing so does not take into account the corrections that can take place within a year.
For instance in 1987, the third year of President Reagan's second term, the market was up 2.3% for the full year. Easy enough to buy and hold through?
Definitely not. The Dow reached a new record high in August of 1987. But it then topped out into a serious bear market that culminated in the October 1987 crash. In that three-month decline the Dow lost 36% of its value, and panic prevailed. Even Wall Street conceded that the market was probably headed lower, and that the similarity to the 1929 crash might result in the economy falling off a cliff into another Great Depression. There were probably few buy and hold investors left by the time the market instead recovered to close up 2.3% for the year.
So I also checked out the intra-year corrections within other years, and nothing like 1987 occurred in the third year of other administrations. With the exception of 1987, between 1943 and 2007 the short-term corrections within a third year averaged only 8.5%, with the worst being 16.1% (in 1971).
So, although it's not quite the sure thing Wall Street is assuring us of, it is true that at least since 1940 the third year of the presidential cycle has always been a positive year with only relatively small 'drawdowns' in corrections during the year, with the exception of 1987.
That does not mean they are necessarily wildly positive years. Some of the third years, while positive, were only marginally so, for instance 6.1% in 1971, 4.2% in 1979, 2.3% in 1987, 6.4% in 2007.
However, based solely on the Four Year Presidential Cycle it does look like 2011 should be a low-risk year, even though the first two years of the cycle were already quite positive.
Of course there is always the possibility other factors, maybe even the current high level of investor bullishness that may have already factored a positive 2011 into stock prices, will become a larger factor than the Presidential Cycle this time around, as happened in 1987.
But whoever said that investing was easy? And yet, it's usually easier when the odds presented by the Four-Year Presidential Cycle are in your favor.
Join the conversation about this story
http://www.businessinsider.com/next-year-third-year-of-presidential-cycle-2010-12
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
9 Ways to Connect With Santa on the Web
You don't have to head to the North Pole to hook up with Santa this year. There's a sackful of online options that will let your little ones connect with the Claus from the comfort of your own home.
Whether you want to write to Santa online, receive personalized video messages and calls or prove the man in red is real, we've found nine sites and services to help you out.
So if you've got kids, or you're just a big kid yourself, get in the Christmas spirit and have a read below to find the sites that will sort your online Santa needs this festive season.
---------------
1. E-mail Santa
---------------
This is a great online service, as you get results right away, which anyone with impatient little ones will know can only be a good thing. Fill in the blanks of a standard "Dear Santa" letter, and moments later you'll have a personalized reply from the big man himself to read on screen or print.
---------------
2. Send a Call From Santa With Google Voice
---------------
After a relatively quick QA session asking the name, age, choice of gift (with some amusing answer options in the drop-down menus), this Google-backed service will generate a quality-sounding "call" for the rugrat(s) in your life. In reply, they can leave a message for Santa via a toll-free number.
---------------
3. Personalized Santa Video
---------------
You do have to register for this Disney service, but it's worth it, or will be when you see the look on children's faces as their names and photos show up on Santa's monitor, as he checks to see if they are on the nice list. They are, of course.
---------------
4. Smilebox's Dear Santa Video Card
---------------
Smilebox's "Dear Santa" download makes your youngster the star of the show. You can customize the clip with personal info and then add adorable footage of your child cutely lisping through his or her Christmas wish list. Sharing options make the video easy to send to adoring grandparents, aunts and uncles too.
---------------
5. Santa's Good List Interactive Quiz
---------------
It's the elves in the spotlight here as they take children through 12 questions to ascertain whether they've been good enough to get on the nice list. The service is password protected so you'll need to hand over your e-mail to get a "key," but once you do you can check in again anytime to make sure your child's name is still on the nice list.
---------------
6. Portable North Pole Personalized Santa Video
---------------
Another personalized video message from Santa, the PNP offering takes you through some comprehensive questions for a fully featured clip tailored to toddlers or older children and, yes, even grown ups too. The Santa is magnificent with a rather splendid beard and an authentic kindly manner. Recommended.
---------------
7. Visit the North Pole
---------------
Ideal for rainy (or snowy!) day activities during school vacation time, this site is chock-full of Santa, elf, reindeer and North Pole-themed interactive stories and educational games for online fun. There are recipes, craft ideas and print-outs for offline holiday activities to amuse the kids too.
---------------
8. NORAD Santa Tracker
---------------
Thanks to NORAD and Google, you can track Santa's journey around the world on Christmas Eve, something guaranteed to get the children very excited indeed. This long-running tradition has been given a new lease on life in recent years with Google's involvement, adding a little bit of map-based magic to millions of Christmas Eves around the globe.
---------------
9. I Caught Santa Photo
---------------
If you're in need of some "proof" that Santa exists (and don't have the Photoshop skills to create your own), then for a fee you can upload your own photo and paste on one of I Caught Santa's Father Christmases. It'll cost you a penny under $10 via the site or from $0.99 via the iPhone app.
---------------
More Holidays Resources from Mashable:
---------------
- 9 Web Tools to Keep Your Business Running Smoothly During the Holidays
- 5 Merry Musical Contests for the Holidays
- 10 Free Holiday Icon Sets to Give Your Site a Wintery Makeover [GALLERY]
- 5 Creative Social Good Campaigns for the Holiday Season
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ilona75
More About: Christmas, Holidays, Kids, List, Lists, santa claus
For more Entertainment coverage:
Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
Whether you want to write to Santa online, receive personalized video messages and calls or prove the man in red is real, we've found nine sites and services to help you out.
So if you've got kids, or you're just a big kid yourself, get in the Christmas spirit and have a read below to find the sites that will sort your online Santa needs this festive season.
---------------
1. E-mail Santa
---------------
This is a great online service, as you get results right away, which anyone with impatient little ones will know can only be a good thing. Fill in the blanks of a standard "Dear Santa" letter, and moments later you'll have a personalized reply from the big man himself to read on screen or print.
---------------
2. Send a Call From Santa With Google Voice
---------------
After a relatively quick QA session asking the name, age, choice of gift (with some amusing answer options in the drop-down menus), this Google-backed service will generate a quality-sounding "call" for the rugrat(s) in your life. In reply, they can leave a message for Santa via a toll-free number.
---------------
3. Personalized Santa Video
---------------
You do have to register for this Disney service, but it's worth it, or will be when you see the look on children's faces as their names and photos show up on Santa's monitor, as he checks to see if they are on the nice list. They are, of course.
---------------
4. Smilebox's Dear Santa Video Card
---------------
Smilebox's "Dear Santa" download makes your youngster the star of the show. You can customize the clip with personal info and then add adorable footage of your child cutely lisping through his or her Christmas wish list. Sharing options make the video easy to send to adoring grandparents, aunts and uncles too.
---------------
5. Santa's Good List Interactive Quiz
---------------
It's the elves in the spotlight here as they take children through 12 questions to ascertain whether they've been good enough to get on the nice list. The service is password protected so you'll need to hand over your e-mail to get a "key," but once you do you can check in again anytime to make sure your child's name is still on the nice list.
---------------
6. Portable North Pole Personalized Santa Video
---------------
Another personalized video message from Santa, the PNP offering takes you through some comprehensive questions for a fully featured clip tailored to toddlers or older children and, yes, even grown ups too. The Santa is magnificent with a rather splendid beard and an authentic kindly manner. Recommended.
---------------
7. Visit the North Pole
---------------
Ideal for rainy (or snowy!) day activities during school vacation time, this site is chock-full of Santa, elf, reindeer and North Pole-themed interactive stories and educational games for online fun. There are recipes, craft ideas and print-outs for offline holiday activities to amuse the kids too.
---------------
8. NORAD Santa Tracker
---------------
Thanks to NORAD and Google, you can track Santa's journey around the world on Christmas Eve, something guaranteed to get the children very excited indeed. This long-running tradition has been given a new lease on life in recent years with Google's involvement, adding a little bit of map-based magic to millions of Christmas Eves around the globe.
---------------
9. I Caught Santa Photo
---------------
If you're in need of some "proof" that Santa exists (and don't have the Photoshop skills to create your own), then for a fee you can upload your own photo and paste on one of I Caught Santa's Father Christmases. It'll cost you a penny under $10 via the site or from $0.99 via the iPhone app.
---------------
More Holidays Resources from Mashable:
---------------
- 9 Web Tools to Keep Your Business Running Smoothly During the Holidays
- 5 Merry Musical Contests for the Holidays
- 10 Free Holiday Icon Sets to Give Your Site a Wintery Makeover [GALLERY]
- 5 Creative Social Good Campaigns for the Holiday Season
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ilona75
More About: Christmas, Holidays, Kids, List, Lists, santa claus
For more Entertainment coverage:
Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
How Often Did Authors Use the Word “Internet” Over 500 Years? Ask Google
Here's a nifty little tool to get you through the last grueling hours of Friday afternoon: Fresh from Google Labs comes "Books Ngram Viewer," a visualization tool that shows you the annual frequency of certain words used in books published between 1500 and 2008.
Predictably, "Internet" was not so popular in, well, the pre-Internet age (check out the above graph to see for yourself), but this viewer is certainly handy for tracking the popularity of terms throughout the decades.
(NB: The word "Internet" seems to pop up a little early because: "Most of those are OCR errors; we do a good job at filtering out books with low OCR quality scores, but some errors do slip through," according to the "About" section.)
The tool was assembled from data pulled from close to 5.2 million digitized books which amounts to 500 billion words in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Russian and takes advantage of Google's free, online digital library (which has grappled with its share of legal issues in its time). Users can also download the data and build their own search tools.
Of course, the Ngram Viewer was not intended as a mere diversion according to The New York Times, Erez Lieberman Aiden, a junior fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard, and Jean-Baptiste Michel, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, created this tool as part of a project on language and culture (their paper on the subject is available in a journal called Science).
We imagine that the Books Ngram Viewer could be used not only to track the evolution of language and trends over time, but also to compare and contrast the frequency of certain terms online and in print (perhaps when used in tandem with tools akin to Google Trends).
Test out some words and let us know what you think.
Image courtesy of Flickr, dotbenjamin
More About: books, Books-Ngram-Viewer, Google
For more Tech coverage:
Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Tech channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
Predictably, "Internet" was not so popular in, well, the pre-Internet age (check out the above graph to see for yourself), but this viewer is certainly handy for tracking the popularity of terms throughout the decades.
(NB: The word "Internet" seems to pop up a little early because: "Most of those are OCR errors; we do a good job at filtering out books with low OCR quality scores, but some errors do slip through," according to the "About" section.)
The tool was assembled from data pulled from close to 5.2 million digitized books which amounts to 500 billion words in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Russian and takes advantage of Google's free, online digital library (which has grappled with its share of legal issues in its time). Users can also download the data and build their own search tools.
Of course, the Ngram Viewer was not intended as a mere diversion according to The New York Times, Erez Lieberman Aiden, a junior fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard, and Jean-Baptiste Michel, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, created this tool as part of a project on language and culture (their paper on the subject is available in a journal called Science).
We imagine that the Books Ngram Viewer could be used not only to track the evolution of language and trends over time, but also to compare and contrast the frequency of certain terms online and in print (perhaps when used in tandem with tools akin to Google Trends).
Test out some words and let us know what you think.
Image courtesy of Flickr, dotbenjamin
More About: books, Books-Ngram-Viewer, Google
For more Tech coverage:
Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Tech channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/shPTOv8lKqE/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Google Ventures Gives $600K to iOS App Maker Miso Media
Google has just participated in a seed round for Miso Media, an iPhone and iPad app maker whose product hasn't yet launched in the iTunes App Store.
The total funding for this round comes to $600,000; other participating angels include Keith Rabois (COO of Square), film producer Laura Ziskin and others.
Miso makes Guitar Hero-like apps that use real guitar fingering, something that's a bit more interesting to real musicians and more valuable to folks who want to learn to play. In fact, the company even has the sponsorship of C.F. Martin Co. and the Fender Music Foundation, both heavyweights in the guitar world.
The apps teach users how to play guitar, bass guitar (both four- and five-string), banjo, mandolin and ukelele. Users can learn through scales and tabs, or they can play their way through new and classic songs. Miso's note-detection tech "listens for the correct note and delivers real time feedback," according to a statement from the company.
Miso's applications, simply called Miso Music, have been submitted to Apple and will be available for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad soon.
The app will be available for the introductory price of $2.99. Users can purchase music and instruments within the app for a few dollars more, which makes for a nice recurring revenue opportunity for Miso.
The seed funding will be used to build a larger library of songs for the apps, create a more structured learning system, add more instruments and make more apps for different platforms and yes, that includes Android, which is part of Miso's expansion plans.
We're looking forward to playing with Miso, ourselves. What do you think of the idea behind this app?
---------------
Reviews: Android
More About: Google, google centures, guitar, iOS, ipad app, iphone app, miso, miso media, mobile app, music, ukelele
For more Business coverage:
Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Business channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
The total funding for this round comes to $600,000; other participating angels include Keith Rabois (COO of Square), film producer Laura Ziskin and others.
Miso makes Guitar Hero-like apps that use real guitar fingering, something that's a bit more interesting to real musicians and more valuable to folks who want to learn to play. In fact, the company even has the sponsorship of C.F. Martin Co. and the Fender Music Foundation, both heavyweights in the guitar world.
The apps teach users how to play guitar, bass guitar (both four- and five-string), banjo, mandolin and ukelele. Users can learn through scales and tabs, or they can play their way through new and classic songs. Miso's note-detection tech "listens for the correct note and delivers real time feedback," according to a statement from the company.
Miso's applications, simply called Miso Music, have been submitted to Apple and will be available for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad soon.
The app will be available for the introductory price of $2.99. Users can purchase music and instruments within the app for a few dollars more, which makes for a nice recurring revenue opportunity for Miso.
The seed funding will be used to build a larger library of songs for the apps, create a more structured learning system, add more instruments and make more apps for different platforms and yes, that includes Android, which is part of Miso's expansion plans.
We're looking forward to playing with Miso, ourselves. What do you think of the idea behind this app?
---------------
Reviews: Android
More About: Google, google centures, guitar, iOS, ipad app, iphone app, miso, miso media, mobile app, music, ukelele
For more Business coverage:
Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Business channel
Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/_7H971ae_eQ/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Komunikasi Mulus, Aset Migas Terurus
http://swa.co.id/2010/12/komunikasi-mulus-aset-migas-terurus/
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Put Your Potential Business Names To These Four Tests
What's in a name? A lot, when it comes to small-business success. The right name can make your company the talk of the town. The wrong one can doom it to obscurity and failure. Ideally, your name should convey the expertise, value and uniqueness of the product or service you have developed.
Some experts believe that the best names are abstract, a blank slate upon which to create an image. Others think that names should be informative so customers know immediately what your business is. Some believe that coined names (that come from made-up words) are more memorable than names that use real words. Others think they're forgettable.
In reality, any name can be effective if it's backed by the appropriate marketing strategy. Here's what you'll need to consider in order to give your small business the most appropriate and effective name.
Clic here for tips on how to choose a winning name >
Join the conversation about this story
See Also:
How to Name (or Re-Name) Your Business
10 Ways To Come Up With A Killer Name For Your Company
Some experts believe that the best names are abstract, a blank slate upon which to create an image. Others think that names should be informative so customers know immediately what your business is. Some believe that coined names (that come from made-up words) are more memorable than names that use real words. Others think they're forgettable.
In reality, any name can be effective if it's backed by the appropriate marketing strategy. Here's what you'll need to consider in order to give your small business the most appropriate and effective name.
Clic here for tips on how to choose a winning name >
Join the conversation about this story
See Also:
How to Name (or Re-Name) Your Business
10 Ways To Come Up With A Killer Name For Your Company
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-name-your-business-2010-12
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Entrepreneur Corner: Domain hijackers and ugly start-up realities
Here's the latest from VentureBeat's Entrepreneur Corner.
What to do if your domain is hijacked – Cybersquatters can make things miserable for a business – but there are ways to shut them down. Attorney Curtis Smolar details how best to protect your company's identity.
5 metrics every software CEO should obsess over – There are innumerable metrics that are available to software executives, but determining the most appropriate to track is trick. Clate Mask, CEO of Infusionsoft and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conquer the Chaos, lists five he finds invaluable.
The harsh realities of being an entrepreneur – Too many reports make the start-up life seem copasetic (except for maybe a few late nights). Jason Baptiste, CEO and co-founder of PadPressed, lists some of the ugly truths you'll face.
5 ways your start-up can get better hires – Finding qualified people is never easy, but when faced with having to make 10 hires in a short period, Bryan Johnson, CEO of Braintree came up with a few cheats that have proven extremely successful. He shares them in this story.
Book review: "Tribal Leadership" - Change language and relationships and you can change your company. That's the central message of "Tribal Leadership." Javier Rojas, Managing Director of Kennet Partners, discusses the big ideas and applied knowledge of this book.
Tags: entrepreneur corner
What to do if your domain is hijacked – Cybersquatters can make things miserable for a business – but there are ways to shut them down. Attorney Curtis Smolar details how best to protect your company's identity.
5 metrics every software CEO should obsess over – There are innumerable metrics that are available to software executives, but determining the most appropriate to track is trick. Clate Mask, CEO of Infusionsoft and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conquer the Chaos, lists five he finds invaluable.
The harsh realities of being an entrepreneur – Too many reports make the start-up life seem copasetic (except for maybe a few late nights). Jason Baptiste, CEO and co-founder of PadPressed, lists some of the ugly truths you'll face.
5 ways your start-up can get better hires – Finding qualified people is never easy, but when faced with having to make 10 hires in a short period, Bryan Johnson, CEO of Braintree came up with a few cheats that have proven extremely successful. He shares them in this story.
Book review: "Tribal Leadership" - Change language and relationships and you can change your company. That's the central message of "Tribal Leadership." Javier Rojas, Managing Director of Kennet Partners, discusses the big ideas and applied knowledge of this book.
Tags: entrepreneur corner
http://venturebeat.com/?p=233138
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®
Chile’s Grand Innovation Experiment
Regions all over the world have spent millions—sometimes billions—of dollars trying to create their own Silicon Valley. They drank the same Kool-Aid and used the same recipe: start with a research university; build a fancy tech park next to it; give tax breaks to chosen companies to locate in the park; attract venture capital by offering matching investments; and watch the magic happen.
Unfortunately, the magic never happened, anywhere.
All government-sponsored (top-down) tech-cluster efforts—everywhere in the world—either have failed or are on life support (though some pretend they are not). That's because they all used the wrong ingredients. It isn't real estate, universities, or VCs that make innovation happen; it is entrepreneurs. To create a tech center like Silicon Valley, you need to first attract smart entrepreneurs from all over the world. Then you have to create entrepreneurial networks; instill a spirit of risk-taking and openness; and build mentoring systems. You also need to provide seed financing to startups. The money is easy; everything else requires a change in culture that usually takes decades.
But Chile is trying a radical new experiment that I helped conceive, to short-circuit this process. It is importing entrepreneurs from all over the world, by offering them $40,000 to bootstrap in Chile. They get a visa; free office space; assistance with networking, mentoring, fundraising, and connecting to potential customers and partners. All the entrepreneurs have to do, in return, is commit to working hard and live in one of the most beautiful places on this planet.
The program, called Start-Up Chile, is still in the pilot stage. Chile has selected 25 teams to receive grants. Seventeen of these teams have already moved to Chile's capital city, Santiago. The program will be officially launched on January 13, 2011. It will then be opened to the next batch of 100 startups. Chile expects to "import" around 1000 startup teams over the next three years. The program is headed by Nicolas Shea, who reports to Chile's Minister of Economy, Juan Andrés Fontaine.
To review the progress of Start-Up Chile, I travelled to Santiago this week. I came back convinced that Chile has a chance to become the first region in the world that will build a tech center out of nothing at all. And it will achieve this feat for a much smaller investment than other regions have made in efforts that failed.
All of the teams that I met raved about the opportunities they had gained by being in Chile. They told me they have gained valuable time to perfect their technologies before having to raise capital from Angels or VCs; that they'd found Santiago to be a really cheap place to live; and that they benefit by being able to network with each other, are appreciative of the support that the Chilean government is providing by connecting them to local businesses and investors, and enjoy the high quality of life and wonderful scenery and climate. They also find the natives to be very friendly and eager to learn from them.
I thought it best to let these entrepreneurs tell you their stories, themselves. So I recorded a video and had them collectively edit this. I must warn Chilean men not to watch this. They won't like what Karina Aguirre (a Chilean who recently joined a Start-Up Chile team) has to say (or not to say) about them.
These are some of the companies featured in the video:
Aeterna Sol. produces modular, cybernetic, and dual-axis tracking systems for solar panels. These improve efficiency by 30%, cut installation costs by 50%, reduce installation time by a factor of ten, and require half of the land of other dual-axis tracking technologies.
Entrustet allows you to make a list of your digital assets (online accounts and computer files) and decide which accounts should be transferred to heirs and which should be deleted when you die. Entrustet also notifies partner websites when one of its users dies.
H2020 taps the power of collective and artificial intelligence to find new solutions to global water problems. Think internet-of-things meets crowdsourcing meets state-of-the-art analytics; add in a dash of social entrepreneurism and a team undaunted by the impossible.
CruiseWise is a travel company that is bringing cruise-booking on line. It provides a better user experience than existing cruise exploration and booking options by simplifying a complex product and bringing together information from a variety of sources.
Piehole.ie is an online directory of voiceover talent. Its slightly irreverent site provides voiceover talent to advertising agencies world wide but is most popular in Dublin and London.
Tripeezy aims to be the ultimate resource for planning independent trips and discovering local culture during your travels abroad.
---------------
---------------
Editor's note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.
Unfortunately, the magic never happened, anywhere.
All government-sponsored (top-down) tech-cluster efforts—everywhere in the world—either have failed or are on life support (though some pretend they are not). That's because they all used the wrong ingredients. It isn't real estate, universities, or VCs that make innovation happen; it is entrepreneurs. To create a tech center like Silicon Valley, you need to first attract smart entrepreneurs from all over the world. Then you have to create entrepreneurial networks; instill a spirit of risk-taking and openness; and build mentoring systems. You also need to provide seed financing to startups. The money is easy; everything else requires a change in culture that usually takes decades.
But Chile is trying a radical new experiment that I helped conceive, to short-circuit this process. It is importing entrepreneurs from all over the world, by offering them $40,000 to bootstrap in Chile. They get a visa; free office space; assistance with networking, mentoring, fundraising, and connecting to potential customers and partners. All the entrepreneurs have to do, in return, is commit to working hard and live in one of the most beautiful places on this planet.
The program, called Start-Up Chile, is still in the pilot stage. Chile has selected 25 teams to receive grants. Seventeen of these teams have already moved to Chile's capital city, Santiago. The program will be officially launched on January 13, 2011. It will then be opened to the next batch of 100 startups. Chile expects to "import" around 1000 startup teams over the next three years. The program is headed by Nicolas Shea, who reports to Chile's Minister of Economy, Juan Andrés Fontaine.
To review the progress of Start-Up Chile, I travelled to Santiago this week. I came back convinced that Chile has a chance to become the first region in the world that will build a tech center out of nothing at all. And it will achieve this feat for a much smaller investment than other regions have made in efforts that failed.
All of the teams that I met raved about the opportunities they had gained by being in Chile. They told me they have gained valuable time to perfect their technologies before having to raise capital from Angels or VCs; that they'd found Santiago to be a really cheap place to live; and that they benefit by being able to network with each other, are appreciative of the support that the Chilean government is providing by connecting them to local businesses and investors, and enjoy the high quality of life and wonderful scenery and climate. They also find the natives to be very friendly and eager to learn from them.
I thought it best to let these entrepreneurs tell you their stories, themselves. So I recorded a video and had them collectively edit this. I must warn Chilean men not to watch this. They won't like what Karina Aguirre (a Chilean who recently joined a Start-Up Chile team) has to say (or not to say) about them.
These are some of the companies featured in the video:
Aeterna Sol. produces modular, cybernetic, and dual-axis tracking systems for solar panels. These improve efficiency by 30%, cut installation costs by 50%, reduce installation time by a factor of ten, and require half of the land of other dual-axis tracking technologies.
Entrustet allows you to make a list of your digital assets (online accounts and computer files) and decide which accounts should be transferred to heirs and which should be deleted when you die. Entrustet also notifies partner websites when one of its users dies.
H2020 taps the power of collective and artificial intelligence to find new solutions to global water problems. Think internet-of-things meets crowdsourcing meets state-of-the-art analytics; add in a dash of social entrepreneurism and a team undaunted by the impossible.
CruiseWise is a travel company that is bringing cruise-booking on line. It provides a better user experience than existing cruise exploration and booking options by simplifying a complex product and bringing together information from a variety of sources.
Piehole.ie is an online directory of voiceover talent. Its slightly irreverent site provides voiceover talent to advertising agencies world wide but is most popular in Dublin and London.
Tripeezy aims to be the ultimate resource for planning independent trips and discovering local culture during your travels abroad.
---------------
---------------
Editor's note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_3gDtXk_Qig/
--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
Sent from Ismawan E. Chamdani's BlackBerry®