Chicago-based AudioSnacks is offering consumers. Users can download audio tours of select destinations and can put up their own tours for purchase.
“AudioSnack is a place to find, purchase, download, listen to and appreciate audio tours that people just like you have created to share, and a place where you can do the same for others.” Tours are modestly priced—some are even free. Many feature downloadable maps to accompany the audio footage, and customers can listen to a sample snippet of a tour before deciding to purchase.
Already there are tours available for destinations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and more. Customers get a unique perspective and insights: they can take an audio tour through Chicago with a Jewish hip-hop poet, for instance, or see the sights in Seattle with a hot DJ. Since members are encouraged to create and upload their own tours, the library is likely to grow quickly. The company is also building a new section, offering campus tours for (upcoming) freshmen "who look lost no matter how many times they've looked at their maps."
Read more: www.audiosnacks.com
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
DoMyStuff
DoMyStuff is an online marketplace where busy people can quickly find others to do their chores, from mowing the lawn or picking up dry cleaning to researching a cruise or planning a party.
How it works? Someone posts a task, choosing a relevant category and describing the task in detail. Businesses and individuals then bid for the task. Bids include the total cost to complete a task, when it will be completed and information on the service they will provide. The customer reviews the bids and chooses an assistant. Customers can view in-depth information on the service providers, including their names, locations and the ratings they've been awarded by past employers.
In addition to the bidding system, DoMyStuff has integrated several other features that take it beyond posting casual jobs on Craigslist or other boards. First of all, a rating system lets users share information on the quality of service providers. Which is important, considering many chores take place in or around a customer's home, making safety and reliability a key issue.
Secondly, to establish trust between buyers and providers, DoMyStuff provides an online escrow system that allows customers to forward payment for a task into an escrow account. While the task is being completed, neither customer nor assistant have access to the funds, but the assistant is able to see that the account has been funded for a specific task. Once the job has been completed to the customer's satisfaction, the funds are released to the assistant. Which protects both buyers and sellers.
Website: www.domystuff.com
How it works? Someone posts a task, choosing a relevant category and describing the task in detail. Businesses and individuals then bid for the task. Bids include the total cost to complete a task, when it will be completed and information on the service they will provide. The customer reviews the bids and chooses an assistant. Customers can view in-depth information on the service providers, including their names, locations and the ratings they've been awarded by past employers.
In addition to the bidding system, DoMyStuff has integrated several other features that take it beyond posting casual jobs on Craigslist or other boards. First of all, a rating system lets users share information on the quality of service providers. Which is important, considering many chores take place in or around a customer's home, making safety and reliability a key issue.
Secondly, to establish trust between buyers and providers, DoMyStuff provides an online escrow system that allows customers to forward payment for a task into an escrow account. While the task is being completed, neither customer nor assistant have access to the funds, but the assistant is able to see that the account has been funded for a specific task. Once the job has been completed to the customer's satisfaction, the funds are released to the assistant. Which protects both buyers and sellers.
Website: www.domystuff.com
Second Life Investment
Second Life is the best glimpse we have so far of what the whole Internet will look like in years to come.. The net will certainly have a three-dimensional interface by then, and avatars -- little 3D representations of our own selves -- are likely to be how we get around. Second Life lets you learn what works and what doesn't work in using the 3D Internet as an interface for users, customers, and business partners.
Measure your results. What do you want to achieve? Brand awareness? Traffic to a particular area? Sales? Second Life allows you to do some extraordinary measurements of traffic and avatar movements in areas you own, use those tools to measure the effectiveness of your in-world campaign.
Engage in the world. It's not enough to just build something in-world, you have to have your staff available to interact with SL residents. That's possibly the most important thing. Second Life, like Soylent Green, is people; if your people don't use what you build in SL, nobody else will either.
Don't expect big paybacks up-front. There's only a couple of hundred thousand people worldwide dedicated to using Second Life. The maximum capacity of an individual region is 30-50 simultaneous users. It'll take a while for revenues to become significant. You're in it for the long term.
What do you think are the best practices for real-world companies doing business in Second Life? What real-world companies do you see doing a great job doing business in SL? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Read More:http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/04/what_are_the_be.html;jsessionid=JGOZR1U3RBXHOQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN
Measure your results. What do you want to achieve? Brand awareness? Traffic to a particular area? Sales? Second Life allows you to do some extraordinary measurements of traffic and avatar movements in areas you own, use those tools to measure the effectiveness of your in-world campaign.
Engage in the world. It's not enough to just build something in-world, you have to have your staff available to interact with SL residents. That's possibly the most important thing. Second Life, like Soylent Green, is people; if your people don't use what you build in SL, nobody else will either.
Don't expect big paybacks up-front. There's only a couple of hundred thousand people worldwide dedicated to using Second Life. The maximum capacity of an individual region is 30-50 simultaneous users. It'll take a while for revenues to become significant. You're in it for the long term.
What do you think are the best practices for real-world companies doing business in Second Life? What real-world companies do you see doing a great job doing business in SL? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Read More:http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/04/what_are_the_be.html;jsessionid=JGOZR1U3RBXHOQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN
Internet Radio
Internet radio is enjoying an explosion of new services that could make it a viable replacement for broadcast radio -- if the record industry's allies in D.C. don't kill it first.
Internet radio and services that deliver personalized streams of music -- and help you discover new music and artists --are growing exponentially. In fact, they seem to be becoming a viable medium for promoting recorded music -- possibly replacing the shrinking broadcast radio audience. That makes it pretty ironic that the recording industry's aggressive push for performance royalties could kill Internet radio just as it shows some promise of throwing the record companies a life ring.
What's happening is that Internet radio is entering a new phase of its development. At first it was generalized, as broadcast radio stations streamed their over-the-air signals online as a promotional device. Then it became specialized, as Internet-only "stations" were created to serve niche markets. Now it is being personalized and, inevitably, socialized.
Read More:http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199000898&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News
Internet radio and services that deliver personalized streams of music -- and help you discover new music and artists --are growing exponentially. In fact, they seem to be becoming a viable medium for promoting recorded music -- possibly replacing the shrinking broadcast radio audience. That makes it pretty ironic that the recording industry's aggressive push for performance royalties could kill Internet radio just as it shows some promise of throwing the record companies a life ring.
What's happening is that Internet radio is entering a new phase of its development. At first it was generalized, as broadcast radio stations streamed their over-the-air signals online as a promotional device. Then it became specialized, as Internet-only "stations" were created to serve niche markets. Now it is being personalized and, inevitably, socialized.
Read More:http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199000898&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News
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