It's a good thing Karoli Hindriks makes hats: She wears a lot of them. She's the country manager for MTV in Estonia, a student at the Estonian Business School, an elected city council member in her hometown of Pärnu—and she's been an entrepreneur for more than five years. While still in high school, Hindriks invented a soft reflector to be worn by pedestrians for safety at night. By the age of 19, she had expanded into making fashionable knitted hats and gloves out of reflective material. She initially sold them through a company that her father owns, but in 2002 went into business for herself.
Hindriks has patented her designs and even picked up an endorsement from the Estonian Road Administration, which encourages pedestrians to wear reflective clothing. Besides selling her accessories through retail outlets, she sells wholesale to companies and labor unions. Goodmood's revenues are still modest, less than $150,000 a year, but with growth averaging 35% annually, it may not stay small for long.
More at:http://www.goodmood.ee/
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Global Talent Database (TALDAT) is the world's most comprehensive talent search engine and artist directory
“The Global Talent Database (TALDAT) is the world's most comprehensive talent search engine and artist directory. Think of it as similar to a global Yellow Pages designed to connect the creative class with enthusiasts around the world.”
Network with artists and buyers from around the world, link your existing online portfolio and websites, keep up with industry news and trends, market your work and attract sponsors on TalentDatabase.com. The site claims to be a global talent database where creative types and talent-seekers or art buyers can find each other. It’s still in beta but it looks pretty professional so far. The Global Talent Database is divided into twenty channels where you can surf through various artist profiles complete with pictures and their online portfolios and websites. There is no fee for joining or submitting your profile to the database.
Talent-scouts and artists alike will find the site a thorough and well-organized entity that gives them opportunities to make connections.
More at:http://beta.talentdatabase.com/
Network with artists and buyers from around the world, link your existing online portfolio and websites, keep up with industry news and trends, market your work and attract sponsors on TalentDatabase.com. The site claims to be a global talent database where creative types and talent-seekers or art buyers can find each other. It’s still in beta but it looks pretty professional so far. The Global Talent Database is divided into twenty channels where you can surf through various artist profiles complete with pictures and their online portfolios and websites. There is no fee for joining or submitting your profile to the database.
Talent-scouts and artists alike will find the site a thorough and well-organized entity that gives them opportunities to make connections.
More at:http://beta.talentdatabase.com/
TagsAhoy lets you search all your tags, across different sites, from one location.
“TagsAhoy lets you search all your tags, across different sites, from one location.
Just sign up (it's free), enter your account information for the sites where you use tags, and you're done--you can search all your tags from one place. Takes a few minutes.”
Your tags scattered all over the place and want to know where your tags are? Give TagsAhoy a spin. This simple yet straightforward app tracks down your tags like Lassie sniffing out danger. To use it you’ve got to sign up—just think of a username, password, and of course, you’ll need an email address. Current sites supported include: del.icio.us, Flickr, Gmail, Squirl, Librarything and Connotea. A tag cloud is in the works and if you’d like to see more services added just email.
More at:http://www.tagsahoy.com/
Just sign up (it's free), enter your account information for the sites where you use tags, and you're done--you can search all your tags from one place. Takes a few minutes.”
Your tags scattered all over the place and want to know where your tags are? Give TagsAhoy a spin. This simple yet straightforward app tracks down your tags like Lassie sniffing out danger. To use it you’ve got to sign up—just think of a username, password, and of course, you’ll need an email address. Current sites supported include: del.icio.us, Flickr, Gmail, Squirl, Librarything and Connotea. A tag cloud is in the works and if you’d like to see more services added just email.
More at:http://www.tagsahoy.com/
Saturday, June 9, 2007
BusinessNeverSleeps.
What is BusinessNeverSleeps.com? Social networking sites have been our most successful Internet business ideas. This social networking website will allow visitors to find companies that are open late or 24/hours a day & allow companies to post their company profiles. It will also allow business owners to interact with consumers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Main SectionsUSER: They would come to BNS to find businesses open late / 24 hours
MEMBER: Businesses would come to BNS to promote their business
OWNER: The owner will control the entire website
Member’s Community FeaturesSearch for a Business
Post Your Business
Speak to a Business
Search for a Business: Visitors will be able to browse/search businesses open 24 hours or beyond normal business hours. Not only will they be able to find what they need, but they will be able to read company profiles, research products & services, see company ratings, get directions, and even chat live with a representative from the company with the site’s innovative live chat function.
Post Your Business: Businesses would register for an account on BusinessNeverSleeps.com to promote their business. They will be able to create their own web page, list products & services, interact with visitors, and pretty much anything else that they want to include. WebBizIdeas.com has social networking software that is flexible enough to incorporate your any of your business ideas.
Speak to a Business: Many companies claim they are open 24/7 - but may only have customer support available at night. We want to encourage companies who are open 24/7 to have their BNS Instant Messenger open 24/7 to talk to and assist customers – increasing customer satisfaction and their customer base as a result.
Competition AnalysisWe could not find any competition for this website idea. We found a few sites that were specifically targeted to cities, but this is minimal. In addition, all of the sites we found just listed businesses, and there was no ‘hands free’ automated process to duplicate the idea in every city in the United States, much less internationally.Marketing AnalysisTargeting cities for small business & entrepreneurs is a great idea and a great place to start. Speaking form experience, starting your own business and working crazy hours just goes hand-in-hand. Check out Entrepreneur.com’s report on the ‘Top Cities to Start a Business’ (http://www.entrepreneur.com/bestcities/region/large.html). Brainstorming User Example: Jack is trying to finish his research paper for school and it is 2:30 a.m. He can’t concentrate in his dorm room and just needs to find some place to finish the paper. He goes on to BusinessNeverSleeps.com and finds a coffee shop with Internet Access in his city. His problem is solved.
Business Example: Snap Fitness in Minneapolis is open 24 hours a day - they are the only gym I know of that is open 24 hours a day. They have a large competitive advantage over gyms that are not open 24 hours a day and want to reach a ‘night-life’ market. So they go to BusinessNeverSleeps.com and register their business – and people who are looking for gyms 24 hours a day can find them. They increase their membership base as a result.
BusinessNeverSleeps.com is a great, innovative Internet Business Idea. You can take advantage of it by contacting them today.
Link-http://www.webbizideas.com/hire/internet-services/ideas/businessneversleeps.html
MEMBER: Businesses would come to BNS to promote their business
OWNER: The owner will control the entire website
Member’s Community FeaturesSearch for a Business
Post Your Business
Speak to a Business
Search for a Business: Visitors will be able to browse/search businesses open 24 hours or beyond normal business hours. Not only will they be able to find what they need, but they will be able to read company profiles, research products & services, see company ratings, get directions, and even chat live with a representative from the company with the site’s innovative live chat function.
Post Your Business: Businesses would register for an account on BusinessNeverSleeps.com to promote their business. They will be able to create their own web page, list products & services, interact with visitors, and pretty much anything else that they want to include. WebBizIdeas.com has social networking software that is flexible enough to incorporate your any of your business ideas.
Speak to a Business: Many companies claim they are open 24/7 - but may only have customer support available at night. We want to encourage companies who are open 24/7 to have their BNS Instant Messenger open 24/7 to talk to and assist customers – increasing customer satisfaction and their customer base as a result.
Competition AnalysisWe could not find any competition for this website idea. We found a few sites that were specifically targeted to cities, but this is minimal. In addition, all of the sites we found just listed businesses, and there was no ‘hands free’ automated process to duplicate the idea in every city in the United States, much less internationally.Marketing AnalysisTargeting cities for small business & entrepreneurs is a great idea and a great place to start. Speaking form experience, starting your own business and working crazy hours just goes hand-in-hand. Check out Entrepreneur.com’s report on the ‘Top Cities to Start a Business’ (http://www.entrepreneur.com/bestcities/region/large.html). Brainstorming User Example: Jack is trying to finish his research paper for school and it is 2:30 a.m. He can’t concentrate in his dorm room and just needs to find some place to finish the paper. He goes on to BusinessNeverSleeps.com and finds a coffee shop with Internet Access in his city. His problem is solved.
Business Example: Snap Fitness in Minneapolis is open 24 hours a day - they are the only gym I know of that is open 24 hours a day. They have a large competitive advantage over gyms that are not open 24 hours a day and want to reach a ‘night-life’ market. So they go to BusinessNeverSleeps.com and register their business – and people who are looking for gyms 24 hours a day can find them. They increase their membership base as a result.
BusinessNeverSleeps.com is a great, innovative Internet Business Idea. You can take advantage of it by contacting them today.
Link-http://www.webbizideas.com/hire/internet-services/ideas/businessneversleeps.html
VCs Funding
FameCast Receives $4.5 Million for Online Talent Search
June 5, 2007
FameCast received $4.5 Million for online talent search, funding provided by Austin Ventures.
What does FameCast do?
FameCast is an online talent contest.
VCU says:
FameCast is an online competition to find America's best new talent. FameCast will provide artists an opportunity to connect to a nationwide audience and compete for $10,000 and national exposure. It is an online talent contest.
There are weekly contests to participate in, and results are tracked all the way.
It appears, based on those involved on the "about us" page that this is legit, and not just an interesting customer acquisition tactic
See: FameCast Here.
Founders:here
June 5, 2007
FameCast received $4.5 Million for online talent search, funding provided by Austin Ventures.
What does FameCast do?
FameCast is an online talent contest.
VCU says:
FameCast is an online competition to find America's best new talent. FameCast will provide artists an opportunity to connect to a nationwide audience and compete for $10,000 and national exposure. It is an online talent contest.
There are weekly contests to participate in, and results are tracked all the way.
It appears, based on those involved on the "about us" page that this is legit, and not just an interesting customer acquisition tactic
See: FameCast Here.
Founders:here
New Business Opporunities "Web Property Market"
It’s Early Days In The Web Property Market
It might be stupid of me to reveal this since I’m creating my own competition, but the truth of the matter is that the web marketplace, in terms of online property, is full of bargains and there has never been, and never will be again, such a great time to invest online.
It’s like having a choice of hundreds of properties which, provided you don’t totally neglect or destroy them, are guaranteed to increase in value over time. The World Wide Web is a suburb with millions of people moving in each month. That’s some pretty crazy growth and people who own property in this market enjoy consistent gains as a natural run-off effect of that growth.
I know this for a fact because every site I have is organically growing without me doing much. Google continues to send more and more search traffic. Word of mouth helps to bring more people to my sites and while none of my web property are growing super quickly, they are all steady performers.
Best of all, if you know what you are doing, you can find bargains, property priced so cheap people who invest in offline assets like real-word property and real-world businesses, would be stunned when they see the figures for online property.
You can buy web property at about five times monthly revenue. That’s MONTHLY revenue. Okay, it might be harder to find bargains at that price but it’s relatively easy to find sites that sell for 10-12 times monthly revenue. That’s one year of income, so a site that makes $1,000 a month today costs you $12,000 now.
In most cases with a few tweaks and given the natural growth of the web, and provided you did some due diligence before buying your investment to make sure you don’t get a lemon, that $1,000 can be grown to $2,000 a month in a relatively short period of time. You can make back your investment cost within 4-8 months and from there you have a nice $2,000 a month profit center. Do that five times and you have a six-figure yearly income - a potentially passive income source too!
So How Do You Find Passive Income Sites?
Any site that makes money can be a passive income source even if work is required to maintain it simply by setting up a person to look after it. So if you buy a blog that makes $1,000 a month, hire a blogger to keep content fresh and look after the place at $500 a month and you have a passive $500 a month income source that will continue to grow month after month assuming your blogger is doing a good job.
Alternatively you can look for sites that are driven by user-content generation. Sites like forums, social bookmarking communities and directories can function on the back of the people that already use the site, who create content, and the existing traffic coming through from incoming links and repeat loyal visitors.
Turnkey sites, like e-commerce stores that sell a digital product, function without you, converting sales through a web system made up of sales pages and perhaps email autoresponders, delivering the products through electronic distribution. There can be customer service needs, but of course this can be outsourced too.
There are plenty of types of sites out there that can be made passive or near-passive. It really depends on what style of site you understand so feel confident optimizing, and what your budget is.
For many of you reading this, blogs are a great option because you know how they work. There are many blogs for sale, the tricky part is making sure you can keep the content coming either by writing yourself or bringing on other bloggers. Buying a blog instead of starting a new one from scratch is another way to quick-start your professional blogging career and also teaches you the process of buying a website, which can be a very beneficial experience down the line when you go to purchase more online assets.
How Can You Start Investing In Web Property?
You only two things to get started:
The money to invest - I’d aim to have at least $5,000 USD saved up, although you can pick up smaller sites for a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. The most expensive site I have bought so far was $12,000 and the cheapest was $2,000.
The inclination to make it work. You need to have the time to monitor marketplaces, to implement strategies, research sites, find sellers, do due diligence before buying and then optimizing your new property (”renovations”).
Having a blog that consistently makes money is the perfect leverage tool to get you into web property. It’s takes some patience and foresight to make a decision to reinvest profits rather than spend them, but you will be glad you did in the future as your portfolio increases in value.
Link:Yaro
NAME
It might be stupid of me to reveal this since I’m creating my own competition, but the truth of the matter is that the web marketplace, in terms of online property, is full of bargains and there has never been, and never will be again, such a great time to invest online.
It’s like having a choice of hundreds of properties which, provided you don’t totally neglect or destroy them, are guaranteed to increase in value over time. The World Wide Web is a suburb with millions of people moving in each month. That’s some pretty crazy growth and people who own property in this market enjoy consistent gains as a natural run-off effect of that growth.
I know this for a fact because every site I have is organically growing without me doing much. Google continues to send more and more search traffic. Word of mouth helps to bring more people to my sites and while none of my web property are growing super quickly, they are all steady performers.
Best of all, if you know what you are doing, you can find bargains, property priced so cheap people who invest in offline assets like real-word property and real-world businesses, would be stunned when they see the figures for online property.
You can buy web property at about five times monthly revenue. That’s MONTHLY revenue. Okay, it might be harder to find bargains at that price but it’s relatively easy to find sites that sell for 10-12 times monthly revenue. That’s one year of income, so a site that makes $1,000 a month today costs you $12,000 now.
In most cases with a few tweaks and given the natural growth of the web, and provided you did some due diligence before buying your investment to make sure you don’t get a lemon, that $1,000 can be grown to $2,000 a month in a relatively short period of time. You can make back your investment cost within 4-8 months and from there you have a nice $2,000 a month profit center. Do that five times and you have a six-figure yearly income - a potentially passive income source too!
So How Do You Find Passive Income Sites?
Any site that makes money can be a passive income source even if work is required to maintain it simply by setting up a person to look after it. So if you buy a blog that makes $1,000 a month, hire a blogger to keep content fresh and look after the place at $500 a month and you have a passive $500 a month income source that will continue to grow month after month assuming your blogger is doing a good job.
Alternatively you can look for sites that are driven by user-content generation. Sites like forums, social bookmarking communities and directories can function on the back of the people that already use the site, who create content, and the existing traffic coming through from incoming links and repeat loyal visitors.
Turnkey sites, like e-commerce stores that sell a digital product, function without you, converting sales through a web system made up of sales pages and perhaps email autoresponders, delivering the products through electronic distribution. There can be customer service needs, but of course this can be outsourced too.
There are plenty of types of sites out there that can be made passive or near-passive. It really depends on what style of site you understand so feel confident optimizing, and what your budget is.
For many of you reading this, blogs are a great option because you know how they work. There are many blogs for sale, the tricky part is making sure you can keep the content coming either by writing yourself or bringing on other bloggers. Buying a blog instead of starting a new one from scratch is another way to quick-start your professional blogging career and also teaches you the process of buying a website, which can be a very beneficial experience down the line when you go to purchase more online assets.
How Can You Start Investing In Web Property?
You only two things to get started:
The money to invest - I’d aim to have at least $5,000 USD saved up, although you can pick up smaller sites for a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. The most expensive site I have bought so far was $12,000 and the cheapest was $2,000.
The inclination to make it work. You need to have the time to monitor marketplaces, to implement strategies, research sites, find sellers, do due diligence before buying and then optimizing your new property (”renovations”).
Having a blog that consistently makes money is the perfect leverage tool to get you into web property. It’s takes some patience and foresight to make a decision to reinvest profits rather than spend them, but you will be glad you did in the future as your portfolio increases in value.
Link:Yaro
NAME
Crawler.com Is better than Inbox.com,the free webmail service
Crawler.com is pratically identical to Inbox.com, the free webmail service. They are both owned by Xacti Group and both follow the exact same layout, design and interface in their websites. They both also offer very similar services, including online photo sharing, games, news, and free email. The difference seems to be on the emphasis of each site. Crawler.com aims to be your main source to search for information, while Inbox was more focused on hosting email. Or at least that is what Our mission is to become your #1 source to search for information of any kind. Our goal is to provide you with a simple ‘if you can’t find it here – you can’t find it’ solution! And to accomplish this mission, we are giving you multiple choices!
Crawler.com features one-click access to the search results of not one, but to ten of the best search providers on the Internet. Search for Web Results, Images, Audio, Multimedia, News and much more from one convenient location!
Unlike other search engines, Crawler results were designed to help you find what you are looking for - fast! That’s why we removed all banners, pop-ups and other irrelevant advertising that will just slow you down.
More at:http://www.crawler.com/
Crawler.com features one-click access to the search results of not one, but to ten of the best search providers on the Internet. Search for Web Results, Images, Audio, Multimedia, News and much more from one convenient location!
Unlike other search engines, Crawler results were designed to help you find what you are looking for - fast! That’s why we removed all banners, pop-ups and other irrelevant advertising that will just slow you down.
More at:http://www.crawler.com/
ubroadcast's mission is to provide a global interactive Internet broadcasting platform - a forum where practically anyone can discuss anything
Do you have a want to host your own internet radio station and become the next Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh? ubroadcast makes that dream possible by providing an easy-to-use platform to create and broadcast your own station. After downloading ubroadcast's software, users can host a live talk show or music show in just 5 minutes, since the setup is so quick and easy. ubroadcast enables anyone to become a radio personality and host an Internet radio show..
ubroadcast's mission is to provide a global interactive Internet broadcasting platform - a forum where practically anyone can discuss anything - and provide free or premium content to its listeners. The ubroadcast web portal (www.ubroadcast.com) provides listeners with an index of broadcast programs that can be easily searched by a number of key parameters, from location to subject matter to host name and profile. We provide the best of traditional radio, satellite radio, and Internet radio rolled into one venue.
ubroadcast represents a major venue for listeners to find the type of content they seek and for broadcasters to air opinions, promote products and services or increase exposure for themselves, their company or organization. In traditional radio, there are a finite number of frequencies a station can use to carry its signal. ubroadcast does not have these limitations, nor does its stations have to register with the FCC.
More deatil at:http://www.ubroadcast.com/
ubroadcast's mission is to provide a global interactive Internet broadcasting platform - a forum where practically anyone can discuss anything - and provide free or premium content to its listeners. The ubroadcast web portal (www.ubroadcast.com) provides listeners with an index of broadcast programs that can be easily searched by a number of key parameters, from location to subject matter to host name and profile. We provide the best of traditional radio, satellite radio, and Internet radio rolled into one venue.
ubroadcast represents a major venue for listeners to find the type of content they seek and for broadcasters to air opinions, promote products and services or increase exposure for themselves, their company or organization. In traditional radio, there are a finite number of frequencies a station can use to carry its signal. ubroadcast does not have these limitations, nor does its stations have to register with the FCC.
More deatil at:http://www.ubroadcast.com/
A Perfect Hotel Video Guide
“Tvtrip is a new kind of website that uses video to provide travelers with the transparency they need when planning a trip. All of the videos available on the site have been shot by a team of professionals. We are neither a travel agency, nor part of any hotel chain and we do not charge any service fees to users of our site. The prices that are listed on the site are those of Tvtrip partners. We are an independent company which provides a quick, easy and trustworthy link to the best prices available. Tvtrip is not a booking agent.”
Now that summer’s coming up .Its useful guide for summer vacations. Nowadays trip planning is aided by travel sites like Cleartrip,yatra,travelguru,go travel, Expedia or Hotwire and also by those classic guides like Lonely Planet or Let’s Go Europe. TVTrip seeks to consolidate all the info you’ll need about a place into short, informative videos. Specifically, TVTrip features films of hotels. They have price guides, ratings, maps, and video tours of rooms and amenities. You’ll get to see each type of suite and room available along with shots of the exterior surroundings. Each video is accompanied by a short text description, a map, reviews, and a list of things to do near your hotel, with links to Eventful for more detailed information. TVTrip has got over 1500 videos with over 60 European destinations.
More at:http://www.tvtrip.com/
Now that summer’s coming up .Its useful guide for summer vacations. Nowadays trip planning is aided by travel sites like Cleartrip,yatra,travelguru,go travel, Expedia or Hotwire and also by those classic guides like Lonely Planet or Let’s Go Europe. TVTrip seeks to consolidate all the info you’ll need about a place into short, informative videos. Specifically, TVTrip features films of hotels. They have price guides, ratings, maps, and video tours of rooms and amenities. You’ll get to see each type of suite and room available along with shots of the exterior surroundings. Each video is accompanied by a short text description, a map, reviews, and a list of things to do near your hotel, with links to Eventful for more detailed information. TVTrip has got over 1500 videos with over 60 European destinations.
More at:http://www.tvtrip.com/
Friday, June 8, 2007
Entreprenuer With Difference
Canadian artistic visionary Guy Laliberte has been named the world's top entrepreneur for taking a troupe of stilt-walkers and street performers and creating the internationally renowned spectacle, Cirque du Soleil.
He accepted the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year at a ceremony in Monte Carlo, beating out 39 entrepreneurs from around the globe. He had been named Canada's top entrepreneur last November.
"Guy has taken a great entrepreneurial journey from street performer to CEO of a globally recognized brand," said Ernst & Young's global vice-chairman Greg Ericksen. "Today he oversees every aspect of Cirque du Soleil, and his vision goes far beyond creating entertainment."
As soon as the award was handed out late on Saturday night, Mr. Laliberte hopped on a plane to return to Montreal to be with his labouring wife, model Claudia Barilla. The couple already has a one-year-old child.
Cirque du Soleil, a unique modern circus featuring original music and performances based on juggling, tightrope walking and any other imaginable form of human acrobatics, has grown from a staff of 73 to more than 3,000 employees -- including 900 artists -- from more than 40 countries speaking 25 different languages in just over 20 years.
In the mid-1970s, an impetuous Mr. Laliberte left his native Quebec to travel Europe, juggling, breathing fire and playing the accordion in the streets to pay for his travels.
He brought his skills home in 1979, and established a group that would be the beginning of Cirque du Soleil.
When Quebec City celebrated the 450th anniversary of Canada's discovery by Jacques Cartier in 1984, they needed a show that would carry the festivities out across the province. Mr. Laliberte stepped forward, launching Cirque du Soleil onto the national stage.
Since that day, the show has made nearly 250 stops in 100 cities around the world, and has been seen by more than 60 million spectators; close to 10 million will have seen one during 2007. It has spun off shows such as the water-themed O held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and has received nearly 100 awards for its creativity and innovation, including several Geminis and Emmys. The troupe was given a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2002.
In 2004, Mr. Laliberte was honoured by receiving the Order of Canada, the same year he was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 1997, Mr. Laliberte received the Ordre national du Quebec.
While Mr. Laliberte may be comfortable rubbing shoulders with contortionists and acrobats, he now holds company with CEOs wearing power suits. Past nominees for the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year, the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs, include Michael Dell of Dell Inc. and Pierre Omidyar of eBay Inc.
More at:http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=4fdf93db-4b6b-4816-b57f-5b7a954d01a8&k=32726
He accepted the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year at a ceremony in Monte Carlo, beating out 39 entrepreneurs from around the globe. He had been named Canada's top entrepreneur last November.
"Guy has taken a great entrepreneurial journey from street performer to CEO of a globally recognized brand," said Ernst & Young's global vice-chairman Greg Ericksen. "Today he oversees every aspect of Cirque du Soleil, and his vision goes far beyond creating entertainment."
As soon as the award was handed out late on Saturday night, Mr. Laliberte hopped on a plane to return to Montreal to be with his labouring wife, model Claudia Barilla. The couple already has a one-year-old child.
Cirque du Soleil, a unique modern circus featuring original music and performances based on juggling, tightrope walking and any other imaginable form of human acrobatics, has grown from a staff of 73 to more than 3,000 employees -- including 900 artists -- from more than 40 countries speaking 25 different languages in just over 20 years.
In the mid-1970s, an impetuous Mr. Laliberte left his native Quebec to travel Europe, juggling, breathing fire and playing the accordion in the streets to pay for his travels.
He brought his skills home in 1979, and established a group that would be the beginning of Cirque du Soleil.
When Quebec City celebrated the 450th anniversary of Canada's discovery by Jacques Cartier in 1984, they needed a show that would carry the festivities out across the province. Mr. Laliberte stepped forward, launching Cirque du Soleil onto the national stage.
Since that day, the show has made nearly 250 stops in 100 cities around the world, and has been seen by more than 60 million spectators; close to 10 million will have seen one during 2007. It has spun off shows such as the water-themed O held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and has received nearly 100 awards for its creativity and innovation, including several Geminis and Emmys. The troupe was given a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2002.
In 2004, Mr. Laliberte was honoured by receiving the Order of Canada, the same year he was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 1997, Mr. Laliberte received the Ordre national du Quebec.
While Mr. Laliberte may be comfortable rubbing shoulders with contortionists and acrobats, he now holds company with CEOs wearing power suits. Past nominees for the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year, the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs, include Michael Dell of Dell Inc. and Pierre Omidyar of eBay Inc.
More at:http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=4fdf93db-4b6b-4816-b57f-5b7a954d01a8&k=32726
CloakVroom is staffed 24 hours a day to provide event-goers with peace of mind, and offer event organisers a hassle-free drive-in facility
CloakVroom is staffed 24 hours a day to provide event-goers with peace of mind, and offer event organisers a hassle-free drive-in facility.
The mobile service goes the extra mile: customers are given a numbered wristband with CloakVroom's mobile number and website. If anyone leaves an item behind, they can reclaim it by contacting CloakVroom, which will mail the goods back to them. The company was launched last month by M40 Media, an agency that specialises in event sponsorship and festival publications. After 10 years of working with festivals, they noticed a growing need for secure on-site storage, and voila — CloakVroom was born.
According to Gary Pitt, CloakVroom's founder, his fledgling venture has received unprecedented interest and the vehicle is booked at an event every weekend until the end of September. CloakVroom's service will be on offer at Wild in the Country Knebworth, Bestival, The V Festival, Creamfields, Cornbury Festival, The Secret Garden Party, Lovebox and many more. CloakVroom is also taking corporate bookings — the biggest of which is the official relaunch later this month of London's Millennium Dome, now called the 02.
CloakVroom plans to roll out a franchise in 2008, with separate vehicles covering different regions in the UK. One to start up in your own neck of the woods?
More at:http://www.cloakvroom.com/
The mobile service goes the extra mile: customers are given a numbered wristband with CloakVroom's mobile number and website. If anyone leaves an item behind, they can reclaim it by contacting CloakVroom, which will mail the goods back to them. The company was launched last month by M40 Media, an agency that specialises in event sponsorship and festival publications. After 10 years of working with festivals, they noticed a growing need for secure on-site storage, and voila — CloakVroom was born.
According to Gary Pitt, CloakVroom's founder, his fledgling venture has received unprecedented interest and the vehicle is booked at an event every weekend until the end of September. CloakVroom's service will be on offer at Wild in the Country Knebworth, Bestival, The V Festival, Creamfields, Cornbury Festival, The Secret Garden Party, Lovebox and many more. CloakVroom is also taking corporate bookings — the biggest of which is the official relaunch later this month of London's Millennium Dome, now called the 02.
CloakVroom plans to roll out a franchise in 2008, with separate vehicles covering different regions in the UK. One to start up in your own neck of the woods?
More at:http://www.cloakvroom.com/
Job Sim And College Sim Provide You Right Information By Comparing Lot Of Different Things,Like Cost Of Living ,Quality etc..
The job sim is one of three finance sims that are available at finfo.com. This particular sim allows users to compare jobs in different cities and provides you with information on cost of living. The sims are free and users don't have to sign up to use any of the sims.
More at:http://www.finfo.com/job
2.The college sim is one of three finance sims that are available at finfo.com. This particular sim allows users to compare colleges, select the year that they will attend college, and the sim will provide you with a college report. The sims are free and users don't have to sign up to use any of the sims.
More at:http://www.finfo.com/college
More at:http://www.finfo.com/job
2.The college sim is one of three finance sims that are available at finfo.com. This particular sim allows users to compare colleges, select the year that they will attend college, and the sim will provide you with a college report. The sims are free and users don't have to sign up to use any of the sims.
More at:http://www.finfo.com/college
FlashMeeting.com Provides You To Broadcast Meeting From Anywhere In World
The future is here and now, and FlashMeeting makes it pretty easy to participate. Anyone with a modern web browser with the Flash 8 (or greater) plugin correctly installed can use FlashMeeting. You will also need a properly installed web cam and microphone. But after that, you are all set. It's a pretty cool site, and they have gone to extreme lengths to demonstrate how to use the service with both video and text help. I was impressed with the features that have people sign up to speak/broadcast one at a time, along with the ability to chat with others on the call at the same time. It's an extremely handy program. The only downside I can see is that you can't get away with working in your pajamas at home anymore.
FlashMeeting is an application based on the Adobe Flash 'plug in' and Flash Media Server. Running in a standard web browser window, it allows a dispersed group of people to meet from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Typically a meeting is pre-booked by a registered user and a url, containing a unique password for the meeting, is returned by the FlashMeeting server. The 'booker' passes this on to the people they wish to participate, who simply click on the link to enter into the meeting at the arranged time.
During the meeting one person speaks (i.e. broadcasts) at a time. Other people can simultaneously contribute using text chat, the whiteboard, or emoticons etc. while waiting for their turn to speak. This way the meeting is ordered, controlled and easy to follow. A replay of the meeting is instantly available, to those with the 'unique' replay url.
More at:http://www.flashmeeting.com/
FlashMeeting is an application based on the Adobe Flash 'plug in' and Flash Media Server. Running in a standard web browser window, it allows a dispersed group of people to meet from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Typically a meeting is pre-booked by a registered user and a url, containing a unique password for the meeting, is returned by the FlashMeeting server. The 'booker' passes this on to the people they wish to participate, who simply click on the link to enter into the meeting at the arranged time.
During the meeting one person speaks (i.e. broadcasts) at a time. Other people can simultaneously contribute using text chat, the whiteboard, or emoticons etc. while waiting for their turn to speak. This way the meeting is ordered, controlled and easy to follow. A replay of the meeting is instantly available, to those with the 'unique' replay url.
More at:http://www.flashmeeting.com/
Make Huge Money Through Video Sharing Site ,Break.com
Break.com is one of the leading video sharing sites online. Mostly for amateur videographers, the site pays those who submit videos that make it to their homepage ($400 for an original video and $2,000 for a produced short film). A site makes it to the homepage by having 25,000 viewers the first week or meeting a set of algorithms set by the site. Somewhat heartbreaking for me is that they have "Girl of the Day" vidoes. They pay $50 if you are selected as Girl of the Day and the top rated Girl of the Day for each month wins $500! Take note: there was no such thing as "Boy of the Day." Plus, the most viewed weekly video was a woman in a bikini in a video titled, "What I learned from porn." Ah...how far we have (not) come.
Creates a growing community based on timely, visceral entertainment.
Enables users to upload and share their original content.
Remains a leading proponent of the democratization and monetization of content. Thanks to Break, you don't need to be famous to create entertaining videos and have them distributed to millions.
More at:http://www.break.com/
Creates a growing community based on timely, visceral entertainment.
Enables users to upload and share their original content.
Remains a leading proponent of the democratization and monetization of content. Thanks to Break, you don't need to be famous to create entertaining videos and have them distributed to millions.
More at:http://www.break.com/
Rebtel's a VoIP service which gives you cheap international calling rates on both your mobile and landline phone.
Rebtel's a VoIP service which gives you cheap international calling rates on both your mobile and landline phone. You give Rebtel a friend's phone number and Rebtel will return with a local number for them so that you get cheaper rates. You'll need to add credits to your account, or you can simply have your friend call you back from the number that Rebtel sends them via SMS, or the number that appears on the screen; you stay on the line, and both you and your friend can chat while paying at a local call rate. Without paying anything you'll get 10 international calls which last as long as you want. Or if you'd prefer to pay, you'll get charged at a per minute rate-- all calls within the US are 2 cents. So far Rebtel's got 37 countries covered and you can sign up for an email notification when Rebtel gets to your country.
“We saw a way to take expensive international calls out of the hands of the mobile operators and make them cheaper for everyone.
So we developed a system that uses the internet to connect local calls around the world, cutting out expensive international charges.
More at:http://www.rebtel.com/
“We saw a way to take expensive international calls out of the hands of the mobile operators and make them cheaper for everyone.
So we developed a system that uses the internet to connect local calls around the world, cutting out expensive international charges.
More at:http://www.rebtel.com/
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Good Plateform For Emerging Entreprenuers
A business plan competition to be held in London promises to help all participants, not just the winner.
A London-held business plan competition will provide entrepreneurs with the chance to get expert advice and make invaluable contacts whether they win or not.
TiEger’s Den, which is organized by TiE UK, won’t be the humiliating experience it is for so many of the participants of the hit BBC show with a similar name, Dragon’s Den, where people often get their business proposals torn apart on television.
A panel of experienced entrepreneurs from the TiE UK membership will cast their eye over contestants’ business plans and offer constructive advice and on-going mentoring to all participants.
Four entrepreneurs will have a maximum of five minutes to present their business plan, which will be followed by a Q&A session with the panel lasting no longer than 10 minutes.
Last year’s winner, Mathew Mazhuvanchery of ONSI Infrastructure, found the experience invaluable to his emerging business.
“I got great advice on how I should take ONSI forward” he says. “It’s worth its weight in gold.”
The TiEger’s Den Business Plan Competition takes place on 5 July at the London offices of competition sponsors Simmons & Simmons. The address is Citypoint, One Ropemaker Street, London, EC2Y 9SS.
If you wish to be considered for this event please send your business plan to Fionuala Pender, TiE UK Executive Director at fpender@tie-uk.org no later than 16 June.
TiE UK is part of a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, and holds frequent networking events, seminars, and workshops as well as offering a mentoring programme for emerging entrepreneurs.
More at:http://www.tie-uk.org/
A London-held business plan competition will provide entrepreneurs with the chance to get expert advice and make invaluable contacts whether they win or not.
TiEger’s Den, which is organized by TiE UK, won’t be the humiliating experience it is for so many of the participants of the hit BBC show with a similar name, Dragon’s Den, where people often get their business proposals torn apart on television.
A panel of experienced entrepreneurs from the TiE UK membership will cast their eye over contestants’ business plans and offer constructive advice and on-going mentoring to all participants.
Four entrepreneurs will have a maximum of five minutes to present their business plan, which will be followed by a Q&A session with the panel lasting no longer than 10 minutes.
Last year’s winner, Mathew Mazhuvanchery of ONSI Infrastructure, found the experience invaluable to his emerging business.
“I got great advice on how I should take ONSI forward” he says. “It’s worth its weight in gold.”
The TiEger’s Den Business Plan Competition takes place on 5 July at the London offices of competition sponsors Simmons & Simmons. The address is Citypoint, One Ropemaker Street, London, EC2Y 9SS.
If you wish to be considered for this event please send your business plan to Fionuala Pender, TiE UK Executive Director at fpender@tie-uk.org no later than 16 June.
TiE UK is part of a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, and holds frequent networking events, seminars, and workshops as well as offering a mentoring programme for emerging entrepreneurs.
More at:http://www.tie-uk.org/
Movie Could Teach YouAbout Entreprenuership
It was a disappointment at the box office, but grew to popularity on cable television to the point that almost everyone I know considers it one of the top movies of all time. I'm talking about The Shawshank Redemption. It's a deep movie, and while talking with a friend the other day, I came to realize how well some of the lessons in the movie carry over to life as an entrepreneur.
Lesson 1 - The Discontinuity of Success (Why Overnight Successes Are Really Long Battles)
Overnight successes aren't really overnight successes. They only seem that way. I touched on this in my post about Elton John and How To Make Millions in 30 Minutes or Less. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne spends 19 years digging a tunnel to escape prison. The result is binary. He's either in prison, or he isn't. For 19 years, he's making progress, but he's still in prison. Then one day he is free. It seems like a huge jump, but it wasn't.
This happens a lot to entrepreneurs. They go years without reaching the level of success they seek, and when they find it, it often comes in the form of a discontinuity. You go through each day, working hard, not knowing if you will ever see the payoff you hope for, but taking satisfaction in the process of building something. Then one day you are acquired, or go public, or get to the point that you don't have to be involved every day. All of the sudden it's different.
Many people in Andy's position would have tried to break out of Shawshank like this:
1. Get a rock hammer and start digging.
2. Realize it's going to take a long time.
3. Give up. Or possibly...
4. Get a bigger hammer that gets you caught, and lose any hope of breaking out because the guards keep a better eye on your activities.
5. Start trying again, every time the place really gets to you, but always give up after a few weeks because it's hard and progress is slow.
The result is that you would spend your life in Shawshank. So the lesson of Andy Dufresne is to keep plugging away. Do whatever you can. It's all about forward progress. Overnight successes tend to happen to people that have put in years of paying their dues.
Lesson 2 - Institutionalization (Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying)
Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. I'm not one of these bloggers that will chastize people who work for corporations. There is nothing wrong with that. It fits some people very well, and is a surer path to success. But it can kill the spirit of an entrepreneur to spend too much time in a big company.
Here is what Red (Morgan Freeman in the movie) says about Brooks, a long time inmate who threatens to kill another inmate because he's afraid to leave Shawshank.
He's just institutionalized...The man's been in here fifty years, Heywood, fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man, he's an educated man. Outside he's nothin' - just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn't get a library card if he tried.
Spend a long time at a company, and you get some nice perks. You get seniority. You get an expense account. Leave for a startup and all of the sudden you are building desks out of old doors and staying at Motel 6 instead of the Hyatt. It's not a jump everybody can make easily.
The other point that is relevant is that if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, too much time inside a slow bureaucratic company can kill it off. Here is the rest of Red's quote about Brooks.
..these walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on 'em. That's 'institutionalized'...They send you here for life and that's exactly what they take, the part that counts anyway.
Like I said. Corporate life is a perfect match for the skills and interests of many people, and that's fine. But for entrepreneurs, anything more than a year or two could kill off that urge to build something. It's hard to leave the comfort of a steady paycheck and the 8-5 life, but it's like Red says in the movie - "get busy living or get busy dying."
More at:http://www.businesspundit.com/
Lesson 1 - The Discontinuity of Success (Why Overnight Successes Are Really Long Battles)
Overnight successes aren't really overnight successes. They only seem that way. I touched on this in my post about Elton John and How To Make Millions in 30 Minutes or Less. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne spends 19 years digging a tunnel to escape prison. The result is binary. He's either in prison, or he isn't. For 19 years, he's making progress, but he's still in prison. Then one day he is free. It seems like a huge jump, but it wasn't.
This happens a lot to entrepreneurs. They go years without reaching the level of success they seek, and when they find it, it often comes in the form of a discontinuity. You go through each day, working hard, not knowing if you will ever see the payoff you hope for, but taking satisfaction in the process of building something. Then one day you are acquired, or go public, or get to the point that you don't have to be involved every day. All of the sudden it's different.
Many people in Andy's position would have tried to break out of Shawshank like this:
1. Get a rock hammer and start digging.
2. Realize it's going to take a long time.
3. Give up. Or possibly...
4. Get a bigger hammer that gets you caught, and lose any hope of breaking out because the guards keep a better eye on your activities.
5. Start trying again, every time the place really gets to you, but always give up after a few weeks because it's hard and progress is slow.
The result is that you would spend your life in Shawshank. So the lesson of Andy Dufresne is to keep plugging away. Do whatever you can. It's all about forward progress. Overnight successes tend to happen to people that have put in years of paying their dues.
Lesson 2 - Institutionalization (Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying)
Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. I'm not one of these bloggers that will chastize people who work for corporations. There is nothing wrong with that. It fits some people very well, and is a surer path to success. But it can kill the spirit of an entrepreneur to spend too much time in a big company.
Here is what Red (Morgan Freeman in the movie) says about Brooks, a long time inmate who threatens to kill another inmate because he's afraid to leave Shawshank.
He's just institutionalized...The man's been in here fifty years, Heywood, fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man, he's an educated man. Outside he's nothin' - just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn't get a library card if he tried.
Spend a long time at a company, and you get some nice perks. You get seniority. You get an expense account. Leave for a startup and all of the sudden you are building desks out of old doors and staying at Motel 6 instead of the Hyatt. It's not a jump everybody can make easily.
The other point that is relevant is that if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, too much time inside a slow bureaucratic company can kill it off. Here is the rest of Red's quote about Brooks.
..these walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on 'em. That's 'institutionalized'...They send you here for life and that's exactly what they take, the part that counts anyway.
Like I said. Corporate life is a perfect match for the skills and interests of many people, and that's fine. But for entrepreneurs, anything more than a year or two could kill off that urge to build something. It's hard to leave the comfort of a steady paycheck and the 8-5 life, but it's like Red says in the movie - "get busy living or get busy dying."
More at:http://www.businesspundit.com/
www.peopleized.com
It came up with the idea when they saw that a lot of blogger have very good content and still have a problem getting traffic, so they started Peopleized. The goal is to give readers access to new and interesting blogs by using the interviews as a “behind-the-scenes” tool to help them gain interest to the content.
More at:http://www.peopleized.com/
More at:http://www.peopleized.com/
Uncommon Business Idea
Brian Conant stood alongside his fellow National Guardsmen during a training session about eight years ago in Hawaii. He was wearing a heavy chemical warfare suit lined with charcoal.
"Any time I expelled gas in the suit, I realized nobody could smell it," Conant, 48, says. "It was amazing."
According to the American College of Gastroenterology, 58 million Americans suffer from one or more medical disorders that cause excessive gas. To treat it, doctors usually recommend a change in diet. Sometimes they recommend medication, such as Gas-X or Bean-O, which alters the bacteria that may be causing the foul odor. But with Conant's invention, the Flatulence Deodorizer, also known as Flat-D, there is an alternative way to limit the embarrassment.
The long, narrow washable pad, lined thinly with charcoal, absorbs chemicals, including hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of the bacteria that causes odorous gas. The pad, at $12.95, curves with the contour of the body, and one size fits most.
For those who fall outside the "most" category, Conant has developed the "overpad," partly due to the increasing number of phone calls from those who have just undergone gastric bypass surgery. "Can you guess our best month?" asks marketing director Frank Morosky. "January, because people have made New Year's resolutions to eat healthier. And, it turns out, healthy foods like broccoli, beans and whole grains cause gas."
More at:http://www.flat-d.com/
"Any time I expelled gas in the suit, I realized nobody could smell it," Conant, 48, says. "It was amazing."
According to the American College of Gastroenterology, 58 million Americans suffer from one or more medical disorders that cause excessive gas. To treat it, doctors usually recommend a change in diet. Sometimes they recommend medication, such as Gas-X or Bean-O, which alters the bacteria that may be causing the foul odor. But with Conant's invention, the Flatulence Deodorizer, also known as Flat-D, there is an alternative way to limit the embarrassment.
The long, narrow washable pad, lined thinly with charcoal, absorbs chemicals, including hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of the bacteria that causes odorous gas. The pad, at $12.95, curves with the contour of the body, and one size fits most.
For those who fall outside the "most" category, Conant has developed the "overpad," partly due to the increasing number of phone calls from those who have just undergone gastric bypass surgery. "Can you guess our best month?" asks marketing director Frank Morosky. "January, because people have made New Year's resolutions to eat healthier. And, it turns out, healthy foods like broccoli, beans and whole grains cause gas."
More at:http://www.flat-d.com/
Cooqy provides a fresh and friendly interface for eBay which makes shopping a breeze.
Cooqy provides a fresh and friendly interface for eBay which makes shopping a breeze. Cooqy launches directly without registration. What you'll find is a seriously cool flash based interface with an advanced toolset. Information loads quickly. The advanced query function allows you to refine searches by specifying location for cheaper shipping, by generating mispelled entries which usually go unnoticed and are therefore probably cheaper, and by helping you find zero bid items or those with buy now status. By pressing Find Similar button, Cooqy will automatically pull up relevant matches. There are several viewing options: photo collage, stamp sheet, gallery, list, and even map view which very nicely integrates with Yahoo maps and pinpoints the locations of the items up for sale. Once you've set up your own account with Cooqy there are advanced options available: Finders Keepers hides an item from other Cooqy users if you're the highest bidder; Watchlist is for items you want to keep your eye on; Found Items displays results emailed to you which match your search alert criteria. Once you want to place a bid you'll be directed to the actual eBay site. For sellers there's a set of widgets which enable advertising on popular sites like Myspace, Blogger, and Xanga among others.
"Shoppers can shop eBay with superior presentation, performance, and value-add
shopping features not available elsewhere, for free!
More at:http://www.cooqy.com/
"Shoppers can shop eBay with superior presentation, performance, and value-add
shopping features not available elsewhere, for free!
More at:http://www.cooqy.com/
Online Marketplace For All Kind Of Sports Tickets
You’ll never miss a playoff game or championship again with ReserveTickets.com. Reserve Tickets is a startup which allows you to reserve tickets before the season even begins, providing the truest sports fans the best value and the best seats to all their favorite games. Ticket Reserve supports NFL, NHL, NBA, NCAA, and NASCAR, all fans of all the most popular sports in the US.
More at:http://www.ticketreserve.com/
More at:http://www.ticketreserve.com/
Search for airfare deals from your Facebook profile
GO,powered by SmartTravel, has created a Facebook application enabling you to search for airfare deals from your Facebook profile. Search flights across the country or across the world. Get your application now and you’ll be entered to win one of three $500 air travel prizes provided by SmarterTravel. You don’t need to sign up for a Go account in order to install the search widget onto your Facebook profile, and of course, friends can utilize the search as well.
More at:http://mashable.com/
More at:http://mashable.com/
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
www.koolwire.com
Just send your word, excel, powerpoint file as an attachment to pdf@koolwire.com and you'll get your PDF by return mail. No software to buy, download and install, no time wasted.
More at:http://www.koolwire.com/
More at:http://www.koolwire.com/
Gaboogie is designed for busy professionals who don't have time to waste organizing conference calls with colleagues, customers and suppliers
Gaboogie eliminates the headaches and frustrations you experience when booking and attending conference calls, and replaces them with: An intuitive web interface for booking, An automated dial-out process to ensure you never need to remember dial-in numbers and PINs and A moderator console to help you manage every aspect of a call in progress. Gaboogie is designed for busy professionals who don't have time to waste organizing conference calls with colleagues, customers and suppliers.
More at:http://gaboogie.com/
More at:http://gaboogie.com/
Million Dollar Wiki
The Million Dollar Wiki is a website similar to Wikipedia, except that each page must be purchased and thus has a single owner. The owner of the page, and the owner alone, decides the content for the page. A page in the Million Dollar Wiki costs $100, and the purchaser owns the page for the life of the site, which is guaranteed to be at least 15 years.One of the interesting things about the Million Dollar Wiki, aside from the fact that you can put your own Google Ads on your Wiki page, is that if you purchase a page, you can sell that page down the road. That means if you own the page for "Startup" or "Video" for example and, a year down the road, someone is willing to pay a ransom for it, the owner of that page can sell it for a profit!
Another nice feature of the Million Dollar Wiki is that all pages are ranked according to their popularity as based on the number of views each page has had. That means that the more interesting pages in the Wiki will "weed themselves out" to the top.
More at:http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/
Another nice feature of the Million Dollar Wiki is that all pages are ranked according to their popularity as based on the number of views each page has had. That means that the more interesting pages in the Wiki will "weed themselves out" to the top.
More at:http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/
Multimillionaire Story
Entrepreneur Todd Beckman is no different. He insists customers be greeted within three seconds of arrival. Employees are empowered to “own” customer concerns and see them through until resolution. Every customer experience is expected to exceed expectations, says the founder.
But Beckman is in an industry where you normally wouldn’t expect to find such an extraordinary commitment to excellence. That’s all right, because Beckman’s formula for combining world-class facilities, state-of-the-art equipment and outstanding training and customer service with a passion for perfection has positioned The Tan Company as one of the fastest-growing tanning salon franchises in the nation. Business is booming.
With 72 locations in 12 states, The Tan Company expects to grow to 100 locations by the end of 2007 and reach 500 salons within five years. Beckman is considered one of the industry’s pioneers since opening what was formerly called The St. Louis Tan Company in 1994. He is a visionary.
Beckman was one of the first to combine the superstore concept—dozens of tanning beds providing multiple levels of tanning—with an economical membership program that provided unlimited tanning to customers instead of paying per visit.
Along the way, Beckman has fostered The Tan Company brand—recognized for its “Five-Star” facilities, world-class skin-care products and cleanest tanning environment in the country—making it a premier investment opportunity for single- and multi-unit ownership and area development.
“I saw the unprofessionalism in the tanning industry,” Beckman said. “There was not a dominant brand with first-rate facilities and service. Most were run like mom-and-pop businesses. I felt we had a unique idea.”
Beckman got his first job bussing tables when he was 13. His parents, Ed and Gay Beckman, owned several hair salons in the St. Louis area. Todd opened his franchised hair salon in 1984 when he was only 18.
Two years later, Beckman put four tanning beds in the back of his salon. They were immensely popular. It convinced Beckman to buy a small tanning salon in suburban St. Louis in 1994 that had sales of $65,000 in its first year under previous ownership. Beckman’s St. Louis Tan Company—with its innovative membershipprogram—had sales of $57,000 in its first month alone.
Even with two locations, customers were sometimes waiting 90 minutes for a tanning bed. Nine months later, Beckman opened his first superstore in Maryland Heights, Mo., with 30 tanning beds providing multiple levels oftanning. “We’ve been building off it ever since,” Beckman said.
The St. Louis Tan Company grew to 15 locations by 2000. With growing demand for the superstore concept and ever-increasing customer traffic, Beckman decided to franchise his business model and expand outside the St. Louis area in 2001 as The Tan Company. Today, superstores with 20-plus beds and five levels of tanning account for 90 percent of The Tan Co. locations.
“It took someone with an entrepreneur’s attitude like Todd to see the potential in building a brand when there were so many others entering the industry who only wanted to open a small salon,” said Todd Layton, vice president of franchise operations. “Unless you were willing to make a commitment to be the best, as Todd did, it wasn’t going to work.”
Beckman’s business prowess has caught the attention of others, namely Dave “Lags” Lageschulte, who became the first franchisee of the popular Hooters restaurant chain in 1983. Along with his partners, Lageschulte developed Hooters restaurants throughout South Florida and became one of the chain’s most successful franchisees. He is co-owner of the world’s first Hooters Casino Hotel that opened in Las Vegas in February 2006.
In January 2006, Lageschulte purchased a 50 percent ownership stake in The Tan Co., as well as area development rights to Georgia, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. His first location opened in Athens, Ga.
More at:http://www.thetanco.com/
http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/
But Beckman is in an industry where you normally wouldn’t expect to find such an extraordinary commitment to excellence. That’s all right, because Beckman’s formula for combining world-class facilities, state-of-the-art equipment and outstanding training and customer service with a passion for perfection has positioned The Tan Company as one of the fastest-growing tanning salon franchises in the nation. Business is booming.
With 72 locations in 12 states, The Tan Company expects to grow to 100 locations by the end of 2007 and reach 500 salons within five years. Beckman is considered one of the industry’s pioneers since opening what was formerly called The St. Louis Tan Company in 1994. He is a visionary.
Beckman was one of the first to combine the superstore concept—dozens of tanning beds providing multiple levels of tanning—with an economical membership program that provided unlimited tanning to customers instead of paying per visit.
Along the way, Beckman has fostered The Tan Company brand—recognized for its “Five-Star” facilities, world-class skin-care products and cleanest tanning environment in the country—making it a premier investment opportunity for single- and multi-unit ownership and area development.
“I saw the unprofessionalism in the tanning industry,” Beckman said. “There was not a dominant brand with first-rate facilities and service. Most were run like mom-and-pop businesses. I felt we had a unique idea.”
Beckman got his first job bussing tables when he was 13. His parents, Ed and Gay Beckman, owned several hair salons in the St. Louis area. Todd opened his franchised hair salon in 1984 when he was only 18.
Two years later, Beckman put four tanning beds in the back of his salon. They were immensely popular. It convinced Beckman to buy a small tanning salon in suburban St. Louis in 1994 that had sales of $65,000 in its first year under previous ownership. Beckman’s St. Louis Tan Company—with its innovative membershipprogram—had sales of $57,000 in its first month alone.
Even with two locations, customers were sometimes waiting 90 minutes for a tanning bed. Nine months later, Beckman opened his first superstore in Maryland Heights, Mo., with 30 tanning beds providing multiple levels oftanning. “We’ve been building off it ever since,” Beckman said.
The St. Louis Tan Company grew to 15 locations by 2000. With growing demand for the superstore concept and ever-increasing customer traffic, Beckman decided to franchise his business model and expand outside the St. Louis area in 2001 as The Tan Company. Today, superstores with 20-plus beds and five levels of tanning account for 90 percent of The Tan Co. locations.
“It took someone with an entrepreneur’s attitude like Todd to see the potential in building a brand when there were so many others entering the industry who only wanted to open a small salon,” said Todd Layton, vice president of franchise operations. “Unless you were willing to make a commitment to be the best, as Todd did, it wasn’t going to work.”
Beckman’s business prowess has caught the attention of others, namely Dave “Lags” Lageschulte, who became the first franchisee of the popular Hooters restaurant chain in 1983. Along with his partners, Lageschulte developed Hooters restaurants throughout South Florida and became one of the chain’s most successful franchisees. He is co-owner of the world’s first Hooters Casino Hotel that opened in Las Vegas in February 2006.
In January 2006, Lageschulte purchased a 50 percent ownership stake in The Tan Co., as well as area development rights to Georgia, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. His first location opened in Athens, Ga.
More at:http://www.thetanco.com/
http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/
How Entreprenuers Or Start Ups Techies Will get Success?Throuhgh Advertising?
I am proud to be a mentor for the Colorado TechStars program, and this evening we had our first mixer, a typical geeky mixup with poor acoustics and a male:female ratio of about 30:1. The mix was young entrepreneurs who won the TechStars competition and are now seed funded through the summer (along with gaining access to an array of very sharp advisors and mentors), the mentors, and other folk in the community who are focused on startups and business development.
A nice group and it was a good opportunity to both visit with some of my Denver-based friends and meet the young turks who are hopefully going to be building the next YouTube or Flickr in our proverbial garage.
Except for one glaring problem...
I estimate that I talked with about seven different startups this evening, roughly fifteen different entrepreneurs who are eager to dive into their business ideas full-time, to really devote all their energy into building Something Cool and Meaningful. Hopefully there's the proverbial pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow, but there was very little sense of people tilting towards a payout (or what we finance types call an "exit event"), which was nice.
But time after time, I asked "interesting idea, but how are you going to monetize it?" and received back flowery explanations that boiled down to "advertising" or, worse, AdSense. One group was even more disconnected, explaining that their goal was to build a large community of users, then they'd "figure out" how to make money.
Here's a tip for all you budding startup junkies: A busy site can certainly make for a great hobby, a fun project to fiddle with, and maybe a few bucks at the end of the month, but (with precious few exceptions) that's not a business.
Advertising? Well, you can look at the slow dissolve of the traditional media -- newspapers, magazines, radio, broadcast TV -- to understand the great risks involved in believing that someone else will always underwrite your efforts, someone other than your users. Further, while there might be high-flying estimates of future advertising revenue in the online world, it isn't often highlighted that the competition is going to get tougher too. A company like IBM might spend millions on advertising, but their money is going to skew towards a small number of large sites, not a large number of small ones, meaning that unless you want to build a business on the nickel and dime PPC payouts of Google's AdSense, AuctionAds, and related, you've got a fundamental problem in your business model.
How much smarter to have a business that has figured out a compelling value proposition, a solution that's so slick, so useful, that users are happy to upgrade to a paid premium service. Not an awkward afterthought of useless tools for the less than one percent who upgrade, but something really revolutionary, something new and clearly cool. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of that thinking embodied in the groups I met this evening, and while I remain highly enthused about TechStars, I am a bit concerned about the likelihood that we'll see a bunch of home runs, or, heck, even a single or two out of the mix...
No question, it's going to be very interesting to see how these companies evolve over the summer as various of us mentors and advisors try to hammer home the idea that the difference between a good idea and a real business is a reliable revenue stream, and that the best way to create that is to offer a compelling, valuable business service.
Then again, there are plenty of startups that were acquired without much more of a business plan than "get lots of eyeballs", so maybe I'm completely off-base here. How important do you, dear reader, believe it is that a business have a clear and sustainable revenue stream identified in the earliest stages of its existence?
More at:http://www.intuitive.com/blog/memo_to_entrepreneurs_advertising_not_strong_business.html
A nice group and it was a good opportunity to both visit with some of my Denver-based friends and meet the young turks who are hopefully going to be building the next YouTube or Flickr in our proverbial garage.
Except for one glaring problem...
I estimate that I talked with about seven different startups this evening, roughly fifteen different entrepreneurs who are eager to dive into their business ideas full-time, to really devote all their energy into building Something Cool and Meaningful. Hopefully there's the proverbial pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow, but there was very little sense of people tilting towards a payout (or what we finance types call an "exit event"), which was nice.
But time after time, I asked "interesting idea, but how are you going to monetize it?" and received back flowery explanations that boiled down to "advertising" or, worse, AdSense. One group was even more disconnected, explaining that their goal was to build a large community of users, then they'd "figure out" how to make money.
Here's a tip for all you budding startup junkies: A busy site can certainly make for a great hobby, a fun project to fiddle with, and maybe a few bucks at the end of the month, but (with precious few exceptions) that's not a business.
Advertising? Well, you can look at the slow dissolve of the traditional media -- newspapers, magazines, radio, broadcast TV -- to understand the great risks involved in believing that someone else will always underwrite your efforts, someone other than your users. Further, while there might be high-flying estimates of future advertising revenue in the online world, it isn't often highlighted that the competition is going to get tougher too. A company like IBM might spend millions on advertising, but their money is going to skew towards a small number of large sites, not a large number of small ones, meaning that unless you want to build a business on the nickel and dime PPC payouts of Google's AdSense, AuctionAds, and related, you've got a fundamental problem in your business model.
How much smarter to have a business that has figured out a compelling value proposition, a solution that's so slick, so useful, that users are happy to upgrade to a paid premium service. Not an awkward afterthought of useless tools for the less than one percent who upgrade, but something really revolutionary, something new and clearly cool. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of that thinking embodied in the groups I met this evening, and while I remain highly enthused about TechStars, I am a bit concerned about the likelihood that we'll see a bunch of home runs, or, heck, even a single or two out of the mix...
No question, it's going to be very interesting to see how these companies evolve over the summer as various of us mentors and advisors try to hammer home the idea that the difference between a good idea and a real business is a reliable revenue stream, and that the best way to create that is to offer a compelling, valuable business service.
Then again, there are plenty of startups that were acquired without much more of a business plan than "get lots of eyeballs", so maybe I'm completely off-base here. How important do you, dear reader, believe it is that a business have a clear and sustainable revenue stream identified in the earliest stages of its existence?
More at:http://www.intuitive.com/blog/memo_to_entrepreneurs_advertising_not_strong_business.html
Xplive.com is the new web-based software project planning and tracking tool that goes beyond task management lists
Often it happend with us when we start a software project off strong, determined, organized, and then somehow all of your to-do lists seem to get buried under all your dirty laundry on your treadmill. To do lists are a thing of the past, XPlive knows you need something more. Xplive.com is the new web-based software project planning and tracking tool that goes beyond task management lists, and rather aims the success of your projects on the progress of features, the things that mean the most to costumers. Xplive is browser-based for Agile development teams, and features 3 distinct plans: Ninja, and Professional, depending on howlarge your project is, how many team members you have and a large difference in terms of features. XPlive asks you to spill some serious bucks every month for their service, but their freemium for one month allows you time to decide if it’s worth it’s weight in gold.
“Welcome To XPLive! Premier online hosting of ExtremePlanner, the popular software project planning tool. Our service is the best value in software planning and tracking for Agile development teams. Sign up today to set your project on the path to success!”
More at:http://www.extremeplannerlive.com/
“Welcome To XPLive! Premier online hosting of ExtremePlanner, the popular software project planning tool. Our service is the best value in software planning and tracking for Agile development teams. Sign up today to set your project on the path to success!”
More at:http://www.extremeplannerlive.com/
TV4B
This is one of the first business video adventisement channel on the web. Publish your commercial, product video, company video, event, vacancies etc. on the web and attract more visitors to your web site. TV4B offers a white-label player, high resolution, which you can embed on your web site, as if it runs from your own web site, whilst TV4B takes care of all technical aspects and data traffic.
More at:http://tv4b.com/
More at:http://tv4b.com/
Latest Tech Tools
Windows-less
You no longer have to buy Microsoft Windows Office to have software that works for your business. None other than Google has stepped up with a legitimate competitor - a complete small-business software package called Google Apps, currently in Google's "pre-release" phase. The full-featured edition is free until April 30, 2007.
Google Apps offers a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, branded e-mail, and even a telephony application, among many other tools. While you may miss all the bells and whistles - no fancy Microsoft Mail Merge, for example - Google Apps definitely works.
The software is entirely browser-based, so your files live on Google's servers. No more back-up headaches. Though the idea of storing sensitive financial information on some other company's computer can make one a bit queasy.
Again, the pricing is spooky: The basic package is free. And the Premier edition, which includes more storage, features and support, runs $50 per year. By comparison, the latest riff of Microsoft Office is far from cheap. Upgrades start at $239 for basic packages and climb to $679 for full-featured primary licenses. And that ignores the new Windows Vista operating system and hardware needed to make Office 2007 work as it should. Factor those in and the costs could get well north of $1,100, if not higher. So assuming a 10-person office, that's nearly $10,000 you just did not spend.
Blind data
Sometime soon you will have a third choice beyond your cable and phone company for data and phone products - the emerging Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or WiMAX, provider.
Never mind the goofy Austin Powers-esque acronym, WiMAX is the real deal for small business. Essentially a gigantic WiFi hot spot, WiMAX providers offer data products by broadcasting and receiving digital information that rides on top of old-fashioned radio waves. All you need is a special antenna attached to a router. No pesky wires.
The release status of WiMax in North America is volatile at the moment, with providers carving out regional strongholds - sometimes seemingly by zip code - and pricing all over the map.
The following is a brief provider overview:
TowerStream. Founded in 2000, the company says it has established networks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, the greater Boston area, Providence and Newport, R.I. A decent T1 line substitute, the company's pricing ranges from T1 Internet backup for $175/month to high-availability T1 for $600 a month.
Valtech Communications. Valtech, founded in 2003, is competing directly against Sprint in Ohio and offers basic phone and data access with dial-up service running $19.95 per month.
Clearwire. Founded in October 2003 by telecom veteran Craig O. McCaw, Clearwire says it offers service in 36 metro areas in California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho and Minnesota. Probably the more friendly to small business of the bunch, it offers a direct competitive product to DSL and cable in some markets.
Sprint Nextel. Profit-hungry Sprint Nextel (Charts, Fortune 500) holds licenses covering most of the United States and says it plans to build a "Nationwide advanced wireless broadband network expected to cover 100 million people in 2008."
I am not saying WiMax will be the panacea for the small business. These are, after all, still telecom companies. But if you don't integrate these options into your business, you can bet someone else will - and that just may include your biggest competitor.
More at:http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/26/magazines/fsb/tech.fsb/
You no longer have to buy Microsoft Windows Office to have software that works for your business. None other than Google has stepped up with a legitimate competitor - a complete small-business software package called Google Apps, currently in Google's "pre-release" phase. The full-featured edition is free until April 30, 2007.
Google Apps offers a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, branded e-mail, and even a telephony application, among many other tools. While you may miss all the bells and whistles - no fancy Microsoft Mail Merge, for example - Google Apps definitely works.
The software is entirely browser-based, so your files live on Google's servers. No more back-up headaches. Though the idea of storing sensitive financial information on some other company's computer can make one a bit queasy.
Again, the pricing is spooky: The basic package is free. And the Premier edition, which includes more storage, features and support, runs $50 per year. By comparison, the latest riff of Microsoft Office is far from cheap. Upgrades start at $239 for basic packages and climb to $679 for full-featured primary licenses. And that ignores the new Windows Vista operating system and hardware needed to make Office 2007 work as it should. Factor those in and the costs could get well north of $1,100, if not higher. So assuming a 10-person office, that's nearly $10,000 you just did not spend.
Blind data
Sometime soon you will have a third choice beyond your cable and phone company for data and phone products - the emerging Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or WiMAX, provider.
Never mind the goofy Austin Powers-esque acronym, WiMAX is the real deal for small business. Essentially a gigantic WiFi hot spot, WiMAX providers offer data products by broadcasting and receiving digital information that rides on top of old-fashioned radio waves. All you need is a special antenna attached to a router. No pesky wires.
The release status of WiMax in North America is volatile at the moment, with providers carving out regional strongholds - sometimes seemingly by zip code - and pricing all over the map.
The following is a brief provider overview:
TowerStream. Founded in 2000, the company says it has established networks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, the greater Boston area, Providence and Newport, R.I. A decent T1 line substitute, the company's pricing ranges from T1 Internet backup for $175/month to high-availability T1 for $600 a month.
Valtech Communications. Valtech, founded in 2003, is competing directly against Sprint in Ohio and offers basic phone and data access with dial-up service running $19.95 per month.
Clearwire. Founded in October 2003 by telecom veteran Craig O. McCaw, Clearwire says it offers service in 36 metro areas in California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho and Minnesota. Probably the more friendly to small business of the bunch, it offers a direct competitive product to DSL and cable in some markets.
Sprint Nextel. Profit-hungry Sprint Nextel (Charts, Fortune 500) holds licenses covering most of the United States and says it plans to build a "Nationwide advanced wireless broadband network expected to cover 100 million people in 2008."
I am not saying WiMax will be the panacea for the small business. These are, after all, still telecom companies. But if you don't integrate these options into your business, you can bet someone else will - and that just may include your biggest competitor.
More at:http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/26/magazines/fsb/tech.fsb/
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Rolobiz allows you to create a URL for your business card, making it that much easier for someone to store and remember your information
Rolobiz is one of those sites. Rolobiz allows you to create a URL for your business card, making it that much easier for someone to store and remember your information. All you do is upload your business cards, get your free RoloBizID, print it on the back of your cards, and let people download your business card from the web. This avoids them having to keep the card and/or write down the information in their rolodex. It basically is just another tool to potentially help us simplify our lives. Their site design and layout was excellent and very user-friendly.
It's a FREE Service, that creates an Internet version of your business cards.
Your business cards get a unique address (URL) that can be used by your customers, partners, prospects etc. to quickly download and store your business cards as vcards (.vcf files).
More at:http://www.rolobiz.com/
It's a FREE Service, that creates an Internet version of your business cards.
Your business cards get a unique address (URL) that can be used by your customers, partners, prospects etc. to quickly download and store your business cards as vcards (.vcf files).
More at:http://www.rolobiz.com/
WikiCompany
A free directory for business that can be updated like wiki. It includes pictures, videos and text. It could be big and can grow as it have wikki like idea.
more at:http://wikicompany.org/wiki/Main_Page
more at:http://wikicompany.org/wiki/Main_Page
eBay is giving away free iPods to their new clients
eBay is giving away iPods to their new clients. As far as I know the offer is exclusively available to US, Canada and UK. So if you are planning to buy anything on eBay any time soon, you'll be happy to get it.
more at: http://www.yfdmedia.com/offer.jsp?oid=1044&pid=1844165760&lid=990004501&cid=coprosper&ptid=coprosper.df4da423e446d39994ee15d684cc9c5e.3273::12369::::::0ea24e4ecdb1f408b7322082126f6fd0::&etid=24
more at: http://www.yfdmedia.com/offer.jsp?oid=1044&pid=1844165760&lid=990004501&cid=coprosper&ptid=coprosper.df4da423e446d39994ee15d684cc9c5e.3273::12369::::::0ea24e4ecdb1f408b7322082126f6fd0::&etid=24
Loki is the first application in history that automatically uses your exact physical location to harness the power of the Internet
Loki can triangulate your computer's position so that you can find wherever you are, you can email your friends about your location, you can find a nearby Thai food restaurant, and you can get directions to that Thai restaurant. Because it uses a
wi-fi technology, you don't need a GPS system in your phone. It recently added Mac to its applications, so now all computers can download the program. If you are outside the 100 major metroplitan areas of the US, though, you will have to wait a while. Same thing for Asia and Europe, but they hope to get there soon.
Loki is the first application in history that automatically uses your exact physical location to harness the power of the Internet. By combining our unique ability to determine location with an easy way to navigate the Web, Loki makes Internet search, directions and everything else on the Internet all about you, where you are, when you need it.
More at:http://www.loki.com/
wi-fi technology, you don't need a GPS system in your phone. It recently added Mac to its applications, so now all computers can download the program. If you are outside the 100 major metroplitan areas of the US, though, you will have to wait a while. Same thing for Asia and Europe, but they hope to get there soon.
Loki is the first application in history that automatically uses your exact physical location to harness the power of the Internet. By combining our unique ability to determine location with an easy way to navigate the Web, Loki makes Internet search, directions and everything else on the Internet all about you, where you are, when you need it.
More at:http://www.loki.com/
Blog TV
New indepedent WebTV site Counteract.tv. Do you have something to say? Start a free account and share your videos and blogs, then search for others, see what they have to say, comment and discuss them. If a man cannot paint it, he writes it, if he cannot write it, he video blogs it; whatever medium works best for you to tell your story or send out an important message. Counteract.tv is not like other WebTV and video hosters, they have a sort of stick it to the man attitude when it comes to what stories are told, and which are not. It’s the mainstream media that has got everyone counteracting and telling the stories that once were caught in the maintsteam filter. Share who you are, your reality, put yourself, not politics, in the headlines.
“www.counteract.tv is a volunteer and independent WebTV, which wants to tell the stories that are often left untold. Not because they are not worth telling, but because they do not pass the filters of mainstream media.
We want to give youth from around the world the opportunity to share their reality! The personal focus of Counteract.tv will result in productions where people and not politics are the headlines...
More at:http://www.counteract.tv/
“www.counteract.tv is a volunteer and independent WebTV, which wants to tell the stories that are often left untold. Not because they are not worth telling, but because they do not pass the filters of mainstream media.
We want to give youth from around the world the opportunity to share their reality! The personal focus of Counteract.tv will result in productions where people and not politics are the headlines...
More at:http://www.counteract.tv/
MoveMessenger can connect with all IM clients such as Jabber and wireless
Miyowa offers a suite of mobile messaging solutions. It's newly introduced MoveMessenger Platform is compatible with any handset and it's light, at only 60 kb. MoveMessenger can connect with all IM clients such as Jabber and wireless. On the business side, Miyowa has Mobile Advertising Ready MoveMessenger, featuring three types of adverts: Splash screens, Dynamic tabs & pop ups, andVirtual Buddy. It operates in tandem with the MoveMessenger platform and is scalable to the client's needs with free and paid models. Of course Miyowa's advert platfrom integrates completely with client side technology such as provisioning systems, billing opt-ins and authentication mechanisms. For marketers and brand pushers, IM advertising targets a key audience in a ready to use service. Consumers get mobile integration, while clients reach a highly profitable market.
"Miyowa's objective is to provide mobile operators and brands with the richest mobile 2.0 Instant Messaging and entertainment services.
Miyowa is end user focussed: End user satisfaction is a top priority because it is the best way to ensure that mobile carriers are providing their customers with the best offering.
Miyowa offers the best-in-class, most user-friendly and rich Instant Messaging content and services for its customers. Miyowa takes care of its customers through its Customer Relationship Management program and provides a tailor-made personalised service 24/7."
More at:http://www.miyowa.fr/
"Miyowa's objective is to provide mobile operators and brands with the richest mobile 2.0 Instant Messaging and entertainment services.
Miyowa is end user focussed: End user satisfaction is a top priority because it is the best way to ensure that mobile carriers are providing their customers with the best offering.
Miyowa offers the best-in-class, most user-friendly and rich Instant Messaging content and services for its customers. Miyowa takes care of its customers through its Customer Relationship Management program and provides a tailor-made personalised service 24/7."
More at:http://www.miyowa.fr/
Monday, June 4, 2007
Student Made Three Million Dollors By Chiffnote Websites
Sam Yagan's first successful business idea came to him in the middle of an all-nighter during his senior year at Harvard. His paper on Hamlet was due the next day, and he was kicking himself for not buying the CliffsNotes version of the play before the bookstore closed. "Why can't a student get a study guide at midnight?" he asked himself, and SparkNotes was born.
The series of free online study guides acquired by Barnes & Noble in 2001 for $3.55 million. At Stanford Business School, a different question, "Why can't online dating be free?" led him to his latest project, OkCupid.
His advice for would-be entrepreneurs: Instead of spending a lot of time waiting for a great business idea to suddenly materialize, get out in the world and ask questions. "If you look at things with a quizzical approach, you're going to uncover a lot of opportunities. A lot of times the answers you come up with are going to be wrong, but if you keep asking questions, eventually you'll hit on the little thing that's not quite right, and go from there."
More at:http://www.sparknotes.com/
The series of free online study guides acquired by Barnes & Noble in 2001 for $3.55 million. At Stanford Business School, a different question, "Why can't online dating be free?" led him to his latest project, OkCupid.
His advice for would-be entrepreneurs: Instead of spending a lot of time waiting for a great business idea to suddenly materialize, get out in the world and ask questions. "If you look at things with a quizzical approach, you're going to uncover a lot of opportunities. A lot of times the answers you come up with are going to be wrong, but if you keep asking questions, eventually you'll hit on the little thing that's not quite right, and go from there."
More at:http://www.sparknotes.com/
How To Become A Product Entreprenuer
A very important topic to talk about is how to organize your time when working on your blog or web site. Many readers ask me how I structure my day and it has taken me a couple of months to get to a point where I can function at my peak levels. I will share a few suggestions with you that can really help you be more productive.
Keep A To-Do List.
Each day when you wake up, write down the top 5-10 things you have to accomplish that day. It is best to not do any other web based activities until you can cross off each item on your list because it is too easy to get caught up reading other blogs and forums before getting your own work done. Before you know it, you have spent 3 hours reading and getting none of your work done. If you did not finish an item from your list, carry it over to the next day.
Assign A Certain Amount Of Time For Important Items.
Tell yourself the first thing you will do each morning is check and respond to email for 30 minutes. I know some people think email should not be the first thing you do in the morning, but I prefer to get it out of the way first. You also never know who sent you a pressing item that can help you monetize your site. If you read an email but do not respond immediately, mark it “un-read” so you do not forget that you have to respond later.
Figure Out What You Like Least And Make Yourself Spend Time Doing It.
Sometimes I struggle to write ReviewMe posts and the only way I can get myself to do it is if I sit down and tell myself that for the next 2-3 hours, the only thing I will do is research and review the web site. I force myself to write a review and I go back and proof read it later. Whatever your weak points are, be sure to take the time to do them anyways. They could be valuable to your readers and your blog’s value.
Do Not Check Stats More Than Twice Per Day.
This is a big one. So many people waiste time hitting refresh on their visitor stats and affiliate sales all day. I used to do the same, only to realize that my productivity is so much better now that I only check stats once in the morning and once in the evening. There is nothing you can do to increase your statistics that much by hitting refresh every 10 minutes that you cannot do by checking stats in the beginning and end of the day. Try this for a few days and you will be happy you did.
More at:http://www.johnchow.com/maximize-your-daily-efficiency/
Keep A To-Do List.
Each day when you wake up, write down the top 5-10 things you have to accomplish that day. It is best to not do any other web based activities until you can cross off each item on your list because it is too easy to get caught up reading other blogs and forums before getting your own work done. Before you know it, you have spent 3 hours reading and getting none of your work done. If you did not finish an item from your list, carry it over to the next day.
Assign A Certain Amount Of Time For Important Items.
Tell yourself the first thing you will do each morning is check and respond to email for 30 minutes. I know some people think email should not be the first thing you do in the morning, but I prefer to get it out of the way first. You also never know who sent you a pressing item that can help you monetize your site. If you read an email but do not respond immediately, mark it “un-read” so you do not forget that you have to respond later.
Figure Out What You Like Least And Make Yourself Spend Time Doing It.
Sometimes I struggle to write ReviewMe posts and the only way I can get myself to do it is if I sit down and tell myself that for the next 2-3 hours, the only thing I will do is research and review the web site. I force myself to write a review and I go back and proof read it later. Whatever your weak points are, be sure to take the time to do them anyways. They could be valuable to your readers and your blog’s value.
Do Not Check Stats More Than Twice Per Day.
This is a big one. So many people waiste time hitting refresh on their visitor stats and affiliate sales all day. I used to do the same, only to realize that my productivity is so much better now that I only check stats once in the morning and once in the evening. There is nothing you can do to increase your statistics that much by hitting refresh every 10 minutes that you cannot do by checking stats in the beginning and end of the day. Try this for a few days and you will be happy you did.
More at:http://www.johnchow.com/maximize-your-daily-efficiency/
Earn Money With These Sites
Adoptme.com - Win $100 just for adopting a free virtual pet. Open to all ages.
OvernightStars.com - Win cash prizes in this American Idol type online talent search. Free to enter and open to all ages.
HotPlaylists.com - Win $100 for sharing your iPod song list with your friends online. This site will automatically import your iTunes playlist and create a free page for you listing all your songs. You can also use song lists from Winamp, Windows Media Player, & other music programs.
Halloween Costume Contest - Win $100 just for submitting your photo or see people in their outrageous costumes. Also enter the Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest and win $100.
Earn Cash Online - Get paid to read emails, play video games, sign up for online offers, and fill out surveys.
VirtualMiners.com - Dig for gold and win up to $25 cash. Free to enter, open to all ages.
Mystery Photo Game - View a photo of a small part of an item and try to guess what the item is. All correct guesses are entered to win $10 each week.
TriviaBucks.com - Win money by answering trivia questions. Free to enter and open to all ages.
LifeBets.com - A free game where you bet fake money on the outcome of current events like "will Hillary Clinton become President" or "will Britney Spears win an Oscar"? The top 3 players win real cash prizes. Must be age 13+ to win.
Global Test Market - Share your opinions and get paid. Age 14+.
SigTrader.com - Do you make posts to forums, newsgroups, or online communities? If so, make money by selling the ad space in your signature line. No listing fees or commisssions. Open to all ages.
WallStreetPros.com - A free virtual stock market game where you buy and sell stocks using pretend money. The player who's stocks go up the most will win a $100 cash prize (in real money). Must be age 13+ to win.
StreetRacingWar.com - A free online role playing game (RPG) where you can win a $100 cash prize if you get the highest score. The objective is to get your friends to click your special link. Each click you receive builds up your score. You can also attack other users to steal their money, and you can purchase offensive/defensive items with your game cash. No age restrictions.
Survey Club - Get paid to take surveys online.
Treasure Trooper - Get paid to sign up for online offers, many of which are free to join. You also get rewarded with virtual gold coins and other treasures that can be redeemed for fun goodies including pieces of the Treasure Map. In addition, you get 20% of the money that anybody you refer to the site makes, plus an additional 5% of your friends' friends' profits.
E-Poll - Take online surveys and win free prizes: CD's, movies, video games, gift certificates and more. The more surveys you take, the more prizes you win. Must be 13 years of age or older.
TeenOffers.com - Free stuff for teens: video games, cd's, magazines, contests, beauty products, posters, and more. Only lists free offers that don't have minimum age requirements.
Are You or Your Family Owed Unclaimed Money? - You may be owed unclaimed money by the government. Search the FindMoney.com database of over 11 million names for FREE to see if you name is on the list. This money can come from such sources as old bank accounts, wills, insurance, tax refunds, and previous employers.
Get Rich Online - Dozens of free tools that you can use to create and run your own website. Sell stuff online or make a site with interesting content and sell ads on it.
Search Cactus - A search engine where you get paid for each search you do. Must be at least 13 years old and a U.S. resident.
Get Paid To Take Surveys - US residents only, age 13 or over.
Win Up To $10,000 for taking surveys online.
Make Money Surfing The Web - pays you up to $500 cash instantly for signing up for free offers, searching the web, shopping online, and more. They have paid out over 9 million dollars so far. You must be 13 years of age or older to participate.
Do you want an extra $1,000? - The NPD Group is a top-ten marketing research company and we are looking for people just like YOU. If you're interested in answering online surveys, and would like the chance to win CASH this is a great opportunity for you! This offer expires soon, so join today!
More at:http://www.bored.com/categories/paidtoplay/paidtoplay.html
OvernightStars.com - Win cash prizes in this American Idol type online talent search. Free to enter and open to all ages.
HotPlaylists.com - Win $100 for sharing your iPod song list with your friends online. This site will automatically import your iTunes playlist and create a free page for you listing all your songs. You can also use song lists from Winamp, Windows Media Player, & other music programs.
Halloween Costume Contest - Win $100 just for submitting your photo or see people in their outrageous costumes. Also enter the Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest and win $100.
Earn Cash Online - Get paid to read emails, play video games, sign up for online offers, and fill out surveys.
VirtualMiners.com - Dig for gold and win up to $25 cash. Free to enter, open to all ages.
Mystery Photo Game - View a photo of a small part of an item and try to guess what the item is. All correct guesses are entered to win $10 each week.
TriviaBucks.com - Win money by answering trivia questions. Free to enter and open to all ages.
LifeBets.com - A free game where you bet fake money on the outcome of current events like "will Hillary Clinton become President" or "will Britney Spears win an Oscar"? The top 3 players win real cash prizes. Must be age 13+ to win.
Global Test Market - Share your opinions and get paid. Age 14+.
SigTrader.com - Do you make posts to forums, newsgroups, or online communities? If so, make money by selling the ad space in your signature line. No listing fees or commisssions. Open to all ages.
WallStreetPros.com - A free virtual stock market game where you buy and sell stocks using pretend money. The player who's stocks go up the most will win a $100 cash prize (in real money). Must be age 13+ to win.
StreetRacingWar.com - A free online role playing game (RPG) where you can win a $100 cash prize if you get the highest score. The objective is to get your friends to click your special link. Each click you receive builds up your score. You can also attack other users to steal their money, and you can purchase offensive/defensive items with your game cash. No age restrictions.
Survey Club - Get paid to take surveys online.
Treasure Trooper - Get paid to sign up for online offers, many of which are free to join. You also get rewarded with virtual gold coins and other treasures that can be redeemed for fun goodies including pieces of the Treasure Map. In addition, you get 20% of the money that anybody you refer to the site makes, plus an additional 5% of your friends' friends' profits.
E-Poll - Take online surveys and win free prizes: CD's, movies, video games, gift certificates and more. The more surveys you take, the more prizes you win. Must be 13 years of age or older.
TeenOffers.com - Free stuff for teens: video games, cd's, magazines, contests, beauty products, posters, and more. Only lists free offers that don't have minimum age requirements.
Are You or Your Family Owed Unclaimed Money? - You may be owed unclaimed money by the government. Search the FindMoney.com database of over 11 million names for FREE to see if you name is on the list. This money can come from such sources as old bank accounts, wills, insurance, tax refunds, and previous employers.
Get Rich Online - Dozens of free tools that you can use to create and run your own website. Sell stuff online or make a site with interesting content and sell ads on it.
Search Cactus - A search engine where you get paid for each search you do. Must be at least 13 years old and a U.S. resident.
Get Paid To Take Surveys - US residents only, age 13 or over.
Win Up To $10,000 for taking surveys online.
Make Money Surfing The Web - pays you up to $500 cash instantly for signing up for free offers, searching the web, shopping online, and more. They have paid out over 9 million dollars so far. You must be 13 years of age or older to participate.
Do you want an extra $1,000? - The NPD Group is a top-ten marketing research company and we are looking for people just like YOU. If you're interested in answering online surveys, and would like the chance to win CASH this is a great opportunity for you! This offer expires soon, so join today!
More at:http://www.bored.com/categories/paidtoplay/paidtoplay.html
Art Entreprenuership
The internet is true collaboration and communication realized.
It is time that artists are given the proper tools to benefit from this.
What if every creative professional on earth had the right to a virtual endless room?
By empowering art and artists through technology, we hope to provide every artist
with the opportunity to support themselves by doing what they love — for art’s sake.
To become a pre-beta tester and help shape the vision of this site, enter your email...
More at:http://www.endlessroom.com/
It is time that artists are given the proper tools to benefit from this.
What if every creative professional on earth had the right to a virtual endless room?
By empowering art and artists through technology, we hope to provide every artist
with the opportunity to support themselves by doing what they love — for art’s sake.
To become a pre-beta tester and help shape the vision of this site, enter your email...
More at:http://www.endlessroom.com/
xFruits is a mashup RSS feed creation tool to organize and manage your information systems online
xFruits is a mashup RSS feed creation tool to organize and manage your information systems online. So far, xFruits gives you a few tools they call “bricks” to enhance and simplify the composition of your online information systems. The bricks they have developed thus far are Aggregator RSS, RSS to Web, RSS to Mobile, Post to RSS, RSS to PDF, RSS to Mail, RSS to OPML, OPML to Mobile, Mail to RSS, and... (horns sound) RSS to Voice! Take as many bricks as you like and start building your own feed-based service, then post a link on your website that features the latest RSS feeds of your choosing, post it in your blog or share the link with friends.
“XFruits makes possible the Mashup RSS creation in a very simple way thanks to the Composer.
You can assemble the bricks together so as to build your own feed-based service.
"xFruiter" service's users are referenced.
xFruits has been thought of as from its origin to be upgradeable and modular, and thus, to allow a developer's community to take part in the project. Our ambition is to create dozens of new bricks!”
More at:http://xfruits.com/
“XFruits makes possible the Mashup RSS creation in a very simple way thanks to the Composer.
You can assemble the bricks together so as to build your own feed-based service.
"xFruiter" service's users are referenced.
xFruits has been thought of as from its origin to be upgradeable and modular, and thus, to allow a developer's community to take part in the project. Our ambition is to create dozens of new bricks!”
More at:http://xfruits.com/
CityPixel, the digital internet city. Travel, shop, interact with others, submit your artwork to be utilized on the website
Does reality bite or what? Get a helmet or get into CityPixel, the digital internet city. Travel, shop, interact with others, submit your artwork to be utilized on the website. CityPixel enables you to create your own apartment which more or less acts as your “profile” or home website in the internet city community. Add photos of yourself and arrange the furniture however you like, design it to give it your own personal flare. Unlike reality where the closest thing you have to cool neighbors is the octegenarian accordian player on the fifth floor, (actually true in my case) CityPixel´s apartment complex are full of interesting people you can talk to in your apartment or go into theirs. If you are feeling introverted, do the things you would normally do in real life, watch a video, play a game, explore your neighborhood and community art. This service is free of charge, all you have to do is sign up!
“citypixel is an Internet city. The intent is to provide our community a digital place to travel, shop, interact, and, well, everything else you'd do in a city!”
More at:http://www.citypixel.com/
“citypixel is an Internet city. The intent is to provide our community a digital place to travel, shop, interact, and, well, everything else you'd do in a city!”
More at:http://www.citypixel.com/
MassMirror is a free service that allows you to upload your files of all types: image, documents, music, etc
Need an easy way to upload and distribute files on the web? MassMirror is a free service that allows you to upload your files of all types: image, documents, music, etc., the service doubles as a mirroring service (pun completely intentional). Simply upload your file type to their server with their real-time progress bar. Then your file will be saved onto their supported free servers. From there you’re done, so you can do anything and everything with the link you like, well not everything. For instance, you cannot eat it for breakfast. You can share it with friends, family, co-workers, but it is not edible.
“MassMirror is the easiest way to upload your files to the world wide web. This free service allows you to upload any file (image, music, documents, and more.) for free to the Internet. It is great for distributing files to your friends, family, or co-workers.
This technology enables you to upload your file to our servers with a real-time progress bar. Your file will then be saved and stored on the free hosts we support. Then simply share the url to anyone with access to the world wide web. You can even use this service to mirror file downloads from your own site.
This is one of the most advanced, most compatible, quickest, and easiest upload services on the world wide web .
More at:http://www.massmirror.com/
“MassMirror is the easiest way to upload your files to the world wide web. This free service allows you to upload any file (image, music, documents, and more.) for free to the Internet. It is great for distributing files to your friends, family, or co-workers.
This technology enables you to upload your file to our servers with a real-time progress bar. Your file will then be saved and stored on the free hosts we support. Then simply share the url to anyone with access to the world wide web. You can even use this service to mirror file downloads from your own site.
This is one of the most advanced, most compatible, quickest, and easiest upload services on the world wide web .
More at:http://www.massmirror.com/
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Newsberry was created for business professionals who desire a simpler way to send out mass emails while simultaneously adding a touch of design to it
Newsberry was created for business professionals who desire a simpler way to send out mass emails while simultaneously adding a touch of design to these emails. Send out your professional campains with elegance and ease, great for resturaunts, teams, marketing, tourism, and many others who display similar needs. Manage and monitor all of your massive emails, keep track of your businesses contacts and communication. You can manage your email lists by seperating them into catagories, so when you want to send out a particular email to a specific demographic or team, Newsberry makes it extremely easy for you to do so quickly.
“Newsberry is ideal for any business wanting to create or maintain a subscriber base through mass email campaigns. Our system was created to allow users the ability to send professional campaigns easily and quickly. Newsberry is a great choice for restaurants, professional organizations, educational facilities, marketing companies, tourism organizations and many others. We provide the necessary tools to help businesses with several email lists and separate list demographics. It's simple, if you send emails, or want to send emails, quickly, efficiently and in an affordable way then Newsberry is for you.”
More at:http://www.newsberry.com/
“Newsberry is ideal for any business wanting to create or maintain a subscriber base through mass email campaigns. Our system was created to allow users the ability to send professional campaigns easily and quickly. Newsberry is a great choice for restaurants, professional organizations, educational facilities, marketing companies, tourism organizations and many others. We provide the necessary tools to help businesses with several email lists and separate list demographics. It's simple, if you send emails, or want to send emails, quickly, efficiently and in an affordable way then Newsberry is for you.”
More at:http://www.newsberry.com/
Interaction Is Connecting Your Customer
Interaction is the key to growth, especially on the net. Interaction chat has developed the ultimate tool for this very purpose. Upon entering your website, interaction chat will open up a chat box so that you can interact in real time with your potential customer. Get feedback, find out exactly what your customer wants. Customers can also initiate a conversation on their own time, or the customer can ask you to call him/her back. It's simple to implement too: each version, from the free Standard variety to the $49 a month Enterprise version is Ajax based; users needn't install any software and Interaction is compatible with Opera, Firefox, and IE; any computer with an internet connection can use it by inserting a snippet of code to the chosen website. Interaction is perfect for any sized companies and features a gamut of supported languages, smileys, private interaction between operators, transfers, searchable chat histories, SSL, canned messages, and tabs. Of course you'll have to pay for the premium features, but you're guaranteed to retain customers with a more proactive and personalized approach all affored by Interactive chat.
Sign up, include your code and start chatting with the visitors of your web site instantly! It's fast and easy, find out who is visiting your web site and would like to chat with you.
More at:http://www.interactionchat.com/
Sign up, include your code and start chatting with the visitors of your web site instantly! It's fast and easy, find out who is visiting your web site and would like to chat with you.
More at:http://www.interactionchat.com/
Seven new quality control tools, often called the seven management and planning (MP) tools
In 1976, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) saw the need for tools to promote innovation, communicate information and successfully plan major projects. A team researched and developed the seven new quality control tools, often called the seven management and planning (MP) tools, or simply the seven management tools. Not all the tools were new, but their collection and promotion were.
The seven MP tools, listed in an order that moves from abstract analysis to detailed planning, are:
1. Affinity diagram: organizes a large number of ideas into their natural relationships.
2. Relations diagram: shows cause-and-effect relationships and helps you analyze the natural links between different aspects of a complex situation.
3. Tree diagram: breaks down broad categories into finer and finer levels of detail, helping you move your thinking step by step from generalities to specifics.
4. Matrix diagram: shows the relationship between two, three or four groups of information and can give information about the relationship, such as its strength, the roles played by various individuals, or measurements.
5. Matrix data analysis: a complex mathematical technique for analyzing matrices, often replaced in this list by the similar prioritization matrix. One of the most rigorous, careful and time-consuming of decision-making tools, a prioritization matrix is an L-shaped matrix that uses pairwise comparisons of a list of options to a set of criteria in order to choose the best option(s).
6. Arrow diagram: shows the required order of tasks in a project or process, the best schedule for the entire project, and potential scheduling and resource problems and their solutions.
7. Process decision program chart (PDPC): systematically identifies what might go wrong in a plan under development.
More at:http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/new-management-planning-tools/overview/overview.html
The seven MP tools, listed in an order that moves from abstract analysis to detailed planning, are:
1. Affinity diagram: organizes a large number of ideas into their natural relationships.
2. Relations diagram: shows cause-and-effect relationships and helps you analyze the natural links between different aspects of a complex situation.
3. Tree diagram: breaks down broad categories into finer and finer levels of detail, helping you move your thinking step by step from generalities to specifics.
4. Matrix diagram: shows the relationship between two, three or four groups of information and can give information about the relationship, such as its strength, the roles played by various individuals, or measurements.
5. Matrix data analysis: a complex mathematical technique for analyzing matrices, often replaced in this list by the similar prioritization matrix. One of the most rigorous, careful and time-consuming of decision-making tools, a prioritization matrix is an L-shaped matrix that uses pairwise comparisons of a list of options to a set of criteria in order to choose the best option(s).
6. Arrow diagram: shows the required order of tasks in a project or process, the best schedule for the entire project, and potential scheduling and resource problems and their solutions.
7. Process decision program chart (PDPC): systematically identifies what might go wrong in a plan under development.
More at:http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/new-management-planning-tools/overview/overview.html
Knowledge Managment Tools
With the rapidly changing business world, companies are facing a host of challenging questions:
* How to encourage more dialogue among employees?
* How to encourage better interaction between and amongst staff and clients?
* How to find out who knows what I need to find out more about something?”
* How to find out what should I be reading to find out more about something?”
* How to find out where is a particular item of information or knowledge within the firm?”
* How to find out who would benefit from communicating with whom?”
# Given the messy human and social issues involved in these issues, firms are tempted to look for a short-cut, some kind of off-the-shelf product that could solve these issues for them, among them:
* Autonomy, Inc.(www.autonomy.com)
* BackWeb Technologies (www.backWeb.com)
* Communispace (www.communispace.com)
* Docushare Xerox Corporation (www.xerox.com)
* Eugenia Unity Desktop (www.engenia.com)
* Excalibur Technologies Corporation (www.excalib.com)
* Hummingbird (www.pcdocs.com)
* Intraspect Software, Inc.(www.intraspect.com)
* MAGI (www.projectmagi.com)
* Open Text Corporation (www.opentext.com)
* Plumtree Software (www.plumtree.com)
* SageMaker (www.sagemaker.com)
* Tacit Knowledge (www.tacit.com)
In considering whether to use such tools, some of the questions that should be addressed should include:
* What benefits should each tool should, assuming successful implementation particularly of the human factors, be able to offer?
* Particular attention should be given to the proviso namely "assuming successful implementation particularly of the human factors".
More at;http://www.stevedenning.com/new_knowledge_management_tool.html
* How to encourage more dialogue among employees?
* How to encourage better interaction between and amongst staff and clients?
* How to find out who knows what I need to find out more about something?”
* How to find out what should I be reading to find out more about something?”
* How to find out where is a particular item of information or knowledge within the firm?”
* How to find out who would benefit from communicating with whom?”
# Given the messy human and social issues involved in these issues, firms are tempted to look for a short-cut, some kind of off-the-shelf product that could solve these issues for them, among them:
* Autonomy, Inc.(www.autonomy.com)
* BackWeb Technologies (www.backWeb.com)
* Communispace (www.communispace.com)
* Docushare Xerox Corporation (www.xerox.com)
* Eugenia Unity Desktop (www.engenia.com)
* Excalibur Technologies Corporation (www.excalib.com)
* Hummingbird (www.pcdocs.com)
* Intraspect Software, Inc.(www.intraspect.com)
* MAGI (www.projectmagi.com)
* Open Text Corporation (www.opentext.com)
* Plumtree Software (www.plumtree.com)
* SageMaker (www.sagemaker.com)
* Tacit Knowledge (www.tacit.com)
In considering whether to use such tools, some of the questions that should be addressed should include:
* What benefits should each tool should, assuming successful implementation particularly of the human factors, be able to offer?
* Particular attention should be given to the proviso namely "assuming successful implementation particularly of the human factors".
More at;http://www.stevedenning.com/new_knowledge_management_tool.html
Business Intelligence System: A New Tool for Competitive Advantage
Buy and read this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Business-Intelligence-System-Competitive-Advantage/dp/0814459293
http://www.amazon.com/Business-Intelligence-System-Competitive-Advantage/dp/0814459293
Untapped Business Opporunities Which Is Next Big Thing On Internet Is Buying And Selling Of Advertrising Space
The next big Internet race might turn the buying and selling of advertising space on Web sites into the online equivalent of the pork-bellies pit.
Over the past few years, a host of small companies has started electronic exchanges where advertisers and Web sites can buy and sell online advertising space. The companies, with names like Right Media Inc., AdECN Inc., Turn Inc. and ContextWeb Inc., have been an obscure sideshow to a broader battle over Internet advertising.
That's changing quickly. The biggest Internet companies, including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., are focusing attention and money on the emerging business, hoping to be first with the kind of large-scale, dynamic market for the ad industry that the Nasdaq market brought to stocks.
Over time there will be "a handful of winners that build very high-tech marketplaces," predicts Jim Barnett, chief executive of San Mateo, Calif.-based Turn. "That's what we're trying to do; that's what Google is trying to do."
Today, online publications and Internet companies have space for display ads built into their Web sites. Typically, that space gets filled with ads either the old-fashioned way -- through a salesperson -- or by a mix of computers and people called an ad network that automatically sells ads for the spot. But a significant portion of the available ad space -- called "inventory" -- remains unsold, or is sold for next to nothing. Enter the exchanges, which use automated systems to match buyers with sellers of unsold space.
More at:http://www.startupjournal.com/ecommerce/ecommerce/20070531-guth.html
Over the past few years, a host of small companies has started electronic exchanges where advertisers and Web sites can buy and sell online advertising space. The companies, with names like Right Media Inc., AdECN Inc., Turn Inc. and ContextWeb Inc., have been an obscure sideshow to a broader battle over Internet advertising.
That's changing quickly. The biggest Internet companies, including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., are focusing attention and money on the emerging business, hoping to be first with the kind of large-scale, dynamic market for the ad industry that the Nasdaq market brought to stocks.
Over time there will be "a handful of winners that build very high-tech marketplaces," predicts Jim Barnett, chief executive of San Mateo, Calif.-based Turn. "That's what we're trying to do; that's what Google is trying to do."
Today, online publications and Internet companies have space for display ads built into their Web sites. Typically, that space gets filled with ads either the old-fashioned way -- through a salesperson -- or by a mix of computers and people called an ad network that automatically sells ads for the spot. But a significant portion of the available ad space -- called "inventory" -- remains unsold, or is sold for next to nothing. Enter the exchanges, which use automated systems to match buyers with sellers of unsold space.
More at:http://www.startupjournal.com/ecommerce/ecommerce/20070531-guth.html
China's New Virtual Universe
China has the world's largest population and one of the world's largest economies. Now it will get a massive virtual universe to match.
Swedish software company MindArk, which operates the online game Entropia Universe, has authorized a Beijing company to create what it calls the largest-ever virtual world for China, MindArk said Friday.
Entropia Universe, which has more than 580,000 players, is an online game set on a fictional planet in which users can work, meet friends, trade and buy virtual land with real cash.
Gothenburg-based MindArk said in a statement the Chinese virtual world will have a capacity of 7 million concurrent players and aims to draw 150 million users in total.
It said the new game is expected to generate $1 billion in economic activity every year.
Elina Heng, a spokeswoman for the new project, said MindArk aims to launch the new game in August 2008.
MindArk Chief Marketing Officer Carl Uggla said MindArk will train artists from its Chinese partner, Cyber Recreation Development Corp., in Gothenburg to design and run several planets within Entropia Universe.
"They will design the planets to suit China, Chinese users," Uggla said in a phone interview.
He declined to say how much the deal is worth.
The MindArk executive said it's up to Cyber Recreation Development to decide whether to allow the Chinese government to censor communications within the Chinese planets.
"That's something between them and the Chinese government," he said.
Cyber Recreation Development didn't immediately respond to faxed questions from The Associated Press.
Some have expressed worries that China's lack of Western-style civil liberties will carry over to the new virtual society.
Though China's communist government promotes Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive.
Hong Kong Apple Daily newspaper predicted Friday in a full-page story virtual police will exist in the Chinese game, and that it won't allow players to protest the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, which killed hundreds of people.
Uggla said Friday, "we don't have any police force in Entropia Universe."
More at:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/01/tech/main2873578.shtml
Swedish software company MindArk, which operates the online game Entropia Universe, has authorized a Beijing company to create what it calls the largest-ever virtual world for China, MindArk said Friday.
Entropia Universe, which has more than 580,000 players, is an online game set on a fictional planet in which users can work, meet friends, trade and buy virtual land with real cash.
Gothenburg-based MindArk said in a statement the Chinese virtual world will have a capacity of 7 million concurrent players and aims to draw 150 million users in total.
It said the new game is expected to generate $1 billion in economic activity every year.
Elina Heng, a spokeswoman for the new project, said MindArk aims to launch the new game in August 2008.
MindArk Chief Marketing Officer Carl Uggla said MindArk will train artists from its Chinese partner, Cyber Recreation Development Corp., in Gothenburg to design and run several planets within Entropia Universe.
"They will design the planets to suit China, Chinese users," Uggla said in a phone interview.
He declined to say how much the deal is worth.
The MindArk executive said it's up to Cyber Recreation Development to decide whether to allow the Chinese government to censor communications within the Chinese planets.
"That's something between them and the Chinese government," he said.
Cyber Recreation Development didn't immediately respond to faxed questions from The Associated Press.
Some have expressed worries that China's lack of Western-style civil liberties will carry over to the new virtual society.
Though China's communist government promotes Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive.
Hong Kong Apple Daily newspaper predicted Friday in a full-page story virtual police will exist in the Chinese game, and that it won't allow players to protest the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, which killed hundreds of people.
Uggla said Friday, "we don't have any police force in Entropia Universe."
More at:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/01/tech/main2873578.shtml
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