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Nov 4, 2009
@ 5:22 pm
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soupsoup:

So you want to get into the iPhone app business but don’t know how to build apps?

KPCB’s iFund™ is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund™ is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund™ will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.

So you want to get into the iPhone app business but don’t know how to build apps?

KPCB’s iFund™ is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund™ is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund™ will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.

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Nov 4, 2009
@ 5:22 pm
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Investment To End Poverty: Microedit or Microfinance

brettjohn:

I know this has been around for several years already but I thought it would be interesting for those who didn’t know about this type of contribution that not only helps to put an end to poverty but also sees a return on your investment. This is something that has held my interest since its inception.

Here’s how it works;

Without donating a penny, you can help end poverty in a very real way. Investing in microcredit or microfinance is not a donation or charity. Like other investments, the money is always yours. You even earn a small amount of interest. Yet for every $1,000 you invest, you can end poverty for several entire families in the developing world every year. That is why the United Nations declared 2005 to be the International Year of Microcredit and why the founders of the microcredit movement were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Major media articles have sung the praises of microcredit, also known as microfinance and microlending:
New York Times: Tiny Loans Make a Big Difference in Lives of Poor
USA Today/Associated Press: Microcredit pioneers win Nobel Peace Prize
Wall Street Journal: A new way to do well by doing good
BusinessWeek: Microfinance funds lift poor entrepreneurs—and benefit investors
The Economist: Microcredit in India, High finance benefits the poor
For a powerfully inspiring talk by the Nobel-prize-winning founder of the first microcredit institution

Example: Working 10 to 12 hours six days a week, 36-year-old Supratno drives a pedicab (bicycle taxi with three wheels) in the suburbs of Jakarta, Indonesia. As over 50% of his daily income goes to pay rental fees to the large syndicate which monopolizes pedicab rentals in Jakarta, he barely ekes out a living for his family of four. His daily income averages about US $4 per day, which is only enough to put rice and vegetables on the table for his family twice a day. He cannot afford to pay the small fees for administration and mandatory school uniforms to send his children to public school.

Taking out a microcredit loan of $200 from money you invested, Supratno buys his own pedicab for the first time in his life. As all income now goes directly to him, his daily income is more than doubled. Within a year, he pays back the $200 loan and can now afford to send his children to school and give them three good meals every day. You pulled this family out of poverty!

The microcredit process is actually a little more involved than described above. Business plans are required to be submitted to a volunteer cooperative and loans are made in increments, but you get the picture. Your loan of $1,000 for one year can literally pull several entire families out of poverty for good in the developing world. The interest you receive on your microcredit investment is low—generally up to four percent—but you have the satisfaction of knowing that for every $1,000 invested, you have helped several families every year to pull out of poverty and live a much better life! I’d say that’s a pretty good return on your investment.

For a table of respected of microedit organisations go HERE
I hear that the Calvert Foundation is quite a good one to look in to. They also give you the choice of which region you would like to invest.
For those outside the USA, see Oikocredit
For those who can’t afford the typical $1,000 minimum investment then try Kiva. They have a $25 minimum.

Although the returns on investments are relavtively small, they are all secure investments. If you are looking to invest money for your retirement this is something to look in to as you will make a gain on your investments and you will also be helping countless families get out of poverty for good.

Now I’m not expecting you all to invest, I thought that raising awareness to this as an option to just blind donations is something to think about. Knowing that the money will be going to good use.

Link

Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:57 pm
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Business Applications Of Social Media Inside Organizations: Social Networks »

judamasmas:

How do organizations really use social networks? Is social media useful to acquire new customers or just to maintain strong relationships with existing clients?

The answer to whether social media are good for customer engagement or relationship building is: “Social media is good for both”.

As long as you do not get too greedy or “salesy” in your business approach, social media proves to be very useful to connect with your audience.

Social media is free to join, easy to use and, most importantly, it is “a way to supercharge the word of mouth”, and as every marketer will tell you, a positive word of mouth is the best mean to convert prospects into sales…

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Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:52 pm
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robynchell:

Business card research via creativebits.org.

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Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:50 pm
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Create & Collaborate Interactive UI Mockups for Your Sites »

adrianandreca:

MockFlow is an online tool for creating wireframes of software and websites. It helps to enhance your planning process by enabling to quickly design and share interactive UI mockups. It also…

Link

Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:48 pm
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Is Social Media Enough for Maintaining Friendships? »

judamasmas:

“A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway“. Fr. Jerome Cummings

With that said, I found myself asking the following questions: How well do we REALLY know our friends whom we have been connected to only through social media channels for the past months or even years? Can strong, real and long-term friendships be maintained only through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter? What is the cost we are paying for compromising the sincerity of our friendships my limiting them to brief, limited interactions over the web?

What are friendships, anyway?…

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Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:48 pm
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Tips for Managing Social Media Burnout »

judamasmas:

Great tips from the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog on avoiding social media burnout (some of which I could use, boy howdy). The tips are:

Don’t update your organization’s profiles on the weekend.

Link

Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:48 pm
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Science enters the age of Web 2.0 »

brylog:

Here’s an interesting article talking about how scientists are generally slow to create and adopt new web-based technologies that could easily help us get things done. Two websites that have really changed the ways I research electronic journal literature are refworks (a bibliography site) and scopus (a scientific search engine). I also use dropbox to sync my library of article pdf files across my computers and phone, so I have them wherever I am. Still, it would be nice if someone developed an application to help scientists organize their 1000s of pdf articles. Electronic (or paper) folder systems usually fail because it’s impossible to categorize each paper as being related to a single topic. I feel a tagging system is necessary, where a paper can have multiple tagged keywords. Just my 2 cents - Anyone want to help me develop a webapp for this?

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Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:46 pm
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What is disruptive innovation? Not Just Better!

jimwoods:

via youtube.com
Disruptive Innovation is very different than Sustainable Innovation. Make it simple! Make it affordable! Make it accessible. Consider, not making it better, but differently in order to create, “Blockbuster” businesses.

Posted via web from jimwoods’s posterous | Comment »

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Nov 4, 2009
@ 4:45 pm
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In teoria bisognerebbe per prima cosa definire cosa significhi nell’era del Web essere sociali. Ma non credo che ci possa essere molta differenza con l’essere sociali nel mondo analogico. Ascoltare: ecco cosa vuol dire per me essere sociali. Ovviamente un motore di ricerca è quanto di più asociale possa esistere sul pianeta Terra: ecco perché devi badare alle persone, parlare la loro lingua. Confezionare contenuti di qualità: poi arriverà Google, ma non deve essere un’ossessione. Assieme a questa capacità, possedere anche quella di discernere il buono, dal mediocre o pessimo. Che in Rete non mancano di certo: basta farsi un giretto, vero? Semplificando, i media stanno perdendo consenso perché non sono più capaci di prestare attenzione a quanto accade. Hanno occhi e orecchie solo per sponsor e poteri forti. Il che probabilmente non è nemmeno un male; se occorre far quadrare i conti, diventa inevitabile stringere accordi con chi paga le bollette. Il problema nasce, e si sviluppa prepotente, quando spedisci in soffitta la tua capacità di distinguere: perché i conti diventano la tua bussola. Quindi ascolti, ascolti, ascolti: alla fine, dai retta solo ai forti. A chi si presenta con argomenti “convincenti”, e li assumi senza più discernere alcunché. La moria di blog (almeno: sembra che sia in corso), si sviluppa perché spesso le persone mettono se stesse al centro, e poi attendono gli onori. Che non arriveranno mai, esatto. In parte perché occorre tempo: riuscire a conseguire risultati appena decenti è tutt’altro che immediato. Poi, è necessaria la passione: quella che ti spinge a produrre, ad agire, anche quando vorresti piantare tutto. Però tu credi in quello che combini, poco importa se non ottieni alcun successo, e i riscontri sono minimi. Bisogna convincersi che essere sociali è qualcosa che si impara, e sul Web è forse meglio impararlo in fretta, o si soccombe. Non è però una socialità magari alienante o alienata, come si legge in giro. Perché ci sono uomini e donne, separati spesso da distanze geografiche notevoli, che volentieri si incontrano, e provano ad immaginare percorsi differenti. Là dove si vede solo stanchezza e rassegnazione.
”

— Essere sociali è una faticaccia (via niente)