Archive for November, 2006

First Virtual Millionaire

FORTUNE: Legal pad

Anshe Chung, a real-estate tycoon in the digitally simulated world known as Second Life, has apparently become the first virtual millionaire–i.e., someone whose holdings in a make-believe world are legally convertible into genuine U.S. currency worth more than $1 million.

I don’t know about you, but I find this very interesting. That someone can now make $1,000,000 in a virtual world? How cool is that.

27 November, 2006 | No comments

Forget the day after Thanksgiving. This is … Cyber Monday

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Forget the day after Thanksgiving. This is … Cyber Monday

JupiterResearch forecasts online shoppers will spend $32 billion this holiday season, an 18 percent increase versus a year ago.The online channel is becoming more important to traditional retailers that sell their wares not only in physical stores but through catalogs and online.

Today would not be complete without a post on Cyber-Monday

27 November, 2006 | No comments

Podcasting: Its not just for geeks anymore

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Podcasting: Its not just for geeks anymore

Meanwhile, the number of podcasts has increased exponentially. In November 2004, Podcast Alley, an online portal for all things related to the phenomenon, listed fewer than 1,000 podcasts. Today, that number is 26,627, with almost 2,000 pending approval.Walch attributes the boom to the release of a new version of Apples iTunes software in June 2005 that made it easier for nongeeks to connect with podcasters without downloading additional software.

Pretty amazing really. What a couple of years and adoption by one product can do.

27 November, 2006 | No comments

Wikis Are Alive and Kicking in the Enterprise

Wikis Are Alive and Kicking in the Enterprise

A wiki, which means “quick” in Hawaiian, is a Web site that enables users to easily edit and update shared content. Computer programmer Ward Cunningham originated the wiki concept and gave it its name more than a decade ago.After slow growth initially, wiki use has exploded in the past couple of years. Wiki technology, which has been popularized by the widely used Web encyclopedia Wikipedia, took a big leap in mind share when Google purchased wiki software maker JotSpot for an undisclosed amount on Oct. 31.

Wiki usage in enterprises could further proliferate when Microsoft ships a wiki feature in Office 2007 and SharePoint 2007 next year and IBM includes a wiki technology in a social computing product code-named Ventura, due in the first half of 2007.

It’s about time

20 November, 2006 | No comments

Websites make donations easy - and free of charge

Websites make donations easy - and free of charge | csmonitor.com

Launched in 1999 and operated with five other similar sites by CharityUSA based in Seattle, The Hunger Site raises money for charities through sponsors whose ads appear after visitors click on certain links. After The Hunger Site became hugely successful, CharityUSA opened other sites, including The Breast Cancer Site and The Animal Site. CharityUSA sites primarily do not advertise their sites, but President Tim Kunin says they sometimes use Google ads to promote products the site sells to raise additional money for charities.

It’s great to see that they are still around. Years ago when I was working on my Ph.D., I came across the hunger site. I visited daily and I included a link on all my pages. Somehow over time I forgot about this great group….I think I will have to add them to my daily surfing again!

20 November, 2006 | No comments

TiVo stretching into the Internet

TiVo stretching into the Internet - CNN.com

The way it will work: From One True Media’s Web site, a TiVo user would invite other TiVo owners via a one-time e-mail to subscribe to their private video channel. The videos would then show up under a new “Homemade Movies” category in the “TiVoCast” section in which TiVo distributes media from other Web-content partners, such as the National Basketball Association and The New York Times.

Now this will be really cool and could make smaller video based TV stations (would need a new name for them) a reality. Any small organization could create their own channel and people could subscribe. The potential is amazing!

14 November, 2006 | No comments

Chaos Theory Invades CRM

Chaos Theory Invades CRM

If your sales reps are forced to spend some part of their day inputting information about their prospects into a CRM system, but without gaining any value from the process, they are going to resist, get demotivated, and wind up selling less. Too many vice presidents of sales ask me what the trick is for getting their salespeople to cooperate and use their CRM system. I ask them a simple question: “Do they understand precisely how using the CRM system will help them sell more?” The lack of a response is quite revealing.

Great article that exams how to bring value to a CRM system. Sure there is value from a management perspective, but how do you make it valuable to those who must use the system? That is a key part to the process. You would think that we would learn by now, the key stakeholders can’t be ignored or neglected.

14 November, 2006 | No comments

Growing number of educators explore ‘Second Life’ online

Growing number of educators explore ‘Second Life’ online - CNN.com

A growing number of educators are getting caught up in the wave. More than 60 schools and educational organizations have set up shop in the virtual world and are exploring ways it can be used to promote learning.The three-dimensional virtual world makes it possible for students taking a distance course to develop a real sense of community, said Rebecca Nesson, who leads a class jointly offered by Harvard Law School and Harvard Extension School in the world of “Second Life.”

Another note on Second Life. First it was Adam Reuters, now it is truly online learning. Fascinating.

14 November, 2006 | No comments

Web reaches new milestone: 100 million sites

Web reaches new milestone: 100 million sites - CNN.com

“There are now 100 million Web sites with domain names and content on them,” said Netcrafts Rich Miller. Watch as the Web gave birth to the virtual self — 2:44″Within that, there are some that are busy and updated more often, and that represents the active sites, which are at about 47 or 48 million,” he said.

100 million! That’s a lot of information.

1 November, 2006 | No comments