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Outbid mixes gamification and social networks with real-time online auctions | VentureBeat
Online auctions often lack the thrill and challenge of battling against other bidders in an auction house setting. Outbid is a new auction service blending the tension of real-world bidding with social and gaming flourishes.
Archive for the ‘everything and more’ Category
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U.S. Schools Are Still Ahead—Way Ahead – BusinessWeek
America has an inferiority complex about its education system. You hear the sirens every year, when the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) releases its annual test results. Finland, South Korea, and Singapore usually come out on top; we start blaming our K-12 teachers for not teaching enough mathematics and science; we begin worrying about the millions of engineers and scientists China and India graduate.
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Startup Opscode Just Landed $19.5 Million And Microsoft’s Ex-CFO
The future of Seattle startup Opscode has gone from good to even better. Opscode just snagged $19.5 million in a series C round, landed an ex-Microsoft big shot on its board and released an impressive list of companies for its first user conference.
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The Five Personalities of Innovators: Which One Are You? – Forbes
Whenever I try to conjure up what innovation looks like, the same slideshow of images clicks across my mind: that photo of Einstein with his tongue sticking out, Edison with his light bulb, Steve Jobs onstage in his black turtleneck, introducing the latest iThing. Unoriginal and overdone, to be sure. And not all that accurate.
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Entrepreneurs left ‘exposed’ by lack of savings – Telegraph
A survey of the savings habits of entrepreneurs shows many are reluctant to set aside money for a rainy day because they lack confidence in the ability of financial services businesses to meet their needs.
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Captivating animation of Earth’s ocean currents – Holy Kaw!
Your vision of endless vistas of calm blue oceans will forever be changed thanks to this mesmerizing video by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which illustrates the planet’s currents.
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Reversing the Curse of Dominant Logic – Vijay Govindarajan – Harvard Business Review
Western multinationals — especially the most successful ones — consistently struggle to achieve their growth targets in emerging markets. Why? Because they try to repeat their past success formulas — the ones that work so well for them in developed markets.
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S African’s start-up making waves in Asia | TechCentral
What do you do when you find that a service you want doesn’t exist? If your name is John Fearon, you create the service yourself.
Fearon started a website back up service called Dropmysite after his business website had a hosting problem that took it out of commission. His latest offering, e-mail backup service Dropmyemail is proving even more popular, so much so that it’s seen 210 000 sign-ups since launching a month ago. -
For half a century, the U.S. was the center of the global economic system, and Western-style capitalism dominated. But this is rapidly changing as globalization increases and new players — China, India, Brazil, and others — become major players on the global stage. These changes will have an enormous impact on firms’ assumptions, practices, and challenges.
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Using social media to accomplish a meaningful purpose involves more than providing new technology and praying for success. Successful mass collaboration places new requirements on an organization, particularly its managers. While many organizations are technically ready for social media, they should question the readiness of managers to embrace new ways of working collaboratively to achieve social success.
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Mobile shoppers want retailers to ditch cash registers for tablets | TabTimes
A new report on mobile commerce finds that 22% of smartphone-owning consumers have been to stores where tablets are being used as a point-of-sale (POS) device, with almost six in ten believing that tablet-using retailers are more innovative than those only using cash registers.
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Here is the diagram which has become very well known among alumni and fans of Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley-based startup incubator. It describes, using feelings and energy, the experience every startup goes through – from the initial exciting bounce through the “trough of sorrow” to improvements, and either a crash or the promised land, acquisition and beyond.
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I’m working with a few startups right now that are in various phases of Paul Graham’s startup curve:
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Stellenbosch based Entersekt, a mobile technology company offering banks an innovative solution for secure online and mobile banking, announced that Nedbank has implemented their interactive transaction authentication (“ITA”) system in their recently released “Approve-it product which will provide greater protection against online fraud for their customers.
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Innovation Through Co-creation: Consumers Can be Creative | Innovation Management
A new trend in business and product development is ‘co-creation’. By its very name it implies a collaboration between the company and some other entity. In this case it is the consumer who partners in the creation of value. The term ‘co-creation’ is not new, however, but is now receiving more attention – driven largely through the increasing use of the Internet and social media websites – as companies endeavour to differentiate themselves from the competition.
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Think Twice Before Adopting The “Ship Or Die” Mentality | TechCrunch
The “Ship or die”, “Done is better than perfect”, “Just ship” mantras have lately become a part of many startup conversations. The problem with these mantras is that they glorify the act of shipping while ignoring the fact that shipping is only the means to create value but not the ultimate goal of a startup. Unfortunately, repeating these mantras might have a dangerous effect. The “ship it” mentality leads many startups to do mediocre, incremental, non-important work.
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Square’s consumer-focused loyalty and mobile payments app Card Case, which debuted in 2011, has been pushing the envelope when it comes to the future of payments, allowing for hands-free, location-based payments, emailed receipts and more. And merchants have quietly been adopting Card Case in droves. Back in November, Square told us that 20,000 merchants had signed up for Card Case, which doubled to over 40,000 businesses in February, and is now at 75,000 businesses using the application. And today, Square is announcing a major update to Card Case, adding additional social and merchant discovery features to both the iOS and Android app as well as renaming the app “Pay With Square.”
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WITH MAD MEN RETURNING TO TV SUNDAY, WE LOOK BACK AT THE ORIGINAL TITANS OF ADVERTISING’S GOLDEN AGE AND REFLECT ON THE FORCES THAT FOSTERED SO MUCH CREATIVITY.
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Rise of the Global Entrepreneurial Class – Forbes
Innovation is a demographic, not a geographic, phenomenon. We are in an age of, largely positive, conspicuous creation. The rise of entrepreneurial class supersedes nationality. Whether from Tsinghua, Indian Institute of Technology, or Stanford, entrepreneurs with similar education and ambition share more in common with each other than they do with their brethren within borders. Clustered in the Y-Combinators, the TechStars, and the 500 Startups are manifold international Founders, CEOs, and teams.
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Cultivating Your Brand Through Pinterest | BlogHer
Pinterest really gets back to the roots of marketing: selling a lifestyle through creative imagery. The platform has taken off, and that is true in every sense of the word. As the most rapid growing social network in history, the potential for online branding via Pinterest is increasing everyday. Millions of users spend hours each day on Pinterest sorting through fashionable outfits, do-it-yourself craft ideas, and healthy recipes. While the main demographic is primarily female, Pinterest can help strengthen your brand online by allowing you to share and organize your images in a visually appealing way.
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Want To Hook Your Users? Drive Them Crazy. | TechCrunch
In advertising, marketers reinforce a behavior by linking to the promise of reward. “Use our product,” they claim, “and you’ll get laid”; it’s the gist of many product pitches from soap to hamburgers. But online, feedback loops aren’t cutting it. Users are increasingly inundated with distractions and companies find they need to hook users quickly if they want to stay in business. Today, companies are using more than feedback loops. They are deploying desire engines.
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15 High Res Wallpapers Perfect for Your New iPad’s Retina Display
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The Week That Was: “Argue. Discuss. Argue. Discuss.” | Co.Design: business + innovation + design
CONTINUUM’S DANIEL SOBOL ARGUES FOR ARGUING YOUR WAY TO CREATIVE SUCCESS, DISGRUNTLED GOOGLERS RETHINK GMAIL, AND WE LEARN THAT BEER SAVED THE WORLD. IT’S OUR TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK.
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One of best-known (and least shy) creatives from the golden age of advertising, George Lois, offers some tips from his latest book, Damn Good Advice.
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The Most Powerful Colors in the World [infographic]
Top brands within categories tend to use similar color palattes
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7 essentials of solid content marketing – Holy Kaw!
Strong marketing is essentially connecting with your target audience and keeping them engaged with your company, product or service, and the age of social media has opened all kinds of channels for getting and staying connected with your customers.
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The Making of an Innovation Master – Scott Anthony – Harvard Business Review
A workshop attendee asked me this seemingly simple question: “So, what else should I read to learn more about innovation?”
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The Masters of Innovation – Clayton blank – Harvard Business Review
Here are my picks for the twelve people who have brought the greatest clarity to the field of innovation, organized alphabetically. To learn who almost made the cut—and more about my selection process—check out my blog post, The Making of an Innovation Master. Nominate your own choices in the comments.
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Why B2B Companies Need To Up Their Communications Game | Fast Company
B2Bs may never enjoy millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, but the more they do to build brands rooted in consumer value and social responsibility, the better positioned they will be.
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The Age of the Female-Centric Startup
Only 10% of venture-backed entrepreneurs are women. Yet women control a majority of consumer spending, are over 50% of the US population, and go to college in greater numbers than men. However, this dearth of female-run startups could be about to reverse in dramatic fashion, with nascent signs of a boom in female-centric startups founded by women and targeting the female market.
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How to Boost the EU’s Innovation Performance | Innovation Management
This year’s Innovation Union Scoreboard shows that most Member States have improved their innovation performance. This allows the European Union to maintain a clear lead over the emerging economies of China, Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa, but not to close the existing gap with innovation leaders such as the United States, Japan and South Korea. More efforts are therefore needed so as to address the EU’s weaknesses. One area in the spotlight is related to firms’ innovation activities.
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How to Get Rid of Old Ideas? | Innovation Management
Have you participated in a brainstorming session that felt like wasted time? For some reason no new and interesting ideas were formed? Perhaps you need to get rid of your old ideas first! Gis van Wulfen explains.
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In his new book, Vijay Vaitheeswaran argues that we’re thinking about worldchanging innovation all wrong: It’s not going to come from where we expect it.
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Opening the Practice of Collaborative Innovation to the End User | Innovation Management
Engaging end users in co-creation deepens the bonds between the organization and them. The activity can deliver economic value to all parties involved. In this article innovation architect Doug Collins highlights the critical questions that campaign teams will want to address when they pursue externally focused collaboration.
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A global survey conducted by The Nielsen Company revealed that over 85 % of the world’s online population has purchased products online, with half of this population purchasing online at least once a month. An increasing number of consumers are abandoning shopping malls for the safer and more convenient online shopping experience.
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Visual.ly’s new service lets anyone make infographics, even if they stink at Photoshop | VentureBeat
Infographics startup Visual.ly is launching its automated service today that plans to quench the public’s thirst for interesting and visually stimulating data without the need of Photoshop or a team of expensive designers.
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Median Angel Round Was $700K in 2011, Up From $500K in 2010 – Liz Gannes – News – AllThingsD
The so-called early-stage funding frenzy seems to be a real phenomenon, with the numbers to prove it. The median angel round for American start-ups grew 40 percent last year, to $700,000 from $500,000.
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Congress can ensure U.S. remains world’s most entrepreneurial nation – The Hill’s Congress Blog
For all the talk about how broken Washington seems to be these days – and there is a lot to fix – considerable progress has been made over the last few months around the issue of improving the environment for entrepreneurs to start new businesses, grow existing companies, and create jobs. There is broad bipartisan agreement that entrepreneurs have played a critical role in creating the leading economy in the world, and that we need to double down on our nation’s commitment to our entrepreneurs. Now’s the time to push pro-entrepreneurship legislation over the goal line, so we can ensure the United States remains the world’s most entrepreneurial nation.
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This tweet might save your life: A new high-tech system from Dell and the Red Cross will scour the Internet after disasters to find evidence of survivors needing help, making the deployment of aid much more efficient.
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Number Of Blogs Up From 35 Million in 2006 To 181 Million By The End Of 2011
In last few years numbers of blogs sites as well as bloggers have increased rapidly. Even, reader interest towards blogs and blogging sites has risen up constantly. A recent survey, conducted over over social media and global blogging industry, reveals that in last half a decade number of blogs has increased from 36 million to 181 million.
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B2B Marketing Must Embrace Social-Media Strategies | Small Agency Diary – Advertising Age
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Mastering The Uncomfortable Art Of Personal Branding | Fast Company
Whether interviewing for a job or making a presentation, weaving a strong personal narrative could be the one thing that keeps you on top. Here are a few tips to turning on your personal branding story without turning off your audience.
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FOUR DESIGNERS WANT MAKE THE DYNAMO OF DIXIE THE POSTER CHILD FOR MUNICIPAL BRANDING IN AMERICA, WITH A FRESH TYPEFACE INSPIRED BY BOTH THE CITY’S INDUSTRIAL PAST AND ITS ARTS-MINDED FUTURE.
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South By Southwest Startups mRank Leaderboard on Mashable Follow
mRank calculates the amount of buzz (on a 1-100 scale) a particular term has on the social web by analyzing conversations across Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
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The QWERTY Effect: Can Typing Shape Thinking? – Ideas Market – WSJ
Wired Science reports on a remarkable study that finds that part of our gut response to words — whether we view them positively or negatively — is shaped by the layout of a keyboard.
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Rewarding Excellence | Entrepreneur.com
With smartphone owners now downloading more than 2 billion mobile applications every month, the app store gold rush is in full swing. But precious few software developers are striking it rich. As of late last year, developers had published close to a million apps optimized for devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android–but for every juggernaut, like Angry Birds, there are a multitude of mobile games that earn only a few thousand dollars over the course of their life cycle
chrisvermeulen 