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January 2007

The Archives

• 01.31.07
  Catch Her If You Can
  Social Media

  This story simply blows me away: In 1999, a young woman named Esther Reed drops out of high school. She has a reputation as a ’bad apple,’ including an arrest for stealing her sister’s checkbook. Esther disappears that same year, but apparently her family doesn’t care enough to mount a search. Instead, they write her off as dead. Fast forward to 2005. We come to find out that somehow Esther creates an elaborate identity theft scheme, where she impersonates several missing people using their identities in place of her own. Somehow she gets accepted at both Harvard and Columbia ’“ perhaps legitimately ...
  
  
• 01.30.07
  BI2.0 WTF is that?
  Social Media, Social Networking, Tech'nomics

  Apologies for a lack of posts but I have been very sick for over a week. Well, 2007 has started with a bang. It seems like everyday I am being hit with news coverage of social networking in the business environment. Two days ago on LinkedIn.com's new section, ’Answers’ I received a question about BI2.0. What the heck is that, I thought? Turns out it’s the latest lingo for social networking as business intelligence software, seemingly coined by a Sportfire executive on BeyeBlogs. A few days prior to that, the New York Times covered a story on IBM’s foray into mixing ...
  
  
• 01.25.07
  Immigration, Startups, Economics
  Entrepreneurship, Tech'nomics

  Watching the State of the Union last night, I couldn’t help but disagree with the majority opinion on immigration. While President Bush has been widely criticized by his own party for his ’liberal’ views on immigration policy, I can’t help but think how much of the economy’s recent success is directly attributable to immigration. Several recent reports have come out with numbers that are shocking to many people. During 2005-2006 it is estimated that 52% of US startups were founded by immigrants. Amazingly 39% of startups were started by Indians who account for less than 1% of the entire US population. ...
  
  
• 01.21.07
  Strategies for Building a Business Using Zero Capital: Part I
  Entrepreneurship, Tech'nomics

  The #1 issue for both myself and for most entrepreneurs, is a lack of capital. Many people will argue that the key ingredient for a successful startup or business service is training, technical expertise or a solid network. However, all of these shortfalls can be overcome with money. I plan to post a series stories and insights describing how entrepreneurs can overcome this chasm and turn an idea into a product with virtually zero capital. As stated in the title of this blog, the process is all about using leverage. However, when I refer to leverage, I do not mean using debt ...
  
  
• 01.17.07
  Is Math Overrated for MBAs?
  My Experiences, Tech'nomics

  Someone recently asked me about my getting an MBA degree, knowing that I was a Liberal Arts major in college. This person was interested in pursuing an MBA, but worried about the amount of math involved. While I could write endless articles on this topic, I am going to stick with one issue for now: Do you need to be good at math to succeed as an MBA student? Short Answer: No. When my friend asked me this question, my immediate response was that the liberal arts is the best preparation for an MBA and that overall, math was not as big ...
  
  
• 01.15.07
  Squash Back in the Big Apple
  My Experiences

  Professional squash once again returns to New York City. The Tournament of Champions will be hosted inside Grand Central Station from February 24 - March 2nd. You can purchase tickets here. If you have never seen professional squash, it is well worth it; especially when held in an amazing venue like Grand Central. One of the neatest aspects of squash is the use of portable courts allowing tournaments to be held in such exotic locales as the Pyramids in Giza or on beaches in the Caribbean. Social Media holds a ton of promise for niche sports like squash. Notoriously difficult to film, squash ...
  
  
• 01.14.07
  How TV Networks Might Boost Audience (Albeit Temporarily)
  My Experiences, Pop Culture

  I have always been a huge Seinfeld fan. I even believed that I’d seen every episode- that is until this past weekend. While channel surfing, I happened across an episode that I honestly cannot recall having seen before and it got me thinking of a strategy for networks with currently successful sitcoms and dramas (House, Sopranos, Desperate Housewives, etc..). If these networks simply filmed one or two additional episodes a year they could hold them, releasing previously unseen episodes in future years (possibly during 'down' years when current sitcoms are weak’ um, NBC). Imagine the hype surrounding an announcement that ’a lost ...
  
  
• 01.11.07
  Does Google Manipulate Page Rankings for its Properties?
  Social Media, Social Networking

  The other day I was using a page rank checking tool to compare one of my websites versus the competition. Having recently read the news that three of the top Google searches during 2006 were names of social networks, I decided to run a little experiment. To recap, the most popular Google searches for all of 2006 were: Bebo Myspace World cup Metacafe Radioblog As most users know, the "tops dogs" in terms of tracking user traffic are: ComScore and Alexa. Here is a list of the most popular networks according to ComScore, as of May 2006: During 2006 the most popular was without question Myspace. Based simply on ...
  
  
• 01.10.07
  Scarlett Gets Dissed for a BlackBerry
  Social Media

  BlackBerry has been running a series of UGC ads where users submit stories about why they love their Berries so much. These ads have been featured in the Economist, among other media. Here is a story that blows all the others away ’“ although I doubt BlackBerry would use it: Scarlett Johansson was recently shocked while posing for a nude photoshoot along with Keira Knightley for Vanity Fair. Apparently during the shoot, not a single person gawked/slobbered or fawned at the high-octane hotties in the buff. According to Scarlett, the reason ’“ Blackberries! Scarlett: ’Keira and I, and we’re totally naked, ...
  
  
• 01.09.07
  Deadpools are J.V. - Put your money where your mouth is
  Social Media, Tech'nomics, Venture Capital

  There seems to be a lot of buzz about the revitalization of the ’deadpool’ i.e. mocking companies who end up failing during what many are calling a new internet bubble. For those of us too young to have been interested in the last bubble, the deadpool is novel and on the surface, a fun way to poke fun at all the ’fools’ who are trying to make a buck with worthless business models. My problem with the deadpool is that it reminds me of something that would have occurred in middle school when the fat kid (who happens to outweigh you ...
  
  

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