Monday, February 23, 2009
Book Glutton: Soon To Be The World's Biggest Reading Club?
Well, it had to happen, and I am so glad it did. The digitization of a reading club into a vibrant and expressive community of super readers. Mmm mmm good.
BookGlutton is a site where you can read books along with others.
Here's a short explanatory intro to the site:
Clearly, the premise behind the site is that people like to talk about what they are reading, and with the powerfully unique online reader, you can comment on and read comments about the text as you are reading.
On Book Glutton you have the opportunity to read with a group, or tune out the group and just enjoy the text yourself. The unique reader enables you to read comments and make them while in line in the text of a particular page. By selecting a particular piece of text you can make comments directly about it that stay with it in the community copy of the work.
Here's how describe why they founded BookGlutton:
We believe firmly that people want to read, annotate and discuss, right there, immersed in the text. That’s the best time to talk about a book. We also respect the solitary side to reading: people should have the chance to tune out the community. We wanted it to be attractive, too; to be an experience. It was designed for the laptops people carry to their coffee shops, and meant for the network, not the desktop. Finally, it had to be something we’d want to use. Naturally we’ve got a list of improvements. Like any creative endeavor, we’re always seeing new ways to tweak it. And we’re open to suggestions! You can suggest features or give us general feedback
The site is quite new, so there are only about 1500 books available. But I think this is a site worth watching. The concept of being able to discuss a book like this offers a tremendously intriguing twist on the other book communities out there. This isn't a "let's compare shelves" app -- its a way to get into real dialogue about the ideas, characters, story, and meaning of a book.
And The Number One Photo Site In The World Is...
Photobucket? Nope
Flickr? Nope
It's Facebook. This Tech Crunch piece shows the startling data and provides analysis.
I think there is no better proof of the importance of integration and open access than this. Facebook is winning because it is so well integrated into the world's leading social net. Flickr is awesome, but tens of millions of people are not visiting it every day. Whereas Facebook...
Flickr? Nope
It's Facebook. This Tech Crunch piece shows the startling data and provides analysis.
I think there is no better proof of the importance of integration and open access than this. Facebook is winning because it is so well integrated into the world's leading social net. Flickr is awesome, but tens of millions of people are not visiting it every day. Whereas Facebook...
Fotolia: More Than One Million Users!
If you regularly use stock photos, you may already have heard of Fotolia, the online stock photo service that offers extremely affordable photo downloads of professionally shot pics.
And if you haven't heard of them, head on over and check them out.
The photos they offer -- actually, it's photos, vectors and vids, just like sites like Getty and iStockphoto -- are really unbelievably affordable -- from $1 for an extra small to $7 for a mega colossal size. Yep, 7 smackers buys you ad quality files sizes.
But wait, there's more. You can, instead of buying photos individually, buy a monthly subscription program that further reduces the per photo charge.A monthly sub lets you download up to 25 photos a day, or 750 a month. Now that's a bargain!
With over 5 million photos and about 200,000 vectors, it's a bit smaller than the competition, but that won't be for long at these prices.
I love this model because I believe it will truly expand the buying of photos, putting more people on the rights side of copyright law. At a buck, or even 14 cents per, I think people will even be buying the pics for their low circ PowerPoints.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Zumeo Helps Gen Y Find Its Work Passion
Is there a better time to launch a job site than this? With so many people out of work, the opportunity to find a job via the web is appealing to tens of millions.
But brass tacks, most jobs sites just plain suck. Horrible, abominable search functions, relentless spam fro 100% commission sales scams, badly written job descriptions, and a host of other problems that plague the site genre.
Now imagine you are someone rethinking a career choice, or perhaps looking for your first real job out of HS or college.
For those people especially, now there is Zumeo, a new job site based upon the premise of matching the whole person to the org and opp.
Here's how their site describes its strengths:
Discover your strengths...
Do you know your professional strengths? Does your job allow you to leverage your strengths? Are you graduating and looking to find a career that fits you? Zumeo is your answer. Our self-discovery tool helps you identify key aspects of your personality and matches you with jobs that specifically fit you.
Assessment test developed by Zumeo and Career Key®.
The search ends here...
Job search boxes are everywhere. Zumeo realizes that this is intimidating when searching for jobs and internships. What do you search for? What opportunities are available? Is the position filled? Does the job match your strengths? We have answered these questions by building a system that searches for you. Zumeo personally matches you with relevant jobs that fit your strengths. These jobs and internships are current, relevant, and link directly to the companies posting them.
Connect with important people...
Once you have gone through the three step matching process, you can use Zumeo like a professional Facebook or Linkedin. Build your Live Resumé™, research a myriad great businesses, apply for jobs, connect with colleagues, and continually get matched as we add new jobs.
And here's their Tech Crunch 60 Second Pitch:
their message to recruiters focused on helping them reach out to Gen Y, which made me surmise what the answer is to recruiting that generation: a VP title for someone just out of college with no skills, six figures, a seven hour work day, corner office, and lots of power but no actual responsibility.
But seriously, I don't actually feel that way, and the recession is gonna take care of unrealistic expectations but quick. What I like about Zumeo is the emphasis on finding the sort of job that is right for your personality, interests, and work style, so that both worker and employer can be happier with one another.
Another intriguing aspect of the site is that it helps job seekers form relationships with the people that need them and can help them land the right position.
This is important stuff. We are about to experience a major change in the relationships between workers and people -- a change for the better if you think it would be valuable for both companies and people to act less as free agents. At least that's what I expect. And part of that change is that people are going to have to find their passions instead of just larger paychecks. Zumeo can be a big part of that change.
But brass tacks, most jobs sites just plain suck. Horrible, abominable search functions, relentless spam fro 100% commission sales scams, badly written job descriptions, and a host of other problems that plague the site genre.
Now imagine you are someone rethinking a career choice, or perhaps looking for your first real job out of HS or college.
For those people especially, now there is Zumeo, a new job site based upon the premise of matching the whole person to the org and opp.
Here's how their site describes its strengths:
Discover your strengths...
Do you know your professional strengths? Does your job allow you to leverage your strengths? Are you graduating and looking to find a career that fits you? Zumeo is your answer. Our self-discovery tool helps you identify key aspects of your personality and matches you with jobs that specifically fit you.
Assessment test developed by Zumeo and Career Key®.
The search ends here...
Job search boxes are everywhere. Zumeo realizes that this is intimidating when searching for jobs and internships. What do you search for? What opportunities are available? Is the position filled? Does the job match your strengths? We have answered these questions by building a system that searches for you. Zumeo personally matches you with relevant jobs that fit your strengths. These jobs and internships are current, relevant, and link directly to the companies posting them.
Connect with important people...
Once you have gone through the three step matching process, you can use Zumeo like a professional Facebook or Linkedin. Build your Live Resumé™, research a myriad great businesses, apply for jobs, connect with colleagues, and continually get matched as we add new jobs.
And here's their Tech Crunch 60 Second Pitch:
their message to recruiters focused on helping them reach out to Gen Y, which made me surmise what the answer is to recruiting that generation: a VP title for someone just out of college with no skills, six figures, a seven hour work day, corner office, and lots of power but no actual responsibility.
But seriously, I don't actually feel that way, and the recession is gonna take care of unrealistic expectations but quick. What I like about Zumeo is the emphasis on finding the sort of job that is right for your personality, interests, and work style, so that both worker and employer can be happier with one another.
Another intriguing aspect of the site is that it helps job seekers form relationships with the people that need them and can help them land the right position.
This is important stuff. We are about to experience a major change in the relationships between workers and people -- a change for the better if you think it would be valuable for both companies and people to act less as free agents. At least that's what I expect. And part of that change is that people are going to have to find their passions instead of just larger paychecks. Zumeo can be a big part of that change.
Microsoft: Give Back Your Severance
Hmm, a company with enormous cash reserves lays you off, sends you severance, and then sends the terse letter below to get you to give some back because they screwed up the calculation.
I'm thinking...no thanks.
msletter
I'm thinking...no thanks.
msletter
Publish at Scribd or explore others:
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)