The Business case for Transparancy

What other transparency strategies did you think of?

clipped from mashable.com 5 Ways to Make Your Business More Transparent clipped from mashable.com drag to share clipped from mashable.com 1. Don’t Fake It — Talk About What You Know It’s just as important to be viewed as a person with a lot of talented resources as it is to be viewed as an expert. 2. Have an Opinion, But Stay Open to Other Views 3. Be Truthful When Facebook revised their user terms of service, for example, the company did a poor job of communicating the changes to users. As a result, Facebook was forced to go on the defensive when users instinctively mistrusted certain changes that affected their user rights. 4. Be Timely and Responsive 5. Think Community More and more, companies are incorporating transparency into their marketing efforts. Why? The reason, according to Debbie Weil, a corporate social media consultant and author of The Corporate Blogging Book, is because customers and stakeholders increasingly expect it. “It (transparency) is the new operating standard,”

Economics of Maglev trains

clipped from en.wikipedia.org Maglev (transport) [edit] Economics The proposed Chūō Shinkansen maglev in Japan is estimated to cost approximately US$82 billion to build, with a route blasting long tunnels through mountains. A Tokaido maglev route replacing current Shinkansen would cost some 1/10th the cost, as no new tunnel blasting would be needed, but noise pollution issues would make it infeasible.

You pay flat monthly fee, read package of publications. Yes?

Will this happen?

clipped from www.niemanlab.org Google developing a micropayment platform and pitching newspapers: “‘Open’ need not mean free” Transaction costs, including credit card fees, are a major hindrance to micropayment plans under consideration by the news industry, which is why Google’s proposal could be appealing. Of course, newspaper companies that have frequently accused Google of leaching off their revenue might be loathe to participate in a joint venture. We envision the typical scenario to be where a user pays a monthly fee for access to a wide-ranging package of premium content. One example of a “package” might be full access to the WSJ [Wall Street Journal]; another “package” might include the top 10 business publications. Google believes that there is real power and benefit to publishers in providing these sorts of broad, multi-publication access passes.

Index of "how to build a startup" on readwriteweb.com

clipped from www.readwriteweb.com things to be clear about before you start Are you really an entrepreneur? How first-time entrepreneurs can work well with investors Creating your vision, mission, strategy, and plan Finding the right wave to ride (secular trends) Working booms and busts to your advantage (cyclical trends) Building your team pre-financing Building an advisory board Finding a URL and company name Company registration choices The Capital-Raising Ladder How to pitch to a VC or angel How not to get screwed by VCs Understand the scale vs. profitability trade-off Build an insanely great Web service Learn to negotiate and close How to be an effective CEO How to hire an A-Team How to fire non-performers How to hit your numbers How to build age-appropriate processes Three steps to building an online brand How to scale without losing your shirt Maintaining focus, health, and passion during the grind-it-out phase Planning your exit When and how founders should hire a professional CEO Congratulations! What's next?

Good reactions to consider for any web page

clipped from www.readwriteweb.com Build an Insanely Great Web Service First, the good news: building a website today is ten times cheaper and faster than it was 10 years ago. Now, the bad news: building a website today is ten times cheaper and faster than it was 10 years ago. Six Milestones from 30 Seconds to 3 Years 30 seconds: "I get it." 3 minutes: "I've used it and still get it, and it has not annoyed me yet." 3 days: "I find this really useful or fun." 3 weeks: "I am raving about this to other people." 3 months: "I couldn't imagine not having this, and I'm boring my friends telling them about it." 3 years: "How weird to see this on Oprah."

New York City is poised for a tech revival

Excellent commentary on the NYC business ecosystem. Found it through Fred Wilson's blog.

clipped from www.cdixon.org New York City is poised for a tech revival New York City has many of the same strengths as Silicon Valley – merit-driven capitalism, the embrace of newcomers and particularly immigrants, and a consistent willingness to reinvent itself.   Silicon Valley will always be the mecca of technology, but now that people here are getting back to, as Obama says, making things, New York City has a shot at becoming relevant again in the tech world. clipped from www.cdixon.org (1) advertisers are based out of New York City. You can set up endless meetings with NYC advertisers if you're based out of the west coast, but you won't have the advantage of running into them at dinner parties and through friends and friends of friends here in New York. (2) Also, NYC companies need to show a profitable projected P&L (not 15 years out, but more like 3 years out) to raise money in the east coast. West coast start-ups tend to have a 'we'll figure out the monetization thing at some point' mentality.