| MORE THAN A PET PROJECT
WASHINGTON - Dan Cohen's business career started at the ballpark, selling tickets and sponsorships for the Washington Wizards and Redskins. Now he's moved on to the animal park, as founder and president of AnimalAttraction.com, a social networking site for people who love pets. ''I help them connect with other people who share a similar and very strong passion for pets,'' said Cohen. Cohen, 38, founded AnimalAttraction.com as a dating site for pet lovers three years ago with $400,000 of his own savings and $300,000 from investors. To expand its audience, a year ago he started changing the site from a matchmaking service to an online membership community for pet lovers. The free site includes a message board, chat room and photo contest featuring pets and ''parents.'' Cohen says he's adding user-generated videos, expert columns and a pet pals feature.
Web 2 — Threat or Opportunity?
It is common in the world of Information Technology for those in the know to label a development and then talk blithely about the label regardless of whether we more simple businesspeople understand the concept. The expert's assumption is that they know what they are talking about so everybody does. Since I am the one who frequently does not comprehend and there may be others that are as unaware as me, please bear with me while I briefly indicate what "Web 2" is. Web 2 is becoming increasingly important to business. Web 2 is the portmanteau title for all user driven online services including Wikipaedia, pod-casts, blogs, peer-to-peer and social networking. (All of which I describe below.) Web 2 relies on cooperation between users. Recent global research by McKinsey suggests that international business is increasingly and successfully investing in Web 2, but do businesspeople need to read between the lines of research reports? Growing interest The survey was completed early this year and involved 2847 senior executives world-wide with 44 per cent hold "C level", (Chief Executive, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer...) positions.
Employee web use a major security risk for companies
Social networking sites are not only biting into workplace productivity -- they can also pose a major security risk, new research shows. In a national survey of more than 800 employees across a range of industries, more than half said they spent at least an hour a week accessing blogs, chat rooms, videos, and other social networking tools and services at work, according to Clearswift, a Redwood, Calif.-based internet security consulting firm. Of those, 46 per cent said they regularly discussed work-related issues online, the survey found. Beyond so-called Web 2.0 sites, 71 per cent also said they used Web-based email at work for personal messages, in additional to their workplace provided email account, the survey found. Clearswift COO Ian Bowles said that despite the well-known dangers of online viruses, bugs, spam, and scams, most business owners are still far too casual with the internet.
American Airlines tries to lure female travelers with new site
Quite a few airline and travel companies are making concerted efforts to distinguish themselves with more web features - just take a look at KLM's networking sites for business travelers in China and Africa, Travelocity's vacation planning beta site, or Amex's online marketplace for corporate travel. American Airlines today took a small, but shaky, step into the trend today with the launch of a site specifically designed to provide "women travelers online content." Here's the idea behind this site as articulated in a press release issued today: "American estimates that if the company is able to raise the number of women traveling on the airline by 2 percent as a result of AA.com/women and its emphasis on women travelers, the airline would garner an additional $94 million in revenue annually while providing additional value and travel information to female customers at no extra cost to them." This might be a good plan...except for the fact that the content isn't consumer created.
Smart Online Partners with Citybizlist to Offer their Users Small ...
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Smart Online Inc. (OTCBB: SOLN), a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for the small business market, today announced a partnership with citybizlist, a Web site for local business news, business postings, and community networking. Smart Online and citybizlist are partnering to offer a private-labeled version of Smart Online's leading OneBizsm application platform to small businesses in the five cities in which citybizlist is published: Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, and Atlanta. "One of the major goals of citybizlist is to provide all-inclusive daily-use resources for our business users," said Edwin Warfield, publisher of citybizlist. "The Smart Online platform provides small businesses with resources to which many of their larger competitors have had access in the past.
10 Lessons Miller’s 300 Teaches You About Successful Online Business
Fuzzy Future has a great article that adapts 10 elements you whiteness in Frank Miller's 300, and applies them to a successful online business. Know your surroundings, and choose the battleground that most suits your strengths A handful of well trained soldiers can out-perform thousands of weak ones. A few good friends is better then an army of acquaintances. The gods aren't always right, do what's best for yourself, above all else. Keep your skill set sharp, cause you never know when you might have to defend yourself. Never retreat, never surrender. Constantly adapt to your changing situation, it's the only way to survive. Never be satisfied with your past accomplishments, it might just get you kicked down a bottomless pit. Even a man-god can bleed. Even if you're a hideous, misshapen troll, the right networking can get you riches and women.
Consumer Adoption of New Channels Driving Online Music and Video ...
New distribution channels for online music and video are beginning to have a significant impact on the music and video industries, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). Online sales of digital music represented 6% of the total worldwide music market in 2006, up from 4% in 2005, the high-tech market research firm says. By 2011, online sales of digital music will represent 26% of all music purchased worldwide. The Internet is now an essential channel for online music distribution; and social networking sites, such as YouTube and MySpace, are beginning to show great potential as new and legitimate channels for digital content consumption, says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. As a result, consumers are demanding access to digital content in more ways than ever. Recent research by In-Stat found the following: -In-Stats latest primary research shows that 74% of respondents (primarily North Americans) downloaded music in 2006, up significantly from 48% in 2005.
Small-business briefs
Aspiring student entrepreneurs at the University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business Administration will present their business models to a panel of judges today during the first Mark Ain Business Model Competition. Three teams will compete to win $10,000 toward the implementation of their business plan. The competition is made possible by support from Simon alumnus and entrepreneur Mark S. Ain, founder of Kronos Inc., a Chelmsford, Mass.-based company specializing in work force management. Local woman picked to head appraisers group
Roslyn Bakst Goldman has been named the new president of the Appraisers Association of America. Her two-year term became effective April 1. Goldman will be heading a 700-member association based in New York City. Although she will not move from Rochester, she will preside over the seven board meetings in New York City and will be responsible for revising by-laws, promotions, annual conference, and luncheon and educational events.
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