STARZ OPENING
This event is planned to start at 11:00 pm on Dec 4, 2008 at Thiseio.
More http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=513371571&k=XXG43VTX4V6M5GC1UK25Q3
29.11.08
STARZ OPENING
STARZ OPENING
This event is planned to start at 11:00 pm on Dec 4, 2008 at Thiseio.
More http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=513371571&k=XXG43VTX4V6M5GC1UK25Q3
28.11.08
“Location-based Mobile Ad: A Lesson From Japan”
“Location-based Mobile Ad: A Lesson From Japan”, presentation of a thriving location-based mobile advertising company based in Tokyo.
“heat map” of mobile ad impressions in Tokyo
The picture they presented sounded like a forecast of the Future in 10 years time… However it is Japan’s reality, right now. So here are the figures:
- 90% of the subscribers use the mobile web;
- 90% will be on 3G by the end 2008;
- At the Present, almost 1/2 are GPS enabled phones;
- The Mobile commerce market has hit 10B USD*
It is predictable that TV watching (w/ digital TV tuner) and video sharing will soon become a top mobile entertainment. You Tube on mobile and Nico Nico Video Sharing are already becoming a clear trend.
IC wallets are being integrated with mobile phones by default. This mobile electronic payment method already has 28.5 million subscribers (as of Mar 31, 2008) and is accepted in Public transportations, supermarkets and vending machines.
So why did this market grow so rapidly in Japan?
A combination of broad coverage of 3G network, flat-rate data plans and a bigger influence of the operators upon mobile ecosystem than in GSM markets did the trick.
Regarding the mobile ad market, the latest trends clearly promote the mobile ad market expansion:
- A new governmental regulation imposed GPS for all 3G phones by default (for security reasons);
- Top 2 operators have integrated Google as default search (thus enabling Google AdWords revenue);
- Massive growth of “non-official” sites (the Long Tail effect on mobile content).
The forecast for overall Mobile Ad Spending in Japan is 1.284 million USD by 2011.**
Sponsored listings and Location-based mobile ads are growing rapidly, due to:
- Strong publisher network in Japan;
- Proved performance for advertisers (Local Ads have 395% Greater CTR*** than Non-Local Ads);
- Proved performance for publishers (Local Ads have 826% Greater CPM*** than Non-Local Ads).
The most successful categories of advertisers are: Food & Restaurant, Educational Institutions, Local Jobs and Employment, Educational Institutions, Beauty salons and Car dealers.
*Source: Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
**Source: DentsuInc., 2007
***CTR:Click-through rate
CPM:Cost per mille
“heat map” of mobile ad impressions in Tokyo
The picture they presented sounded like a forecast of the Future in 10 years time… However it is Japan’s reality, right now. So here are the figures:
- 90% of the subscribers use the mobile web;
- 90% will be on 3G by the end 2008;
- At the Present, almost 1/2 are GPS enabled phones;
- The Mobile commerce market has hit 10B USD*
It is predictable that TV watching (w/ digital TV tuner) and video sharing will soon become a top mobile entertainment. You Tube on mobile and Nico Nico Video Sharing are already becoming a clear trend.
IC wallets are being integrated with mobile phones by default. This mobile electronic payment method already has 28.5 million subscribers (as of Mar 31, 2008) and is accepted in Public transportations, supermarkets and vending machines.
So why did this market grow so rapidly in Japan?
A combination of broad coverage of 3G network, flat-rate data plans and a bigger influence of the operators upon mobile ecosystem than in GSM markets did the trick.
Regarding the mobile ad market, the latest trends clearly promote the mobile ad market expansion:
- A new governmental regulation imposed GPS for all 3G phones by default (for security reasons);
- Top 2 operators have integrated Google as default search (thus enabling Google AdWords revenue);
- Massive growth of “non-official” sites (the Long Tail effect on mobile content).
The forecast for overall Mobile Ad Spending in Japan is 1.284 million USD by 2011.**
Sponsored listings and Location-based mobile ads are growing rapidly, due to:
- Strong publisher network in Japan;
- Proved performance for advertisers (Local Ads have 395% Greater CTR*** than Non-Local Ads);
- Proved performance for publishers (Local Ads have 826% Greater CPM*** than Non-Local Ads).
The most successful categories of advertisers are: Food & Restaurant, Educational Institutions, Local Jobs and Employment, Educational Institutions, Beauty salons and Car dealers.
*Source: Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
**Source: DentsuInc., 2007
***CTR:Click-through rate
CPM:Cost per mille
26.11.08
23.11.08
(22/11) YouTube LIVE Event..
DONE!
This is THE FUTURE...
YouTube...you change the world!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Now Live...
Just another innovation from Google..!
This is THE FUTURE...
YouTube...you change the world!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Now Live...
Just another innovation from Google..!
21.11.08
Top 10 tips for green IT
Top 10 ways to cut energy use and green up your business technology.
The IT industry is currently responsible for around two per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the same as the aviation industry, but IT’s emissions are growing at a much faster rate. BT alone uses 0.7 per cent of the UK's electricity supply.
Reducing the environmental impact of an IT department is no easy task, and the effectiveness of many common strategies is dubious, to say the least. Carbon offsetting, for example, may appease customers and give the marketing department something to show off, but the real-world benefits are debatable. So, what can be done? Here are ten strategies that really work.
1. Teleconferencing
Teleconferencing has been around for decades, and videoconferencing has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. Despite this, though, tens of thousands of people fly to meetings abroad every day.
The benefit of face-to-face conversation is undeniable, but modern, high-definition videoconferencing has brought remarkable clarity to what was once a flaky technology, and the price is falling rapidly.
For international companies, investment in multiple videoconferencing rooms – or just renting the rooms from could save hundreds of tons of carbon emissions every year, and pay for itself in travel savings within a year. Overall IT spending and energy consumption may rise, but the bigger picture reveals significant savings.
2. Ditch paper
The phrase "paperless office" is inextricably linked with 1970s ‘Tomorrow’s World’ episodes, but the idea has made little progress towards the mainstream. The undeniable fact is that people still work with print outs everyday, and printers are one of the biggest offenders as far as office energy users go.
Around 40 per cent of those currently in use need to be manually turned off, but regularly aren't. Paper is also an environmentally-draining product, requiring the felling of trees and the use of huge quantities of bleach. Sourcing recycled paper, making duplex printing the default, and investing in printers that automatically power down are easy first steps.
Better still, a PIN-based collection system encourages staff to only print what is necessary and keeps logs to highlight heavy-use areas.
3. E-documents and online tools
Another approach is to reduce the need for staff to print documents at all, by making online experiences better. Internal tools, if badly designed, will steer people towards paper alternatives, so design them better. For example, holiday request forms are printed out in their hundreds every year in most offices, only to be read by HR, entered into a database and disposed of. A one-off investment in a well-designed online tool – possibly built into the existing intranet – will eventually yield large savings, and the same can easily apply to customer facing services.
4. Consolidated data centers
Large companies usually have geographically distributed data centers, which can be inefficient because of the duplicated overheads involved. One data center will use less power than two running the same amount of hardware, as lighting and cooling costs will be lower – all areas the British Computer Society is investigating with the Carbon Trust.
Consolidation also makes maintenance and installation of new hardware easier, and cuts down on the need for support staff to travel, further reducing energy use. Of course, centralized hardware can be seen as placing all your eggs in one basket, but off-site backup firms can easily solve this problem.
5. Visualization
Visualization is booming in popularity, and it’s easy to see why, as it offers cost reductions in the server room and simplifies maintenance. One of the biggest advantages, though, is in energy savings. By reducing the number of servers needed, and making more efficient use of the ones that are left running, your company can cut down on energy bills and cooling. It’s estimated that for every pound spent on hardware from an IT budget, 50 pence is spent on cooling and energy costs, so this can easily add up.
Currently, the average server uses less than 55 per cent of its potential, and with dual core processors becoming the norm this is only going to get worse, as many applications are ill-equipped to take advantage of multiple cores. Visualization leader VMware claims that the average consolidation ratio is 10 to one – a single server can run the workload of ten standard servers as virtual machines. Virtual machines can even be moved from one server to another in real time, so even more servers can be shut off at night or during holidays when demand decreases.
6. Home working
Home working is an idea that has gained a lot of momentum since the wide-scale adoption of home broadband. With almost all office work now done on a PC, it's possible for staff to sign in and work seamlessly, no matter where they are.
This has several benefits. The demand for space and power in the office will go down, saving significantly in rent and utility charges.
But there’s an ulterior motive, too. BT admitted in a recent investigation of home-working that 60 per cent of the time employees saved by not having to travel, they ended up giving back by working extra hours. And Microsoft has recently found in a separate study that home working can save employees £500 a year.
Whatever the true motivation, in the next few years employers will further embrace the idea that work is an activity, not a building.
7. Server rooms
As the cost of running and cooling servers is so high, huge energy savings can be made by making the server room more efficient. The more time and money invested in this, the greater the savings, but small changes can be put into practice immediately.
For a start, most server rooms are brilliantly lit, all day, every day, for no reason. Installing motion-sensitive lighting can, over long periods of time, reduce a company’s energy use considerably.
Closing any leaks in air conditioning systems can also help, and companies can be brought in to monitor airflow and make suggestions on new layouts that will make greater use of the cooling power you already have, by identifying any hot spots.
8. Desktops and the grid
There’s a huge computing resource that almost all companies have, and few take full advantage of: user’s desktops. Most of the day, these machines are barely idling – checking email and writing documents barely taxes a modern processor, and there are times when they’re not used at all.
Some companies are starting to make use of all those spare cycles, such as Dresdner Kleinwort.
“The cost of supercomputers isn’t very economical and isn’t very scalable,” says David Doherty, one of the company’s developers. “Every single computer in every office location is hooked up to the bank’s network and has a small piece of software installed on it that allows it to communicate with the grid. This software does absolutely nothing until someone logs off their machine or the screensaver comes on while the employee goes out for a pub lunch. At this point, the grid sends it a bunch of files with an executable that is run on the machine.”
9. Turn it off
Assuming you’re not making use of desktop power during the night, those machines need to be switched off. Asking employees to turn off their desktops is one of the least effective ways of making this happen – people forget, or are too lazy to do it.
One way around this is to force it. Set all machines to power down unless active at a certain time in the evening, or by using automatic remote shutdown tools.
The Government itself is thinking of doing this – and expects to save £10 million a year in energy costs.
10. Think holistically
The final thing that companies should do to save power is think on a holistic level, and investigate unusual ways to save energy.
HP recently spent time redesigning a desktop case, which involved an initial outlay in research and design and retooling overheads. However, within a month, the more efficient design saved the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower in steel.
It's important that companies approach reducing the environmental impact of their operations on a wider scale - providing home desktops and broadband connections for employees may seem like an expensive overhead, but could yield huge savings in real estate rental and utility charges, not to mention reducing the carbon footprint of each employee by reducing their need to travel.
The IT industry is currently responsible for around two per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the same as the aviation industry, but IT’s emissions are growing at a much faster rate. BT alone uses 0.7 per cent of the UK's electricity supply.
Reducing the environmental impact of an IT department is no easy task, and the effectiveness of many common strategies is dubious, to say the least. Carbon offsetting, for example, may appease customers and give the marketing department something to show off, but the real-world benefits are debatable. So, what can be done? Here are ten strategies that really work.
1. Teleconferencing
Teleconferencing has been around for decades, and videoconferencing has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. Despite this, though, tens of thousands of people fly to meetings abroad every day.
The benefit of face-to-face conversation is undeniable, but modern, high-definition videoconferencing has brought remarkable clarity to what was once a flaky technology, and the price is falling rapidly.
For international companies, investment in multiple videoconferencing rooms – or just renting the rooms from could save hundreds of tons of carbon emissions every year, and pay for itself in travel savings within a year. Overall IT spending and energy consumption may rise, but the bigger picture reveals significant savings.
2. Ditch paper
The phrase "paperless office" is inextricably linked with 1970s ‘Tomorrow’s World’ episodes, but the idea has made little progress towards the mainstream. The undeniable fact is that people still work with print outs everyday, and printers are one of the biggest offenders as far as office energy users go.
Around 40 per cent of those currently in use need to be manually turned off, but regularly aren't. Paper is also an environmentally-draining product, requiring the felling of trees and the use of huge quantities of bleach. Sourcing recycled paper, making duplex printing the default, and investing in printers that automatically power down are easy first steps.
Better still, a PIN-based collection system encourages staff to only print what is necessary and keeps logs to highlight heavy-use areas.
3. E-documents and online tools
Another approach is to reduce the need for staff to print documents at all, by making online experiences better. Internal tools, if badly designed, will steer people towards paper alternatives, so design them better. For example, holiday request forms are printed out in their hundreds every year in most offices, only to be read by HR, entered into a database and disposed of. A one-off investment in a well-designed online tool – possibly built into the existing intranet – will eventually yield large savings, and the same can easily apply to customer facing services.
4. Consolidated data centers
Large companies usually have geographically distributed data centers, which can be inefficient because of the duplicated overheads involved. One data center will use less power than two running the same amount of hardware, as lighting and cooling costs will be lower – all areas the British Computer Society is investigating with the Carbon Trust.
Consolidation also makes maintenance and installation of new hardware easier, and cuts down on the need for support staff to travel, further reducing energy use. Of course, centralized hardware can be seen as placing all your eggs in one basket, but off-site backup firms can easily solve this problem.
5. Visualization
Visualization is booming in popularity, and it’s easy to see why, as it offers cost reductions in the server room and simplifies maintenance. One of the biggest advantages, though, is in energy savings. By reducing the number of servers needed, and making more efficient use of the ones that are left running, your company can cut down on energy bills and cooling. It’s estimated that for every pound spent on hardware from an IT budget, 50 pence is spent on cooling and energy costs, so this can easily add up.
Currently, the average server uses less than 55 per cent of its potential, and with dual core processors becoming the norm this is only going to get worse, as many applications are ill-equipped to take advantage of multiple cores. Visualization leader VMware claims that the average consolidation ratio is 10 to one – a single server can run the workload of ten standard servers as virtual machines. Virtual machines can even be moved from one server to another in real time, so even more servers can be shut off at night or during holidays when demand decreases.
6. Home working
Home working is an idea that has gained a lot of momentum since the wide-scale adoption of home broadband. With almost all office work now done on a PC, it's possible for staff to sign in and work seamlessly, no matter where they are.
This has several benefits. The demand for space and power in the office will go down, saving significantly in rent and utility charges.
But there’s an ulterior motive, too. BT admitted in a recent investigation of home-working that 60 per cent of the time employees saved by not having to travel, they ended up giving back by working extra hours. And Microsoft has recently found in a separate study that home working can save employees £500 a year.
Whatever the true motivation, in the next few years employers will further embrace the idea that work is an activity, not a building.
7. Server rooms
As the cost of running and cooling servers is so high, huge energy savings can be made by making the server room more efficient. The more time and money invested in this, the greater the savings, but small changes can be put into practice immediately.
For a start, most server rooms are brilliantly lit, all day, every day, for no reason. Installing motion-sensitive lighting can, over long periods of time, reduce a company’s energy use considerably.
Closing any leaks in air conditioning systems can also help, and companies can be brought in to monitor airflow and make suggestions on new layouts that will make greater use of the cooling power you already have, by identifying any hot spots.
8. Desktops and the grid
There’s a huge computing resource that almost all companies have, and few take full advantage of: user’s desktops. Most of the day, these machines are barely idling – checking email and writing documents barely taxes a modern processor, and there are times when they’re not used at all.
Some companies are starting to make use of all those spare cycles, such as Dresdner Kleinwort.
“The cost of supercomputers isn’t very economical and isn’t very scalable,” says David Doherty, one of the company’s developers. “Every single computer in every office location is hooked up to the bank’s network and has a small piece of software installed on it that allows it to communicate with the grid. This software does absolutely nothing until someone logs off their machine or the screensaver comes on while the employee goes out for a pub lunch. At this point, the grid sends it a bunch of files with an executable that is run on the machine.”
9. Turn it off
Assuming you’re not making use of desktop power during the night, those machines need to be switched off. Asking employees to turn off their desktops is one of the least effective ways of making this happen – people forget, or are too lazy to do it.
One way around this is to force it. Set all machines to power down unless active at a certain time in the evening, or by using automatic remote shutdown tools.
The Government itself is thinking of doing this – and expects to save £10 million a year in energy costs.
10. Think holistically
The final thing that companies should do to save power is think on a holistic level, and investigate unusual ways to save energy.
HP recently spent time redesigning a desktop case, which involved an initial outlay in research and design and retooling overheads. However, within a month, the more efficient design saved the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower in steel.
It's important that companies approach reducing the environmental impact of their operations on a wider scale - providing home desktops and broadband connections for employees may seem like an expensive overhead, but could yield huge savings in real estate rental and utility charges, not to mention reducing the carbon footprint of each employee by reducing their need to travel.
Apps management to buck IT spending slide
New analyst research is predicting that applications management will be one of the strongest areas of IT services spending during the next three years, despite the economic downturn.
Spending on applications management services in Western Europe will exceed €9 billion (£7.6 billion) in 2009, according to a new study from IT services researcher. It said applications management would be one of the few areas to dodge the widely predicted contraction in IT spending due to ongoing, global economic uncertainty, as enterprises look to reduce their operating costs, rationalize their applications estates and improve their software processes.
Applications management will remain a robust area of spending for organizations during the current economic downturn, as it can offer a way to reduce operating costs without the commitment and sourcing complexity of a large outsourcing engagement.
Applications Management in Europe – A Buyer’s Guide defined application management as the maintenance and enhancement of existing applications, as well as initial development work. The report made a distinction between application management and application outsourcing, when a supplier takes responsibility for managing the entire application chain including the server and operating system.
It advised those looking to find an applications management provider to look for one offering transparent pricing that includes a breakdown of saving through labor arbitrage; additional savings and service improvement methods; and proactive evaluation and improvement of the service in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.
It also recommended establishing how secure the supplier’s current and future financial positioning is and considering, as a result, whether or not to commit to a multi-year deal.
Those suppliers that are able to go beyond simple labor arbitrage savings will be best placed to deliver long-lasting value in terms of process improvement, industrialization and resource optimization.
The application management suppliers that will succeed in the current market will be those that can deliver a ‘blended’ service combining onshore customer intimacy, as well as cost effective offshore skills.
source ITpro
Spending on applications management services in Western Europe will exceed €9 billion (£7.6 billion) in 2009, according to a new study from IT services researcher. It said applications management would be one of the few areas to dodge the widely predicted contraction in IT spending due to ongoing, global economic uncertainty, as enterprises look to reduce their operating costs, rationalize their applications estates and improve their software processes.
Applications management will remain a robust area of spending for organizations during the current economic downturn, as it can offer a way to reduce operating costs without the commitment and sourcing complexity of a large outsourcing engagement.
Applications Management in Europe – A Buyer’s Guide defined application management as the maintenance and enhancement of existing applications, as well as initial development work. The report made a distinction between application management and application outsourcing, when a supplier takes responsibility for managing the entire application chain including the server and operating system.
It advised those looking to find an applications management provider to look for one offering transparent pricing that includes a breakdown of saving through labor arbitrage; additional savings and service improvement methods; and proactive evaluation and improvement of the service in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.
It also recommended establishing how secure the supplier’s current and future financial positioning is and considering, as a result, whether or not to commit to a multi-year deal.
Those suppliers that are able to go beyond simple labor arbitrage savings will be best placed to deliver long-lasting value in terms of process improvement, industrialization and resource optimization.
The application management suppliers that will succeed in the current market will be those that can deliver a ‘blended’ service combining onshore customer intimacy, as well as cost effective offshore skills.
source ITpro
19.11.08
Google and LIFE's Image Library
LIFE has provided a pictorial tapestry of American history. Through a new collaboration with Google, many of the iconic images captured by LIFE are now available through Google's Image Search function.
Many of the images made available today have never been published online before. This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by Google's mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. This collection of newly-digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by LIFE dating all the way back to the 1750s.
Google and LIFE have digitized about 20 percent of LIFE's vast catalog of images. Google is still working to bring the entire catalog online. It says the effort, which includes some 10 million images, will take several more months to complete.
The landing page for the LIFE collection lets users browse through pictures by decade, as well as by people, places, events, sports and culture. I quickly looked at some great photos of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet, Times Square throughout the years, and famous moments from the history of baseball. Many of the pictures are accompanied by information such as the time, date, and place and/or circumstances under which the photo was taken.
Users can look at full-size, full-screen version of each image by clicking on the picture itself in the landing page. Of course, they are all for sale if you want them. Even if you're not interesting in buying any of them, it's worth taking a look at LIFE's pictorial montage of history.
http://images.google.com/hosted/life
18.11.08
British Women Leaving Tech Sector
A British Computer Society study finds fewer women in technology than six years ago because employer policies aren't family-friendly and flexible
Thousands of women are leaving the IT industry due to a lack of flexibility on the part of their employers.
That's the verdict from the British Computer Society (BCS) which has this week revealed that around 37,000 women computing professionals left the IT industry between 2001 and 2007.
According to data from IT sector skills council e-skills, there were 229,440 women working in IT – 33 per cent of the UK's computing profession – in 2001. By 2007, that figure had fallen by six per cent to 192,580.
The fall came in spite of the number of UK tech professionals rising from 989,120 to more than one million over the same period.
Regaining the lost pool of female talent would go a long way to relieving the UK tech skills crisis, according to the BCS.
BCS Women's Forum manager Dr Jan Peters said the rise in women leaving IT is largely due to a lack of flexibility on the part of employers around career breaks to have children, care for relatives or travel.
The BCS said tech workers who are able to plan for a career break are more likely to make a successful return to work rather than leave the profession altogether.
In addition, having too few women in IT teams could affect the ability of companies to secure public sector contracts due to strict requirements around gender balance.
source BW
Thousands of women are leaving the IT industry due to a lack of flexibility on the part of their employers.
That's the verdict from the British Computer Society (BCS) which has this week revealed that around 37,000 women computing professionals left the IT industry between 2001 and 2007.
According to data from IT sector skills council e-skills, there were 229,440 women working in IT – 33 per cent of the UK's computing profession – in 2001. By 2007, that figure had fallen by six per cent to 192,580.
The fall came in spite of the number of UK tech professionals rising from 989,120 to more than one million over the same period.
Regaining the lost pool of female talent would go a long way to relieving the UK tech skills crisis, according to the BCS.
BCS Women's Forum manager Dr Jan Peters said the rise in women leaving IT is largely due to a lack of flexibility on the part of employers around career breaks to have children, care for relatives or travel.
The BCS said tech workers who are able to plan for a career break are more likely to make a successful return to work rather than leave the profession altogether.
In addition, having too few women in IT teams could affect the ability of companies to secure public sector contracts due to strict requirements around gender balance.
source BW
17.11.08
A Widget's Worth
Social networkers frequenting the likes of Facebook can't get enough of these small apps, but developers are still trying to determine how to make money
Developers of add-on software widgets for Facebook have had little trouble drawing huge audiences for their applications, which allow social network users to gather and share all sorts of information, photos, and videos. But generating a profit from this success has proven more of a challenge.
VideoEgg Chief Executive Matt Sanchez is helping to change that. In the second half of 2007, VideoEgg's new ad distribution network generated $1.5 million in revenue for the creators of more than 150 Facebook applications, including a Scrabble widget called Scrabulous, an app for reviewing and rating movies named Flixster, and Vampires, which transforms photos of users' friends into virtual bloodsuckers. "The fascinating thing about widgets is it turns out that distribution isn't really the challenge. People have been tremendously successful in aggregating attention," says Sanchez. "The question is how do you monetize that attention?"
Sanchez is one of several names featured on BusinessWeek.com's list of young tech entrepreneurs trying to transform this new genre of social network widgets into a legitimate business. Other widget creators such as RockYou! and Causes seem to be cracking the monetization code, too.
INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING
Most of the strategies involve advertising in one form or another. That's not so surprising. Of the $26 billion advertisers are expected to invest in online marketing this year, nearly $1.4 billion will go to placing ads on social networks, according to research firm eMarketer.
Many widget makers have two opportunities to generate ad revenue: They can display ads on their Web sites where users download widgets, and then within the widgets themselves.
Both RockYou and VideoEgg have networks that display ads within a variety of widgets for marketers interested in promoting brand awareness. VideoEgg works with NBC (GE), Nike (NKE), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), to name a few, charging them 75¢ to $1 when users interact with these ads by, for example, clicking on or scrolling over it, or perhaps watching a video. About 60% of the revenue goes to the widget developers. In addition to selling ads for other widget creators, RockYou also sells ads on the entertainment widgets it develops in house.
PROFITABLE TRANSACTIONS
Project Agape takes a different tack with its Causes application, which raises awareness and money for nonprofits and other causes. The service takes a 4% transaction fee on contributions raised through the application. Since launching nearly a year ago, the application has generated more than $2 million in donations. Causes also sells ads to companies that want to be associated with these nonprofit endeavors. "A lot of [our revenues] come from the huge expanding world of cause-based marketing," says Project Agape co-founder Joe Green. "Companies care a lot about how they are viewed in terms of causes."
Transactional revenues are also gaining ground as a way to make money from widgets. For example, iRead recommends books that people can purchase by clicking a link that takes them to Amazon.com (AMZN) or Barnes & Noble (BKS). The creators receive a referral fee for each book purchased. Similarly, Cartfly, a widget that enables small business owners to list items for sale on their blogs and social network pages, takes a 3% transaction fee on all items sold through the application.
Other ventures such as iLike are pursuing a mix of transactional and advertising revenue. The music-sharing and -discovery application, part-owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp's (IACI) Ticketmaster, takes a portion of the revenue generated when the widget steers them to other sites where they buy songs, ringtones, or concert tickets. It also sells ads and sponsored music recommendations. "You need to find a balance," says iLike CEO Ali Partovi.
Indeed, the widget economy is still taking shape, and no one is fully settled on the best way to make money from the small programs. "Ideally you want to build a business that has diversified revenue models," says Green.
source: BW
Developers of add-on software widgets for Facebook have had little trouble drawing huge audiences for their applications, which allow social network users to gather and share all sorts of information, photos, and videos. But generating a profit from this success has proven more of a challenge.
VideoEgg Chief Executive Matt Sanchez is helping to change that. In the second half of 2007, VideoEgg's new ad distribution network generated $1.5 million in revenue for the creators of more than 150 Facebook applications, including a Scrabble widget called Scrabulous, an app for reviewing and rating movies named Flixster, and Vampires, which transforms photos of users' friends into virtual bloodsuckers. "The fascinating thing about widgets is it turns out that distribution isn't really the challenge. People have been tremendously successful in aggregating attention," says Sanchez. "The question is how do you monetize that attention?"
Sanchez is one of several names featured on BusinessWeek.com's list of young tech entrepreneurs trying to transform this new genre of social network widgets into a legitimate business. Other widget creators such as RockYou! and Causes seem to be cracking the monetization code, too.
INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING
Most of the strategies involve advertising in one form or another. That's not so surprising. Of the $26 billion advertisers are expected to invest in online marketing this year, nearly $1.4 billion will go to placing ads on social networks, according to research firm eMarketer.
Many widget makers have two opportunities to generate ad revenue: They can display ads on their Web sites where users download widgets, and then within the widgets themselves.
Both RockYou and VideoEgg have networks that display ads within a variety of widgets for marketers interested in promoting brand awareness. VideoEgg works with NBC (GE), Nike (NKE), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), to name a few, charging them 75¢ to $1 when users interact with these ads by, for example, clicking on or scrolling over it, or perhaps watching a video. About 60% of the revenue goes to the widget developers. In addition to selling ads for other widget creators, RockYou also sells ads on the entertainment widgets it develops in house.
PROFITABLE TRANSACTIONS
Project Agape takes a different tack with its Causes application, which raises awareness and money for nonprofits and other causes. The service takes a 4% transaction fee on contributions raised through the application. Since launching nearly a year ago, the application has generated more than $2 million in donations. Causes also sells ads to companies that want to be associated with these nonprofit endeavors. "A lot of [our revenues] come from the huge expanding world of cause-based marketing," says Project Agape co-founder Joe Green. "Companies care a lot about how they are viewed in terms of causes."
Transactional revenues are also gaining ground as a way to make money from widgets. For example, iRead recommends books that people can purchase by clicking a link that takes them to Amazon.com (AMZN) or Barnes & Noble (BKS). The creators receive a referral fee for each book purchased. Similarly, Cartfly, a widget that enables small business owners to list items for sale on their blogs and social network pages, takes a 3% transaction fee on all items sold through the application.
Other ventures such as iLike are pursuing a mix of transactional and advertising revenue. The music-sharing and -discovery application, part-owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp's (IACI) Ticketmaster, takes a portion of the revenue generated when the widget steers them to other sites where they buy songs, ringtones, or concert tickets. It also sells ads and sponsored music recommendations. "You need to find a balance," says iLike CEO Ali Partovi.
Indeed, the widget economy is still taking shape, and no one is fully settled on the best way to make money from the small programs. "Ideally you want to build a business that has diversified revenue models," says Green.
source: BW
16.11.08
Innovate Out of the Economic Downturn
A crisis is precisely the time for governments to boost spending on innovation, not cut it. Otherwise, nations will find themselves playing catch-up
The Austrian economist Josef Schumpeter once declared that economic downturns are "a good cold shower for the economic system." Economic downturns can have positive effects; they force companies to increase their efficiency, cut waste, and strive to do things in smarter ways.
All companies have to cut costs, and deciding what should stay and what should go is the first challenge that faces them. One of the early victims of downsizing is often spending on innovation activities such as R&D, training, or education budgets. Long-term projects are shelved, hiring is frozen, and workers are made redundant. Worse, risk capital evaporates. Unfortunately, this is akin to patients deciding to reduce expenditure by not spending money on medication (as, indeed, has been reported recently).
During economic downturns, innovation is the single most important condition for transforming the crisis into an opportunity. And while many businesses simply won't be able to afford further investment in innovation, governments should recognize that innovation systems, with all their academic, industrial, and public components, are strategic national assets that need to be protected, just like the financial and housing sectors. Times such as these call for government intervention to prevent the contraction of the knowledge bases upon which economies are now more than ever dependent.
In the short term, governments need to provide support to small companies to help them manage the crisis and continue to develop their portfolios of products and services. The British Innovation Advisory Services model, where government-supported consultants are paid for and loaned to companies, is one example of the type of thing that governments can do. Another is the Dutch voucher system, under which the government gives vouchers to small companies, allowing them to source the expertise (mostly consultants) they need from public research institutes. Some 80% of such voucher-supported projects otherwise would not have been undertaken. This type of support is critical to help many small, successful companies get through the crisis.
For the long term, governments should do four things so their countries can emerge from this crisis as winners:
Inject capital. Inject new funds to fill the gap in any serious downfall in private investment in strategic science and technology (S&T) areas such as nanotechnology, alternative energy, health and life sciences. This is what the South Korean government did when the country was hit by a major economic crisis in the late 1990s. Two years later spending on R&D exceeded pre-crisis levels, and Korean businesses did not have to play catch-up when the economy bounced back.
Think Global. Encourage leverage of international investments in S&T programmes from nations and regions that have the cash such as China, the Gulf, and Japan. The Japanese are looking to expand globally, the Chinese are hungry for knowledge transfer, and more recently, small, rich Gulf countries have allocated billions of dollars to spend on science, technology, and learning programs. Expensive long-term S&T programs can become new platforms for multilateral collaboration.
Focus on Public Programs. Maintain and expand levels of funding for public S&T programs. This should help keep a country's knowledge base expanding. When Finland was hit by a massive economic crisis in 1990, after the collapse of its main trade partner, the Soviet Union, its government's expenditure on R&D and education in all sectors increased. Ten years later, Finland emerged as one of the most competitive and innovative countries in the world. In Sweden, a major economic crisis in the early and mid-1990s saw the number of people engaged in R&D activities increase by about 20%. Swedish businesses emerged from the crisis with global leadership in sectors such as telecom and machinery.
Support Talent. Governments should create big seed capital funds to support the newly created army of potential entrepreneurs composed of highly skilled people made recently redundant in specific sectors.
This crisis might decide the fate of economic systems of many countries for decades to come. Not all have the capacity and resources to come out as winners. These are times for forging ahead—and no time for retreat.
source: BW
The Austrian economist Josef Schumpeter once declared that economic downturns are "a good cold shower for the economic system." Economic downturns can have positive effects; they force companies to increase their efficiency, cut waste, and strive to do things in smarter ways.
All companies have to cut costs, and deciding what should stay and what should go is the first challenge that faces them. One of the early victims of downsizing is often spending on innovation activities such as R&D, training, or education budgets. Long-term projects are shelved, hiring is frozen, and workers are made redundant. Worse, risk capital evaporates. Unfortunately, this is akin to patients deciding to reduce expenditure by not spending money on medication (as, indeed, has been reported recently).
During economic downturns, innovation is the single most important condition for transforming the crisis into an opportunity. And while many businesses simply won't be able to afford further investment in innovation, governments should recognize that innovation systems, with all their academic, industrial, and public components, are strategic national assets that need to be protected, just like the financial and housing sectors. Times such as these call for government intervention to prevent the contraction of the knowledge bases upon which economies are now more than ever dependent.
In the short term, governments need to provide support to small companies to help them manage the crisis and continue to develop their portfolios of products and services. The British Innovation Advisory Services model, where government-supported consultants are paid for and loaned to companies, is one example of the type of thing that governments can do. Another is the Dutch voucher system, under which the government gives vouchers to small companies, allowing them to source the expertise (mostly consultants) they need from public research institutes. Some 80% of such voucher-supported projects otherwise would not have been undertaken. This type of support is critical to help many small, successful companies get through the crisis.
For the long term, governments should do four things so their countries can emerge from this crisis as winners:
Inject capital. Inject new funds to fill the gap in any serious downfall in private investment in strategic science and technology (S&T) areas such as nanotechnology, alternative energy, health and life sciences. This is what the South Korean government did when the country was hit by a major economic crisis in the late 1990s. Two years later spending on R&D exceeded pre-crisis levels, and Korean businesses did not have to play catch-up when the economy bounced back.
Think Global. Encourage leverage of international investments in S&T programmes from nations and regions that have the cash such as China, the Gulf, and Japan. The Japanese are looking to expand globally, the Chinese are hungry for knowledge transfer, and more recently, small, rich Gulf countries have allocated billions of dollars to spend on science, technology, and learning programs. Expensive long-term S&T programs can become new platforms for multilateral collaboration.
Focus on Public Programs. Maintain and expand levels of funding for public S&T programs. This should help keep a country's knowledge base expanding. When Finland was hit by a massive economic crisis in 1990, after the collapse of its main trade partner, the Soviet Union, its government's expenditure on R&D and education in all sectors increased. Ten years later, Finland emerged as one of the most competitive and innovative countries in the world. In Sweden, a major economic crisis in the early and mid-1990s saw the number of people engaged in R&D activities increase by about 20%. Swedish businesses emerged from the crisis with global leadership in sectors such as telecom and machinery.
Support Talent. Governments should create big seed capital funds to support the newly created army of potential entrepreneurs composed of highly skilled people made recently redundant in specific sectors.
This crisis might decide the fate of economic systems of many countries for decades to come. Not all have the capacity and resources to come out as winners. These are times for forging ahead—and no time for retreat.
source: BW
Future Hotel Room
Cocktails delivered by robot, panoramic windows-cum-TV-screens, beds that rock you to sleep: German researchers envision a 21st-century hotel room
Bored of boxy hotel rooms where luxury amounts to a mini bar and a remote control for the television set? Take a stroll around the flashy, gadget-laden hotel room of the future, as created by the German research organisation, the Fraunhofer Society, which has its sights set on revamping hotels as we know them.
Its team of scientists and engineers have built a prototype in their 1,500 square meter "laboratory" in Duisberg, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. And it consigns carpeted box-rooms firmly to the past. Firstly the room itself is completely round. A centerpiece is a massive window, shaped like an over-sized ski mask, which by day gives hotel guests a view of the landscape, but at night transforms into a screen where films can be projected.
Changes also take place underfoot. Its carpet is lined with sensors which monitor the guest's arrival and, without delay, heats the room to the required temperature. The bed simulates a light pendulum motion. "It feels as if you were being gently rocked from a seven meter long rope," project leader Vanessa Borkmann said. "It's like being in Nirvana."
The frequently humble hotel bathroom is revamped into the "Future-spa." Here infrared beams from the walls can instantly transform it into a sauna and up to two people can bathe in the whirlpool set in the floor.
Meanwhile, room service also gets a modern twist: at the touch of a switch, a robot delivers the drink of your choice.
The creation may sounds like a futuristic gadgetry fest but, in reality, it responds to top end hotels worldwide which are already toying with conventions and standards when it comes to holiday accommodation. In Songjiang, China, guests can opt for underwater suites, minimalist rooms with a giant aquarium providing the walls. In the Swedish ice hotel, tourists relax in an igloo hotel which is permanently kept at five degrees. Beds are covered by animal pelts.
And such ventures have lifted the bar for German hotels—something which is all too clear to Klaus Scherer head of the Duisberg innovation center. "Here, hotel rooms are still an innovation-free zone," he said.
It can only be reached by boat or helicopter. The designs for the Apeiron Island Hotel in Dubai, to be built 300 meters off the coastline.
Source: Spiegel Online
Bored of boxy hotel rooms where luxury amounts to a mini bar and a remote control for the television set? Take a stroll around the flashy, gadget-laden hotel room of the future, as created by the German research organisation, the Fraunhofer Society, which has its sights set on revamping hotels as we know them.
Its team of scientists and engineers have built a prototype in their 1,500 square meter "laboratory" in Duisberg, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. And it consigns carpeted box-rooms firmly to the past. Firstly the room itself is completely round. A centerpiece is a massive window, shaped like an over-sized ski mask, which by day gives hotel guests a view of the landscape, but at night transforms into a screen where films can be projected.
Changes also take place underfoot. Its carpet is lined with sensors which monitor the guest's arrival and, without delay, heats the room to the required temperature. The bed simulates a light pendulum motion. "It feels as if you were being gently rocked from a seven meter long rope," project leader Vanessa Borkmann said. "It's like being in Nirvana."
The frequently humble hotel bathroom is revamped into the "Future-spa." Here infrared beams from the walls can instantly transform it into a sauna and up to two people can bathe in the whirlpool set in the floor.
Meanwhile, room service also gets a modern twist: at the touch of a switch, a robot delivers the drink of your choice.
The creation may sounds like a futuristic gadgetry fest but, in reality, it responds to top end hotels worldwide which are already toying with conventions and standards when it comes to holiday accommodation. In Songjiang, China, guests can opt for underwater suites, minimalist rooms with a giant aquarium providing the walls. In the Swedish ice hotel, tourists relax in an igloo hotel which is permanently kept at five degrees. Beds are covered by animal pelts.
And such ventures have lifted the bar for German hotels—something which is all too clear to Klaus Scherer head of the Duisberg innovation center. "Here, hotel rooms are still an innovation-free zone," he said.
It can only be reached by boat or helicopter. The designs for the Apeiron Island Hotel in Dubai, to be built 300 meters off the coastline.
Source: Spiegel Online
Porsche Racer
Something special
Designed by Ferry Porsche's eldest son "Butzi," the 1964 Porsche 904 GTS Coupe is widely recognized as one of Porsche's most elegant
15.11.08
Touchy, feely BlackBerry Storm
The BlackBerry Storm is the first touch-screen BlackBerry device and one of the first that has a display with real feedback. When touched, the screen depresses slightly.
source: ZDNet
source: ZDNet
Help Steve Jobs (Or GM) Design The iCar
The discussion of whether Steve Jobs could revitalize the auto industry by working with GM on an iCar (Steve Jobs For President. Of GM?) has been lively. But the bottom line question remains: What should that iCar be?
Let’s leave aside what the root causes of the American auto industry’s failure to move effectively into the present, much less the future, have been. Or whether the Apple culture is the right one to supplant the GM culture.
What is the blow-’em-away i-gotta-have-one design for a premium-priced but affordable iCar that would live up to the instantly game-changing standard of the iPod and the iPhone?
Bob Warfield at SmoothSpan tried to set out some essentials he would expect from a Jobs’ take on the automobile:
–Minimalist and modern.
–Innovative use of materials, from carbon fiber to aluminum and unique combinations of glass and plastics.
–Unique form of propulsion (at least unique to GM)
–Touch panel dashboard
–Heads up navigational display
–Map to nearest gas station that automatically pops up when the gas gauge hits low
–Drop-in slots for iPod or iPhone or other Apples
–RSS reader that speaks to you as you drive
–Audio system that plays back Internet radio stations
Etc. Take a look.
Interestingly, the possibility of a real-life iCar first came up more than a year ago, after Steve Jobs met with Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn. There is also the conceptualization of an iCar (inserted at the top of this post), which looks suspiciously like one of the colorful “see-through” early iMacs, from 1999, on display at The Apple Collection. It comes from a playful faux “Think Different” ad by Chris O’Riley.
So there’s been, one way another, years of thought behind what an Apple-designed iCar would look like and contain.
source: ZDNet
Let’s leave aside what the root causes of the American auto industry’s failure to move effectively into the present, much less the future, have been. Or whether the Apple culture is the right one to supplant the GM culture.
What is the blow-’em-away i-gotta-have-one design for a premium-priced but affordable iCar that would live up to the instantly game-changing standard of the iPod and the iPhone?
Bob Warfield at SmoothSpan tried to set out some essentials he would expect from a Jobs’ take on the automobile:
–Minimalist and modern.
–Innovative use of materials, from carbon fiber to aluminum and unique combinations of glass and plastics.
–Unique form of propulsion (at least unique to GM)
–Touch panel dashboard
–Heads up navigational display
–Map to nearest gas station that automatically pops up when the gas gauge hits low
–Drop-in slots for iPod or iPhone or other Apples
–RSS reader that speaks to you as you drive
–Audio system that plays back Internet radio stations
Etc. Take a look.
Interestingly, the possibility of a real-life iCar first came up more than a year ago, after Steve Jobs met with Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn. There is also the conceptualization of an iCar (inserted at the top of this post), which looks suspiciously like one of the colorful “see-through” early iMacs, from 1999, on display at The Apple Collection. It comes from a playful faux “Think Different” ad by Chris O’Riley.
So there’s been, one way another, years of thought behind what an Apple-designed iCar would look like and contain.
source: ZDNet
13.11.08
Tips For Managing Vendor Relationships In Tough Times
If you're thinking about consolidating your vendor and outsourcing relationships in an effort to save money, don't be hasty. Here are a few tips to consider first.
1) Use this time for fostering communication and collaboration with your internal customers and your vendors.
"If you're not careful, you might sign new deals to cut costs now, but when the economy improves, your constituency will be signing new contracts with other vendors," says Christine Ferrusi Ross, a Forrester Research VP and research director of the firm's sourcing and vendor management team.
That's because when you narrow your organization to fewer vendors, some internal customers could discover those new relationships aren't providing the skills or services they require.
"You need to spend time with your [internal] clients about the relationships they have with their vendors," what they're getting in terms of services and skills, otherwise decisions to stem costs in the short term could end up making things even more unwieldy later, she says. "You don't want to end up in the same boat or worse six months from now."
Communication also is vitally important between you and the vendors. "Give the provider the ability to offer good ideas, not just be an order taker," she says. Now is the time for CIOs and sourcing managers "to build trust."
2) Tap into your vendors' expertise while things are slower.
Service organizations have more people sitting on the bench these days. Now's a good time to access skills and expertise that are usually harder to find. For instance, if you've been wanting to pilot new business intelligence applications in your organization, a vendor just might have people with those talents available to help right away. "Renegotiate with your vendors to add incremental project work," Ross says.
When it comes to working with vendors "that are on shaky ground" because of the economy, evaluate the risks and possible rewards carefully. Working with a vendor that is having problems "isn't a death sentence," she says. In fact, it could be an opportunity to strengthen the relationship moving ahead. Telling a vendor "I'm going to give you more work to help you" can result in some good new opportunities, she says.
3) Evaluate alternative geographies.
This is a good time to look at what's going on in other countries for possible sourcing relationships, she says. "Consider what's going on economically, politically in other geographies," she says. For instance, rising inflation in India might mean it's time to consider services from vendors in other countries, like Vietnam or the Philippines, she says. Consider "whether there are markets we can take advantage of" based on current conditions and trends.
Looking for more ideas? Ross and her colleagues will be discussing other tips and insights about vendor relationships during Forrester's Services & Sourcing Forum 2008 in Miami next week.
source InformationWeek
1) Use this time for fostering communication and collaboration with your internal customers and your vendors.
"If you're not careful, you might sign new deals to cut costs now, but when the economy improves, your constituency will be signing new contracts with other vendors," says Christine Ferrusi Ross, a Forrester Research VP and research director of the firm's sourcing and vendor management team.
That's because when you narrow your organization to fewer vendors, some internal customers could discover those new relationships aren't providing the skills or services they require.
"You need to spend time with your [internal] clients about the relationships they have with their vendors," what they're getting in terms of services and skills, otherwise decisions to stem costs in the short term could end up making things even more unwieldy later, she says. "You don't want to end up in the same boat or worse six months from now."
Communication also is vitally important between you and the vendors. "Give the provider the ability to offer good ideas, not just be an order taker," she says. Now is the time for CIOs and sourcing managers "to build trust."
2) Tap into your vendors' expertise while things are slower.
Service organizations have more people sitting on the bench these days. Now's a good time to access skills and expertise that are usually harder to find. For instance, if you've been wanting to pilot new business intelligence applications in your organization, a vendor just might have people with those talents available to help right away. "Renegotiate with your vendors to add incremental project work," Ross says.
When it comes to working with vendors "that are on shaky ground" because of the economy, evaluate the risks and possible rewards carefully. Working with a vendor that is having problems "isn't a death sentence," she says. In fact, it could be an opportunity to strengthen the relationship moving ahead. Telling a vendor "I'm going to give you more work to help you" can result in some good new opportunities, she says.
3) Evaluate alternative geographies.
This is a good time to look at what's going on in other countries for possible sourcing relationships, she says. "Consider what's going on economically, politically in other geographies," she says. For instance, rising inflation in India might mean it's time to consider services from vendors in other countries, like Vietnam or the Philippines, she says. Consider "whether there are markets we can take advantage of" based on current conditions and trends.
Looking for more ideas? Ross and her colleagues will be discussing other tips and insights about vendor relationships during Forrester's Services & Sourcing Forum 2008 in Miami next week.
source InformationWeek
See Ancient Rome in 3D!! @ Google Earth
Google Earth's new layer of ancient Rome offers virtual tourists the chance to explore a city long gone.
Google Earth is extending its satellite perspective to paint a picture of what the ancient city of Rome looked like nearly two millennia ago.
While satellites weren't around to give us a bird's eye view of the city in 320 A.D., Google's "Ancient Rome 3-D" offers a 3D simulation of the ancient city at the height of its power. The new layer for the tool allows virtual time-traveling tourists to fly around the city and zoom in to explore ancient structures as they likely looked at the time, including the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Circus Maximus. Pop-up windows offer historical information written by experts.
The project, which was unveiled Wednesday, is the first ancient city to be incorporated into Google Earth and was developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Virginia.
The computer graphics are based on the Plastico di Roma Antica, a plaster model that was created by Italian architect Italo Gismondi and finished three years before his death in 1974. (The model can be viewed at the city's Museo della Civilta Romana.)
The digitization project began in 1997 and took 10 years to complete. It then took 15 people the better part of a year to transfer the project to the Web.
And apparently, they got it right.
"What fascinates me most about this project is the accuracy of the details of the three-dimensional models," Gianni Alemanno, Rome's mayor, wrote in a blog posting on Google's site. "It's such a great experience to be able to admire the monuments, streets and buildings of Ancient Rome with a virtual camera that lets you go inside and see all the architectural details."
While the public's interest in ancient Rome has exploded due in large part to movies like Gladiator and TV shows like HBO'sRome, Google is promoting the new layer as an educational tool and has invited teachers to submit innovative lesson plans that incorporate the new feature.
In other Google globetrotting, the company recently announced that after recent launches in France, Spain, and Italy, Google's Street View is now available in six countries. Also, Street View cameras have been spotted in New Zealand.
source cnet
Google Earth is extending its satellite perspective to paint a picture of what the ancient city of Rome looked like nearly two millennia ago.
While satellites weren't around to give us a bird's eye view of the city in 320 A.D., Google's "Ancient Rome 3-D" offers a 3D simulation of the ancient city at the height of its power. The new layer for the tool allows virtual time-traveling tourists to fly around the city and zoom in to explore ancient structures as they likely looked at the time, including the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Circus Maximus. Pop-up windows offer historical information written by experts.
The project, which was unveiled Wednesday, is the first ancient city to be incorporated into Google Earth and was developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Virginia.
The computer graphics are based on the Plastico di Roma Antica, a plaster model that was created by Italian architect Italo Gismondi and finished three years before his death in 1974. (The model can be viewed at the city's Museo della Civilta Romana.)
The digitization project began in 1997 and took 10 years to complete. It then took 15 people the better part of a year to transfer the project to the Web.
And apparently, they got it right.
"What fascinates me most about this project is the accuracy of the details of the three-dimensional models," Gianni Alemanno, Rome's mayor, wrote in a blog posting on Google's site. "It's such a great experience to be able to admire the monuments, streets and buildings of Ancient Rome with a virtual camera that lets you go inside and see all the architectural details."
While the public's interest in ancient Rome has exploded due in large part to movies like Gladiator and TV shows like HBO'sRome, Google is promoting the new layer as an educational tool and has invited teachers to submit innovative lesson plans that incorporate the new feature.
In other Google globetrotting, the company recently announced that after recent launches in France, Spain, and Italy, Google's Street View is now available in six countries. Also, Street View cameras have been spotted in New Zealand.
source cnet
11.11.08
What Technology Can Teach Schools About Kids?
Is your kid's school using technology in innovative, exceptional, or surprising ways? I'm not talking only about in-the-classroom use of computers; I'm also referring to technology that's being deployed behind the scenes.
An upcoming feature story is spotlighting technology trends in education, specifically how some schools are using sophisticated data analysis tools to dig into student, school, and district performance data. By analyzing these trends, these schools are hoping to uncover new insights to help kids achieve.
The education system (especially public schools) always seems to be on the defensive, needing to explain why kids flunk out, drop out, rank low in math and science skills compared with other nations, and suffer from a host of other embarrassing troubles.
Surely, there's a range of many issues at work and technology isn't going to solve all those problems. But technology could help shed new light on what's going on below the surface.
If technology is helping (or hoping) to turn things around at your local schools (or helping your schools continue on a trajectory of greatness,) tell me about it.
Source: InformationWeek
An upcoming feature story is spotlighting technology trends in education, specifically how some schools are using sophisticated data analysis tools to dig into student, school, and district performance data. By analyzing these trends, these schools are hoping to uncover new insights to help kids achieve.
The education system (especially public schools) always seems to be on the defensive, needing to explain why kids flunk out, drop out, rank low in math and science skills compared with other nations, and suffer from a host of other embarrassing troubles.
Surely, there's a range of many issues at work and technology isn't going to solve all those problems. But technology could help shed new light on what's going on below the surface.
If technology is helping (or hoping) to turn things around at your local schools (or helping your schools continue on a trajectory of greatness,) tell me about it.
Source: InformationWeek
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