“The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent in August, its highest level in five years, as the erosion of the job market accelerated over the summer.” - New York Times ”

Andrew To, the sales and research director for Taifook Securities Company in Hong Kong, was more optimistic, pointing out that Hong Kong’s stock market has already lost two-fifths of its value since reaching a record of 31,958.41 on Oct. 30 last year. “Personally, I see this as a golden buying opportunity,” he said.” - New York Times

“YouMail (www.youmail.com), the mobile industry’s premier consumer
voicemail service, today announced a new transcription capability that
will enable users to receive voicemails converted to text. Users who
opt-in will receive automatically transcribed voicemail messages to
their email inbox or via text message to their mobile phone or PDA.
The transcription service is available now for free through a beta
program, with general availability expected later in 2008.”
- “Youmail Adds Speech to Text”, Reuters.com

Youmail Voicemail Transcription Example:

Signup for youmail.com here….

If you have a Blackberry and use Verizon Wireless, you are not allowed to download and install AOL Instant Messenger to your phone (see also: 20 Billion Text Messages x Pricing Increase to .20 per message). As a result, you’ll have to venture into 3rd party mobile application territory to get your chat on. There are several Instant Messaging applications available however Beejive.com’s JiveTalk seems to be the best choice with multiple platform and account support, a one time fee of $19 bucks, a clean interface:

and good business practices to top it off… (more…)

Technology Review (a magazine published by MIT) recently asked various thought leaders what the Web might be in ten years. Below is one of the most creative responses but all the interviews are quite intriguing.

Jonathan Abrams
Founder of Socializr and Friendster; San Francisco, CA

“In five to ten years, we will all have chips in our brains. When you look at someone’s face on the street, your Google Brain software will automatically call up every embarrassing photo of them from ancient websites such as Flickr, Facebook, and MySpace; list all mutual friends; and remind you of the person’s annotated bio. As a response to the perceived slowness and verbosity of antiquated services like Twitter, people will send everyone they know nanobursts of information about anything they might do or think before they actually do or think it. Every website, blog, and social-networking profile will include an aggregated feed from every other website, blog, and social-networking service, resulting in an exponential and infinite length of repeated content on every possible site, overloading our brain chips and causing frequent nosebleeds and occasional cerebral hemorrhage.”

Source: The Future of The Web, Technology Review 7/2008

Here is a quick email exchange that included some interesting statistics regarding the so-called “New Energy Crisis”. In short, the U.S. department of Labor estimates that as much as 50 percent of the nation’s utility workforce will retire in the next five to ten years. In 2006 there were 549,000 employees in the utilities industry (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) which means over a quarter million people are estimated to exit this space as early as 2013. Major energy consulting agencies are already offering planning services and reselling Google’s Enterprise Solutions to enable one of the biggest “brain dumps” in history.

Question:

“Saw this article [below] on one of our industry daily newsletters. Are you
familiar with this Google Enterprise Professional program? Just curious. The company is called K-E-M-A, it’s an international consulting company. Suppose I could google “google enterprise” and get an answer too!”

“Faced with a graying workforce, [electric] utilities are seeking ways to
retain the knowledge and experience of their retiring professionals. K-E-M-A
has joined the Google Enterprise Professional program and is offering a new
line of services that helps utilities capture the knowledge of their aging
workforce by extending the power of Google across the enterprise.
BURLINGTON, MASS. - April 28, 2008 (News Release)”

Answer:

it’s this…

the certification costs $5k per year and has the following “Partner Requirements”:

Potential Google Enterprise Professional partners must meet the following requirements in order to initiate and retain membership in this program:

• Membership Fee
  • Search: $5,000 per year
  • Apps: $5,000 per year
• Partner Specialties - Choose from any combination of the following specialties:
  • Customization / Integration / Development
  • Installation
  • Training
  • Integration with your own Application
• Annual certification– Fulfilled via onsite training and certification, and then renewed annually
• Success Story– As a Google Enterprise Professional, you’ll be providing valuable assistance to Google Enterprise customers and we want to share your stories. Partners are required to publish a customer or solution success story.

Based on K-E-M-A’s press release it looks like they have already become a “partner”. This allows them to resell Google Enterprise Solutions with value-add consulting services to help utility companies establish an archive of their knowledge/data/processes and then hook up a google search appliance (below) to access it.

This is appears to be a smart move on their part based on these two articles:

“The U.S. department of Labor estimates that as much as 50 percent of the nation’s utility workforce will retire in the next five to ten years. From engineers to line-workers, the challenges associated with replacing the vast amount of technical and institutional knowledge of these professionals will be immense. Potential impact on day-to-day utility operations will be significant.” - KEMA

“Anyone and everyone with a power plant in the United States – municipalities, states, private-sector utilities, federal power agencies and manufacturers, as well as institutions from schools to hospitals – has a common challenge. The power industry workforce – the technicians, engineers, linemen and maintenance crews that fuel the industry – will be retiring in unprecedented numbers over the next ten years. The energy industry is one of the first to feel the effect of Baby Boomer retirements. This is partly due to massive hiring freezes and downsizing when the industry deregulated and focused on cost-cutting measures in the 1980s and 90s.” - http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=4226

Jack Welch on Work/Life:

“Your boss’s top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but only inasmuch as it helps the company win. In fact, if he is doing his job right, he is making your job so exciting that your personal life becomes a less compelling draw.”

The quote above was pulled from:
Jack Welch’s best seller “Winning” (2005)
I read this book a while back and highly recommend it. Recently, I’ve started to publish an excerpt from the book to kick off each week.

Jack Welch on China:

“Yes, you hear about China’s problems - its scarcity of middle managers, for instance, and the massive number of poor farming families moving into unprepared cities with not enough jobs to support them. Lumbering, bureaucratic state-owned enterprises still make up most of its economy. And the country’s banks are saddled with bad loans. But for China, these aren’t mountains to be scaled, they’re blips to be flattened by the giant, high-speed bulldozer that is its economy. Increasing prosperity from spectacular economic growth over the past twenty years has given the Chinese enormous self-confidence. But China has so much more: a massive pool of low-cost, hardworking laborers and a rapidly expanding number of well-educated engineers.”

“And then there’s its work ethic, which may be its single biggest strength. Entrepreneurship and competition are baked into the Chinese culture. Consider the executive who hosted me during a week long visit to Shanghai and Beijing last year. She said she’s at the office from 7am until 6pm, goes home for dinner to join her husband and son until 8pm, and then returns to work until midnight. “This is very typical here,” she said, “six days a week.” And she works for a U.S. multinational!”

“You can look at China and feel victimized. Or you can look at it and be excited about conquering the challenges and opportunities it presents.”

The quotes above were pulled from:
Jack Welch’s best seller “Winning” (2005)
I read this book a while back and highly recommend it. Recently, I’ve started to publish an excerpt from the book to kick off each week.

“I think winning is great. Not good - great. Because when companies win, people thrive and grow. There are more jobs and more opportunities.”

“A good mission statement and a good set of values are so real they smack you in the face with their concreteness. The mission announces exactly where you are going, and the values describe the behaviors that will get you there… an effective mission statement basically answers one questions: How do we intend to win in this business? In the most common scenario, a company’s mission and its values rupture due to the little crises of daily life in business.”

Jack Welch on Values:

• Never let profit center conflicts get in the way of doing what is right for the customer.
• Give customers a good, fair deal. Great customer relationships take time. Do not try to maximize short-term profits at the expense of building those enduring relationships.
• Always look for ways to make it easier to do business with us
• Communicate daily with your customer. If they are talking to you, they can’t be talking to a competitor.

The quotes above were pulled from:
Jack Welch’s best seller “Winning” (2005)
I read this book a while back and highly recommend it. Recently, I’ve started to publish an excerpt from the book to kick off each week.

Below is a story extracted from a rather creative email marketing campaign which I actually read all the way through this morning (yes, 2 minutes of my life I’ll never get back again). It highlights a taxi driver’s perspective on the imminent recession…

Very cool how the company uses a real life experience to illustrate and validate the ominous state of the economy… telling the story in first person and then positioning their service as a solution to the problem.

Great job of seeking out opportunity in a somewhat dismal forecast…

A foreboding Monday morning Dan!

It was about 5 o’clock in midtown Manhattan and I was desperately looking for a taxi to get to a meeting in Greenwich Village when signs of the impending recession landed on my head the way the coming of the robins announces the spring.

Four–thirty p.m. is changeover time in Manhattan. All the taxis light their “off duty” signals and head for the home garage, which makes it difficult to get anywhere in a hurry at the end of the day.

So I was relieved when the driver of one black Town Car – so prevalent in New York streets and “Sex in the City” re–runs – pulled up and rolled down his window.

I’m used to negotiating with these guys. This was probably a $15 ride in a yellow cab, but the black cars will usually ask for $35.

I figured I’d offer $20 and haggle my way to $25.

So I was shocked when he offered “Bank and West Fourth? Twenty bucks.”

“That’s pretty odd,” I thought. But then I got in.

Drivers like to chat. It’s a staple of conventional wisdom and Hollywood movies that the musings of the wizened, world–weary driver are worth more than all the high–priced consultants and fancy lawyers you can hire.

“Tough year, man, so far…” he said over his shoulder.

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

“Yeah, none of them big firms are hiring us. It’s dead. That’s why I’m doing street hails.”

And that’s when it hit me, folks: the recession is really coming. When the financial services and law firms are announcing write–downs and lay–offs and, horror of horrors, they start to economize on expenses, that’s when the crimp has really hit the fan belt.

Cheapo town cars on the streets of Gotham mean one thing for you, Readers: the economy is really slowing up, and it’s time for you to take action.

We’ve got over 70,000 jobs right now on TheLadders.com, and it’s time for you to upgrade to Premium, start applying to jobs and contacting recruiters, and get your job insurance against the coming recession. It’s time to make sure there’s something else out there in case your division, your company, your industry suddenly finds itself doing the “Layoff Polka.”

And it’s time to get serious, folks. I’m asking all 200 employees here at TheLadders.com’s Manhattan headquarters to get even more serious on your behalf… we’re going to dig for every job, polish every resume, and call every recruiter we can in order to make your $100k+ job hunt shorter, more effective, and less painful.

Happy hunting, this week, folks, but also an admonition… get hunting now!

Warmest Regards,

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.

A pretty good laugh…

YouTube  Tech Bubble Video

The definition of a “Hype Cycle” is “a graphical representation of the maturity, adoption and business application of specific technologies” according to Wikipedia.org.

The term was originally “coined” by The Gartner Research Group (based in Stamford, CT). There supposedly 5 phases in the Hype Cycle:

1. “Technology Trigger“ — The breakthrough, or product launch
2. “Peak of Inflated Expectations“ — The frenzy of publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations. There may be some successful applications of a technology, but there are typically more failures.
3. “Trough of Disillusionment“ — Technologies enter the “trough of disillusionment” when they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons the topic and the technology.
4. “Slope of Enlightenment“ — Although the press may have stopped covering the technology, some businesses continue through the “slope of enlightenment” and experiment to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology.
5. “Plateau of Productivity“ — A technology reaches the “plateau of productivity” as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted. The technology becomes increasingly stable and evolves in second and third generations. The final height of the plateau varies according to whether the technology is broadly applicable or benefits only a niche market.

Click the thumbnail below (pulled from Gartner.com) to check out a handful of technologies mapped to the “Hype Cycle” chart:

What I found most interesting/enlightening about this Hype Cycle theory was outlined in a video presentation by Chris Anderson (Editor of Wired Magazine). He suggests that “unique opportunities exist at each phase of the hype cycle”. If you’re someone who spends time reviewing technology news sources such as TechCrunch, Mashable.com, etc… you’ll find many of the companies are written about @ the “Technology Trigger” phase and then quickly buried under the next up and comer. This goes for many of the VC bloggers out there as well… they pump out reviews/commentary on the latest and greatest technologies/startups at such an early stage… and often times these technologies become “old news” before they even reach the “slope of enlightenment”.

Here is the video presentation by Chris Anderson… but beware… it’s 16 minutes long:

YouTube  Chris Anderson - The Technology Long Tail

Last week Andrew Tobias (current Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and Author of “The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need”) shared some of his readers‘ experiences with Mint.com.

Mr. Tobias: a big thanks for the link to my write up on Mint/Covestor. Apparently, AT is friends w/ one of the Mint.com founder’s which allowed him to share:

• The monetization strategy of this relatively new online finance management service:
  • AT: Their game plan is ad revenue and “sponsored links.” My friend who’s one of the founders says: “Some of the offers we present are sponsored, meaning we earn a referral fee if you sign up for them. However, Mint will always show you an un-sponsored offer ahead of a sponsored one if it will save you more money. We sort offers in order of their value to users, regardless of sponsorship.”
• A response to the concerns about how your login credentials are used/stored:
  • AT: My friend responds: “Mint does not store your credentials, we use them once to create a linkage with your account(s). Consider the benefits of being able to see all your account activity in one place – makes it easy to spot any suspicious activity (remember 90% of fraud occurs off line). Mint offers alerts (via email, or text message) to bring unusual spending to your attention.”
• Click here for the full article…

Nicholas Negroponte’s goal is to setup every child in “emerging” countries around the world with a $200 laptop to promote self education. This program was setup in response to the lack of educational resources in many developing nations across the globe.

Mass production of these “XO” laptops is slated to begin this month to prepare for launch on November 12th. You can track the progress and major developments of Nicholas’ program by visiting: http://www.laptop.org/en/vision/progress/index.shtml.

1. Nicholas Negroponte is founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child non-profit association.
2. He is currently on leave from MIT, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory, and the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology.
3. A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design, and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966.
4. Conceived in 1980, the Media Laboratory opened its doors in 1985. He is also author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages.
5. In the private sector, Nicholas Negroponte serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc. and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment.
6. He has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.
   Source: Laptop.org

Click the thumbnail below to see a preview of this laptop that can be donated AND delivered for a mere $200…

- from Paul Graham’s “The Future of Web Startups”

(greetings to everyone from AndrewTobias.com!)

Mint.com and Covestor.com are startup companies providing two very unique online personal finance and investment tracking services but they do have one thing in common… and that’s spectacular customer service for all us beta testers.

Mint.com is a free service that has established thousands of integrations with major banks and financial institutions which allows your transactions and spending trends to be aggregated/analyzed via their website. They make their money by advertising “potential savings” through special offers based on your spending activities. This service could effectively replace one’s Quicken or Microsoft Money account (once they work out a few more bugs). One of the issues I encountered with Mint was a failed integration with a major bank. The problem was not entirely their fault as it seemed to be caused by a recent addition of security questions to the bank’s login process. Regardless, I received a response just 4.5 hours after reporting the issue on a Sunday evening!

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Mint.com: Personal Finance Forums Contact Us Form - Site Feedback Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:55:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Damon Billian To: dan @ Mint.com: Personal Finance Forums
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the email.

I am going to highlight this to engineering.

Sorry that I can’t provide an immediate resolution…

other banks are now having this problem as well
Regards,
Damon

—– Original Message —–
From: “dan @ Mint.com: Personal Finance Forums”
To: Damon Billian
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 6:18:22 PM (GMT-0800) America/Los_Angeles
Subject: Mint.com: Personal Finance Forums Contact Us Form - Site Feedback

Adding an account for “my bank” fails every time giving me a “Wrong Password Error”. I’ve attempted 7-8 times… my password is definitely correct… The bank just started requiring “security questions” which they require to be filled out at every login.

Can you help? This seems like a decent size bank so the issue could be blocking a lot of people from using your service.

Thanks!

Covestor.com is “a real-trade sharing service for proven self-investors to share real investment decisions, gain recognition and earn fees by helping others. All data is private, normalized and anonymous, and membership is free”. The issue I experienced with Covestor was the inability to add multiple trading accounts to their system. Within 2 hours of reporting my issue I received a response:

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Covestor Support: Multiple accounts
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:40:57
From: perry
To: Dan

Hi Dan
It is possible to add multiple brokers, but unfortunately it is not possible to do this using the automatic data import. At the moment we are only able to consolidate sub accounts with a single broker using this feature. It is on the development list but may take some time given the pending priorities. If you wish to set up a separate account find attached a registration code and it is no problem to set up a second Covestor account: xxxxxxx. With the manual feature you could consolidate them if you wish but I realize that this will likely be additional overhead in populating trades. Just so that you know you may also need to register with a different email address for the other account as we use this as a further security precaution.

I hope this helps and let me know if you need anything further.

Very best wishes
- Perry

Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised by speedy turnarounds from these ultra nimble/motivated startups… but it is a refreshing change compared to a few recent experiences with cell phone and utility companies.