Firefox Better Browser Now The Best Forbes.com:
Forbes.com: Better Browser Now The Best: "Microsoft's Explorer may indeed still command the vast majority of the Web browser market. But the 'Browser Battle' is on again. Microsoft should be watching Firefox carefully because Firefox is better than Explorer by leaps and bounds."
Microsoft and Amazon take spam suits to Head Operation - Computer Business Review
Microsoft and Amazon take spam suits to Head Operation - Computer Business Review: "Microsoft and Amazon claim that Barry Head, his sons Eric and Matthew, and their company Gold Disk Canada Inc, sent millions of spams to their users, spoofing email headers to appear to come from Microsoft and Amazon domains. "
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "Virgin Media Group on Tuesday revealed it had agreed to drop out of the Internet business by selling its 51 percent stake in Virgin Net to minority partner NTL, the UK cable communications provider."
Virgin Net sold to NTL Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "Virgin Media Group on Tuesday revealed it had agreed to drop out of the Internet business by selling its 51 percent stake in Virgin Net to minority partner NTL, the UK cable communications provider."
Webby Awards open for submission
Webby AwardsEarly Bird Deadline October 29, 2004 $175 USD
New Online Resource Helps Find Startup Business Capital
New Online Resource Helps Find Startup Business Capital: "CapitalPostings.com announced today it has added 'business startup capital wanted' to its online listings services."
Technology Review: Sir Tim Berners-Lee Update re semantic web
Technology Review: Sir Tim Berners-Lee: "Sir Tim Berners-Lee "
Trademarks and Search....Forbes.com: Update 1: German Court Nixes Lawsuit Against Google
Forbes.com: Update 1: German Court Nixes Lawsuit Against Google: "German Court Nixes Lawsuit Against Google "
ABC Namebank - Three Golden Rules
ABC Namebank - Three Golden Rules: "Three Golden Rules of Naming "
Brand of the Year ratingsUS & Canada
Expedia enters at 48 as the top branded general travel site....single airline sites - 6 JetBlue and 23 Southwest Airlines rank higher
US & Canada:
"48 Expedia
49 Travelocity
50 Motorola
51 NBC
52 Canon
53 Burger King
54 Weather Channel
55 Orbitz "
Branding A New Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century and other articles
Amazon.com: Books:
Amazon.com: Books: A New Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century: "Bedbury, who headed advertising and marketing divisions for Nike and Starbucks during their phenomenal growth, coaches on establishing a memorable brand in this appealing, well-organized guide. Observing consumers overwhelmed by countless choices,
he argues that now's the time to build a brand that evokes trust from its customers. 'Unless your brand stands for something, it stands for nothing,' he declares, as he explains methods for companies big and small to articulate their essence and ethos (their 'genetic code' in Bedbury's catchy parlance) to core customers, potential customers and employees. The inside stories on Nike and Starbucks constitute the bulk, but Bedbury elaborates his belief that 'the brand is the sum total of everything a company does' with lively anecdotes from the experiences of Harley-Davidson, Microsoft and others. To Bedbury, brands have not only a genetic code but also karma. As strongly as he emphasizes the need to develop growth strategies that spring organically from a brand's core, he also believes that successful brands respect or meet customers' emotional needs."
brandchannel.com | search | result | travelArticles and debate re travel and branding inc review of guidebook brands
brandchannel.com | Brand Marketing for a Demand Responsive World | Ray Podder: "The point is to build your brand marketing strategy around the needs of your customer first; everything else will naturally follow."
re Guy Kawasaki's The Art Of Pitching : The Art of the Start : Running MoneyForbes.com:
Forbes.com: The Art Of Pitching: "Guy Kawasaki's new book The Art of the Start"
What follows is an abridged version of the third chapter--"The Art of Pitching"--from Guy Kawasaki's new book The Art of the Start (Portfolio, $26.95).
Forget "I think, therefore I am." For entrepreneurs, the salient phrase is "I pitch, therefore I am." Pitching isn't only useful for raising money--it's an essential tool for reaching agreement on any subject. Agreement can yield many outcomes: management buy-in for developing a product or service, closing a sale, securing a partnership, recruiting an employee or securing an investment.
Forbes.com: Two for Our Time Running Money and The Art of the Start together offer readers thrilling macro and micro views of entrepreneurship...
Review of Running Money (HarperBusiness, $24.95), is by Andy Kessler, a former Morgan Stanley semiconductor analyst turned investment banker...You'll want to return to it often to absorb the lessons of how industrial revolutions play out--whether 19th century or 21st--and who really makes the money.
Review of The Art of the Start: Kawasaki guides you through chapters on starting, positioning, pitching, bootstrapping, recruiting, raising capital, partnering and branding.
Forbes.com: Q&A: Guy Kawasaki: "Q&A: Guy Kawasaki "
HBS Working Knowledge: Innovation: The Innovator's Battle Plan
HBS Working Knowledge: Innovation: The Innovator's Battle Plan:
"Great firms can be undone by disruptors who analyze and exploit an incumbent’s strengths and motivations. From Clayton Christensen’s new book Seeing What’s Next."
His definition and use of "cramming" to explain implementation ( or not) of new technologies, opportunities etc identifies another "soft belly" of main competitors...
Cramming is :"When an existing firm tries to insert a product or service with disruptive potential into its processes, what comes out the other end tends not to be disruptive. Instead of embracing the innovative product's inherently disruptive nature, the incumbent inevitably tries to morph the product to fit into its existing processes and values. It alters the innovation to enhance its appeal to core customers and fit within its operating model. The problem with cramming is that it changes the innovation in ways that obviate its inherent disruptive energy. It takes an innovation from a circumstance in which its unique features are valuable to a circumstance in which its unique features are a liability.
Cramming is like trying to stuff a square peg into a round hole. What signs indicate that cramming is occurring? When companies spend a lot of money fixing product deficiencies, they may be cramming. Large charges or expenses to integrate an acquisition are a good tip-off. Another sign is when companies must convince customers to change their behavior or put up with something they don't seem to want.
For example, Kodak first began to sense that digital imaging might pose a threat to its core business in the mid-1990s. It invested more than $2 billion in research and development. However, it framed the challenge as, "How do we make digital imaging good enough to serve as a viable replacement to silver halide film in our core market?" By seeking to create high-priced, performance-competitive digital products, Kodak missed much of the disruptive growth driven by inexpensive digital imaging. Kodak eventually established a strong market share after introducing a very low-cost camera, but only after spending $2 billion trying to maximize its cameras' performance.10
Companies that develop different ways to target nonconsumers and overshot customers can create a new market or attack the lower tiers of a market almost free from interference from an incumbent that views the opportunities as unattractive. They have the potential to develop legitimately different skills and business models….
How can you observe asymmetric motivation in action?
When companies take completely different actions that make sense to both of them, it is a sign that there are asymmetries. When one firm calls an industry "unprofitable" while another firm calls that market "important," asymmetries are at work.
Asymmetric skills act as a weapon a company can brandish to attack its opponents. Remember, a company's skills come largely from its processes. A process comes from repeatedly solving a particular class of problem. Processes are designed to get the same thing done, over and over—and as such they tend to be inflexible. Asymmetric skills arise when one firm, through repeatedly completing the same task, has developed a unique ability to do something that its competitor is uniquely unable to do.
How can you tell if combatants have asymmetric skills? Make a list of the tasks the company has repeatedly addressed, for which formal and informal processes have likely coalesced. Compare the list to the nature of tasks required to succeed in the disruptive market. If a company's processes facilitate its doing what it needs to get done in a market context, it has the requisite skills to take that market. Companies all have strengths and weaknesses. When one firm has strengths in markets in which another firm's capabilities are weaknesses, the firms have asymmetric skills.
Our theories suggest co-option efforts will be fruitless when success requires different skills or motivation. But when co-option is viable, incumbents can still ultimately master the technology and detain or swallow potential attackers. Existing telephone companies knew how to build and maintain networks. They had existing customers. They had a ton of cash. These were tough capabilities for wireless entrants to overcome. Selecting a business model that looked attractive to incumbents and providing a means for incumbents to learn put wireless entrants at a long-term disadvantage.
To sum up, incumbents tend to respond to potential disruptive incursions in one of three ways: they either cede a market, attempt growth-driven co-option, or attempt defensive co-option.
Forbes.com: Buffett: Judge Says Berkshire's Geico Can Sue Google for trademark infringement, unfair competition and dilution of its marks
Forbes.com: Buffett: Judge Says Berkshire's Geico Can Sue Google: "Geico can sue both Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) and Yahoo!'s (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) Overture Services for allegedly selling ads keyed to its trademarks, a federal judge has ruled. Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied the search firms' motion to dismiss six charges brought by Geico, an insurer that's one of many subsidiaries of Warren Buffett's vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: BRKa - news - people ). Geico alleged that the Internet firms' use of its moniker to trigger search-related adverts was trademark infringement, unfair competition and dilution of its marks. But Judge Brinkema did grant the search companies' motions to dismiss claims of statutory business conspiracy and tortious interference. Not sure what the latter means? You know where you can look them up..."
Citation guidelines: Frequently Asked Questions about Quoting
Frequently Asked Questions: "Frequently Asked Questions for In-Text Citations
7. (Q) How do I cite my sources using the in-text citation method?
(A)
Parenthetical citations within the text of your paper are very important to help your reader's find the information that you have used, and to guard against plagiarism. APA requires that you cite all quotes, paraphrases, summaries, and any other sources that you use that is not your own wording.
An in-text citation should always be placed in parentheses.
If a specific page is being referenced, the citation should include the author's last name, the date of publication, and the specific page number being cited.
Example: (Buss, 1981, p. 32)
If you are citing an electronic source use the paragraph number instead of a page number, if available.
Example: (Buss, 1981, para. 5)
If, for some reason, a page number or a paragraph number are not available, direct your readers attention to the material being referenced by a heading proceeding the material, then count down from that heading to the paragraph containing your material.
Example: (Myers, 2000, 'Conclusion' section, para. 1)
If an electronic document does not indicate the name of an author, then refer to it by the first few words of the title.
Example: ('Study finds,' 2001) "
University of Chicago Press Guidelines This is the style I am most used to... quotes are numbered and sources quoted at bottom of page...
Unlike APA and MLA styles, the
Chicago style of citing sources does not utilize in-text references; instead, footnotes and endnotes are substituted. The University of Chicago Press endorses the guidelines proposed by Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger in Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. (New York: St. Martins, 1998). The following pages provide examples of how to cite electronic resources using Chicago style based on these guidelines.
World Wide Web sources
Personal communication (e-mail, etc.)
Electronic journals
CD-ROMs
Endnotes / Bibliography page
Guardian Unlimited | Style guide | Quotes and references
Guardian Unlimited | Style guide | Q: "quotes
Take care with direct speech: our readers should be confident that words appearing in quotation marks accurately represent the actual words uttered by the speaker, though ums and ahems can be removed and bad grammar improved. If you aren't sure of the exact wording, use indirect speech.
Where a lot of material has been left out, start off a new quote with 'He added: ... ', or signify this with an ellipsis.
Take particular care when extracting from printed material, for example a minister's resignation letter. And introduce the speaker from the beginning, or after the first sentence: it is confusing and frustrating to read several sentences or even paragraphs of a quote before finding out who is saying it.
From the editor:
If a reader reads something in direct quotation marks in the Guardian he/she is entitled to believe that the reporter can vouch directly for the accuracy of the quote.
Copying quotes out of other newspapers without any form of attribution is simply bad journalism, never mind legally risky. If, where there are no libel issues, you're going to repeat quotes, then always say where they came from. It won't be much help in a legal action, but at least the reader can evaluate the reliability of the source. A quote in the Sunday Sport may, who knows, count for less than one from the Wall Street Journal.
If we're taking quotes off the radio or television it is our general policy to include an attribution. This matters less if it is a pooled interview or news conference which happens to be covered by, say, the BBC or Sky. If the quote comes from an exclusive interview on a radio or TV programme (eg, Today, Channel 4 News or Newsnight) we should always include an attribution"
Web Style Guide: user-centered design and user control faq
Digital Web Magazine - Forging a partnership between designer and user: "when we redesigned the
Web Style Guide site in 2002, we went from a fixed-width, pixel-based layout to a flexible-width, relative-unit layout. Right away we received complaints about long lines (�Text this wide is extremely difficult to read�) and text size (�Please increase the font size of this page� and �The new, larger text is obnoxious�). Initially, we considered reverting to a fixed design, but a fixed design brings its own set of obstacles. A fixed-width column does not adapt to different display devices, and does not accommodate large text. Text set using fixed-size fonts often cannot be resized. And there is a very important difference between the obstacles created by a fixed design and those encountered with our new, flexible layout. When working with a fixed design, user remedies are few to none. It is not easy to extract content from a fixed-layout table, or to change text-sizing attributes to a resizable unit of measure. However, when working with a flexible design, users can easily control line length and text size by resizing the browser window and using the text zoom feature.
Instead of reverting to a fixed design, we opted to forge a partnership with the user. We left the design flexible, but added a section to our Help page explaining how to modify text settings in the browser. Clearly this simple clarification could not have resolved all problems, but we did stop receiving complaints. And by asking users to be more active in defining their experience of our content, we encourage them to take charge more broadly of their Web environment.
Unless we establish this type of partnership, user-centered Web design will remain a benign dictatorship, with the designer making somewhat informed assumptions about what is best for the user. For a truly user-centered Web we need to share control and responsibility with the person who actually knows what is best when it comes to personal usability issues: the user.
Case re "fair use" of data publicly available on the Internet
Article:
Jupitermedia Tuesday said it sent cease and desist letters to online news and data aggregator eMarketer, ordering the company to discontinue using research from Jupitermedia in eMarketer reports sold in France and the UK. The two companies are already embroiled in a similar lawsuit in the United States and some observers believe the outcome could help determine what constitutes "fair use" of data that is publicly available on the Internet...
eMarketer's legal counsel Patrick added that Jupitermedia also extrapolates data from outside sources, synthesizes, and publishes data in essentially the same way eMarketer does.
He underlined the two main issues that the U.S. District Court judge has to resolve:
1) Does Jupitermedia have any proprietary interest in data that appears on eMarketer's Web site
2) does that constitute copyright infringement, or is it fair use?
Doug Wood, executive partner of law firm Reed Smith Hall Dickler said, "It's a toss-up; there's a little of everything in this case," but noted that it is by no means unique. He mentioned there have been several similar cases throughout the years, but the outcomes have gone both ways. "The Internet does throw a bit of a wrinkle into the analysis," Wood said. "Difficult, time-consuming research that could have taken a lifetime to complete can now be accomplished in an hour...
Wood also noted that, "judges don't like people who take the fruit of other people's labors." On the other hand, he acknowledged that eMarketer could argue that it interprets Jupiter data and turns it into another form of expression. "This is not a black letter law case," Wood said. "Questions of intellectual property, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment are always far more complex." He added that the court will most likely make its ruling based on the economic equities involved."
