Tech Trend: Digital Identity

David Capece — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:28:51 -0500

Every social network serves a specific purpose… LinkedIn is for professional development, Twitter is for sharing information, Facebook is for life-casting, MySpace is for music sharing, etc. Many of us form a specific identity for each community we are a part of. For instance, we would not share personal information on LinkedIn that we would on Facebook. Moreover, we would have to participate on each platform separately. To regain some consistency and order in the social sphere, we are increasingly turning to web-based management services.

Elements

Tech Trend: Smarter Computing

David Capece — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:24:10 -0500

With the amount of information growing exponentially, internet users can often find sorting through it a daunting and time-consuming task. Web intelligence tools can sort and identify relevant information to solve this problem.

Top 5 Tools for Developing Your Twitter Profile

David Capece — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:25:31 -0500

The platform for Twitter is pretty simple – say what you want in 140 characters or less, share links you find interesting, follow other users you find interesting, and converse back and forth through mentions or direct messages. The page is straightforward – no bells and whistles – which is partly why it’s so appealing to users. For people who use Twitter for business purposes, there is another dimension to the microblogging site that can be hard to grasp without some direction: the Twitter profile.

2010 Consumer Tech Trends

David Capece — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:20:26 -0500

Imagine a search engine that understands more than your search query, it understands your personality. Or, imagine never leaving your inbox — search, play games, collaborate, work, all in one location. We have examined the emerging and established consumer technologies from the past year to project what we should expect in 2010.

Comment on Node ant

David Capece — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:55:14 -0500

Hi Jason - 99designs.com is a great example of crowdsourcing. Win-win for everyone... designers get access to new projects and the company gets more options at a cheaper price. The key is that crowdsourcing has to produce quality results.

--
David Capece
Managing Partner, Sparxoo

Did MySpace Botch Handling of Imeem Acquisition?

David Capece — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:53:30 -0500

Imagine yourself sitting in front of a computer, happily listening to music from your favorite online streaming service. All of a sudden, the music stops, and the page refreshes to something you’ve never seen before, with an announcement that your favorite service is no longer available. Sound far-fetched? It shouldn’t. Earlier this week, it’sexactly what happened to thousands of imeem users across the United States.

Brand Advertising Review: TOMS Shoes

David Capece — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:48:24 -0500

As an early leader in the social entrepreneur wave, TOMS Shoes has
inspired many to do better and make a real impact on the lives of
thousands of people worldwide. TOMS has a simple one-for-one mission:
when you buy a pair of TOMS Shoes, a pair is donated to a child in
need. TOMS has won praise among politicians (Bill Clinton), businesses
(AT&T), advertisers (BBDO Worldwide) and digital influencers
(Digg’s founder,Kevin Rose even designed a “Digg shoe”).

Google, New York Times, Washington Post Team Up to Create Living Stories

David Capece — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:03:48 -0500

It was only last week that Google released “First Click Free,” a service that blocks avid users from taking advantage of Google to avoid pay walls. The move sought to strengthen Google’s historically tenuous relationship with the publishers. In another attempt to reconcile its relationship with mainstream media publishers, Google launched theLiving Stories experiment . Google has partnered with The Washington Post and the New York Times to create Living Stories — a content aggregator specific to the publisher and topic.

Is FourSquare a Game Changer?

David Capece — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:59:46 -0500

The emergence of location-based apps, the rise in smartphones, successful competitors… why shouldn’t FourSquare succeed? Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove recentlywrote a glowing review of the location-based mobile app — examining key trends that should catapult FourSquare to a Twitter-like status. “Everyone is making their predictions about whether Foursquare is the next Twitter, including me,”writes social media blogger Jason Keath.

How Transparency Helped Facebook Win

David Capece — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:14:36 -0500

In June 2008, China was still grappling with transparency in reporting from the earthquake in May, the SEC was deciding how to demystify credit default swaps, Barack Obama was on the campaign trail and more than willing to divulge details about campaign contributions, and there was public outcry for government to support, then regulate the sinking real estate market. We were exiting an era of shady back-door dealings that led to the global recession. On a social, economic and political scale, transparency was in a high public demand.