5 Work from Home Jobs for Moms

Chelsea P. Gladden is the Director of Marketing & PR for FlexJobs, an award-winning service that helps job-seekers find professional opportunities that also offer work flexibility, such as telecommuting, freelance, part-time or alternative schedules. To learn more about Chelsea, visit FlexJobs.com or tweet her @FlexJobsChelsea

A U.S. Census report released this month shows that the number of people who work from has soared by 41% in the past decade. These findings demonstrate that there is hope for moms (and dads!) who prefer the flexibility to work from home while raising children.

Which leads to this question: What kinds of professional job opportunities are there for telecommuting parents? Generally, parents want a job with little to no travel keeps them closer to home in time for after school pick up, and preferably a position that doesn’t involve risking one’s life by jumping from a capsule to break the sound barrier … there have to be easier ways.

And indeed there are. In fact, the following are some of the more popular options that junior’s folks can do from home.

1. Accounting: Some typical positions include: supervisory auditor, bookkeeper and senior tax manager.

2. Marketing: Some typical positions include: product strategy manager, marketing copywriter and social media coordinator.

3. Computer & IT: Some typical positions include: systems analyst, technical support, computer studies instructor, programmer and graphic designer.

4. Education & Training: Some typical positions include: online tutor, virtual K-12 teacher and academic program director.

5. Medical & Health: Some typical positions include: at-home health coach, registered nurse and billing specialist.

Though these fields are only a subset of 50+ career fields that offer the option to work from home, they were chosen for having the most positions available and their ability to work remotely while staying within the home office.

Part-time hours and job sharing are also an option for better life flexibility. Though the Labor Department foundthat 582,000 new part-time jobs were added in September, most of them were in the 16-24 age brackets. However, many companies are offering these types of hours at the professional level as well, including the positions mentioned above.

As for the types of companies that cater to parents, Working Mother releases its list of the Top 100 every year and, in addition to flexibility, factors in perks such as fitness programs. This year’s list included companies from AOL to Yale University.

Specialty positions are often catering to remote staff in order to secure the top experts. Though there are more common jobs and less standard titles, the Census Bureau’s findings indicate the number of employees who work from home will continue to rise, with plenty of ideal jobs for parents — that don’t involve jumping at an altitude of 128,100 feet.

Tags: Telecommuting, Yale University, AOL, Part-time, Employment, United States Census, Working Mother, FlexJobs

5 Big Data Quotes of the Week

“Predictive analytics can figure out how to land on Mars, but not who will buy a Mars bar…. You should expect big data to have big impact. And you can bet that it will help machines interact more usefully with our unstructured, changing, and sometimes downright confused human ways. But if you’re counting on it to make people much more predictable, you’re expecting too much”–Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro

“’Forming a data team is kind of like planning a heist’ [said Hunch.com’s co-founder Matt Gattis]. He meant that you need people with all sorts of skills, and that one person probably can’t do everything by herself. Think Ocean’s Eleven but sexier”–Cathy “Mathbabe” O’Neil

“The data warehouse architecture of the 1980s, to which I was a major contributor, of course, was based largely on the… single-version-of-the-truth simplification.  There’s little doubt it has served us well.  But, big data and other trends are forcing us to look again at the underlying assumptions.  And find them lacking”–Barry Devlin

“Security today is a real-time Big Data challenge”–Steven Mills, IBM

“…big data will once again become ‘just data’ by 2020 and architectural approaches, infrastructure and hardware/software that does not adapt to this ‘new normal’ will be retired. Organizations resisting this change will suffer severe economic impacts”–Gartner

Tags: Big data, IBM, Gartner, Matt Gattis, Barry Devlin, Cathy, Mars, Data warehouse

5 cloud computing tips for SMBs

You’ve read countless case studies of how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have turned to cloud computing to raise productivity, improve customer service and stay ahead of the competition. But is your company ready to jump onto the bandwagon? Here’s what you need to know before moving to the cloud:

1. Define your needs
While cloud computing may seem like hype, it has leveled the playing field for SMBs that would not have been able to afford sophisticated business applications. 87 percent of SMBs surveyed said cloud applications have given them a competitive advantage, while 85 percent agreed that cloud applications have improved employee productivity. However, to realize the full benefits of the cloud, it is important to define what you want to achieve. Are you hoping to improve customer service by allowing your sales team to respond to customer requests quickly? Or, do you want improve collaboration among employees? Articulating those needs clearly will go a long way in choosing the right cloud service provider.

2. Choose the right service provider
Choosing a cloud service provider can be a daunting task. There are several criteria that you can use to evaluate a service provider, including performance, support and security. The Asia Cloud Computing Association has published a useful evaluation matrix that will help you prioritize your requirements. For example, if you have customers that demand strict data security, a potential cloud provider would have to score higher for that criterion over others. A company with limited IT resources may demand the highest level of support, while an engineering firm may place performance as its highest priority.

3. Back up and secure your data
Most cloud service providers will assure you that your data is safe. Bigger cloud players like Salesforce.com will enforce strict data protection policies to protect your data, but when an employee downloads or copies that data, security could go out the window. Consider employing cloud-based data loss protection (DLP) technology that takes digital fingerprints of data in the cloud. So, if someone tries to download, copy and paste, or e-mail confidential data, DLP technology will recognize the fingerprinted data as sensitive, and takes action to prevent misuse. Finally, backing up your data is a no-brainer. Most cloud services will allow you to export a copy of your data which you can restore if things go awry, or when you switch service providers.

4. Data integration services
Do you need to integrate existing data that you are housing on your in-house IT systems with your cloud service? This is especially important if you’re not ready to move all your data to the cloud. Your customer profile data, for example, may be tied closely to a legacy system which may be difficult to decouple. While integration is usually done through APIs, consider tapping on integration services provided by systems integrators to speed up the process.

5. Plan your deployment
Early cloud adopters agree that adequate planning and preparation would have made their implementation efforts easier and more successful. It is thus important for SMBs to develop a clear implementation plan, which should involve a deployment roadmap, as well as identifying key business and IT transformations with measurable benefits. Upfront planning would help you avoid issues like long deployment cycles, limited integration with other applications and lack of proper training.

Tags: Cloud computing, Information technology, Information privacy, Small and medium enterprises, Business, Service provider, Salesforce.com, E-Commerce

12 Cloud Apps To Make Your Business More Productive

Sick and tired of hearing me bleat on about my favourite apps and services? Sit back and read this guest post originally published back in 2010 by James Adams who outlines his personal choices.

Cloud computing is the latest in the trend to minimize IT costs and increase productivity. Software from the cloud takes the burden of administration off of the local organization, relieving much of the demand for in-house expertise. Cloud based represents higher productivity for in-house and mobile workforces in the form of accessible and secure computing with more up time. Here are 12 cloud apps that will make your business more productive.

Basecamp

An online project management tool that runs through the cloud and provides team collaboration features. Everything you need to manage your projects is found in Basecamp, including file sharing, scheduling, task management and assignment, and feedback. Basecamp interacts with several iPhone apps, and third party computer-based tools to give you maximum accessibility and flexibility wherever you are. Packages available range from 15 projects to unlimited. A 30 day trial lets you see if Basecamp will fit the needs of your business before you buy.

Dropbox

A web-based file sharing service that also provides secure file storage, synchronization, and backup. Files can be accessed from anywhere and changes made to files by the team are automatically synced to user’s local computers. Supports Linux, Mac, and Windows. Dropbox offers 2 GB of storage free so you can see how it works prior to purchasing.

Zoho

A cloud based office software suite, offering powerful document creation management tools for spreadsheets, word processing, invoicing, CRM, and more. You pay for only the apps you use.

Dimdim

Web conferencing software that resides in the cloud and offers a great medium in which you can interface with your mobile workers, customers, and vendors. Rather than having people travel to meetings, why not let everyone stay home, save the earth and attend the meeting online?

Pixlr

Cloud-based image editing services. Three applications, Editor, Express, and Grabber combine to give users amazing power to create and edit images.

Github

Social coding application that runs through the cloud to provide version control and collaborative software development. Several packages are available from the free open source plan to the Giga plan that includes 300 private repositories, private collaborators, and 60 GB of storage. There is also an enterprise version of Github that companies can deploy on their own cloud platform.

FreshBooks

A financial management application that’s hosted in the cloud. This program offers “painless billing” that makes it easy to bill clients, track payments, and perform other bookkeeping. This app is specially designed for teams, freelance workers, and service providers.

Google Docs

A personal repository of documents that can be shared and updated as needed. Google Docs features revision tracking and allows users to save documents locally if necessary. This application is free.

Mojo Helpdesk

Provides online customer relationship management (CRM), including request tracking, ticket assignment, email integration, and on demand help. Eleven users are supported for the $24 monthly fee, with an unlimited option available for $49.

Cloudmark Desktop

Business with real time protection from email spam, phishing, and viruses without loading down the computers on your network.

Appointy

An online scheduling software that provides businesses with appointment and schedule management. The software can be configured to allow customers to make their own appointments and send out text and voice alerts for appointments. Appointy even has tools available to promote your business. Practically any business that schedules appointments over the telephone will appreciate the power Appointy offers to make businesses more efficient and productive.

Gliffy

Provides cloud-based charting and diagramming. This powerful app gives business access to the tools needed to create professional flow charts, floor plans, and technical drawings.

Cloud based applications are perfect for managing business functions from any web browser so employees and managers can be productive wherever they are. With software management and administration performed by the host, businesses can focus on their mission rather than on IT related tasks. Try these applications out and see how powerful web-based applications can transform your business.

This guest post was written by James Adams who is a blogger working for an online storeoffering toner next day for the UK. He is a contributor to their design blog where he posts about technology and design.

Tags: Basecamp, Cloud computing, Project management, Linux, Web conferencing, Office suite, iPhone, Windows

2 Publicity Tips for Your Small Business

One of the biggest challenges that any owner of a small business faces while trying to publicize the same is the limited budget that they have in their kitty for the exposure and advertisement and spreading of the word regarding their business. In case you are thinking that something on these lines of advertisement is necessary for the big companies alone and you can well do without it thanks to word of mouth, well, you are nothing but extremely mistaken in your ideas.

One of the most important necessities of any small business is to find their footing in a competitive market and this is why marketing, advertising and spreading the word with a moderate budget is extremely necessary. Here are 2 cost effective ways to implement the same:


1. Speak And Write About Yourself

One of the most cost effective yet productive ways of getting across the town spreading word about your business is to talk to people about the same and also write about it. You are encouraged to talk about your venture and the various services that you provide at the many gatherings that you might be attending. This might be a small gathering of friends, a large public gathering, the Sunday mass, or just about anything. This will get people interested in whatever it is that you are selling via your business and rest assured that you will be enjoying a high conversion rate for this. You can also get yourself an answering service in order to help you with these people in case they try and get in touch with you.

In case you think that public speaking is not your forte, you can always fall back on the mighty pen and use your writing skills to promote your business yourself by writing pieces and articles about it on magazines and other business related publications that are available in your area. This will ensure that you are reaching a larger reader base and are thus far better than speaking. Combining these 2 activities optimally will give you amazing results!


2. Sponsor A Local Charity Event

You must have heard about corporate social responsibility, right? Well, you can start off with your own small and local version of the same by sponsoring a local charitable organization or an event in order to gain some goodwill and some much needed publicity for your company.

At the same time in case you think that sponsoring a whole charitable foundation is beyond the financial ability of your business, you can always set up a co-sponsored charitable organization with someone else who is ready to split the burden with you. Remember that a little charity and giving back something to the society which will prosper your business in the future is a very good idea and a winner campaigning move.
These 2 extremely effective but light on the pockets method of publicizing your small business will prove to be extremely helpful in the long run.

Tags: Small business, Business, Charitable organization, Public speaking, Sponsor (commercial), New York City, Fidelity Investments, Small Business Administration

3 Tips for Creating an Effective Work Team

Have you ever worked in a group or team? How did the team function? What was the demographic makeup of the team, and how did you all get along?

Creating an effective work team is by no means a simple task, and can involve getting the right group of people together, setting appropriate goals, using the right leadership style, and more. Although not a complete solution, the following tips might help spark some ideas on creating your own effective work team.


1) Avoid over-cohesiveness

Naturally, most of us feel more comfortable with people who are similar to us. We tend to get along well with people who have similar preferences and tastes, or those who may be of similar age, race, or other demographics. However in work groups and teams, too much cohesion or lack of diversity can be detrimental and costly to the organization.

A highly cohesive team is great, but oftentimes there is a point where the team is so cohesive it impedes the organization’s performance. Instead of worrying about the company’s goals, team members strive for whatever is in the team’s best interest, which may or may not coincide with organizational goals.

For example, a team might strive to finish work early everyday so they can go out for drinks, or a team might get so caught up socializing with their peers that their work output suffers.

By composing a diverse team with varying demographics that is moderately cohesive, a broader range of ideas can be taken into perspective and quite often can lead to new solutions or ways of thinking.


2) Look at the less obvious demographic categories

Just a few decades ago, diversity in the workplace simply meant working with people of different ethnicities or racial backgrounds. Today there are many different categories that relate to diversity, such as gender, sexual preference, religion, education, ethnicity, and more,

Two of the most important yet often overlooked demographics are differences in age and differences in economic upbringing.

First, it seems that some organizations avoid hiring older individuals, or are finding ways to relieve older workers of their duties because they will likely be exiting the workforce relatively soon, and may be entitled to pensions or retirement plans.

Older individuals might not be so up to date with current trends, but their experience and knowledge can be of paramount importance; their opinions and points of view are definitely worth listening to. Similarly, young people also have unique perspectives, ideas, and ways of thinking, yet organizations are still weary of hiring people with little experience.

Second, a diverse team may also come from varying economic backgrounds. Even if a team is composed of ethnically diverse members, if they were all raised in middle class society, went to high school then directly to college, they will probably think and act similarly.

Having people from both ends of the economic spectrum will definitely provide a broader range of ideas, although there could be some trouble seeing eye to eye. Providing clear goals and leadership can be the best way to help a team reach their targets.


3) Provide clear goals and leadership
Forming or being part of a work team can be difficult, especially if clear goals are not specified. Make sure that every member of the team fully understands the goals and strategies to reach those goals. If clear-cut goals are not defined, the output may be less than expected.

Furthermore, a fitting leadership style is also necessary. Who is the team leader? Is the team going to be self-managed, or will they report to a superior? Depending on the group or team dynamics, a leader may have to be stern, compassionate, empathetic, and more. Lead by example, and let team members take ownership of their tasks and hold each other accountable for their actions.

These are just a few important items to consider when creating or managing an effective work team. Have you had experience in a work team before, or are you part of one now? What has your experience taught you? We’d love to hear your opinions.

Tags: Leadership, Organization, Diversity, Team, Team leader, Business, Management, Work

5 Tips for Winning Business as a Software Services Startup

When you are a software services startup, business development is your lifeblood. In a country like Pakistan, where the development of intellectual property in the software space is stunted by a variety of factors, including limited investment channels, software houses are often set up around services models.

Business development is key for staying cash flow positive. While project managers can orchestrate the teams of software engineers to assure quality, your company critically must depend upon a dedicated team of business development and sales professionals who work to earn the company sufficient business.

This is a continuous process; while business development professionals often start with a very large number of leads, many fizzle out very early in the process. It’s important to persevere in order to win an acceptable number of projects.

Based on my experiences in this space, I’d like to share a few tips for the many people looking to earn business in software exports from countries like the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom:

1. Develop a Niche.

While you may believe that your engineering team is stellar enough to pick up new technologies and frameworks, the entire industry is gravitating towards more niche specialization. It doesn’t matter if you have the best iPhone engineers on the planet, if they’ve only worked on productivity applications until now, clients in the gaming space will be reluctant to award work to your team. Identifying specific genres, platforms and products in which your team wishes to specialize will make it a lot easier to target the right clients who are often spoiled for choice among the wealth of services setups across Asia and Eastern Europe.

2. Increase Your Offerings. 

The truth is that finding new clients is always a low percentage business. You might be making dozens of cold calls over LinkedIn and sending hundreds of emails a month, with less than 10% of the people contacted even responding. The best way to expand business is to extract more work from your existing clients. One way to do this is to transform yourself into a one-stop shop offering all the related services: graphic design, project management, interface design and quality assurance. Another way is to remain proactive in your relationship with your client: hold regular calls to understand the client’s strategy and anticipate when its demand for services will grow. The client will appreciate the strategic role you are playing as a services partner and will always see more value in expanding its relationship with an existing partner than building a fresh relationship with someone else.

3. Nothing Beats Face-Time.

While there are success stories of business development conducted entirely in the virtual domain, it is difficult to develop a long-term relationship with a client without ever meeting it in person. The most successful services setups regularly send their business development and sales people to attend relevant conferences and meet up with foreign clients in person. This is the best way to forge tangible bonds with the client and communicate how serious you are about serving it. The costs of traveling and attending conferences are quite low relative to the value of the business you might win by meeting a potential client in person.

4. Takes More to Tango. 

Business Development novices often think that their potential success at winning the project is based on the initial call. The truth is that most contracts are won based on multiple calls between the client and services company, spread out over several weeks. The initial call might just be a chance for the client to put out feelers and understand the credibility of the potential services outfit. The same client would probably expect a follow-up call with a senior technical person on your team to grasp your technical ability as an enterprise, and they might expect a third call with individual engineers working on the project. Sometimes clients are hesitant to suggest so many follow-ups, but  they will feel more at ease if the services setup suggests it.

5. Do Your Homework. 

Ultimately nothing beats being prepared. When initiating a business development call, you should know that the client expects you to have case studies and references prepared in advance as a matter of principle. Many potential clients ask to see formal corporate presentations and lists of successful projects. It is always worth investing time and money in developing and burnishing this marketing material and having it at your fingertips when needed.

Tags: iPhone, Business development, United States, LinkedIn, Eastern Europe, Pakistan, Project management, Business

6 Practices to Implement Highly Efficient Data Centers

The world has become more cautious about saving the planet in the recent years and this has shown its impact on the data center operators who are now targeting on projects that boost the energy efficiency while taking in consideration its environmental impacts. Though these changes can be attributed to several attempts from organizations all around the globe defending the terminal impacts on the planet, such measures are being seen as a welcome change among the industry.

With Facebook announcing its environment friendly OpenCompute Project several other companies are now coming out of the dark and sharing information related to their data centers, the latest in this line being Google.

Research company 451 groups published a report on Highly Energy-Efficient Data Centers in Practice that shares six practices that are being adopted by organizations all across the globe to increase the efficiency of their data centers and reducing the operational costs while reducing the harmful effects that it may cause the planet to the minimum.


1. Holistic Approach:

While implementing improvements in the data centers the organizations need to take into consideration various technologies available and handle the project from various angles by taking note of different approaches. The green Grid has been implementing the same approach since the time it was founded.

This approach can be refined by encouraging collaborative approach between various departments and making sure that all the concerned people are on the same page regarding the processes involved in the data center improvements.

With Facebook’s Open Compute Project coming up, the collaboration will need to be extended outside of the organization as well.


2. Smarter Cooling:

The older ways of cooling that made the data center resemble a meat locker have changed now. The organizations have understood that deploying these cooling methods is simply throwing away money. Thus adopting other cost saving methods does make sense. One among them is liquid cooling that comes from Green Revolution Cooling that employs a low cost dielectric fluid that has 1200 times heat retention capacity than air.


3. Generating Self-Power:

The major dent is caused to the maintenance bills by the power bills. And the companies have realized it. Microsoft, Google, Facebook , Yahoo etc have started generating their own energy from the renewable sources. Solar panel comes as a natural contender but Fujitsu’s latest technology using Hydrogen to generate power is also finding wide popularity.


4. Using DC Power:

The data center power conversion methodology is a long process spanned across various sections. The AC power is first converted into DC and then back to AC after which the UPSes distribute that power to respective servers. In this entire process, as much as 50-70 percent of electricity is lost during conversion. The only way to overcome this loss is by setting up DC based power distribution system. It reduces power bills and conversion losses but the only reason organizations have been hesitant in implementing a DC based environment is the huge initial investment. But this investment represents big returns in a longer run.


5. Using IT Equipments Smartly:

There are various trends in the IT industry that have significantly affected the operations of the data centers. On the software’s side there is virtualization that has reduced the number of servers; also organizations these days are using data center infrastructure management software that helps them in positioning the physical and logical assets in a more efficient manner.

On the hardware front, organizations such as Google and Facebook have instigated new trends that have proved significant in the field of data center implementation. They have not only helped in reducing costs but have also declined the power wastage.


6. Adopting a Modular Approach:

The process of deploying a new data center takes a lot of efforts and the most critical aspect of any such successful deployment is proper collaboration between different teams working on the project. Not following these aspects will only lead to wastage of efforts in terms of size, density and redundancy. An approach that includes an improper collaborative environment often leads to such troubles. To overcome these problems the organizations are now implementing a modular approach that divides the project in different modules and proceeds accordingly. This also helps them to add or deduct a module according to the current needs of the project.

Tags: Google, Data center, Facebook, Microsoft, Efficient energy use, Direct current, Holism, Green Grid

8 Never Known Facts About Twitter

It didn’t took long for Twitter, the microblogging service to win hearts of half a billion people around the world. The ‘140 character limited’ social network has even shown its power by fuelling revolutions in some countries.   According to the statistics, the users tweet more than 500million messages a day, whose characteristics define the ‘happenings’ around the world.


But these are just official statistics. Recently, a social media firm Beevolve released the detailed report on “An Exhaustive Study of Twitter Users Across the World,” which shed light to some never known, surprising factors about the site.


Here are 8 of them, compiled by Huffington Post.


#8 Twitterers love "love"

The most frequently used word in the bios of users’ bios is “love.” “Like” and “Life,” the similar words follow the most used word in numbers.


#7 A full 25 Percent of Users Have Never Tweeted

According to Twitter, the best thing is "You don’t have to build a web page to surf the web, and you don’t have to tweet to enjoy Twitter.” It seems most of the users are following these words as out of the total members, a quarter never tweeted. They use Twitter to get news and enjoy the conversations, without taking part in them.


#6 Twitter Users Want You To Know What They Think, Not Where They Are

Even though Twitter allows you to enable geo-location for your tweets, only 10.3 percent of users have activated it. This essentially signifies one thing- they want the world to know what they think, unlike other social networking users who keeps themselves tagged to locations, every time they log in.


#5 There Are More Women Than Men On Twitter

The notion about Twitter being a boy’s club is no more true. Women slightly outnumber men in the microblogging site as a whole, except in some countries. In India, more than 80 percent of Twitter users are males.


#4 You Can Still Get A Ton Of Followers With A Protected Account

According to the statistics, 11.8 percent of users have private accounts- which means you need the approval from persons to follow them. But according to Beevolve, this doesn’t affect your fan base. The report shows example of an Indonesian tweeter @WIDIKIDIW whose account is set to private, yet had amassed 515,290 followers at one time.


#3 Purple Is The Most Popular Background Color Among Female Users While Blackish Grey Among Men


The gender itself shows the choices.



#2 The Most Prolific Tweeter On Twitter is @InternetRadio, With More Than 2 Million Tweets


The InternetRadio tweets to followers about what the radio stations are playing, as they play them. Lot of tweets go out in an hour, no wonder why these internet radios are a big hit!



#1 It's Shocking: The Average Number Of Tweets Someone Sends Is Directly Related To The Average Number Of Followers They Have

After examining 36 million Twitter profiles and 28 billion tweets, Beevolve got an interesting find- the number of tweets are directly relate to the number of followers. And the reason behind this phenomenon is, unknown!


Bonus: The Least Popular Tweeter With A Verified Account Is @SevenFootWave, Who Earned Just Four Followers In Three Years

The surprise is @SevenFootWave is the official twitter account of the same titled rock band.

Tags: Twitter, Social network, Beevolve, India, Huffington Post, Social media, Microblogging, tweeted

5 Big Data News You Should Know Today - 22 October 2012

1) Why VCs Will Continue To Invest In Big Data Startups For Many Years To Come

This week, Splice Machine raised $4 million to develop its SQL Engine for big data apps. MongoHQ raised $6 million for its database as a service. A third startup, Bloomreach, announced $25 million in funding for its big data applications.

These three companies provide examples for why the investor community will continue to invest in big data startups for many years to come. All reflect a changing dynamic — the rise of the big data app and the need for a new data infrastructure. These two converging trends now drive funding for a widening number of startups that make data functional inside and outside the enterprise.

Read More


2) Gartner, IBM See Big Market for Big Data

Big data is becoming big business, and is a big trending topic in 2012.  This week Gartner and IBM release reports studying the true impact and direction of the big data market, while Teradata launched a big data analytics appliance.

Gartner says big data to reach $34 billion.  As a prelude to the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2012 it reported that big data will drive $28 billion of worldwide IT spending in 2012, and is forecast to drive $34 billion in 2013 spending.

Read More


3) Will Big Data decide the election?

FORTUNE -- There's a powerful vignette in Sasha Issenberg's The Victory Lab in which political consultant Alexander Gage presents his new data targeting system to Mitt Romney's 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

Gage has combined consumer records with political voting history to identify potential Romney supporters among nontraditional Republican voting blocks. Gage sees his work as revolutionary -- a first in politics, and potentially a first anywhere. Yet just as he completes his presentation, Romney's deputy campaign manager Alex Dunn raises his hand and deadpans, "You mean you don't do this in politics."

Read More


4) Is More Big Data a Blessing or a Curse for These Giants?

In today's segment, Fool.com analyst Austin Smith interviews acclaimed author and New York Times columnist Charles Duhigg about his recent book The Power of Habit and the iEconomy series he's written for the Times.

Today, Charles looks at whether more big data will help or hurt the companies that have already mastered the art of studying consumer spending habits. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Target have had an edge over other retailers for years with their mountains of data, but with Big Data overflowing now, will that advantage evaporate?

Read More


5) Sharing data a big complicated step for health care system

To those in fully automated industries, like banking, the state's rollout of a new health information network last week must seem sadly behind the times.

Massachusetts officials declared the Health Information Exchange open for business Tuesday by sending Gov. Deval Patrick's medical data from a hospital in Boston to a trauma center in Springfield. The electronic information traveled halfway across the state and, just as importantly, crossed tricky medical provider boundaries.

Read More

Category: Big Data News

Tags: Technology,Business,Big data,big data market,big data apps,big data applications,big data startups,Big Data,Read,new data infrastructure,Gartner,big data analytics appliance,Big Data News,three companies,big trending topic,big complicated step,hand,Wal-Mart,business,new health information network,Target

5 Tips of the Day - 22 October 2012

1) 5 Ways of Funding A Business: How To Get Your Piece Of The Pie

No shocker here: One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs and small business owners is finding the funds necessary to launch – and eventually grow – their businesses.  If you’re reading this, you’re likely looking right now.

There have never been more funding choices to consider for prospective entrepreneurs.

As a social entrepreneur for more than four decades as well as an angel investor and venture capitalist, I’ve experienced the highs and lows of business funding myself and have learned the hard way what investors are looking for before committing to fund.

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2) 7 Tips To Help Your Startup Enter The U.S. Market

Selling to the U.S. market can be a significant milestone in the life of an international technology startup. The U.S. is the largest market in the world, and a successful foothold here can mean dramatic growth as well as further credibility of your company. But selling to U.S. businesses can be difficult especially if you’re based overseas. 

Having successfully introduced international technology companies to the U.S. market, we’ve  learned several lessons, listed below, to help companies abroad sell in the U.S.

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3) Managing Time And Staying Productive As A Freelancer

Part of the fun of being a freelancer is that you get to manage your own time. You decide when to work (within deadlines, of course), what task you are going to do each day, and how long you’re going to spend on your clients versus building up your own business.

Part of the pain of being a freelancer, of course, is that you have to manage your own time. So how do you do it? Well, there are lots of ways you can manage your time properly – I’m going to show you three that worked wonders for me.

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4) Recipe for Startup Success: Patience, Persistence, Relationship Building and Responsiveness

Founding a startup is a journey where the end destination is not always apparent or obvious. Ravi Mitaal, CEO of Vuukle, advocates for patience and persistence as strategies every startup founder should use when approaching their ideas. Vuukle emerged from the misfires of two other startups: SplaTT and Blobin.com. 

Without pivoting ideas from both of those startups Vuukle would not be here today. Ravi’s innovative attitude and openness to change creates a platform for startup success. Relationship building and readiness to respond are key in the Vuukle story, -which is by no means simple-, and started in a London subway. 

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5) Zuck’s Advice To Startups: Explore Before You Commit, Listen, Build Something Fundamental, Don’t Copy

Facebook didn’t guess that users wanted to share photos. It learned it, Mark Zuckerberg explained in his talk at Y Combinator Startup School. “We really listened to what our users wanted, both qualitatively listening to the words they say, and quantitatively looking at behavior that they take.” Users didn’t necessarily say they wanted photos, but were uploading new profile pics every day.

So Facebook built out photo sharing, it exploded with popularity, and proved that sometimes the data can reveal what users want before they even know it.

That wasn’t the last time Facebook would put turn this practice into product. Hundreds of thousands protested the news feed, but engagement was up, Facebook stuck it out, and news feed became one of the site’s most popular features.

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Tags: Tip of the Day

5 Startup Stories of the Day - 22 October 2012

1) Survival of the fittest: Failure in the startup world

Remember eToys, the online toy retailer that was predicted to out-sell Toys R Us stock? Google Labs was the technology titan’s ‘playground’ venture that never truly even let go of the monkey bars? Or how about Zune, the portable music player aimed at breaking down sales of Apple’s now-ubiquitous iPod? (Author’s note: I had a Zune. It broke in two months.)


These startup companies, along with billions of other would-be game changers in the technology and retail industries, became flops within the span of five years — and faster than you can say ‘stock valuation’. Ideas for launching new companies, and the overly optimistic founders behind them, are a dime a dozen in this era of fast-growing knowledge. As the ability to share on social networks becomes second nature, so do small teams hoping to strike the kind of landmine Mark Zuckerberg first unearthed – or at least tap into it. More on that later.

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2) Zuck’s Advice To Startups: Explore Before You Commit, Listen, Build Something Fundamental, Don’t Copy

Facebook didn’t guess that users wanted to share photos. It learned it, Mark Zuckerberg explained in his talk at Y Combinator Startup School. “We really listened to what our users wanted, both qualitatively listening to the words they say, and quantitatively looking at behavior that they take.” Users didn’t necessarily say they wanted photos, but were uploading new profile pics every day.

So Facebook built out photo sharing, it exploded with popularity, and proved that sometimes the data can reveal what users want before they even know it.

That wasn’t the last time Facebook would put turn this practice into product. Hundreds of thousands protested the news feed, but engagement was up, Facebook stuck it out, and news feed became one of the site’s most popular features.

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3) 10 common UX mistakes startups make... and how to avoid them

A positive user experience can transform your business. Here Laurence McCahill, co-founder of Spook Studio, comes up with 10 essential tips to put you on the right track for a better customer experience

‘How can I improve the user experience of my website/app?’ A frequently asked question and one that doesn’t have a standard response. Thankfully there are some steps you can follow to ensure that a customer’s experience of your product is a positive one. Here I’ll be highlighting some common mistakes we regularly come across that can easily be avoided.

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4) 5 Ways of Funding A Business: How To Get Your Piece Of The Pie

No shocker here: One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs and small business owners is finding the funds necessary to launch – and eventually grow – their businesses.  If you’re reading this, you’re likely looking right now.

There have never been more funding choices to consider for prospective entrepreneurs.

As a social entrepreneur for more than four decades as well as an angel investor and venture capitalist, I’ve experienced the highs and lows of business funding myself and have learned the hard way what investors are looking for before committing to fund.

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5) Replacing Work/Life Balance with Work/Life Harmony.

My friend’s Jon Crawford and Matt Galligan both wrote about the topic of Work/Life balance this week and I thought I would continue their conversation with my perspective.

To call it a balance implies two sides of a scale where too much weight on one side, tips the other. To struggle for balance is to struggle for equal attention to things at odds with each other. How I choose to run my life is to strive not for balance, but for harmony. I embrace that my personal and work lives coexist in the same 24 hours of each day. My founder brain doesn’t shut off and neither does my personal brain. When two things vibrate at opposing frequencies, their forces can be devastating. When they vibrate together, it’s peaceful. When in harmony, both my personal and work lives are vibrating vigorously, but without fighting each other.

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Tags: Startup Stories