Hats off to Katherine Boehret for spending all that time playing with new tech toys. I just don’t have that much time to play. I think it’s great that the Wall Street Journal pays her to play with tech toys. Check out what she’s discovered about the Stitcher app for podcasts.
I’m gonna try it out and see how well it works as a research and content creation tool.
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Technology | Tagged: podcasts, research tools, stitcher app | 
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Posted by Gurumantra
Paul Riismandel makes the case for video’s potential as an education delivery system. Provided learning management systems are designed for open source standards, there won’t be any limit to educational possibilities. Check out his article at Streaming Media.
As publisher of Nutrition News, we’re planning our video strategy. Education is what we’ve always provided. Engagement – Read, Share, Ask, Tell and Buy – has been the result. It’s exciting to imagine the ways we could animate our content and deliver it via video.
Maybe we should look for a few of those high school students who have the technical chops to help us create a health education series for them and buy them. That could be amazing and profitable for all.
Schools and communities at large are being forced to do more with less and to collaborate more. A special report from Information Week looks at how two school districts, Kentucky’s Barren County School District and Oak Hills Local School District in Ohio, are using virtualization, wireless and cloud technologies to meet that challenge.
Leave a Comment » | Video | Tagged: education, producing video content | Permalink
Posted by Gurumantra
These resource articles have a knack of showing up just when I’m about to embark on another crack at our website. Thanks to Ben DuPont for making this resource available.
When to Switch
The evolution from static documents to the current rich multimedia Web to the future of Web apps that are indistinguishable from desktop applications is well under way. Marc Andreessen’s browser-as-platform vision is in sight, and HTML5 will ensure that everyone has the opportunity to compete on a level playing field.
It wasn’t always so–many of us remember the days of browser vendors defining their own tags and sites sporting “best viewed with” banners. But now, key vendors, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Opera, actively participate in W3C groups. The goal: creating test suites and specifications that are freely available and may be implemented at no cost under the W3C royalty-free patent policy. This broad collaboration will help minimize differences among browsers. “When vendors rally around a specification that is supported by a comprehensive test suite, you’re more likely to get interoperability,” says Ian Jacobs, head of W3C marketing and communications.
Of course, the time it takes a spec to get to recommendation stage–the final stop before deployment–varies depending on participant support and technological complexity. Still, two Google W3C representatives–Ian Ellison-Taylor and Glenn Wilson–say the process, from specification to implementation, has been streamlined, with specs moving from API to recommendation in a matter of months.
So there’s plenty of optimism. But what does this all mean to enterprise IT? We’ll investigate. (S4810412)
3 Executive Summary
4 When to Switch
4 Figure 1: Scope of Alternative Application Architecture Use
5 We’ve Heard This Song Before
5 Anatomy of a W3C Specification
6 HTML5 Features
6 Figure 2: Features Table
7 WebM vs. H.264
8 Figure 3: Factors Driving Use of Alternative Application Delivery
9 HTML5 Resources
10 Figure 4: Support of Mission-Critical Business Applications
11 SEO and Assistive Technology Ready
11 No Need to Wait
12 Browser as a Platform
14 Related Reports
15 Author’s Bio
Ben DuPont is a software engineer. After nearly 10 years of developing software and systems in a corporate environment, he founded Nebland Software, an independent software consulting company.
You can reach him at ben@nebland.com.
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Posted by Gurumantra
$500 CPMs?
by Steve Smith , Tuesday, April 24, 2012
It isn’t easy to impress sleep-deprived and constitutionally aloof college students with a cell phone. But I got a real rise out of a college class several years ago when I brought in the first Android phone as part of a gadget show-and-tell and showed them how ShopSavvy worked. I grabbed a Pepsi from a fellow in the front row and scanned its UPC code to bring up a polished page of details, including where nearby they could pick one up. “Whoa!” some of them said in teen parlance. They got it.
This kind of app now is commonplace and has spun off into a number of variations from both first-party retailers and third-party shopping app providers. But we still are only beginning to understand how mobile works in the aisle. The power of bringing the cloud of data and resources down to the point of sale and the point of need is monstrously powerful. This is not only tapping into a time and place, but that mood of consumption that can go in several directions. The consumer might indeed be poached by a rival retailer, as Amazon has ventured to do of late. But the in-store shopping app can also help drive a person toward the item they already are viewing on that retailer’s shelf.
Despite the reputation of shopping apps as poaching devices that turn retail stores into showrooms for online buys, the opposite may also be true, says Jim Barkow, co-founder of Longboard Media, which runs advertising into the ShopSavvy app. “Often the mobile app can reinforce the decision of buying in the store. The price differential to online may be nominal and may push in-store sales.” While obviously some real research needs to be done on this question, it seems reasonable that an app can convince the typical shopper that he or she is not going to find a better deal online — or at least not find enough of a deal to matter.
What we do know about mobile use in retail is that it taps into consumers at the height of a very energetic decision process. “The interactions are off the charts,” says Longboard’s other co-founder Scott Engler. Longboard serves ads into retail Web sites for Overstock.com, NewEgg and RadioShack. But the difference between people in shopping mode on their desktop and actually in-store is phenomenal, as Engler and Barkow observe. Since starting to feed ads into ShopSavvy they have seen users escalate their activity to referencing 30 products a month. Between 15 and 17 million people are using the app across the available platforms. The company also partners with Spotzot to drive ads into its deals engine that drives other shopping apps.
“Believe it or not, month after month, the most-scanned products are milk and other consumer packaged goods,” says Barkow. People are doing price checks and local availability checks. “Mobile mostly is out of the office and out-of-home,” says Barkow. “It is always localized and almost always in an actual store.”
Getting advertising, whether competitive product offers or general branding messages, at that point of heightened consumer awareness is proving extremely valuable. “CPMs are north of $500 for ShopSavvy,” says Engler. “We are getting 30%-plus click-through rates.”
Alexander Muse, co-founder of ShopSavvy, confirms the CPMs and the levels of interactivity. He tells me that on non-targeted ads, they may see CTRs down around 10% to 30%. “When we target based on product and location, they climb to over 30%,” he says.
It seems plausible that at least for now, people will follow even irrelevant ads when in shopping mode. When I played with the latest version of ShopSavvy, for instance, a scan of a Halls cough drop package rendered a handsome page with a moving image of the product, links to prices and availability — but also a prominent link to an HP products page. PC printers and cough drops? Well, here still is the novelty factor of in-app advertising, and the share of voice here is singular. But one has to wonder how much being in the throes of shopping mode also just makes us receptive to marketing messages — no matter how irrelevant.
Muse confirms that when the advertising becomes category-specific and well-targeted, the price of entry is considerable. “Our average CPM is $500,” he claims. “We sell them as $.50 targeted exposures.”
Barkow says that retailers and brands can leverage this level of interactivity and shopping energy in many ways beyond mere advertising. He believes targeted content will be the future of in-store shopping app promotions. “If someone is doing a price check, we can use mobile not just to push an ad unit, but to push more content. They need reviews and more detailed specs. We should be able to use mobile distribution to push more content at the point of purchase.”
Which is another way of saying what some of us have been saying about this platform from the beginning. Mobile is marketing’s big chance to get beyond advertising. This is where your brand moves off the centuries-old stage of being the annoying carnival barker we tolerate because he gives away tickets to the show. Now the marketer gets a chance to come off the stage and be a real part of the audience, enhance and enrich their experience and become a partner/companion — not just a shill.
Getting into the store aisle shouldn’t just be an opportunity to poach and pitch. That is a message with a very short shelf life. There is greater value to be added than that.
Steve Smith is the editor of Mobile Marketing Daily at Mediapost where he covers all aspects of the mobile landscape and writes the daily MoBlog and regular Mobile Insider columns. He also programs the OMMA Mobile/Display/Data and Behavioral series of shows and the Mobile Insider Summits. A recovering academic who taught media studies at Brown and University of Virginia, he spent the last decade as a digital media critic for numerous publications and as consultant. He also writes for Media Industry Newsletter and eContent magazine. Contact him here.
Leave a Comment » | Mobile | Permalink
Posted by Gurumantra
I couldn’t resist sharing these. I’m interested in several to test drive.
PR and communications practitioners are no longer solely trading tips on their favorite computer programs or gadgets. Mobile applications are fast becoming the go-to choice for busy professionals looking to be more effective and efficient at their jobs. A survey on social CRM and mobile capabilities by Nucleus Research , earlier this month, reveals productivity increases 14.6 percent on average when using mobile apps and 11.8 percent with social CRM. Mobile apps won’t necessarily minimize your workload; however, adding them to your mobile toolbox (beyond supplementing email) can help make integration with existing technology and services a whole lot easier. Thus, helping you stay competitive and relevant. Applications for Android, Blackberry, and iPhone
BottomLine: No matter your productivity needs, interests, or preferred mobile device, there are hundreds of apps that can help you work more efficiently. BurrellesLuce WorkFlow also helps you work smarter by providing all of your media planning, monitoring, and measurement services in one convenient and easy-to-use tool that you can access online or via the mobile web. So whether your coverage appears in print, online, or broadcast – BurrellesLuce monitors all of the media that matters most to you, including proprietary, copyright-compliant sources no other service provides. About BurrellesLuceTaking control of every stage of your media planning, monitoring, and reporting needs is simple and effective with BurrellesLuce. Our comprehensive suite of affordable services is fully integrated in one convenient and easy-to-use portal, BurrellesLuce WorkFlow™. Incorporate and review your traditional print, broadcast, online and social media results in one report. Research and engage journalists and bloggers, and intelligently plan future campaigns. Build and manage social media communities. WorkFlow gives you everything you need to start organizing and managing your media relations and public relations results. |
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Posted by Gurumantra
From Inc. Magazine
These new tools offer innovative ways to engage people who visit your site, and keep them coming back.
Illustration by Iker Ayestaran
A lot of business owners are focused on interacting with customers on social networks. But how about your plain old company website? These new tools offer innovative ways to engage people who visit your site—and to keep them coming back.
Best For: Building Buzz
Looking to generate some prelaunch excitement? This service helps you create a Coming Soon page for your website. After creating an account on LaunchRock.com, select a background design or upload your own, then add information about your business. A box will appear on the homepage encouraging people to sign up to receive e-mails with company news and earn incentives for spreading the word via e-mail or on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and other websites. Go to your LaunchRock dashboard to track a variety of information, including daily sign-ups and page views.
Cost: Free
Best For: A personal touch
When people register on your website, Intercom adds their information to an online database, along with information culled from social networks and other websites. You can sign on to your Intercom dashboard to view user profiles and see when they signed up and the last time they visited. Then, you can compose messages for specific people and the notes will pop up automatically the next time they come to the site. On your dashboard, you can see a list of open replies and respond to them. Intercom rates the strength of your relationships based on how often you interact with visitors.
Cost: Free during beta testing
Best For: Rewarding loyalty
PunchTab’s loyalty program lets you reward people for coming to your website every day, making comments, and sharing your content on social networks. After you set up the program using a wizard, visitors can click on a Rewards ribbon on your homepage and log in to earn points, which they can redeem for gift cards in a PunchTab catalog on your site. You can use PunchTab’s standard rewards guidelines—for instance, the service recommends doling out 100 points for each visit—or create your own. Log on to PunchTab.com to check out user profiles and leaderboards.
Cost: Free for a standard program with up to 10,000 users
Best For: Chatting
This service makes it easy to add a Web chat function to your site. After pasting in a line of code, go to your Olark account to choose a design and size for the chat box, stipulate where it should appear, and link it to an instant-messaging program. You can also customize a welcome message and offline notification. When customers click on the box, a message opens in your IM program, where the chat takes place. You can view transcripts on Olark.com and export them to customer relationship management programs, including Salesforce.
Cost: Starting at $17 a month for one user
Leave a Comment » | Software | Permalink
Posted by Gurumantra
This review by Katherine Boehret in the Wall Street Journal came at just the right time. I have my regular backups all over hard drives in the office. Nice except if the office disappears. I think this is worth some peace of mind and it looks like an easy solution.
Nothing elicits such a strong case of technology guilt as asking other people if they back up their computers. Eyes dart toward the ground. Excuses are made. The subject is quickly changed.
As many people know or quickly find out, backing up a computer can be a painfully slow process. This week, I tested a computer-backup system that requires minimal effort and works in the background to automatically back up files: CrashPlan. This appropriately named program is made by Code 42 Software, a Minneapolis-based company.
CrashPlan is a new software program that takes the hassle out of backing up your computer’s precious hard drive. WSJ’s Katherine Boehret says there’s a range of ways – and a range of prices – to make it happen.
CrashPlan works with all types of operating systems and lets users back up to remote servers in the cloud and/or other computers or hard drives, like another PC they own or one belonging to a good friend or family member (as long as they give permission). The system also sets no restrictions on file size.
On a typical home Internet connection, the backup process to a CrashPlan remote server could take several days or even weeks for a first-time backup. (After that, backups are much faster and happen unnoticed.) The first-time backup for one of my laptops with about 46 gigabytes of data had been running almost continuously for three days when I filed this column on Tuesday. After the initial backup, regular backups won’t take nearly as long. CrashPlan has a mobile app that works on Apple‘s AAPL +5.10% iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Android and Windows Phone 7, allowing remote access to backed-up files.
The free version of CrashPlan enables a daily backup to other computers and hard drives but not to Code 42’s remote servers. The subscription-based CrashPlan+ will back up to the remote servers as well as other computers or hard drives. It can back up as often as once a minute and lets users choose what data to back up where.
Code 42 SoftwareCrashPlan’s straightforward user interface clearly shows what your data are doing and where they are being stored.
CrashPlan+ comes in three payment plans, each with its own tiered rates—from a month-to-month option to a four-year subscription. For each of the three plans, the four-year subscription is the least expensive at $70, or about $1.50 a month per computer for up to 10 gigabytes of data; $140 or $3 monthly per computer for unlimited storage; and $288 or $6 monthly for up to 10 computers and unlimited storage. The company offers a free 30-day trial.
I got started by downloading the software to my MacBook, creating an account and starting the initial backup. A scan of my data took a few minutes before the actual backup began. Using my Verizon DSL connection over Wi-Fi, the estimates of how long it would take changed dramatically by the second. I saw estimates of as much as 17.5 days and as little as 6.6 hours.
Katherine Boehret tests CrashPlan, a computer-backup system that requires minimal effort and works in the background to automatically back up files.
I also downloaded CrashPlan onto my office Windows PC, which has a fast, hard-wired Ethernet connection. I logged into my account and opted to back up a folder of photos that was roughly 16 gigabytes. The estimate for this backup was a little over one day, though I didn’t adjust CrashPlan settings to get the fastest transfer on this PC. In a simple menu, I could opt to back up the Windows PC to my MacBook as well as to remote servers—or just to the MacBook alone. On my MacBook, I made sure to adjust the settings to get the fastest speed possible for my giant backup.
Code 42 CEO Matthew Dornquast said the worst-case scenario speeds are initially displayed, but that these adjust down as time goes on. In my experience, the initial estimates didn’t change much.
CrashPlan backs up your newest files first on the assumption those mean the most to you, and it encrypts all files, so file names can’t be read on remote servers or backup computers. I liked CrashPlan’s straightforward user interface because it clearly showed me what my data were doing and where it was being stored. A section labeled “Destinations” let me choose where data was backed up and options included “CrashPlan Central” (remote servers), “Friend,” “Another Computer” or “Folder.” A section labeled “Files” showed exactly what was being stored; in my case, this meant 285,930 files. An “Inbound” section showed any computers that were using my computer for backup.
Code 42 SoftwareA CrashPlan mobile app is available on a Windows Phone 7, iPhone and Android phone.
In settings, users can opt to be emailed or even sent direct messages via Twitter that tell them the latest backup status. This is helpful if you’re only backing up to, say, one other PC in your house and that PC fails to back up.
In addition to over-the-air backups, CrashPlan users with a lot of data, very little patience or both may want to try an alternate option. For $125 (including shipping both ways) and a monthly fee for remote storage, the company will send a one-terabyte hard drive that can be loaded with data and mailed back. Once that huge block of data is initially stored on remote servers, regular backups won’t take nearly as long.
To get data back, a “Restore to Your Door” feature will send you a hard drive filled with your data so you can load it onto a new computer. This also costs $125 (with shipping both ways) and the monthly cost of remote storage.
Compared with competitors, CrashPlan fares well. For example, CrashPlan doesn’t limit upload or download speeds, while Carbonite limits upload speeds for large amounts of data after a certain amount has been backed up, further slowing the process. Mozy supports external drives, but this backup is deleted if the drive is disconnected or turned off for more than 30 days. CrashPlan keeps the backup indefinitely, waiting for the drive to be reconnected.
—See a video with Katherine Boehret on CrashPlan at WSJ.com/PersonalTech. Email katie.boehret@wsj.com.
Leave a Comment » | Software, Technology | Tagged: Backup Software, Cloud Backup | Permalink
Posted by Gurumantra
We’ve reached the tipping point where the most creative, engaging and action-driving digital marketing initiatives that were originally designed specifically for the Web can be a wasted investment. This is due to the fact that the majority of your audience is likely seeing this content on their smartphone and it’s not optimized for the mobile channel. Case in point, for the first time ever, smartphones outsold PCs this year, and that ratio will only continue to grow.
Mobile devices provide immediate access to information, anytime, anywhere. For example, patients can conduct research from within the doctor’s office or refill prescriptions on the go; people who exercise can check-in to their gym and track their fitness regimen; dieters can update their diet-trackers; and sport coaches can find the nearest doctor -– with directions -– should anything happen at out-of-town tournaments.
So, what’s the prognosis, if you’re not mindful of the growing audience using mobile devices? If the content isn’t optimized for mobile, then that new “find our nearest locations” button is probably too small to see on your customer’s Android screen and that great site-intro developed entirely in Flash won’t be seen from any Apple devices. This results in marketers running the risk of losing loyal customers, if their mobile web experience isn’t all encompassing on one device. Think of full customer service lines, decreased access to information and other missed-connection opportunities.
Many companies in the healthcare industry have already optimized mobile experiences for their patients and customers –- and with each example I’ve provided below, there are lessons to be learned to ensure an optimized digital experience for all users, making it that much easier for consumers to access information from any device.
Recognizing Healthy Mobile Attributes
Understanding that an increasing number of patients accessed their website via the mobile Web, earlier this year, Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the United States, launched an optimized mobile site. The new site means that Kaiser Permanente patients can now access their own medical information, securely and from anywhere in the world, through any Web-enabled device. Kaiser Permanente hopes to greatly increase the customer experience by featuring 24/7 access to lab results and diagnostic information as well as providing direct and secure email services with their doctors via a site that has fast load time, automatically scaled to the device’s screen size and providing easy navigation and scroll features. By focusing on the services that matter most to their patients, the company expects mobile traffic “to increase significantly with the new mobile-optimized site.”
Walgreens and CVS are two examples of pharmacies that truly understand the priorities of customers that are accessing their storefronts via mobile. In both their smartphone apps and optimized mobile Web sites, customers are able to input and/or scan their prescription barcodes for quick and easy refill orders. Additionally, these two sites feature a consumer-friendly navigation system with efficient scrolling features as well as e-commerce capabilities. Upon accessing the site, customers have the option to immediately download their respective smartphone apps -– a feature that more loyal and frequent customers surely appreciate.
Mobile Web and smartphone apps are only a part of the larger mobile experience. It’s also important for healthcare and wellness companies to think of the big picture and get creative with customer engagement. For example, Foursquare’s badge system is perfect for pushing patients to reach their goals. The company partnered with HealthMonth to introduce new Foursquare badges while making life improvements and help “increase the chances of actually making meaningful changes.”
Speaking of social, it’s time that marketers embrace their mobile-social customers. As I’ve mentioned before, healthcare marketers need to leverage the social Web. Many individuals are looking to their social groups for advice, information, counsel and resources – such as this woman who is grateful for the ability to quickly and easily share a photo of her son’s rash, which allowed a neighbor to identify the rare condition and intervene at a crucial time! Further, with about 40% of Facebook users coming in via mobile, Facebook has been placing a lot more attention on its mobile strategy, rolling out a multitude of mobile features for brands, including premium mobile ads and the new mobile-friendly Timeline layout for brand pages. How is your company’s social presence optimized for mobile users? Are the links, photos and features accessible via Facebook mobile?
Stay ahead of the curve to ensure that your customers are able to access the information, resources, products and services that are most important to their brand experience. Take note of trends like social gaming and Pinterest – activities that pull both mobile and desktop users. Aetna took note of the gaming trend and teamed up with social gaming company Mindbloom to offer Life Game, a “rewarding and effective way for Aetna’s members to make lasting improvements in their physical and emotional well-being.” And while Pinterest doesn’t currently feature a health, medical or healthcare category, this destination reaches an engaged community of mostly younger females -– the same segment that is responsible for most health and medical-care decisions.
Key Takeaway: Mobile is NOT an Afterthought
Mobile should be built into marketing efforts. Understanding both where and how your customers and patients are discovering your business will support in optimizing mobile experiences and ensure that engaging, informative and resourceful content is accessible to any consumer, from any device.
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Reggie Bradford is the founder and CEO of Vitrue, a social marketing platform. He was the CMO of WebMD and CEO of N2 Broadband before founding Vitrue in 2006. |
Leave a Comment » | Mobile | Tagged: health apps, mobil marketing | Permalink
Posted by Gurumantra
From Alpha Gallileo
New spin on graphene University of Manchester scientists have found a way to make wonder material graphene magnetic, opening up a new range of opportunities for the world’s thinnest material in the area of spintronics.
A team led by Professor Andre Geim, a recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize for graphene, can now show that electric current – a flow of electrons – can magnetise graphene.
The results, reported in Science, could be a potentially huge breakthrough in the field of spintronics.
Spintronics is a group of emerging technologies that exploit the intrinsic spin of the electron, in addition to its fundamental electric charge that is exploited in microelectronics.
Billions of spintronics devices such as sensors and memories are already being produced. Every hard disk drive has a magnetic sensor that uses a flow of spins, and magnetic random access memory (MRAM) chips are becoming increasingly popular.
The findings are part of a large international effort involving research groups from the US, Russia, Japan and the Netherlands.
The key feature for spintronics is to connect the electron spin to electric current as current can be manipulated by means routinely used in microelectronics.
It is believed that, in future spintronics devices and transistors, coupling between the current and spin will be direct, without using magnetic materials to inject spins as it is done at the moment.
So far, this route has only been demonstrated by using materials with so-called spin-orbit interaction, in which tiny magnetic fields created by nuclei affect the motion of electrons through a crystal. The effect is generally small which makes it difficult to use.
The researchers found a new way to interconnect spin and charge by applying a relatively weak magnetic field to graphene and found that this causes a flow of spins in the direction perpendicular to electric current, making a graphene sheet magnetised.
The effect resembles the one caused by spin-orbit interaction but is larger and can be tuned by varying the external magnetic field.
The Manchester researchers also show that graphene placed on boron nitride is an ideal material for spintronics because the induced magnetism extends over macroscopic distances from the current path without decay.
The team believes their discovery offers numerous opportunities for redesigning current spintronics devices and making new ones such as spin-based transistors.
Professor Geim said: “The holy grail of spintronics is the conversion of electricity into magnetism or vice versa.
“We offer a new mechanism, thanks to unique properties of graphene. I imagine that many venues of spintronics can benefit from this finding.”
Antonio Castro Neto, a physics professor from Boston who wrote a news article for the Science magazine which accompanies the research paper commented: “Graphene is opening doors for many new technologies.
“Not surprisingly, the 2010 Nobel Physics prize was awarded to Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov for their groundbreaking experiments in this material.
“Apparently not satisfied with what they have accomplished so far, Geim and his collaborators have now demonstrated another completely unexpected effect that involves quantum mechanics at ambient conditions. This discovery opens a new chapter to the short but rich history of graphene”.
The image shows a flow of electrons (green arrows) which magnetises graphene in the opposite directions to the left and to the right from the current flow.
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: Graphene | Permalink
Posted by Gurumantra
Thanks to Paul Keetch at Make My Marketing Work for this excellent compilation of free software tools for your business. The best part is that they’re free! How cool is that?
Leave a Comment » | Software | Tagged: frre software tools, software tools | Permalink
Posted by Gurumantra
Driving With Slippers 