Showing posts with label World Wide Web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Wide Web. Show all posts

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Musk's Cross Pollinating Ways

English: Elon Musk at the panel Tribeca Talks:...
English: Elon Musk at the panel Tribeca Talks: Revenge of the Electric Car, for the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Musk, it should be noted, had no experience building rockets. All he knew about space exploration had been gleaned from books and training manuals. Vance describes in gleeful detail Musk’s improbable quest to build a NASA-worthy rocket essentially from scratch. “I am a billionaire. I am going to start a space program,” Vance reports him saying to the man he enlisted to go with him to Moscow to persuade the Russians to sell him an intercontinental ballistic rocket, which he planned to use as a launch vehicle. When that didn’t work out—Musk thought the Russians were trying to get him to part with too many millions of his billion-plus fortune—he crunched some numbers and determined that it made more sense to build the rocket himself. It would be low-cost, low-orbiting, and designed to ferry satellites into space on a regular schedule. The idea, he told the first employees of his new company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), was to become the “Southwest Airlines of Space.” ....... the spirit of a Silicon Valley start-up—learn by doing and do it around the clock—and like those start-ups, it would take advantage of exponential increases in computing power. Software developers would tap into that power to design and build the company’s avionics, while the rocket’s components would be assembled, as much as possible, from equipment purchased off the shelf. ...... because of Musk’s relentless and successful pursuit of the best young engineers and coders and the unremitting demands he placed upon them, it would be made. ...... it, too, fell back to earth. The company was burning through Musk’s money; its margin for error was narrowing while Musk’s reputation as yet another rich guy with a vanity space program was growing ........ Finally, in 2008, six years after Musk declared his galactic intentions, and four and a half years after he said it would happen, the SpaceX Falcon 1 became the first privately constructed rocket to reach orbit. As Vance tells it, the human costs were at least as high as whatever number of dollars had come from Musk’s pocket (one estimate put it at $100 million) ......... Some of these people had spent years on the island going through one of the more surreal engineering exercises in human history. They had been separated from their families, assaulted by the heat, and exiled on their tiny launchpad outpost—sometimes without much food—for days on end as they waited for the launch windows to open and dealt with the aborts that followed. So much of that pain and suffering and fear would be forgotten if this launch went successfully. ............ The portrait of Elon Musk that emerges from these pages is of a man of visionary intellect, fierce ambition, and fantastic wealth, who is emotionally bankrupt. “Many of us worked tirelessly for him for years and were tossed to the curb like a piece of litter,” one former employee told Ashlee Vance. “What was clear is that people who worked for him were like ammunition: used for a specific purpose until exhausted and discarded.” ......... Loyalty was expected but not honored. Fear of getting publicly dressed down by Musk—or worse—was rampant. “Marketing people who made grammatical mistakes in e-mails were let go,” Vance reports, “as were other people who hadn’t done anything ‘awesome’ in recent memory.” And then there was the employee who “missed an event to witness the birth of his child. Musk fired off an e-mail saying, ‘That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t.’” ........... Musk’s severe rationality and emotional detachment, as well as his preternatural ability to master complex subjects quickly, have led to an ongoing joke among denizens of certain Internet forums that he must be an alien, beamed down from space. (No wonder he’s so keen to colonize Mars!) In fact, the man has all the attributes of a classic narcissist—the grandiosity, the quest to be famous, the lack of empathy, the belief that he is smarter than everyone else, and the messianic plan to save civilization. Steve Jobs comes to mind, though Jobs’s ambitions were pedestrian compared to Musk’s. ........... Twelve electric vehicles besides the Tesla Model S were brought to market in 2014 and fourteen were released in 2015. One of them was conceived and designed in Croatia. ....... He has applied to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to test a satellite-beamed Internet service that, he says, “would be like rebuilding the Internet in space.” ............ While SpaceX’s four thousand circling satellites have the potential to create a whole new meaning for the World Wide Web, since they will beam down the Internet to every corner of the earth, the system holds additional interest for Musk. “Mars is going to need a global communications system, too,” he apparently told a group of engineers he was hoping to recruit at an event last January in Redmond, Washington. ......... fifth mode of transportation ..... Musk’s critics—and he has many—are quick to point out that he is merely piggy-backing on existing technologies, not inventing them. There were electric cars before there was Tesla, rockets before there was SpaceX, solar panels before there was SolarCity, and even pneumatic tube travel has a long, if spotty, history. Yet as true as this is, it misses the point of what Elon Musk is doing. By now it is a cliché to put the words “Silicon Valley” and “disruptive innovation” in the same sentence, but disruption is precisely the point of every one of Musk’s ventures. He has made disruption itself his business plan and it is working. It required a lot of hubris to take on the aerospace industry and the automobile industry and the utilities, but he did, and he is, with precipitous consequences. Will they be precipitous enough to catapult the man to Mars, ten years hence?




Saturday, December 29, 2012

Online Learning

This is tremendous news, although I don't understand why elementary and secondary education is not the primary focus of these online education disruptors.

The global implications of free online college courses are enormous.

Lifelong education for everybody everywhere with people moving at their own paces on their own schedules is the goal. The term high school dropout or college dropout is weird. Unless your internet access has been taken away by the unknown you can not drop out. It is not possible.

Beam online education to the inner cities. This disrupts the whole voucher debate in politics.

Online Learning and Upheavals in Social Networks
For all the attention lavished on the Web’s growth on mobile devices this year, one of the most interesting Internet trends is still best experienced on a desktop computer: online education.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Online Marketing For A Construction Business


5 ways to effectively market your construction business online
Establishing a strong online presence requires hard work, perseverance and a commitment to your goals. ..... Whether you’re hoping to use online marketing to jumpstart a new construction business or give some oomph to one that’s already existing ...... Having a strong online presence is critical to success .... outbound marketing approaches (websites and blogs) cost a fraction of inbound marketing expenditures while still producing a far greater marketing ROI ..... find your strongest niche service — something that you know your company can promote as being the best, fastest, cheapest, etc. — and then run with it. .... Controlling costs means making tough decisions, especially when it comes to marketing. Always measure the value of marketing costs by calculating the potential profits they’ll bring in. ..... Connect your business to social media. ..... If your business isn’t on Facebook and other social media platforms, then you’re missing out on an essential — and relatively inexpensive — online marketing tool that can expose a plethora of potential clients to your business
Construction Internet marketing
Internet marketing for the construction industry has exploded in the past 5 years. It seems that every homeowner who is looking to add-on, remodel, replace windows, doors or roofs starts with a Google search, no surprise really, but what is a surprise is just how many contractors are missing the boat. Construction marketing is all about local search and most construction companies are not “casting a wide net” around the long tail. They are missing out on the “refined” search so many owners are searching on....... get your website optimized for local search ..... determine all of the geographic terms your potential customer might add to the search query. Think in terms of city and county names as well as regional names like Simi Valley, or the South Bay..... You will want to evaluate all of your keywords while you’re at it, every contractor we have worked with has been short on 30 to 100+ keywords. Potential customers are going use a wide variety of keywords in their search quires and the more of these words you optimize the more potential customer will find your website
Construction Marketing
When providing online marketing solutions for construction companies, we take the time to extensively learn about your construction business so that we can build a successful marketing campaign that is specifically tailored to your unique services, products, goals and objectives. This approach includes analysis of your current business and website, your competition, and your niche industry. ...... In general, the construction industry has been slow to adapt to online marketing techniques, although the downturn in the economy is now forcing construction companies to explore more affordable online marketing solutions in order to generate new business
Online Marketing Strategies for Contractors
Here's an inconvenient little fact that has been researched and verified to death: The average buyer only buys after being "touched" seven times. ...... Few marketing systems are set up to touch a prospect seven times. Prior to the Internet, that type of frequency was prohibitively expensive. ..... Every lead generation system you deploy must accommodate multiple touches. And that's why Internet marketing has surpassed every other approach for lead generation. You can touch prospects numerous times cost free. ..... If you took the money you spend annually on the Yellow Pages, Service Magic, direct mail, and other standard print advertising vehicles, you could build a website that would blow your competition out of the water and position yourself to charge far higher prices than you currently do. ..... The Internet lets you easily deploy the six triggers of buying behavior: reciprocity, commitment, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. .....
Here are some of the advantages the Internet has over traditional (outdated) marketing methods.
It is amazingly affordable.
You can position yourself as the expert in your field.
You can position your company as completely customer-centric.
You can entertain.
You can cut off simple, repetitive questions [using a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page].
You can present endless testimonials
You can tell your story with pictures, videos.
You can speak directly to your customers (audio)
You can easily analyze your marketing efforts
You can create incredible emotional bonds with your prospects, long before they ever call in.
It automates the referral process. .....
Internet marketing is not just another marketing technique. Internet marketing is not a 21 st Century twist on old marketing methods. Internet marketing is a complete obliteration of past marketing methods. ....... You may think you have an option whether to put up a website or not. You don't. Your prospects are on the Internet. If they can't find you there, they aren't going to hire you. ...... Web Strategy 4: Interactive, Entertaining and Viral ..... This strategy requires considerable upkeep, but it pays off in spades! Sites designed around this strategy grab people's attention and hold on to it for long periods of time. ....... List your prospects' interests, pains and concerns. Storyboard your site. .... Publicize your domain name everywhere. ..... People remember domain names. They don't remember phone numbers. ..... Set up an e-mail with your domain name behind the @ sign. Anything else looks unprofessional. .... If you are going with a type three or four site, find a professional. They're worth the money ..... Most people start their searches with search engines and only move to the online phone books when the search engine fails to bring up a worthy site ..... Strategy No. 2: The Online Brochure ..... This is the most common type of site by far. An online brochure lists the services offered, presents pictures of completed projects, has a FAQ page and tells a short story of the company's history. These sites usually have between five and fifteen pages and cost less than $1,000 to get up. ......
A newsletter via e-mail
Articles that show your prospects how to select a contractor that meets their needs
Articles that contain tips on how to maintain the completed project in near original shape
Free special reports
A blog to share your thoughts and provoke feedback from readers
Links to other sites of probable interest to the reader ....
When the time comes to create content for your site, recruit as many employees and friends as you can to help. It's always better to have the educational information penned by your company. If no one at your company has the time, drive or skill to write effectively, contact the owners of the sites you printed out and ask their permission to post their content. You will need to give them full credit, of course. ...... Your primary goal with this site is to get people to sign up for your newsletter list. Ask for name and e-mail address only. Once you have that, you're on your way to building a great relationship. Newsletters kill two birds with one stone. They position you as a caring expert. They enable you to touch your prospect several times. ...... Remember the magic number of seven? Newsletters hit that and more. Another magic number to remember is twenty. People will forget about you if don't touch them within twenty days. Send your newsletter out every other week. ..... This strategy also requires the loading and posting of a blog. Blogs serve two purposes. Like the newsletter, they position you as an authority. Unlike the newsletter, they are loved by search engines. Here's a valuable trick---write about local businesses and events in your blog. That will propel your site up the local search engine results list. ..... Strategy No. 4: Interactive, Entertaining and Viral ....
This is where the leaders in Internet marketing are putting great distance between themselves and their competition. They are taking advantage of something referred to as web 2.0. .......... tap into their word-of-mouth sharing. As these people spread your information far and wide, your site becomes far easier to find by the search engines...and by your prospects. ..... loaded with videos, audios, articles, blog posts, discussion boards and surveys. ...... These websites draw traffic (prospects) like flies. They are easily found they invite participation; they get prospects to share their contact information; they get referred; they become the place to be. They turn casual interest into serious leads. ..... an "Interactive, Entertaining, and Viral" site will draw far more traffic and turbo-charge your exposure to prospects. The downside is that it takes considerably more upkeep and attention
3 Reasons Why Construction Companies Need a Strong Online Presence
when it comes to establishing your company on the Internet, it’s better late than never. ...... The problem is that entering the online avenue can be intimidating for those who might consider themselves to be “technologically challenged.” However, if implemented effectively it will improve your odds of achieving growth faster by expanding your client base. ..... 1) A strong online presence draws in new clients. ... Instead of thumbing through a phone book for contact information that’s challenging to read, today’s consumers search for exactly what they need by using keyword searches online. ...... 2) A strong online presence strengthens customer relations. ... The Internet not only allows you to attract new clients, but also nurture strong relationships with existing ones. .... Interacting with your clients through social media sites is both efficient and effective. It also allows customers to access you immediately without having to go through the brouhaha of a customer service team. ..... 3) A strong online presence makes you an industry authority. ... One way to establish yourself as an authority of industry knowledge is to help consumers understand some of the more complicated aspects of the construction industry. If you have a thorough understanding of the laws that regulate your industry, share them with your audience. This gives potential clients confidence in your integrity
3 Online Marketing Tips for Construction Business Owners
No matter what line of work you’re in, you need a strong online presence in order to get more leads and increase your customer base—phonebooks are now almost obsolete and traditional marketing techniques like TV and magazine ads are super pricey (and probably out of your small construction business owner budget). Thus online marketing is the way to go. First order of business: create an up-to-date professionally-looking website that can also be easily accessed through a smart phone. A blog can be beneficial too. ...... using three of the nation’s most popular social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. .... Solidify your “expert” status by choosing a specialty such as retail construction, sustainable green building, or high-end residential projects for example .... if you tweet #construction #greenbuilding at the end of your tweets and include a link to your business website, those looking for sustainable builders on Twitter will be able to find you with ease ...... research shows that companies that have mascots generally perform better simply for the fact that consumers can identify the company and the product being sold. If you want your construction business to stand out amongst the crowds, a spokesperson could be the solution. ..... you need to offer an incentive for consumers to add you/follow you on social media sites to begin with. One of the easiest ways to do this is to offer exclusive/unique coupons to consumers who add you on Facebook for example. But do make the coupon or offer differ on other social media sites that you use. No repeats.

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Good Government, Bad Government

Cerf and Bob E. Kahn being awarded the Preside...
Cerf and Bob E. Kahn being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So, who really did invent the Internet?
the Internet had its roots in the ARPANet, a government project .... the government-funded ARPANet was very much the precursor of the Internet as we know it today. .... Bob Taylor was the single most important figure in the history of the Internet, and he holds that stature because of his government role. ..... TCP/IP, the fundamental communications protocol of the Internet, was invented by Vinton Cerf (though he fails to mention Cerf's partner, Robert Kahn). He points out that Tim Berners-Lee "gets credit for hyperlinks." ..... Cerf and Kahn did develop TCP/IP--on a government contract! And Berners-Lee doesn't get credit for hyperlinks--that belongs to Doug Engelbart of Stanford Research Institute, who showed them off in a legendary 1968 demo you can see here. Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web--and he did so at CERN, a European government consortium. ...... Private enterprise had no interest in something so visionary and complex, with questionable commercial opportunities. Indeed, the private corporation that then owned monopoly control over America's communications network, AT&T, fought tooth and nail against the ARPANet. Luckily for us, a far-sighted government agency prevailed. ...... It's true that the Internet took off after it was privatized in 1995. But to be privatized, first you have to be government-owned. It's another testament to people often demeaned as "government bureaucrats" that they saw that the moment had come to set their child free.
I have long believed in private and public sector collaborations.
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Friday, January 20, 2012

What Price A Movie?

It's All in the MoviesImage via WikipediaNew York Times: Dodd Calls for Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Meet
..... no Washington player can safely assume that a well-wired, heavily financed legislative program is safe from a sudden burst of Web-driven populism...... “This is altogether a new effect,” Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing “an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically” in the last four decades, he added.
Say it is 10 dollars at the movie theater on release day. Some places it is 13, some 9. But let's say it's 10.

If the movie industry would move such that new releases can be watched on your laptop the day of the release, how much should you be asked to pay for it? It has to be less than 10. They did not build the home you are sitting in. They are not having to pay for the air conditioning, or the chair. The laptop is yours. The Internet is not charging them for the streaming.

The only thing they need is the production cost and the profit.

I think three dollars. Maybe even two.

They will make more money that way than they do now. They will reach a much, much wider audience for one. They could stream it from their own websites. Ads at that site would be the new popcorn.

I don't understand what stops them.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Truly Disruptive


Of all the blog posts I have done at this blog, this has got to be my favorite: My Web Diagram.

I keep thinking in terms of the red circle.

What after the infrastructure has been built? Then what? That has implications. When people in tech talk about disruptive, it is about shifts in the way the technology operates. Digital disrupts the music scene, for example. Disruptions can be to business processes.

But the web is not one technology, just like white is not one people, Indian is not one people. There are many peoples. Africa is not one country.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country


Internet Society Event

Tim Berners-Lee was the first key speaker. I raised my hand to ask a question. I had asked the exact same question to Vint Serf who I had spotted half an hour before the event began. Vint said he was George Washington, Tim might be the Thomas Jefferson, and then went on to offer small tidbits about some of the other Founding Fathers. Vint was in a jolly mood.

I asked my question and Tim's mood went foul. What was the question?

"I think of the Internet as literally the new country. This is the Internet Century. America is Europe. The Internet is America. My question is which of you - Tim, Vint - is Thomas Jefferson?"

The Internet is not a country, Tim said. If you do something fraudulent, you end up in a jail, a real jail, he said.

That cracked me up. I laughed. He knows not who he talks to, I thought.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Google, GroupOn: Google Just Got Offline

Marissa MayerImage by ifindkarma via FlickrThis is Google getting offline. That is a big jump. I hear GroupOn has a salesforce. Google has not had that. This is Google now getting high touch. High tech is no longer enough. Online only is no longer enough.

Google went offline before it went into hardware. That's significant. A company like Google getting offline also shows how mainstream the web has become. The term In Real Life no longer applies. What do you mean in real life? The web is as real as it gets.

Local, social, mobile, global.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Real Message From Apple Apps

Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBaseThe real message from iPhone and iPad apps is not that the web is dead, like one magazine put it recently, but that people are willing to pay. Steve Jobs dove into the world of music piracy and created the iTunes store. People were willing to pay, it is just that they like the digital format better, he concluded.