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Have you ever used Youtube videos for a presentation and wish there was a way to annotate the videos. Youtube has an annotate feature but only for owners of the videos, which means you cannot annotate someone else's video.
Summarised from Mashable - TubePopper is also limited to the videos available on YouTubejust enter the URL for the YouTube video you’d like to annotate, or perform a YouTube video search directly on TubePopper’s site.
Beyond this, TubePopper has the expected networking features: embedding options, commenting, related clips, and one-click sharing across various social networks and bookmarking sites, which is a feature powered by Gigya.
Here's a sample, does remind me of Mei Mei Watches MTV on Chinese MTV Channel.
As more Singaporeans start to shop online, SMEs have to better equip themselves with IT innovation in order to get a slice of the market. This according to Senior Minister of State for Education and Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, who was speaking at the annual Infocomm Commerce Conference on Thursday.
According to a survey by the Infocomm Development Authority, the proportion of users who shop online has more than doubled from 17 per cent in 2003 to 35 per cent last year.
So, to help SMEs, a second infocomm resource centre (SIRC) is being set up to help SMEs learn more about IT and its applications to specific businesses.
Also in the pipeline is an i-directory which will be a one-stop portal housing an extensive list of infocomm products and services offered by SMEs in Singapore.
And with cyberspace, companies must always take into account online safety.
So, in addition to the new initiatives, a Cyber Security Awareness Alliance will help raise awareness and adoption of cyber security measures among businesses and even individuals.
Thanks to Jems, I decided to sign up mobile broadband, with Singtel.
I spend 60% of my work hours using Wireless@SG and although the national initiative is commendable, the service is not reliable. I'm sure you have experienced network problems although connected into a full bar SSID. I also noted that sometimes POP / SMTP / MSN is blocked.
So far I've tested Orange's service and I couldn't even get it running consistently (Orange staff said it was something about Vista and my HP notebook not compatible with the Huawei modem). As for Green, well, go on... keep up the throttling and you'll see more customers leave.
The plan I got was the 1mbps plan, since you can upgrade (not downgrade) without penalty.
So being the Geek, here's the unboxing and also the speedtest (which was a little disappointing). By the way, installation was a breeze, plug in, install software, click connect and w00t!
So based on the website, I should be getting up to 1mbps downloads and 384mbps uploads right.... let's see how it goes (end of blog post).
The unboxing begins...
The results... Hmmm, not exactly as advertised huh. Around 1/4 of the maximum download speed. As usual, I'm sure the standard "depends on current location and surrounding conditions blah blah blah" disclaimer applies. I will test again and post an update when I'm at a public location - I shall hunt for a cellular tower! (Updated - new test at a public location yielded surprising results)
14 August 12pm - I've just tested at a public location. Nice!
Nonetheless, IMHO, the convenience it offers does surpass the download speeds it is capable of. After all I don't download torrents, mp3s, nor animes.
Mashable has come up with a list of 5 books that can help improve your thinking about the value of social media to the enterprise.
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Corporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it s unstoppable, it affects every industry and it s utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now.
When consumers you ve never met are rating your company s products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Inc. explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity.
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
"How do trends emerge and opinions form? The answer used to be something vague about word of mouth, but now it's a highly measurable science, and nobody understands it better than Clay Shirky. In this delightfully readable book, practically every page has an insight that will change the way you think about the new era of social media. Highly recommended." -Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail
Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
Written by an in-the-trenches practitioner, this step-by-step guide shows you how to implement a successful Web analytics strategy. Web analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, in his thought-provoking style, debunks leading myths and leads you on a path to gaining actionable insights from your analytics efforts. Discover how to move beyond clickstream analysis, why qualitative data should be your focus, and more insights and techniques that will help you develop a customer-centric mindset without sacrificing your company’s bottom line.
The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media
"As word of mouth loses opinion-forming power to word of blog, companies are faced with a revolution in how their brands and corporate image will be shaped in the future. Paul Gillin provides a very insightful and well-written guide on how to effectively benefit from these dramatic changes. A must read!" --Patrick J. McGovern, founder and chairman, International Data Group (IDG)
The Art of Strategic Listening
Listening To Your Customers’ Conversations Can Provide Big Dividends
Do you know what your customers or bloggers are saying about your company and your products? Marketers used to be able to assess the perception of their company or their products by simply monitoring the media and reading any letters of complaint that came by mail, but that was pre-internet and social networking.
Now there are more than 80 million blogs, as well as social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, video aggregators like YouTube and EveryZing and thousands of other social media sites on the web where customers talk with each other and make all kinds of comments, good and bad about your firm, your competitors, and your industry.
Come January 1 next year, businesses in Singapore will have a Unique Entity Number (UEN) to identify themselves when dealing with all government agencies.
This single identification number will be issued by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) to all entities registered in Singapore in a move that is aimed at streamlining processes.
Under the new system, a UEN will be issued by ACRA to all entities that have multiple interactions with government agencies by October this year.
About 330,000 or 85 per cent of companies and businesses here will use their current ACRA company registration number as their UEN, while 55,000 entities or 15 per cent of all companies in Singapore will be issued a new number.
These entities include Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), foreign companies, societies and management corporations.
Businesses have welcomed the move saying that this would simplify and reduce possible errors caused by the use of multiple numbers. Other government agencies have also echoed the same view.
Jim Stroud has a 2 parts article on how to "mine" resumes from Scribd.com, the User Generated Content - Online document repository site.
Scribd is like a YouTube for documents. on any given month, 17 million people research Scribd for documents of all types. Since Scribd launched in March 2007, it has become one of the top 300 websites on the Internet, receiving over 20 million monthly visitors. It has also accumulated over 17 billion words in its library, making it five times the size of Wikipedia!!!
CurdBee is a safe and secure web-based billing application from Vesess. Use it to send clients invoices and then collect payments via PayPal or Google Checkout, billing them easily in the currency you choose.
Cuil has just been unleashed and it has been getting so much attention that their servers crashed on the first day. NY Times reported that Cuil is a search engine that the founders promise will be more comprehensive than Google’s and that they hope will give its users more relevant results.
Ms. Patterson left Google in 2006 to found Cuil. The new company has other prominent ex-Google employees, including Russell Power, who worked with Ms. Patterson on the large Google index, and Louis Monier, a former chief technology officer at AltaVista, a pioneering search engine. Cuil, which has about 30 employees and is in Menlo Park, Calif., has raised $33 million from venture investors.
Mr. Costello, a former researcher at Stanford, said that with 120 billion Web pages, Cuil’s search index is larger than any other. The company uses a form of data mining to group Web pages by content, which makes the search engine more efficient, he said. Instead of showing results as short snippets of text and images with links, it displays longer entries and uses more pictures. It also provides tools to help users further refine their queries.
David Allen, author of "Getting Things Done," one of the best-selling productivity books of all times joins Robert Scoble to talk about the future of work and how to make the most of productivity while minimizing stress.
A breakthrough book on productivity written by a dynamic author with national recognition, GETTING THINGS DONE has changed thousands of people's lives since it was originally published in hardcover in January 2001.
Now five years later this book is a national best seller. This shows how valuable and effective this book has proved to anyone looking to achieve their goals in life and work with the minimum amount of stress and the maximum degree of efficiency and flexibility. Whether you are an executive, student, or run a business and/or household, GETTING THINGS DONE will teach you the tips and tricks of how to get--and stay--on top of it all.
There have been hints in the government that S'pore may expand its national child leave policy to mirror that in European nations like Sweden. While S'pore currently offers mothers 3 months of paid maternity leave...and fathers three days, Sweden offers 13 months for both parents. Not surprisingly Singaporeans of child-rearing age who were asked like the idea, but employers are balking. The Electric New Paper says that some workers expressed concern that if they policy was changed that generously, they would be discriminated against if they or their spouse became pregnant. S'pore does not allow dismissal of women during their pregnancy or their leaves.
Employers are understandably concerned that the 400% increase in time off (from 3-13 months for 2 parents) would hurt them in both productivity and financially. They would have to continue to pay salary AND find someone to replace the lost worker. Swedes, and other Europeans with extremely long maternity pay have much higher taxes than Singapore to help cover costs. Image Source CT government Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook Group. Now on Mobile!
"Nicely sums up the explosion of digital-technology advances during the past 15 years and places the phenomenon in its global context...[Friedman] never shrinks from the biggest problems and the thorniest issues...Ambitious."–Paul Mangnusson, BusinessWeek
Listeners will receive the audiobook in three easy-to-download sections, and soon after that, as an added bonus, will also receive an exclusive prepublication audio excerpt of Friedman's HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED: WHY WE NEED A GREEN REVOLUTION AND HOW IT CAN RENEW AMERICA.
AsiaOne Business has an interview with Mr Gan Kim Yong (Acting Minister for Manpower and Senior Minister of State), discussing his role and present and future trends in S'pore employment. Yong addresses concerns about inflation and income noting that incomes will likely never keep up with prices but that the government has programs in place (like Workfare Income Supplement) to help offset this discrepancy.
Regarding foreign workers in Singapore, he says that many foreign workers take jobs that native Singaporeans don't want and they add to the "vibrancy and diversity" of the country. He notes that the only way to eliminate foreign workers is to somehow force Singaporeans to work in less popular sectors or to slow down development, and neither option is appealing.
He also states, regarding foreign workers in low-wage positions, that they are not pushing wages down overall and that, if they left, wages for S'pore workers would not be likely to increase.
Booking a taxi will be a breeze from next Monday (July 21, 2008). Taxi commuters will just need to call one common number - 6342 5222 - or 6-DIAL CAB. The number will be routed to 3 companies, in a relay, if one does not pickup, it will try the next one, and then the next.
There are many theories in the art of persuasion, particularly when it comes to sales. Consulative selling involves persuasive sales and there are some easy techniques to persuade someone to say "yes" to what it being offered.
1. Make sure you are exploring their real needs or desires. Don't just list features of a product or service. Find out what your customer is looking for so you can tailor the discussion around that.
2. Use the right questions. Build the discussion asking "what" or "how" questions (i.e. "what are you looking for in a new refrigerator" or "how do you think sales coaching will help you?")
3. Use stories or analogies to make the experience personal.
4. Use real testimonials. Tell them about the neighbor down the block who had a similar issue with insects, used your pest control service and had great (be specific) results. If you have a celebrity testimonial, even better!
5. Be sincere. Really try to help the customer find a solution. Don't just make the sale...build a relationship. Even if you lose this particular sale, if you are sincere and really attempt to help, the likelihood that the customer will seek out you, or at minimum, your company when they do have a genuine need (or pass the info on elsewhere) will improve dramatically.
So as part of a blog entry competition (good of Samsung to step onto the social media advertising bandwagon), here are my thoughts on the SamsungOmnia.
I visited CommunicAsia last month, and it was just after the iPhone 3G was announced by Jobs. Obviously, any new phones launched during CommunicAsia would be compared to the iPhone 3G.
Samsung, HTC and LG all displayed their latest phones in a big way. Having tested 3 phones, I would say the Omnia SH-i900 is getting very close to the iPhone BUT with its own character.
What stood out for me are: 1. Haptic Feedback - most iPhone users complain that it felt un-natural to press the touchscreen without any feedback. The Omnia slightly vibrates when a button is pressed. 2. Samsung Today screen which looks so much better than the default Windows Mobile Today screen. 3. Auto-rotate feature (I believe it uses the camera instead of an accelerometer), which auto-rotates your images etc when you rotate the phone. 4. It has every connectivity option you would need - 3G, HSDPA, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM, EDGE. 5. Battery Life - Cnet Asia reviewed that their Omnia phone lasted 3 days under normal usage. Wow! 6. Suite of applications which make "working on the go" seamless - MS Office Compatibility, Push Email.
Being a "PDA" phone, it will easily integrate with your desktop/notebook multimedia files (videos, mp3 etc) and since it's running on Windows Mobile, syncing your existing Outlook contacts / emails / calendar / notes etc will be "one touch" and a breeze.
The Launch event video covers what the phone has to offer, as an alternative to the iPhone 3G.
Despite 82% of companies having policies prohibiting personal Internet usage, a recent study shows that everyone, from executives to entry-level employees, is doing it. There is speculation that this is an attempt at work/life balance and many personal issues that employees don't have time to manage at home are being managed at work, though no specific studies have been done to this effect.
A study by Websense shows that 60% of companies have reprimanded employees for surfing the 'net at work, and more than 30% have fired employees for it. However, many of today's workers, accustomed to the Internet being a tool in their daily lives, consider access an employee perk and would risk employee engagement and satisfaction. Image Source Business Opportunities Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook Group.
SimplyNoise's website is so easy to use yet does wonders if you are trying to work / sleep / study / read in an environment that is noisy. Block out surrounding sounds like construction sites, kids playing, busy road just by adjusting the dial until you cannot hear them.
It may sound distracting at first, but your brain will soon adjust the white noise and you'll not notice it at all.
For a variety of reasons, workers are postponing retirement. The realities of increased health care costs, longer life spans and fewer retirement plans like pensions have caused the majority of current workers to mentally postpone retirement...by about 5 years since 1995. Quality of life issues factor in as well, including wanting to stay productive and continue to make a contribution, but older workers expect shorter hours and more flexibility. Many take on contract or consulting positions instead of full or part-time work.
There were already 500,000 more workers aged 75-90 in 2007 than 2006 in the United States (U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics). But the US lags behind Singapore in recruiting these older candidates and significantly behind in the retention of current older workers. Older workers bring a variety of life experiences and attributes to businesses that are harder to find in younger people: loyalty, patience, and a broader sense of the bigger business picture. Additionally, they may have well-established social networks that younger employees have yet to develop.
A local blogger has started an online survey using Google Docs Forms function, to gather Singapore ISPsubscribers.
Jorbb recently cancelled a 3 year long broadband account and moved to another ISP. Although the advertised speed was the same, the actual surfing (browsing / download / youtubing) experience was a huge improvement, at a lower price (promotion).
It will be interesting to see the results of this survey so submit your speed test results at the jump.
An Australian-based social networking site for business owners and professionals has just been launched.
"Our aim is empower businesses, employees and self-employed to reach their full potential through a business network which is Australian based", said Michael Brecht, the founder, "whether you are looking for a job, an investment opportunity, a business partner or a new employee."
ZaaBiz is free to sign up, but they also have a membership scheme. TechNation Australia has a summary of features:
- Skype Integration - can show Skype status in your profile
- Shows connections from many degrees away (LinkedIn limits to 3 degrees by default)
- You list your "Haves" and "Wants" in your profile - could a matching engine be added for connecting businesses in a barter-like ecosystem?
- Business Groups (like Facebook / LinkedIn) - where like-minded members can connect and create and post to forums. Michael noted a lot of offline/online activity happening in the Groups.
"The focus on business owners and developing presence where LinkedIn and Xing haven't yet developed strong footprints is great. Could they become one of the "big three" professional social networks? LinkedIn - North America, Xing - Europe, ZaaBiz - Asia? With Xing and LinkedIn battling each other head-to-head, they may just have a shot.
Have you ever used Youtube videos for a presentation and wish there was a way to annotate the videos. Youtube has an annotate feature but only for owners of the videos, which means you cannot annotate someone else's video.
