I noticed and grabbed this quote from Union Square Ventures’s partner Albert Wenger’s blog where he mentions how profound it is thinking about how your web interactions today will impact you in the future and I couldn’t agree more.

My experience with trading makes me realize how quick you can change your opinion on something once new information comes to light, so if you to comment on an issue it only guarantees that that is your thought process at that point in time.

Yet most people including prospective employers won’t realize this and merely judge you on your static opinion.

I don’t have some illuminating point but people should sadly be aware of the liability that their blog, tweets and Facebook photos have on the perception of you in real life, an off the cusp twitter comment could be scrutinized and potentially cost you say a seat on the Supreme Court down the line.

That might be a worse case scenario even hyperbolic in nature I know but still in the realm of possibility and at the very least now and continuing to grow in the future, employers and the public have so much insight and information at their hands to make decisions about you.

So it’s up to you to take control of your internet persona with that in mind.

Consider that text has always had the problem of being interpreted in context and with no recourse for direct rebuttal (first impressions last) you have to be careful with your online footsteps and that’s only considering what you have control of, what about if someone with much better SEO means writes a defamatory blog about you?

Well when someone Google’s your name (which they will) the first or the first few results will be a link to an entry speaking in a negative light about you, what then? Silence or rebuttal? We’re heading down a different avenue but you get the point of your online identity its importance and its implications for the you of tomorrow.

That’s why “profound” perfectly sums up the situation and made me at least want to quickly blog about it.

To Whom It May Concern at the Bill/ Melinda Gates Foundation:
I would like to make a suggestion for the foundation in a nut shell it’s a greater transparency model, it’s nothing ground breaking but simply changing the way your finances are displayed.

I think a donator should be able to use your website to be able to be able to “follow your dollar”.

When I donate money to a charity, I think where did my money go? I know the cause maybe even the specific projects but I always think, are they grossly overspending? It is lining the administrator’s pockets?

Yes you or I could pour through financial documents and get a general idea of how the money is spent, but if that gap could be bridged why isn’t it?

The user can follow their dollar on the front end (web page) in a dynamic fashion, the dollar gets pooled into a certain funding period and the user can check up to see how it’s spent.

I believe the end result would be:
- Potential donator/s would be more knowledgeable
- Charities on the whole would become more efficient and accountable
And thus it would beget more donations

All the information above might be provided in your financial statements but the simple truth is that is fails at the user level because of people’s basic lack of financial understanding and thus an ability to analyze.

I’ll give a quick analogy to information and the stock market, where information is what allows for markets to be made and prices to be analyzed; for corruption and/ or mispricing to be spotted and ratified.

If you could provide a system where not only could see how you have spent your money in the past but also for the user to follow their single dollar donation right to the end result, I think this creates a situation where it’s win/ win for both parties.

A simple login with a dynamic update of their dollars spent possibly for the quarter, providing motivation for the donator to see their specific impact and also allows them to evaluate the allocation of capital of the charity for future donations.

The reason for pooling is because what if $1 from person A goes to a project but persons B dollar goes to an expense so in this specific case person B 100% of their dollar is expenses and obviously that wouldn’t be desirable.

But if you say pool the cash monthly/ quarterly etc, then you divide a % and then make the breakdown and update everyone’s account at real time.

I know it seems not providing a detailed solution is half hearted but really it should be an open source problem for people more knowledgeable in the accounting arena and then implement it with the technology team.

I don’t seem to think it would be too hard to do unless their was some resistance to become transparent because I see potential perceived flaws of what if someone donates and it goes to straight to the trust and who then have to explain its uses and other complex situation i.e micro funding, investments

But that’s where your communication people come in and you already have information for every section.

Other issues it raises
It could make similar charities which cross pollinate in terms of projects, who is better catering and a form of Darwinism kicks in to start to put pressure on charities to more accountable/ efficient.

You could market the ‘system’ as a third party application encouraging other charities to do the same, and the ripple effect would be you helping the entire charity industry.

In simple terms it may be just presenting the information you already are/ have but in a more workable solution for the potential donator to see where there money is going, as possibly visually how much is left in certain projects (see below).

A side effect is that you also would be capturing more donators information and driving them back to your website with more opportunity to interact and educate with an engaged audience.

In sum, I realize there are flaws but I thought by presenting the idea who knows it could spur something that could be even better and if not well there is nothing lost, so thanks for the consideration.

Kind Regards,
Andrew Poesaste

Here is a very basic example of what I mean, please don’t let my very elementary effort put you off, think of the premise above and how it could work in real time.

Basic example link

Judging from the NYTimes, Washington Post and News Corporation stock prices over the last five years it doesn’t take a genius to see that the newspaper business model is broken, circulation and advertising dollars are down and people were asked to leave.

The current problem that plaques the traditional news outlets is that news has a time value that decays very quickly and their static papers get killed by the speed, cost and ease of the internet but the iPad can squash those gaps and make their business model and content (inventory) profitable once again.

The big advantage for newspaper companies moving forward is their household brand names and also their opinion and investigative journalism pieces which they can leverage to put a stranglehold in this space and save their future.

Now while I think the first iPad model has many flaws from a hardware perspective but like any Apple product it will be relaunched a ‘2.0′ fixing the glaring problems the main thing to take away is the functionality that the device poses.

Another barrier is price, although I think the current model is good value for money I think the transition to where a large majority of people would buy and carry one it would have to be around the magic $200- $300 price tag.

The iPad poses to bridge the gap for newspaper organizations because of a few reasons and we are seeing this happening right now!

The content can now be at real time-
It fixes that the static nature of the traditional paper so that breaking news can be posted straight away so likes of NYtimes can compete with the Twitter, and Facebook for speed which is a huge problem right now.

A problem with this is 100% connectivity and if you read the link below Time Warner now offers free city-wide WiFi which will enable the iPad to always be connected, hopefully this will set a precedent for other cosmopolitan cities.

Check Time Warner Cable enables city-wide WiFi for NYC subscribers- http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/25/time-warner-cable-enables-city-wide-wifi-for-nyc-subscribers/

Advertising-
- The size of ads can now be the size of current print ads unlike mobile devices
- Ability to tailor ad’s to the specific audience- using say Facebook data advertisers can tailor content to ages, sex, sports and hobbies
- Dynamic, one ad space could be two, or an ad can be a moving object like a gif or a small video like a trailer hosted on Youtube
- Call to action if you want users to actively participate in campaigns to Digg or Twitter content they can do that with one click connecting the ‘news’ and ‘social’ worlds but also being the primary source
- Geographical ad’s- You could make an ad for a restaurant that is close to the user or anything in a close proximity, this is something that has never been done before

This is happening now check out:
iPad apps attract big name advertisers- FedEx, Buick and credit card company have bought space on the apps from New York Times, Newsweek, WSJ and others
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/mar/25/ipad-advertising

The NYT says the going rate is $75,000 to $300,000 “for a few months of exclusivity” on one of these apps.

Subscription model or application-
Newspaper organisations could charge a subscription model like WSJ is and I’m sure more niche news content providers will, or you will see them just get their applications out there as soon as possible so that most users have their applications because how many news app’s will one have? I think for most providers just having a an application for free to try to get that first mover advantage.

- WSJ on iPad for $17.99 a month- http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/25/wsj-on-ipad-17-99-a-month-magazines-to-be-at-or-near-newsstand/

End of the day
What you eventually want is to be on the bus going home from work pull out the iPad one click on the NYTimes application see the latest news in an easy to read format, read without straining your eyes, move around swiftly through the pages and if anything breaking news happens it pop up on your screen, even the possibility of a streaming video of a situation, straight away so your never in the dark getting quality and quick news.

All the while all the ad’s are perfectly tailored to you and maybe you notice on the way home while reading the Sports section that one of your local pubs is having a cheap happy hour… Now wouldn’t that be nice.

Andrew

They are adding value and convenience to the customer and leading to either sales or a better experience of the existing product or service offering.

For example the Tate museum in London has an iPhone application to help you navigate around the museum and understand the background of the pieces.

Wimbledon has an application which shows a dynamic draw displaying who is playing where and when but also has scores at real time so you can see where a close match is being played so you can walk there and catch the action.

A charity event here in London was run completely through an iPhone application where it was a treasure hunt, telling people where to go next and as the event coordinator if you wanted you could make changes or additions to the directions in real time all the contestants would have to do if connect to Wifi which is everywhere.

Same product/ service but improved via an iPhone application.

It’s using what you have through a new medium for relatively no cost (just in design).

My personal favourite, which I think should/ could be the model for a lot of companies is Hostel hero.

Taken from their home page. http://www.hostelhero.com/

“Download our free, “native” iPhone application from the App Store. Unlike normal booking websites, many features of Hostel Hero work offline. Now you can download and save the most useful information to your device, and use it anywhere…

Research hostels from the beach, bus, bed or boat! Save your favourites, and then when you next connect to a wi-fi point you can make a booking. And because Hostel Hero can optionally save your personal details as well, a booking can be made in seconds with just a few simple clicks!”

How perfect is this? Absolute convenience to the traveler with limited time and resources and it actually leads to sales for the company.

If I owned Hostel world or WotIf I would be getting this type of thing done ASAP.

It’s cheap to get done and it gives your customers your products at their finger tips.

Just make sure your iPhone application actually adds value and don’t just do it to do it, our generation can see right through it just like politicians with twitter.

Top 10 Reasons to Start a Business in a Recession-

http://entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/startupbasics/startupbasicscolumnistbradsugars/article200342.html

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Steve Jobs

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

Text Link

Video Link

Who? Nate Green- blogger, author, trainer, nutritionist, ladies man

What? Blogs about training, nutrition, girls and miscellaneous

Why? I first noticed Nate a while back while going through articles on T-Nation, he has a no BS approach when attacking what ever topic and the thing that stands out is that he is still one of the boys (he is only 23).

Nate Green skips the BS that has many people wasting their time in the gym and helps you to on the path to building a better body and achieving a better lifestyle.

Nate’s attitude is positive, and his work ethic is inspiring, his workouts are simple enough for beginners to learn, yet challenging enough for a veteran lifter and his nutrition advice and hygiene tips are also excellent.

He understands what it is to be scrawny and not know how to train properly or feel goofy approaching women, that’s why he learns from his mistakes and finds the best ways to go about things and then he blogs about them for free.

I have just ordered his book so I can’t offer any insight into that yet but for the small price tag and the great reviews online I’m sure I will get plenty of value out of it.

Nate does short little videos which are always entertaining whether it be interviewing girls what the really look for in a guy’s body or how to make the ultimate healthy and cheap breakfast in under 5 minutes.

Also if you sign up to his site, you get access to five great PDF’s on different topics for free and Nate’s won’t be getting spam in your inbox.

How?
His website- http://www.thenategreenexperience.com/

About his book:
Built for Show is the first fitness book to address young men on the prowl. It’s not just written for them; it’s written by one of them. Green, who’s just twenty-three years old, is already a veteran fitness professional who’s been quoted in Men’s Health and Maximum Fitness magazines.

Link to his book on Amazon.

The aim of this site is to help young professionals help them find their way to their financial or career goals so that means via this site or any other.

James Cox is a very smart switched on guy from Sydney who like many of us is unsure of his direction for his career and has decided to jump into the crazy world of finance at possibly the hardest time.

James’s bio is here, he has started a finance blog which aims to take his readers along his ride in education as he enters his new career path in finance after leaving his sales job and completing his science and law degree from Sydney University.

I really like the broad topics he is tackling in the finance field and the way he lays it out it’s great so that even laymen’s can understand a previously complex issue.

James has managed to land himself a job at intelligent investor which covers news and analysts opinions and provides tools to help you become a more successful investor.

He is now studying for the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) level one exam in December and will be covering his adventure through out his blog which is especially interesting to someone like me who wants to one day do the course.

He cover topics like Company Valuation, Investment Banking, Trading, Corporate Law, Economic Trends and others.

You can also shoot him a email as well and request topics, interviews and the like and he will endeavour to help answer your question/s in his blog.

Hopefully he doesn’t slack off like me (I’m sure he won’t) now that he has a lot things on his plate but his site looks promising I highly encourage you to check it out.

http://www.jamescox.com.au/

Andrew

When I get home from work, I honestly don’t want to go for a run, read, add to this blog I just want to watch TV not think and sleep.

A big part of this is a bigger focus on diet and exercise to help your overall energy but also your body does sync in with these new patterns slowly.

Also setting clear times for going to bed and waking up, try not to deviate from this to help your body adjust and boost your energy levels.

Go to your local supermarket and buy healthy snacks for the office and have a little stockpile, I have nuts, lite cruskits, fruit like apples, bananas and green tea.

Also bring in a water bottle not only will this save you money but also keep you healthy.

Something that is helping me is having a diary of everything I eat, spend and the amount of sleep to help monitor myself.

I have noticed that little snacks and getting lunch everyday has been killing the budget and diet for me, so in September I’m not going to eat any French fries or have any soft drink, I’ll keep you updated on this one.

There are still positives for entrepreneurs who get to look at how a company functions the good and the bad and take those experiences into their ventures.

I also recommend taking some time away from work and think about your work/ career, don’t just get caught up in the day-to-day but think of the possibilities that are out there and how you can go about getting there.

It’s normal these days to stay at a job for only a year and build those skills then move up the ladder either at the same place or another where you pushing your boundaries and extending your portfolio of skills.

Something to keep in mind as well is that if you want to make the big bucks as a salary you either have to fulfil some skills shortage or your profession or job has to have an information gap.

Information gaps have been largely closed thanks to the internet, but no matter how hard you study on the net there is always the basic need for doctors, engineers, lawyers and specialists, the larger the gap the larger the premium you can charge.

Some general observations:
The good
Your learn the importance of clear processes
Better understanding of human resources issues
Understanding the needs of different generations
Understanding the mentality/ problems of your average worker

The bad
Entrepreneurial spirit sapped
Time taken away- theory of compounding time
Fitness/ diet takes a beating
Easy to get into a rut and not extend yourself

I honestly haven’t been this impressed since the guy that traded one red paper clip into house.

The project is now over and is might be old to some of you but here is the background.

Sean Aiken finished like many others in our generation, couldn’t tell you what he wanted to do with his life. So to help him figure it out he decided to a do a different job every week from a pizza guy to the mayor a town check it out “One Week Job.”

How it worked

Any company or individual anywhere in the world can offer him a job for one week. The job can be absolutely anything, anywhere – garbage collection, actor, working the family farm, a suit and tie corporate position…

After finishing college with a business degree, he made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t settle for a career that he was not truly passionate about. His goal is to gain a better understanding of what he need in a career to be happy and inspire others to go after their passions.

Results

Check out all the jobs he did here.

Total Donations Raised- $20,401.60

There is now a book and movie coming out and I’ll definitely be waiting for this one.

This is a perfect example of using your resources and helping solve not only your own problems but help others, hopefully through Sean’s experience he can show people that by volunteering you can get your foot through the door and get your hands dirty.

Sometimes you never know until your try it and you don’t want to be locked in to something without seeing what you want, hopefully I can do this but not 52 jobs!