Monday, November 29, 2010

Can human ageing process be reversed?

It could be possible in future. Today TV channels reported this news story based on the research report published in nature magazine. Harvard scientists saw a dramatic reversal of ageing process in mice and they believe it can work on humans too. Read the full story here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/28/scientists-reverse-ageing-mice-humans

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Talent at risk

A must read article by David F Carr for anyone who manages talent the knowledge worker.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/trends/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227501111

In this article, David Carr has highlighted the need for the retention strategies of the top talents in the organization. He provides some nice practical tips for hiring managers. Happy reading...

Friday, November 26, 2010

The battle for the network economy - Web 2.0 summit 2010

Web 2.0 summit is as you know the yearly event organized by O'Reilly Media where the big shots and owners of the network economy gather to share and sell their vision to the public. Recently I noticed the cool map they have created on their website based on the theme Point of control. The map shows the current territory of web's biggest players with additional tabs Acquisition mode. When you choose Acquisition mode the interactive feature of the map lets you choose the company and its potential acquisition target. You can vote on the target of your choice and also add comments. Sharing of comments will verify your twitter account. I think its a cool application nothing less than web2.0. Give it a try..

How does Facebook make money?

This was the subject of discussion in a gathering last Thanksgiving night. Facebook was recently "over" estimated by a private equity research firm to have market value of $41 billion, more than eBay ($39.1 billion) one of the largest e- retailers in the United States and much more than Yahoo which is valued at $21 billion. What I am trying to understand is that the current market value is based on it's revenue and future revenue predictions or just a shot on its popularity and web traffic. I must confess that I haven't got chance to read the book The Facebook effect yet even after many strong recommendations from my friends, but I have kindle now and I will be travelling soon. So this book should be the way to ease the pain of  long security lines and evasive TSA scanning radiation.
Facebook's 2010 revenue is totally a speculation, but 2009 revenue was about $500 million which were reported coming from these sources:

  • Self-service ads, which appear on the right side of the screen on Facebook, fetched about $250 million to $300 million.
  • Engagement ads, which seek user-interaction (polls and sometimes feature user-endorsements), brought in $100 million.
  • $50 alone came from a deal with Microsoft under which Microsoft sells some adds on Facebook. After all Microsoft owns 1.3% of Facebook which is $533 million if you believe its current evaluation.
  • Facebook gifts and other virtual goods account made whopping $30 million to $50 million
Based on 2009 revenue and the number of growing user base (almost half a billion now), analysts are predicting 2010 revenue anywhere between $800 million to $1.28 billion. Michael Arrington of techcrunch in his blog citing some insider info and his research even claimed that the revenue could reach $2 billion. If revenue tops One billion dollar, it can create some ever lasting impacts. Google crossed $1B in 2004 the year it went public and in next two years they crossed $10B. Facebook's soon to be billionaires include  its founders, angel investors and some early employees. What happens to its 2010 revenue yet to be seen, but Facebook's popularity has definitely made a lot of friends and foes in tech industry. Big M is using its friendship with Facebook to fight big G. Us trademark office has already allowed Facebook to copyright the term "Face" I think, as long as Facebook offers something new to its users to avoid boredom, it can maintain its popularity as primary social network platform. I am waiting to see its new messaging platform in action.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Technology-Entertainment-Design teddotcom

TED spreads the ideas worth spreading. One of my mentors at work told me about this website. You can find talks, discussions, lectures and other extremely valuable instructions at this website. TED open translation project  bring TED talks to 79 different languages. You select Hindi and the website shows all the talks available in Hindi language. Most importantly you can select talks by categories such as Technology, Business or Science. Here is one wonderful talk by Conrad Wolfram on Teaching kids Math using computers.

New MS project ideas

  The car tells you what it needs http://news.mit.edu/2017/software-let-your-car-tell-you-what-it-needs-1026 Similarly in an Industrial sett...