About Me 0118: January 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

Making Money With Website

Popular financial news and commentary website Seeking Alpha seems to have a pretty sweet setup — the site has built up a large readership (40 to 45 million pageviews per month) with articles that are written for free. So the announcement that the site will start paying its contributors looks a bit odd — why start paying for something you were already getting for free?

The move seems especially risky since Seeking Alpha’s Premium Partnership Program will pay a rate of $10 per thousand pageviews. That means a big chunk of the money the site makes from each article will go to the writer. (On the other hand, Seeking Alpha founder and CEO David Jackson told me last week that the site charges its advertisers premium rates thanks to its high-quality audience.)

So why change things? Jackson said it’s because the pay model allows Seeking Alpha to reach a new set of writers. Until now, most contributors were financial advisors or other professionals who saw their articles as a way to build their reputation and attract new customers. But there’s a big pool of writers who have expertise in a specific financial subject but aren’t looking for customer leads (for example if they’re retired, or if they’ve built up knowledge as an individual investor). Those writers need a different incentive to contribute — namely, money.

The ultimate goal, Jackson said, is to become “the eBay of financial content, to put people in business who otherwise wouldn’t be in business.” Your average Seeking Alpha article receives between 2,500 and and 20,000 pageviews, he added — which means a payment of between $20 and $200. (The payments will be made quarterly, and to reduce the company’s overhead, you won’t get paid until you’re owed at least $100.) For some contributors, the payments will just represent an extra bit of spending money, but for others it could be a nice income.

Some of Seeking Alpha’s existing writers will switch to the new model, while others will not, Jackson said, because if you want to get paid, the site will require exclusive rights to the article.

One of the risks of the pay-per-pageview model is that it might encourage sensationalism for the sake of chasing traffic (and making more money). Obviously, the site wants to grow pageviews, but Jackson said he’ll be relying on its editorial team to act as a quality filter as the amount of submissions grows.

Seeking Alpha already has 4,000 registered contributors, Jackson said. The site’s investors include Benchmark Capital, Accel Partners, and DAG Ventures.

Next Story: iPhone 5, iPad 2 rumors abound: dual-core processors, high-resolution display Previous Story: Evidence suggests Stuxnet worm set Iran’s nuclear program back

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

(KRQE NEWS 13) - As of 7:10 a.m. - President Barack Obama is putting the finishing touches on a State of the Union speech Tuesday that'll mostly be about one thing -- jobs. Comments. Latest Headlines. News Happening Now � Sunday News ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

News Happening Now - KRQE

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Money Internet

Last night just before 12 a.m., Twitter began exploding with the news: Facebook had raised $500 million — from Goldman Sachs. Bolstered by a $50-million stake from Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies, a previous FB investor, the Wall Street behemoth had slapped down $450 million to snag the Internet behemoth — now valued at a cool $50 billion. As if on cue, the internet noted that yes, that was cooler than a million dollars.

Notes the NYT’s Dealbook, which broke the scoop: this makes Facebook “worth more than companies like eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner.” It also doubles Mark Zuckerberg’s multi-billion-dollar worth. It also makes Goldman Sachs the gatekeeper to who now gets to invest in the super-hot Facebook, and to the inevitable Facebook IPO. According to Dealbook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin and Evelyn Rusli, Goldman is “planning to create a ’special purpose vehicle’ to allow its high-net worth clients to invest in Facebook, which would allow for max investment while circumventing disclosure rules for companies with 500 or more investors. Clever, that.

So: This is a big deal. Everyone’s already saying that this is putting Google even more on the ropes (seeing as now Facebook is the most visited website in the land) and that Goldman couldn’t be sitting prettier. Here are a few other things it means:

(1) Facebook hiring spree! To paraphrase Antoine Dodson, hide your startups, hide your engineers — Facebook’s a-comin’. Snapping up Hot Potato and Drop.io? Poaching Foursquare’s Nathan Folkman? That’s nothing compared to what Facebook’s got coming. Rumor has it they’re about to close on purchasing the Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park from Oracle. That’s probably not just for the scenery. They want to stock up, preferably with talent – and, importantly, companies – that will help it integrate across every platform possible. (I’m guessing one of the new buzzy photo apps will be snapped up.) If you think people are complaining about a developer shortage now, just wait.

(2) China! Mark Zuckerberg recently returned from a trip to China. Innocent pleasure jaunt for the Mandarin-speaking Facebook founder or connection-making relationship-building fact-finding mission to the land of 450 million potential users? China is certainly not an easy place to do business — they just kicked out Skype — but in a globalized, connected world, it’s certainly tough to ignore. Approximately 33% of its massive population is online and as we all know from the rest of the world, that is growing. It’s an insane market to ignore and smart, Mandarin-speaking audacious visionary CEOs probably aren’t going to shy away from trying. Facebook China. It’s gonna happen.

(3) Goldman’s PR Whitewash The Vampire Squid just attached itself to the buzziest, growing-est, Oscar-nominated-est, Person Of The Year-iest tech company around. Who will remember their year of scandal and record bonuses and how everyone hated Goldman Sachs (sample Gawker headline: “Who do you hate more, BP or Goldman Sachs?“). Goldman’s not there for you to like them, people, they’re there to make money — lots of it. But they did have a bruising year and being attached to the shining future-makers at Facebook (never mind the gatekeeper to the Facebook IPO) will certainly help. This lets them offer something shiny to their clients, and bask in that reflected glow. (And guaranteed cashola.) That doesn’t fool the people who know — I like Howard Lindzon’s take:

For Goldman Sachs, this is a no lose situation. If it works, they get the IPO and make some money. That is their job. They got off so easy with the government that this is like Vegas money they probably thought would be the taxpayer’s at some point a year back…The only thing I DO know is that Goldman could give a rat’s ass about the social web and sharing. If they are the top in social web, it’s small potatoes. The war in bonds, currencies and commodities is where the real money is at. This is play money. I hate that Facebook is letting them in.

This is not a coup for Goldman Sachs, this is a shame for the social web.

Okay I lied. I love Howard Lindzon’s take. So, maybe Goldman’s got an uphill PR sell. But — they’ve also got Facebook. Watch the narrative change.

(4) Bigger Players, Bigger Bets When Lindzon points out that this is small potatoes for Goldman, he’s not kidding. But now the bigger fish are sniffing around and what started as mutterings about a bubble somewhere in the late fall now seems to be turning into a gold rush. (Doesn’t Google and their adorable $6 billion offer for Groupon seem so quaint right now? Never mind Twitter’s recent $3.7 billion valuation.) These are billion-dollar figures, and they are actually now starting to sound…eensy. As Ray Kurzweil points out, when technology advances it does so exponentially — so it makes sense that the explosion of tech startups would chicken-egg in conjunction with an explosion of investor dollars — not just the usual (and educated!) suspects, but people on the sidelines reading about Facebook in their Time magazines and deciding that maybe the Internet’s not a fad, after all. (Yes. These people do exist, and many of them have a LOT of money.) High valuations, big deals, young companies getting scooped up — it’s gonna be a dizzying year.

(5) Sympathy For The Google. It’s official: Facebook has gone from underdog challenger of the mighty Google to the top social-tech dog. So watch for everyone to start rooting for Google again. After a wave of backlash (see here and here), the pendulum will swing back around to rooting for the loveable search giant with the cuddly name. Google can take your pity – its market valuation is almost four times Facebook’s at $190 billion, and its current year revenue is about $22 billion to Facebook’s $2 billion. Back to Lindzon: “I think that Google has to buy Twitter and that will start to be a meme soon. It’s a chess game and nuclear war now in the social space.” That sound you hear is the sound of the tech press collectively wetting itself. Ew. But still — everyone likes to root for an exciting matchup. Expect to see some bold moves from Google, soon — if they’re smart. Big “if” (RIP Google Buzz). But isn’t that how underdogs like it?

(6) New Facebook Ad Models. All that said…Facebook has made a big point about how it hasn’t really focused on the silliness of “making money” yet, despite that $2 billion annual rev and nearly 1 trillion display ads per year. I believe them — can they really not do better than targeted ads for Jewish singles in your area? You bet they can: They also make a point about knowing every little bit of information about you for the ultimate in micro-targeting. The online ad industry is evolving and innovating right along with the rest of the web (see AdKeeper) and the key to dominating going forward will be data — using it wisely to convert your users into dollars for advertisers. This is where smart technology will take user data and figure out how to map it on top of shopping data, so that purchasing intent can best be harvested. The stigma about buying online has now pretty much disappeared. With more people using the web, and mobile devices, more often do run more of their lives, there are big bucks at stake. And I’m not even TALKING about how Facebook is looking to horn in on search.

(7) New Facebook Business Models. They have all these users. All this data. They’d be crazy just to stick with what they’ve got. Hell, now they’ve got fun money just to fling up into the air and see where it goes. They’re poaching the best and brightest who all gush on and on about how “exciting” and “creative” and “free” it is. Clearly these people are getting to work on some fun stuff. So far Facebook has shown itself as adept at replicating the innovations of its competitors (see: Foursquare –> Facebook Places). But with all the resources at their disposal and innovations happening across every industry on every platform, they’d be nuts not to at least test the waters. Hey, that car’s not gonna drive itself. Oh, wait.

(8) People Generally Freaking Out This has already started to happen. First Groupon (“What? But they AREN’T EVEN A TECH COMPANY!!!”) and now Super-Sized Facebook. Entrepreneurs and founders and people with fledgling ideas that are half-built that they’ve been slaving over at night are obsessing about all day are suddenly freaking out that they have to get to market NOW before the bubble pops and the money dries up. Chill out, dude. (And, ladies!) If you’re making something of value, it’ll take. Just focus on it, be smart, and don’t let Twitter and TechCrunch freak you out. (Here, take some advice from these people.) Just a moment of Zen amidst the craziness. All right, now – onward! It’s 2011 and YOU’D BETTER NOT SCREW THIS UP. Haa, just kidding. Mostly.

Well: It should be interesting. Happy New Year, everybody!

Related:

Goldman’s Facebook Coup [Felix Salmon - Reuters]

The Social Web Index … All-Time Highs in Pressure and Price and Shame on Facebook [Howard Lindzon]

Was Goldman wise to invest $500m in Facebook at a $50B valuation? [Quora]

Goldman Sachs Just Bought The Facebook IPO [Business Insider]

Follow Rachel Sklar on Twitter here.

Illustration of Mark Zuckerberg as Avatar-ized Time Person of the Year from Sandbox World (via Boing Boing) (hat tip: Bnter).

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » Mammoths news ...

“Japanese scientists attempt to resurrect Mammoth” shouted the news agency AFP (source: The online version of the Japanese newspaper “Yomiuri Shimbun”: Daily Yomiuri Online). The article lacks any hints about the major hurdles of such ...

Major earthquake strikes southwestern Pakistan – This Just In ...

[Updated at 4:47 p.m. ET] An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 struck Wednesday morning in a remote area of southwestern Pakistan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The earthquake occurred at 1:23 a.m. (3:23 p.m. ...

Probably Bad News: Feline Jury Duty - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Feline Jury Duty.

Friday, January 14, 2011

buy generic Free rental agreement forms cheap

The situation is a bit different if what is in dispute is a house. Obviously, the house cannot usually just be sold to repay a Legal Aid bill (it may be home to children) so what happens therefore is that the board will attach what is known as a "Statutory Charge" to the house in respect of monies owing. This means that when the house is sold or re-mortgaged then the Board will get their money. It is not a free loan however. Interest attaches to the charge and continues to accrue. It is rare for the board to agree to postpone their charge in the event that the house is eventually sold or is perhaps re mortgaged in the interim but they will consider it. As I stated earlier, there is no "free lunch".

http://www.Free rental agreement forms.org

It can be very hard when you are applying for a bad credit mortgage, and it feels like all the odds are stacked against you. The feeling of going in to see a loan officer just hoping that they will be favorable toward you and that you might just have a chance of buying a home. The situation may be grim and you're feeling completely overwhelmed anyway, but know that millions before you have been in your same shoes. There is light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dark it may seem. Here are three simple steps that you can use to help you apply and possibly get a bad credit mortgage.

Free rental agreement forms where

Crunch Gym app lets you avoid check-in lines | Health Tech - CNET News

Crunch Fitness unveils its first app, created with IdeaWork Studios, enabling iPhone and Android users to find locations, see class schedules, and check in. Read this blog post by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore on Health Tech.

The Write Stuff For Test Anxiety - Science News

Students score higher after jotting down worries before a big exam.

Small Business News: Building Better Strategy

Building a better strategy should be the constant goal of every small business owner and entrepreneur. Think your business is running as well as it can, has.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Making Money on the Internet

Values, Value and Valuation — The money is all relative

Oh how timing sometimes works out to be funny. I was driving home tonight and started thinking about the value of products, the valuation of companies and how the values that a company portrays can change the rest. No sooner had I sat down to write this piece than the news of Goldman Sachs investing $500 million into Facebook broke and refreshed the entire thing in my mind. So let’s look at these three things, and try to see if one manages to sway the rest.

Values

Do you, like me, find yourself more inclined to use or purchase something that comes from a company that you can believe in? The ethos of a company can — for me at least — completely break me away from the product. That very fact, because I feel that I’m likely not alone in my actions (or lack thereof) can have a serious impact on the bottom line of a company.

Look at Facebook, for instance. When the Social Graph was announced and the new privacy changes went into effect, many people threw up their hands in disgust. But many others continued with life as usual, even if a bit annoyed. Why? Because Facebook has this outward appearance of a company that’s simply trying to do cool things, and it needs information in order to do them. The company’s values seem, for the most part, to be in line with the things that we Internet users want. As such, there was a lot more wagging and a lot less barking from the angry dogs crowd.

You’re starting a company? There’s likely something to be said for developing an ethos ahead of time, making it known and then sticking to it. Would Google be where it is today if not for the “don’t be evil” tag line? Even if you don’t fully believe that the company runs that way, you still remember it. Point made.

Value

When value exceeds cost, even by a single cent, the purchase will be made – Grant Cardone

That quote is one that has stuck with me for some time now. A few years ago I was making my living selling cars and it is sometimes exceedingly difficult to overcome the objection of price. In the technology world, we’re constantly being offered products for “free”. The only cost? A bit of information, a slice of our privacy or somethings similar. But then, after using those “free” products, we start to build our own value for them.

Don’t believe me? Just look at some of the things that you likely use every day. Gmail? You’d pay for that. Twitter? You don’t want to admit it, but it’s likely become a valuable asset to your daily Internet life. The same can be said for so many things and yet we get them for “free”. But there’s a down side to this issue as well — it becomes very difficult for a maker to charge for a product when there are free alternatives. Don’t believe that? When was the last time that a box office movie didn’t get a torrent version?

And yet, even as companies try to build value in their products, still others think that the economy allows for them to set their own values and tell us what something is worth. TV networks are probably the most well-known perpetrators of this heresy. Apple TV launched, ABC and Fox decided to jump on board and see what would happen. Some of the rest? They decided that $.99 was devaluing the product and yet as the provider of the product, there is no one entity that is more unqualified to name the value.

Consider it a lesson in business, I suppose. The potential buyer will determine the value of your product. Always.

Valuation

Now here’s a sticky one. Valuation is one of those strange things because it means so many different things to different people. To the potential investors, it’s a measure of how much money can be made. To the business owner it’s a gauge of how well the business has done. To the end user? It’s…honestly not much.

As a case in point, around TNW we love Twitter. We want to see it succeed and we are sure that it will. The valuation continues to climb prior to any IPO and yet, as users of the service, it really doesn’t matter much to us. Sure, it would matter if the site closed its doors, but beyond that there simply isn’t anything about the valuation number that matters.

And so, as an entrepreneur you have to ask yourself where the balance lies. Do your company values allow you to build value in your product? If so, then the chances are that your valuation will end up right where it needs to be. There’s a fair amount of truth in the thought that, if you handle the small stuff, the big stuff will fall into place.

So with that, I offer you a thought going into the new year — start with your values. The rest will fall into place.

Alistair Croll is the co-chair of O’Reilly’s Strata conference, which tackles the convergence of Big Data, ubiquitous computing, and new interfaces. The next Strata event happens in Santa Clara, CA from February 1 to 3.

Karl Marx said that the industrial revolution polarized the world into two groups: those who own the means of production and those who work on them.

Today’s means of production aren’t greasy cogs and steam-spewing engines, but that doesn’t mean they don’t divide us. Industrial data is all around us, and search engines, governments, financial markets, social networks and law enforcement agencies rely on it.

We willingly embrace this “Big Data” world. We share, friend, check in and retweet our every move. We swipe loyalty cards and enter frequent flyer numbers. We leave a growing, and apparently innocent trail of digital breadcrumbs in our wake.

But as we use the Internet for “free,” we have to remember that if we’re not paying for something, we’re not the customer. We are in fact the product being sold — or, more specifically, our data is.

So here’s a tricky question: Who owns all that data?

Why Data Ownership Is Hard

The fundamental problem with data ownership is that bits don’t behave like atoms. For most of human history, our laws have focused on physical assets that couldn’t be duplicated. The old truism “possession is nine-tenths of the law” doesn’t apply in a world where making a million copies, each as good as the original, is nearly effortless.

It’s not just the ability to copy that makes data different, however. How data is used affects its value. If I share a movie with someone, the copyright holder loses a potential sale. On the other hand, they may make money: freely sharing Monty Python videos online increased DVD sales by 23,000%. Some kinds of information were meant to be shared. If I give my phone number to someone, surely it’s gained value. But if it’s written on a bathroom wall, presumably it’s lost some.

It is hard to get data control right, too. In 2009, Burning Man required that Burners give organizers control of any of their images that were shared by a third party. The well-meaning effort to protect unwanted distribution sparked a vigorous debate about what electronic freedom really means. More recently, WikiLeaks has forced us to ask: Do thousands of leaked cables belong to the government, U.S. citizens, WikiLeaks or the newspapers that published them?

Old Laws, New Problems

These questions of data ownership are all nuanced issues, quick to anger and hard to resolve. We’re struggling to cope with them, both legislatively and culturally.

In a number of recent cases, outdated laws are being repurposed and abused, alternately defending and restricting freedom. We’re using ancient wiretapping laws to imprison people who record law enforcement officials. At the same time that reading a spouse’s e-mail is a criminal offense, Google search history is now an admissible form of evidence. And the U.S. attorney general has just subpoenaed the private Twitter messages of a foreign citizen.

Big Data Makes Its Own Gravy

But if data law is confusing, Big Data makes it downright Byzantine. That’s because the act of collecting and analyzing massive amounts of public and private data actually generates more data, which is often as useful as the original information — and belongs to whomever performed the analysis. Put another way: Big Data makes its own gravy.

In August 2006, America Online published a dataset of search results, hoping to provide raw material to researchers. The data had been anonymized, so that each searcher’s identity was just a number. Five days later, The New York Times had tracked down one of those searchers by linking her search history to other public data, such as the phone book.

At big data companies, this kind of thing happens constantly; the companies just aren’t ignorant enough to do it in public. Since 2006, our willingness to share data has risen dramatically. So has companies’ ability to mine it for new insights, and not always in ways we’d approve of. Consider the Netflix Prize, awarded for figuring out how to use our film preferences to suggest other movies. That kind of power could also be used for an “Insurance Challenge” that turns our online behavior into actuarial tables that dictate premiums and deny some of us coverage.

The Rise of the Data Marketplace

For decades, lawyers and traders have relied on companies like Thomson Reuters for the latest stock and legal news. Now startups like Gnip, Infochimps, Windows Azure DataMarket, Factual, and Datamarketplace (acquired by Infochimps) are making data easier to acquire and massage. These data marketplaces seldom create new data; rather, they clean it up, ensuring it’s current, and connecting buyers and suppliers. Their value comes not from the data, but from making it usable and accessible.

These data marketplaces can teach us an important lesson about data ownership. Ultimately, the question of who owns information is a red herring.

It’s Not Really About Who Owns the Data/>

Thirty years ago, Stewart Brand observed that, “On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time.”

Data will leak out, as it always does, despite the best efforts of hardware companies. It’ll be around forever, even if we try to impose a statute of limitations on it. And we’ll find new ways analyze it, making still more data. Yesterday’s online chaff may be the cornerstone of tomorrow’s new startup.

The important question isn’t who owns the data. Ultimately, we all do. A better question is, who owns the means of analysis? Because that’s how, as Brand suggests, you get the right information in the right place. The digital divide isn’t about who owns data — it’s about who can put that data to work.

More Data Resources from Mashable:

- Open Data: Why the Crowd Can Be Your Best Analytics Tool /> - 5 Predictions for Online Data in 2011 /> - How a Physically Aware Internet Will Change the World /> - What You Need To Know About Data Portability /> - How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, fpm, grybaz

For more Tech coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Techclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Tech channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

President Obama's dramatic news at last night's memorial service in Tucson that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' has just minutes before opened her left eye for the first time since the shooting has created some confusion in light of news from ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Some Good News! | PerezHilton.com

The economy seems to be finally be rebounding, with stocks climbing to a two year high yesterday!

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

Monday, January 10, 2011

personal finance manager

CNN’s highly visual new iPad app hit the App Store on Tuesday morning, bringing many of the media company’s best-known products — including all of its articles and videos from CNN.com, as well as live breaking news video coverage and hourly radio updates — to the iPad for free.

Unlike the iPad apps of most other publications, CNN’s app [iTunes link] replicates neither the format of its website nor a newspaper layout. Instead, users are drawn to headlines laid upon enlarged thumbnails to explore different kinds of content — sports is juxtaposed against tech, which is sandwiched between stories on finance and government policy — although they also have the option to browse by section and headline in a text-only format as well.

“We’ve really worked to make this thing feel like it was meant for the iPad,” said KC Estenson, SVP and general manager of CNN.com. “It looks unlike any other thing that we’ve built. We wanted to know what sort of design and user interface would make [the content come] alive on the iPad.”

The app is also more social than any of those released by other major media properties. Comments are given prominent placement alongside articles, which are frequently refreshed. Users can also join the conversation directly from the app, and sign in to Facebook and Twitter to share and comment upon stories with their respective networks (e-mail is also, of course, a sharing option). Unfortunately text from the articles is not selectable, so sharing favorite clips or quotes can be a bit laborious.

Users can toggle between U.S. and international news, as well as save articles for later offline viewing. Breaking news alerts will appear as a notifications while the app is closed, which can be turned off in settings.

CNN’s app is, in my opinion, the best app from a single news source to date. The combination of access to live streaming video of breaking news and full commenting functionality ensure it will become my personal go-to resource for general world news on the iPad.

In addition to the iPad app, CNN’s iPhone app [iTunes link] has also been made free, part of the company’s decision to make their apps “available on as many devices as possible,” Estenson said. Apps for Android and other platforms are in the works, although no release dates have yet been named. CNN’s average monthly mobile audience is up 23% this year to 14.5 million, compared to last year’s monthly average of 11.7 million.

Screenshots

style="display:none" class="gallery_id">499 style="display:none" class="post_id">469215 style="display:none" class="gallery_type">photo class="ytm-view-type">View As One Page » Courtesy of guest author MIKE WHITNEY

Originally published at CounterPunch

Counterfeiting is an effective way to stimulate the economy, but the costs can be quite high.

For example, if trillions of dollars in fake cash was injected into the financial system (undetected), we'd probably see the same type of thing that we see when a credit bubble is inflating; asset prices would rise, unemployment would fall, economic activity would increase, and GDP would soar.

But when people figured out what was going on, investors would panic, the markets would crash, and the economy would go into a deflationary nosedive.

So here's the point: Deregulation allows the banks to create as much bogus money as they want in the form of credit. When a bank issues a loan to someone who can't repay the debt, it's counterfeiting, which is the same as stealing.

This is what the banks did in the lead-up to the Market Meltdown of '08; they issued trillions of dollars of mortgages to people who had no job, no income, no collateral, and a bad credit history. The banks abandoned all the standard criteria for issuing loans, so they could increase the quantity of loans they produced.

Why? Because bankers get paid on the front-end of the transaction, which means that when they make a loan, they mark it as a credit on their books so they can draw a hefty salary and a fat bonus at the end of the year. In other words, there are powerful incentives for bankers to do the wrong thing, which is why they act the way they do.

Now that the economy has begun to stabilize, there are signs that the whole process is starting over again and another bubble is already emerging. Check out this clip from an article in The Tennessean titled "Auto lenders approve more subprime borrowers":

"As the auto industry continues to make a slow recovery from tough times of the past two years, lenders are finally loosening credit restrictions and approving car loans for customers with less than prime credit ratings. In the third quarter last year, for instance, the share of new vehicle loans to "credit-challenged" consumers rose 12.7 percent compared with the same period in 2009, said Experian, one of the nation's major credit reporting agencies.

Loans to borrowers with subprime credit scores as low as 550 were among categories that grew the most....Credit restrictions were the biggest reason people stopped buying new cars during the recession, but "that's not a problem anymore," said Marty Horn, sales manager at Nashville's Crown Ford.

"We're not having any trouble finding financing for anyone with a score in the 600s," he said. "We can get most people financed through Ford Credit, and if that's not available, we have other lenders ready to step in."...

"We're seeing loans of up to 140 percent of value from some lenders, and Capital One is by far our best lender for the subprime customer, which is below a 620 score," said Michael Creque, general manager of Alexander Chevrolet-Cadillac in Murfreesboro." ("Auto lenders approve more subprime borrowers", The Tennessean)

Can you believe it? Auto finance companies are lending up to "140 percent of value" of the loan to "credit-challenged" consumers? And this is going on just two years after the biggest meltdown since the Great Depression.

Keep in mind, that the housing/credit bubble cost ordinary working people $12 trillion in lost retirement savings and home equity while the perpetrators on Wall Street have seen their profits skyrocket. Bubblenomics is not "innovation" and it certainly does not increase productivity. It merely transfers wealth from one class to another via credit manipulation.

Consider the recent reports about improvements in the economy. While it's true the data is looking better (retail sales, personal consumption, manufacturing, car sales etc) it's also true that the credit cancer is spreading again. Consumer demand is still weak because unemployment is nearly 10 percent and wages remain flat. So the only reason spending is up, is because credit is expanding. But that means more lending to people who are incapable of repaying their loans which will inevitably lead to another bust. Here's an excerpt from an article titled "Zero-down mortgages endure in rural areas" from bankrate.com which proves my point:

"The zero-down mortgage is still alive in the form of the USDA home loan....People buy houses without down payments or mortgage insurance under the Department of Agriculture's rural development housing program. The catch? The property must be in a designated rural area. The surprise? Some eligible properties are in places that most people would not consider rural....

The borrower pays an upfront guarantee fee of 3.5 percent of the loan amount, which most opt to roll into the loan. Under some first-time buyer programs, borrowers can have their closing costs paid....Unlike most low or no-down-payment loans, Defining points out, USDA loans do not require mortgage insurance...... USDA does not set a minimum credit score, and lender minimums vary." (bankrate.com)

So a mortgage applicant can purchase a home with no down payment, no mortgage insurance, and no minimum credit score from the USDA? What the heck is the USDA even doing in the real estate business? This is just a sneaky way of creating another asset bubble. It's just more counterfeiting.

Now take a look at this from torquenews.com. Same thing. It shows that the big auto manufacturers are jumping on board the credit bandwagon, too. Here's a clip:

"Major auto makers and dealers will start the day after Christmas by pushing their zero percent down deals and hopes toward more year-end car sales....TorqueNews' screening of five top U.S. and Japanese automakers' year-end offerings shows all of them having some type of zero down deals to attract more car shoppers....

The U.S. luxury automobiles are offered with zero down year-end sales deals. All of the GM's products on its website are offered at with zero percent down-payment. GMC has no monthly payment until spring and $1,500 total allowance if the shopper finances with Ally. The 0% APR apply to qualified buyers on any GMC...." (torquenews.com)

"Zero down"; Weeee! "No monthly payment until spring", Weeeee! "$1,500 total allowance if the shopper finances" with us; Weeeee! Free money, never pay, borrow your way to prosperity; Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Haven't we seen this movie before? Is Congress really so lazy and corrupt that they're willing to let the economy drop back into the shi**er just so some shifty bankster can buy a few more baubles at Tiffanys?

Then there's this from yesterday's news: Allstate vs. Bank of America. Allstate wants to get its money back from B of A on toxic mortgage-backed securities. Here's the drift from the LA Times:

"The case pits insurer Allstate against Bank of America and Countrywide, the giant mortgage lender that Bank of America bought in 2008. The suit claims that Countrywide misrepresented the risks posed by the bundles of mortgages it sold to investors such as Allstate, which sank $700 million into the securities from 2005 to 2007. After the housing bubble burst, the mortgages in those securities started defaulting at a torrid pace, causing the value of the securities to plummet.

.... A Bank of America spokesman suggested that Allstate was "a sophisticated investor....looking for someone to blame." But Allstate's examination of a sample of the mortgages in each bundle found that Countrywide's disclosures consistently understated such important indicators as the percentage of mortgages with low down payments or with no proof of the borrower's income (so-called liar loans). And by Allstate's analysis, Countrywide's disclosures weren't off by a little bit. For example, in 11 securities that were supposedly free of "underwater" mortgages, up to 14% of the loans turned out to be larger than the value of the house."

("Housing Shocks", editorial, Los Angeles Times)

The "sophisticated investor" defense is an excuse that fraudsters use when they've just ripped you off. They say, "I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were a "sophisticated investor."...which just dumps a little salt in the wound.

The truth is, Countrywide clipped Allstate for $700 million in garbage loans and now claims that it procured the money "fair and square". Right. But they do have a point. In a system where there are no rules, anything goes. Allstate might lose their suit simply because the laws now mainly protect the interests of the predators rather than the victims. The banks are free to whip-up their junk debt-instruments (comprised of liar's loans etc) and peddle them to anyone who is gullible enough to invest their money. It's a con-game.

One last example. Many people have noticed that there was a slight uptick in credit in the Fed's latest report. That's good, right? But, as it turns out, the only area where credit really improved was student loans which grew about 80% year-over-year, or roughly $120 billion. So why the sudden and explosive growth in student loans? The answer appeared on an economics blog called benzinga.com via firedoglake. Here's an excerpt:

"The Federal Family Education Loan program (FFEL) allows private financial institutions to provide students with loans, but the government assumes the risk of default, and pays the financial fees while the student attends college. This amounts to privatized gains combined with socialized loans....

Under the FFEL program, financial institutions like Sallie Mae, Bank of America, National Education Loan Network, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo would originate these FFEL loans with students, and then sell them on the secondary credit market. In 2008, the credit market dried up, and the private lenders had nowhere to sell these government guaranteed loans. So, the government stepped in to buy up these loans and protect a program that was already a massively wasteful corporate boondoggle.

The bailout was authorized with HR 5715 Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA). The bill allowed for the Department of Eduction to produce three different programs, the Loan Purchase Commitment Program, the Loan Participation Purchase Program, and a buyer-of-last-resort Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduit.

This purchase program — which amounted to the department of education buying privately-originated student loans that were intended to be securitized but now could not be — was radically expanded in 2009 and 2010, with a purchase amount target of about (you guessed it) $120bn. ("The hidden message of the consumer credit release" )

So, there is no improvement in credit. Not really. It's just more backdoor bailouts that are dolled up to look like things are getting better. But things aren't getting better; we've simply restored the same crisis-prone wholesale credit system ("shadow banking") with trillions of dollars of government subsidies, bailouts, stimulus and guarantees, and now we are speeding towards the next big collision. That's not what I'd call "economic recovery". I'd call it stupidity.

Pic credit: William Banzai7

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

TaxProf Blog provides resources, news, and information for law school tax professors. It is not affiliated with Auto Didactix LLC's TaxProf, a software-based tutorial for law students in the federal income tax course. ...

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Denver Broncos News: Horse Tracks 1/10/11 - Mile High Report

Your daily cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

TaxProf Blog: 2011 Tax News

ABC News Chief Open to Bloomberg Partnership - NYTimes.com

The new president of ABC News says the door remains open to some form of future partnership with Bloomberg News.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Help Making Money

Grab your popcorn and Twizzlers, because 2011 is already shaping up to be an exciting year to watch startups and giants do battle for market share and big ideas. If you’re not sure which companies to look out for in the coming year, our writers and editors have submitted their expert picks below.

What do you think? Did we miss any promising tech companies (new or established) that you see making a big splash in 2011? We want — nay, demand — your forecasts in the comments below.

1. Minimal, Inc.

This Chicago-based design firm finished off 2010 by completing the most successful funding campaign in Kickstarter history. Its TikTok+LunaTik iPod Nano watch conversion kits raised more than $940,000 from more than 13,500 backers and garnered the kind of attention that should help launch this company to new heights in 2011. The gadget accessories market has a new player.

~ Josh Catone, Features Editor

2. StumbleUponclass="blippr-nobr">StumbleUpon

OK, so StumbleUpon has been around since 2001, so it’s not new to the scene. But with class='blippr-nobr'>Diggclass="blippr-nobr">Digg’s fall this year and StumbleUpon’s planned release of premium features and publisher pages early this year, it has the potential to scale and be exposed to more users. And considering it’s a big source of traffic for many news sites, it may start investing its time into figuring out how to leverage the site further and connect with its community on the site.

~ Vadim Lavrusik, Community Manager

3. Amimon, Inc.

This Israeli company has perfected its wireless HDTV system over the past years. Imagine plugging a tiny USB device into a laptop, and then displaying its output in full 1080p HD resolution on a monitor 100 feet away, with no lag. Amimon has already introduced one of its own products, but the big deal is the presence of its superior wireless HD standard (known as WHDI, or Wireless Home Digital Interface) chips built inside numerous other products, such as laptops, projectors, TVs and set-top boxes.

~ Charlie White, Senior Editor

4. Bloom Energy

If there is any company poised to revolutionize the energy market, it’s Bloom Energy. The Bloom Energy Server (a.k.a. the “Bloom Box”) changes inputs like natural gas or oil into clean, reusable energy. It’s actually a dynamic fuel cell that creates energy through a chemical reaction. The company has raised more than $400 million to date and is testing its technology with class='blippr-nobr'>Googleclass="blippr-nobr">Google, eBay, Wal-Mart and others.

~ Ben Parr, Co-Editor

5. Skypeclass="blippr-nobr">Skype

Its recent outage notwithstanding, Skype has been on an impressive run since its breakup with eBay. Usage is at record levels, and features like group video chat and deep Facebook integration have reminded us that Skype is a top tier consumer and business web company. In 2011, the company is likely to go public, and with it, face a whole new level of scrutiny and expectations. Google will also continue to gun at Skype with enhancements to class='blippr-nobr'>Google Voiceclass="blippr-nobr">Google Voice (free U.S. calling for Gmail users through 2011 is an obvious sign of that), making the company all the more intriguing to watch.

~ Adam Ostrow, Editor-in-Chief

6. Tumblrclass="blippr-nobr">Tumblr

With $30 million in funding in its coffer and increasing content curation (not to mention 14 book deals born from its blogs), Tumblr could be shaping up into a much more organized — and ad-worthy — hub for entertainment. We’re interested to see if the company spends that money wisely — and how.

~ Brenna Ehrlich, News Editor

7. Clickerclass="blippr-nobr">Clicker

The connected device ecosystem is still evolving, in large part because of the battle over control between content publishers, device makers and consumers. Clicker is managing to avoid the battle itself and is instead focusing on making it easy for users to find content, irrespective of what service that content might use. The company recently branched into recommendations and has mobile apps, supports Google TV and the Boxee Box and has a killer web app.

~ Christina Warren, Mobile & Apple Reporter

8. inDinero

Ho! Ho! Ho! And a Merry Christmas to you all!

It's that time of year again and I've been so busy making Xboxes and E-readers and blankets with arms in them that I sometimes forget there are others like me doing good works but who are in need of some help.

These other "Santas" operate on a shoestring and need money to do their kind deeds. Unfortunately they can't do what I do to cover the cost of my operations. (I rent out my North Pole facilities to Superman eleven months of the year for him to use as his Fortress of Solitude.)

So Mrs. Claus, the elves, the reindeer and I are asking if you could make a last minute donation to one of the six worthy organizations I've listed below. Or do it as a gift in someone else's name and make that their Christmas present (thus fewer chimneys for me to go down. I know, I know, stop with the burgers in a donut bun.) These Santas will then turn around and use your money to create gifts greater than anything I could ever make in my workshop.

Here they are:

** The Innocence Project. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans sit in prison tonight having been wrongly convicted of a crime. They are 100 percent innocent and the system has the DNA samples to prove it. The Innocence Project is an amazing group that provides free attorneys and researchers who devote their time to freeing these innocent men and women. It's no mistake that human rights groups place the United States on their list of countries who throw the innocent behind bars. No country on earth (including China, with four times the population of the United States) has more people in prison than America. Please give to the Innocence Project so that those who've committed no crime do not spend another night in jail -- and so I don't have to spend so much time on Christmas Eve going through security when I make deliveries to them.

** The Bradley Manning Defense Fund. If I witness a crime while making my rounds on Christmas Eve, and I report it, I'm considered a hero. (Sometimes there's reward money!) Private Bradley Manning of the United States Army allegedly came across video of his fellow soldiers gunning down and killing in cold blood two reporters from Reuters and a group of Iraqis who were civilians. He apparently decided to report this crime to the American people. For this, he has been arrested and thrown into the brig -- where he has sat in tortuous solitary confinement for seven months. He is also believed to be the source of thousands of documents obtained by WikiLeaks which show the disgusting and immoral behavior of your government and Pentagon as they've prosecuted two illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a true travesty taking place and it's being done in your name. Please contribute to his legal defense fund and please send him a holiday card at:

Bradley Manning

c/o Courage to Resist

484 Lake Park Ave #41

Oakland CA 94610

USA

(See BradleyManning.org for how to mail things to him directly.)

** WikiLeaks. What more needs to be said? Frankly, in retrospect I'm GLAD they leaked my 2009 Naughty & Nice list -- especially the parts about the U.S. government. I know that may hurt a bit for those of you who are Americans, but trust me, it's good for you in the long run. What I do foresee in the coming year, though, is a battle for who controls the internet -- and those in power are going to find ways to clamp down and not make it so easy for all of us to share with each other so freely. (Another good group to give to that is helping to keep the internet free is Save the Internet.) From the Iraq War video to the proof that you're backing a corrupt government in Afghanistan to the fabricated cables sent to the Bush State Department from Havana about Mike's movie, WikiLeaks has performed an invaluable service. As long as they don't dig into what my elves do in the 11 months they're on vacation, I'm solidly behind WikiLeaks.

** The Water Project. Over a billion people on this planet have no access to clean drinking water. Approximately 2 million children under age 5 are killed each year worldwide by a water-related disease. This is insane considering we have the technology and the people power to fix this in a very short time period -- if we wanted. The money from just one year of the Iraq War would pretty much take care of it. Sad, isn't it, how we're capable of so much more, of being so much better. The Water Project is a hands-on, boots on the ground organization that's digging wells and getting clean drinking water to the Third World. This is one delivery -- water for a billion people -- that just doesn't fit in my sleigh.

** Park 51 Islamic Community Center ("The Ground Zero Mosque"). Here's a tip: if there's anything that will get you a lump of coal in your stocking, it's hating people based on their race or religion. And I'm sorry to say, folks like that were out in full force this year. They even won themselves an election. Soon they will hold congressional hearings to out America's Kenyan-born Muslim president. (My team's already getting extra coal ready for Christmas 2011.)

Meanwhile in lower Manhattan, a group of people who happen to be Muslim want to build a community center. They asked the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan for help. They helped them. It was so nice it made me think I should branch out into Hanukkah and Ramadan. Then the haters showed up. But I believe Park 51 will win this fight. Please help them.

** Democracy Now. This great daily show presents the news we never get to hear on mainstream radio or TV -- especially at the North Pole, where for some reason the cable system only runs the Hallmark channel and Spike. Amy Goodman and Co. do an incredible job bringing the truth to the American public every morning. I listen to them and I support them. (And I support all efforts for non-profit, community-based radio stations. You can learn more about that movement at Radio for All.)

So give if you can. I know these are tight times for most people and you've got yourselves and your families to take care of. I hope this time of the year is going well for you and if not, then please know that there are many -- including me -- who care about you and yours. Working together, it will get better for everyone.

Finally... those of you who don't have chimneys, could you possibly leave the door open this year? I don't like it any more than you do when I have to break in through your bathroom window.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night,

Santa (c/o Michael Moore)

free rental agreement forms