Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Casa San Blas Btique hotel in Cusco Peru


Casa San Blas wall, originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda.

The story of this hotel is that it was bought from a family of brothers and sisters who neglected to keep up the property. The story is that the parents of these kids died when they were young and so the family was in disarray. After the present owners bought the property, one of the sisters said that there was hidden treasure in the property. TRhe family had been looking for this hidden treasure and did not find it. The hotel owners were very surprised when the construction contractors tld them that they had a treasure of stones that were usable and did not need new stones, and that saved the hotel about 35000 Neuvo Soles ( about 10k dollars ) These stones were probably the hidden treasure.

The hotel is very friendly and efficient. >Thier breakfast could improve a little bit.

Live webcam of the street in front of the Hotel http://www.casasanblas.com/cuzco-cusco/webcams02.php?vo=0

Brent Leary and David Bullock : Duplicate Barack Obama campaign efforts for your own business

Brent Leary and David Bullock created a great site called Barack20.com that studied the Barack Obama compaign's use of Social media tools and how it can apply to Small Business. Recently in a telecon told me that they are going to compose the resources on the Barack20.com site into an eBook, and wanted to include quotes from people in the industry. here are some details :

What is Barack 2.0?  

We hope the lessons contained in this workbook will help you understand the impact a social media strategy can have on businesses of any size.  This is not about politics; it's about viewing Barack Obama's campaign use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites from a business perspective.  These lessons can be used by Democrats, Republicans and/or Independents alike.  It's about understanding how we can use technology to meaningfully connect with people to build long-lasting relationships, turning clicks into customers, and using content to convert strangers into collaborators.  These are the true lessons that we can take away from Barack Obama's improbable rise from obscurity to the presidency.
How Did Barack 2.0 Begin?
"I'll tell you something about Barack Obama that the media has not picked up on. He has got a very, very powerful presence on Facebook, on MySpace, on a lot of these sort of below the radar social networking sites on the internet."  This quote, attributed to BlueMassGroup.com co-founder David Kravitz, appeared in a February 2007 New York Sun article entitled Obama's Facebook. (http://www.nysun.com/opinion/obamas-facebook/48560/)  

This was just one month after Senator Obama announced his improbable candidacy for the presidency of the United States, and several months before Facebook opened its site up to the general public. But by then, Obama already had over 250,000 fans on Facebook. Hillary Clinton, the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination, only had roughly 3,200. 
The article captured David Bullock's attention, and led him to keep an eye on what Obama's campaign was doing with social media.  Brent Leary had also become captivated with Obama's use of Web 2.0 tools and their impact on his campaign.  When Brent shared with David the article he had written for Black Enterprise after Obama's stunning victory over Senator Clinton for the Democratic nomination in June, he was reminded of how prophetic David Kravitz was. 

The fact that David and Brent were talking at all was pretty amazing, considering they hadn't seen or heard from each other in over 18 years, when they both were attending the University of Delaware.  Just the month before in May 2008, they ran into each other at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneur's Conference.  They both happened to be presenting at the Small Business Boot Camp – David on Internet Marketing and Brent on using technology to grow small businesses.  What they observed from the attendees was a thirst for understanding on how they could create a presence on the web that would allow them to reach the people looking for the products and services they provide. They were looking to understand how blogging, podcasting, video and social networks could help them compete in the marketplace.  

With huge excitement being generated by Obama's historic presidential bid, and with interest in social media growing daily, David and Brent thought it would be interesting to analyze Obama's use of these technologies, not from a political perspective, but from the perspective of a small businessperson looking to put together a social media strategy of their own.
They decided to turn their personal curiosity for Obama's social media moves into a webinar outlining some of the tools, strategies and methods used by his campaign to meaningfully engage millions of people.  Being somewhat overwhelmed by the response they received by the small business community, they decided to create a blog/podcast that would allow them to dig a little deeper into different aspects of the social media strategy being implemented by the Obama campaign, which they began calling Barack 2.0.  This led to the Barack20.com website, and the Barack 2.0 Strategy Update podcast series. 

The site picked up a loyal following and caught the attention of national media outlets.  The interest in Barack 2.0 led to invitations to speak at industry conferences, professional organizations, and university MBA programs.  Finally, after Obama's historic victory - and its description as the most successful Internet marketing campaign ever - it led to this workbook.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Look what the Google Alert Fairy for Corporate Twitter brought me !

Google News Alert for: corporate twitter

Your 'Tweet' on Twitter Could Be Trouble
Law.com - San Francisco,CA,USA
Lawyers caution, however, that Twitter carries a number of legal risks. Users posting tweets fromcorporate networks could expose company secrets. ...
See all stories on this topic

Technosailor

The Dickensian 2008: A Look Back
Technosailor - Baltimore,MD,USA
Most notable of all Enterprise 2.0 companies was Yammer which is build as a standalone Twitter for Enterprise. Yammer won the top award at Techcrunch50. ...
See all stories on this topic

Economy influencing couples' decision on having babies
Chicago Tribune - United States
It's an angst-filled debate raging in bedrooms around the country and on Internet sites such as TwitterMoms. Can couples afford to start a family or have ...
See all stories on this topic

TwitterGadget Lives With Gmail/iGoogle--Makes Twitter Better
Appscout - New York,NY,USA
Amazingly enough a few hours later I got an email back... a personal email from John Sortino at LOGIKA Corporation, TwitterGadget's corporate home. ...
See all stories on this topic

Showing Off
Successful Meetings - New York,NY,USA
Another intriguing community-building platform is Twitter, which enables you to tell all your contacts what you're doing right now (or at least what you ...
See all stories on this topic

 

MinnPost.com

Marketing innovation: Best Buy vs. Target
MinnPost.com - Minneapolis,MN,USA
Its CMO, Barry Judge, has started blogging and has taken to Twitter. He's very transparent in his exploration of conversational marketing in interviews like ...
See all stories on this topic

2009: What to Expect in Tech
PC Magazine - USA
I'll admit that I no longer believe that either Facebook or Twitter is doomed. In fact, I'm so addicted to the latter that its demise would leave me bereft. ...
See all stories on this topic

Worldly wise Web
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
Twitter roars. The microblogging service showed itself to be a raw but compelling new channel for instant info. During major events -- earthquakes, fires, ...
See all stories on this topic

 

Mashable

24 Most Underrated Websites of 2008
Mashable - San Francisco,CA,USA
Twittertise -Twitter may not seem to have any idea how to make money with their own product, but there is nothing stopping the rest of us. ...
See all stories on this topic

Google Blogs Alert for: corporate twitter

Who are your business spokespeople? | Corporate Eye
As long as that’s happening, we don’t really see the need to “police” what employees are saying, which is why we encourage our employees to Twitter and publicly post what employees are twittering at: http://twitter.zappos.com ...
Corporate Eye - http://www.corporate-eye.com/

The State Of The Twittersphere (HubSpot Edition)... (TechCrunch ...
How many followers do most people really have on Twitter? The average number... ... Don’t get BrandJacked: Confirming Your Corporate Twitter Account Dec 04 08. Blacklight Power bolsters its impossible claims of a new renewable energy ...
TechNews AM - http://technews.am/

What do you do for a living? | Adventures in Corporate Education
I shared a link on Twitter today that I got from the Systers list. The link was to this Dr. Dobbs article, which has since been edited. Basically it's an.
Adventures in Corporate Education - http://gminks.edublogs.org/

Twiptip.com Twitter Tips for Beginners from The Editor of ...
TwiTip is about capturing some of the lessons that I’ve been learning about Twitter and how to use it more effectively. It will cover Twitter Tips of all varieties including Writing for Twitter, Branding, Growing a Following, Corporate ...
Twarketing: Twitter Marketing News - http://twarketing.com/

Social Media Tools - Twitter (one of our fav’s) made Dell $1 ...
Posted in Technology, social media | Tags: applications, apps, architecture, brown, corporateadvertising, customers, dell, design, how to, llc, market, marketing, medized, megan, megan morris, mike, mike brown, morris, ...
Medized...with life. - http://medized.wordpress.com/

Google Web Alert for: corporate twitter

Jon Burg's Future Visions: 10 Rules for Corporate Twitter Activation
So everyone wants free media. But twitter isn't free media, it's a tool/platform that can enable or enhance your marketing via earned relationships.

Five steps to a successful corporate Twitter presence
12/12/2008 14:48; Five steps to a successful corporate Twitter presence 12/09/ 2008 14:25; US Is Losing Cyberwar- Business Week ...

As you all know I am probably enjoying the sights of Macchu Picchu in Peru when this post is published. I still welcome any comment love I can get and I miss you all my Blog readers :) - @shashib

Friday, December 26, 2008

Honored to be on FIR Interview: Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions

image

Thank you Shel for having me on the For Immediate Release podcast : Please go here to listen http://cli.gs/TVNeaA

and give both Shel and me feedback by commenting there.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Luck of being born around 1955 Outliers – The story of Success By Malcolm Gladwell ( Book Review)

Poptech @008 - Camden Maine

Malcolm Galdwell writes very well. His books Tipping Point, Blink really changed the way people think of making a difference in business. Outliers is about success, what contributes to the success of “Outliers”. Outliers are defined by Malcolm Gladwell as “outside everyday experience where the normal rules did not apply. Gladwell himself is a outlier. Jay Goldman writes on in his blog http://jaygoldman.com/2008/12/02/malcolm-gladwell-talks-about-outliers-at-rotman-school-of-management/

Things you probably don’t know about Malcolm:

· Was once the Canadian record holder in 1500m run but is not the fastest Gladwell in his family

· 10,000 hour rule: takes 10k hours to be expert at something. He’s an expert at playing Risk.

· Was a student activist of an odd sort. Organized a march to prevent principal being transferred to another school.

· Was in Reach for the Top. His aspiration was to be a pastry chef (though he doesn’t remember it)

· First major assignment was for Ad Hominem, a high school newspaper

The mention of the Italian community of Roseto in Bangor Pennsylvania which defied all scientific theories for remaining healthy and built a community carrying over all the advantages of community resources from their original Italian countryside.

The waste of human capital that results our of sports teams choosing kids from school who were born between January and August. Being born in the perfect age 1955ish and being around 20 years of age in 1975 the dawn of the personal Computer Age– examples

Bill Gates : Oct 28 1955

Paul Allen Jan 21 1953

Steve Ballmer March 24 1956

Steve Jobs Feb 24 1955

Eric Schmidt April 27 1955

Bill Joy Nov 8 1954

Scott McNealy Nov 13 1954

Vinod Khosla Jan 28 1955

Andy Bechtolsheim Sept 30 1955

Bill Gates was lucky to be in a school Lakeside where the mothers banded together to buy a computer for the school in 1968 . I was a 5 year old J then. I chose to move to a school district that had a good record of parents contributing to school efforts and I have to wait for my kids to flourish to completely agree with Malcolm Gladwell as he does make a good case.

The 10,000 hour rule. Again studying people who succeeded in life Malcolm Gladwell says each of them spent 10k hours practicing their speciality. The Beatles Playing for 7 days a week in Hamburg, Bill Gates non-stop programming and getting a place in Seattle to program for free, Bill Joy who wrote UNIX give me a message that perseverance is also a factor for success.

I love the statement “the only measure that a law school really ought to care about – How well its graduates do in the real world “. The story of genius Chris Lagan compared to Alex Williams in the book is an example that intelligence and genius matters to an extent after which your access to resources and the timing plays a part.

This is a topic that most parents of India origin debate over – the school cut off date. When I arrived in the United States in 1997 I chose to live in Maryland rather than Virginia due to the fact that Maryland had a cut off date of Dec 31st for school then versus Virginia which had a Sep31st cut-off date. Why does this matter? Did I d the right thing? All these answers I found in this book by Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers – The story of Success.

I was surprised by the chapter on Harlan Kentucky, the battles for honor in the Southern States and attributing it to the Scottish-Irish origin. I did not know that the South has higher murder rates but property crimes and muggings are lower. South is to me is always the gentle culture and I guess that can all change with Honor being slighted. While it may be a very stark case study I look at my own Indian roots and see the differences in regions of India where honor means a different kind of action and the idea does have a meaning. If I was writing this book I would research Kadapa in the State of Andhra Pradesh In the Wikipedia article there is no mention of what Cuddapah is known for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadapa but go to this website http://www.umeshchandra.org/front.html and you will find it descried as the “second most troublesome district in India”.

I got a preview of what was coming in the book at Pop!Tech where Malcolm Gladwell spoke about Human capitalization and lost opportunities http://blog.networksolutions.com/2008/malcolm-galdwell-speaks-about-human-capitalization-at-poptech/

Others who have reviewed this book: ( Buy the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell from Amazon )

New York Times : Michiko Kakutani http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/books/18kaku.html

New York Magazine Jason Zengerle http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/52014/

Jay GoldMan http://jaygoldman.com/2008/12/02/malcolm-gladwell-talks-about-outliers-at-rotman-school-of-management/

Entertainment Weekly: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20239689,00.html

Guardian : http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/23/outliers-story-success-malcolm-gladwell

Cross posted from CarryOnCurry.com where I posted this initially by mistake.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Brent Leary : Business Technology Radio

Brent Leary is a CRM guru and a speaker at leading Small Business conferences. I was honored to be on his Business Technology Radio talk show , he usually has several luminaries and celebrities on his show. I hope some of that rubs off onm me :)

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Know any good female role models?

Here is a message from Kathy Korman Frey  @chiefhotmomma

 

In search of nominees: Female role models for our Hot Mommas Project case study competition. Contact me through Linked in, nomination link on www.HotMommasProject.org, or support@HotMommasProject.org.
*********************************
The Hot Mommas Project is an award-winning leadership initiative raising self-efficacy of women and girls through exposure to role models. We produce case studies showing the full range of factors influencing a woman’s success. We are housed at the George Washington University School of Business and are the recipient of a 2006 Coleman Foundation National Case Award. Learn more at http://www.hotmommasproject.org/ and through this personal letter.
If you want to participate in the project and impact education: NOMINATE a role model (yourself included) by emailing the Hot Mommas Project TODAY.
Winners of the case study competition will have the chance to be published in a major Prentice Hall textbook and win thousands of dollars in prizes. The contest goes through January 31.
*********************************
Thanks so much for contributing to this worthwhile project. The holidays are a GREAT time for people to write their cases, which is why I am sending this question NOW.

 

See Kathy's question on Linkedin if you prefer to answer there.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Beware of Mobile Lifters?

What do you think they are talking about ? Guess where this is and you can write a guest post for us on http://www.networksolutions' blog or here. :)

What are the best words to use when you want others to help you in an email?

I asked this question a few days bask to my Twitter/Facebook community and got these responses.i have several theories on what words work in emails and I was happy to get these responses from my friends.  Do you have other ideas on how communications should be carried on specially when seeking help. Does your language change when you write to friends vs to colleagues and acquaintances.

Twitter

@benaroberts @shashib please

@cheeky_geeky @shashib desperate, pathetic, end-of-the-line, deathknell, running out of road, last legs, ashamed, bewildered, help

@EndTheRoboCalls @shashib Action Requested Please

gloriabell Icon_red_lock @shashib use words that assume they will help while asking kindly ex. "thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation"

suecoppersmith @shashib please and thank you.. :)

chrisabraham @shashib The best thing to do when you want help via email is not to pussy-foot around. Be straight forward. People love to help

DarinRMcClure @shashib best not to start with Dr Sirs, We are contacting you from our Rwandan Bank we need your social security number to wire you th

bradatpharma @shashib : Whatever you do, avoid giving unctuous praise... I've found people who can actually help *don't* like being kowtowed to

richmissey @shashib Please & Thank you, and be straightforward and direct. Simple courtesy and a clear request usually gives me the best results

Facebook

Rob Carlson at 9:47am December 12

"What's your hourly rate?"

Linda Dickerhoof at 9:49am December 12 via Facebook Mobile

'i can pay well'

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Not made in Detroit


Sri Lanka, originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda.

This is a picture of a Autorickshaw from Southern Sri Lanka. if you are driving a car think of what you miss here :)

Digital Media Wire : List of top "25 Executives to Watch in Digital Entertainment”

 

See the list at Digital insider : http://cli.gs/zL7uph . if you are too eager the list is here, and I still feel you should read the Digital Media Wire article to get more context.

 

  1. · Ali and Hadi Partovi, Founders, iLike
  2. · Amit Kapur, COO, MySpace
  3. · Brent Weinstein, CEO, 60 Frames
  4. · Chamath Palihapitiya, VP of Growth, Mobile & International, Facebook
  5. · Chris Di Cesare, Head of Marketing, YouTube
  6. · Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online
  7. · David Verklin, CEO, Canoe Ventures
  8. · Dick Glover, CEO, Funny or Die Networks
  9. · Dina Kaplan, Co-Founder & COO, Blip.tv
  10. · Ian Rogers, CEO, Topspin
  11. · Jason Kilar, CEO, Hulu
  12. · Jill Braff, SVP, Global Publishing, Glu Mobile
  13. · John Edwards, CEO, Move Networks
  14. · Julie Shumaker, SVP, Worldwide Sales, GM, Core Games Group, Double Fusion
  15. · Karin Gilford, SVP Fancast & Online Entertainment, Comcast Interactive
  16. · Kyra Reppen SVP & GM, Neopets, MTV Networks
  17. · Lynda Clarizio, President, AOL’s Platform-A
  18. · Matt Palmer, EVP & GM, Stardoll
  19. · Max Levchin, Founder & CEO, Slide, and Co-Founder, Paypal
  20. · Min Kim, VP of Marketing, Nexon America
  21. · Owen Van Natta, CEO, Playlist
  22. · Steve Jang, CMO & Head of Business Development, imeem
  23. · Suranga Chandratillake, CEO & Founder, blinkx
  24. · Teemu Huuhtanen, President, N.A., Sulake
  25. · Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer & Founder, Pandora

Monday, December 15, 2008

Would you like to be a Swami Groupie

I am testing the Google Friend Connect.Try joining at http://www.socialmediaswami.com

as this is not working.



Lending and Borrowing Books 2.0

A few months ago I wrote a post about "Netflix for books" - services that send you books as a membership model.  The Washington Post Sunday Edition has a collection of social networking sites where users can exchange books. This reminds me of my student days where book exchanging was more of a economic necessity.

image

The Washington Post article lists these sites :- BookCrossing.com , Bookins.com, BookMooch.com , novelaction.com and PaperBackSwap.com. You should read the article in the Washington Post Sunday Edition for more information.

Friday, December 12, 2008

How tweet it is - Jennifer Conner in the Washington Biz Journal

Jennifer Conner wrote a great article for newbies on Twitter http://cli.gs/nD8Q5e She quoted me in the article :-

"

At Herndon-based Network Solutions Inc., Social Media Swami (his title was picked by a staff vote) Shashi Bellamkonda (Twitter: Shashib) has become well-known for his swift ability to get answers to domain name and Web-hosting questions.

Using Twitter, he is able to quickly defuse the anger of upset customers. Recently, one user vented a Tweet full of frustration at Network Solutions. A follower of that user replied that the person should talk to Shashib.

Bellamkonda says the “listening post” of Twitter allowed him to solve a problem that otherwise would have just festered.

Read the rest of the article here http://cli.gs/nD8Q5e. Thank you @jenconner

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Dr Peter Whybrow at Pop!tech . Sleep for eight hours or else?

 
Its called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.  - George Carlin 2005
Poptech 2008 - Peter C. Whybrow
 
Does America have the perfect society in the world, listen to a neuro scientist talk about your brain. Dr Peter Whybrow wrote the book ""American Mania: When More Is Not Enough," Self interest will drive the interest of the whole economy. Humans  are hooked on curiosity. See this session by Dr Whybrow for reasons why you should stop and think about what you were doing :
 
  • in 1975 Americans spent 8% of GNP on health and 15% on food. Today the figures are 15% on health and 8 % of food.
  • In a fast new world competition is 24/7 and unremitting.
 
See more Pop!tech videos at http://poptech.com/popcasts/
Pop!Tech Day 3 Shashi Bellamkonda and Peter C. Whybrow
 

@93Octane's Top 6 Twitter Tips

Lyell Petersen is a good friend. I met him on Twitter and met him FtoF when I went to Charlotte for the Network Solutions Small Business Networking event with Guy Kawasaki. he celebrated his 6000 tweet with some good tips on using twitter.

 

  • Have Fun. If you think Twitter Is Serious Business take a step back and relax. If you're not having fun you're doing Twitter wrong.
  • Go To A Tweetup. Get out of the zeroes and ones and make a real connection with people. Organize one impromptu. Live-tweet it.
  • Help Ever Hurt Never. Make connections for others freely. Defend your opinion but respect those of others. You learn more this way.
  • Remember Your Manners. "Please" and "Thank You" go a long way when you are asking someone to make you better than you are now.
  • Share In Equal Measure As You Take. Twitter is so much better when you contribute something too. That's why I'm following you.
  • Stop Posting Your Twitter Grade. Your real value to Twitter is reflected by your contributions here, and your followers prove it.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Rohit Bhargava makes the Network Solutions Swami tell his story

Rohit Bhargava is a well known author of "Personality Not included" and we have interviewed him for the Network Solutions Small Business Blog. At Blog World Expo Rohit Bhargava turned the tables on me and interviewed me as the Social Media Swami for Network Solutions for his Personality Project.

I am in the honored company of interviewees:

Rohit Bhargava
Rohit Bhargava

Influential Marketing Blogger & SVP, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence

Dave Balter
Dave Balter

Founder & CEO - BzzAgent

Tony Hsieh
Tony Hsieh

Founder & CEO - Zappos.com

Yvonne Lembi-Detert
Yvonne Lembi-Detert

Founder & CEO - Personality Hotels

Premal Shah
Premal Shah

President - Kiva.org

Sharelle Klauss
Sharelle Klauss

Founder - DRY Soda

Amit Gupta
Amit Gupta

CEO & Founder - Photojojo

Larry Smith
Larry Smith

Editor & Founder - SMITH Magazine

John Bell
John Bell

Managing Director & Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence

Andy Sernovitz
Andy Sernovitz

Author, Blogger & Co-Founder of WOMMA

Joshua Onysko
Joshua Onysko

CEO & Founder, Pangea Organics

Jake McKee
Jake McKee

Chief Ant Wrangler, Ants Eye View & Former Global Community Relations Specialist, LEGO

Valeria Maltoni
Valeria Maltoni

Conversation Agent & Fast Company Blogger

David Avrin
David Avrin

The Visibility Coach

Nedra
Nedra Kline Weinreich

President, Weinreich Communications and Founder of Social Marketing University

Scott
Scott Jordan

Founder, ScotteVest

Mike Shinoda
Mike Shinoda

Rapper, Keyboardist, Vocalist - Linkin Park

Frank Eliason
Frank Eliason

Customer Service Manager, Comcast & @comcastcares Author

Tim Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss

Author - The Four Hour Workweek

Frank Gruber
Frank Gruber

Creator of SomewhatFrank & Product Manager - AOL

Shashi Bellamkonda
Shashi Bellamkonda

Social Media Swami - Network Solutions

Chandler Burr : Perfume Critic at Pop!Tech 2008

 
See this interesting video and also learn that sandlewood is extinct in Mysore. The Pop!tech website describes the video as 'Chandler Burr is the New York Times' first-ever fragrance critic. His knowledge of the history, culture, emotion, economics, science and global geography of scent may be unrivaled. Come along with Chandler as he leads the Camden Opera House on an interactive, hyper-articulate and hilarious olfactory journey."
 
See more videos at http://poptech.org/popcasts/

Monday, December 08, 2008

What is your energy footprint ? Dr Saul Griffith's Wattzon.com

 
I hope you make plans to attend Pop!Tech 2009. It was amazing listening to people with a lot of knowledge. I listened to Dr Griffith describe the doomsday scenario about perosnal consumption. According to the Pop!tech web site "He audited his total power consumption and learned he burns three times as much energy as the average European, and eight times as much as the average Carribeaner."
 
Making things last a long time is a good way to save the world. - says Dr. Saul Griffin.

Poptech 2008 - Camden Maine

 

Did you know if you drink a energy drink you consume energy? You should see the video and also pass it on to all youngsters to see. Along with this you should check out this Wikipedia page of John Hansen Scientist at NASA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen. See the Shashi Bellamkonda Flickr Feed on Dr Saul Griffith's talk.

 

I also saw a nice powerpoint on energy from Rutgers University ww.physics.rutgers.edu/~lath/Piscataway_2003.ppt

 

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Cable Guy Turns His Ladder Into a Lifesaver

Passerby Helps Residents Escape Silver Spring Apartment Fire. The Comcast repairman Jorge Rivera saw thick, black smoke force a woman to drop a young girl from the top floor of a Silver Spring apartment building,He pulled over, yanked the ladder off his truck and ran to rescue those still trapped by the fire

read more | digg story

Friday, December 05, 2008

Everything (basic) you’d like to know about social bookmarking - By Ken Yeung

My friend Ken Wrote a very interesting post today. The timing was right and I was looking for this topic. Read it here http://cli.gs/23pt1zExtract: Bookmarking is not about simple input of information. Attract bloggers or see which sites have been actively talking about a particular subject, then go search on sites like Del.icio.us or Digg or StumbleUpon and see what results come up.

read more digg story

Be a voice for Darfur : Addyourvoice.org needs your help

 

 

http://www.addyourvoice.org/ is seeking the help of real people to spread the word about Darfur.  What needs to happen in Darfur :

  • Protection of civilians from violence, starvation and disease
  • Sustainable peace for all Sudan
  • Justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators

Add Your Voice

Sign the petition asking President-elect Obama to keep his promise of "unstinting resolve" to end the genocide in Darfur.

Shama Hyder Rebrands to Clicktoclient

image

I met Shama Hyder on Twitter and for the first time IRL at SXSW 2008. Her mantra is to help small business learn "how to leverage the internet to get more clients and grow their business! She is very smart and personable and the sincerity glows from her. On her blog she writes great posts including

ThanksGiving recipes that you should read.

She has now rebranded her company to ClicktoClient and here is her note to all her friends:

Surprise! After The Launch is now Click To Client. This is the IDEAL case study in business evolution. For anyone who has ever struggled for perfection and found it in the process of just doing the best they can-this will resonate.

Over a year ago, I launched After The Launch as a single business owner. It was called After The Launch because I wanted to reach those people who had just launched their business and needed help marketing online…after the launch. You’re getting the picture here! = )

Flash forward to now- we are a FULL service online marketing firm (with full time employees!) serving well established offline businesses who want to get online, as well as new business owners who want to launch their first company online. In fact, all our clients are in a different phase of their business. What we do for all of them though is the same. We show them how to get clicks (online marketing training), we get clicks for them (SEO), and we show them how to turn those clicks into clients. Hence, Click To Client. Full service web marketing firm.

What changes? Well, our name, our brand, our look.

What doesn’t change? Out commitment to helping businesses leverage the internet for more profit, our content quality on this blog (well, it may get better!), our dedication to being a valuable company.

So, what do you think? let her know at http://clicktoclient.com/

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Waiting for Kathleen Parker to Twitter - WSJ and Washington post Talk about Twitter

The debate goes on whether Twitter is mainstream or a collection of eclectic individuals who have banded and bonded together. My friend and fellow blogger at Network Solutions Joe Loong wrote a post recently " Twitter: I was doing it wrong". At the risk of exposing my secret fetish for reading the print version of not one but 2 newspapers everyday - Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal i want to let you know that both thee papers had a Twitter article today.

1) Kathleen Parker starts off with a Quote "

"I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room."

-- Blaise Pascal"

Top take aways from Kathleen Parker's post in the Post are:

  • The Facebook generation has been sort of twittering for years
  • Serious twitter subscribers expect more than a mood update, I'm told, and presumably won't stick around long for less
  • Already, blogging is de rigueur for anyone seeking a wide audience or market share. Nearly every newspaper Web site now offers multiple, topic-specific blogs to which reporters, editors and columnists are expected to post.
  • For serious twitterers, there is additionally a commercial aspect. Building one's base, so to speak, eventually leads to possible marketing opportunities.

Since she wrote the post I became her 15th follower on Twitter and at the time of writing she has 18 followers without ever Twittering. She is @katheleenparker on Twitter . Miss Parker we are waiting for you to start using twitter or at least come to this blog and comment :) In the meantime she has already received some Tweet love and advice

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2) Wall Street Journal's Column the Mossberg Solution on the other hand has an article from Katie Boehret who started Tweeting on Sept 25th with the opening tweet

" Thinking about trying the new Chop't for lunch www.choptsalad.com " being a newbie who has used Twitter herself she has details on What? Why? where of Twitter. The applications you can use, privacy and also her take on Twitter's problems. I like her article . Congrats @kabster728 and many people can simply use your post as a tutorial.  Being on Twitter herself and tweeting frequently she has more tweet love and this is just a representation:

 

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@kabster728 at the time of writing this post has 160 followers and my guesstimate it will become 500 by the weekend at least. And since Katie is from DC she totally rocks !

Monday, December 01, 2008

Where will we go to when twitter is down?

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SixApart has acquired Pownce and will shut down Pownce and employ the Pownce team. yeah ! Human beings rule !  The Pownce team was great  and godo luck to them when they move to Six Apart and develop a killer app that you an use with your Vox blog :) and give Facebook some competition ( pure speculation on my part)

 

Where to find the Pownce folks:

leah Culver : leahculver.vox.com, Mike at mjmalone.vox.com, and Ariel atarielwaldman.vox.com. ( she rocks !) The Six Apart announcement can be found on their company blog.

Twitter folks who answered my question 'Where will we go to when twitter is down?":

webconsigliere: @shashib - back to AIM!

sonnygill: @shashib We'll go outside and breathe some fresh air ;)

mammaloves: @shashib I was lying in bed last night with insomnia wondering that same thing.

jarehart @shashib Pownce! Oh...wait..

bkmcae @shashib I've noticed twitter is hardly ever down anymore. Or maybe I'm not on it as much. Or maybe both

paulswansen: @shashib Home?

 

Pownce had some tools at :http://pownce.com/tools/ wonder if those companies will develop Twitter tools?

Shout out to  @igobydoc @mklopez @livecrunch with thanks for pointing me to http://twitter.com/downloads and http://twitter.com/downloads

 

Blog talk about Pownce:

ReadWriteWeb (Last week open source star Rael Dornfest sold his personal assistant startup Sandy to Twitter.)

Venturebeat (Pownce says it created export tools so people can send their archived updates to blogs and elsewhere. (Go here to generate your export file.))

techCrunch (Even Robert Scoble, who usually embraces social web services, hasn’t updated his account since July.)

Wired  '“We’re bittersweet about shutting down the service but we believe we’ll come back with something much better in 2009. We love the Pownce community and we will miss you all,” writes Culver."

Masahable We’re planning on doing great things with the help and expertise of the Pownce team, and can’t wait to see all the results of their hard work.”

Sunday, November 30, 2008

GreenLand votes for freedom in Freezing cold

 

Flickr Photo by Stml

After 300 years Greenland will become independent from Denmark. A large number of voters turned up despite heavy snow and temperatures of minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 F). Its good news but Greenland has to find new sources of income to finally be independent of Denmark, Minerals and Ols maybe its path to total independence.

Green land is the world's largest island 2,166,086 sq km with 81% ice capped. According to AFP reports " In a referendum on November 25, Greenland's voters overwhelmingly approved a proposal on self-rule. The new status will take effect in June 2009.

"Education is the key to ... our independence," says Jonathan Motzfeldt, the father of the semi-autonomy status Greenland obtained in 1979 and who headed the local government for 17 years".

Flickr Photo by Nick Russill

Interesting facts about Greenland:

  • Capital: Nuuk
  • Population : 56,000
  • Size: 2,166,086 sq. Km 3 Times the size of Texas.
  • Transport : no roads between towns, and travel is only possible by boats or planes,
  • Economy : The economy remains critically dependent on exports of fish and a substantial subsidy from the Danish Government, which supplies about half of government revenues.
  • The U.S. Air Force operates a ballistic missile early warning site at Thule air base, 700 miles (1,130 km) north of the Arctic Circle.
  • language: Greenlandic (East Inuit), Danish, English

I did not see this info updated on Wikipedia

 

Sources: CIA Hurriyet AFP

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The latest Economist vs Time who wins?

I admire the Economist. It presents a world view that I have enjoyed during various stages of my life in India, Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine and here in the US.
I collected my mail today and saw a very stark difference in the cover of the Time and the Economist. I will give the Time the benefit of doubt that maybe they intended to change the cover but could not due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Black Friday : Good luck with your shopping

I am not planning to do much shopping but a friend of mine said that he was going for a hard Drive Deal at office Depot 650GB that is going cheaply. The other deal was probably best Buy 42 inch TV for $599 I think. Network Solutions is selling domain names at $9.99 for Black Friday only. More details on the Network Solutions Blog.

Special coupon for our blog readers (for a limited time). Use the code OFFER00522 - at check out for 25% off all annual term Hosting and specific website/ hosting business packages at Network Solutions.  

Technorati Tags:

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Mumbai War Zone : Great photo from Vinu


IMG_5767, originally uploaded by Vinu.

Pictures speak louder than words. This is the picture that Blogger Vinu Ranganathan took from the operations around his house.

Helicopter Approaching Nariman Bldg

From Mumbai Blogger Arun Shabagh
Uploaded by ArunShanbhag on 27 Nov 08, 10.13PM EST.

Opinion: Obama's First Foreign Test

What will india do? Search "somewhere" For answers? - Follow hot pursuit across borders? "Pressure will mount for India to act in response to the Mumbai attacks. South Asia looks to be Barack Obama's first international test."

read more | digg story

Mumbai Bombay Terror: 24 hours Later


saw these on the same day, originally uploaded by Rex Chen.


Photos:

Hindustan Times Photo Gallery http://go.greatbon.us/nk26
AP Story on Business impact: http://go.greatbon.us/z489
Curry King's Eyewitness Account: http://go.greatbon.us/xr94
Residents of Bombay tweeting: http://icrontic.com/news/citizens-in-mumbai-asked-to-stop-tweetingFlickr Streams from people on the scene

New York Times : http://go.greatbon.us/2f24

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Bombay Blast Pics : Blogger posts to Flickr


IMG_5451, originally uploaded by Vinu.

One of the first pics appearing online from the Mumbai area are from this Indian Blogger http://vinu.wordpress.com and @vinu on Twitter. Many  other pics  http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mumbai+or+bombay&s=rec

If the phone lines are jammed then you can take this helpful info from @Gauravonomics great resources Mumbai Help bloghttp://tr.im/1jca & http://groundreport.com/ and @bobgourleyhttp://tinyurl.com/65gh69

India is still secure , life will go on as you will see at dawn so my advice to anyone traveling is not to reconsider travel plans. The country is very resilient and Bombay is very strong. The terrorists are trying to harm the economy by spreading fear and causing cancellations I think. I was there in July ( My parents live there)

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Photo Courtesy : Indian Express

I salute the Bombay Police who had 3 casualties : Hemant Karkare, the chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in the city, was killed during the attack.

http://ashokkamte.blogspot.com/ A tribute to officer Kamte

CNN advising twitter to keep up with the news in #Mumbai?? Wow... this is going mainstream... more mainstream..

Live Stream from IBN:CNN http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/video_streaming.php

How cool that Flickr upgraded Vinu's photo stream in a few hours so he can upload more

#mumbai JJ Hospital no. - 022 23735555 JJ Hospital Blood bank no. - 022 23739400‎

aeropolowoman: rt #mumbai US State Dept call center for americans concerned about u.s. citizen family/friends in mumbai 1-888-407-4747

#mumbai British Foreign Office help line in London 0207 0080000

Foreign Affairs 1-613-996-8885 from Canada, 1-800-387-3124 Elsewhere

US helpline 888-407-4747 Brazilian help line 9820686143 (C) CNN IBN FA 1-613-996-8885 from Canada, 1-800-387-3124 Elsewhere

 @Gauravonomics Indian blogger Amit Varma has a narrow escape from the Mumbai terrorist attacks http://tr.im/1jkn

Wiki Page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_November_2008_Mumbai_attacks

Now Public : http://www.nowpublic.com/tag/mumbai

New York Times : http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/mumbai-attacks-day-two/?partner=rss

Youtube :http://nl.youtube.com/results?uploaded=d&search_query=mumbai

Indian Express : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mumbai-under-attack-ats-chief-killed-80-die/390967/

Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AP75S20081126?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10112

paulkidd: Live feed from BBC news with coverage of Mumbaihttp://wwitv.com/a1/b3307.asx

#mumbai support India and dont cancel any plans in fact give bombay more of your business

picture of the terrorists:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotcompals/3061655921/

skynewsaust: NSW delegation caught in Mumbai attacks: A 20-person New South Wales government trade delegation has .. http://tinyurl.com/5kqj8d

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/26/indian-terror-shootings-i_n_146708.html

Barack Obama: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/26/obama_transition_statement_on.html?hpid=topnews

Meeting Imogen Heap at Pop!Tech and listening to the Pop!Tech Parrot

You can see by the number of blog posts on Pop!tech that the effect of Pop!tech is still with me. Imogen heap was awesome and she is so down to earth. She was nominated for the Grammy's and has a lot of hits ( I have to depend on my daughter for all my music knowledge)Check this video out from the Pop!Cast and don't cheat because watching it is important don't move the screen and just listen :) In the video she took a phrase from the audience and just composed a song on the fly and demoed her parrot . What an amazing talent - Imogen Heap  you rock and pop ! Here is my picture with a star on the closing day dinner Pop!Tech Day 3 Imogen Heap and Shashi Bellamkonda

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Network Solutions Black Friday Widget for all Black Friday Deals

I was happily drinking coffee in a San Francisco Starbucks and Talking to Geoff Livingston and Chris Carfi. Chris pulls out his Iphone and shows me a Cerado Widget. I have a "Aha " Moment and then we think of how to get feeds from Black Friday deals in one place whether on a website/blog or a phone. Thats how this website got created.

Read Network Solutions blog.
I am excited that Network Solutions is participating in the Black Friday frenzy and will be having a surprise sale. Definitely go to Network Solutions and check out the special prices for Black Friday . ( I will update this post when the deal is final). In the meantime I have a special coupon for our blog readers (for a limited time). Use the code OFFER00522 - at check out for 25% off all annual term Hosting and specific website/ hosting business packages.

read more digg story

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