Independent Analysis: AI, SaaS, and Revenue Growth Strategy

10 year old cub scout who is selling PopCorn to help feed hungry kids through Feeding America. He was entrepreneurial and created a website PopCornforKids.org . Beth Kanter asks "What advice would you offer this budding ten-year philanthropist? Is there a merit badge that needs to be on the list so your nonprofit can be prepared for social media?"I am also thrilled that the kid used ImageCafe Network Solution's Website builder that I product managed before becoming the Social Media Swami :) read more | digg story

My son loves trains and today we were watching this video. COmpare this to the Washington DC metro and realize how spoitl we are. In Bombay the traisn carry 7k passengers on a train that was built for 1.4 k passengers and yet there are never 10 minute delays. In DC 10 minute delays measn the trains are on time :)

I was reading Mukund Mohan's post on Buzz Gain   and found the stats very interesting: 43% of BlogWorldExpo attendees  are users of Twitter.  ( 43% female and 57% male) 2848 photos (as of last night) were shared on Flickr, Facebook, Zooomr and SmugMug Read the rest of the post here  http://news.buzzgain.com/?p=51

Guy Kawasaki is one of the most down to earth guys when you meet him in person.I met him previously in Miami and Charlotte where we had several impromptu tweet-ups with bloggers and twitterati and Guy joined in and joked and added a lot to the conversation. I missed his keynote and want to thank him for the interview the gave Network Solutions on tips for Small Business.

Cross posted from : SolutionsArePower Everytime I give out cards , I raise eyebrows, For speaking opportunities the organizers call me back just to confirm that I am not playing a prank on them with my title Social Media Swami of Network Solutions. The story is that I moved from Product Management to setup this listening post in the Social Media for Network Solutions. Now there is no precedence and I pondered on what the title would be. So the first step we took was to ask our employees , now we didn’t do it in a official email all employees way but started spreading the word through friends and “microwaving lunch” conversations. Here is the entire list of submssions. CPO, Chief Propaganda Officer Director of Social Networking Development Director of Social Media Development Alternative Media Director / Manager Bang Bang director Blogmaster Buzzmaster General Director of Social Media Awareness Director of Social Media Strategy NetSoulMan New Media Participation Manager New Social Media...

Blog World Expo 2008 Liz Strauss And Mari Smith Originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda At the Blog World Expo I got this rare picture. i thought I knew only one fantastic tall blonde 6 foot heart of gold lady Liz Strauss and the at Blog World Expo 2007 I met Mari Smith and here they are - Tallest women at blog World Expo and both with a heart of Gold. It was awesome to meet both. Liz for the 4th time and Mari for the first time.

Bwe08 : Mike Shinoda and Shashi Bellamkonda Originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda The story of this picture is that Mike Shinoda actually took this picture of both of us with my camera. What a great sport. After his keynote speech he had a huge line of fans waiting to meet him. I was almost the last and since we didnt see anyone else who could take the picture Mike said he could take it an is an expert at it. And he is ! Just look at the picture. :) He gave the Keynote at the Blog World Expo along with Tim Ferriss and Rohit Bhargava Bwe08 : Mike Shinoda and Shashi Bellamkonda

I love South West Air and enjoy flying them. Today I think there was a screw loose in the giant clog that operates the airline and for a period of time turned from a raving fan to a ranting fan. I am blogging about this for 2 reasons - maybe there is a lesson learned and also that raving fans will expect things to never go wrong. I arrived at the airport about 2.40 minutes earlier found my gate and settled down to do some work and converse on Twitter. Chatted with a lady who sat next to me about how good South West was. About an hour before the flight @stevenfisher came and we sat chatting. about 30 minutes before the flight I went up to the counter to ask if I can use miles to upgrade. The counter person saw my boarding card and said the biz class seats were all full. Now 15 minutes before the flight out of the corner of my eye I see flurry of activity from a group of people saying 'They changed the gate and didn't tell us" I look at Steve who is like " What else...

Bringing 600 to 700 people together is a gigantic task. Peter Corbett of iStrategylabs did it at the Avenue , 649 New York Ave in DC. With 3 floors it was enough space except for the din of at least 200 to 300 conversations going on at the same time. I am used to that since I was born and brought up in India. At a networking event I try to say hello to every one who exchanges eye contact and usually it has always ends in a good connection. At the same time I like to spend time talking and getting to know the person so I have at least one takeaway about the person or what they said. I met Steven Fisher, Jessie X ( always a pleasure to meet her), Jill Foster ( roving journalist at the DNC and utterli caster and finance at http://www.jillforster.name ), Rachelle lacroix ( She wants to be the top Rachelle lacroix on Google so help with link love) Ryan Sphan ( Sleep.fm), Hank Dearden ( Capcabal.net) , Anthony Lafauce ( FaceTime Strategy), Shirin Aka 'Digital Sista", Paula of the Pa...

By popular demand I will be doing my first live ustream today. URL : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/solutionsarepower Hope to see you there. Details of the event. hanks for the support for this event from: 1piazza.com SomewhatFrank.com EastCoastblogging.com DC Web Women Trademarks are an important business asset. Businesses rely on their trademarks to identify their products or services and to distinguish them from their competitors. Trademarks must be protected or they may be lost. The loss of a trademark denies consumers the opportunity to identify preferred brands and destroys the owner’s investment in its asset. Come out to Network Solutions to meet our CEO, Roy Dunbar, and talk to intellectual property experts from Ballard Spahr about tips and best practices for names, brands and trademarks for your products and services.

Please read Mike Chapman's post on how you can help the Texas Hurricane victims. Connie Reece created a special page on Chipin where you can donate http://austinfoodbank.chipin.com/capital-area-food-bank or you can use the widget below to start your donation now.

This poster appeared on my cube today. Often my friends and colleagues at Network Solutions will play a prank on me ( They know I am a good sport :) ) This picture is several years old and if I remember right was taken in Nainital, UP in India and found its way to one of my friends probably on the design team. I really appreciate their enthusiasm in providing this strong message that "Anyone can Blog." including me :). The second message is that I seem so comfortable in "grassroots" Do you think pranks actually help a community feeling ? What kind of prank did you experience ?  Of course the prank I wrote about in a previous post needed a lot of time :) http://readythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/02/cubicle-pranks-and-productivity.html

Just got alerted to TweetRush by @robynjay http://robynjay.wikispaces.com/ . Enter your Twitter Id and it tells you how many times do you tweet a day and a weekly average.

In the Web 2.0 world we must learn from the experience of those who have  implemented a successful strategy. What better example of success using social media than the campaign of Barack Obama. When Brent Leary told me this and mentioned his presentation-turned-into-website http://www.barack20.com   , I could not wait to get back to my desk and check it out. I met Brent Leary   first at the Small Business Technology Summit in NYC in February of this year.( See my prev post ) Very impressive speaker and has a great knowledge of CRM and how these tools can be used by businesses. Brent also has his own Radio show BusinessTechnologyRadio . In observing and studying the Barack Obama campaign Brent saw that a parallel can be implemented by Small Business owners. his presentation Barack Obama's Social Media Lesson to Small Businesses is availablel on the website Barack20.com and also on on slideshare.net. It is freely downloadable. I remember Brent used the word " Google Quoti...

Monica Bhide is a DC area author and food lover who writes food and travel articles for several International and US newspapers. http://mbhide.typepad.com/about.html . I met her at Indique heights a few weeks ago at a gathering to welcome Sanjeev Kapoor a TV celebrity Chef and well know author of several cookery books in India. Monica was looking forward to her article '48 hours in Mumbai" appearing in the National Geographic Traveler in October. The October Issue of National Geographic Traveler has come out today and has some fantastic pictures of Bombay ( aka Mumbai) Online at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/photos/mumbai0810/mumbai_gallery.html > When you have a chance please read the article and provide feedback here or on Monica's blog http://mbhide.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/48-hours-in-mum.html   On another note I was reading the National Geographic magazine today and it has an extensive article ' Fast Lane to the Future" on the G...

My daughter alerted me to a blurb in the print edition of Popular Science on Twitter. This was the first time I had heard of @timer. If you DM timer , timer will tweet you back with a reminder. Here is how the Timer website explains the process : Timer is a Twitter bot that helps you set an alarm for things you need to remember. Want to give it a try? It’s easy: If you’re not already a Twitter user, register for a free account. Add timer as your friend. Send a direct message to timer. If you’re sending a direct message via SMS/Twitterific, use the format below (if you’re using Twitter’s direct message interface, you can leave off the d timer bit. More info on direct messages can be found here.): d timer [# of minutes until reminder] [your message] Example: d timer 60 check parking meter (will remind you to drop a quarter in 60 minutes) Note: 5 minutes is the minimum amount of time that you can set. In addition, if you forget to put a time...

Kiruba Shankar @kiruba is compiling a list of Indian CEOs who microblog for an article he is writing.. See the list at http://cerebrate.in/wiki/index.php?title=Indian_CEOs_who_twitter Who Qualifies CEOs of Indian origin. They could either be in India or abroad. Expat CEOs of companies based in India. (example: CEO of Hyundai India) Size of companies doesn't matter. Startups with employee size 1 are as good as Microsoft. CXO's are in too. Top mgmt folks who are COO, CTO, CMO, CIO are good. Founders of organizations (who may not have a CEO title) are good too. (Example, Vijay Anand, Founder, Proto.in I am glad some of them are in my contacts including my good friend Mukund Mohan

Thats a tall order explaining Web 2.0 for the masses. Sarah Cooley did a good job on her first post at http://www.whatsitallaboutweb.com/ . She takes you through the basics and newbies to Twitter will love it. Great job Sarah. How would you explain WEb 2.0 to the masses? What tools should be the starting toolset for novices? Head on over to her blog and give her feedback.

I was thrilled to read the Washington Post magazine Date Lab today http://tinyurl.com/63hxcr . Both the subjects listen to NPR. Then after the date Jay loses her card (oops !) and luckily for him Mary sends him a FaceBook message. Pity they are both not on Twitter. Of course it's all good - otherwise they would have spent the entire date Twittering to their followers !

Just realized the ways to generate WOM and Buzz are limitless. Bottom line if you work near NYC and have a few minutes to spare you may want to walk On Tuesday at noon Eastern to the Kodak sign in New York City’s Times Square (on side of Marriott Marquis hotel). More details http://scobleizer.com/2008/09/12/use-twitter-or-friendfeed-and-win-a-new-seagate-drive/ Well even if you don;t win the drive it will be good to say "Hi" to Robert Scoble. He is a nice guy.The top of the post says that SeaGate is a sponsor for the blog so thats transparent enough. For those who don't win I hope Robert has arranged for Donuts or hot dogs.

I met some real people last night at DCConcierge's relaunch party at Spaces . I was enjoying myself so much that i did not take out my customary camera and shoot tons of pictures. I let Nahum do that, after all he is a master of photography. J Photo courtesy Jared  Goralnik( head honcho of a cool timesaving tool - AwayFind ) who took some great pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancingwithwords/2849381457/ . I talked to Cheryl Taragin, Paul Worsham, Jim long (newmediajim), Sam Gonsalves,Rick Dassler,  Dean Hua, Hank Dearden, Jimmy Gardner, Shirin "digital Sista" , Amanda Sena , Aaron Brazell, Anthony Lafauce and many other wonderful folks. Missed meeting Paul SIngh, Nick O Neil and Ryan Moede.   DC Concierge is a great concept and I am happy for Shana. I only hope she comes to the "burbs' sometimes specially when we have a networking event in Herndon Like this one : http://blog.networksolutions.com/2008/network-solutions-to-host-proga...

The Hurricane Information Center is a volunteer-driven effort that's pulling together a number of widgets containing maps, user-generated content, news and government alerts related to Hurricane Ike.I am glad Network Solutions sponsored the hosting for the Hurricanewiki.org which can be used for any future hurricanes too. read more | digg story

A few months ago we had the Tweeterboard that had its own moments of glory. Becky @B_E_X tipped me off to Twitter Grader. Go to http://twitter.grader.com/ and enter your Twitter user id and it will give you a score. My Twitter id is @shashib and Iscore 98/100 and my rank among top user is 252. The Twitter Grade measures the relative power of a Twitter user. It is calculated as a percentile score. A grade of 79 means that the user scores higher than 79 percent of the other user profiles that have been graded. Your grade is calculated using a combination of factors including: * The number of followers you have * The power of this network of followers * The pace of your updates * The completeness of your profile * ...a few others.     Check it out and post your score in the comments below.

A few weeks ago I met Danielle Gaines and we chatted about Social Media and how she decided to take the summer off. Now if anyone takes the summer off I presume they head to the beach and relax. Danielle used the time to continue her work for an organization Reconnecting The Circle ("RTC"). Reconnecting The Circle ("RTC") encourages people to learn about Native American people and cultures, and seeks to develop a more meaningful and complete perspective on Indian Country. (e.g., the collective reference for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.) I applaud her for the good work and now she is actively looking for a Business Analyst position and she has loads of experience as a User interface wiz. I am thrilled that she has her own blog now http://reconnectingthecircle.blogspot.com/ . Good luck Danielle ! ( seen on the left in the picture below)

Meeting Craig Stotlz is like a lucky charm . He blogs at http://2ohreally.wordpress.com/ . I had the previlege of talking to Robert W. McGlotten From the Department of Business and Economic Development . The Department has a easy to remember URL Choosemaryland,org. I took a quick Qik Interview and he was very sporting to consent. I am impressed.   Mark Glazer, Rick Harris of the MD tech Council are always great to talk to. Mitch Arnowitz is a awesome guy. I met new Twitter friends  @SarahMorgan, @RFerrier, @creativemichael . My good friend @prestovivace. Jeremy Epstein was an awesome speaker. I discovered that Gabriela Cadena is a fellow member of the DC Media Makers. A whole list is coming tomorrow. If I missed the opportunity to say "Hi" to you I hope you will reach out and say hello email Shashib (at) networksolutions [.] com Twitter (@shashib) http://twitter.shashi.name Facebook Http://fb.shashi.name Linkedin Http://linkedin.shashi.name...

Jeremy Epstein Started the show with some great real life examples at the Tech Council of Maryland’s FIRST Web 2.0 seminar called Growing Your Business Through Social Media . As I started to write this post I saw an awesome recap of the event by Robin Ferrier at the Capital Communicators Group Blog . Her notes were accurate and so I am reproducing them here : -- More important to listen to what others say about you than what you say about you. -- Listen first. Find out who is talking about you. Where talking about you. What saying. -- When people realize you're listening, goes from frustration for customer to willingness to provide feedback. The other things that I recollect from the panel talk are: I wore pink and that helped to show support for the Komen for Cure program :) Companies may debate where Social media should live - Marketing, product or PR Engagement not sales should be the goal of social media Blogger Relations tab...

The old adage is that you learn everyday of your life from birth except for a short break in school.( I think George bernard Shaw said this) At a Podcamp Philly 2008 session "Personal Branding" that Matt J McDonald I got a great hint from Oliver Picher on Linkedin. If you notice most Linkedin profiles have the words "My Company", "My Blog" , "My Portfolio" in the section labeled "Websites". If you want to customize this you can edit it by changing the drop down to "Other" which gives you an option to add your own text label to the URL. See how I did it on my profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/sbellamkonda Why is this important. if your profile gets spidered it may be lost in a sea of "My Blogs" versus you can use the text box albeit limited space to think of a innovative /catchy name for your blog

We are doing a full fledged interview with Chris for SolutionsArePower  . I was thrilled to meet Chris again in Philadelphia and as we hung out waiting for the doors to open I used my N95 to get a quick interview. I have a kid going to college in a couple of years ( yes I am sure I don't look like that) and I am reading up and listening to Chris Penn's Podcasts at http://www.financialaidpodcast.com/

I have been a subscriber for this newsletter that comes out 3 times a day. It is a collection of forthcoming story ideas and projects that reporters, bloggers, free lance writers are looking for. Last week one of the requests that caught my attention was a  Cheese making woman from the DC area or PA. I twittered the request and in a span of 5 minutes I had a couple of leads. I passed them on to the reporter and hope she connected with them.   You should check out the site and also subscribe to the newsletter whether it is for you, your company or if you are looking for people to interview for a project/article.   Peter Shankman Tell a friend: www.helpareporter.com http://www.shankman.com http://www.twitter.com/skydiver for urgent queries

As I  reached Podcamp Philly the doors were not open yet but a lot of folks had arrived and waiting and getting ready to start the knowledge gaining.  Whitney Hofmann @ldpodcast was ready, energetic and welcoming. Met Chris Penn and took a video Interview of him uploaded here http://qik.com/video/278401 . He is awesome and writes the Financial aid podcast. Also met Suki Fuller, Jonny Goldstein, Li Evans, Geoff Livingston, Chris Abraham, Thursday Brahm,  and many more favorites Other great people I met: Cynthia Wallace : http://www.mediastory.us Christophile Konstas : Http://www.youtube.com/christophile Michelle Wolverton @chelpixie : http://chelpixie.com/blog/ Adam Weiss : http://www.podcastconsultant.net Geri Weltz : http://www.beyond.com (She will be starting a wiki on defining social networks for novices) I am writing for her to get on Twitter. Nancy Dowd: http://themwordblog.blogspot.com . She is interested in hearing your ideas on what kind of podc...

Docstoc launches MyDocs and Sync, the fastest way to preview your documents, and the easiest way to keep your documents sync’d online.If you have a press release, white paper or any content that will be useful for others you should upload it here. You can then embed these documents all over the web. Try it out at http://www.docstoc.com read more | digg story

Use these instructions with caution. I am not an expert but just giving you my experience of the problem and how i solved it. IF experts see this post please add your comments to make this better. Problem: I have a HP5237 Laptop that I bought from Costco over 2 years ago. All of sudden yesterday the laptop would not boot and showed me a "blue screen". As my laptop was set to auto reboot on recovery all  I could quickly grab  from the screen was " Bad_pool_caller. I did figure out how to set it not to auto reboot but that's another story. In the interim I did consider moving to an macbook and would have done so id i had not solved the problem. Solution: All the forums I checked advised using the recovery disks to reinstall the operating system. I spent a day searching for my recovery disks and used them. There is a way to do this without the recovery disks which is to hit the "F11" button as soon as you switch on the laptop. This does the sam...

Did you say Bill Gates ? I thought so too but Forbes magazine has a story that makes interesting reading and after a straight 13 years of being the world's richest man Bill Gates has moved to give way to Warren Buffet. Way to go " oracle of Omaha. REad the full story here http://tinyurl.com/5otuoq .