Ready or Not? - Simplify Life If you could have a better week, month, year for a $200 investment, would you do it? Your home is your grounding point, the foundation from which all flows. Does it feel good? Tell HN: Our experience with Groupon For three years I managed a skydiving facility. In March of 2010 we chose to run a Groupon promotion. At the time I hadn't heard of Groupon, and frankly, not many others had. They were new and at the beginning of the discussion with our Groupon rep, we had no idea what to expect. Another skydiving facility in the area ran a promotion and sold something like 250 Groupons. IIRC it was a 15k jump for $129. 18 Ways to Earn Money From Crowdworking With the rapid rise of crowdsourcing over the last five years since the term was coined by Jeff Howe in Wired, there has been a lot of coverage on how individuals, organizations and businesses can implement the concept into their work. Last year there was a new conference (CrowdConf), a new consortium (Crowdsortium) and a myriad of companies that offered sites, tools and platforms to get more out of the Internet masses. But what about the worker? Since crowdsourcing is making such a visible impact on the way work is done, how can professionals and creatives benefit from the crowdsourcing model? Here are 18 ideas for participating on crowdsourcing sites for perks, prizes, and, yes, even income.
To Increase Sustainable Consumption, Show People What’s In It For Them This year at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, the concept of sustainable consumption took center stage. In partnership with Accenture, the WEF just released its report, "More With Less," which accurately pinpoints the systemic triggers, barriers and urgent need for action inherent in this necessary transition. At face value, sustainable consumption seems counterintuitive to growth, but the report identifies the extraordinary competitive and economic opportunities for businesses, whether catalyzed by resource scarcity, population growth, the burgeoning middle class, or changing consumer values. An area where there is still work to do, however, is the "how." Namely, how to better define and ingrain the value proposition sustainable consumption brings to consumers, and spur broader systemic change and adoption.
Is Groupon Bad For Small Businesses? Editor’s note: The following post is a response to our guest series taking a critical look at the daily deals industry. It is written by Vinicius Vacanti, CEO of Yipit, a daily deal aggregator that collects deals from more than 300 daily deal sites. If you watch the nightly news, you would assume there’s a murder on every block, and if you’ve been reading TechCrunch recently, you would assume Groupon is murdering a small business in every city. Given the hundreds of thousands of merchants who have run daily deals in the past year, it is inevitable that a few will have had bad experiences. 10 Innovative Materials To Look Out For In 2012 The development of new materials that have increased performance and functionality has become a major driver of innovation in recent years. According to the Industrial Technologies arm of the Research and Innovation department of the European Commission, it is estimated that 70% of all new product innovation is based on materials with new or improved properties. These emergent materials and their associated technologies are changing the way that architects and designers work and the way that we as consumers are engaging with the buildings and products that surround us. Dr Sascha Peters is an innovation consultant and materials specialist from Germany.
How it all started Lesley Pennington is first and foremost a mom, an entrepreneur, and a design enthusiast. A long time ago she studied Fine Art and Art History at the University of Toronto, and then worked as a graphic designer for a few years until she realised that she was never going to be a great designer. So she quit and started a business providing computer training to the design industry. It turned out to be a highly stimulating entrepreneurial experience that led to a very entrepreneurial job offer – from Apple Computer in Silicon Valley.
The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss — Entrepreneurship My first in-person meeting with Charlie Hoehn. Zion National Park, 2009. Charlie Hoehn first reached out to me in 2008 through Ramit Sethi. Shortly thereafter, I hired him as a part-time intern. Can't get no satisfaction: Why service companies can't keep their promises Service companies can’t show customers a tangible product. Since services are intangible, the only way to sell them is by making a promise to perform. But most service companies fail to keep their promises, leaving customers frustrated, confused and abused. Why do so many service companies fail to keep their promises to customers? Customers have become accustomed to being abused by the companies they buy services from.
The Last Viridian Note By Bruce Sterling Recent events have clearly established that the character of the times has changed. The Viridian Design Movement was founded in distant 1999. After the years transpiring – various disasters, wars, financial collapses and a major change in political tone – the world has become a different place. It remains only to close the Viridian episode gracefully, and to conclude with a few meditative suggestions. As I explained in the first Viridian speech, any design movement – social movements of any kind, really – should be designed with an explicit expiration date.
How To: Make Incredible Chocolate Mousse in Five Minutes, with Only Two Ingredients » Man Made DIY I'm not a huge dessert guy. I mean, I like sweets as much as anyone, but I don't crave them often, and would much rather waste the calories on salty, savory foods than baked goods. Well, except for one thing: pudding. Well, doughnuts, too, but those aren't really desserts. But pudding, mousses, chantilly creams, custards, and other whipped and airy delicious sauces in a bowl? Gimme please.