broadstuff

Consider the following 3 facts:

- I now own a tablet and a smartphone, so the dedicated mobile site is irrelevant for me. I am far from alone.

- Mobile sites by and large have lower functionality and a crapper user experience

- There seems to be an increasing number of sites recently wanting to point me to their mobile site (and i know from previous experience once you are there you are stuck - there is usually no way back)

Spot the contradiction.

It seems odd to me that just as these sites are becoming less necessary, they are increasing. Clearly the time lag of consultants suggesting companies adopt mobile assets is greater than the development paths of mobile hardware

How to make startups attractive to women according to Penelope Trunkwriting in VentureBeat. The argument is that startups are not for women,and women don't need start ups:

The problem is that the funding world is set up to reward behaviors of 22-year-old guys. Living on very little salary, working very long hours, making your whole life your company, traveling at the drop of a hat — these are things people do when they do not have families. It’s a life that guys who are not even in a startup choose because it’s fun for guys. Women don’t choose that kind of life.

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The thing is, women in their late 20s are the happiest they will be in their whole life. They are very happy. So I don’t think they are walking around wishing they could do a startup. I don’t think they care.

To make it more attractive they suggest 3 points.

1. Pay more money at the beginning. Women want a good house, good clothes and a cushion for emergencies. This is not sexist, this is basic research, and yes there are exceptions, but we have to talk in generalizations if we are going to talk about women as a group. Women shop more than men; women get more pleasure from buying stuff than men do. Whatever. Who cares? Women earn more than men do, so it’s a moot point. Except in the VC world, where the entrepreneur has to “bootstrap.” Women don’t like that. So VCs would have to give up on the bootstrapping mentality if they want women to do startups.

2. VCs would need to give up on speed. They would need to decide that their rate of return on investment can be slower, and they would need to learn how to invest in companies that could go a little slower. Such companies would want to take short breaks during summer vacation, for example, when the kids are home. VCs would have to be more patient, with a family-friendly policy toward growth and exits.

3. VCs would need to raise their own funds differently. You say, “Slow and easy? Then it’s not a startup!” And that might be true. But if we are really missing so many opportunities because women’s ideas are not getting through to market, then the market is probably so desperate for these ideas that VCs can afford to let them develop more slowly. And if someone would get to the market faster, well, then we are not really missing out on having women’s ideas in the status quo, are we?

Women must find their own way:

And in the meantime, let’s stop pretending that the stuff of startups is the stuff that most women want for their lives. Women should use a more current blueprint for their lives—one that takes into account what is important to women rather than what is important to men.

Questions in my mind:

- VC's have not so far felt the need to worry about female VC's, what will tip them over?

- Is the 22 year old male entrepreneur the only fundable model?

Answers on a postcard.

The algorithms of predicting red light runners- the telltale signs are not what you think - MIT:

To predict red light behavior, MIT’s car geeks looked into all sorts of variables. Where you or I might think, “tricked out ride … tinted windows … young driver … we’re in New Jersey … yep, he’s going through the light,” MIT tracked more concrete data and found it could confidently separate potential violators from compliant cars by tracking vehicle deceleration (or lack thereof) and distance from the traffic signal. For all this to work, says MIT professor Jonathan How, the algorithms need a new generation of smart cars with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, or short range transponders that constantly report location, speed, direction, rate of acceleration, and brake status.

Another interesting application of the Internet Of Moving Things, but how wellmight is compare to good old enforcement?

It’s unclear how many lives would be saved each year if the red-light running algorithm makes its way into a future generation of cars with vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The most would be 700; last year there 32,788 US traffic fatalities. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are 2.3 million car crashes at intersections each year, with 7,000 deaths; 700-plus fatalities are the result of running red lights. But no predictive model is 100% accurate, drivers won’t always listen to good advice, and half the deaths are probably also logged as drunken driving or no-seat-belt fatalities as well. (Fatalities, like success, have many fathers.) Cut DUI fatalities with tougher enforcement and you’ll take a big bite out of red light fatalities; the MIT algorithm ought to cut the toll still further.

Maye its just me, but I wish it was connected to an anti-car missile, so the bad guys buys it every time....

Remember Whuffie? It was gong to allow you to tell the cowboys from the genuine service providersand extract favours for being a good customer. Downside is when the service providers turn it back on the customers - CNet

Dentist Stacy Makhnevich requires patients to sign a form handing her copyright to any online reviews. Should the reviews not glow in the dark, she allegedly has them removed for breach of copyright. This seems entrepreneurially nifty, if legally shifty.

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Organizations, though, can be formed on both sides of an argument. Indeed, a body called Public Citizen has taken out a class action suit against Makhnevich.

The suit claims that not only did the dentist make use of the legally questionable Medical Justice forms, but that she charged an unhappy patient $100 a day because he wrote negative reviews (about her billing practices, not her dentistry) and refused to take them down.

It seems that the two sites where negative reviews were posted--Yelp and DoctorBase--also refused to have the reviews removed

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Social Biz fundis say your brand is what your customers think of you - seems like also you may be what Brands think of you...

Your purchases as eBay Ratings are the New CRM. In spades. We told ya.