Thursday, June 21, 2012

Fledgling Fashion Designers Use Fund-Raising Site to Raise Capital - NYTimes.com

Fledgling Fashion Designers Use Fund-Raising Site to Raise Capital - NYTimes.com:

Their creation? The Versalette by {r}evolution apparel, a convertible piece of cloth ingeniously engineered with the aid of buttons and drawstrings to be transformed with sleight-of-hand wizardry into a dress, shirt, scarf, purse — in fact, a total of over 20 different functionalities.

For financing, the partners turned to Kickstarter, the online fund-raising site for creative projects.

The money poured in, blasting past their $20,000 goal to eventually reach $64,246 in the women’s self-designated 35-day offering. The 796 backers contributed anywhere from $5 for which they received a thank you video, to $500, scoring four Versalettes, a poster and a T-shirt. The sweet spot was $75, the threshold price at which the backers secured a Versalette. “It was ridiculous,” said Ms. Whitehead, 26. “I was refreshing 60 times a day probably.”

Raising capital online: The new thundering herd | The Economist

Raising capital online: The new thundering herd | The Economist

Crowdfunding is booming. A report by Massolution, a research firm, forecasts that $2.8 billion will be raised worldwide this year, up from $1.5 billion in 2011 and only $530m in 2009 (see chart 2). There are over 450 “crowdfunding platforms”, including four in China, up from under 100 in 2007, with Kickstarter America’s largest. This month Indiegogo, its closest rival (though global and with a broader mix of projects), secured the biggest chunk of venture capital so far for crowdfunding.

The effect of this has perhaps been most marked in the creative arts: around 10% of the films shown at the Sundance and Cannes festivals this year were crowdfunded, says Mr Strickler. Charity is benefiting, too. But America’s recent Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups (JOBS) Act is raising hopes that crowdfunding will also transform the way in which firms raise capital. Duncan Niederauer, the boss of NYSE Euronext, claims that, properly done, it “will become the future of how most small businesses are going to be financed”. Is the hype justified?

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Acxiom, the Quiet Giant of Consumer Database Marketing - NYTimes.com

Acxiom, the Quiet Giant of Consumer Database Marketing - NYTimes.com: -

Few consumers may have heard of Acxiom, a database marketer. But it has amassed the world’s largest commercial data trove about them, analysts say.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Video: peer-to-peer health care | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

Video: peer-to-peer health care | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project:

18% of internet users, or 13% of adults, have gone online to find others who might have health concerns similar to theirs. In this video, our Susannah Fox gives an overview of the power of peer-to-peer healthcare.

This 5-minute excerpt of Susannah Fox's Medicine 2.0'11 keynote gives an overview of the concept of peer-to-peer health care:

Monday, June 11, 2012

Many Voices of Sweden, via Twitter - NYTimes.com

Many Voices of Sweden, via Twitter - NYTimes.com


Under a government initiative, each week a different citizen is entrusted the country’s Twitter account, @Sweden, to post at will.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Facebook Meets Brick-and-Mortar Politics - NYTimes.com

Facebook Meets Brick-and-Mortar Politics - NYTimes.com:

"To be sure, Facebook, Twitter and blogging are truly revolutionary tools of communication and expression that have brought so many new and compelling voices to light. At their best, they’re changing the nature of political communication and news. But, at their worst, they can become addictive substitutes for real action. How often have you heard lately: “Oh, I tweeted about that.” Or “I posted that on my Facebook page.” Really? In most cases, that’s about as impactful as firing a mortar into the Milky Way galaxy. Unless you get out of Facebook and into someone’s face, you really have not acted. And, as Syria’s vicious regime is also reminding us: “bang-bang” beats “tweet-tweet” every day of the week."

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Older adults and internet use | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

Older adults and internet use | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project:

As of February 2012, one third (34%) of internet users age 65 and older use social networking sites such as Facebook, and 18% do so on a typical day. By comparison, email use continues to be the bedrock of online communications for seniors. As of August 2011, 86% of internet users age 65 and older use email, with 48% doing so on a typical day.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Big Data’s Parallel Universe Brings Fears, and a Thrill - NYTimes.com

Big Data’s Parallel Universe Brings Fears, and a Thrill - NYTimes.com


The world’s bank of digital information is growing at a rate of five trillion bits a second, and there’s a lot going on inside that we don’t know about.