10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn From Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein has long been considered a genius by the masses. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher, author, and is perhaps the most influential scientists to ever live.

Einstein has made great contributions to the scientific world, including the theory of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the prediction of the deflection of light by gravity, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation, to name a few of his scientific contributions.

Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”

He’s published more than 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. Einstein is considered the father of modern physics and is probably the most successful scientist there ever was.

10 Amazing Lessons from Albert Einstein:

1. Follow Your Curiosity
   
   

   “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

   
   What piques your curiosity? I am curious as to what causes one person to succeed while another person fails; this is why I’ve spent years studying success. What are you most curious about? The pursuit of your curiosity is the secret to your success.
2. Perseverance is Priceless
   

   “It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

   
   Through perseverance the turtle reached the ark. Are you willing to persevere until you get to your intended destination? They say the entire value of the postage stamp consist in its ability to stick to something until it gets there. Be like the postage stamp; finish the race that you’ve started!
3. Focus on the Present
   
   

   “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

   
   My father always says you cannot ride two horses at the same time. I like to say, you can do anything, but not everything. Learn to be present where you are; give your all to whatever you’re currently doing.
   
   Focused energy is power, and it’s the difference between success and failure.
4. The Imagination is Powerful
   
   

   “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

   
   Are you using your imagination daily? Einstein said the imagination is more important than knowledge! Your imagination pre-plays your future. Einstein went on to say, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” Are you exercising your “imagination muscles” daily, don’t let something as powerful as your imagination lie dormant.
5. Make Mistakes
   
   

   “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

   
   Never be afraid of making a mistake. A mistake is not a failure. Mistakes can make you better, smarter and faster, if you utilize them properly. Discover the power of making mistakes. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, if you want to succeed, triple the amount of mistakes that you make.
6. Live in the Moment
   
   

   “I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”

   
   The only way to properly address your future is to be as present as possible “in the present.”
   
   You cannot “presently” change yesterday or tomorrow, so it’s of supreme importance that you dedicate all of your efforts to “right now.” It’s the only time that matters, it’s the only time there is.
7. Create Value
   
   

   “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

   
   Don’t waste your time trying to be successful, spend your time creating value. If you’re valuable, then you will attract success.
   
   Discover the talents and gifts that you possess, learn how to offer those talents and gifts in a way that most benefits others.
   
   Labor to be valuable and success will chase you down.
8. Don’t Expect Different Results
   
   

   “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

   
   You can’t keep doing the same thing everyday and expect different results. In other words, you can’t keep doing the same workout routine and expect to look differently. In order for your life to change, you must change, to the degree that you change your actions and your thinking is to the degree that your life will change.
9. Knowledge Comes From Experience
   
   

   “Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

   
   Knowledge comes from experience. You can discuss a task, but discussion will only give you a philosophical understanding of it; you must experience the task first hand to “know it.” What’s the lesson? Get experience! Don’t spend your time hiding behind speculative information, go out there and do it, and you will have gained priceless knowledge.
10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better
    
    

    “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

    
    To put it all in simple terms, there are two things that you must do. The first thing you must do is to learn the rules of the game that you’re playing. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s vital. Secondly, you must commit to play the game better than anyone else. If you can do these two things, success will be yours!

Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along!

웹 스퀘어 세상

출처: http://oojoo.tistory.com/413

Web 2.0의 바람이 잠자들고 있는 요즘 모바일 열풍과 함께 PC 중심의 웹에서 어플리케이션 중심의 모바일로 관심의 축이 이동하고 있다. 하지만, 웹은 마치 돛단배처럼 모바일 바람을 타고 웹 스퀘어(Web2)으로 점프업하고 있다. 이미 웹은 플랫폼이 된지 오래이며 그 어떤 서비스, 심지어 어플리케이션까지 웹을 OS 삼아 설치되고 동작되고 있다. 심지어 웹을 통해 제공되지 않으면 접근성이 완전하게 보장되지 못할만큼 웹의 영향력은 하루가 다르게 커져가고 있다. 웹 스퀘어 세상의 변화상을 살펴본다.

◈ OS를 뛰어넘는 웹어플

1990년대초 컴퓨터가 보급될 당시만 해도 컴퓨터에 탑재된 운영체제가 무척 중요했다. 같은 MS DOS를 사용하고 있더라도 도스 5.0이냐 6.0이냐에 따라서 사용 가능한 프로그램의 종류가 다르곤 했다. 또한, MS 도스가 아닌 DR 도스나 IBM 도스의 경우에는 서로 호환이 되지 않기도 했다. 물론 윈도우라는 운영체제가 출시되면서 윈도우 3.1, 윈도우 95, 윈도우 98 등 다양한 버전에 따라 역시 사용 가능한 소프트웨어와 다르곤 했다. 하지만, 10여년이 지난 지금 우리는 컴퓨터에 설치된 운영체제에 그다지 관심을 가지지 않는다. 윈도우 XP든 비스타이든 윈도우7이든 그다지 중요하지 않다. 이유는 어차피 운영체제에 따라 사용 가능한 소프트웨어가 크게 달라지지 않기 때문이다. 게다가 컴퓨터를 이용한 컴퓨팅 작업 대부분이 어차피 WWW이기 때문에 WWW을 사용하는데 무리가 없다면 컴퓨터의 하드웨어 사양이나 운영체제는 중요하지 않다.

우리는 컴퓨터 사용의 대부분을 인터넷을 사용하는데 소비하고 있다. 컴퓨터를 켜고 먼저 하는 일은 웹브라우저를 열고 새로 도착한 메일을 확인하고, 최신 뉴스를 보고, 검색을 한다. 이렇게 WWW을 사용하는 시간이 길어질수록 윈도우에 설치된 다양한 소프트웨어를 사용하기보다는 웹브라우저를 열고 웹을 사용하는 일이 더 많아지게 되었다. 상황이 이렇다보니 웹을 OS(운영체제)삼아 다양한 기능을 제공하는 서비스, 소프트웨어들이 웹에서 제공되고 있다. 이것을 가리켜 웹어플, 웹위젯이라고 한다. 웹의 기술적인 제약상 OS에서 사용하는 소프트웨어만큼의 사용성과 UI를 보여주진 못하지만, 웹의 무한 확장성, 호환성을 이용한 가벼운 UI와 간편한 사용성을 웹어플들이 지원하고 있다.

이처럼 OS를 뛰어넘어 웹OS로서의 역할을 할 수 있었던 기술적 배경은 RIA 덕분이다. 리치 인터넷 어플리케이션(Rich Internet Application; RIA)은 PC 상에서 구동되는 소프트웨어의 복잡한 조작과 뛰어난 사용성을 보장해주는 웹 어플리케이션을 말한다. 웹브라우저에서도 PC용 소프트웨어만큼 강력한 사용성을 가져다 주기 위한 기술이 비약적으로 발전하면서 웹은 OS처럼 동작할 수 있게 되었다. 웹이 OS가 되면서 얻게 된 장점은 PC에 설치하는 OS가 더 이상 중요하지 않게 되었다는 점이다. 게다가 웹브라우저를 사용할 수 있는 그 어떠한 종류의 기기에서든 사용이 가능하다는 폭넓은 호환성과 확장성도 웹 OS가 주는 장점이다. 웹을 OS 삼아 동작되는 다양한 종류의 웹어플, 웹위젯 덕분에 많은 IT 서비스 업체들은 PC 뿐만 아니라 스마트폰과 넷북 등 다양한 종류의 디지털 기기를 대상으로 웹 서비스를 제공할 수 있게 되었다.

웹에서 즐길 수 있는 다양한 구글의 웹어플들

◈ 웹 서비스간의 매시업

RIA의 발전과 함께 웹 2.0이 성장한 이후, 웹 서비스들은 서로간에 연대하고 통합되면서 진화하고 있다. 서로 동떨어져 존재하던 서비스들이 서로 연결되고 있는 것이다. 마치 웹의 초기에 하이퍼링크로 웹에 존재하던 페이지들이 서로 연결되었던 것처럼 서비스간에 서로 연결되며 새로운 웹 세상을 만들어가고 있다. 웹 스퀘어 세상에서는 서비스간에 상호 작용한다. 구글의 지도는 구글만이 사용하지 않는다. 오픈 API라는 기술을 이용해 구글 지도는 전 세계의 모든 서비스 사업자들에게 열려 있다. 이렇게 열린 구글 지도는 다른 서비스들과 서로 엮여가며 더 나은 서비스로 발전하고 있다. 구글지도를 이용해 여행 정보를 제공하는 윙버스나 부동산 정보를 제공하는 하우징맵스 등이 매시업 서비스의 대표적인 예이다.

기존의 웹 서비스들은 서로 단순하게 링크만 되어 있을 뿐 데이터간 상호 연계를 통한 상호 작용의 서비스까지 발전하지는 못했다. 하지만, 웹2.0의 등장과 함께 매시업 서비스들이 주목을 받고 있다. 서비스간에 긴밀한 데이터 연동은 1+1 = 2가 아닌 1+1 = 무한대의 확장 효과를 만들어내고 있다. 뭉쳐야 산다라는 상생과 협력의 서비스가 주는 가치를 말해주고 있다. 플리커라는 사진 저장 서비스는 플리커에 저장된 사진을 플리커가 아닌 외부에서도 가져다가 사용할 수 있도록 데이터를 오픈하고 있다. 이러한 플리커의 정책으로 인하여 자체적으로 이미지 서버를 운영할만한 여력이 없는 인터넷 서비스들이 플리커와 연계한 서비스를 제공하고 있다. 국내의 미투데이라는 네이버의 SNS도 플리커에 사진을 올려두고 이 사진을 미투데이에서 볼 수 있도록 해주고 있다. 플리커는 이와 같이 데이터를 오픈함으로써 플리커를 이용한 외부의 인터넷 사이트들이 성장할수록 플리커도 동반 성장하게 되는 상생의 생태계를 만들었다.

미투데이에서 업로드한 사진이 플리커에 등록되어 서로 연계된다.

심지어 최근 주목받는 웹트렌드인 트위터와 같은 SNS는 트위터를 기반으로 제 2, 제 3의 트위터를 만들어내고 있다. www.twitter.com에서 제공되는 트위터 서비스는 해당 사이트가 아닌 다른 곳에서 사용할 수 있다. 미국 트위터와의 별도 제휴나 논의없이 만들어진 한국 트위터인 www.twitterkr.com에서는 트위터에 수록된 글을 볼 수 있는 것은 물론 트위터에서 제공하지 않는 긴글 쓰기 기능을 제공하고 있다. 트위터 사이트에서 제공하지 않는 부족한 기능을 다른 트위터 사이트에서 제공하고 있는 것이다. 심지어 www.twitterkr.com에서는 트위터에서 제공하지 않는 긴 URL 줄이기나 이미지 업로드 등의 부수적 기능을 또다른 외부 사이트를 이용해서 제공하고 있다. 즉, twitterkr.com에서는 4~5개의 외부 트위터 매시업 사이트를 연계해서 서비스가 통합 제공되고 있는 것이다. 하나의 사이트에서 외부의 다른 사이트를 함께 사용할 수 있다. 이것이 웹 스퀘어 세상이다. 기존 웹2.0이 1~2개의 매시업으로 사이트가 연계되었다면 웹 스퀘어에서는 3~4개 아니 그 이상의 사이트들이 통합되어 보다 진보된 서비스가 제공된다. 게다가 모든 것을 OPEN함으로써 모든 것을 아우를 수 있는 강력한 포괄적인 서비스가 제공된다.

다양한 매시업 서비스들로 엮인 twtkr

◈ 실시간 웹으로의 진화

웹 2.0 이전의 웹은 오프라인에서 생산된 데이터를 잘 정제해서 보여주거나, 사용자들이 올린 UCC를 보기 좋게 편집, 가공해서 쉽게 검색할 수 있도록 하는 서비스 구조를 만드는데 집중했다. 포탈에 방문하면 신문사에서 편집해 등록한 수 많은 기사 중에 사용자들이 관심을 가질만한 최신 기사를 볼 수 있었다. 또한, 통함검색을 통해서 카페, 블로그, 이미지, 동영상, 신문 등의 다양한 분류별로 체계적으로 정리된 데이터 중에 원하는 정보를 쉽게 찾을 수 있었다.

웹 스퀘어 세상에서는 실시간이 화두이다. 세계 도처에서 발생하는 이슈와 사건, 사고를 가장 빨리 발굴하고 이를 전파, 공유하는 것이 핵심적 가치가 되었다. 검색을 해서 이슈를 찾아보는 것은 이미 과거의 기술이 되었다. 검색 전에, 기사화되기 전에 세상에서 이슈가 되는 사건이 무엇인지를 확인하고 이를 가장 먼저 알고 주변에 전파하는 실시간 웹이 중요한 가치가 되고 있다.

실시간 검색으로 시시각각 변하는 이슈를 검색결과로 출력해주는 구글의 실시간 검색

신문과 방송 그리고 기존의 웹은 정제된 콘텐츠, 기존재하는 데이터를 가공, 편집을 통해서 안성맞춤으로 보기 좋게 제공하는 기술을 가지고 있다. 하지만, 새로운 웹 세상에서는 그 누구보다 더 빠르게 정보를 취득하고 무엇이 이슈인지를 발굴해, 이것을 주변에 전파할 수 있는 것이 중요하게 되었다. 웹 스퀘어 세상에서는 웹의 영향력이 매시업과 실시간으로 한 단계 진보되고 있다.

10 Amazing Tricks to Play with your Brain

Mind is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. Mind manifests itself subjectively as a stream of consciousness. Neuroanatomists usually consider the brain to be the pivotal unit of what we refer to as mind. The Human Brain tricks us whenever it can. You don’t actually see what it is in real or you don’t even actually hear or smell the way it should be. Here is the time to play trick with the human brain. I assure here, trying them is completely safe.

10. Ganzfeld Procedure

At first this might sound like a bad practical joke. Begin by tuning a radio to a station playing static. Then lie down on a couch and tape a pair of halved ping pong ballsover your eyes. Within minutes you should begin to experience a bizzare set of sensory distortions.

Some people see horses prancing in the clouds or hear the voice of a dead relative. It turns out that the mind is addicted to sensation so that when there’s little to sense (that’s the purpose ofping pong balls and static) your brain ends up inventing its own.

Source: (Link)

9. Shrink your Pain

In case you experience an injury, then see the injured part with an inverted binoculars, soon your pain will seem to be decreasing in its magnitude.

Recently, a reasearch at Oxford University has lead to the discovery of a new pain killer – the inverted binoculars. The scientists demonstrated that the subjects who looked at their wounded hands through wrong end of the binoculars, making the hand appear smaller, experienced significantly less pain and decreased swelling. According to the researchers, this demonstrates that even basic bodily sensations such as pain are modulated by what we see. So next time if you stub your toe or cut a finger, do yourself a favour, look away!

Source: (Link)

8. Confuse your Proprioreception

This requires two chairs and a blind fold. The person wearing the blindfold should sit in the rear chair, staring at the back of the person sitting in the front. The blindfolded person then reach around and place his hand on the nose of the other person. At the same time he should place his other hand on his own nose and begin gently stroking both noses. After about 1 minute, more than 50% of the subjects report their nose as incredibly long. Therefore this is called Pinocchio’s Effect.

The Pinocchio effect  is an illusion that ones nose is growing longer, as happened to the literary character, Pinocchio when he told a lie. It is an illusion of proprioception, reviewed by Lackner (1988).

To explain the effect the other way, a vibrator is applied to the biceps tendon while one holds one’s nose with the hand of that arm. The vibrator stimulates muscle spindles in the biceps that would normally be stimulated by the muscle’s stretching, creating a kinesthetic illusion that the arm is moving away from the face. Because the fingers holding the nose are still giving tactile information of being in contact with the nose, it appears that the nose is moving away from the face too, in a form of perceptual capture. Similar phenomenon happens using the blindfolded method.

7. Confuse your Mindedness

Lift your right foot a few inches from the floor and then begin to move it in a clockwise direction. While you’re doing this, use a finger your right index finger to draw a number 6 in the air. Your foot will turn in an anticlockwise direction and there’s nothing you can do about it!

The left side of your brain, which controls the right side of your body, is responsible for rhythm and timing. The left side of your brain cannot deal with operating two opposite movements at the same time and so it combines them into a single motion.

Source: (Link)

6. Confuse your Hearing

This can be performed with three people, one being subject and other two objects/ observers and we also need a headset connected to routine plastic pipes on the either side. Ask the subject to sit on a chair equidisant between you and the second observer. Now each one of you hold the pipes from the headset on the corresponding sides and one by one speak into the pipes. The subject will rightly tell the direction of the sound. Now exchange the pipes and repeat voicing into the pipes. The subject’s brain will get confused and he’ll point in the opposite direction of sound.

Sound localization is a listener’s ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance or the methods in acoustical engineering to simulate the placement of an auditory cue in a virtual 3D space. The human auditory system has only limited possibilities to determine the distance of a sound source, mainly based on inter-aural time differences, exchanging the pipes would cause perception by the opposite sided neurons in the brain only and thus the subject will not be able to localize the sound.

5. Confuse your Depth Perception

Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions (3D). Looking at a sight that you have not seen before or entering into a 3d cinema with one eyes closed will alter the way your mind perceives things.

This would not happen for most already seen things because your brain is tuned to judge the time and space accurately. However, your brain will not be able to fill the gap if you use one eye. Depth perception arises from a variety of depth cues. These are typically classified into binocular cues that require input from both eyes and monocular cues that require the input from just one eye. Binocular cues include stereopsis, yielding depth from binocular vision through exploitation of parallax. Since (by definition), binocular depth perception requires two functioning eyes, a person with only one functioning eye has no binocular depth perception. And hence stepping into a 3d cinema will not be an amazing phenomenon as it used to be. This is more so in people who are blinded with one eye by birth.

4. Feel a Phantom Sensation

Phantom sensations are described as perceptions that an individual experiences relating to a limb or an organ that is not physically part of the body. Sensations are recorded most frequently following the amputation of an arm or a leg, but may also occur following the removal of a breast or an internal organ.

3. 18000 Hz Sine Wave

Download Wave Here: 18000Hz Sinewave (under 20s)

Try hearing this sound. It is called “under 20s” sound as the elder’s can’t perceive it. It is a sine wave at 18,000 Hz (by comparison, a dog whistle sounds at 16,000 – 22,000 HZ – meaning a dog can hear this sound as well). This sound is used by some teenagers as a ring tone on their cellphone so that only they (and others of their age group ofcourse) can tell when the phone is ringing. It is also occasionally used in England to play very loud in areas that authorities don’t want teens to congregate in, as the noise annoys them.

The inner ear of the humans have a functional design to hear sounds in a range of a frequency. Hearing is not merely a function of ears but the oscillation amplitude is conducted to the brain. As people get older they lose the ability to hear higher pitched sounds. As people get older they lose the ability to hear higher pitched sounds – that is the reason that only young people can hear this sound – it is too high for most people over the age of 20.

2. Confuse your photoreception

Stare at the central point (plus sign) of the black and white picture for atleast 30 seconds and then look at a wall near you, you will see a bright spot, twinkle a few times, what do you see? or even who do you see?

Stare at the eye of the red parrot while you slowly count to 20, then immediately look at one spot in the empty birdcage. The faint, ghostly image of a blue-green bird should appear in the cage. Try the same thing with the green cardinal, and a faint magenta bird should appear.

When an image is looked at for a length of time (usually around 30 seconds) and then replaced with a white field, one type pf an effect called an afterimage can be seen. The common explanation given for an afterimage is that the photoreceptors (rods and cones) in the eye become “fatigued”, and do not work as well as the those photoreceptors that were not affected (the “fatigue” is actually caused by the temporary bleaching of the light sensitive pigments contained within the photoreceptors) This results in the information that is provided by the photoreceptors not being in balance, causing the afterimages to appear. As the photoreceptors become less “fatigued”, which takes between ten and thirty seconds, the balance is recovered, resulting in the afterimage disappearing.

Source: (Link)

Now do another trick to confuse your photoreceptors. This will temporarily blind you from one eye (for around 30 seconds and don’t worry it is of no harm) Go into a room, shut the door and turn out the lights so that the room is mostly dark. Wait until your eyes adapt to the darkness. You should be able to make out the basic shapes of the room from the tiny bit of light coming in from under the door. Next, close your right eye and cover it with your hand. Turn the light on, keeping your eye closed and covered. Leave the light on for about a minute or until your left eye has adapted to the light. Uncover your eye and look around the darkened room.

What do you see? What you might experience is an illusion discovered by researcher Uta Wolfe in which it seems that your left eye is closed, even though it is open.

The explaination to this is the visual cycle that takes time to be adapted, when it is not adapted as for the left eye, the eye will send wrong signals to the brain thus image would be darkened for the left eye until it adapts.

1. Confuse your Cognition

Take a look at the spinning girl. Do you see it spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise? I see it spinning counter-clockwise, but i was able to switch it in the other direction, its hard for many people. Give it a try.

The spinning girl is a form of the more general spinning silhouette illusion. The image is not objectively “spinning” in one direction or the other. It is a two-dimensional image that is simply shifting back and forth. But our brains did not evolve to interpret two-dimensional representations of the world but the actual three-dimensional world. So our visual processing assumes we are looking at a 3-D image and is uses clues to interpret it as such. Or, without adequate clues it may just arbitrarily decide a best fit – spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. And once this fit is chosen, the illusion is complete – we see a 3-D spinning image.

By looking around the image, focusing on the shadow or some other part, you may force your visual system to reconstruct the image and it may choose the opposite direction, and suddenly the image will spin in the opposite direction.

Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet

Entrepreneurs are finding the fast-rising microblogging site to be a useful tool for reaching out to customers

By Jeremy Quittner

THIS WEEK

March 22 and 29, 2010

Revenge of The Cable Guys

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Here's what happened when Chris Savage, the chief executive of Wistia.com, searched for the phrase "private video sharing" on Twitter, a social networking site. One post he found read, "A teacher requested a private 'video sharing' Web site so that specialists can observe student behavior—can anyone refer one?"

That got Savage's attention. He e-mailed back: "Still looking for a private video sharing site?"

Minutes later came the reply: "YES! It's the first request for one—thought I'd hit up my tweets before [I] go digging."

Savage: "Cool. You may want to check out Wistia.com. Full disclosure, I'm the CEO; -)"

While this exchange may seem a bit cryptic, Savage is one of a growing number of business owners to whom it makes an awful lot of sense. Savage frequently trolls Twitter looking for sales leads for his five-person, $1 million company, which makes software that facilitates video sharing through a private network. Although Savage has been using Twitter for only a year, it's already helped him find 12 new clients for his Lexington (Mass.) company. "This is a no-cost way of marketing," he says. Because Twitter provides a public forum, each post becomes a form of promotion as other users follow Savage's posts. "You are building a reputation; people can go back and look at your Web site and the quality of your content, and you are becoming part of the community," Savage says. Other business owners are using Twitter for market research and to keep an eye on customer service issues.

BREVITY'S BRAWN

Twitter distinguishes itself from MySpace (NWS) and Facebook by relying less on picture-laden profiles and more on posts of fewer than 140 characters, referred to as "tweets" or "microblogs." Twitter's simplicity is paired with a powerful search function that allows users to mine others' updates in real time for useful nuggets. "Twitter lets you stay on top of what is happening within your client base," says Chip Lambert, owner of Network2Networth, a business development consultancy in Phoenix. "You can look at conversations and reposition yourself, your products, and your services in a way that appeals to the market you are reaching out to."

An estimated 5 million people use Twitter, according to Cambridge-based Forrester Research. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says businesses "that are not quite big enough to make an impact on the Web, or to spend resources there," have been some of the earliest users of the site. He says some San Francisco-based coffee shops and bakeries have sent tweets to tell their customers about specials or products they may be out of that day. One Los Angeles taco truck uses Twitter to tell customers where it will be that day. "Businesses use this as a hybrid between marketing and customer service," says Stone. "They use the Twitter Search to track mentions of their products and services and as a way to begin a conversation."

Like any online forum, Twitter may not be for everyone. Its immediacy and conversational nature make it a boon to those whose products and services may take a bit more explaining or back-and-forth. And it can be a time suck. "One of the major drawbacks is that [Twitter] is very addictive," says Savage, who has 800 followers and in turn follows just as many. He uses a popular add-on called Tweet Deck, which lets members organize messages by category.

GETTING STARTED

Joining Twitter is easy and free. You create a user name and password, then log onto the site. (You can also sign up to have tweets delivered to your mobile phone.) Once inside, there's a big box at the top labeled "What are you doing?" While you could start by typing something as mundane as "I am drinking my coffee and checking out Twitter," you'll see tabs on the right that say "following," "followers," and "updates," enabling you to follow others whose posts you find interesting. Once you've been posting for a while, people follow you too. A certain viral element takes over, and soon you may wind up in the middle of a Twitter community with common interests.

 

You'll also find thousands of irrelevant posts. "It is easy to get lost and sidetracked," says Lambert, who suggests entrepreneurs think strategically about how they might use Twitter. A mortgage broker, for example, could follow discussions people are having about new tax credits, learn what advice they're getting and which sites they're linking to, and then compose a suitable message to address them.

The viral component of Twitter has helped Andra Watkins, founder of Positus, a consulting firm based in Charleston, S.C. She joined Twitter about six months ago, and at first found it a bit daunting. "I did not grow up using these tools and it has taken me time to develop the voice and approach," she says. Still, she has built a following of 600 Twitterers—friends, colleagues, bloggers, and potential customers. She in turn follows about 600 other people, including a group from her home state of South Carolina—85% of whom she figures could help bring in business. She also follows influential bloggers and those with large Twitter followings, in hopes of establishing a dialogue with them, and keeps tabs on her competitors. Watkins sometimes sends out tweets that have nothing to do with her business, such as a few complaining about exercise. "It makes me more approachable," Watkins says. In the past six months, she's found 10 new paying clients through Twitter.

Other business owners, like Michael Coffey, chief executive of BlueCotton in Bowling Green, Ky., are using Twitter to enhance customer service. The 25-employee, $4 million company lets customers design their own shirts online. For the past two months, two of Coffey's factory workers have used iPhones to snap pictures of completed shirts, and then to send photo tweets to customers right before shipping. "Customers have some anxiety when they purchase shirts online," Coffey says. The tweets help alleviate those concerns—and have won new customers who spot the designs on Twitter. "Having people follow BlueCotton is a feather in our cap," Coffey says. "It helps create real fans of the company."

Social Media Leads the Future of Technology

Internet-connected televisions, social media, and the power of simplicity were all cited as launch pads for future innovation in technology, according to a panel of experts that convened at Harvard Business School as part of the HBS Centennial Business Summit in October.

And though advertisers love the Internet, to what extent they can capitalize on these transformations remains an open question.

HBS professor David Yoffie moderated the session on "The Technology Revolution and its Implications for the Future," with panelists James Breyer (HBS MBA '87), partner of the venture capital firm Accel Partners; Susan L. Decker (HBS MBA '86), president of Yahoo! Inc.; and Eric Kim (HBS MBA '81), senior vice president and general manager of Intel Corporation's Digital Home Group.

The first computer, the ENIAC, cleared the path for future innovation in the late 1940s, said Yoffie, who set the context for the ensuing discussion. Today, millions of Web users generate free content, and we are witnessing an "explosion" in video and cell phone use, he continued, with more than 100 million smartphones already in use. In addition, there is the phenomenon of virtual worlds, where approximately 217 million online players interact.

This is an evolving landscape, with much growth remaining, Yoffie said. Of 6.5 billion people in the world, about 1.5 billion have Internet access, more than 300 million have broadband access to the home, and 3 billion have cell phones, a growing number of which offer Internet access.

What these statistics suggest is that "the most precious currency today is information," said panelist Jim Breyer, an early investor in Facebook and a director of Wal-Mart Stores. "Each year there is more information created on the Web than in all the previous years combined. Investment initiatives are around participating in the information flow. We [at Accel] are interested in companies that help us understand how to structure information, communicate, categorize some of that self-generated information, and then act on it."

A sticking point currently for businesses is spanning the gap between the physical and the digital world, he continued.

"Right now there are significant problems understanding how to take what we are getting at point of sale in the physical world environment—very valuable info on customers—and how to integrate it with all the information that is being generated on the Web. To date, there is no company that allows one to take quickly all this information 'in the cloud' and integrate it with the vast arrays of information in the physical world."

Difficulties aside, Breyer said the promise of technology meant that innovation to solve a problem could arrive from any quarter: prominent companies, nonprofit enterprises, "two students in a dorm room, or mothers or fathers after they have done their school pickups." He continues to be impressed by businesses that start with little capital—anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000—yet get to scale quickly and build new applications on the Web.

Sleeping by the cell phone

Just as technology is influencing society, society is increasingly making demands on technology, said Sue Decker of Yahoo!

"The way we live, love, communicate, and work will influence technology, and the greater population will be exercising an increasing amount of control," she said. Decker cited statistics suggesting that in 2007, 12 percent of newlyweds met online. In addition, of the users in the United States, half sleep with a cell phone or other electronic device nearby, and married couples usually do not share cell phones.

Innovation will serve people who want simplicity of technology usage. As the network gets larger it becomes less relevant to individuals, she said, so people want to organize their experience according to their own interests. "Companies that will do pretty well will create a dashboard of simplicity that is very open to the whole Internet, not just to the company it may be associated with, and will elevate social connections in a way that drives dollars."

How exactly social connections will drive dollars remains to be seen, she added. Although some sites such as Yahoo! include premium services that require fees or subscriptions, the largest business model by far is advertising: a $45 billion industry globally that has been growing about 20 percent per year, said Decker. Advertising on the Web is very effective in the sense that advertisers can reach great scale and do precision targeting. The challenge is to discern consumers' intent.

"Search is unbelievably efficient because you look at a little query box. You can tell exactly what people care about, and you can serve an ad that is relevant at scale. In social media, that is very difficult to do. It's very hard to know what people care about with respect to buying things, because you are inferring intent, you're not taking intent directly from the consumer," said Decker.

"Advertisers really want to be there: They love the demographics, they are increasingly comfortable with some of the brand risks of what that might mean. But Internet advertising still doesn't perform very well, and that's a challenge. How do you serve the right ads to the right user and understand what it is that that individual would be interested in buying?"

TV and the Internet

Pressure has been building for a merging of television and the Internet, said Intel's Eric Kim. Consumers now expect Internet service everywhere, with implications for entertainment and advertising.

For almost 90 years, the television has been a one-way device, and it should be a two-way device. "This is not a new idea," Kim clarified. "Many attempts have failed. It primes us for success." Prices of televisions are going down, and the industry as a whole is mature, leaving an opportunity for the Internet to disrupt both the value chain and the content industry. Advertisers, for their part, continue to feel comfortable placing ads on TV, gauging that their dollars will not be wasted. Emerging markets further propel the growth potential for innovations combining the Internet and television, which is a natural, low-cost, and ubiquitous way for people in emerging markets to engage with the Internet, he said.

"We think there's a lot of room for innovation here and a lot of room for richness and choices," Kim concluded.

"There is no silver bullet in a lot of these economic models," added Breyer. "It's almost always the case that the business models shift in every successful company. I think it's our job as board members, CEOs, and investors to find breathtakingly brilliant entrepreneurs who then try to find breathtakingly brilliant operating executives who also understand the products, and try to spend a great deal of time finding pockets of monetization. There will be a great deal of experimentation. Some of it will work and a lot won't. Five years from now, many of them will have found highly successful business models," but it is tricky at the beginning of a new venture to predict what those models might be.

A dashboard concept is very important as the key to innovation, said Decker.

"Increasingly, companies will find ways to leverage whatever social networks you're in, find ways to service those in ways easy for you to access, and try to go for more simplicity," she said. "Simplicity is the single thing people really want. It's going to get faster in terms of technology. There's going to be more opportunities and interconnections.

"But fundamentally, removing the complexity and adding simplicity so you can easily access in an open way everything you want, and leverage a lot of social connections rather than going to multiple ones, is how the user experience will evolve."

Apple's Next Browser, Safari 3.0

When Apple releases Leopard, iPhoto won't be the only application getting some help from Google. Safari looks to be including protection against malicious web sites by accessing Google's information on sites it has flagged as possibly dangerous.

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Google starts Japanese news service for cellphones

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