Posted on September 30, 2009 by Webule in Stories & Life
Repede, repede…..scriem cateva randuri ca sa aducem la cunostiinta celor de la BroHouse despre ideile noastre “marete” si de ce au ele nevoie de identitate.
De ce am aplicat pe ultima suta de metrii ??? Poate din neglijenta? Poate ne place sa lucram sub presiune ? Poate daca sunteti curiosi o sa aflati daca suntem selectati.
Idei avem multe….dar timpul ca sa le punem in practica lipseste cu desavarsire .Asa ca in ultimul timp s-au strans mai multe proiecte care, speram noi, vor prinde contur pana la finalul anului. Una distre ele deja a fost prezentat de catre Liviu. Este vorba de mosene.ro – idee scoasa la lumina de prichindeii care au aparut in viata noastra in ultimul timp.
Cum spuneam avem mai multe proiecte “pe teava” care au nevoie de identitate. Iata pe scurt despre ce este vorba :
Primul proiect este “Romania te privesc”
Este unul din proiectele care vrem sa le dezvoltam in urmatoarele luni. Este un site care va contine fotografii cu locuri din Romania si care va avea pentru inceput un numar limitat de “publisheri”.
Cel de-al doilea proiect este “build4.me”
Pentru inceput va fi un un site cu review-uri la aplicatii pe care sa le folosim online (gen TweetDeck ). Principiul dupa care v-a functiona site-ul este foate simplu : in fiecare saptamana sunt selectate 5 persoane care vor putea sa testeze o aplicatie online. La sfarsit vor descrie experienta legata de aplicatia respectiva. Se vor realiza clasamente, comparatii, etc….
Posted on September 28, 2009 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
Scopului postului este sa prezint o idee mai veche (adica matura) si sa o inscriu la concursul baietilor de la BroHouse.ro.
Acum doi ani lumea mea s-a schimbat cand a venit pe lume nepoata mea, Clara. Am inceput sa am o noua perspectiva si sa ma gandesc la lucruri pe care le abandonasem de ceva ani, precum povestile.
Inarmat cu noua perspectiva, cu ajutorul lui Catalin, a aparut idea unui site care sa fie de folos parintililor atunci cand trebuie sa-si culce pruncul. Acum cateva zile a venit si idea numelui perfect – MosEne (.ro). Da, domeniul este al meu si nu e nimic pus inca pe el ;).
Intrebarea este urmatoarea: Ce faci atunci cand iti pregatestii copilul de culcare (excluzand situatiile cand il legani pana iti pica mainile):
- ii citesti o poveste, daca este mai marisor
- ii canti un cantecel sau ii pui sa asculte un cantecel, daca n-ai voce deloc
- daca este foarte mic poate ii pui sa asculte sunete albe, vezi aici
Plecand de la cele trei puncte ne gandeam sa facem 4 sectiuni ale site-ului, cam in ordinea asta:
1) Povesti personalizate – sa dam posibilitatea parintilor se personalizeze povestile prin inlocuirea numelor personajelor cu numele copiilor, parintililor, bunicilor. Idea este similara cu cea ce vor sa faca cei de la Story Something (vezi prezentarea de la TC50). 2) Povesti cititie – Aici parinti si copii sa aiba posibilitatea sa urce povesti citite sau scrise si citite de ei. 3) Cantecele pentru copii – Aici parinti si copii sa aiba posibilitatea sa urce cantecele de leagan si pentru copii cantate sau scrise si cantate de ei. 4) Sunete albe – Aici sa fie puse sunete albe ce pot fi descarcate rapid, atunci cand e nevoie.
Posibile intrebari si probleme:
a) Drepturile de autor ale povestior si cantecelelor. Daca este vorba de povesti gen Andersen, atunci operele lor fac parte din domeniul public. Exista o lege care reglementeaza durata de viata a dreptului de autor ai aceasta este cam 90 de ani, daca nu ma insel. In aceasta situatie cel care citeste cartea are drept de autor pe interpretare. Bineinteles, carti gen Harry Potter nu pot fi citite si facute publice decat cu acordul autorului. La fel si la cantecele.
b) Moderarea continutului: Ca site-ul sa aiba relevanta este nevoie sa fie moderat tot continutul urcat ca sa nu existe situatii cand cineva urca povestea Capra cu trei iezi ft. Freddy Kruger, cu tot ca versiunea originala nu e prea departe :).
c) Sectiunea cu sunete albe e probabil cea mai grea de realizat pentru ca e nevoie sa fie inregistrate sunetele respective.
Cam aceasta e idea. Ca echipa suntem doi programatori (eu si Catalin) si inca doua persoane care ne vor ajuta cu continutul.
Daca te intereseaza idea noastra si vrei sa dai o mana de ajutor, sau ai vre-o recomandare, obiectie, injuratura, incurajare, lasa un comentariu, da un e-mail, sau apeleaza la orice alt mod de comunicare. Suntem interesati!
Posted on September 15, 2009 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
After 3 months in which a local shop failed repeatedly and with incredible persistence to correctly manufacture the glasses I ordered from them, I found myself one morning walking down the street, and thinking what I was going to include in my already elaborate and nasty rant to be given to the shop people later that day.
By all means the situation gave me the right to be pissed, but as I was getting angry by just thinking about the incompetence of the people who work in that temple of stupidity where I made the horrible mistake to order the damn spectacles, it downed on me that many times we just feel entitled to rant when the smallest of things is not exactly like we dreamt.
Think about the last time you or a friend of yours complained a little too much and too loud about how a waiter was slow to take your order or how the salesman at X or Y shop was not that nice or so on. It’s like whenever we go in a shop or restaurant somebody gives us special permission to bitch about everything.
I believe that this eagerness to rant about all and everything, even when the reasons are not that good, is fueled by 3 things:
1. Very bad experiences, like my 3 month soap opera for some glasses, teach us that you have to get nasty in order to obtain what you paid for.
2. We tend to abuse our power as a customer, just because we can. The unfortunate guy or gal behind the counter has to smile, because “the customer is alway right!”.
3. It’s easier to bark at people than to be constructive.
I’m going to go and make the people at that eyeglasses shop wish they were never born, because of their incredible incompetence, lack of tact and, what I hate from the bottom of my heart, the inability to admit that they can’t do it. However, every time something will bug me in a shop or restaurant I’ll try to think first and not just act based on experiences like this.
NOTE: The same day I wrote the draft for this post Seth Godin, who I greatly admire, wrote this post, which is somewhat related. It’s a good, short read and I recommend it.
Don’t forget to tell me what YOU think about this? Are we licensed to rant when we enter a shop? Or should we be more human and think before we open our mouths. Waiting on you comments!
Posted on September 9, 2009 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
You just have to be smart! Which leaves me with little alternatives…
But if you’re wondering what I’m talking about than I owe you an explanation. In a post from a couple of days ago (see here) I said that I would kill for the chance to attend TED, which is a conference with which I am incredibly impressed. If you don’t know what TED is than read this, but the short story is like this: It’s the most incredible conference in the world were the smartest and brightest and most hardworking people on this planet go to tell everybody else how they changed the world.
If you ever dreamed about attending TED you probably wondered how you can do it. After some research I found 2 possibilities:
become a TED fellow. To do so I give you an e-mail received from Natasha Dantzig (see the end of this post) or check here. Hurry up! The 2010 registration will end on september the 25th.
or attend your local TEDx conference (hopefully you are lucky enough to have one) by submitting your world and life changing idea. If you are in Romania you must check this out or go here, for more details.
I personally don’t find myself worthy of such an honor YET. And that’s because even if I had an idea that has the potential to make this round dirt ball we call home a nicer place, I haven’t been too profoundly empowered by it to do something TED worthy. But mark my words – I will do anything in my power to be worthy of attending TED one day!
And so should you! If I’d have to guess what is the meaning of life than I think that doing your best and being extraordinary is a very plausible possibility for being it!
To paraphrase Hugh Macleod: Microsoft You Must Change the World or Go Home!
Some TED resources:
Thed TEDx Bucharest Twitter account is @tedxbucharest The TEDx Bucharest website is here The TEDx Bucharest LinkedIN group is here The TEDx Bucharest Facebook group is here TEDx Bucharest promo clip is here Here are the top 10 TED videos
Posted on September 7, 2009 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
The web was built as a way for scientists to communicate and not for running ads. However John Quelch hits the bulls eye by pointing out in this Harvard Business School article that the top most common activities on the web (searching for information, reading news, paying bills, watching a video, researching a product) are in one way or the other supported by advertising. And it’s hard, if not impossible, to argue against this.
So the question is – how much money is the web worth? I came across a few attempts of quantifying the web
Quelch mentions 3 in his article (the values are for the U.S. per year):
1. Employment value – look at how many work with something that has to do with the web =>$300 billion
2. Payment value – value of payments made across the web => $444 billion
3. Time Value – how much the time spent on the net is worth => $680 billion
Another interesting idea was that of Kevin Kelly who made an estimation of how much it costed to build the web as it is today. He made a calculation starting from the number of pages indexed by Google – 1 trillion and estimated that for every page a certain amount of programming and content creation is needed. The result is number 4 on our list
4. Take into account all the work from the last 6000 days, which is the rough age of the web, for the creation of the Internet as we know it => 1 trillion pages => ~ $5 trillion.
Yet a wilder estimation was made by Jason Kottke from Kottke.com who calculated the value of a tiny portion of the web, which is Facebook, in burgers, starting from a Burger King campaign. Read the details here. The result is number 5 on our list.
5. Value of Facebook = $12/user X 150M users = $1.8 billion valuation for Facebook.
That’s what I’ve come across until now, do YOU have anything else to add to the list?
Posted on September 3, 2009 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
Have you heard about TED? No? You should! TED is an incredible conference that brings the smartest and the brightest people from all around the world in one place. In their own words:
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year’s TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.
And I tell you, it’s AMAZING! Go watch the presentations on their website, here are the top 10 TED videos.
And gues what? TED is coming to Bucharest on the 16th of October in the form of TEDx! I would kill to attend TED but I still have to earn my right to be there. So on the 16th I know what I’ll do, I’ll be watching the TEDx Bucharest brodacast.
Found out about it from @tedxbucharest
The TEDx Bucharest website is here
The TEDx Bucharest LinkedIN group is here
The TEDx Bucharest Facebook group is here
TEDx Bucharest promo clip is here
Posted on September 2, 2009 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
Twitter, FriendFeed or any other real time stream is like taking a walk in your neighborhood. You have a lot of neighbors, with some you talk, some you’ve just seen a couple of times. When you take a walk down the street you get to see what your neighbours are doing – one is walking the dog, some are chatting, some have been shopping, another guy is cleaning the yard and so on. Maybe you stop and say hi to a few of them. In the same time those neighbours see what you are doing: you are walking the dog, going shopping, washing the car.
That’s how Twitter is, you build your neighborhood (that’s those people that you follow) and take walks from time to time to see what’s new, because you can’t be up all day walking all over the place. And for sure you want to keep those spammers out!
