My Goals for the end of 2007

OK now I am going to share my goals with you which according to Holly at CompanyLoop is an effective way to achieve goals.

My Goals:

1. Analyze and research business ideas


2. Select at least one business idea to follow through on


3. Develop a Business Plan


4. Develop a Facebook Application

Not much for the last 3 months that remain this year eh? I will update you on the progress as I reach each milestone. Now it is finally time to sleep for a couple of hours.

The Facebook Economy

Facebook has it's 3rd party developers generating revenues from it's social networking site where MySpace has yet to succeed. Facebook did something MySpace still hasn't done: It opened up its network to developers and made it easy for them to make money from their applications.

What does that mean for an application developer? Since Facebook is sharing with developers a development tool to build a Facebook application this means opportunity.

Development using the Facebook Platform makes it possible to develop your idea and get it marketed to 32 millions users with little effort and startup costs. Success comes quickly for the applications that are easy to use whether or not the are the first ones on facebook.

The place that a Facebook developer should check out is Adonomics.com formerly Appaholic.com. Adonomics breaks down Facebook applications by popularity, growth rate, and even "virality," as measured by growth in a single day.

The key to making your Facebook application a successful revenue generating venture is tying the Facebook application into ad revenue within Facebook and features external to the application where you get to control 100% of the review stream. Another way is developers are letting companies brand their applications. For example an application called FoodFight will soon let you throw name brand chicken, instead of just calling it chicken.

Basically this is what I see as generating multiple streams of income.

The Business 2.0 article gives you details on 4 ways to make money:

1. Sell Ads


2. Attract Sponsors


3. Sell Services


4. Sell Products

There is even one venture capital firm, Sand Hill Road-based Bay Partners, which has set aside more than $12 million to bootstrap 50 new Facebook applications.

This has inspired me to develop some of the ideas I have had for decades now on the Facebook platform. 10 years ago the Internet was not at the level of intergratation with the general public that is now. In the age of Facebook my time has come to implement these ideas which, if successful, will let me retire before 40.

Wish Me Luck!

The OS I am most like

Almost 3am and still not sleeping so I am trying the 2nd entertaining quiz Which OS Are You? for tonight.

I cannot say I am happier with the result of this quiz than the preview one on the programming languages. Why do I keep getting associated with Microsoft products? Although, I should be happy with the description of me.

You are Windows XP



OK. Time to sleep now. No more associating with Microsoft for me tonight.

I would much rather be the Mac OS.

The Programming Language I am Most Like

Ok so its 2am and I cannot sleep...

I start reading some really interesting articles on innovation then PHP Programming... then (if you know the way web works) I get to some completely useless and pointless quiz which I decide to check it out.

The first quiz I try is Which Programming Language Are You? It turns out I am one of my least favourite programming languages. One which I am forced to use for web development at my day job because some person 10 years decided years that it is the perfect langauge for web development for their Intranets.

OK so without further delay the disappointing result is:

I am like Visual Basic.



As for the definition of the language... I would have to totally agree with it. Just please do not use that to define me.

I am thinking to go with the suggestion from the quiz creator who says I can cheat and grab the image from the site and pretend that this is really who I am according to the quiz:

I am like PERL.



Now I feel much better. I might even be able to sleep soon.

* IDEA * Using Social Network Applications for Business Research

It looks like social networking sites such as Facebook can be used for more than just networking.

I just came across an interesting post by Gerard Ramos who successfully used Facebook to do some business research for Swamble.

I was thinking the same thing a while back when I saw the polling application when I logged into Facebook. I thought it might be a neat way to do some research for new business applications with any overheard costs or having to do much work in setting-up the online survey. This is an innovative way to do some business research wil no cost.

Can social networking sites give you more friends?

According to to a post by Anthony D. Williams, research indicates that the use of social networking sites will not increase you friendships but your lists of acquaintances.

I agree with that.

It also states that on average you will have about 150 acquaintances and 5 friends. I think the amount of acquaintances is a little low... depending on how you actually define 'an acquaintance'. On some sites like have seen people with thousands and thousands of people in their friends list - which is just crazy. I think that those are people suffering from a lack of self-esteem or just feeding their egos. I mean how could you possibly even keep the names of those thousand friends in your head?

The advantage in using social networking sites is that you can develop and maintain existing relationships with ease. It saves you time and allows you to keep in contact with people at all times.

The downside is that sites like Facebook help to promote laziness. People just need to post info once and everyone of their friends can see it. That way people are not making the effort to interact on an individual basis and therefore I think friendship can suffer.

Technology is only as good as the way you use it.

Tech Crunch 40 Conference in San Francisco

Ok so hear I am reading some random web blogs then I decide to check out the Business 2.0 website to see what is happening with the demise of the magazine. Then I come across the Business 2.0 blog and a posting by Erick Schonfeld. He has an interesting posting all about the the Tech Crunch 40 Conference that just happened in San Francisco.

Why does all the cool stuff to do with the Web and Technology happen in SF?

A question I keep asking myself. No wonder I am dreaming of moving there for years... aside from the wonderful climate.

Basically the conference is 40 of the hottest new startups from around the world who demo their products then they have the chance to win a$50,000 cash award and lining up other in-kind services and awards from a generous group of corporate sponsors. Really cool.

The winner was Mint an innovative way to mange your money and spending online. Too bad it looks like it is only supporting banks in the US market. :(

I will be sure to check out the rest of the companies participating in the conference as I love to see what startups are doing. Innovation on the web is so great! I think I am obesessed by it... which I think is a good obsession to have :)

Business 2.0 is dead!

Oh my god! My favourite magazine - Business 2.0 is going to die... I guess it was going to happen since I had noticed the magazine was getting thinner and thinner.

Business 2.0 is one of the few magazines I subscribe to and actually read cover to cover. I have been reading it since the first issue. It is always full of interesting articles, innovate business people and businesses that are not just average. Now I guess I have to find more reading material for those long bus rides into the office... or maybe I just need to start working at home more. ahahaha.

Seriously there is a lack of innovation in magazines these days. I read the nytimes article that states some of the staff will be working on articles on Fortune magazine. I used to read Fortune years ago when I was in university - only beacuse I got a really cheap subscription price. I cancelled the subscription eventually because I found the really interesting articles were few and far between and the articles were kinda dry. Oh well I guess will I try and check it out again to see if the writing I loved so much in Business 2.0 will survive...

Ok... so I procrastinated a bit on the blogging thing

Yes. I admit it. I procrastinate! I have no idea why it happens... mostly it happens with things I want to do that are good for me. For example like when I want to mail the claim form from the Dentist so I can get may $$$ back some how it ends up in a pile of miscellaneous papers and never gets sent. Or like installing the dishawasher I bought last year.... and passing it every day as it sits outside the kitchen. Ok well I finally got that one done last week. :)

Anyhow, cannot solve the procrastinating thing for everything but hope to do that with this blogging thing. :) I forgot my account username and password which is the main reason why I never continued. Then today I was reading this really cool book called Naked Conversations. (No it is not about naked people talking) It is about blogging and how it is changing the world, especially the business world. An interesting read so far - I am halfway through it.

So now my main issue with this blogging thing is to decide what topic to blog about. They say you are supposed to write about what you know... so looks like according to my varied interests I can write about:
Innovation - I love innovation. I am always finding ways to innovate in everything.
Creativity - I am creative and love doing anything that lets me express my creativity.
Technology and gadgets - Oh how I love gadgets.
Apple & Macs - My passion for Macs.
Books - I love to read any kind of book especially ones on technology and business then also art & photography. Reading keeps you learning.
People - I love to meet new people.
Travel - If I had an unlimited source of $$$ I would be doing this all the time.
Photography - I love to take photos, especially black & white film.
Dating - My adventures in dating... I think once you are over age 30 dating becomes tedious as you get tired of the bad date thing.

Ok I guess I will have to decide one day, but for now my blog will just be filled with the random things that fill my life!