kenekaplan Uncategorized

Wow, Facebook Leapfrogs MySpace in 12 months

Great story in TechCrunch today show how Facebook surpassed population king MySpace and is also the worlds fastest spreading social networking site. Interesting to see hi5 is now where Facebook was last year. Could it surpass MySpace and go neck ‘n neck with Facebook?
clipped from www.techcrunch.com

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kenekaplan Uncategorized

Investing in Innovation — Intel Capital CEO Summit 2008

Intel Capital CEO Summit brought 8 investments totaling over $60 million. Deals, primarily led by Intel Capital, include: India-based Vriti Infocom (online education); Czech Republic-based Internet Mall (online retail); and several U.S.-based companies including Accertify (online security), TOA Technologies (workforce management software), Grid Net (energy efficiency, smart grid), HealthiNation (online health), Vostu (social networking with a Latin America focus) and Veoh Networks (online videos).

kenekaplan Uncategorized

Eye Candy Window in a Pizzo, Italy

Pizzo-TropeaMay2008 330, originally uploaded by KenEKaplan.

Here’s one I shot on my walk back from a fun kindergarten recital in Pizzo, Calabria, southern Italy. On this day in late May 2008, Summer was about to make its stay.

This is the pastry shop reflecting the nearby and storied Murat Castle, which adjacent to the Piazza, overlooking the marina and Tyrrhenian Sea far below.

You can’t eat the castle, but you can certainly devour the life size prickly pears, mandarins, strawberries and other sugar-made fruits.  Like the tasties my lovely, talent wife recently made.

kenekaplan Blogs, Social Media, Uncategorized

Improving My Blogging

Some good tips and comments in this DailyBLogTips post from January 18, 2008.
clipped from www.dailyblogtips.com
Productivity itself is pretty unimportant. It’s what productivity allows us to do that matters. A productive blogging habit means more posts and more quality, and we all know what that means: more links and more traffic.
Productive blogging can also affect our day-to-day lives. It allows you to accomplish more in less time. That means: more time spent with the people that matter in your life.
Many bloggers, myself included, struggle to balance the needs of this hobby with the needs of our loved ones. Being productive can make that task a little bit easier.

  • Write more than you publish.
  • Turn off auto-notifiers.
  • Check emails less often, but deal with more when you do.
  • Write as much as possible when you’re feeling creative.
  • Use your feed reader as an all-in-one inbox.
  • Process different types of tasks in batches.
  • Work out a ‘To Post’ list.
  • Spend less time reading feeds.
  • Sketch posts before filling in the detail.
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kenekaplan Uncategorized

BlogTalk Radio — IT Pros from Intel’s Open Port Community

UPDATE:  Pasting BlogTalkRadio player code directly into this post:

<embed src=’http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mediaplayer.swf?displayheight=&file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2fopenport%2fplay_list.xml&autostart=false&shuffle=false&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FlashPlayerCallback.aspx&volume=80&corner=rounded&#8217; width=’180′ height=’152′ type=’application/x-shockwave-flash’ pluginspage=’http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer&#8217; quality=’high’ wmode=’transparent’ menu=’false’></embed><img style=”visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;” border=0 width=0 height=0 src=”http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/Jmx*PTEyMDI2MDc5MDQxOTYmcHQ9MTIwMjYwNzkxMjU3MSZwPTEyMzIwMSZkPSZuPQ==.jpg&#8221; />

I tried embedding the BlogTalkRadio player here, using the embed feature (Gigya technology), but the player hasn’t showed up here yet. The title arrive on my blog, no problem and I also see player code in my code section…but now player. What gives? I’ll try other ways.

When this gets up and running, this BlogTalkRadio show “Open Port Radio” will be great for my enterprise tech pals at Intel. They’ve been hosting a community for IT pros interested in bringing the latest IT supported technologies into their businesses. I’ve seen some of the most brilliant passion and can-do energy from this team as they try new ways to share insight and connect experts with one another. Here’s a recent conversation they explored on Open Port.

In a big company like Intel, users get their software in a variety of ways – on their desktops, delivered over a network, or some combination of those. Catherine Spence, an enterprise architect with Intel IT Research and Technology Development, studies alternate and emerging compute models for enterprise operations. In this audio podcast, Spence discusses what her group learned through a recent study on the effects of streaming and virtual hosted desktop computing models on server and network utilization. On-demand software, or Software as a Service, is one of the emerging software delivery models showing benefits in boosting productivity and lowering costs.

[podtech content=http://media1.podtech.net/media/2008/01/PID_013344/Podtech_IT@Intel_SAAS.mp3&postURL=http://www.podtech.net/home/4890/itintel-software-as-a-service&totalTime=411000&breadcrumb=83ae8f58fe3744cba6cb2e62178ea911]

kenekaplan Uncategorized

Social Media Guru Steps Up for Network Solutions

A Twitter king gets interviewed by Shel Israel. That’s the gracious, observant Shashi Bellamkonda.
clipped from redcouch.typepad.com
The very fact that Network Solutions realized that they need a social media person is a positive step toward joining the conversation. We got over the first milestone–getting people inside the company to understand the challenges and the power of social media presence. I have been part of discussions to open new ways for customer communication (blogs, forums).
We have been using Communispace as a social media tool for a few years and now we’re taking steps in mainstream social media. In a very small way, I experimented using social media to spread the word about a product that I managed called BuildMyMobi. I wanted to let people know that it was an easy to use tool to create a website for mobile phones. I joined conversations in blogs and forums where the people might be looking for such tools. We asked people to try the product. This helped us understand that with the right approach social media can add a new dimension to our efforts to reach customers.
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kenekaplan Books, KenEKaplan, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

BookStack to Excercize Some Brain Cells

I loved the post by my friend Douglas Pollei back in November…the one he called BookStack, where he shared a pile of books he was diving into. By the way, he just did a cool post about how today’s marketers need whole-brain, strategic thinking skills to stay on top of their game.

Here is the pile I got through in 2007. I typically have four books going at one time, so it takes me a while to finish.

From the bottom to the top:
1) Your Inner CEO, Allan Cox (also find him doing great things on Facebook)

This is an inspiring, hands and mind-on book that lets you redefine who you want to be. Allan blends modern psychology and his CEO training experience. He’s really doing a great job connecting with people, getting people involved and showing how to use social media. Bravo!

2) The New Influencers, Paul Gillin

A must read that is quick, filled with mistakes and good things people and companies have done using social media. This book can help many marketers and communications pros get up to speed and off and running with social media.

3) Quantum Leap Thinking, James J. Mapes

I really enjoyed this book. It’s nice to stop and think about how you look at things, how your mind consumes the world. This can help open up perspectives by redefining limits with quick, meaningful leap ahead thinking.

4) We are Smarter than Me, Barry Libert & Jon Spector and Thousands of Contributors
The wisdom of crowds is tightly described in this nifty book. This is one of those huge concepts (like long tale) that are at the core of social media, social networking and how people are communicating better, faster and more openly than ever.

5) The Cluetrain Manifesto, Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger
Many of my friends read this years ago, but it light me up and made me laugh out loud through several plane rides. Most of all, it got me fired up about getting to what matters by being real and honest. Irreverent. Timeless yet of our times.

6) Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
This is mind boggling. It might be telling us all what we already know, subconsciously…pre-reflexively. Think statics is tough? You actually bust our elementary functions, statics and algebra in a blink of the eye whenever you make a snap judgment or life-saving move.

7) Purple Cow, Seth Godin
I finally got to this book several years after it came out, but its as fresh as a warm latte. Seth is a succint storyteller who took off his rose colored glasses long ago and his truly helping marketing and communications pros cut the crap and focus on doing wonderful things. This is about breaking the status quo. It’s about the need for focusing on smaller, more meaningful audiences with something truly valuable. Cookie cutter won’t cut it for everyone anymore. I read this while visiting small towns in Calabria, southern Italy this winter. I believe that each little town is living what Seth is talking about. Each town is getting back to their heritage, their dialect, their crafts and celebrating their specialty foods and songs. It makes them special, and stand out from other neighboring towns.

8) Meatball Sundae, Seth Godin (standing, left)
Picked this up in Berkeley at Cody’s Bookstore and it’s yummy. I’m still flipping through it, but this is Seth Godin taking ideamaking to the next level — what not to do, so that you can see how to free yourself to make the right combinations. To use the right combination of traits from the left AND right sides of your brain.

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