Although I just recently returned from Internet Week New York, I’m about to set foot on another exciting, new adventure. From July 5 to July 10, I’ll be traveling around London together with my Geeky friends. aka The Traveling Geeks. The TG’s are a small informal group of technology bloggers and influencers who like to travel to various regions around the world, collaborate with technology innovators and leaders on interesting projects and then share everything with the rest of the world via blogs, videos, podcasts and social networks.
On this trip, we’ll be on the hunt for innovative uses of new technologies in Great Britain, especially by lesser-known companies, and spotlight how those innovations may improve people’s lives. We’ll also compare the thought leadership in Great Britain’s tech industry and compare it with what’s taking place in Silicon Valley. The highlights of our UK agenda include events such as The Traveling Geeks TweetUp in Chelsea, podcast with the Guardian, and The Techcrunch Europa Awards with Mike Butcher.
Last year the Traveling Geeks came to Israel and I hosted them. This time we are going to be hosted by London locals. Should be very exciting. I’m thrilled to embark on this week long geek fest. I’m sure to meet some very interesting Brits along the way. In fact, if anyone is interested in meeting any of us for interviews, please email me at: press[at]blonde20.com and we’ll try to make it happen!
In a time of extreme economic downturn and rocketing unemployment rates, it’s nice to see a clever startup launching just in time to fill the needs of those hungry job searchers. DoNanza.com is a search tool specifically designed for freelancers and enthusiasts looking to find online jobs or projects that they can do from anywhere, in exchange for money and professional exposure in their field. With the combination of a simple interface and user-friendly filters, anyone can easily search through hundreds of thousands of projects from countless sites, all on one page.
During the last 2 years the web has become a meaningful place for finding projects that can be done from home. There are hundreds of freelance marketplaces and crowd-sourcing websites which offer different projects that can be done by people from across the world and as more companies outsource instead of hiring in house, the sheer amount of freelance contract work is expanding at a rapid pace.
There’s no second guessing that it’s the perfect time for a freelance job search engine like Donanza to come along. There are of course other sites that provide this service but Donanza is unique in that it strives to aggregate as much information as possible from as many sources as possible into one place. Today freelancers and enthusiasts need to navigate between many sites (Elance, Helium, Crowdspring etc.) in order to find the best project for them. DoNanza’s goal is to expose their users to every project of their field that has been posted on the Web.
Donanza’s other focus is to provide a very user friendly, easy to use platform, which is essentially set up much like Google’s search engine, with filters. Once on the main page, the idea is to simply state your skill or field of interest in the search box and project data is immediately displayed in one single format. There are clever slider filters on the side of the page which allow you to rev your pay requirements up or down and choose by date posted. You’re also able to hone in on which type of project and which exact websites you’d like to search through.
Donanza’s unique focus on the specific niche of online jobs, that can be performed from home, combined with the powerful tools it gives its users, make for a unique and satisfying user experience. And while the economy continues to slide on a decline, Donanza’s relevance in the startup scene only climbs higher.
Have you heard the story of how Larry the bird became Twitter’s mascot? Larry’s owner got fired from his job and could no longer afford to keep him. The little blue bird was forced to flee his home, briefcase in wing, and find a job. He tried all the traditional routes: employment agency, newspaper job listings, online classifieds, but nothing worked. Then he signed up for a Facebook account and everything changed from there. Just like Larry found out, the best way to find a job these days or find employees is through Web 2.0 tools like social networks. This is what we call Recruitment 2.0. I talked about this subject a few months back. Check it out here.
Social networks have replaced job boards and companies looking for skilled, savvy employees now have a plethora of options for recruitment online. Recruiting through social networks allows unprecedented reach in terms of potential employees and amount of information available on each candidate, with the added bonus of being one of the most cost-effective recruitment tools around.
My Internet Week NY review continues today with a brief interview video I’d like to share, featuring Sandy Cohen, CEO of SpeakLike.
For a minute and 49 seconds, Cohen beams endearingly into the camera and tells us all about NY based startup, SpeakLike, a fantastic new language translation Web service which cleverly translates messages, emails, blogs, RSS and Twitter feeds, in real time. Essentially, the product allows you to communicate with others in 30 different languages without having to use clumsy, copy-paste methods. Cohen explains how SpeakLike is really ideal for businesses that need to communicate with international customers, quickly and efficiently or for bloggers who have readers/followers from all over the world. Find out more about SpeakLike in the video below:
My Internet Week NY review continues on Blonde 2.0 with installment #3. In the midst of my NY hustle, I had the chance to watch influential VC, Fred Wilson speak at The Millennium Broadway Hotel during the CM Summit organized by John Battelle and his guys over at Federated Media. Just a note on the CM Summit - it was absolutely an amazing two day event with many case studies of companies using social media and I thought one of the most well organized and educating conferences I have been to this year. Anyway, back to Fred. Wilson is the Co-founder of Union Square Ventures, blogger of AVC and active NYC philanthropist and he made his usual impeccable impact on the crowd.
Being an investor in Twitter, Fred’s talk touched on what he initially saw in Twitter before investing, what he thinks will happen next with Twitter as far as monetization, and what will eventually happen to Google as social media, like Twitter, Facebook, blogging and blog commenting grow at an imminently fast pace.
He delved specifically into 3 major points on what he thinks will be Twitter’s business model, while writing off immediately the usual ideas of charging people for its use and posting banner ads.
While only a bit of spatter was spent on his other investments such as Boxee and blog comment service, Disqus, he did manage to share with us his general investment thesis as well as enlighten us with his theories on how the “internet disrupts industries” and also entertain us with terms such as “social media ninja.” Hear all about it below:
If you are an Israeli Web or mobile startup, now is your chance to shine. TWS2009, Israel’s Official dot com.petition and one of the most exciting and biggest internet events of the year, will soon be choosing the most promising Israeli Startups. The presenting startups will be chosen by a review board made of leading technology and Internet figures from Israel and abroad, including Brian Solis (Future Works), Andrew Baron (RocketBoom), Rafe Needleman (CNet, WebWare), Ron Conway, Jeff Pulver, myself, and a few others. TWS is partnering with Globes.co.il, one of the biggest financial newspapers in Israel, and aims to provide the 10 most promising Internet startups in Israel, a front stage to present their ventures to hundreds of members of the high-tech industry.
Applications will be accepted until midnight, Wednesday June 24, 2009. On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 10 finalists will be chosen then later presented their award at the David Inter-Continental Hotel, Tel Aviv on July 13, 2009 during the event.
I had the pleasure of attending Startup 09 which took place in New York during Internet Week on Wednesday, June 3. Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, made a well received visit in order to discuss with everyone, the details of not only the early days of Facebook but also the role Facebook played in helping the Obama Campaign.
Facebook, as we all may know was born in Chris’ early dorm room days at Harvard. But what we may not know are the little details and steps that were taken before its creation. The video I captured at an NYU conference hall unveils all that we may have missed along the Facebook way.
The subject matter moves on to more recent events such as the development of Chris’ online community platform, MyBO (My Barack Obama), which played an essential role in helping connect Obama’s local supporters, and winning the presidential election. Chris explains how the use of technology made it easier and more efficient for campaigners to do the things they have already always done, and how the platform essentially just made it easier for people to give money to the campaign. Check out the video below to get the full picture.
Chris Hughes Speaks at Startup 09 Conference - Part 1
Chris Hughes Speaks at Startup 09 Conference - Part 2
Chris Hughes Speaks at Startup 09 Conference - Part 3
(Chris is now living in NY and spends time visiting students at different Universities to discuss their entrepreneurial ideas and to give them advice. He is said to be on the look out for young, fresh ideas…)
I want to give a great big thanks to Balora and Cnaan Aviv. Balora did all the beautiful UI and design for the site and Cnaan worked his programming magic. They both suffered a lot from me in the last few months due to my obsessiveness for everything to look/feel absolutely perfect so I want to give them both a special thanks for putting up with me and not screening my calls at 2am.
I hope that you guys like it and believe it captures the Blonde 2.0 spirit! All positive feedback write back as comments. All negative feedback please send to Balora and Cnaan. Thanks!
If the mere thought of “big brother” watching you drives you mad, then you surely wouldn’t want to be a Wall Street Journalist right now. The Social Media rules for WSJ have just been revised into a much more strict affair. Here are a few that have drawn cause for discussion:
1) Consult your editor before “connecting” to or “friending” any reporting contacts who may need to be treated as confidential sources. Openly “friending” sources is akin to publicly publishing your Rolodex.
2) Let our coverage speak for itself, and don’t detail how an article was reported, written or edited.
3) Don’t discuss articles that haven’t been published, meetings you’ve attended or plan to attend with staff or sources, or interviews that you’ve conducted.
4) Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter. Common sense should prevail, but if you are in doubt about the appropriateness of a Tweet or posting, discuss it with your editor before sending.
Contracted Dow Jones site writer, Peter Kafka, responded to these rules by basically stating that he didn’t “have a problem with the bulk of this stuff… big organizations like to spell this stuff out, for both management and legal reasons. Nature of the beast.” Glad you don’t mind Peter!
I just came back from Internet Week NYC and I will be posting various interesting videos I took there in the next couple of days. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting the fabulous Jolie O’Dell from Read Write Web. We discussed the value of using social media marketing for brands and the extraordinary viral effects of a simple tweet or Facebook post. We talked about the ease of measuring social media campaigns plus the sheer cost efficiency of using available, online tools, in order to market a product. I also point out that many companies don’t have a true understanding of the niche and up to date channels and tools that are so imperative in making an online campaign a true success because they do not live online and use the tools themselves. Check out the video below:
Apropo, did you see that Blonde 2.0 was also mentioned on CNN Money this week?
Although I just recently returned from Internet Week New York, I’m about to set foot on another exciting, new adventure. From July 5 to July 10, I’ll be traveling around London together with my Geeky friends. aka The Traveling Geeks. The TG’s are a small informal group of technology bloggers and influencers who like to travel to various regions around the world, collaborate with technology innovators and leaders on interesting projects and then share everything with the rest of the world via blogs, videos, podcasts and social networks.
In a time of extreme economic downturn and rocketing unemployment rates, it’s nice to see a clever startup launching just in time to fill the needs of those hungry job searchers. 
For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, my new 
If the mere thought of “big brother” watching you drives you mad, then you surely wouldn’t want to be a Wall Street Journalist right now. The Social Media rules for 
