Today Mike Teel announces the demise of Prosper magazine. Not surprising considering their transition into a lifestyle magazine. The baby blue chips were great, but recently the magazine strayed from it's birth as a business magazine. New Digital strategy? Didn't you have one already? Comstocks still survives and it has no content, commerce, or personalization much less a digital strategy.
Think local, try Paradise Media.
What began as the pet project of a few enthusiastic users has grown into a corporate-backed initiative demonstrating Google Earth's potential as a live-saving humanitarian tool.
The Crisis in Darfur project is a downloadable set of layers for Google Earth which combines high-resolution satellite images of Darfur with photographs and first-hand accounts of the genocide currently underway in the region. Users of Google's 3-D world atlas can zoom in on burned-out Sudanese villages, read the stories of the victims and see stunning arial shots of massive refugee camps in Eastern Chad.
By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a whale-sized project, the world's scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone.
The effort, called the Encyclopedia of Life, will include species descriptions, pictures, maps, videos, sound, sightings by amateurs, and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. Its first pages of information will be shown Wednesday in Washington where the massive effort is being announced by some of the world's leading scientific institutions and universities. The project will take about 10 years to complete.
"It's an interactive zoo," said James Edwards, who will be the encyclopedia's executive director. Edwards currently helps run a global biodiversity information system.
If the new encyclopedia progresses as planned, it should fill about 300 million pages, which, if lined up end-to-end, would be more than 52,000 miles long, able to stretch twice around the world at the equator.
The MacArthur and Sloan foundations have given a total $12.5 million to pay for the first 2 1/2 years of the massive effort, but it will be free and accessible to everyone.
Local guys Michael Ivanov and Philip Neustrom of Davis Wiki fame have launched Wikispot a wiki creation platform for local community wiki's. It's a non-profit effort to let communities anywhere in the world initiate, maintain, publicize and fund wikis.
Great concept, I'll be looking forward to watching this grow.
I'll start by saying I usually don't write about my little projects, but I think this one can be really fun if it takes off big. I was looking for an interesting web project and happened on an open source project called Pligg which is a clone of Digg, the more famous news site. Well, I had just visited El Dorado wine country enjoying some fantastic wine tasting and thought, you know - it would be really cool if there was a website where wine tasters could submit reviews of wines they had tasted and then vote and comment on other reviews. Since one and one make two I decided to install and customize Pligg to do just that. So many times I hear people say "What are some good wines?" or "What wine goes well with this or that?". Now you have a place to go to find out. After I set it up I found a website from the Bay doing something similar, but without user ratings. I do have to say, it's not bad for getting it up start to finish in 3 days. Oh - the website, it's called The Wine Vine.
If there are any hackers or painters who would like to work on this project with me let me know.
-As Google expands into more advertising mediums they get closer and closer to becoming the Advertising Agency of the future. The real question is who should be running scared, is it the advertisers who will be at the mercy of Google or media companies who will be begging for a share of the ad dollars?
Ending weeks of a bidding battle with Microsoft, Google reached an agreement to buy online advertising network DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash, the companies announced today.
The deal expands Google’s foothold in online advertising. The price is almost double the $1.65 billion Google paid for YouTube last year. DoubleClick, founded in 1996, provides display ads on Web sites. The deal gives Google access to DoubleClick’s relationships with Web publishers and advertisers. Perhaps equally important, it keeps them away from Microsoft.
In 2005, DoubleClick was taken private by two private equity firms, Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity, in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.
I've been following with great interest the discussions surrounding an online media marketplace, which Ebay and other companies are rumored to be building. If anyone has thoughts on how an online media marketplace would work let me know.
Here is another great can't miss event for tech exec's in the Sacramento region. For entrepreneurs looking for cash, this is the place you need to be with the following angel and VC firms in attendance: DFJ Frontier, Innovature Capital Partners, Hummer Winblad, Venture Partners, Garage Technology Ventures, T-Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Trinity, Ventures, Outlook Ventures, Keiretsu Forum, American River Ventures, Mohr Davidow, Ventures, Storm Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Intel Capital, Cisco Ventures, AT&T Ventures, Panorama Capital, and the NorthBay Angels.
Join TechCoire and the region’s technology executives in welcoming Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google to the region on April 16th as he kicks off Investorfest 2007 with his keynote on "Internet : The next 10 years and beyond"
Vint Cerf is widely known as the "father of the Internet" and this event is a must attend for anyone interested in knowing what the future holds for us! The evening will also feature power networking with CEOs of emerging tech businesses as well as heavy hors d'oerves and complimentary fine wines!
REGISTER TODAY
In 2006, venture investors pumped $1.28 billion into clean technology companies in China, Europe, Israel and the U.S., the group said today. That’s about double the $664.1 million invested in 2005, according to the research, which was compiled the data with help from Ernst & Young.
Today, Dow Jones Venture One has released a more precise definition to what is meant by “clean technology.”
Companies that directly enable the efficient use of natural resources and reduce the ecological impact of production. Areas of focus include energy, water, agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing where the technology creates less waste or toxicity. The impact of cleantech can be either to provide superior performance at lower costs or to limit the amount of resources needed while maintaining comparable productivity levels.
Derek Parham makes the big announcement today:
Now, I'm excited to tell you that our baby has finally graduated and is entering the business world. Google Apps Premier Edition is a new version designed to take on all the challenges presented by businesses with complex IT needs. For $50 per account per year, you get the whole Google Apps package plus many new business-oriented features, including access to our APIs and partner solutions (so it’s easy to integrate with existing systems), conference room scheduling for Calendar, 10GB of inbox storage, extended business hours phone support, and mobile access to your email on BlackBerry devices (just in case you can't get enough at the office).
A Rancho Cordova-based health information technology company has signed a deal with an online pharmacy communications network to provide software tools to help drug manufacturers and pharmacies evaluate whether their programs are effective.
The agreement between MedInitiatives Inc. and ChainDrugStore.net was announced Tuesday. No financial details were given.
Founded in 2000, MedInitiatives is one of the fastest-growing companies in Greater Sacramento and has annual revenue of more than $8 million.
Vision Service Plan President and CEO starts a company blog and opens up communication to employees, partners, and customers. In the initial entry on his new company blog Rob Lynch says:
In guiding VSP through our future growth and success, I plan to use this blog to share my thoughts and ideas about eyecare, total wellness, the insurance industry, leadership and managing good people. I look forward to inviting "guest bloggers" who share my passion and offer different perspectives on these subjects, and I hope to inspire an open dialogue with you.
FACING down stiff competition to win fame and big prize money? Forget singing for Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. Try sequencing DNA for a panel of technology investors.
Yes, something like an “American Idol” for the technorati may be coming to Silicon Valley.
Venture capital firms are considering contests that offer competing engineers and entrepreneurs multimillion-dollar prize purses if they come up with innovative technologies in various industries.
The concept is getting an introduction on March 3 at a fund-raiser at Google. The event is intended to raise a chunk of $50 million to operate the X Prize Foundation, a nonprofit group that already has awarded $10 million to designers of a private spacecraft.
The foundation plans to use the money to develop prizes in fields like medicine, poverty reduction and fuel-efficient cars. But the foundation’s next stage of prize-giving will also include partnerships with venture capitalists who, the group argues, can use prizes to spur entrepreneurs to innovate and, in turn, to create an efficient research and development machine.
Lipomics Technologies Inc. and Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced that they will collaborate to develop research and diagnostic assays combining Agilent analytical platforms with Lipomics' expertise in biomarker discovery and validation.
The assays will focus on metabolic diseases, a family of related disorders driven in large part by subtle, long-term dysregulation of lipid metabolism. Lipomics Technologies provides quantitative, diagnostically accurate measurements of more than 1,500 metabolites, allowing comprehensive profiling of whole-body lipid metabolism. The company's quantitative methods and expertise in lipid biology drive development of clinically relevant diagnostic and research assays.
"Lipomics has developed considerable expertise in investigating the role that lipid metabolism plays in disease mechanisms," said Michael McNulty, general manager of Diagnostics, Agilent Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis. "Both companies see significant synergies in combining this expertise with Agilent's capabilities to separate, detect and analyze molecules in the development of new diagnostic tools."
WebRaiser Technologies, which makes software for kiosks, has been snapped up by Flextronics International Ltd. of Singapore.
No details are being released. But Mark Breunig, WebRaiser's senior VP and general counsel, confirms the sale and says a formal announcement is set for a trade show in April. "We don't want to tip our hand to competitors," he says of the company's taciturn stand.
He does note, however, that the sale is a "good exit" for investors.
About 15 employees work at the 10-year-old company, and all are being retained by Flextronics, which is making its second dip into the Sacramento startup market. In December, it purchased Roseville-based International DisplayWorks Inc. for $243 million.
Bob Shallit, Sacbee.com
Sacramento, Ca
Revionics Inc., a company that provides software to help small- and medium-size grocery stores price products, has added C&K Markets to its list of grocery retail customers.
Brookings, Ore.-based C&K Markets is implementing Granite Bay-based Revionics' Advanced Pricing System at all 59 of its stores, including those under the Ray's Food Place, Shop Smart, and Price Less Foods banners.
Founded in 1957, C&K Markets is the largest privately held retail grocery chain in Oregon. The company is supplied by Unified Western Grocers, based in Commerce.
Melanie Turner, BizJournals.com
YouTube, as we've stated previously, will remain an independent subsidiary of Google, and will continue to operate separately. Google will support YouTube by providing access to search and monetization platforms and, when/where YouTube launches internationally, to international resources. YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and the rest of the YouTube team will continue to innovate exciting new ways for people to "broadcast themselves."
A very cool tool for finding good domain names is Instant Domain Search. The website is simple, clean and easy to use. Just start typing in your name and the website tells you instantly if it is available for .com, .net, or .org with easy to view green and red shading. If your preferred name is taken then you can get suggestions for other names from GoDaddy, request SEDO to aquire it, or backorder it from GoDaddy again. You can also get the WHOIS record to see who has it registered, view really cool Hacks, get traffic details from Alexaholic, or just visit the site.
If the domain is available the site shows the price for registering it at 5 different domain registrars.
Sacram.com is available from Yahoo for $1.99.
Join a couple of geeks and entrepreneurs for food, fun, and conversation. The next SacStarts dinner is planned for February 22 at Hoppy.
Sacramento based Revionics, is moving up in the world. Up to Granite Bay exactly. The company announced this week that along with the move effective February 12th, that they have tripled their base of subscribing customers in the last six months. The company recently closed a round of series A funding in December.
Keep an eye on this company, they are going places.
Corn is a "Low Carbon" Fuel, Join the Clean Energy Diet and Lose Unwanted CO2
Last night, President Bush, in his State of the Union called for more intensive use of ethanol and other alternative fuels in an attempt to cut gasoline use by 20 percent by 2017. This initiative could boost the prospects of many Sacramento Clean Energy companies. Shares of Sacramento-based Pacific Ethanol Inc. jumped 6 percent in anticipation of Bush's State of the Union speech. Pacific Ethanol recently moved its headquarters to Sacramento from Fresno.
Among other things, Bush proposed a mandatory fivefold increase in alternative fuel consumption by 2017. Corn-based ethanol is the leading alternative fuel, although the president also called for greater use of products like biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol -- a form of ethanol made from things like agricultural waste.
Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling this week for a "low carbon" fuel diet to lighten California's greenhouse gas load. The executive order issued Thursday establishes a statewide goal of shrinking the carbon footprint of California transportation fuels by at least 10 percent by 2020.
Nationally, a consortium of ten large energy and industrial companies, including California energy giant PG&E, Inc. has broken ranks with some other U.S. business groups by calling on the federal government to enact strict limits on emissions that can trap heat in the atmosphere and help create a market for credits issued to companies that cut emission.
With companies like Nu Edison, Mariah Power, and Jadoo Power getting support from organizations like Sarta and the Clean Start Power Up business plan competition, this region may just become the first major Clean Tech hub. The key will be attracting and growing these companies in the Sacramento region. The business plan competition is nice, but how about introducing a world-wide technology competition for Clean Energy with a big payoff like the X-Prize. Or requiring these companies to move to the region in order to receive funding and support. If we really want to go green local cities and counties could give clean energy a huge boost by mandating clean energy policies and initiatives on home builders and large corporations.