Archive for November, 2007
How did we lose the kindness?
Courtesy of BigFaith
Is the kindness still there? Is there still such a thing as ‘true love’? Can the whole human race learn to co-operate together when the time ultimately calls for it or will we end up fighting still? Is there seriously any faith left in humanity?
Leo from Zen Habits never ceases to inspire me as he reminds me of the rarity of true kindness in the world with his latest post. I am reminded of all these questions I once had and how I almost forgot them. It’s easy to get lost in the midst of life sometimes when you got so much work going on and the little things tend to slip by. But in reality then shouldn’t.
The thing that hit a soft spot in me was the idea that how much faith is left in humanity? I still have tremendous faith in humanity but I am usually called the optimist for a reason. Despite all the negativity I see and at my young age, I only keep those thoughts in the back of my mind so I do not appear naive but it gets you thinking how the human race is going to end up?
The biggest illusion in the world is that we are all different but in essence we are not. Everyone has loves, personalities, dreams; everyone has a story. The last time I touched on this topic was my highest peak of traffic ever and for good reason too. We really need to understand that everyone deserves equal amount of care and kindness because we are all human on the inside but I provided actual scientific evidence that it is impossible to do so. It might seem contradictory but according to the Monkeysphere or Dunbar’s Number, 150 is the maximum amount of people we can actually truly care about. (I am actually doing an intensive scientific research project on Dunbar’s Number in school but I’ll save that for another time)
But this doesn’t mean we still can’t spread the kindness. I believe little acts everyday are the most effective way of spreading the kindness. From the ‘thank you’s to any nice complement that you notice about someone.
Being a student, I am with my friends a lot at school and Christmas is also coming up. I want to pay it forward by just thanking them for being my friends. I have these nice bells still hanging around and what’s better than a neat little present. Throughout the month of December, I plan to attach little notes to the bells and just throw it in my friends backpacks just thanking them for being my friend. Imagine the surprise when they find it.
Thank you again Leo for re-sparking this feeling inside of me. Leo also provided me a free copy of his eBook and is providing me a link to this post in his efforts to spread kindness. This goes to show that you don’t really need something super special but just anything that you have at hand is worthwhile.
~Kevin X
My previous RAoK post.
All Teens do the GHOP
Google Highly Open Participation Contest. Really awkward name right?
Looks like Google really wants to inspire the next generation to be involved with open-source projects already. Opened exclusively to 13-18 year olds, 10 fantastic open source platforms (Joomla, Apache, GNOME, Moodle, among others) are allowing kids to get involved with various tasks to help the open source community.
Along with that are also prizes including a t-shirt (who doesn’t want a Google t-shirt), a certificate, $100s of dollars, and a special kid from each open course platform gets the chance to go visit the Googleplex to receive their award.
Our readers will know that we are getting excited over this. Although Google can be considered a monolith among the web companies, it is also one of the most friendly and innovative to work for. This is a great opportunity for all kids to consider and I highly recommend it. The tasks range from the program-heavy to some light documentation and video-making tasks.
I am probably going to help out Moodle with some tutorial-making tasks and Josh is taking on a huge task of upgrading a Joomla component. There are time limits and professional developments and the whole shibang so we hope this will be good experience as well as a huge chance for something more.
~Kevin X
The growth of a community (Digg vs Mixx)
If you have dabbed into web 2.0 a little bit or even visited a forum, you would have noticed a unique atmosphere or community that forms. Users with similar ideas and ethics gather together over the internet and discuss about news and other things that cater specifically to them. But often they ignore things that do not cater to them. Oh sure forums are supposed to do that and so do a lot of other sites and you are right but this shouldn’t happen to these so-called “social content” which should be promoting all kinds of media. But for right now I am specifically talking about Digg and Mixx.
Digg- What was an internet phenomenon for a good amount of time is now turning into a corrupt community with a strong bias. Lets start with the good things first. It was best known for:
- The digg effect which was when an onslaught of viewers all go to the same website and essentially crash it under its own server
- The first to popularize the “up” and “down” buttons for rating things which has now even spread to Facebook
- Promotion of good technology and offbeat news
- Usually endless laughs from witty comments and replies
This was all fine and dandy back when I first registered since it was a unique system that worked. You would promote the links that you liked until it hit the front page where it would grow immensely. But as the community grew, it created a strong bias and essentially became “corrupt”. People would only digg their friends’ posts and most submissions would go unnoticed. The finer points of this bias are:
- Pro-Apple and anti-Microsoft
- Anything Ron Paul and anti-Fox News
- Anything with a hot girl (because according to them, all Digg users are hopeless male computer nerds)
- Anything Kevin Rose
- Blogspam (because friends digg up other friends)
Because of the growing worries about the “corruptness” of Digg, a new social/content/bookmarking/sharing site has emerged and it is called Mixx.
Mixx- Just another digg-like site where users register and add their links where it can get voted up or down thus rating its popularity. Sounds overused but of course it claims it has its own unique features such as groups and rearranging of the content that you want to see. According to Techcrunch it is becoming the place for “Digg Refugees” and I’m not sure it should be keeping that title. It is only two months old at the moment so the community is still small and pure. It is emphasizing the fact that it will weigh each story equally so the proper amount of pro-Apple stories will get voted on as well as pro-Microsoft as well as the anti’s so that all sides of the topic get equally heard. I say “Good Luck”. One thing I am already seeing is this:
- Pro-Mixx
- Anti-Digg
Of course this was bound to happen as it builds appreciation for the site they’re on (think patriotism) and trying to downgrade the power of Digg. It is causing quite a stir in the web 2.0 community as users have to evaluate which to stay loyal too.
Now I am not bashing either of them because it is inevitable that as a community grows larger, this is bound to happen. But it is true that both have many similarities (I mean look at their names; 4 letters, i as the second letter, and a repeated third and fourth letter). And there is no difference between these two and all the other digg-like sites such as Reddit, del.ici.ous, or Thoof. Mixx was just a site I happened to come across today and these are some things I noticed. I of course do not have solution nor am I suggesting one but I do hope that it gets solved in some way. More power to ya
~Kevin X
Where are the profits? (Part 5)
So lets say hypothetically that we do create some type of stereotypical web 2.0 user-generated website service type of thing, but where do the profits come from? All the great websites like Digg, Facebook, and Google are all free and that is the only way to get a lot of visitors. But they are also creating a million dollars in profit so how does that make sense?
Advertisements- I was quite surprised by how much revenue just ads could make. They range from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars for an annual salary. Currently we use Google AdSense and that provides some nice funds on the side (in the cents range). But there are some really popular sites and blogs that make a thousand dollars a week! But advertisements go so much more in depth.
The real use of advertisements is actually getting payment from people that want to advertise their own special something. This would come in the form of monthly payments or even as a type of sponsorship. Everyone wants to advertise on Google thus they pay good money for it. Facebook is starting a new form of advertisement where people can pay to advertise whatever they want to advertise but it will be specifically directed at the intended audience (mainly mindless teens). So how does one get these people to advertise? I bet few to no one will pay us to put their ad on our website because we are still fairly unknown. So the first step is really to generate a large community and traffic so we do get known. Can The World Hear Me right?
Actual fees- This is seldom used but if we create an actual downloadable program or a really expensive type of service then this might be used. But the idea of actually paying to use something online is a big turn-off for many. One of the newest companies 23andme (founder is the wife of one of Google founders) charges users $999 to use their service. But it is for good reason because they will analyze your whole DNA structure and find out your genetic history, makeup, and potential risks of diseases. It’s a fascinating approach to a good idea and I believe the fee will provide them with good revenue. And through this process, they have no need for advertisements either.
Donations- Now you’re probably laughing believing that a large company hoping to profit can’t ever rely on donations. But I present to you the awesome power that is Wikipedia! For however long they have been in business, they have never resorted to advertisements or fees but only donations. And if you think about how much data they have stored, thats a whole lot of hard drive and bandwidth storage needed (terabytes really). Maybe the online generation is nicer these days and are willing to donate to a great cause.
Now what will we do? Unless we sell something, the fees will turn-off many and I’m not sure people want to donate to two teenagers. AdSense is just a little blurb on the side to see the effects of advertising but is anyone willing to pay us for advertising? Other blogs like Jessica Mah’s gets nice promotional offers from companies hoping for a review by her (good or bad) but that’s because a lot of people read her site. In the meantime we’ll be dealing with different type of offers and see what the world has to offer us.
Stay tuned for the last part 6- Turning a website/blog into a service.
Previously:
Why form a startup? (Part 1)
Why use web 2.0? (Part 2)
What problems can we solve? (Part 3)
What are the Solutions to these Problems? (Part 4)
~Kevin X
What are the Solutions to these Problems? (Part 4)
A good startup will provide a simple solution to an aggravating problem. In our last post we mentioned some of the problems in today’s world. In this post I will outline some ways we can implement the three I’s to come up with a useful solution to these problems.
Sleep/Stress/Organization- As I thought more and more about this, these three problems all go under the subject of ‘time management’ and that really is an issue for many people. The whole “I got a lot of work/homework but I want freetime” thing is quite cumbersome because it takes a lot of personal initiative. The main solution would just be to have a set time to do work and then a set time to play around so there is no procrastination. It actually takes some getting used to because some people just go on long work marathons or play marathons and that gets nothing done. Doing work in sections is also a helpful tip but Lifehack does its job for giving tips on productivity. The only thing that someone hasn’t done is find a way to get work done by itself. But we all know that is impossible =(
Tech-savvyness- How do we engage people into the internet through the internet? Well besides guides and tips, it will really take the initiative to get a lot of the older generation to learn new techniques to make life faster and easier. The ability to change homepages and keyboard shortcuts is still new to a lot of people. I saw on tv some program this guy is selling that promises to teach you how to use the computer and thought “wow, another way to corrupt people”. In order to gain ‘tech-savvyness’ it once again takes personal initiative but what about providing a service for other websites to make them more user-friendly?
Boredom- I took this idea from an old favorite www.i-am-bored.com. It was really popular around 2004 but then just kinda stayed there. Looking back, it hasn’t evolved much since then either and could use a facelift or a whole new rampup. Innovating the same idea and making it web 2.0 or a combo with digg is an interesting idea. Maybe that might work…
Money- We can provide financial tips and portfolio management but that is already done by many top-execs. To innovate this we can make it free but the work isn’t enough for the reward. Other than that we don’t want to make any of those ‘get rich quick’ schemes so web 2.0 can help facilitate money by ads but Google was wise to make AdSense. Maybe a service where easily persuaded teens are exchanging items with commission fees?
So this is basically my mindmapping as you can see the sentences are all like I am talking to myself. Yeah I can just do this in real life too but I decided to blog this stuff so it stays written somewhere. I also like to mention this great website called IdeaShower I encountered the other day. The owner, Nate, just keeps a record of all his ideas and numbers them and I hope many of his succeed. His current two, Charade Ideas and the Firefox Add-on Read It Later, have been a hit so far. Check it out!
Stay tuned for part 5- Where are the profits?
Previously:
Why form a startup? (Part 1)
Why use web 2.0? (Part 2)
What problems can we solve? (Part 3)
~Kevin X
Master the Interrobang‽‽‽
He did WHAT
This is just something neat I came across. Anyone ever use this symbol‽ It’s some awesome hybrid of the question mark and the exclamation point. Usually during online conversations this is represented like this?!?!?! but the combo makes it look cooler. I wonder if I actually used this on some official test, would they go “wow he knows some rare English symbols” or “what the hell is this kid doing‽” Hehe it would be pretty funny, I think I’ll try it out on my next essay.
~Kevin X
Everyone likes FreeRice right?
It’s a new game that is both educational and helping the world. FreeRice is apparently a website sponsored by the United Nations aimed at helping build vocabulary as well as fighting world hunger. The deal is that for every correct vocabulary word you answer, the UN will donate 10 grains of rice to a person in need. The words will get harder or easier depending on if you got the previous word right or wrong and the amount of rice easily accumulates into the hundreds.
I believe the aim of this website is the best I have ever seen. It is entirely free, the rice is paid by the various sponsors. It is teaching vocabulary in a fun way, which can get addictive for some and is a very useful tool for students. And best of all it is for a great cause, trying to fight world hunger. The amount of rice donated daily is growing exponentially and we could soon be are seeing millions of grains each day. I recommend everyone go check it out and bookmark it for daily use. Only two minutes can gain a person in need over 100 grains of rice!
~Kevin X
What problems can we solve? (Part 3)
As I said in a previous post, the purpose of a business should be to make meaning rather than to make money. Great companies create innovative solutions to some of the simplest problems. Google solved the search problem. Wikipedia solved the knowledge problem. And Facebook solved the connection problem. They each established their solutions into a unique niche which benefited everyone else and in return benefited them.
So what problems are left that we can solve? I’m not afraid to list them off because competition is always going to be there no matter what niche we decide to enter. Unless we come up with a niche that no one has entered yet, then we might keep that a secret ;D
Sleep- People today of all ages need more sleep. Some people have no problem waking up early but most people do like the idea of sleeping for 12 hours straight. With the way today’s society works (early work hours, few breaks, exhausted nights) it seems like there’s no time to sleep. It seems like a continuous cycle of dragging yourself out of bed, trying to make it through the whole day, and then overloaded with work at home so you don’t get enough sleep for the next day. Why do we make ourselves suffer through this and can a web-based startup fix this?
Stress- Kinda goes with the sleep problem but more to do with the human psyche. Whether it is taking a test, submitting a report, or public speaking, people get very nervous these days and stressed. It all comes down to the fact that we care too much. If you were speaking to a teddy bear, you wouldn’t be stressed at all but if you spoke to George Bush (kinda like an oversized teddy bear) you would be a little more stressed. So can a web-based startup fix this?
Organization- One of my personal strengths is organization and from that, I can see how messy a lot of other people’s lives are. Web-based programs have tried and tried again to devise a solution to this but can we come up with something that works?
Tech-savvyness- A lot of people in this world still aren’t tech-savvy and think a computer is doing ‘magic’. They believe it is only the nerds and geeks that know the inner workings of a computer but everyone is able to know how it works. People don’t necessarily need to know how it works but how to use it to its full capacity. Maybe a culmination of the inner workings of the web?
Boredom- There are also the people in this world that are bored a lot. They need a meaningless distraction of fun for them to get through the day. Besides conventional forms of entertainment like movies or games, maybe they need something even more meaningless?
Money- Yeah, everyone still wants money…
I guess when it comes down to it, it’s all about productivity. Google made searching easier and quicker and so does Wikipedia and Facebook for what they do. Easier and quicker. Making life easier and quicker seems the viable solution to all these problems.
So these are just a few of the problems I could think of at this moment. There are bounds more and maybe I’ll add them to this post or make another post about it. Until then, stay tuned for Part 4- What are the solutions to these problems?
Previously:
Why form a startup? (Part 1)
Why use web 2.0? (Part 2)
~Kevin X
Why use web 2.0? (Part 2)
What is so special about web 2.0 anyways that makes entrepreneurs and startups around the world eager to profit from it? Sure it is the newest and fastest form of information on the internet. It is also the fastest growing concept on the internet and constantly changing. It sounds all nice and dandy but why do we want to grow a business around it? Why can’t we just set up a shop and plain out sell our product/service?
The way I see it, the businesses that don’t have an online component fail. That’s not to say every business needs to have a website (depends on what kind of business) but most should. If you set up a shop in the local town, the chance that you are known out of town is slim. The idea decades ago of setting up shop, making lots of money, and then starting a franchise with shops set up all over the country is gone.
Dell made it big because it was the first company to sell computers exclusively online. Before you had to go to a store and some saw that as a hassle. Other companies now also do the same thing, sell their items via an online store. Almost every large store has one: Best Buy, Walmart, Target, etc. This is called E-Commerce and it is the best thing to happen to these businesses. Only the small stores that you never hear of don’t have a website thus they will never make it big. There are some stores that only have a website to sell things and they make far more money than any small physical store. Think about it, no rental fees, no workers to pay, it’s just you and whatever you are trying to sell.
But we don’t want to sell an item so how are we going to use web 2.0? It is clear to us that we want to start a service online. Being born in the technology revolution, we understand the power of web 2.0 and how a simple search engine (Google) can have a stock skyrocket to $700 or a video service (Youtube) can be worth up to $1.65 billion. These prices actually don’t surprise me because I expected them to boom. Many analysts think that we are at the end of the ‘dot-com’ bubble but I believe that it is only beginning. How the internet has changed the economy, culture, and politics is fasinating and in only a couple of years. There is much more to come.
Stay tuned for Part 3- What problems can we solve?
Previously:
Why form a startup? (Part 1)
~Kevin X
Who wants to do a guest post? It makes you feel special :D
Can The World Hear Me is officially launching the option for our readers to do a guest post. We understand that a good blog needs a steady stream of posts (we are trying to do one every other day) and from a variety of perspectives. Although the purpose of blogging is to find out about our opinions and going-ons, we want to hear what you guys, our readers, have to say as well. Anything from your opinions about us, reviews, startup news, high school drama, anything really as long as it is somewhat related to our blog and what we are trying to accomplish as teenagers trying to get the world to know who we are.
So if anyone is interested just email us at cantheworldhearme@gmail.com. As soon as you write up a draft, email it to us and we will post it on this blog giving you full credit.
~Can The World Hear Me