Google's Joe Kraus on How to Make the Web More Social

Published: June 11, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton

Can the Internet be made more social? This is a question with which Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google, constantly has to grapple. He believes every killer app on the web -- instant messaging, e-mail, blogging, photo-sharing -- has succeeded because it helps people connect with one another. For Kraus, this means the Internet has an inherently social character, but it can be enhanced further -- an area he continues to explore through Google initiatives such as Open Social and Friend Connect. Wharton legal studies professor Kevin Werbach spoke with Kraus recently about the increasing socialization of the Internet. Kraus will speak about social computing at the Supernova conference in San Francisco on June 16.

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The Top Ten Small Business Startup Success Secrets

06-11-2008
By Robert Moment  / The Moment Group

Achieving small business success is yours for the taking. Turn your passions into small business profits. Small business startups around the world continues to grow exponentially, the success rate has remained fairly consistent. Are you ready to achieve small business success ? So what can you do to ensure lasting success for your small business? Take a look at our top ten small business startup secrets.

1. Market Research. Market research is the first step to starting a business, it is the last step, and it is an ongoing process. Market research tells you not only if you have a viable business idea, it keeps you in touch with your prospects and customers and helps you build your business so that it can continue to grow.

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How To Kill An Idea

Fast Interview: Super consultant Ram Charan on why that's one of the most important -- and most overlooked -- aspects of innovation.

What’s the secret to a successful handoff? Trick question—there’s no such thing as a good handoff when it comes to innovation, says Ram Charan. Rather, the key to turning an idea into a business success is to gather all players around the table from the beginning. In his new book, The Game-Changer: How you Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth, Charan and co-author A.G. Lafley, chairman and CEO of Procter &Gamble, lay out a process for systematic innovation -- the very thing that has turned P&G into an innovation powerhouse. Charan is one of the most influential corporate consultants in the world, a man so at home in the C-suites that he literally has no real home and spends 365 days a year in jets and hotels. Here, Charan talks about why innovation must be a social process, why linear handoffs are a recipe for failure, why you should be ruthless about killing ideas, and why successful companies of tomorrow will go horizontal.

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One idea, 54 hours: Startup Weekenders build real company

By Daniel Connolly / Memphis Commercial Appeal
Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Michael Synk was crying quietly as people left the Emerge Memphis building Sunday night.

(pic) Barry Foster, Greg Nail and Meka Egwuekwe discuss ideas for the development of a new social networking Web site for Ultimate Frisbee players during the Startup Weekend workshop at Emerge Memphis.

Two days earlier, he had stood in front of an audience and pitched a vague idea for company based on Ultimate Frisbee, a sport like touch football but played with a flying disk.

His peers chose his idea over alternatives, and made it the focus for Startup Weekend, an exercise in which entrepreneurs try to build a real company in 54 hours.

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Startup Profile: IPCybercrime.com

Located in Dallas, Rob Holmes started IPCybercrime with his last paycheck from his prior employer as well as his trusty credit card. His is still bootstrapping his six employee firm with $650,000 in revenue for 2007 and estimated revenues of $750,000 this year. The company assists luxury brands and large companies manage their counterfeiting problems. Their technology scours the Internet for infringements, allowing them to make undercover buys and ultimately to bring bad guys to justice. They handle around 1,000 cases per year, and believe that with additional capital (i.e. to hire people) they could sell even more.

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Entrepreneur Turns Fear into a Profitable, Award-Winning Business

May 30, 2008 - Jason Arabian had his eye on becoming an entrepreneur since he was a young man. Post high school, Jason earned his Associates Degree in Entrepreneurial Studies and then complemented it with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business.

He then worked as an employee for over 15 years knowing that one day he would be his own boss. “I knew that I wanted to be in my own business, but a couple of things were stopping me from moving forward,” says Jason, now a franchise owner of CMIT Solutions. “I didn’t know what type of business I wanted to run and FEAR, it really paralyzed me,” he added.

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