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(Monthly Archives) September 2005

Give a Platform to Your Customers and Let Them Talk

Consumer-generated media exceeds traditional advertising for influencing consumer behavior, finds Intelliseek study (via Emergence Marketing). Consumers are 50 percent more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads… see press release from Intelliseek.

Advertisers of the world… stop spending on “pushing” image and message… it doesn’t really work well anymore… in the near future it won’t work at all.

Invest in Aidpage instead… :) … or in similar projects… Give a platform to your customers and let them write, talk, sing, make pictures. You don’t even have to be “creative”… let them be creative. Do not judge or mediate. Now, just imagine how will they think of you.

September 28, 2005 aidpage
architecture
business
social
technology
web Comments (0)

Am I Happy About Tom DeLay or What!

Tom DeLay says he will temporarily (hope not) step down from his post following today’s indictment. See story on Reuters…

September 28, 2005 politics Comments (0)

Millions of Eligible People Don’t Get Food Stamps

More than 3 million needy people in big cities could be getting food stamps but don’t for a variety of reasons, an anti-hunger group says (see story in CNN).

That translates to $2.1 billion in unused food stamps, the Food Research and Action Center said in a report released Wednesday, Sep 28, 2005.

The Food Stamp Program is a critically important but very underutilized resource for urban America, according to the new Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) report, “Food Stamp Access in Urban America: A City-by-City Snapshot” (see full report as PDF file). The FRAC report analyzes food stamp usage and the incidence of hunger and poverty in 25 of America’s largest cities, spread out over 20 states and the District of Columbia.

September 28, 2005 social Comments (0)

Pictures from Vermont… Labor Day 2005

Here is a link to the post with the pictures.

September 26, 2005 personal Comments (0)

Finally… We Launched the Katrina Section on Aidpage!

Yesterday. A bit late probably… (see it here) – but we did what we could with our resources. We just hope that it will be useful to some number of people.

It was also a test for our thinking about Aidpage in general. But I cannot say anything meaningful right now. May be I am somewhat tired… or plainly overwhelmed by the complexity of the issues.

I tried to follow the discussions about Recovery 2.0 started by Jeff. For some unknown reason… while fully supporting the “buzz”, I couldn’t find any way to connect, participate, or contribute. May be I was too buzy trying to figure out how our own Aidpage project fits into the Katrina picture.

September 23, 2005 aidpage
social
technology
web Comments (2)

Collaborative Tagging Systems – A New White Paper From HP Labs

Don’t have the time now to comment on the paper… will do later… eventually. In the meantime, here is a link to the abstract – “The Structure of Collaborative Tagging Systems“… and here to the full text PDF file.

Very much related to… and explaining some of the stuff we already do at AidPage. The paper’s main example is of course the very popular Del.icio.us.

September 14, 2005 social
technology
web Comments (0)

What is AidPage?

You are a tourist on a city street… trying to find your way. How do you get help?

Help Yourself

You use a map or a booklet with information about the city. That’s ok… although… feels a bit like work… and is somewhat lonely.

People Help People

You ask a passer-by for directions… Or simply, a passer-by recognizes your “tourist” behavior, stops on his/her own will and spends 30 seconds (often much more) helping you. You feel good. The passer-by feels even better. Witnessing onlookers feel good too. What happens is an easy, almost instinctive “give and take”… so natural that we don’t even think about who “gives”, who “takes”, or why is this happening. This is not “giving”. People just help each other.

So… What is AidPage?

AidPage is a free public space on the Web where you can speak out about (1) your needs, and (2) your desire to help others. AidPage fosters informal communication among AidMates (simply posting on AidPage makes you an AidMate), sharing of experience, and mutual support.

E-Bay enables the simple, direct “people buy from people” over the Internet. AidPage enables the simple, direct “people aid people” over the Internet.

See also:

How Does AidPage Work

September 8, 2005 aidpage
social
technology
web Comments (0)

My personal DNA map…

Seemingly, I am a considerate idealist :-) … At least, this is what I got from the personality test at personaldna.com.

Mouse over any part of the box or strip to learn more about the traits that the colors represent.

September 3, 2005 personal Comments (0)