MyTechnologyCompany.com

What You Can Do

1. 1. Buy Articles You Normally Buy At Amazon.com: We have set up an Amazon WebStore, CaringMBAs.com, where you can buy articles that you can buy at Amazon.com at the same prices. The only difference is that all of the commissions we receive go to giving scholarships to promising young girls in Mozambique.
2. 2. Give Directly: GlobalGiving.com allows you to small donations to projects that matter to you. Kiva.org is a great site that allows you to contribute to small loans to entrepreneurs in emerging nations. The great part about Kiva is that your loan will be paid back; allowing you to reinvest your money in another entrepreneur! Check out our sponsored projects below or find them at CaringMBAs.com.
3. 3. Let Other People Know: Make a brief blog post about our cause. Use the text above and link to our caringmbas site!
4. 4. Let Us Know: If you shop at our WebStore, give directly, or simply want to let us know you support what we are doing, we ask that you let us know by leaving a comment below.

• Use Data Politely - There is a wealth of user data that every website should leverage, but users should be given full control on how data is used and stored.
• Make Data Use Relevant - All that data needs to be used in ways that are relevant to users. Relevant use of data = strong value proposition.
• Empower Users - When planning your site, try to stay away from over planning and creating a inflexible, controlled experience. Listen to your user community, give them the tools and let them lead you to where your site should go.
• Leverage Human Psychology - Games have a history of creating compelling user experiences through tapping basic human desires: Collecting, Obstacles, Resources, Achievement, Recognition, and Personalization. Any website can use these traits to create more compelling experiences for their users.
• Mobile Creates Context - Most data on the web lacks the context needed to build predictive models. Mobile devices automatically provide the important contexts of who, when and where. Yahoo! is doing some really cool things in this area.
• Community is Key - For many web businesses, success or failure will largely be determined by their ability to build a strong community. This needs to become a priority for companies.

1. Mobile Convergence - Slowly the mobile phone is becoming the center of our universe. A recent survey said that people generally leave home with three items: keys, wallet, and cell phone. In time the phone will do the tasks of the first two. This will demand that we adapt current services we use from the desktop to the mobile environment or find how a mobile service can enhance the desktop experience.
2. Innovation - Studies show that companies that strategically innovate reap larger returns than their competitors. More importantly, innovators survive, while those that fence themselves into looking at the world from the perspective that used to bring success are doomed. Every company I know wants to innovate, yet so many companies struggle innovating. That is because it is a complex formula of initiatives, culture beliefs, practices, and networks that fuel innovation. One piece of the puzzle will not deliver long term success. I am really fascinated on how to create environments where innovation thrives.
3. Customer Data Problem - It is strange that in so short a period of time we went from expensive and difficult to collect customer data to having an overwhelming amount of customer data. Where companies segmented people by age, gender, zip code, now they can easily get all that and details about their life such as schools they went to, who their friends are, what color car they drive. In theory companies can segment customers to an infinite level. Companies that master this data will earn a short term competitve advantage. The advantage is only short term, because their competitors will either also master it or quickly die (with new companies taking their place). I think this is a big risk companies have not truly understood yet because few companies have mastered this amount of data (I can only think of Amazon.com).
4. The Social Game - Video games are going the way of the hollywood blockbuster. All the major companies are focused on finding the next hit title, but these required significant resource expenditures. All this time the web has brought about a dramatic shift that video game companies seem to ignore because one title will likely not bring in sales of $70 million like Halo 3. People now spend more time online, bandwidth to deliver a faster and more rich internet experience has expanded, a little thing called social networking has occurred, and, oh by the way, people are building applications (and games) on the web and offering them to consumers for free. Video game industry, I would like to introduce you to the music industry. You may have alot to talk about. The opportunities and challenges presented by this paradigm shift are immense.
5. Connecting With Customers - Marketing is also going through a dramatic shift. The time of Marketing operating a one-way pipe is over. Marketers must strategize on how to engage their customers in a dialog. What's the best way to connect and grow the community and nurture the relationships are still undefined, but some companies are using social media tools to do it. Most interesting, no single company is doing the exact same thing; lots of exploration is happening. The one thing people can agree on is that a dialog must be open, transparent, and honest - a challenge for traditional marketers who are used to shaping messages in a positive light.

1. There was a definite call to focus social networks on individuals and less on platforms. "...stop looking at the system-centric social networking to citizen-centric"
2. I am glad that MyBlogLog is finally back to building up its services with new offerings such a location-based tracking using bluetooth technology. I agree, "It's the people coming to sites that is relevant"
3. While the big social network app's companies like RockYou and Slide seem to have a methodology of building a user base of their app's, I am not convinced that the Ad Model is a sustainable monetization model.
4. I want to learn more about micro payment options in North America. Would we accept paying $1 per month for a compelling app? Or how can we encourage users to pay for more compelling experiences - whether it is a virtual good or enhanced functionality.
5. The recent actions by Facebook to slow the App-Spam is really stumping the current App success stories on how to make new apps go viral. Most have concluded create compelling user experiences right off the bat.
6. When thinking about compelling app's remember humans like collecting things, progression, interacting, exchanging, and customizing.
7. There are some opportunities in social games.
8. Enhanced-functionality-app's seem a logical next step in social network app progression, but what functionality do we need in a MySpace/Facebook environment?
9. LinkedIN is perfect for enhanced-functionality app's and businesses (or at least business people) will pay for it.
10. There are alot of homemade YouTube video songs on social networking.