Infotrade

The launch of Apple’s App Store in 2008 triggered a massive upswing in mobile application sales. Sure, apps had been being sold on a small scale in ecosystems like Palm or Windows Phone, but once the expectation of apps being purchased right on the device was established, the ecosystem took off like a rocket. Now tech advocacy firm Technet has  published a study  indicating that 466,000 jobs have been created in the ‘app economy’ since 2008,  reports The Loop . The firm says that in 2007, the economy was at zero, which is a bit misleading as there were definitely companies producing apps for mobile phones in ’07. But it can’t be argued that the market is infinitely larger since the App Store hit the scene. The ‘app economy’ is said to include jobs for programmers, user interface designers, marketers of applications, managers and support staff. The group has also produced a list of the biggest states for app jobs and, unsurprisingly, California takes the top sp...

Snapshot from video NOTE:  Some major wind projects like the proposed  TWE Carbon Valley project  in Wyoming are already pricing in significantly lower than coal power -- $80 per MWh for wind versus $90 per MWh for coal -- and that is without government subsidies using today's  wind turbine  technology.  The International Clean Energy Analysis (ICEA) gateway estimates  that the U.S. possesses 2.2 million km2 of high wind potential (Class 3-7 winds) — about 850,000 square miles of land that could yield high levels of wind energy. This makes the U.S. something of a Saudi Arabia for wind energy, ranked third in the world for total wind energy potential.   Let's say we developed just 20 percent of those wind resources — 170,000 square miles (440,000 km2) or an area roughly 1/4 the size of Alaska — we could produce a whopping 8.7 billion megawatt hours of electricity each year (based on a theoretical conversion of six 1.5 MW turbines...

You may love social media, but even the biggest fans of the social web will find some sources of frustration. What is your social media pain point? I thought I’d explore some of the main ones I’ve identified and offer up some potential solutions. 1. Managing Your Profile and Reputation So many networks, so many different audiences and connections. Maybe you’re feeling like you have split personalities: being professional on LinkedIn, running at the mouth on Twitter, then letting your hair down on Facebook. But wait! You forgot that you’re connected with your boss or your client on Facebook. Panic ensues. Or what if someone is Googling your name before interviewing you for a job. What will they find? Over the last 10 years, we’ve all learned some tough lessons about what it means to be digital. Solution:  Reduce the number of networks you use. Keep your work and personal networks separate. Create a “universal” profile to help clear up the clutter.  About.me  lets ...

There’s a vast expanse between the transactional moment when a consumer likes, friends, or follows a site and the instant that same consumer becomes a brand evangelist, entering into a state of emotional commitment. The former isn’t difficult to achieve; observe how many sites have hundreds of thousands of friends, very few of whom feel any real passion for the brand, or would go out of their way to recommend it to somehow (least of all defend it in a the social-media equivalent of a barroom brawl.) The latter is the bell-ringing marketing challenge of today. It’s not surprising that there isn’t more deep-down devotion among the millions of superficial friends and followers. Most brands do very little to cultivate a more meaningful, psychologically grounded relationship.   Sure, they can convince a consumer to step into the friend category through some form of social or economic quid pro quo--become a friend and get a discount, or get a badge or incentive. But they do ve...