Ending 2012 on an Optimistic Note

As 2012 draws to a close, despite numerous disturbing occurrences, I still feel optimistic about what lies ahead. To all who have sent me personal emails, Facebook and LinkedIn messages wishing a happy new year, thank you for taking the time to send along your warm wishes. To all my readers, subscribers, followers, connections, and

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Thought Leaders in Big Data: Franz Aman, Chief Marketing Officer, Silicon Graphics (Part 1)

Franz Aman is the chief marketing officer of SGI (Silicon Graphics), a leader in technical computing. Franz counts more than 20 years of leadership and innovation in global product marketing, brand strategy, and communications. In this interview, he talks about the development of SGI over the past two decades and the opportunities and possibilities that

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Bootstrapping to $35M via Affiliate Fees: Swagbucks Co-founder Scott Dudelson (Part 5)

Sramana: What were the business models that you worked with for the incentive providers? Scott Dudelson: We just bought the gift cards and the award items. We did try to get free goods. We had a business model that supported itself. When a user took an action that generates us money, he or she would

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Catching Up On Readings: Wrapping Up 2012

“Top stories” lists may be standard fare for media sites to round out the year, but this one from TechSpot deserves special mention. Organized by category and in a calendar format, it covers more than 500 stories ranging from mobile to tech culture. Click on the paragraph link for the rest of this week’s posts.

Bootstrapping to $35M via Affiliate Fees: Swagbucks Co-founder Scott Dudelson (Part 4)

Sramana: It seems that the key differentiator with Swagbucks.com is that you have made a move to host a destination site, and you no longer rely on other brands to promote your service. Is that correct? Scott Dudelson: That is correct. In 2008 when we launched Swagbucks.com, we took control of attracting our own users.

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Thought Leaders in Big Data: David Bernstein, Vice President of eQuest’s Big Data Division (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: I have seen this in other sectors, where a company is essentially offering a software as a service, but it is also offering a business process outsourcing. We can call it SaaS-enabled BPO. There is a company we have covered extensively, called Sabrix, that has a very refined ability to do tax calculations

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Bootstrapping to $35M via Affiliate Fees: Swagbucks Co-founder Scott Dudelson (Part 3)

Sramana: When fans go to the SearchWithKISS.com website, what do they get out of it? Scott Dudelson: Every time a fan does a search on that site, he or she has an opportunity to earn points called Swagbucks. They can redeem those points for things like KISS concert tickets, memorabilia, or autographs. The money that

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Thought Leaders in Big Data: David Bernstein, Vice President of eQuest’s Big Data Division (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: So, you are basically looking at your data and doing predictive modeling. David Bernstein: Correct. There is predictive modeling, and then there is the branch fraction index. The benchmarking ability in a real-time comparison is not a level of insight or capability that has ever been within an HR person’s grasp. I have

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