•
Though rising numbers from the final quarter for 2009 had many hopeful that 2010 would see a rebound of venture capital funds, new data from the Nation Venture Capital Association (NVCA) is bound to disappoint as Q1 2010 saw the lowest first quarter numbers (PDF) in 17 years. According to the NVCA, just $3.6 billion has been raised so far this year by VCs compared to $5.2 billion in 2009 and $7.1 billion 2008. Sponsor Back in January, we postulated that the uptake in fundraising by VCs during the final quarter of 2009 could lead to increased VC spending in 2010. The first quarter did see record breaking merger and acquisition numbers , but as NVCA president Mark Heesen points out, the IPO market continued to struggle - a fact he says may have contributed to the new low numbers for VC funds. "Over the last two years, alternative asset allocations have declined and the exit market has suffered, putting venture firms in the unenviable position of communicating their value in an extremely challenging environment," says Heesen. "Many firms have been waiting until the exit market improves before embarking upon their fundraising efforts." Heesen does, however, expect that these numbers will improve over the course of the year following the lead of the M&A and IPO markets which have already shown signs of improvement this year. The NVCA believes that most VC firms will be able to continue to raise funds in 2010, especially as the year continues, but also warns that the industry is headed towards an era of consolidation with smaller firms merging with larger funds or shutting down all together. For startups, the recent numbers are certainly disconcerting, but there is still plenty of venture capital out there, just not as much as there used to be. Right now the VC industry seems very shaky, as analysts attempt to read the tea leaves to make predictions about the future, but entrepreneurship still has its room for opportunity. Quality companies will still find funding, so for startups, the main goals to focus on when seeking funding are building a quality product and ensuring your investors of a profitable future. Discuss
Read more from the original source:
2010 Off to Slowest VC Fund Raising Start Since 1993, Says NVCA
Tags:
analysis,
exit,
fundraising,
nation-venture,
pdf,
putting-venture,
unenviable,
venture-capital
•
Last night, Opera announced that its mobile browser, Opera Mini, had been accepted into the iTunes AppStore after being submitted just under three weeks ago . So, now that the iPhone finally has a browser alternative, how does it fare in comparison? Is it worth running out and getting or should we just stick with the safe old Safari and move on with our day? If you've used Opera Mini for other mobile platforms, such as Blackberry or Android, then its pretty much the same. But, for those of you like myself that haven't, here's what we have to say about it. Sponsor Opera Mini is a full-featured browser that brings some things to the table but falls short on others. While we enjoy the tabbed browsing in comparison to Safari, the zoom feature is not our favorite. We're not quite sure if you actually have to do the pinch gesture to zoom or if a double finger tab does it - the mechanics of it are a bit off. And if, like myself, you have some stubby nubs for fingers then the inability to zoom in as much as you want can be a problem for tightly packed UIs. A main hitch in using Opera on the iPhone, however, is the inability to set it as your default browser. Opening up links in your Twitter client will still bring you back to Safari, as will opening up PDF files in Opera. You're constantly reminded that Opera is number two in line and, even if you place it in the dock at the bottom of your screen, Safari is never far behind. We asked Opera if the iPhone version would be able to take advantage of HTML5 and Javascript and were told that, while Javascript works "surprisingly well", a spokesperson could not say that Opera Mini "takes full advantage of HTML5". Opera also told us that the iPhone version will generally work with bookmarklets for services like InstaPaper and ReadItLater. In all, Opera seems like a viable alternative to Safari on the iPhone, but we're not sure that it can take over the number one spot. It has some bells and whistles, like the frequently-visited page startup page, but without being able to set it as the default browser, it will likely remain a second class citizen. What do you think? Will you be switching over to Opera for the iPhone, to whatever extent that you can? Discuss
Visit link:
Opera Takes a Back Seat to Safari on the iPhone
Tags:
apple,
bells and whistles,
browser opera,
default,
inability,
iphone,
itunes,
mobile,
mobile platforms,
Opera,
opera-mini,
over-the-number,
pdf,
safari,
short-on-others,
Twitter
•
Swiss startup Kooaba is trying to bring the worlds of printed news and virtual content closer together with its Paperboy iPhone app . This app, which is currently only available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, allows users to take pictures of articles from a range of popular magazines and papers and then see additional content about these articles on their iPhones. Paperboy will also make a digital version of the article available in your Kooaba archive and users can then share this article with their friends by email and on Facebook and Twitter. Sponsor Note : Paperboy isn't available in the U.S. version of Apple's App Store. In the U.S., only Kooaba's app for recognizing books, DVD covers and other physical objects is currently available. Kooaba also worked with Wired last year to make some of the magazine's advertisements more interactive. Kooaba, which specializes in image recognition and already offers similar recognition tools for book and CDs, is working directly with a number of magazine publishers in the German-speaking world. The company plans to bring its services to other countries as well. Sadly, the service doesn't work for papers and magazines that don't work directly with Kooaba to get their content featured on the app. Kooaba needs a PDF version of the magazine to train the service's image recognition software. Besides making the article available for online reading and sharing, Paperboy's partners can also include links to their Facebook and Twitter profiles, as well as links to related articles and videos. Magazines and papers can also choose to charge their users for accessing extra content through Paperboy. In addition, advertisers can embed related links to their web sites whenever somebody scans a relevant article or print ad. Overall, this looks like an interesting concept. Even though the newspaper and magazine business is in the middle of a deep crisis, print won't go away for a while and applications like Paperboy can help print publishers to bridge the gap between their traditional publications and their online presence. The question, however, is if other technologies like QR codes aren't easier to use for publishers who just want to embed a link into an article for example. Via: Netzwertig Discuss
Read the rest here:
Paperboy: Bridging the Gap Between Print and Online News
Tags:
app,
apple,
Austria,
Business,
countries,
facebook,
friends,
german,
Germany,
image recognition software,
Kooaba,
online,
Paperboy,
pdf,
phones-paperboy,
print publishers,
Read,
Switzerland,
technologies,
traditional,
U.S.,
virtual content
•
Doing research to attract more women to our Mobile Summit on May 7, 2010 , I revisited some of ReadWriteWeb's past articles on gender and tech. In January, we discussed " 'Sexy Girls,' Smart Women and Tech " in an open thread where we asked for readers' opinions and had an open discussion on women's issues, like whether it's true that some good-looking women get flaunted as sex symbols, while other women get overlooked, are underpaid and not taken seriously. Sponsor Commenters, among other really interesting discussion points, asked for stats to back up statements. In Harvard Business Review Magazine this month I stumbled across a rather depressing recent study [ PDF download ], which, on the bright side confirms that looks have little to do with pay scale, ability to secure a leadership role, or smarts. However, on the dark side, it showed gender still very much does matter. Findings of the study show women's transcendence to leadership roles has not occurred, inequality remains entrenched in terms of pay, career advancement, as well as career satisfaction. Shockingly, study respondents weren't just any other Joanne or Joe Schmo in the workforce. The study tracked the smartest and brightest grad students from elite MBA programs, around the world, from 1996 to 2007. These are motivated and talented men and women. In the words of Harvard Business Review, "Pipeline's Broken Promise, examines the past two decades in which leaders have counted on parity in education, women's accelerated movement into the labor force, and company-implemented diversity and inclusion programs to yield a robust talent pipeline where women are poised to make rapid gains to the top. " The survey took into account experience, time since MBA, first post-MBA job level, industry and global region of work at the time of survey, and found that: Men were twice as likely as women to be at the CEO/senior executive level. Men's pay out paced women's. Men significantly outpaced women moving up the career ladder when starting out in similar level roles. These findings are not specific to any industry, including technology. Even I was shocked looking across this Microsoft org chart . For some reason seeing things in list format made the differential of men to women in Microsoft management even more striking. Note this isn't for lack of women candidates as women make up almost half (49.9% in October 2009) of the workforce - no, we aren't leaving work to have babies either! I am stereotypical myself. I personally have clawed my way all the way to middle management after 20 years working in the tech industry, while men younger than I hold more senior roles. Is this simply because I am a woman? These findings would say, "Well, yes." So what is it about men and women? Will there ever be a time where women aren't looked on as women in the tech industry, but just as smart people with skills that fit a certain role, best? I personally know a lot of extremely smart women, all of whom that have had to go out on their own to make it above the glass ceiling. So is it just men in management holding us back? I find this study pertinent, not just to my own work experience, but also as we are a month away from the Mobile Summit in San Francisco on May 7 . Looking to encourage a stronger female presence, we felt compelled to get out and ask women and men alike the following questions: Who are the most fascinating women working on the mobile Web? As a fascinating woman in mobile industry and working on the mobile Web, what topics would you find of interest? And yes, finally... Why do you think women when compared to men are STILL underpaid, less likely to be in a senior role, and less likely to be satisfied with their careers? Your thoughts and comments please. Also see these related articles on other websites from Clay Shirky , Jeanne of Feministing , danah boyd and Gina Trapani , which have some interesting comments and counterpoints on why the glass ceiling still exists. Photo by Faakhir Rizvi . Discuss
See the rest here:
Open Thread: Women in Leadership Roles Yet? No. But Why?
Tags:
career,
careers,
labor,
mobile,
pdf,
smart,
study,
tech,
time,
women,
words,
workforce
•
One of the iPad's biggest selling points is its potential as an e-Reader. The included iBooks application and the optional downloadable Amazon Kindle app, for example, provide hundreds of thousands of books to read, all in a relatively standard format: swipe horizontally to flip a page . iPad magazines, however, are trying to be far more creative. As we've mentioned before , the new magazine-style applications include everything from video to music within their pages, plus interactive features and clickable ads. But one problem with these innovative new 'zines is that they each do their own thing, in their own way. While this early adopter applauds the innovations we're seeing on the iPad platform, the mainstream user may find the variations confusing. Sponsor Mini-Movies and More First up: the heavily praised interactive VIV mag , a standout among online newstand Zinio's offerings. Early demos were decidedly exciting. This wasn't text - it was a multimedia experience ! The article featured in the demo video , a sex-ed advice guide, used actors against a green screen to produce a mini-movie illustrating the article's main points. Worried about AIDS? A women writhes against a bull's-eye as knives fly at her. Afraid of pregnancy? A women casts a worried glance at the man entering the room while pressing her hand to her stomach. In practice, however, this format is not as much fun as expected. The cover features clickable links, one that reads "Enter Issue" and another that says "Click to VIVIFY this cover!" Sorry - what? Now I know that they mean "launch interactive content" but mainstream Dicks and Janes may not. And the iPad, if anything, is targeting these so-called "everyday" users - the content consumers whose tech-savviness is a bit lacking, if I may say so kindly. But if you don't "vivify" the mag, you miss the movies - the main attraction. (There is a "Vivify" button at the bottom of each page, too, in case you didn't see it the first time around, but the text next to it says "Tap on the 'V' to read more." Read? How about "watch" or "see?") Another problem with VIV? I'm not sure if it was an app glitch or an iPad one, but the first movie got stuck "downloading" at 16%. Future, here I come? Next is TIME magazine . A gushing editor's letter talks about the publication's embracing the new slate-computer platform of the iPad. But how they've done so is already attracting some criticism . One of the problems is that TIME decided to go with vertical swipes for reading articles but horizontal swipes for navigating from one article to the next. This is not intuitive. On an eReader, whether book or magazine, we expect to read left to right. Vertical only works on the desktop-based web. Condé Nast's GQ magazine is another specialized iPad creation I examined. It doesn't start off well: upon launch, a progress bar displays how much of the magazine has download so far. Will the mainstream user know that you don't have to wait for the download to complete before you tap "read issue?" I'm so not sure. They've also chosen to go with vertical navigation for reading articles and horizontal navigation for scrolling between sections. Meanwhile, Car & Driver's "iPad Interactive Edition" returns you to plain ol' horizontal flipping. In fact, the magazine looks so much like a color PDF that we almost missed the interactive features. Obviously, two white squares overlaid on an image surely means "launch photo gallery," right? One app that gets it right is NPR ....although that's probably because it's not really trying to be a magazine, despite the company's claims that it uses a "magazine-style presentation." While it's true that you can flip from page to page, horizontally of course, the app is more than a mere digitized mag. There's an audio player, playlist creator, program and station finder and more. The news items with an audio track feature buttons for listening and adding to your playlist. Straight text-based items do not. Simple and easy, and overall, well-done. At the end of the day, these magazines are still more fun than their analog counterparts, but, clearly, they're all in very experimental stages right now. The navigation and interactive features differ from magazine app to magazine app, with some getting it better than others. Will they eventually standardize their presentation in an effort to simplify their features? Should they? It's too early to tell what format readers will prefer: mini-movies, some interactive bits sprinkled throughout or straight-laced e-reading. In the meantime, it will be interesting to try out all the variations. Discuss
The rest is here:
iPad Mags: Amazing or Confusing?
Tags:
aids,
amazon,
amazon kindle,
app,
apple,
article,
clickable ads,
desktop,
driver,
interactive,
iPad,
magazine,
mainstream user,
movies,
pdf,
presentation,
Read,
time,
variations,
VIV