New York Times reports how people are using blogs to provide self help debt management for themselves, and to help others.  The new perspective is that they are willing to tell about intimate financial issues online, even though they wouldn’t tell friends or family. A blog called Poorer Than You (kgazette.blogspot.com) describes the financial doings of a 20 year old film school dropout. (Typical post: Yesterday we ate lunch at Subway for a total of $8.00, and went grocery shopping … with a list!  And didn’t buy anything that wasn’t on it! ) On saveleighann.blogspot.com, Leigh Ann Fraley, 37, provides … Continue reading Debtors Search for Discipline via Blogs – New York Times

Here is something that amazes me no mainstream Bank has tried.  Product development engaging customers.  This is a start towards the Cluetrain approach.  Right now its customer -> customer.  Real Cluetrain would be employee -> employee and employee -> customer. Hat tip Jeremiah. It is with this mindset that we created Ideastorm. The name is a take-off on the word brainstorm and it is our way of building an online community that brings all of us closer to the creative side of technology by allowing you to share ideas and interact with other customers and Dell experts. You can suggest new … Continue reading About – Dell Ideastorm

I really appreciate the 37 Signals philosophy. I was discussing with a colleague today, about how to embed social interaction/ advice/ communication into an application.  The colleague was (rightly) pointing out the risks and as noted here it can result in less communication. When we set out to build Basecamp we decided that it was going to be about communication, not control. It is our belief that when you collaborate with trusted parties it’s important for people to be able to communicate any way they see fit. Preventing someone from saying or doing something often breaks these free flowing communication channels and … Continue reading Control vs. Communication – (37signals)

 The differences between US and Europe have been rattling around in my brain recently.  Bruno, who attended LIFT last week and is from Switzerland, but now works in Boston, has a unique perspective. He lists and details some US advantages over Europe, and these three resonated.  Scale and language: The obvious one. The US are the largest homogeneous market in the world Entrepreneurship is worthwhile for (nearly) everyone The “Good enough” mentality Source: Lunch over IP: Better in America? Tech-entrepreneurialism in Europe vs the US The last one in particular is interesting.  US (and Canadian) business generally does only what is required.  Budget … Continue reading Europe vs the US – Whats the difference?

 Gmail stats are few and far between, but here are some recent ones. Growth in the e-mail category was driven largely by the rapid adoption of Google Gmail, which was up 71 percent to 60 million visitors year- over-year. Source: comScore Networks Releases Top Web Properties Worldwide for December; Reviews Biggest Gainers for 2006 | CDTV.net Based on Google Operating System stats, here is how they stack up with the competition.  Also note from same source, paid Gmail is coming soon, with over 6 gigs available.  If its non-beta, I will take it.  Anyhow, here are the stats: Users (millions) … Continue reading Webmail statistics

This is a significant move from CheckFree. This places bill payment, electronic presentment, and online banking under one roof. US e-payments firm CheckFree has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Internet banking systems vendor Corillian Corporation for $245 million. Source: Finextra: CheckFree to acquire Corillian for $245m   Technorati tags: online+banking Continue reading Finextra: CheckFree to acquire Corillian for $245m

 Well this is the ultimate in cheque truncation – scan the cheque at home, and process online. Enter details about the check, scan the front of the check, scan the back of the check, confirm the transaction,  destroy the check. Done. The entire process took just a minute and I never left my seat or sealed an envelope. Source: NextCU.com: USAA Deposit@Home – Another WOW moment for ‘Net Banking While cheques are not that prevalent in the retail market, small businesses still use lots of them, and in the US they are common still.  More importantly, there is nothing holding … Continue reading Deposit a cheque through online banking – USAA

I was fortunate enough to be included in Nicole’s pre LIFT podcast.  Sorry it was done via Skype just before I left, and I didn’t have time to put this up before.  Nicole did a far better job than I could at pointing out the threats that face Banks, and we included a fair bit on Paypal, and branch centric banking.  Nicole lives in Germany.  While you are there, I recommend the interviews with Lee Bryant & John Buckman, as they are indeed thought provokers. Lift07: Interview with Colin Henderson Source: Lift07: Interview with Colin Henderson – bloxpert.com   Technorati tags: podcast, … Continue reading Lift07: Interview with Colin Henderson – bloxpert.com

 Scoble makes a point here on the “Wikipedia out of cash” meme, that TechMeme doesn’t link to the appropriate blogs.  There is a big story emanating from LIFT about Wikipedia.  The point is not the story … the point is the reporting of the story, and the people who had the relevant and original reporting. Here’s something that’s bugging me about TechMeme today Source: A bug with TechMeme& « Scobleizer – Tech Geek Blogger TechMeme and Digg both have the problem of being very focussed on a small group of bloggers.  Here is why I worry about this.  Discussion are … Continue reading The problem with meme’s – view is too narrow