Category: Business

More people are using fast smartphones, and expect to get their information on their phones. In the last quarter of 2010, approx 95 million smartphones shipped worldwide. Are you ready to reach these people? Following are some graphs relevant to how the public gets information:

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The costs to rent a traveling exhibit vary widely depending on the size, complexity, subject matter, and underlying objectives of exhibition owners.

To visualize the diversity of costs, we look at the Traveling Exhibitions Database (TED). It includes a database of 768 current traveling exhibitions available in the U.S. The following is the distribution of sizes (square feet) vs. costs ($USD) of traveling exhibits:

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In April 2009, a dozen 53-foot tractor trailers delivered the latest blockbuster exhibit — Harry Potter: The exhibition — to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The exhibit was big on magic, with 400 costumes and props from the films, including 17 wands, Harry’s famous round glasses, the Marauder’s Map, Harry’s Nimbus 2000 broom, Hermione Granger’s Yule Ball gown, and a lot of oversized furniture. The movie props were big draw. The exhibit was at the start of its tour, and the Chicago museum was the first venue. (more…)

Tina Rosenberg wrote in a blog post for the NYTimes last week, about microconsignment, which is..

A way for village entrepreneurs to sell innovative and important products for which there is no established market — such as solar lamps, water purifiers, stoves and reading glasses — without having to take on debt. (more…)

Stepping into emerging markets with informational infrastructure. An “obsolete” computer in the West might be useful and well-received by poorer communities.  Problem The digital divide that exists between those with access to technology and those without is exacerbated by the constant improvements – revisions and upgrades – generated by software developers and hardware manufacturers in

Separating a site’s design from its content makes a re-design less costly. Problem It’s expensive to pay for the services of a web designer, and doubly expensive if you decide to change the site’s design at some point during the site’s life cycle. Solution Separate a website’s content, design, and structure, so the design can

Technological tools can routinely prune obsolete web site content. Problem As a website grows, it tends to accumulate outdated content that detracts from the site’s effectiveness. Like wilted sunflowers, outdated content can detract from the attractiveness and usefulness of your web site. Solution Content management software allows a project to set content expiration dates and

Protecting your organization from data loss requires forethought. Catastrophic data loss is rare, but it’s best to be prepared by keeping a back-up of your encrypted data in a second location. Problem You want to minimize the risk of losing data due to crashes or natural disasters. Solution Keep a back-up of your data in

Utilizing common tools and hosting solutions can minimize web site expenses. The technical complexities of running web servers can be costly – but you do not need to do it yourself. Problem Hosting and maintaining a website is expensive and can be cost-prohibitive for many projects. Solution Utilize remote hosting and a content management software

WYSIWYG user interfaces enable non-technical personnel to publish site content. With a simple, web-based interface, project directors need not deal with complex, impenetrable code. Problem The design of the website may look wonderful, but the project director can’t effectively place or update online content. Solution A simple, web-based interface allows project directors and authors to