Highlighted on Digg this is an incredible demonstration of Google Maps to overlay public campaign contribution data.
Just enter in the zip code you are interested in and up comes some great summary graphs as well as your local neighborhood map of where the contributions came from! You can click on the red or blue pins and see the names of the contributors.
Incredible… I use VistaPrint for our printing - low cost, high quality, great service with an amazing new web-based printing model. What I didn't know was how well they had used patents on their processes to drive their profits. Read about how Robert Keane's company VistaPrint (nasdaq: VPRT) has grown to over 400 employees serving 6,000,000 customers in 120 countries! This business was just founded in 1995 and is just incredible.
ps. they will even give you a set of full color business cards… FREE.
From Techweb: "Shipments of handheld devices continued their relentless plummet during the first quarter of 2006 dropping 22.3 percent from the same quarter in the previous year, according to an IDC report"
So what does this mean for you or your organization? It seems the major shift that is happening is that there is an explosive growth of PDA enabled cellular phones. This mean's that your personal productivity apps, push email, pda apps for the Palm or Windows Mobile will be on your phone, NOT a standalone pda. This has huge implications for pda software developers to deploy their apps on these newer integrated devices. (Often times apps need a complete rewrite due to the screen sizes being different.)
For business owners and technology managers - you will really have to think harder about rolling out field-based pda solutions to sales or support forces - if you don't want to be stuck on older pda platforms that will fall behind vs the newer integrated pda phone platforms. A tricky trend to watch closely.
From Business 2.0: These are some of the most extreme best business practices ever. The top 25 ideas are summarized - and some of them you may have never heard of - but want to implement tomorrow!
It is always amazing to me to find innovative, new best practices. I believe that much of success is simply the recombination and repetition of what others have done. This is a great article an resource in that regard.
From Fortune Small Business: 49 Companies joined the ranks of the superstars, hitting $1B in sales last year.
Here is the complete story on Forbes 
These fast-track firms are discussed in a new book Blueprint to a Billion , because his has revealed that they all followed a similar plan for growth.
One dominant key: Each company operated in a market big enough and fast-growing enough to support more than one billion-dollar enterprise.
GasBuddy.com maintains a particularly interesting color-coded map that tracks gasoline price levels county by county across the country.
From PCWorld.com: This is a great article on how to not lose all your addresses when you switch or replace your cell phone!
The article covers all the solutions by the carriers themselves as well as several third party solutions.
Here is a fantastic one page graphic of the world's oil production from 1859 to date and projected until 2050. Very informative!
From CNN Money - It's great to chase your dream, but learn from those who have gone before.
This is a short article with some great examples of the key mistakes startups make:
Interesting news from the nations largest newspaper. The top 50 newspapers, with combined circulation of 21 million, attracted more than 58 million readers in print or online on a typical weekday. But still the industy is bracing for the changing habits of readers. A scorecard of the top 20 papers is provided.
Here is a great article from Keith Rosen on AllBusiness.com on how to get the best results from sending your collateral materials to clients. I love his quote that, "Sending out a brochure does not overcome any objection. Rather it multiplies them."
Here are the new rankings for 2006. Over half of the top ten areas are new this year.
Sort Best Metros By:
Rank | Metro Area | Cost Of Doing Business
Job Growth | Educational Attainment | Population
Sort Best Smaller Metros By:
Rank | Metro Area | Cost Of Doing Business
Job Growth | Educational Attainment | Population
From Forbes: "For the third consecutive year, the rich got richer. In this, the 24th annual edition of the Forbes 400, the collective net worth of the United States' wealthiest climbed $125 billion, to $1.13 trillion"
Here is the list - just click to sort list by:
Rank | Name | Net Worth | Age | Residence
It's always amazing to me how many folks on this list have created first-generation wealth from starting and building a business.
From Business Week: "Start here for in-depth information about this year's top performers. On each page you'll find a corporate snapshot, vital investing info, data about the CEO, and links to drill deeper in each category"
From CNN Money "The number of millionaires rose to a record level in 2005, and more than 1.1 million of them can be found in just 10 counties."
This is a brief, yet incredible statistical profile of where the wealth is in America.
The article provides a one-click snapshot of the details for each county.
NASA's spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date.
From CNN Money and Business 2.0 - "By starting a Web site that gives complete control to the community, Kevin Rose was trying to improve the media, not reinvent it. But with Digg, that's exactly what he's doing."
Truly one of the next media visionaries, Kevin's already established profitibility, success and changed the way social media and news will be forever. It's just an absolutly incredible story worth taking a few moments to hear about.
As many West Virginians know, Fibernet has really developd a leading role in voice and data communications in the state.
Since the begining of this year there has been some big news with some major acquisitions. Here are the press releases.
FiberNet (www.wvfibernet.net ) has experienced tremendous success and growth since 1997. With over 180 employees and over $50 million invested, it has created a 1,746 mile state-of-the-art fiber optic network circling West Virginia and connecting the state to the world with the highest speed telecommunications systems available.
Each year since 1983, Inc. Magazine has honored a selection of the fastest-growing private businesses in America with its Inc. 500 list.
What makes a business great?
Learn from the Inc. 500.
America's Fastest Growing Private Companies
Here are two links to the Top 25, and some statistical highlights from the CEO survey of these companies leaders.
If you're wondering what your real estate or personal property values have been assessed at - you can find out in 5 seconds now.
This is also pretty helpful if you are considering purchasing or buying a parcel of land - letting you do your homework very quickly.
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