An interesting analysis of top  100 blogs (18 February 2008)
http://technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/top-100-analyst-blogs-2/

You will find
- list of 100 blogs
- methodology of ranking (determined by PageRank, subscribers, recent inbound links, frequency and focus of posts as well as the number of comments)

 A big list of tools related to creativity
http://lifedev.net/big-list-of-online-productivity-tools/

Online Office Suites

• Zoho
• Thinkfree

Online Calendars

• 30 Boxes
• Scrybe
• Google Calendar
• Planzo
• Spongecell
• Hipcal
• Calgoo

Online Documents

• Google Docs
• Zoho Writer

Online RSS Readers

• Google Reader
• Bloglines
• Newshutch
• Newsgator
• Rojo

Startpages

• Google Startpage
• Netvibes
• Pageflakes

Invoice Managers

• Blinksale
• Freshbooks
• SideJobTrack

Time Tracking Services

• Harvest
• SlimTimer
• TimeTracker

Goal Tracking Services

• Joe’s Goals
• Dreaminder

Project Management Services

• Basecamp
• 8Apps
• GoPlan
• Zoho Projects

To-do Lists

• Bla Bla List
• Tada List
• Vitalist
• Voo2Do
• Remember the Milk
• Gubb
• Hiveminder
• Neptune
• e2doList
• Todoist
• Toodledo
• Zirr.us
• Rough Underbelly
• TaskToy
• Tasks
• Wallnote
• Orchestrate
• Sproutliner
• TaskThis

Personal Organizers- calendars, to-do’s, etc. all rolled into one service

• Stikkit
• Backpack

Sticky Notes

• StickyTag
• Jotcloud
• Webnote
• MyStickies

GTD Tools

• Tracks.tra.in- Free Tracks hosting
• Nozbe
• Simple GTD
• iCommit

Mind Mapping Tools

• Bubbl.us

Online Collaboration Tools

• ConceptShare
• Thinkature
• Near-time
• Gliffy
• Doodleboard

Web-Based Operating Systems

• EyeOS
• YouOS

Misc. Productivity Applications

Running

• FavoriteRun
• MapMyRun

Music

• Pandora
• Last.fm
• Pandora-FM
• FineTune
• MOG
• radio.blog.club

 An interesting list of tools boosting creativity
http://lifedev.net/2008/03/19-online-destinations-for-boosting-creativity/

1. SpringWise - A database of great ideas that any entrepreneur can act on to help you start the “next big thing”. There are some great, fun ideas, plus they showcase the latest trends of entrepreneurship.

2. WhyNot? - Much like SpringWise, WhyNot? has lots of user-submitted ideas for any ambitious soul to take under their wing and develop. However, WhyNot? is more of a community for entrepreneurs than SpringWise, which can be a bit more helpful at times.

3. Digg - You can find a smattering of news, tips and other odd things on the Digg homepage. Digg’s users find the best of the web, and the community voting does a wonderful job of showcasing quality news and compelling links. You know it’s a good site when LifeDev has been on the homepage a few times ;)

4. Del.icio.us Popular - I love the del.icio.us popular page. One can find the most creative and interesting articles and tools on the Internet on the Del.icio.us popular page. It’s basically a barometer of what’s hot on the web with designers and techies alike.

5. Tumblr - Tumblr is another one of my personal favorites. Aside from creating your own Tumblelog, the Tumblr homepage showcases the best links, images and videos that people are sharing around the web.

6. Nasa’s Astronomy Picture of the Day - Have a breathtaking shot of the cosmos, once a day. Nothing is more inspiring and mysterious than outer space, in my humble opinion. Perfect for shaking any sort of doldrums you might be in.

7. FlickrLeech - If you’re a visual person and love to view creative photos, check out FlickrLeech. You can browse just about any type of photo, plus the default view of Flickr Interesting page is very handy, especially if you need some creative wallpapers for your desktop.

8. LifeRemix - Shameless plug? Maybe. But I visit the site every day and am almost always inspired by the quality of writing. Note: Yes, I’m the co-founder of LifeRemix ;)

9. DocStoc - You can find some incredibly creative and informative documents that can lead to many ideas. You’d be surprised at the great content you can find at DocStoc.

10. WisdomQuotes - Nothing inspires more than a great quote from someone smarter than myself. I’ve done entire blog posts based on an inspiring quote.

11. Seth Godin’s blog - Aside from his uber-savvy marketing advice, there are plenty of untapped ideas and inspiration that he shares frequently with his readership. And you better believe that if Seth Godin dreamed it up, there’s a good chance he’s on the mark.

12. TechCrunch - Mike Arrington and company constantly showcase the newest and the best sites on the web at TechCrunch. There is plenty of inspiration that can be found just by seeing the newest thing in web applications. Many ideas I’ve had for web apps come directly from concepts introduced through TechCrunch. Here’s a tip: If you’re wanting to create the next big web phenomena, hang on to their every word.

13. Kottke.org - Jason Kottke has been posting interesting and creative information on the web for the past 10 years. He’s a favorite of many bloggers, and rightly so.

14. BoingBoing - One of the most popular blogs around, BoingBoing showcases the most “wonderful things” on the web. Like Kottke, BoingBoing does the dirty work of sifting through the web for the creme de la creme.

15. Google Docs - While not expressly a site for finding information, GDocs is a great tool for capturing ideas and thoughts. GDocs gives the perfect flexibility for saving quick ideas and then expounding on them later.

16. How to Change the World - Guy Kawaski is a fun guy with great ideas. Though his blog is geared slightly more to the marketing crowd, it’s chock-full of great ideas. I think the most stimulating thing about Guy’s blog is that it’s written with great voice and lots of humor.

17. MindMeister - Although I’m personally not a huge fan of online apps for creativity’s sake (other than GDocs), many people do like to use online mind-mapping tools for brainstorming. MindMeister is right up there with the best of the online mind-mapping tools because it’s quick and intuitive.

18. Twitter - Although the way I use twitter is more as a web service, (I use the twhirl twitter client), Twitter can use your friends to help you find interesting and creative articles to check out. You can quickly ask your friends if anyone has an idea for XYZ, and odds are someone can point you in the right direction. Also, your friends will most likely link to content that you’ll find interesting as well.

19. Smashing Magazine - A site that shares useful and interesting bits for web developers and designers. It likes to showcase the trendy and useful, which can stimulate creative ideas for any reader.

Read Svetlana FULL  blog

Today I realized that I have not claimed my authorship of this blog on Technorati yet. And since usually Technorati is the first tool the majority of bloggers use to make their blogs noticed by other bloggers, I have decided to correct this by claiming this Profy blog.

Obviously, I already have an account on Technorati that owns our multi-author Profy blog (I will appreciate you adding this blog to your favorites, of course, if you like reading our posts). If you do not have an account yet, you will have to register first.

READ MORE on Svetlana blog

 

source

READ Svetlana blog

Technorati Profile 

source

 I suppose that it is rather interesting  especially if you have read a previous post  about Svetlana interview.

How leaders can unlock potential in their teams

Leaders are faced with unlocking the potential in the people that they lead and motivating the individual is a key part of this process. Motivation is not something that is done to an individual as they already posses it. What a leader does, to profit the whole team, is to discharge, or unlock, it.
 Here are seven ways leaders unlock potential in people.
1. Leaders share their vision and values. Vision is what the team aspires to. Some visions may not ever be reachable, yet by their very existence they inspire, excite and motivate people to turn them into a reality. Where the vision comes from, however, is less important than whether team members fully share the vision. Where does vision come from? Essentially it comes from what you value or care strongly about. Values, then, are the foundation of the vision. Normally you would have only a few values. Each person can usually identify and describe them in their own words. They are not necessarily the same as mission statements, slogans or taglines written on walls or bulletin boards. As a leader, it is important that you regularly restate the team values and display them by your own actions. Leaders should also ask team members to keep producing examples of how they are turning values into reality.
2. Leaders value people. People will work very hard for a leader because they feel you value them as a person. You do this by treating each person with respect and by persisting in demanding that this is how team members treat one another as well.
3. Leaders Give Recognition. Research has shown that organizations seldom give enough recognition to their people. All too often people feel that they are taken for granted and that there is insufficient feedback about their efforts. Recognition does not always have to be in the form of a promotion or pay raise. Your team needs clear signs of appreciation and this can easily and simply be done by saying “thank you,” a small gift, public praise, a party, etc.
4. Leaders are Creative. Creativity is one of the most powerful means a leader has of unlocking your team’s full potential and infusing them with new energy. You can foster creativity by being open to new possibilities, new connections, new methods and surprising solutions. To use everyone in the team to their maximum potential, they need to be stretched as human beings. This does not mean setting impossible goals as much as it does expecting the most of each person on the team. To expect the most, you need to know each persons talents. You can learn about members of the team through formal assessment procedures, asking the person, asking others, trial and error in the workplace and so forth. The range of your team’s talent will likely astound you. Have fun uncovering the team’s talents.
5. Leaders Inspire Special Effort. Interestingly, people will do extraordinary work for some leaders and not for others. This happens when people see their own interests linked with the leader and he/she wants to achieve. When you call for team effort, remember that people respond to facts and emotion. Both are essential. Facts will start the process of convincing your team that heroic effort is needed. Make sure you prepare the facts carefully since they must stand up to the team’s scrutiny. Emotion is another vital ingredient. You need to appeal to people’s feeling, not just their logical, rational, parts. Facts alone will seldom tap a team’s hidden energy and commitment. Watch for signs in the team to indicate that people are making special effort and immediately reinforce this by offering approval and recognition.
6. Leaders Do It Their Way. Leaders need to develop a method and adopt a style that suits them. Then, when you need a special effort from the team, this is the moment to show them your real leadership style. Inspiring people is not as easy as it sounds. It starts with you, sharing with them what inspires you. If are committed to what you want, people will respond to your inspiration, energy and vision. If you really believe in your vision, and exude energy and passion about it, the team will also share in that effort with you and feel your passion. 7. Conversely, negativity will also breed negative thoughts from your team. Remember that each team member will internally respond with a “what’s in it for me?” approach. Discover what each person on the team wants and you will have the key to unlocking their potential and sustaining that special effort you need.
Your qualities as a leader will attract people to consider making the heroic effort you want or need. They may be drawn to your passion, your humanity, energy, integrity or commitment. They may admire and fear your determination to make something happen, but it is the human qualities you share that will gain their

 http://howtosplitanatom.com/interview/lessons-from-entrepreneurs-svetlana-gladkova/
By Steve Spalding March 18th, 2008
Under: interview

Svetlana Gladkova is a part of the team behind the blogging platform Profy. What’s especially interesting about this company is that it’s based out of Siberia. Svetlana was kind enough to share some insights about development, networking and reaching international markets.

Here is what she had to say.

First of all, I need to point out that we only launched Profy blogging platform in private alpha back in January so this is a very early stage project – thus the early-stage lessons I can share with your audience. So my tips are focused on the development and launch stages of the web project.

Development is your focus until your product is perfect

As a marketing person I used to think that success of any project depends mainly on marketing, publicity, and public relations. Now I know that no PR can actually make any project a success. Now I know that when you prepare to launch a web product, almost everything depends on the development process and this is what any web entrepreneur should focus on. You can believe your over-optimistic team and expect the development to be completed in 6 months (and have the development budget for this period as well) and you can easily end up with over a year in development.

Such situations can easily crash even the best of ideas so it is extremely important to have a good architect to plan the development process and set deadlines. And even if you are 100% sure in how your team will perform and know that your product will not have any single bug, it is still wise to add a couple of months to your plan to be absolutely sure you have at least some time allowance to have the product ready.

You are the leader, your enthusiasm is crucial

READ FULL interview

Introducing The Source

The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe. An updated forecast of worldwide information growth through 2011 (Note: PDF)

From the EMC Corporation website

This white paper calibrates the size (bigger) and growth (faster) of the digital universe. It also seeks to understand the implications for business, government, and society.
Some key findings are as follows:
• The digital universe in 2007 — at 2.25 x 1021 bits (281 exabytes or 281 billion gigabytes) — was 10% bigger than we thought. The resizing comes as a result of faster growth in cameras, digital TV shipments, and better understanding of information replication
• By 2011, the digital universe will be 10 times the size it was in 2006
• As forecast, the amount of information created, captured, or replicated exceeded available storage for the first time in 2007. Not all information created and transmitted gets stored, but by 2011, almost half of the digital universe will not have a permanent home
• Fast-growing corners of the digital universe include those related to digital TV, surveillance cameras, Internet access in emerging countries, sensor-based applications, data-centers supporting “cloud computing,” and social networks
• The diversity of the digital universe can be seen in the variability of file sizes, from 6 gigabyte movies on DVD to 128-bit signals from RFID tags. Because of the growth of VoIP, sensors, and RFID, the number of electronic information “containers” — files, images, packets, tag contents — is growing 50% faster than the number of gigabytes. The information created in 2011 will be contained in more than 20 quadrillion — 20 million billion — of such containers, a tremendous management challenge for both businesses and consumers
• Of that portion of the digital universe created by individuals, less than half can be accounted for by user activities — pictures taken, phone calls made, emails sent — while the rest constitutes a digital “shadow” — surveillance photos, Web search histories, financial transaction journals, mailing lists, and so on
• The enterprise share of the digital universe is widely skewed by industry, having little relationship to GDP or IT spending. The finance industry, for instance, accounts for almost 20% of worldwide IT spending but only 6% of the digital universe. Meanwhile, media, entertainment, and communications industries will account for 10 times their share of the digital universe in 2011 as their share of worldwide gross economic output
• The picture related to the source and governance of digital information remains intact: Approximately 70% of the digital universe is created by individuals, but enterprises are responsible for the security, privacy, reliability, and compliance of 85%

 

source

An interesting list of different tools, including Web research tool and other
http://ydabondelli.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/80-online-resources-for-book-lovers/

Social Networking for Book Lovers

1. LibraryThing is probably my favorite book-related resource on the web. I use it to catalog my personal library, as well as discover new books, find people with similar reading interests, discuss books, and more. Membership is free for a library of up to 200 books, and they offer annual memberships as well as a lifetime membership for a mere $25 (I’m a life member). A paying member can have an unlimited number of books in their library and full functionality of the site. If you are a book lover it is a must. You can visit my LibraryThing profile here.

2. What’s On My Bookshelf is also a book trading site that works on a point system.

3. Listal is a social network based on the things you like, including books, movies, music, etc.

4. Shelfari let’s you create a virtual shelf to share with friends, get recommendations, and all the stuff you expect a book-centric social network to do.

5. Good Reads is another social network for sharing book recommendations with friends.

E-books

6. WikiBooks has open-source/open-content textbooks that anyone can edit. The have over 25,000 modules in their variety of textbooks and serves as a great companion piece to Wikipedia.

7. The Rare Book Room contains photographs and scans of some great and rare books from libraries around the world. Currently there are about 400 complete scans on a variety of subjects, but the Rare Book Room is focused on quality over quantity, so the material they do have is superb.

8. The Poetry Archive is an online collection of recordings of poets reading their own poetry. Listening to the recordings is free of charge.

9. ManyBooks.net contains about 17,000 ebooks for your PDA, iPod, or ebook reader. All of the ebooks are free of cost. They also show PSP and cell-phone friendly ebooks.

10. Project Gutenberg is the founding father of public-domain ebooks online. There is a large number of ebooks available through the site that is operated on voluntary donations. You can also volunteer to help the project by proofing captured text from books to ensure accuracy as well as greater roles once you have established yourself as a reliable contributor to the project.

11. Google Book Search allows you to search the full text of books online using the Google search algorithms. It can be a useful research tool.

12. Bartleby is another large resource for free public domain electronic books and resources.

13. Bookrags has over 5.7 million pages of literature summaries, biographies, literary criticism, essays, encyclopedias, and eBooks sourced from over 100 respected education databases.

14. E-Book Searchr is a Google powered search for e-books.

15. Bookyards has a total of 14,550 books, 38,945 external web links, 4,197 news & blogs links, 384 videos and access to hundreds of online libraries (800,000 eBooks) for your reading pleasure.

16. Memoware has a lot of free e-books in a number of different genres.

17. Just Free Books allows you to search for free e-books.

18. Rackhub Books has free e-books on computers and IT.

19. Classic Bookshelf has free e-books of classic literature.

20. Athena has a large selection of links to e-books.

21. Yale Avalon Project has e-books and documents on law and history.

22. Bibliomania has more than 2000 classic e-books as well as study guides and summaries.

23. Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a collection of classic Christian writings.

24. Diesel E-Books has free e-books formatted for Microsoft Reader. The Diesel Gratis Collection includes classic American and British fiction, American history, children’s literature, Shakespeare, African-American documents, and more.

25. Digital Book Index provides links to more than 134,000 title records from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. About 94,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available free, while many others are available at very modest cost.

26. UVA Electronic Text Center has a large selection of e-books from the University’s library.

27. Eserver is an e-publishing co-op based at Iowa State University where hundreds of writers, editors and scholars gather to publish over 35,000 works free of charge.The site is dedicated to clear, accessible writing in the humanities.

28. Famous Poets and Poems has a large
collection of poems and quotes from over 627 poets.

29. FreeBooks.org has free e-books and audio books.

30. Free Science has a collection of science e-books.

31. Great Books and Classics has a large collection of classic literature, especially Latin.

32. Sacred Texts has religion and spirituality e-books.

33. Knowledge Rush has e-books and poems, as well as user submitted writing.

34. Perseus Digital Library is the digital library of Tufts University with a number of free e-books.

35. FlazX has computer and IT e-books and textbooks.

36. Baen Free Library has a selection of e-books sorted by author and title.

37. Penn Digital Library is the digital library of U Penn.

38. Wowio has a large collection of free e-books.

39. CHM PDF E-books is a directory of computer and programming e-books.

40. BooksDB has mostly computer e-books.

41. Free Tech Books features computer and technology e-books.

42. Daily Lit has email and RSS feeds that sends you chunks of a book each day until you finish it.

Online Bookstores

43. Amazon.com is the biggest online bookstore there is.

44. Alibris is my favorite online bookstore for finding out-of-print books. I discovered them a few years ago after I purchased some books from them on ebay, and I have been coming back ever since.

45. AbeBooks has new, used, and rare books as well as some great features and newsletters.

46. BookSense is a family of independent booksellers online in case you don’t want to give your money to the big corporate bookstores.

Find the Best Prices for Books

47. ISBN Spy lets you enter an ISBN for a book and find the cheapest place to purchase it.

48. Book Burro is another book price comparison site.

49. BookFinder also offers a similar service.

Audiobooks

50. LibriVox is a resource for public domain audio books. You can listen to the audio books from the site or you can volunteer to record your own audio book for the site.

51. Ejunto is a collection of free audio books on the subjects of history and philosophy. There is only a small catalog of audiobooks currently but the titles are very good.

52. Podiobooks has podcasts of audiobooks.

53. Well Told Tales is a collection of audiobooks of pop fiction.

Study Guides and Summaries

54. Pink Monkey is a place where you can download summaries of literature or get study guides.

55. Litsum is an alternative to Pink Monkey.

Library Resources

56. Library Elf lets you keep track of the books that you have checked out of the library and when they are due.

57. WorldCat lets you search libraries near you to find the books that you want to check out and read.

Bibliography and Research

58. BibMe is a free online bibliography creator that is extremely useful is you are writing research. It is extremely easy to use an works with books, journals, websites, magazines, films, newspapers, etc.

59. Zotero is an online research tool with a bookmarklet for keeping track of your research.

60. Wikindx is a free bibliographic and quotations/notes management and article authoring system

61. Snipitron keeps track of your online research and lets you display it as a web page or work on it in a group setting.

Book Exchanges/Swapping

62. BookCrossing is something I haven’t personally used (I never get rid of my books) but a lot of people really like it. Once you read a book you mark it yourself or with BookCrossing’s bookplates that you can buy in their online store and place it out in the public somewhere. When someone finds the book they see the bookplate and do the same thing. This is essentially a Where’s George? for your books but more robust.

63. Bookins is a general book-swapping site.

64. Title Trader is a swapping site for books, cds, and dvds.

65. Zunafish allows you to swap books, movies, music, and video games.

66. Swap Simple is similar to Zunafish.

67. Swapthing is more designed for swapping general items but people do use it for book-swapping.

68. The Book Cart is bookswapping for paperbacks.

69. SF Books is bookswapping for readers of Science Fiction.

70. Paperback Swap is for swapping any books, not just paperbacks.

71. Frugal Reader is another bookswapping site.

72. Book Mooch is too.

Online Documents

73. Scribd allows you to upload your own documents for anyone to read as well as view the documents of other users. It keeps track of how many views your documents have, how many people marked that they liked it, and allows commenting on documents. You can view my Scribd profile here.

74. FreeIQ is similar to Scribd though it also lets you sell your content as well as submit free content. My work on Youth Targeted Voter Mobilization is available on FreeIQ.

What to Read

75. WhichBook.net is another resource to help you decide what to read next, but with a very different approach. The site features a number of slider bars like “happy <-> sad” and “funny <-> serious.” Based on where you place the slider for each of these ranges will give you a list of books that fulfill that criteria.

76. What Should I Read Next? allows you to enter a book that you enjoyed and gives you recommendations for the book that you should read next based on the book lists of its users.

77. BookBrowse is a fairly comprehensive website for readers. You can browse the site for free but their are a number of features that are only available to paid members.

Miscellaneous

78. Bookslut is an online magazine published monthly on the subject of books, reading, and literature. There is also a blog that is updated more frequently. It is one of the most popular book-related sites on the web.

79. ROMAN Reading by Nick Senger is an ebook that helps readers get more out of their reading. I found this book really useful in helping me improve my style of annotating. The book is free to read and share.

80. Library Books is a Mac OS X