Portefeuille boursier social

On y arrive…

(via Springwise)

Zecco is an online financial portal and community through which investors can make 10 free stock trades every month when they maintain an asset balance of just USD 2,500. The cost otherwise is only USD 4.50 per trade, and there is no minimum balance required to open or maintain an account. Further enriching the experience for users, meanwhile, is ZeccoShare, a social network for investors that Zecco launched last fall. Members of ZeccoShare can create profiles, contribute to blogs and forums and join investing groups. They can also share their portfolios (minus the dollar amounts), their trades and their performance for discussion with other members. Portfolio data, holdings and trade information are aggregated across all ZeccoShare member profiles, allowing members to scan listings of most-held and most-traded stocks, create specific groups of like-minded investors (such as “socially responsible investing” or “women on investing”) and more.

Making Zecco’s free love possible is the fact that the cost of executing a trade has become very small, it says; in addition, it does charge for options trading, and it earns revenue from such other means as premium tools and online ads. Since its launch in late 2006, Zecco has gained over 90,000 trading customers; notable backers include shareholders Morten Lund of LundKenner (an early investor in Skype) and Dutch telecom pioneer Marcel Boekhoorn.

 

Mots clés Technorati : social network, finance, zecco

Des tables interactives dans les hôtels Sheraton

Via Springwise

Earlier this year we wrote about the use of interactive surface technology in New York’s Adour wine bar, and now guests at Sheraton Hotels can use similar technology to access local information.

Deployed just last week in Sheraton’s Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle hotels, Microsoft’s Surface technology provides instant access to local tourist highlights. With a 30-inch display in a tablelike form that several guests can use at once, Surface features an intuitive user interface that works without a traditional mouse or keyboard to let people interact with content and information in a natural and familiar way. Hotel guests can use their hands and gestures to access entertainment and information about local attractions, including CityTips, which provides 360-degree satellite maps and tools to search for local restaurants and bars, entertainment, recreation, shopping, transportation and services; Sounds of Sheraton, a lobby-based digital jukebox enabling guests to create personal music playlists from Sony BMG artists including John Legend, Kenny Chesney and Lauryn Hill; and Sheraton Snapshots, giving guests a way to explore Sheraton hotels and resorts throughout the world by simply browsing the Surface photo library. Placement of the Surface units in Sheraton lobbies is designed to enable guests to leverage and experience the offerings in a social way, Sheraton says.

Sheraton is the first hotel to offer Microsoft Surface in its lobby, it says, but it surely won’t be the last to feature such technology. Following hard on the heels of the hotel chain’s recently cobranded Link @ Sheraton experienced with Microsoft effort to turn deserted hotel lobbies into technology-enabled brand spaces, the new lobby experience promises to keep consumers engaged and coming back for more. So far, just scratching the “surface” on this one … other hotels, airports, restaurants—what about you?

Website: www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton
Contact: www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/support/contact

Spotted by: RK

Mots clés Technorati : sheraton, microsoft surface, table interactive

Philips Home Lab : observer les usages domestiques en situation

Via Techcrunch

The HomeLab at the Philips research center is a model home built to test and monitor real-world response to prototype technology. Thirty cameras and microphones record subjects as they use and interact with products for the home; then researches review the recordings to refine the products. The living room is currently configured to demonstrate ambX (pronounced “ambiex”), the successor to AmbiLight, which extends the accent lighting from around the television to throughout the room.

 

Mots clés Technorati : Lab, Philips, test, experience

The Point : activisme sur commande

Un des grands problèmes quand on veut animer une communauté, c’est d’atteindre le seuil critique de participation.

L’objectif de The Point est justement de permettre aux gens de s’inscrire à une communauté de manière conditionnelle en fonction de seuils de participation d’autres personnes.

Post de Springwise sur le sujet :

Few things are more frustrating to those trying to effect social change than an effort that fails simply for lack of participation. The Point is a new activism site that avoids that problem by giving planners a way to organize fundraisers, rallies, boycotts and other events so that they occur only once enough people have promised to join in.

To do this, The Point takes the notion of the tipping point—that point at which group action will produce a clear result and inevitable change—and applies it to organizing group efforts. Those who join a campaign pledge to take specific action—to boycott a company, for example, or donate funds toward a cause—but no one actually acts until the campaign reaches its preset tipping point, or number of pledged participants. When that point is reached, however, the action is triggered and participants make their donations, attend the event or boycott the organization. The Point can also be used to organize anonymously until a campaign builds to a level that provides safety in numbers and allows people to reveal their identities comfortably.

Andrew Mason, The Point’s founder and CEO, explains: “The Point is a new way of thinking about collective action. People need a way to know where their participation adds the most value. That’s what The Point offers—an environment where people are only asked to participate when their action can be combined with others to create a solution.”

There have been efforts in the past that used crowd clout and conditional participation—MyFootballClub, which we covered last year, comes to mind—but The Point takes a generalized approach and facilitates many different types of such efforts in one place. (Some, in fact, border on the frivolous, such as “John’s Proposal” to a woman named Patty—which he’ll make only if 999 people give their blessing.) Based in Chicago, The Point only just launched in late November, but in January it received USD 4.8 million from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates; eventually, it plans to accept advertising as well. The site recently released an “Ultimatums” application on Facebook, and last month it was named a finalist in the SXSW Annual Web awards. Those in social activism will want to try the site out for their own organizing purposes. For all others, it’s a model to emulate!

 

Mots clés Technorati : springwise, the point, activisme, social network