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Cool Tool Review: FairShare

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.

Cool Tool Review: FairShare
A Review by Todd Hoskins

This is a good time to emphasize that tools in themselves are neither good nor valuable. It all depends on how you use them.

FairShare is a product from Attributor, a company that has been very important within the online publishing industry. Attributor works with publishers to help protect licensing rights across the web. They index the web and compare billions of content bytes with the content you publish to find the plagiarizers, copycats, and seedy content (re-)generators that proliferate across the web. This is a wonderful and valuable service to diminish the number of splogs and opportunists that are seeking clicks for cash.

If you blog or regularly produce valuable content (Bravo!, no matter what business you are in!), FairShare will find where your content is being reproduced and whether the correct attributions are being made. Simply state what license exists with your content (or no license at all), set up a feed, and let FairShare feed back to you the other places where complete or partial content matches are occurring.

It’s a tricky question what, if any, license to pursue. If you get a FairShare account for your copyright attorney, I must ask the question, “Are you making the Internet a more democratic and free space?” I favor defaulting to the Commons – allowing your content to be reused with limited, chosen restrictions. We looked at Creative Commons months ago. Also, I recommend this book that gives you a historical perspective.

FairShare also offers a WordPress plugin and widget that are great ways to let it be known that you encourage people to use your content (perhaps with a link).

What if you find your content elsewhere (and you likely will)? The digital tap on the shoulder is recommended: “Hey, I see you liked what I had written. Tell me why you saw it as valuable? Would you mind linking back to me?”

You may make some friends, find some customers or partners. Even if you don’t, you’ll be contributing to a more civil and self-policed web.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 4/5 – Please make friends, not enemies

Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 – Did I mention it is free?

Personal Value: 3/5 – Don’t publish your poetry without it

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, leadership, psychology, coaching, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving individuals and organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Practice Review: Dialogue Exercise

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.

Cool Practice Review: Dialogue Exercise
A Review by Todd Hoskins

Credit: I learned the structure of this exercise from Leilani Henry who runs a great business that creatively helps organizations learn, develop, and collaborate.  She’s also quite the artisan.

A clear agenda and good leadership usually makes for a good business meeting. But sometimes, spending time exploring possibilities and perspectives is valuable for creating strategy, nurturing the connectedness of the team, and getting a break from the task-heavy day that can drain and dry up our creative wells.

This exercise in dialogue, based upon the work of David Bohm, is a wonderful practice that can be used in team meetings, executive retreats, or even board meetings.

First, sit in a circle so each person can see one another. This works best for a group (not a few people on a couch), and the intimacy would be lost if you have more than a few dozen people.

The group leader asks a question. The person to the left or right will respond to the initial question, then ask a follow-up question to the person to his/her left or right. Move around the circle until you’re back at the beginning. Time limits can be suggested or enforced.

Guidelines
1. No question “answering.” The temptation will be strong to give an answer. Instead . . .
2. Ask open-ended questions – nothing that can receive a simple yes or no
3. Share your stream of thoughts in response to the question being posed to you. This may begin with “That makes me think of . . .” Or, “I’m wondering . . .”
4. Do not try to “stay on topic.” You will not escape the direction of the first (or tenth) question. The suggestiveness of the initial question is important
5. No judgments on the questions or responses being offered
6. No decisions are made during the dialogue – it’s a process for its own sake

Outcomes
1. At the end of the exercise, you will likely have a pool of meaning in the midst of the circle.
2. The questions and responses can give you a new perspective on issues, possibilities, and people within the circle

Suggestions
1. Have one or a few people write down key words and phrases as they surface
2. Take a break, then at a later time ask, “What could we learn from this?”

Some possible questions:
What will our company look like in five years?
Why are we not meeting expectations?
How do we make decisions?
How do creativity and work go together?
How could we be more involved in the community?

Again, NO ANSWERING!

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 5/5 – Pushes people out of their comfort zones a bit, but in a good way

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Great team-building

Personal Value: 2/5 – Family reunion fun? The principles apply. Adapt it for your personal relationships.

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, leadership, psychology, coaching, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving individuals and organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: Business.gov

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.

Cool Tool Review: Business.gov
A Review by Todd Hoskins

The Small Business Administration was created in 1953 with the charter to “aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns.” Most entrepreneurs are familiar with SBA loans, but are unaware of the additional services offered by state and local SBA offices.

Business.gov is a collection of resources, designed to help small businesses (under 500 employees) get the help they need. This includes loan applications, tax information, licensing, and relevant regulations. Contrary to what many people believe, the SBA no longer offers loans directly to citizens. They act as a broker and guarantor for business owners seeking loans (currently numbering more than 240,000). But they do much more than that.

There are approximately 1,000 Small Business Development Centers across the US. The SBDC’s provide one-to-one counseling, educational programs, and financial analysis services. I was surprised when friend Mike Nolan joined the SBDC in South Central Minnesota. Mike is a serial entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship. Rather than launching more projects, he has chosen to help others expand and excel.

The site is much better than most governmental agency sites, but the online community could use some nurturing.

There are people who want to help you. And they also have something to gain – small business growth leads to tax revenue and jobs. Whether you are in the planning stage, survival mode, or a growth phase, find your local office and see what is available.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 2/5 – A great way to inquire where to help serve your local business community

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Why not? Free assistance!

Personal Value: 0/5 – Extraneous government involvement unnecessary

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, leadership, psychology, coaching, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving individuals and organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: RightSignature

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.

Cool Tool Review: RightSignature
A Review by Todd Hoskins

The hassles of finalizing a contract: hard copies, scanners, fax machines, signatures, documents, and FedEx. There are costs involved, both in time and dollars, but there is also that universal experience (excluding attorneys perhaps), of the “Yes! We’re almost done!” coinciding with, “Oh no. Not this again.”

RightSignature is a great example of a company that has fully explored the implicit pain points in this standard process, and addressed them with a fully functional, simple, and intuitive product.

“Digital signature” technology is cumbersome, especially when it requires one to go through extensive procedures just to authorize an approval. RightSignature does not force anyone to set up an account. An email arrives in the inbox, then the signee scribbles their autograph on the mousepad. RightSignature’s technology is in full compliance with US and EU e-signature legislative acts, which confirm the legality of electronic signatures.

rightsig

The feature set is impressive, with webcam photo authentication, biometric authentication, SSL encryption, Freshbooks integration, iPhone and BlackBerry signing capabilities, tools to track progress, and support for the most important file formats. It is missing SalesForce integration, which competitor DocuSign has, but every other aspect of the process is covered.

Plans range from $14 to $250 per month.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 5/5 – API access with Gold Subscription

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Don’t depend on Adobe alone. Cool, easy, and priced fairly.

Personal Value: 1/5 – Not yet. But someday.

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, leadership, psychology, coaching, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving individuals and organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: Docstoc

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.

Cool Tool Review: Docstoc
A Review by Todd Hoskins

Docstoc is a virtual flea market for small business.

Stepping into a flea market, you must sort through other people’s clutter, junk, and art to find what is useful or beautiful to you. In the same way, Docstoc offers thousands of free documents, but you’re going to need to be patient to find what you need.

Looking for a contract? Relevant presentation? Template? Background article? Chances are, there will be something of value within Docstoc’s archives. Think of it as a combination of LegalZoom (a content partner), eHow, and SlideShare. Scribd is very similar (and with a better interface), but puts more content behind the paywall.

As a small business, you can upload documents that others may find useful and share in the ad revenue. When registering, Docstoc links your account with AdSense. Through your profile, you also get the chance to highlight the capabilities of your business. Or, you can sell documents on your site – market reports, e-books, etc. You keep 100% of the upload revenue for the first 60 days, and 50% after that threshold has passed. Clicks on the ads earn you a bit of cash, uploads can earn you cash, and clicks on your profile give you potential leads.

There is the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a community-driven site. The good is the sheer amount of content. The bad is how much of the content is devoid of value. The ugly is that the ad-supported chaos is just that – ugly.

The document viewer, on the other hand, is clean, easily branded, and allows you to quickly embed PDF’s, presentations, and other document types within your site or blog.


Todd’s CV –

There is a premium service, which gives you access to more free professional documents, storage, and an ad-free experience from $17 per month up to $120 per year.

I would like to see support for Google docs, more levels of curation, and marketing help for e-book publishers. The site could use some U/X help as well, but for free, I’m not complaining.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 2/5 – If you have extensive bylaws, handbooks, and approval processes, Docstoc has limited value

Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 – Go premium if you have the budget

Personal Value: 2/5 – One of a multitude of ways to now publish your novel, guide, or collection of resources

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, leadership, psychology, coaching, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving individuals and organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: Weave the People

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.

Cool Tool Review: Weave the People
A Review by Todd Hoskins

A few years ago I attended an intimate, oceanside conference outside of San Diego. The 70 of us in attendance spent the weekend participating in roundtable discussions, eating, and sipping cocktails. Sunday afternoon, while checking out of the resort, I met the people I wish I would have connected with on Friday. We exchanged contact info, but the opportunity was largely lost, as we live on opposite ends of the country.

This is a common frustration with meetings and conferences. How can people with matching interests, needs, and talents find one another?

Despite the growth of social technology, there is no replacement for the value and possibilities that can emerge from meeting face-to-face. Gladwell is right – there are limitations inherent in the “loose ties” of online connections. There is a reason that tweetups are popular and location based technologies have taken off. People want to meet, and any “friend” or “connection” is peripheral until you shake hands, share a meal or drink, and can establish trust looking at each other directly. Albert Mehrabian has proposed that words constitute only 7% of communication – the rest is tone and body language.

So, the Internet is an incredibly powerful medium for exploring, finding, and learning about people. Then, at some point, the relationship has amplified possibilities when we move from cyberspace to sharing physical space. This is exactly why Weave the People is such a valuable tool, by accelerating the discovery process, allowing organizations and people to connect with their wants and needs in group settings.

It works like this: If you are hosting a conference, meeting, or event, contact Weave the People, and they will work with you to develop a series of questions. These questions are designed to help you meet your goals for the event, whether you want to increase the connectivity of your employees, match vendors and buyers, or just help people have fun.

Weave will help you poll your prospective attendees, then “weave” together profiles in a simple, visually appealing layout. Send the link in advance of the event, and the people who are attending have a chance to navigate through the profiles and make decisions based on their motivations for being in attendance. For the less-socially-gifted, this is a gift in itself. You automatically have conversation starters that are pre-approved.

weave

I love the fact that Weave has a high-minded mission and philosophy, getting to an “authentic we,” utilizing technology to increase our humanness rather than our isolation. But it just works as well, making meetings more enjoyable and a better return on investment.

You can watch some demos here.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 4/5 – Very reasonable in cost. Mobile app (in planning) will make this even better.

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Finding employees, partners, investors, and advocates at events just got easier.

Personal Value: 5/5 – Not all questions need to be business-related. Bringing the personal and professional profile elements together creates deeper, more sustainable connections.

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.