Webware.com Top 100 Web 2.0 Apps

Webware has recently published the top 100 best web 2.0 applications, as voted by the readers of the portal, as well as Internet users across the world. There were over 1.9 million votes cast in order to select these 100 applications.

Here is the list, structured into a few categories:

Audio

Browsing

Commerce & Events

Communication

Productivity

Publishing & Photography

Search & Reference

Social

Utility & Security

Video

Following this top, Box.uk has made an analysis of the business models of the top 100 web 2.0 apps of 2008 and this is what they came out with: “We spent a few hours going through the Webware 100 Top Web Apps for 2008, analyzing the business model(s) used by each. The chart below shows the results of this survey: 34% use Advertising, 12% a Variable Subscription model, and 8% each for Virtual Products (typically digital downloads), Related Products (typically a large software company offering a free product to attract you to their platform) and Pay-Per-Use.”

Box.uk - Monetizing your Web App: Business Model Options

Business Models:

I – Immediate Revenue

• IS – Subscription
  • ISF – Fixed
  • ISV – Variable
• IT – Third Party Supported
  • ITA – Advertising
  • ITS – Sponsorship
  • ITC – Paid Content
  • ITP – Paid Placement
  • ITR – Referrer
  • ITL – License Content
• IP – Payments
  • IPU – Pay per Use
  • IPP – Physical Products
  • IPV – Virtual Products
  • IPR – Related Products
  • IPD – Donations

L – Long Term Revenue

• LE – Establish & Exploit
  • LER – Re-use/Re-sell
  • LEP – Platform
  • LEB – Branding
• LS – Sell & Exit

Meta Models:

• MR – Shared Revenue
• MR – Reseller
  • MRA – Affiliate
  • MRW – White Label

For more information and details, check Box.uk article.

NetCamp 2008

NetCamp 2008 took place today as an online business development and entrepreneurship event organized by Evensys, the company ran by Cristian Manafu. The program and the speakers were highly interesting based on the way they were marketed on the event website, but the presentations themselves during the event were a bit disappointing.

I realized most of the people in the Romanian online industry (and even some from outside our borders) are not able or do not know how to create powerful and effective presentations that keep the audience not just awake, but hooked to the topic of the presentation. People don’t know how they can pass across a few and simple key concepts and a lot of them do not have good presentation skills. One of the notable exceptions to this rule seems to be Dragos Manac.

For those who feel that they fell into the cathegory described above, please see the following sources that will most surely help you improve a lot, both your presentations, as well as your presentation skills:

• Seth Godin – Really Bad Powerpoint
• Seth Godin – Nine Steps to Powerpoint Magic

The idea is that you have to avoid flooding your audience with a lot of information, because the audience’s attention is limited and it will only remember a few simple concepts from your slides that are filled with walls of text. On top of it, reading your slides (which happens mostly when you have a lot of information there that you cannot remember easily) turns off most of the audiences, especially since it often makes you turn your back to it (if you are moving somewhere below or in front of your presentation screen and you turn around to look at it).

Other than this major issue that I felt I needed to touch upon, NetCamp 2008 was a pretty interesting event from which I jotted down quite a couple of ideas, not necessarily extremely new, but interesting enough that I wanted to remember them and revisit them when thinking about the online projects I am currently involved in. Here is a really short list of the ideas I’ve wrote down for myself (I watched the develop workshop track):

• Web 1.0 = Control; Web 2.0 = Loss of Control;
• Five web 2.0 concepts – don’t be a dictator, but a majority… say no to censorship… don’t bore your users… don’t trick your users… don’t underestimate web 2.0 potential;
• Twitter could be an interesting application for citizen journalism;
• Developing and online project = writing a business plan (plan to fund, develop and implement) with targets, deadlines and milestones;

If I were to compare FICOD2008 with NetCamp 2008, I can safely say that the Western Europe is far ahead of us in terms of their ideology and their implementation of digital content, most probably at all levels. There are, however, a lot of good and successful online ideas working out on the Romanian online market as well, such as eOK.ro or Trilulilu.ro, for example. But the ideas presented at the NetStartUp, at the end of NetCamp, dissapointed me greatly, because it proved to me that most of the Romanian online entrepreneurs have no idea how to sell themsevels and their ideas (albeit interesting, most of them) to potential investors.

NetCamp 2008

On December 3, 2008, Cristian Manafu organizes the second edition of NetCamp, the first event dedicated to online business development and entrepreneurship. Aimed for online and media professionals, NetCamp will try to provide relevant information about new trends and business opportunities in the online industry, as well as study cases. You will be able to meet the relevant people that activate in this industry and thus develop your network of contacts.

NetCamp will explore online related topics such as:

• User generated content
• Social web
• New types of communities
• New business models
• Blogs and wikis
• New media
• Online audience and profit measurement tools
• Challenges and opportunities in the online industry

NetCamp will take place at the Howard Johnson Hotel and will also feature the NetStart-Up online entrepreneurship contest as well.

The event will explore ways of successfully handling the main challenges that Romanian businesses face from the leader’s behavioral perspective, be it owner, general manager or executive manager. The focus of the seminar will be the link between the leader’s behavior and the company’s evolution on the market it activates on. The event will feature two guest speakers, both of them successful Romanian entrepreneurs who will talk about their business experience.

The event will explore the following main themes (but will not be limited to them):

• What are the specifics of coaching?
• How can you obtain 500% ROI through coaching?
• Workoholism – I have 24 hours available, but I feel that I need a couple more.
• Delegation – How many times do I work for the same money?
• Losing business vision and drive.
• The shortest path to the clients.
• Fear of raising the price.
• Team reporting – what do I do with my people?

The event will be lead by Mihai Stanescu, who is Executive Coach and President of RoCoach, the first Romanian company to offer dedicated coaching services in South-Eastern Europe. Mihai Stanescu is the most experienced Romanian coach and was considered to be the “Best Coach of 2007″ by Business Edu.

The event participation fee is 150 Euro (VAT excluded), sum that will cover not the seminar itself, but one hour of coaching for each participant, based on a schedule agreed upon by both parties. The deadline for event registration is November 5, 2008. For more information about the event and for participation details, please contact Monica Cazan, Associate Coach, monica.cazan[at]coaching.ro, +40 723 525 267.