http://www.pangeic.com/what-can-you-do-with-geography/

We all know that geography is important; but what can you do with it? As students across the country prepare for the 2012 National Geographic Bee, Google explores how geography is used in the real world, from disaster response to military intelligence and even polar exploration.

Image via: http://www.pangeic.com/what-can-you-do-with-geography/

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Michael Porter and Robert S. Kaplan, Harvard Business School professors and authors of the HBR article “How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care,” explain why providers must start with proper measurement.

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The past two decades have seen a steady stream of culinary creativity from chefs like Ferran Adria in Spain and Heston Blumenthal in England. These chefs have been inspired by a wide range of sources, especially new technological advances.

The field of soft matter science has also flourished over the past several decades, as physicists seek to explain many of the common materials in our everyday lives.

The Science and Cooking class is a course at Harvard that presents an overview of soft matter physics, paired with chefs to demonstrate recipes that highlight each concept.

The course uses food and cooking to explicate fundamental principles in applied physics and engineering.

Image via: http://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking

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The Great Equalizer Puts A Wealth of Exciting Opportunities at  Your Fingertips (Literally)

Written by Hubert Lui

Via ElbertBarnes, flickr

The world has become more accessible; this is due to many factors. In fact, you could probably name quite a few just off the top of your head (transportation, media, cultural focuses, paradigm shifts, etc.)

I want to talk about one: The Internet.

The Internet has created many things for people. Distractions, destructive habits, and infected computers, are a few things that the internet has spawned. On the flip side, the Internet is a great wealth of knowledge. It is accessible to anyone with access to a library.

I’m thankful everyday that I have access to the Internet, because I have access to the Great Equalizer.

There is no excuse for people not to be consistently pushing out work. There are more opportunities out there for everyone now. The ability to self-publish and gain an instant audience has never been this widespread.

Consider two or three decades ago, when aspiring writers would often have to wait a painstaking amount of time to get a draft published (or rejected). If they did manage to get published, they’d get few dollars for their efforts, and the editor may not have given the feedback that the writer was really looking for. Now, writers simply fire off e-mails and ask for more feedback in a more specific area: “Could I have tweaked this? Should I have said this? How could I have rephrased this?”

This shorter wait time (or “feedback cycle”) means that there’s no reason you shouldn’t be consistently improving.

Remember, it also means that it’s a lot easier for your competition to improve as well.

The Internet makes it easier for everyone to get opportunities. You and everyone else have the tools and the ability to listen to the thoughts of your role models. You have access to ask anyone questions that you’re curious to learn more about (alright, not anyone -most people though.) You have the ability to self-publish your thoughts if absolutely no one else is willing to publish them (which is unusual.) The Internet removes barriers for everyone.

Now more than ever, your situation can be what you make it. If you are unemployed, you can choose to make it a period of powerlessness and sit around trying to cheer yourself up, or you can choose to find out how to get more opportunities.

You want some opportunities? My friend once told me about a friend of his, a student aspiring to be an investment banker. He hadn’t received any offers or interviews from any firms at the time, so he decided to do his own little experiment. He ended up buying a fruit basket for every firm on Bay Street and delivered it himself.

For those of you wondering how it worked out or whether it’s true, you may have missed the point. This guy decided to make opportunities. Walking around is free. A suit may cost some money (but casual clothes are relatively affordable), and so are fruit baskets. If you’re strapped for cash, you’d be out of luck in this case. Not so online.

All you need is an Internet connection. Walk to your local library and use it. It’s free.

If no ideas are brewing at the moment, become a freelance writer. Seriously, start a WordPress blog and create some good writing samples (Google what writing samples work in the niche you want to go into.) Decide on a niche you want to dominate, then strive to become the best writer in it.

Want to learn to write better? Take a class. Read a book on how to write better. E-mail writers in your niche and ask what steps they take before writing an article, and analyze the structure and diction of their articles. Do they use alliteration? How much time do they focus on headlines? (could be up to 80%.)

Get as much information and as many perspectives on it as you can, and then e-mail magazines and bloggers and ask if you can write a guest post for them. Who doesn’t like free submissions?

If you don’t know how to do any of this, then Google it. Or feel free to shoot me an e-mail. The only thing really stopping you is time and energy.

You can either choose to embrace the Great Equalizer and seek the opportunities that you’re interested in, or wait and have someone else take them and make them theirs.

Your world is what you make it. Maybe I’m just an idealist, or maybe I’ve gone crazy listening to too many positive podcasts and reading one self-help book too many. Maybe I’ve watched too many Nike commercials.

Or maybe you’re just making excuses.

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Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the need for online responsibility

Written by Shaun L. Turriff

Via birgerking, flickr

Social media, best known through the success of Twitter and Facebook, has changed the way people interact with both the internet and each other.

However, the success of social media and its continued growth mean that along with new possibilities come new potential pitfalls. Simply put, social media entities are, at the root of it, companies. They are businesses, and as such, they operate with different goals in mind than their users might sometimes think.

LinkedIn’s recent IPO success story, France’s recent ban on references to Twitter and Facebook on TV News programs, Twitter’s implication in a UK libel and a UK privacy suit, and the recent concern over posting electoral results on social networks in the Canadian federal election all point to a set of growing set of concerns centered around social media.

Commenting on the potential downsides of social media, Allie Townsend of Techland notes, “Laws on Internet activity and speech are just beginning to manifest in court, and nine times out of ten, companies will comply with authorities”. Yes, this means handing over your account’s info.

This is the case in Tennessee, where a spate of new laws are attempting to rein in the internet, including one law concerning offensive images. These laws have been meet with cries of “unconstitutional”.

“Some rulings have required Facebook to turn over user password information; other courts have thrown out similar requests. It’s all the more reason to consider what you post online fair game inside our legal system,” Townsend writes.

Furthermore, Twitter has recently turned over user data in a UK libel suit, under a court order. Townsend notes, however, that “Facebook seems to take the brunt of the backlash because of its size, but that hasn’t changed our silly new idea that all of these companies have our best interests in mind. They don’t. They’re businesses. They want our personal information to dangle in front of advertisers.” Even the friends-only setting on Facebook is no guarantee of privacy, as court orders have also authorized the sharing of this information in court cases.

Businesses need to be aware of these potential pitfalls as well, especially when using social media as a marketing tool, a practice that is becoming increasingly widespread. Steve McKee notes in Bloomberg Buisnessweek: “The new catchphrase in the digital marketing world is ‘what happens in public stays in public.’ Inappropriate humor, misplaced political opinions, name-calling, over-promising, critical posts (you name it) can all reverberate far wider and longer than you intend.”

Social networking is not inherently evil, nor are the social media websites or businesses like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, that provide the services that make social media possible. Businesses and individuals all use social media to improve their lives. Social media is arguably good for us, but it ultimately remains a tool, one that needs to be used, like all good tools, safely, and within a proper context.

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Bankers are always busy – there is no such thing as a “slow season”

Written by Jennifer Jang, Staff Writer

Before we get to the overview of a career in the investment banking (often called iBanking) industry, let’s first define what it is. According to Investopedia, investment banking is the “banking related to the creation of capital for other companies”. To “create capital” basically means to issue new debt or equity securities, also known as underwriting. Investment banks advise issuing corporations on the type of security, what features the security should have, its placement, and then follow through by selling the newly issued securities to the suppliers of capital (investors) found in the market.

You can find iBanking jobs at bulge bracket firms, such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, UBS and Morgan Stanley. You will also find iBanking divisions in major banks: TD, CIBC, BMO, RBC, Scotia and National Bank. There are also independent investment banks, like Canaccord Genuity and Raymond James.

“Creating capital” is not an easy task. It demands a lot of hours, financial modelling, as well as mental and physical horsepower. Investment Banking is divided into many sectors, such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Foreign Exchange, Sales & Trading, each with its own perks and downs.

However, the well-known perks for anyone in investment banking are generally prestige and high income. Needless to say, you have to be very good at what you do to keep your job. An iBanker’s pay can increase very significantly depending on his bonuses (added on top of the base salary which is capped at around $250,000).

As you might expect, bonuses depend on performance. Since performance in turn largely depends on the amount of work you put in, the ‘work-life balance’ is an unobtainable luxury for most iBankers. iBankers are always busy – there is no such thing as a “slow season”. In busy times, they get less than four hours of sleep, if at all. As the saying goes, “Money never sleeps”.

But not everyone in investment banking has to be a night owl. Some sectors, like Sales and Trading, offer better hours in the sense that you get off work by dinnertime, so that you can spend time with friends and family.

Other than the prestige and the wealth, iBankers like the fact that they get to work with people that are smart, driven and results-oriented. Ironically, that is also a large source of stress: since everyone is smart and ambitious, the competition is absolutely fierce.

As you might have guessed, iBanking is one of the hardest industries to break into. They require at least a B+ GPA (an “A” GPA is recommended, however), superb analytical and mathematical skills, as well as interpersonal skills. On top of that, you have to be very self-motivated and passionate about finance. At job interviews, you will be “grilled” on whether 1) you are smart enough to do the job and 2) you are passionate enough about finance to endure in the fast-paced, stressful and demanding work environment.

Let’s say that you do pass the interview and land the job. You are then an “Analyst”, which basically means a trainee. For most people, this is the stage where they realise whether they are made for iBanking or not. Those who have proven their worth as an analyst are promoted to an “Associate” after three years.

If you can prove your worth as an associate, you can expect to get promoted to “Vice President” after three years. You might think, “Wow, Vice President! I’ve made it”, but there are many VPs in an investment bank. Excellent VPs are promoted to “Directors”, and only the best Directors become “Managing Directors.” Managing Directors are the cream of the crop – they are at the top of the hierarchy and make the most money.

As you can see, even after you have broken into the industry, you still have a long and bumpy road to go before you make the big bucks. Investment banking isn’t for everyone; prestige and wealth do come at a price.

By: Jennifer Jang, Staff Writer

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Written by William Shaub

Understanding economic theory, in law and in principle, requires a certain perception of the world. One perception requires a thorough understanding of the world as one would like it to be. The other, which is perhaps more in touch with reality, requires an acceptance of the world as it actually is, and for that, one must look to cases and examples in history.

Similarly, we find that a close look at the realities of economic history in the United States and elsewhere requires major adjustments to what is called ‘free market theory.’ These modifications lead to what should be called ‘really existing free market theory’, and this is the economic theory that is actually applied in practice.

For this, we can take a look at a rather perplexing example – a country that supposedly developed based on market principles and free enterprise – namely the United States. In the mid-18th century, the U.S. was one of the richest societies (in terms of resources) in the world, yet it was pre-industrial.

Adam Smith, the supposed father of modern economics, had advice for the 13 colonies. Smith requested precisely what today’s economists recommend to the third world, essentially advocating that the U.S. keep to its comparative advantages and produce what it’s best at producing. At the time, the U.S was most capable of catching fish and hunting fur, and then exporting it to England, all while importing superior British manufactured goods.

Perhaps unpredictably in the eyes of Smith, the U.S. gained its independence from Britain, and proceeded to completely ignore Smith’s free market advice. Under Alexander Hamilton, the liberated colonies immediately set up high protective barriers (such as tariffs) to try to bar superior British textiles, then later, British steel. This allowed the new country to construct its own manufacturing base under specialized protective barriers and by other forms of incredible state intervention.

A staple in American manufacturing in the 19th century was cotton, which is often referred to as the fuel of American industrialization. The U.S produced cotton and became the world’s leading cotton exporter following its elimination of a massive indigenous population, which according to Howard Zinn, could have totalled “thousands upon thousands” of Indians.

The conquering of almost half of Mexico and annexation of Texas was also in order, which was land needed to monopolize cotton and “bring England to [their] knees,” to quote the Jacksonian Democrats. The U.S. then ramped up production of this 19th century ‘fuel’ through its development of a slave society, which was followed by the criminalization of black life for the purpose of exploiting their labor.

Thus far, American society has clearly industrialized in opposition, not supposed adherence, to market principles. Rather, by radical violation of free enterprise undertaken to develop (change) its comparative advantages.

A brief look at the 20th century also reveals exactly this revelation, or the concept that the U.S. did not develop and modernize out of a devout faithfulness to market principles.

Ronald Reagan is now considered a champion of free markets, and the 1980′s a decade in U.S. history in which entrepreneurial economics flourished.  According to a comprehensive review of the Reagan era in Foreign Affairs by Clyde Sanger, a Senior Fellow for International Finance at the Council on Foreign Relations, “The postwar chief executive with the most passionate love of laissez faire, presided over the greatest swing toward protectionism since the 1930s.”

Sanger noted some thematic irony, namely that advocation of market discipline is a tool used by those with power, who manage to avoid the ravages of the market as a result of astonishing state intervention. Those without power are then exposed to the free market discipline, and are therefore left with little, if any, protection from the subsidized structures of power. This theme is indeed quite dominant in the economic history of the past three centuries.

The Reagan administration was following a common course of action that has been in practice in the U.S. (and elsewhere) for its entire existence. However, modern neo-liberals have shed new light on the free market theory charade.  In 1995, Newt Gingrich extolled the victories of the free market and methodically issued tough lectures about the immoral culture of dependence of the American poor and working people. He did this while boasting rather proudly to the business community (the Chamber of Commerce) that Reagan had “granted more import relief to U.S. industry than any of his predecessors in more than half a century.” In a scholarly review by Patrick Low, a GATT secretariat economist, he estimates that the restrictive effects of Reagan’s policies measured at approximately three times those of other leading industrial countries.

A major piece of America’s dedication to free market principles includes the transfers of taxpayer funds to private corporations, generally hidden under the masks of ‘defense’ or ‘security.’  

However, pretending that these (purposefully) initiated transfers by the Pentagon to private industry weren’t economically effective isn’t, in fact, realistic. The U.S. automotive, steel, high-tech, fiber-optic, airline and other industries would never have been able to survive international competition, innovate or develop through research without these fundamental violations in market principles.

Whether this radical protectionism in a state-guided mercantilist system is a position worth advocating is perhaps a worthy subject for debate, but its usage is unquestionably in substantial defiance of any standard (classical) free market theory in principle. Since our analytical focus is centered on the world as it is, our attention should be focused on really existing free market theory, or the economic theory that is actually applied.

President Barack Obama, unlike his predecessor, hasn’t shied away from the belief and acceptance that protectionism is effective (and profoundly disguised). Of course, when his administration’s market interventions saved thousands of union jobs during the financial bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009, American media commentators eagerly termed them ‘free market infringements’ and ‘giveaways’ to undeserving corporations and the unions. However, when President Reagan subsidized an enormous amount of GM’s capital costs in the 1980′s to save the company’s management from a massive restructuring bankruptcy, that was simply necessary in the country’s effort to save American industry.

In 2011, President Obama handily announced a ‘new’ federal project that exemplifies exactly what U.S. free market policy has always been: “a joint effort by industry, universities and the federal government to help reposition the United States as a leader…”  In desperate need of economic growth before his re-election bid that’s just one year and half away, the U.S. President turned to the application of what existing free market economic theory has always been: an incredibly confounding cliché.

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Tap into the platform’s more efficient side and make yourself stand out from the crowd

By: Maham Abedi, Staff Writer

via trekkyandy, Flickr

We all use social media sites like Twitter, but it’s usually to update friends about weekend plans, what we had for lunch, or to guiltily stalk Kim Kardashian (you know you do it too).

But if you’re a student or recent grad looking to jump-start your career or even a summer job, it’s time for you to tap into Twitter’s other, more resourceful side.

Lauren Friese, founder of TalentEgg.ca, a website designed to provide students with career resources and jobs, says Twitter has an unprecedented ability to connect students with employers, if accounts are managed correctly.

The first and most common mistake people make when using their Twitter account for job hunting purposes is they post unprofessional updates. This doesn’t mean you can’t post a picture from your family dinner, but maybe stay away from sharing that you took a fake sick-day off work because you partied too late the night before. Friese calls these updates NSFE – not safe for employers. If you are going to make these more casual statements, definitely make your account locked or private.

Once you’ve decided to tweet at least semi-professionally related updates, decide on a personal brand. How do you want to sell yourself to an employer? If you want to seem passionate about your field, tweet about it.

“Use the opportunity [to tweet] to share relevant articles and connect with relevant people in your industry,” says Friese.

You should also follow specific employers you’re interested in and tweet articles, facts and other matters to them that they may find interesting.

Another helpful tip is to look out for opportunities to talk to employers. Every so often, they may ask a question or add a job posting; reply to those posts as soon as you see them. If you stay in touch with employers through Twitter, it’ll be your name that stands out between dozens of resumes.

Your account should be laid out like an informal resume. Add a brief description of yourself, stating your education and most valuable experiences. It also helps to upload a general cover letter online and provide a link to it in your profile description. If you have a professional blog, also add a link to that. You also want to upload a headshot photo of yourself, so that you are easily recognizable on Twitter and in person if you happen to meet.

The most important thing you can do is follow the right people and organizations. There are tons of job boards, recruitment agencies and companies out there looking for employees on Twitter.

You also want employers and other professionals in your field to follow you. To be noticed, and to have your tweets read by more people than just those that follow you; use relevant hashtags and commonly searched phrases. Make sure your tweets easy to read; you only have 140 characters, so be concise. Most imperatively, be grammatically correct. No matter what your field, every employer needs someone who can properly put sentences together.

And, finally, the most important rules for using Twitter to find a job: be yourself, be interesting, and tweet about things you care about, so that employers will want to hire you over someone else with the same qualifications.

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By: Herbert Lui, Staff Writer

Allen Lau

Publishing isn’t the necessarily first industry that comes to mind when you think of the word “revolution”. Yet there aren’t many other terms that describe the changes taking place in the publishing industry so precisely; services like Lulu are offering authors the ability to publish physical books themselves, while Amazon and KOBO battle fiercely to retain eBook reader dominance.

On the community front, we are watching social networks like Wattpad blossom. Wattpad is a service that brings authors and readers together. It gives authors the ability to share their work with a huge audience and gain feedback, and it also enables readers to discover new content. It has well over a million users, with one user comment being posted every second, and 300,000 stories being added monthly to its total collection of over 3.2 million. Audiences have spent over a billion minutes on Wattpad every month.

I first met Wattpad’s co-founder Allen Lau when I was volunteering at the National Business and Technology Conference a few months ago (and, I quickly discovered it was not selling a power mat alternative). After chatting briefly with him, I learned that this veteran entrepreneur had much to share and it’d be selfish of me not to share it with the world. Lau graciously accepted my request to interview him, and provided most of the substance for this work you are about to read. (Thanks Allen!)

Let’s dig in.

Prior to Wattpad, you were involved with mobile companies FeedM8 and Tira Wireless. What prompted you to create Wattpad with Ivan? This was back in 2006; why eReading?

Before Wattpad, we both worked together at Tira Wireless (I was one of Tira’s co-founders and Ivan was one of the first employees).  Tira was a multinational mobile content publishing and deployment company that raised $30M in venture capital from prominent investors and quickly grew from 2 co-founders to 200+ employees as mobile phones were first being adopted en masse. At the time, Tira’s main focus was mobile gaming publishers, and I wanted to see if the same technology could be used for other type of mobile applications.

Selfishly speaking, I wanted to solve a problem I was facing myself – quite simply, I wanted to be able to read while I was on the go. So I prototyped a mobile reading app on the most popular Nokia Java phone that was available at the time. Unfortunately, very little text could be read on the small grainy screen and the experience was so rough that I knew the market wasn’t ready for this type of product.

Fast forward to Nov 2006, as I was about to leave Tira, mobile phone capabilities had drastically improved. So I resurrected the mobile reading app idea in my basement and started coding again. Ivan remained a close friend but had relocated to Vancouver.

One day out of the blue Ivan instant messaged me and asked me to check out the prototype of a new product he was working on. Coincidentally, it turned out to be a mobile Java reading app with a corresponding website where people could easily upload and share their writing. It’s hard to believe, but independently we had come up with the same idea!

Two days later I flew to Vancouver to meet with Ivan, and Wattpad was born in the Vancouver airport.

Where do future opportunities lie? And, conversely, what is Wattpad struggling with at the moment?

Although we have almost 10M monthly unique visitors, I believe we are only 5% of where we want to be.  If you think broadly about entertainment, there are perhaps 5 big media types:

• Video
• Music
• Pictures/Images
• News
• Book/Stories

For each media type there will be a dominant social network; you can see this emerging with YouTube for video, SoundCloud for music, Pinterest for images etc. We are building Wattpad to become the dominant player for people to discover and share long form stories by connecting readers and writers directly.

It is important to note that we are creating a completely new digital entertainment category. Something like this has not existed before.  Storytelling is inherent to human nature; it has been since the days of cavemen and Wattpad was developed as a brand new place to engage in the act of storytelling and reading.

At the moment, scaling Wattpad to serve tens of millions of users is one of our biggest challenges. We have to put a lot of effort in enhancing the infrastructure and these improvements are not necessarily noticeable to our users. While building the product is difficult, building the company that builds the product is equally challenging. When we were 5 people, everyone knew what everybody else is working on. It is getting harder to make sure the train runs smoothly when we are at close to 20 people. We also have to think about what type of people, skill, experience and even personality we need in our next steps, and sometimes the answer is not that apparent.

How did you grow Wattpad after the initial spurt of users?

An important factor in Wattpad’s early adoption came when we seeded the service with 17,000 free, out-of-copyright classic novels from Project Gutenberg. This helped us kick-start the Wattpad library and attract more users at a key point in the adoption of mobile phones – many online services were using these texts, but Wattpad was the first company to offer these well-known stories in a mobile format on people’s handsets!

As cell phones proliferated, more and more users began to share their own stories on Wattpad and a small number of them actually turned out to be great writers. Fans of those writers shared their stories with friends, who in turned shared the stories with their friends… which created an atmosphere where new writers felt comfortable and compelled to share their work and the viral cycle continues today!

Where do you see Wattpad going in the near future?

As I mentioned in the above, there are so many things we want to do and we are only 5% of where we ultimately want to be. In the near term, we are focusing on enhancing the user experience especially on our mobile application. We want our mobile users to enjoy the full Wattpad experience, including the huge amount of content and all the social interaction. At the same time, we want to ensure that we can provide a great user experience in the small screen.  It is a delicate balance and that’s what we will be focusing on in the near term.

Plans for Kindle integration? (Not Kindle Fire, but more e-Ink eReader integration…)

Unlikely. It is very hard to provide the full Wattpad experience on e-Ink devices. In general, the e-Ink devices are good at content consumption but quite lacking in social interaction and content creation. Giving our users the full Wattpad experience is very important to us and hence the current e-Ink devices are not ideal.

Advice for young entrepreneurs?

Think big, start young and make the world a better place. There are so many big industries that have not been changed in decades; Finance, education or even the government, just to name a few. The mobile and social Internet can reshape these industries in a very positive way and there are lots of opportunities for young entrepreneurs to make a big impact.

Advice for young writers?

I don’t think I am good writer so I am hesitant to give advice to young writers! I can only share what I’ve learned from great writers. They write a lot, they write frequently, they revise their work endlessly and they read a lot. The good news is that Wattpad provides an awesome environment for all of the above and it is great place for young writers to start.

Where do you see the app economy growing in the near future?

Even though it feels like the app economy has already been exploded, I believe it’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are less than 1M apps in the app store while there are hundreds of millions of websites out there. There are 5 billion phones out there while only a small percentage of that are Internet enabled. I believe the real explosive growth is coming in the next 5 years.

Why do you advise entrepreneurs to start young? And yet what makes you advise students against dropping out of school to start their own businesses?

It is easier to innovate when one is young because there is no preconception of how things should work. It is just so much harder to think out of the box if your mind is already contaminated with old ideas.  And more importantly, if your startup fails, you can always go back to your parents!

Although I encourage entrepreneurs to start young, life experience is also a big contributor to one’s success. College education is an essential part of one’s life experience and it helps a person to see things through different perspectives.

Even though Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are all college dropouts, dropping out does not make you the next Zuckerberg!

How do you make a free app that’s addictive? Do you see any elements similar to mobile gaming that fit into Wattpad?

One thing in common among addictive apps is that people need to feel entertained.  While we are very different than Angry Birds, I would say our users feel as entertained and that’s one of the reasons why Wattpad is so addictive.

What has been the most difficult part of the journey thus far? How did you manage to get through it?

Each phase has its own unique challenges. At the moment, scaling Wattpad to serve tens of millions of users is one of our biggest challenges. That said, if I have to pick the most difficult part of the journey, I would say the answer is the classic chicken and egg dilemma in the beginning. If we didn’t solve this problem, we wouldn’t have the scaling challenge today!

When your product relies on user generated content, you can’t really start attracting users without content, and if there are no users, there is no content. This problem plagued us during the early years of Wattpad, the company was bootstrapped, money was very tight and we had families to feed. There came a point when we almost pulled the plug on Wattpad. But we also came up with a great way to buy more time so Wattpad could percolate: we launched a second company, FeedM8 (pronounced FeedMate). FeedM8 was a product that helped bloggers and publishers extend their reach and monetize content. Within a short time frame that company also saw explosive growth, so Ivan and I focused on FeedM8 to pay the bills and keep the lights on. The revenue from FeedM8 gave Wattpad the runway it wouldn’t have otherwise had to reach its stride. FeedM8 was eventually sold to Upstream Systems and by this time Wattpad’s organic growth was reaching a sustainable level.

You’ve often compared Wattpad with Youtube; will Wattpad ever start paying their content creators, just like Youtube eventually did? Why or why not?

Everyone is a content producer these days, with a small percentage of content producers being compensated financially. YouTube is a great example of that. It is fair to assume that Wattpad will provide a mechanism for a percentage of our users to make money, either directly or indirectly.

Is there anything you want to add?

I feel that the Wattpad team is sitting on an opportunity of a lifetime to do something very transformative. Wattpad is creating a completely new to tell stories, and in fact storytelling has not changed much since Gutenberg invented movable types a few hundred years ago.  So, we are doing something that can impact a lot of people’s lives in a very positive way and we are grateful for that.

Allen Lau is the co-founder of Wattpad. If you enjoyed this article, show him some love by shouting him and Wattpad out on Twitter. 

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Things you can do to stay ahead of the curve

By Adrienne Beason, Staff Writer

via Jayel Aheram, Flickr

As the timers in the last of the final exams stop and the classroom doors close for the semester, students around the globe feel relief, elation and their first free breaths. While the odd student is lucky enough to have scored a summer job in their field of study and the highly motivated will embark upon a summer semester, most of us seek jobs that will allow for the least amount of thinking. And who can blame us? The long hours, the stress of trying to commit an array of facts to memory, a slew of projects and papers all due at once – it’s exhausting, to say the least. Taking time for mental and physical rejuvenation is an essential part of the end-of-semester-detox. But what are you losing by slacking off all summer long?

When you reconvene in the fall, it’s not uncommon to look at your prof, freshly launched into his or her spiel and think, I have no idea what you’re talking about. You may immediately feel at a disadvantage, as though you’re already behind, and then, for the disorganized or undisciplined, it’s easily a slippery slope to confusion and frustration.

Now, let’s be honest. We all know deep down that it wouldn’t be a bad plan to have enrolled in summer classes, perhaps knocking out the courses that don’t directly relate to our majors. Maybe in retrospect we’ll think, why didn’t I pursue my degree with all the fire and rage of a long-toothed predator? But not all of us are willing to do that.

You know you need to recharge your batteries. You also know you need stimulation to maintain a competitive mental edge during the summer. So how do you strike a balance between working to live and not living to work?  The following tips will suggest ways to not only avoid losing ground over the summer, but to even advance closer to the finish line: the successful launch of your career.

Free Your Mind and Take Care of (Non-Academic) Business

Somewhere along the way, perhaps by the middle of the second month of semester, you start to let things slide. After the first wave of mid-terms, you begin labeling non-academic parts of your life as periphery elements and move them to the outskirts of your mind. At first it’s only as superficial as you merely give up on staying on top of your favourite TV shows. Maybe then going to the gym falls to the bottom of your priority list. Eventually, you stop doing your laundry, cleaning, going out and socializing, or even calling your family.

After exams, it’s important to calm yourself and free your mind from the cage of your memorized facts. Don’t forget them, by all means. Just find a way to de-stress.

“Students are brain drained by the end of spring term,” says Pamela Rambo, Ed. D of Rambo Reasearch and Consulting LLC. “They are running on empty at that point. To my way of thinking, the task… is… to renew themselves mentally for the next phase of their education.”

Like shaking out a pose you’ve been holding for a long time, you must first find a way to reboot your brain. Perhaps consider looking into a fun (non-credit)class in an artistic area. Rec centres are often an excellent source for everything from salsa dance lessons to pottery to Italian cooking workshops to yoga. Look at doing things that are not possible during the school year – read for pleasure, go to the movies, check out a museum or art gallery. Reconnect with family and friends. And get outside and get physical. Now is the time to jump back into a fitness routine that you’ve been neglecting, (or ease, depending on your body).

Once you’ve cleared your mind, it’s time to look at other areas in your life that need attention. Water your plants. Give your car some TLC. Assess what you’ll need for summer and the coming year and give your wardrobe an autopsy for a fresh start. Lastly, give yourself some attention. Go to your doctor and get a physical.

Getting Ahead

You may be inclined towards the thinking that reading ahead is for keeners that probably don’t have a life – a lot of us are. But how often during the semester have you thought, if I only had more time?! Keeping an eye on the prize, (graduation or long-term career goals), even during summer vacation, will minimize confusion in the coming semester and streamline your journey to convocation.

Assess your academic plans for the coming year and figure out what will make your life easier. Try reading supplementary materials to enhance your understanding, or even watch documentaries on the subject. If you’re concerned, you can consider getting a mentor in your chosen career field or a tutor on upcoming topics. You can also get the jump on the upcoming year by visiting campus and finding out if you can grab the syllabi for your upcoming classes. This does not require the prof to be there, and even an old syllabus is usually fine as they don’t change that much from one year to another. What if you’re already miles away, back home? You can easily have it emailed to you.

If you do happen to stop by and your fall prof happens to be around, stop in and introduce yourself. This is a great way to get a feel for them and express any concerns you might have. (“I’ve always had a tough time with Calculus.”) Maybe they’ll even offer you some advice.

Another benefit to your syllabus is you’ll know what your textbooks are going to be. Try to get a hold of them. First off, they may be cheaper in summer. Secondly, you can flip through a chapter here or there and familiarize yourself with the material. If you’re a slow reader, this may just give you the head start on the readings you need to stay on top of your upcoming workload.

Sharpen Skills

Nobody likes to admit they’ve made mistakes, but growing and improving requires just that. Look back over your academic progress over the past year. What were your weaknesses? Math? Public speaking? Writing? Study skills? Whatever they are, now is your chance to take the steps you need to strengthen them. Try reading up on them, seeking a tutor or participating in a study group, depending on what your Achilles’ heel is. For convenience’s sake, it may be worth your time to form an e-study group. You can meet online once a week and discuss budding developments in your field of study. Lastly, if you just finished a course like Biology 200 and you’re moving on to 300, breeze over your notes once a week. You’ll keep your mind on top of it and it may just become that much clearer with the extra revision.

Develop New Skills

Summer can also be an excellent time to work on creating new abilities that you know you’ll need later on. (You certainly know you’re not going to have time once fall hits.)

One skill the majority of us can count on requiring is the ability to network. Ever heard the saying it’s all who you know? Well, it’s not just an idle maxim. Do whatever you can to develop quality, friendly relationships, because you never know how or when they may pay off. And six degrees of separation is particularly relevant in the business world.

If possible, use this time to learn the systems of your chosen career path. Perhaps you can go to jobsites that resemble your ideal future workplace and ask around about how their processes work. At the very least, it will give you a sharper understanding of what your prospective job may entail. The sooner you have achieved technical competence, the sooner you’ll be able to apply creativity to your work.

Many students seek an occupation, when they should be seeking a career. Become an expert on your chosen topic. Learning whatever you can on the matter will lubricate the process involved in getting your degree. Perhaps it’s possible to email a leader in your field. Tell them you are a student in the subject matter of their expertise and (respectfully) ask them what their work is like and any other questions you might have. You never know your luck!

Lastly, consider expanding your knowledge by participating in an internship, where possible.

Tutor and career councillor, Gaye Weintraub says, “I strongly encourage my students to intern or work in their field. One of my students majoring in interior design is not only interning for a local design firm but building her portfolio by redesigning living spaces of her parent’s friends. One of my international business students worked as a car salesman at a local dealership during the summer. While it didn’t directly relate to his major, he did gain a lot of experience in negotiations and sales tactics.”

“Put what you’ve learned while at school into practice through an internship or volunteer program,” says Sara Sutton Fell, expert in the online job market and CEO of FlexJobs.  “You can test out career ideas while gaining work experience at the same time. Even internships or volunteer programs not directly related to your career aspirations are a good way to gain general work experience and keep your mind active, while adding to your resume. “

Energize Your Summer Brain

For the majority of students, summer is synonymous with drinking, sleeping, partying, camping, and lazing around on the beach.  It’s simple enough to keep your BBQ commitments and stoke your brain with creative fire at the same time.

It’s obvious enough to say read. But it’s important to interpret and apply what you read. Try talking to others about it. Find books that will give your career a jolt and intersperse them with books for pleasure.

Don’t forget recreation that will stimulate various parts of your brain. Play an instrument. Solve a puzzle. Play a sport.

Writing is another obvious tip, but this is one of the most dependable ways to keep the mind engaged. Boost your online presence by starting a blog at the same time as you hone the skill you’ll need to conquer those essays in the fall.  Try recording your thoughts or keeping a journal of the things you learn over the summer. Write down words and ideas that interest you.

Try doing for something for someone less fortunate. Volunteer for something that interests you, be it helping out at a soup kitchen, spending time at a nursing home, or taking care of kids at a summer camp.

Sara Sutton Fell says, “One of the best things you can put on your resume… is volunteer work. This shows employers you are willing to go above and beyond to use your talents for the betterment of others.”

“Make a contribution to society and remember that you are a privileged person and that privilege comes paired with responsibility,” says Stacey Cunitz, Director of Admissions and College Counseling at The Crefeld School in Philadelphia.

Whether you are able to invest a little or a lot into keeping your mind sharp over summer and possibly even advancing your knowledge and understanding in your field of study, don’t forget to be curious. Ask questions and don’t forget why you started down this path in the first place. Every little bit helps. So, when you head out to the lake for some rays, don’t forget to tuck your book under your arm.

ARB Team
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Business News with BITE.

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