Steve Woda's blog

Troubled Times Ahead for North Korea? - Knowledge@Wharton

The death this weekend of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, who ruled the country with an iron fist since his father’s death in 1994, had immediate repercussions throughout Asia and beyond.

The New York Times reports that South Korea — which has been at war with North Korea since the early 1950s — immediately put its military on alert, “boosting surveillance along the 155-mile border between the two countries, one of the world’s most heavily armed frontiers.” The tension between the two countries escalated during the past several years after North Korea demonstrated nuclear capability.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Asian stock markets took a dive in response to the news, “with South Korea’s stock market and the won tumbling to multiweek lows…. With markets already reeling from the European debt crisis and global growth concerns, Kim’s death has added a dangerous layer of instability to the Korean peninsula,” the Journal noted, adding that “many Asian neighbors [are] uneasy about the leadership transition phase in one of the world’s most reclusive regimes.”

That unease was further heightened by the announcement that Kim’s son, Kim Jong-un, has been named the country’s new leader, despite his youth (he is in his twenties), lack of experience and isolation from other governments.

via knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu

A 27 year old kid with nukes. Pretty scary stuff.

Trust Is Critical When You Date, Bungee Jump and Sell Online – KickScore Research Shows

We all know how important trust is.

Some guy in a clean uniform and a firm handshake approaches you, you feel pretty good. Some creep in a sloppy uniform, tangled hair and blood dripping from a meat knife makes you cringe.

Your web site is no different. (See Ramon’s – 10WebSiteMusts.com )

When customers or prospective customers visit your web site they want to feel that they can trust what they are buying (or even just reading) from your web site. The more information you have online about your business the more comfortable shoppers will feel in buying from you. If you’re not a brand (an already trusted brand) like Amazon.com, WalMart or some other retailer – you’ll need to do a LOT to build trust, with each mouse click, with new visitors.

KikScore , a service which provides a reputation score to web sites, in a recent survey, found the following insight from the survey:

With the substantial increase over the last few years in online shopping, consumers have become aware of the constant threat of hackers, scammers, and identity thieves that operate online. Now consumers are increasingly searching for and hiring local service businesses such as contractors, lawyers, plumbers and landscapers. These shoppers and consumers that perform local searches raise growing concerns about the trustworthiness of the businesses that they find online. Increasingly, if shoppers and browsers visit a website and feel that it is not trustworthy, consumers will simply leave and go to another website. According to findings from the KikScore survey, the fear of being defrauded or being a victim of an online scam has led more than 90% of consumers that shop online not to complete a transaction.

via www.businessinsider.com

I founded buySAFE, the world's leading ecommerce trust and safety company, and so I have a deep appreciation for the high correlation between trust perceptions / conversion rates. KikScore's research illustrates this crucial ecommerce concept.

Well done guys.

Call for wider ban on drivers’ use of cellphones has police pondering how they’d spot talkers - The Washington Post

A driver in the next lane is moving his lips. Is he on a hands-free cellphone? Talking to someone in the car? To himself? Singing along to the radio?

If lawmakers follow the advice of a federal board, police officers will have to start figuring that out — somehow.

The National Transportation Safety Board said this week that drivers should not only be barred from using hand-held cellphones, as they are in several states, but also from using hands-free devices. No more “Sorry, I’m stuck in traffic” calls, or virtually any other cellphone chatter behind the wheel.

Though no state has yet implemented such restrictive rules, the NTSB’s recommendations carry weight that could place such language into future laws, or motivate the federal government to cut funding to states that don’t follow suit.

Many of the men and women patrolling the nation’s streets and highways wonder how they would sort the criminally chatty from the legally chatty.

“It would be almost impossible to determine if someone was talking on a phone or exercising their vocal cords,” said Capt. Donald Melanson of the West Hartford, Conn., police department, which took part in a national pilot program aimed at cracking down on drivers’ cellphone use. “That would be much more difficult to enforce, almost to the point where it would be impossible.”

via www.washingtonpost.com

I am obviously not a fan of distracted driving, but the idea of banning all phone use in a car seems like a dramatic overreach and a bit ridiculous. It will be unenforceable, and in a short time, technology will eliminate many of the distracting aspects of car calls... like dialing a phone with your fingers versus with your voice.

Talking to someone hands-free is no different or worse than dealing with two distracting kids in the back seat. I don't see how you can make this illegal unless you want to also making talking in a car illegal in general. Obviously, that would be a stupid idea. Thus, this is a stupid idea.

An Insider's Take on Attracting Angel Investment | Entrepreneur.com

For early stage companies, angel investment can be an attractive funding option, says James Hunt, angel investor and adjunct professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. Hunt specializes in early stage funding and has holdings in about two dozen companies. Here, he shares the secrets to getting a blessing--and funding--from an angel.

via www.entrepreneur.com

Good advice for entrepreneurs from an experienced Washington, DC angel, James Hunt.

25% of Toddlers Have Used a Smartphone | Advertising Age

We've come to accept that millennials adopt technology at a faster rate than other generations. And we've come to accept that millennial moms are uber-digital -- not only the mommy-bloggers gathering in San Diego this week for the annual BlogHer conference. What we don't often talk about is how that's going to shape the generation coming up after the millennials -- the iGen. Technology isn't going to skip this generation, it's being handed down right from mother to child.

via adage.com

Amazing stats. Kids know how to use a phone before they can tie their shoes. Very interesting.

Infographic: Cyber-Bullying by the Numbers by ZoneAlarm - PCMag.com

We've known for quite some time that cyber-bullying is a serious problem. The scary thing is that despite all the attention given to the phenomenon, it appears to be getting worse.

What are we to make of a recent survey that indicates that a quarter of U.S. parents say their children have been involved in a cyber-bullying incident, either as a bully, victim, or witness. Or another study that found that relatively few teachers have even spoken about cyber-bullying with their students.

via www.pcmag.com

An interesting Infographic on the subject of cyberbullying.

uKnowKids Review & Rating... 4 stars (Very Good) - PCMag.com

Do you know your children's friends? Sure, you may meet some of them when they come over to play Dead Rising 2 or work on homework with your kid, but a huge amount of a modern kid's social interaction happens online. uKnowKids ($9.95/month or $99.95/year) aims to help you get familiar with your child's circle of online friends and warn you of any risky or inappropriate online interactions. It doesn't attempt to impose parental control on the kids; it's strictly an informational tool.

via www.pcmag.com

PC Magazine rated uKnowKids 4 stars (Very Good).

Not bad for a product and company that has been financed on a dime, not a dollar to date.

Congratulations to the entire uKnow.com team. Well done!

Investment capital: the rise of 'angel' investors - Christian Science Monitor

In 2009, Steve Woda and his brother Tim dreamed up a new company: an Internet-based service that would help inform parents about how to protect their children in today's high-tech world. The motivation was personal: In early 2009, a child predator had been caught stalking one of Tim's children via social media.

An experienced entrepreneur, Steve planned to seek seed funding in stages while he and his brother worked out the company's early kinks. The happy results so far: Since late 2009, their Arlington, Va., company, uKnow.com, has already attracted about $1 million from a progression of about 20 "angel" investors (individuals and groups who invest in start-up companies).

"Timing was on our side," says Steve, uKnow.com's chief executive officer. "Unfortunately, there's a rising risk for kids online. But fortunately, we found a growing number of angels available to help us address this problem."

While the venture-capital industry continues to consolidate, making it hard for some entrepreneurs to get investment capital, angel investments are on the rise. Angel investors are typically wealthy individuals who, like venture capitalists, make high-risk investments in fledgling companies in hopes of reaping exceptional returns. The difference is that the money they typically provide is much less than what venture capitalists offer, so angels usually have funded very early stages of new businesses. But even that is changing.

via www.csmonitor.com

An interesting article about angel investors as well a bit of uKnow.com's history.

Enjoy.