Business Filter

Boston's Lunch 2.0

Source: 93 South

The west coast has Lunch 2.0. And now Boston is vying for it's own version - a Boston networking lunch for the web tech set. Sponsored by Compete and Yahoo and called tastybytes, the event recently attracted a "decent mix of over 50 tech entrepreneurs, agency folks and VCs" to Foster’s Pavilion at the Boston Harbor Hotel. Interested in sharing ideas about web, marketing, technology? Sign up at the tastybytes wiki.

Connect or disconnect?

Source: Roughtype

Nicholas Carr blogs about a new study that says Americans are having less sex and spending less time with friends in order to stay online longer. Wondering whether avatars or online porn may in fact be "uh, taking up the slack," Carr comments that "our rapidly deepening reliance on the Net strikes me as being less a sign of media addiction… than of technological dependency." He predicts a counter-movement is on the way and advises marketers to look for "the "digitivity dropouts," who make disconnectivity the next big thing."

Related:
Relentless connectivity
Cure your email addiction
Our growing power addiction

US workers most productive?

Source: Inc.com

A new study suggests that US workers are the most productive in the world. Guess who's #2? Ireland. So does that make those of us that are Irish American extra special? But before we get all proud, note that when "measured as value added per hour worked, American workers dropped behind those in Norway where workers produced $37.99 per hour, compared to $35.63 in the United States." Why? Because "U.S. employees tend to work much longer hours than workers in other developed economies."

Greenhyping

Source: Slate

The cost of switching to solar is still high so the immediate value for solar panels may come from the publicity - not the electricity - they generate. Westport, CT Wash & Wax installed 18 solar panels on their car wash for a total cost of $21,000 (BTW, taxpayers will foot 60 percent of the bill). The resulting electricity will only power a fraction of their energy needs and it will take seven years to recoup the investment. But it only took two weeks to land media coverage not just from local cable and paper, but even the New York Times itself has called. More and more, going green is "a surefire way to cut through the clutter."

Greenwashing - where companies portray a green image but skip the green practices, now has a cousin, greenhyping. But if the cousin can get more companies (and people) to adopt solar, it may be ok to have it in the family.

Related:
Greenwashing
The sunshine economy
Latte with a shot of carbon
Green gold

Silicon Valley East?

Source: Xconomy

A new report says that New England-based web 2.0 companies locked in nearly $102 million in VC funding in the first half of 2007, "the highest total of any region, including perennial leader the Bay Area." The catch? "More than half the money invested went to two firms - and one of them was Eons, the Boston Internet site for the over-50 set that last week laid off about a third of its staff." The leader? $30 million went to Cambridge-based n2N Commerce, an e-commerce site for retailers. Go to Xconomy for the full list.

Personal genetics

Source: Forbes

What's one of the most-watched startups in Silicon Valley? 23andMe, a company founded by Anne Wojcicki, the new wife of Google billionaire Sergey Brin that has raised $10 million in funding from Google and others. The name 23andMe "comes from the fact that every person has 23 pairs of chromosomes (your DNA) that contain our genes." So when the company gets ramped up, their goal is to have you send in a Q-tip sample for analysis and then log on and find out more bout your ancestry and later perhaps any potential links you may have to diseases. Yep. This is the part where Google googles your genes.

Related:
Google your genes
DIY gene screening
The DNA & drug checkup
DNA for the holidays
And this one, just for fun: What's your personal DNA?

Death by commute

Source: CNN

A new study finds that commuters waste "nearly an entire work week each year sitting in traffic on the way to and from their jobs." And it's getting worse. Drivers "languished in traffic delays for a total of 4.2 billion hours in 2005, up from 4 billion the year before." That's means 2.9 billion gallons of fuel is burned by cars in traffic jams. Boston is not the worst. Top jam status goes to LA where drivers spend up to 72 hours per year in traffic. Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington and Dallas also top the list. Sadly, no matter where you go, we seem unable to budge this statistic..."three-quarters of all commuters drive alone to work."

Limos get huge

Source: BusinessWeek

Lest we think all cars are going small, the European Limousine and Chauffeur Show in the UK this month will showcase a few whoppers. The Ferrari 360 Modena carbon fiber stretch limo is 23 feet long and goes from 0 to 60 mph in less than 6 seconds. That's just in case you have to flee the paparazzi at 170mph. Then there's Europe's biggest stretch Hummer, called "The Terminator" which has 10 wheels and 39 and a half feet long.

Business Filter in today's Boston Globe

Less pink, more tech
Illustration: James F. Kraus

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