Preferential Attachment

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, we learn:

Preferential attachment is a name given by scientists to a class of processes in which some quantity...is distributed among a number of individuals or objects according to how much they already have, so that those who are already wealthy receive more than those who are not...The principal reason for scientific interest in preferential attachment is that it can, under suitable circumstances, generate power law distributions of wealth.

If this concept interests you, read the entire Wikipedia article and follow its links and references. I'm trying to stimulate N-way conversation, so also post a comment to this blog.

Preferential means for entrepreneurs that in a widget market, say Company A has 60% of the market, Company B, 30% of the market, and Company C 10%. This means that of any 10 new customers who go to by a widget, 6 of them are most likely to buy Company A's widget, 3 will buy from Company B and 1 from Company C. If you try to enter the widget market, with a similar widget to those already sold, the odds of you succeeding are slight, unless of course, you offer something different. That can change the whole ball game. There is the new entrant's broadest path to success. Being different.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Percolation Theory

Those of us old enough, know that a percolator is coffeemaker. Percolation happens when water runs through a solid. A "perc test" measures the speed with which water moves through soil. It used to be in Wisconsin, a building lot could not be built on unless it passed a "perc test." I talked to a guy back in the early 1980s who had invented an computer-based perc tester. Seems like old hat now, but it was pretty edgy for the times. I don't think he ever went anywhere with it, at least I never heard anything. Maybe he patented it and sold the rights to a company and made a lot of money.

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line, encylopedia, we get this for percolation:

In physics, chemistry and materials science, percolation concerns also the movement and filtering of fluids through porous materials. Examples include the movement of solvents through filter paper (chromatography) and the movement of petroleum through fractured rock. Electrical analogs include the flow of electricity through random resistor networks. During the last three decades, percolation theory...has brought new understanding and techniques to a broad range of topics in physics, materials science as well as geography.

Entrepreneurs have to be concerned with the dissemination of their innovations by customers. In other words, inventions have to "percolate" through dense networks. A "perc test" can show how fast an innovation will spread, so percolation theory might be a useful thing from which entrepreneurs can take important concepts.

If you're interested in percolation, read the entire Wikipedia article and follow its links and references. If you're grabbed by this, post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschool.blogspot.com

Critical Threshold

The notion of Critical threshold has been around a while. Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, says:

Critical threshold, a notion derived from the percolation theory, refers to a threshold, that summons up to a critical mass. Under the threshold the phenomenon tends to abort, above the threshold, it tends to grow exponentially. In cases where the phenomenon is not sudden and takes time to operate, in the form of a transition phase or phase transition, we talk about a critical phase more than a critical point that would mark a clear threshold.

This is yet another way for entrepreneurs to think about their products and services. Where is that critical threshold for my product? What do we have to do to get there? What resources will it require? Do we have them inhouse or do I have to go somewhere to get them? What is it going to take for that to happen?

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. If something I say grabs you, post a comment. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog. For entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.com

Incidence

The spread of innovation through networks mimics the spread of disease through populations. Hence the term, "viral marketing." So the concept of "incidence," a term from epidemiology may be appropriate for entrepreneurs to use.

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, "incidence" is

A measure of the risk of developing some new condition within a specified period of time. Although sometimes loosely expressed simply as the number of new cases during some time period, it is better expressed as a proportion or a rate with a denominator."

The Wikipedia article also gives the term, "incidence proportion," also known as "cumulative incidence":

The number of new cases within a specified time period divided by the size of the population initially at risk. For example, if a population initially contains 1,000 non-diseased persons and 28 develop a condition over two years of observation, the incidence proportion is 28 cases per 1,000 persons, i.e. 2.8%.

And then, the article also describes the "incidence rate":

The number of new cases per unit of person-time at risk. In the same example as above, the incidence rate is 14 cases per 1000 person-years, because the incidence proportion (28 per 1,000) is divided by the number of years (two). Using person-time rather than just time handles situations where the amount of observation time differs between people, or when the population at risk varies with time.

Anyone interested in the term should read the entire Wikipedia article and follow all the links and references.

Epidemiology offers offers the entrepreneur a way of shifting perspective to think about the creation and adoption of new products in new ways. Rather than time-worn jargon such as "market share," "market potential," and so forth, think of markets in terms the extent to which various networks are at risk of adopting new products.

If you like what I say, post a comment. Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blotspot.com.

Small World Networks

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

In mathematics and physics, a small-world network is a type of mathematical graph in which most nodes are not neighbors of one another, but most nodes can be reached from every other by a small number of hops or steps. A small world network, where nodes represent people and [links] connect people [who] know each other, captures the small world phenomenon of strangers being linked by a mutual acquaintance.

Network analysis gives entrepreneurs a rich set of powerful tools to use to analyze their social capital and talk and think about their customers. For example, if your customers make up a small world network, it means that you may have to promote your product differently than if your market were all 1st level connections. Anyone interested in this should read the entire Wikipedia article and follow the links.

If something I write resonates with you, post a comment. Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Interpersonal Ties

This, from Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, about interpersonal ties:

In mathematical sociology, interpersonal ties are defined as information-carrying connections between people. Interpersonal ties, generally, come in three varieties: strong, weak, or absent. Weak social ties, it is argued, are responsible for the majority of the embeddedness and structure of social networks in society as well as the transmission of information through these networks. Specifically, more novel information flows to individuals through weak rather than strong ties. Because our close friends tend to move in the same circles that we do, the information they receive overlaps considerably with what we already know. Acquaintances, by contrast, know people that we do not, and thus receive more novel information. Included in the definition of absent ties, according to Granovetter, are those relationships (or ties) without substantial significance, such as "nodding" relationships between people living on the same street, or the "tie", for example, to a frequent vendor one would buy from. Furthermore, the fact that two people may know each other by name does not necessarily qualify the existence of a weak tie. If their interaction is negligible the tie may be absent. The "strength" of an interpersonal tie is a linear combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (or mutual confiding), and the reciprocal services which characterize each tie.

Anyone interested in these ideas should read the entire Wikipedia article, follow the links, and read the references.

Entrepreneurs needs to know this body of information so that they can analyze their social capital. We have very rich tools to analyze our financial fundamentals. Mathematical sociology gives us tools to analyze our social fundamentals.

All my professional activities are entrepreneurial. And if this grabs you, post a comment. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Mathematical Sociology

Mathematical sociology is a fascinating field. From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

Mathematical sociology is the usage of mathematics to construct social theories. In sociology, in general, the connection between mathematics and sociology is confined to problems of data analysis; employing statistical models. Many sociological theories are strong in intuitive content, but weak from a formal point of view. In mathematical sociology, the preferred style is encapsulated in the phrase "constructing a mathematical model." This means making specified assumptions about some mathematical objects and providing an empirical interpretation for the ideas. It also means deducing properties of the model and comparing these with relevant empirical data.

Mathematical sociology provides a rich set of tools for entrepreneurs to use in thinking about their products and their customers. If they don't do the math, they end up with weak ideas about the world around them. One of the most interesting applications of mathematical sociology is in network analysis.

If you're interested, read the entire Wikipedia article and follow its references and links. And post a comment.

All my professional activities are informed by entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Link Rot

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, we get:

Link rot is the process by which links on a website gradually become irrelevant or broken as time goes on, because websites that they link to disappear, change their content or redirect to new locations. The phrase also describes the effects of failing to update web pages so that they become out-of-date, containing information that is old and useless, and that clutters up search engine results.

The term can also applies to social networks. People move, change jobs, they retire, go to work for a competitor, die, so forth. Your network can suffer link rot unless you continually nurture your relationships. Networks are useful for making the entrepreneur aware of opportunities and information. Yet your network is only as good as the links. And on those links rides your social capital.

If you find this interesting, posta comment. Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.hatman.com

Graphs

Social networks had been studied for nearly a century. John Scott, in Social Network Analysis; a Handbook(London: SAGE Publications, 2000,) pp. 7-33 gives a history of it. Sociologists knew that people operated in social contexts. Then someone thought up a graph to represent it. A graph is also called a sociogram.

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

In mathematics and computer science, a graph is the basic object of study in graph theory. Informally speaking, a graph is a set of objects called points, nodes, or vertices connected by links called lines or edges. In a proper graph, which is by default undirected, a line from point A to point B is considered to be the same thing as a line from point B to point A. In a digraph, short for directed graph, the two directions are counted as being distinct arcs or directed edges. Typically, a graph is depicted in diagrammatic form as a set of dots (for the points, vertices, or nodes), joined by curves (for the lines or edges).

Graphs are important to entrepreneurs because they offer a powerful tool for entrepreneurs to visualize their social networks. If you're a visual person, seeing something makes it a lot easier to remember. If you're interested in this, read the entire Wikipedia article and check out the Scott book. It give a terrific overview of social network analysis.

Entreneurship informs all my professional activities. If you're interested in anything I say in this blog, post a comment. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Trust

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises. Trust does not need to involve belief in the good character, vices, or morals of the other party. Persons engaged in a criminal activity usually trust each other to some extent. Also trust does not need to include an action that you and the other party are mutually engaged in. Trust is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown -- for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future.

Trust is absolutely necessary for entrepreneurial success. Its presence increases the speed of business, gets products to market faster, makes more people buy products sooner, encourages people to partner, etc. Absent, it slows business down. It makes people wary of products, reluctant to partner with them, reluctant to lend money. High trust acts like a benefit, low trust like a deficit. If you're interested in reading more go to the Wikipedia article. And read Steven M. Covey's The Speed of Trust; the One Thing That chantes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006).

If something grabs you, post a comment. This is my entrepreneurship course. Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Social Network Theory

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are [linked] by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade...

Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of nodes and [links]. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and [links]. [Links] are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of [links] between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.

In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant [links] between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram [called a graph], where nodes are the points and [links] are the lines.

This concept is crucial for entrepreneurs. Their entreprises consist of them and their connections. Networks provide the social capital the entrepeneur needs to succeed. Customers buy and are influenced by their social networks. Social networks provide opportunities and information which the entrepreneur needs to succeed. Social network analysis provides a very rich set of tools by which the entrepreneur can analyze his or her social capital and manipulate their networks in order to manage risk and increase the odds of success. Note in the above quote I have substituted the work "link" for "tie." And if this interests you read the entire Wikipedia article and follow the links adn references. I assure you that you don't have enough hours to get your mind around all the stuff that's been written on Social Network Analysis.

Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. If it does this for you to, post a comment. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Networks

A network is one of the most elegant concepts ever conceived. A network is simply a set of nodes and links. It's as simple as that. Nodes and links. Nodes are points and links are the relationships which tie the nodes together. Entrepreneurs have to deal with many different kinds of networks: social networks, computer networks, electronic networks, road systems, and so forth. There is an immense body of literature analyzing networks stemming from social psychology, mathematics, and other fields. We'll try to sort it all out as we go forward.

Entrepreneurship informs all my other activities. If you read something interesting, post a comment. For my real estate blog, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my writing blog, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blotspot.com.

Prototypes

According to Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedi: A prototype is an original type, form, or instance of something serving as a typical example, basis, or standard for other things of the same category." An earlier version of this article (May 23, 2008) described a prototype as "An iitial physical representation or model of an INVENTION." Wikipedia further says, "The word derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον (prototypon), "archetype, original", neutral of πρωτότυπος (prototypos), "original, primitive", from πρώτος (protos), "first" + τύπος (typos), "impression." Go the Wikipedia and read the whole article and its referrences.

Here's its relevance for entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur, call him "E", begins with an idea or impression in his or her head. It could be a new kind of gym, a new kind of software, a new service of some sort. Over the course of thinking about it and talking about it, E modifies and changes it a bit. E builds a prototype that can be tested and feedback received. E puts that prototype out there, and monitors what people think about it, what it means to them, how it's used, and so on. Then E modifies his prototype fit market realities. These days, prototypes can be tested in greater confidentiality and more cheaply than ever before through A MMOLRPG like Second Life.

This is my entrepreneurship courseIf this grabs you, post a comment. Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. For entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.hatman.blog and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Values

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, defines "a personal and cultural value [as] an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated." David Molden, in NLP Business Masterclass; skills for Realizing Human Potential(New York: Prentice Hall, 2001, p. 319) defines values as "things that are important to us and drive our actions."

Values are important to entrepreneurs on two levels. First they have to understand their own values and how they drive their own actions. Not understanding this may limit their success. Second, they must also understand the values of those who: (1) work for them, (2) buy their products, and (3) affect all of the above. Daunting, isn't it? If you want to know what you value, try this: Keep a log of everything you do and everything you spend money on every day. Then quantify the amount of time and money spent and how you allocated each item. Then look at what you've done. You might be surprised.

Read the whole Wikipedia article and David Molden's book. Neuro-linguistic Programming [NLP] is a terrific set of concepts and approaches. And, of course, if this resonates with you, post a comment.

This is my entrepreneurship course. Entrepreneurshp drives everything they do. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.hatman.com.

Information and Entrepreneurs

Information is key to everyone, entrepreneurs maybe more so. Wikepedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, describes information as:

"The state of a system of interest, any represented pattern, any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of any other patterns."

Anyone interested in this should read the entire Wikipedia article and go to its references and links.

Information can be anything: the number of angels on the head of a pin, the weather forecast, the attitudes of a spouse, the number of widgets you sold last month. Brown and Duguid, in The Social Life of Information (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002), include in it "the fuzzy stuff around the edges--context, background, history, common knowledge, social resources" (p. 1). Their point is that too often we "tunnel through." To quote them:

But this stuff around the edges is not as irrelevant as it may seem. It provides valuable balance and perspective. It holds alternatives, and ignore the fuzzy stuff which holds alternatives, offers breadth of vision, and indicates choices. It helps clarify purpose and support meaning. Indeed, ultimately it is only with the help of what lies beyond it that any sense can be made of the information that absorbs so much attention. (pp. 1-2)

Entrepreneurs have to keep their view wide and not suffer from tunnel vision, not rely on data to the extent that they ignore context and background. And above all, they have to see information as more than data.

This is my entrepreneurship course. If something grabbed you, post a comment. Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing and publishing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Data

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, says:

Data refers to a collection of organised information, usually the result of experience, observation or experiment, other information within a computer system, or a set of premises. This may consist of numbers, words, or images, particularly as measurements or observations on a set of variables.

Data are seen as a mass of observations; one observation is referred to as a datum. We rarely refer to a "datum."

If knowledge is power, for entrepreneurs data are key. The amount we spent on advertising in the past month. The numbers of unique visitors to our websites. Last month's sales figures. Current inventory days. The number of customers. Market share. Words people use to describe our businesses. The balance in our checking or money market fund. Our stock price. Having data sets us free. Having good data puts us in control. Without it, we are nothing.

This is my entreneurship course. If something I say resonates with you, post a comment. Entreprenership informs everything I do. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Skewness

Okay, yes this blog had a lovely time down the shore. Now it's time to talk about skewness.

Wikipedia (5/24/2008), the free, on-line encyclopedia, defines skewness "in probability theory and statistics [as] a measure of the asymmetry of the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable." In English, this means, take a bunch of numbers, rank them from low to high, plot them as dots on a graph, and then connect the dots, you'll likely have a figure that bunches up high in the middle and tails off toward the right and the left. Ask yourself, "Which tail is longest?" Skeweness is a measure of how much longer the one tail is than the other. If the left tail is longer than the right, we say that the distribution is left-skewed, or negatively skewed. Credit card ownership can be said to be left (negatively) skewed because the average number of credit cards owned tends to be a pretty large number. If the right tail is longer than the left, we say that distribution is right (positively) skewed. Mother's age at the birth of her first child tends to be right (positively) skewed because most mothers tend to be in the teens or 20's when they first give birth. If the right and left tails are equal in length, skeweness is said to be equal to 0. The skewness of any normally distribution equals 0.

Skewness another powerful way of thinking about data. As such, the entrepreneur needs to know about it so he or she can think about his business and talk about his market to others. To learn more, read the entire Wikipedia article on it. And if something about this or anything else I've talked about resonates with you, post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. To read about entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Kurtosis for entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs need to know understand kurtosis. According to Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia,

Kurtosis,from the Greek word meaning 'bulging', is a measure of the 'peakedness' of the probability distribution of...random variable. Higher kurtosis means more of the variance is due to infrequent extreme deviations, as opposed to frequent modestly-sized deviations.

Anyone interested in digging deeper should go to the Wikipedia article. Entrepreneurs need to understand this concept and the related concepts of leptokurtosis and platykurtosis so they have a vocabularly to discuss data and can think the structure in whatever data they are analyzing.

This is my entrepreneurship course. If you find what you find here interesting, post a comment. All my professional activities are entrepreneurial. Check out my real estate 2.0 blog, www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and my writer's blog www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blotspot.com.

Hypotheses

A hypothesis is a statement about how the world works, an "educated guess." For example, the statement that "Older people are richer than young people," could be framed as "Wealth increased with age." It's imperative for entrepreneurs,to know about hypotheses and hypothesis testing they must understand themselves and the potential for success of whatever the business they propose. And they must become skilled at evaluating hypotheses to understand the amount of risk and reward they will be facing and or benefiting from. For example the belief that whatever enterprise they want to start will succeed is a hypothesis. Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia says:

A hypothesis (from Greek ὑπόθεσις) consists either of a suggested explanation for a phenomenon (an event that is observable),or of a reasoned proposal suggesting a possible correlation between multiple phenomena. People refer to a trial solution to a problem as a hypothesis — often called an "educated guess" — because it provides a suggested solution based on the evidence. Experimenters may test and reject several hypotheses before solving the problem/

And regarding scientific hypotheses:

Researchers weighing up alternative hypotheses may take into consideration:

>Testability (compare falsifiability as discussed above); simplicity (as in the application of "Occam's razor", discouraging the postulation of excessive numbers of entities).

>Scope - the apparent application of the hypothesis to multiple cases of phenomena.
>Fruitfulness - the prospect that a hypothesis may explain further phenomena in the future.

>Conservatism - the degree of "fit" with existing recognized knowledge-systems.

Anyone interested in this should go to the article and read the entire thing together with the references and links.

And if you like what I say, post a comment. Everything I do is entrepreneurial. For my writing blog, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com and for real estate check out www.youstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Behavioral Economics

Entrepreneurs need to know about behavioral economics. Practitioners talk about how people behave and how their thinking and their socialization affects their behavior. And if there are any anyones out there who need more fully to understand why people think and act the way they do, who are they if they aren't entrepreneurs? Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, describes it this way:

Behavioral economics and behavioral finance are closely related fields which apply scientific research on human and social cognitive and emotional biases to better understand economic decisions and how they affect market prices, returns and the allocation of resources. The fields are primarily concerned with the rationality, or lack thereof, of economic agents. Behavioral models typically integrate insights from psychology with neo-classical economic theory. Academics are divided between considering Behavioral Finance as supporting some tools of technical analysis by explaining market trends, and considering some aspects of technical analysis as behavioral biases (representativeness heuristic, self fulfilling prophecy). Behavioral analysts are mostly concerned with the effects of market decisions, but also those of public choice, another source of economic decisions with some similar biases.

If this interests you, go and read the entire article and follow the leads they gave you. It'll keep you busy with some fascinating stuff.

This is my entrepreneurship course. If you find any of this interesting, post a comment. You know, all my professional activities flow from it. Check out www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.com/blog.

Mental Accounting

Here's something to help you think about how people evaluate options. You probably engage in this yourself, and customers definitely do when the think about buying things. An entrepreneur has to get into the heads of customers as much as possible. Here's the description in Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia. I've edited out some of the language as a litte too jargon-esque.

Mental accounting,...attempts to describe the process whereby people code, categorise and evaluate economic outcomes... Mental accounting theorists argue that people people mentally frame assets as belonging to either current income, current wealth or future income...The way a person frames a transaction in their mind will determine the utility they receive or expect. This concept is similarly used in prospect theory, and many mental accounting theorists adopt that theory as the value function in their analyses...There are 2 values attached to any transaction - acquisition value and transaction value. Acquisition value is the money that one is ready to part with for physically acquiring some good. Transaction value is the value one attaches to having a good deal. If the price that one is paying is equal to the mental reference price for the good, the transaction value is zero. If the price is lower than the reference price, the transaction utility is positive...More generally, a mental accounting cost or mental transaction cost, a kind of transaction cost, is the cost of making a useful decision, especially of a consumer making a useful decision to buy, and may set a lower bound on useful price granularity in a market. In a software engineering context the latter phrase refers to the cost to the user of making a useful selection in the user interface, in contrast to a computational transaction cost such as CPU, memory, or network usage

If you're interested in this, read the whole Wikipedia article. And post a comment.

All my professional activities are entrepreneurial. For my writing blog, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.com and for real estate 2.0, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is a must for entrepreneurs to know about. It's the way things are done. Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, has a great article on internet marketing, so I'll just quote it verbatim below, editing out nonessential info. But if you think you know everything there is to know, you don't. The field is so complex, so wide, so deep, and evolving so fast, it has changed since the last seminar you went to, even if that seminar was last week.

Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet...Internet marketing is commonly referred to as Web advertising (also Webvertising) and Web marketing.The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. In 2008 The New York Times working with comScore published an initial estimate to quantify the user data collected by large Internet-based companies. Counting four types of interactions with company websites in addition to the hits from advertisements served from advertising networks, the authors found the potential for collecting upward of 2,500 pieces of data on average per user per month.Here's a hint though.

Go read the whole Wikipedia article and follow the references. And google other stuff, also. There's a lot out there.

Everything I do is entrepreneurial. If you liked what I say here, post a comment. For real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com. You can read the book on-line, print it out, or order a copy directly from the blog.

Central Tendency and how to measure it

Central Tendency is the flipside of variation. The term refers to the characterstics of data to "clump" together around some middle value, often called the "average." This later term is a cultural term, not statistical. It applies to one of three typical statistical measures of central tendency: the arithetic mean, all values in a distribution divided by the number of observations, most often called the average; the mode, or most common score (i.e. if you have 5 observations {3,5,5,4,2} the mode=5); and the median, the score that divides the upper half from the bottom half. To figure this latter measure for 50 observations, rank them from high to low and the median will be half-way been observations #25 and #26. You can find a more complete explanation on QuickMBA.com.

If this appeals to you, post a comment. All my professional activities are entrepreneurial. Check my writing blog: www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.com and www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Dispersion and How to Measure it.

Dispersion is one of the facts of life inherant in variation. WikiAnswers.com defines dispersion in statistics as: "the internal pattern of a population, i.e. its distribution about the mean value. In spatial statistics, the pattern relative to some specific location, or of individuals relative to one another, e.g. clumped or random." The most commonly used measures are the range, standard deviation, variance, and range. Every population has a different degree of dispersion. If an entrepreneur is going to understand the world around him, he has to learn about dispersion and how to measure it. Go to QuickMBA.com for more.

This is my entrpreneurship course. If you are interested, check out my other posts. If you have something to say, post a comment. And check out my other blogs: www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and www.kearneymusicschool.blogspot.com.