Is a newly launched e-Commerce website made by artists for artists to use as a place where users can build a portfolio and sell their creations. Inkster is planning to change the way artists and musicians use the internet. Inkster is aiming to bridge the gap between social media and e-commerce. Using the Inkster platform artists and musicians can host their entire portfolios on the website to have access to wider audience. Users can also sell their work directly on Inkster through its e-commerce platform. Best of all, Inkster is free for everyone to use and there is no monthly subscriptions or hidden fees. The site charges 10% Facilitation fee on any artwork or music that is sold using the website.

Artists in today’s world have too many profiles to manage and it can really be a daunting task to keep up with everything. There are many tasks that users can do while on the site, it has large art collections and users can shop for music, fashion and paintings all at the same time. Inkster is aiming to be the hub for world’s artists to communicate and exchange ideas. Inkster is about lifestyle and making it easier to be an artist in today’s ever changing world. While Inkster changing the way artists and art lovers do business it also provide great atmosphere for art lovers and artists alike to share ideas and experiences.

SpeakerStack is startup that is trying to solve communication and workflow problems that speakers have when they try to organize their content, engage their audience and interact with show organizers. For Show Organizers and Conference Planners SpeakerStack provide the tools to streamline access to information. No longer do they need dropbox links, overloaded email attachments, and FTP to get the information needed for their sessions and event. SpeakerStack offers both audiences a unique experience to managing content and getting what they need from each other. This saves time, money and headaches.

Presentations tend to include an abundance of multimedia content, such as videos and images, making email delivery impossible due to the large file size. Resorting to FTP or Dropbox can be inconsistent and inefficient. This real world task can become quite complicated at a time when speakers need to concentrate on preparing for their upcoming performance. The process is just as problematic for meeting and conference organizers who are responsible for planning every aspect of their events and whose jobs depend on coordinating all of the necessary requirements of their speakers. Meanwhile, they usually like to review presentations to check them for consistency and to make sure they will function properly on the equipment for the session. If materials aren’t received until the last minute, the speaker often has to go live without the benefit of review. Organizers also have a substantial need for content not limited to presentations, including things like bios, profile pictures and handouts. Unfortunately, there is no system designated to housing and organizing this information. Fortunately, SpeakerStack is a new platform built specifically for speakers and organizers to help alleviate the time and headaches that go along with being both a speaker and conference organizer.

SpeakerStack was developed by a team that has been working in the industry for years and made it their focus to solve some of the inconsistencies that have become so prevalent. SpeakerStack represents a new kind of virtual space where speakers can upload collateral or connect to repositories like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Skydrive, and other common locations for content. All of their materials for audience engagement are online and ready to go. Speakers can easily create profiles by pulling their information from their social networks so that they don’t need to recreate it for each show or engagement. Organizers using a portal, mobile app, or website can also connect to an API to get their information in a more dynamic way, previously not possible. Show organizers can upload a spreadsheet of speakers with all of their session information, which then maps to the profiles of specific speakers in the system. They will also be able to monitor progress, view documents, approve presentations, and export it all from SpeakerStack. SpeakerStack can be integrated with existing show management software and technologies via APIs, bringing real-time data access to show organizers.

Vizzop is a startup that promise to give webmasters and entrepreneurs full control of their websites. In addition to Google analytic, Vizzop can give website owners a great way to monitor their websites and see how their visitors interact with their contents and all that can be done in a real-time. Many on line businesses and e-commerce stores look for ways to improve their sales by trying to bring products that will catch the attention of their visitors and customers. The real-time monitoring and interaction tools that Vizzop provide can help improve e-commerce stores increase sales and improve customer service. The definitive way of seeing client’s web browser screen and provide real-time customer service.

Vizzop is a javascript plugin that can be easily installed on your website, it will allow you to see in real-time what your clients see and do in your own website, and also chat with them. It also provides you with a ticket system, FAQ system for your clients.

Lately we have been reading many reports from prominent organizations including the federal reserve indicating that the U.S economy is growing and improving. Of course those statistics are based on data collected from many sectors of the economy and in particular the stock market. The U.S stock market has been gaining steam for the most part of 2013 and it reached unprecedented gains when the DOW at NYSE reached over 16000 points. Nasdaq also enjoyed greater gains pushed by the rapid gains of the major tech companies like Google and Apple. With all the talks about improvement in the economy there are many Americans who doesn’t see the economy improving. The major set back to the improvements of the U.S economy is the slow growth in the job market.

Unemployment is high in the united states and consumer’s confidence is still low. Given those facts how can we explain the positive improvements in the data collected that shows the U.S economy is growing above 3% points?. Economists also believe the housing market which caused the great recession when it collapsed in 2008 is bouncing back and improving. Home prices are climbing back to their pre-recession values in the majority of the U.S markets. With all the improvements in the economy we are faced with the important question and that is why the economy hasn’t improved for main street and the average American citizen?
To answer that question we will analyze some of the socioeconomic changes after the great recession.

Unemployment

First the recession caused massive job losses quickly and that reduced consumer’s demand for many products including cars, housing and even food. U.S consumers make up about 70% of the GDP and when consumers faced with layoffs and job insecurities they tended to cut back on many purchases and that slowed the growth of the economy. The situation produced strange cycle of companies who realized that the only way to increase profitably is to reduce labor costs since consumers unable to purchase more products to increase sales. The high unemployment caused by the recession and the heavy use of automation increased the supply of skilled and unskilled workers who would accept lower wages and were obligated to maximize their productivity to keep their employment.

Many companies were able to increase their profits not by increasing sales but by reducing labor cost and that translated into good performance of their shares in the stock market. That explains the first major factor why the stock market went sky rocket in 2013. Further more, that explains also that the wealth was transformed faster and with large quantities to the top 20% where as the average U.S citizen didn’t feel any improvement. The second factor that help the stock market flourish is the federal reserve program of purchasing 85 billion a month worth of mortgage securities and other products to help the economy and boost stock prices. Even though the federal program is necessary to prevent further damage to the economy and even to prevent it from collapsing, it increased the massive shift of wealth more to the top 20%.

Income inequality

whether we agree that the U.S economy is actually improving or not, the greatest challenge will remain for many years to come is the wide gap between the rich and the poor in America. The recession has produced a class of low paid and underemployed citizens that replaced the middle class. The ability of the members of that class to have social mobility to improve their earnings become more difficult. Education alone will not guarantee higher pay as companies looking to hire well trained and experienced individuals who are the best in their fields. The second choice for the low earner to improve their lives is the small business sector. However many American small businesses faces tough times due to the weak purchasing power of those low earners. Starting a business in the U.S becoming more risky because consumers don’t have much to spend or if they have extra income they prefer to save it for a rainy day due to the uncertainty of the economy.

The American dream is dead? The land of opportunity no more?

The united states historically was the best place for individuals who worked hard and improved their lives and became rich. The difficult times made social mobility difficult but it is still much better than other parts of the world. People with great ideas still can make it and establish successful startups.

Joe Smith
Founder of Pixcs.com

BrainCert.com is evolving into a user-driven e-learning center on the web. Started in the year 2000, BrainCert is an e-learning platform connecting people to world-class education. After going through several changes over the years, BrainCert perfected its state-of-the-art online Test Engine technology.

In 2007, BrainCert was revamped into a more sophisticated e-learning platform to meet the demanding needs of modern education. Today, BrainCert has accomplished its goal of providing exceptional educational solutions by creating a comprehensive set of educational tools that allows creating and delivering personalized e-learning content easily. BrainCert is the Easiest Way to Learn, Teach, and Collaborate Online. Online Courses Offering the most powerful course creation tools, BrainCert helps you create, manage and publish the courses in just a few clicks. SCORM 1.2, and 2004 4th edition content packages can be imported in a course easily. Content & Media Publishing BrainCert Content Engine helps publish public and private content from virtually anywhere on the internet. Upload your contents with ease and let BrainCert handle the mess of uploading and converting your files in to an online courseware.

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Upload your contents with ease and let BrainCert handle the mess of uploading and converting your files in to an online courseware.

Virtual Classroom

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EBay the giant web auction superstore announced the purchase of the internet payment processing firm Braintree. Why EBay purchased Braintree? EBay has been watching Braintree for sometime as it has been expanding over the five years. Ebay also made a smart move in the past when it purchased PayPal, because web payment processing is important for eBay business model. Furthermore, eBay wants to expand it’s mobile payment processing business using Braintree model. Braintree has been processing payments for many big name merchants and companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Rovio, TaskRabbit and OpenTable. Customers of Braintree can set up mechant accounts to process online payments using Braintree platform. The addition of Braintree to Ebay will strength eBay’s business model. Moreover, eBay will increase it’s dominance of the online payment and processing business that is dominated by eBay owned web payment processing giant Paypal.

Braintree is Chicago-based processing firm. It was founded by Bryan Johnson in 2007. The successful startup raised over $70 million from Accel Partners and other venture capital firms. Braintree process more than $4 billion annually in mobile payment transactions. Braintree fast expansion in the mobile side of the payment processing business increased it’s potential for greater market and profit. Therefore eBay saw the great potential in braintree to expand PayPal market further into the mobile sector.