Thesis now published and online available

Since a couple of days, my master thesis "Affinity Group Marketing facing Web 2.0" is now published and can be downloaded or orderd as hardcopy (ISBN 978-3638852289).
Check out the links or contact me directly, should you be interested in details.

>> See the Abstract
>> Get it as e-Book
>> Order it as Hardcopy

Mission accomplished (part two)

After a challenging final run and some very enjoyable and
relaxing days, I'm "back to life" and proud to say that every-
thing went fine; my diploma thesis was accepted by MCI,
and I could successfully finish the final diploma examination.

Those interested in my thesis, please don't hesitate to contact
me - I am looking forward to hear from you to exchange some
Web 2.0 experience!

Mission accomplished (part one)

Part one of the mission is accomplished: I handed in my diploma thesis last week. Now let's wait and see for the feedback - it won't be boring meanwhile, as we have to prepare for the final diploma examination, which will take place middle of September...

Web 2.0 in figures

Back on the blogo-stage, right in the middle of writing my thesis, I'd like to provide you with some interesting figures about Web 2.0, which I came across during the last couple of weeks (Yes, I've been working, I was not stretching my belly into the sun...). I'll keep this up to date as soon as new figures arise, so this is gonna be a "post in progress"...:

• 2,5: Percentage of editors from which more than half of Wikipedia's English articles originate from [Wikipedia Germany]
  
• 10: Percentage of people in Germany which have an idea of what Web 2.0 might mean (out of 90% of people, which already heard the term) [SirValUse]
  
• 581: Percentage increase of YouTube's unique audience between February and October 2006 [Nielsen//Netratings]
  
• To be continued...
  

Mahalo Press Release

Human-powered search engine Mahalo.com launches with investors including Sequoia Capital, Elon Musk, News Corp, CBS Corporation and Burda Media.

Wall Street Journal's D Conference (Northern San Diego), May 30th, 2007: Serial entrepreneur Jason McCabe Calacanis today launched Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine, at the Wall Street Journal's D Conference. The site is currently being launched in Alpha with the Internet's 4,000 most popular search terms completed. The Santa Monica-based company hopes to reach 10,000 search terms by the end of the year. At that point it will enter Beta, and launch shortly thereafter. [...]

Get the full story at Mahalo.com

Web Monday connects...

This week I participated for the second time at a very innovative and interesting event in Innsbruck (which takes place also in other Austrian cities as well as in Germany), the so-called "Web Monday". The Web Monday connects users, developers, founders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, researchers, web pioneers, bloggers, podcasters, designers and other folks interested in Web 2.0 topics (in the broadest sense).

It was quite astonishing for me to hear about all the different aspects and opinions, which result from different backgrounds of the participants. Even if future prospects and capabilities of the applications were assesed differently - one thing was clear for everybody: It's a damn interesting topic!

New Austrian commercial - your opinion?

Some weeks ago, our national airline Austrian launched it's new ad, which is shown both at TV and in cinemas. Opinions about the campaign differentiate. What do you think about it? - I would be curious to know...

Interesting new business model

Found today at Golem.de, Germany's well-known platform for IT-News...:

Geld verdienen mit Shopping 2.0
Shoppero und Dealjaeger wollen Nutzer beteiligen

Mit Shoppero.com startet Nico Lumma eine neue Social-Commerce-Plattform, auf der Nutzer Produkte empfehlen und bewerten sollen. Zudem können die Inhalte mit so genannten Adgets im eigenen Blog beworben werden, wobei Shoppero seine Nutzer an den Werbeeinnahmen beteiligen will. Um ein ähnliches Konzept erweitert auch Dealjaeger.de seine Plattform und verspricht seinen Nutzern gleich die gesamten Einnahmen.

Read the full article at www.golem.de here.

Springtime in Austria - I'm lovin it... :-)

Since a couple of days, Austria finds itself in beautiful sunny weather with temperatures above 25°C, colourful flowers, green meadows, and singing birds - absolutely amazing! Especially because it's just some three weeks ago, that we've been freezing and the whole country was covered by a thick layer of snow - just have a look at the two pics, which is the view out of my flat in Innsbruck (21 March/16 April!)...

More springtime pics to be found here...

@ impact07... - marketing trade-fair in Graz

Arrived here in Graz, the capital of Styria (the so called "green heart" of Austria) yesterday with Matthias, a student mate of mine, for visiting the impact07, a trade fair focused on marketing. Beautiful spring-time weather and a charming city frame an interesting event with some very well-known and competent speakers. The two guys on the picture are Gerry Keszler, the man behind famous Life Ball, and Hary Raithofer, former moderator of Ö3's "Wecker", now owner of an advertising agency.

First Blog, First Post...

Actually I never planned to set up an own blog. But as we know, things often change. Which is good. In my case, the reason why I changed my mind is my master thesis, which I'm currently working on. I am writing about Affintiy Group Marketing in the light of Web 2.0 developments. As is (almost) generally known meanwhile, Blogs are part of this "mystic buzzword" Web 2.0. So to speak, this blog is a sort of "playground", where I try to do some research on this field.

Therefore, I will try to post "the state of affairs" regarding my thesis every now and then, mixed up with some insights of daily life. I decided to blog in English simply for international convenience, as well as to keep myself fit - linguistically... ;-) Enjoy!