By: Co-Editor, RB:

“I’ve never let my school interfere with my education.” Was once very rightly said by Mr. Mark Twain. There is a huge difference between education and quality education. Schools educate you, but experience polishes it with quality.

We have previously covered another education website out of India called NalandaU.com.
Now comes another called iWillStudy.com. Launched on February 5, 2010 out of Mumbai, iWillStudy.com promotes “Quality Education” in various engineering colleges in India. IWillStudy.com conducts seminars and workshops in various colleges, and thereby connects students with corporate veterans who share their experiences and knowledge-base.

Their business orientation is towards bridging the gap between the ‘engineers’ and the ’smart engineers’. And for this particular task, they believe, they have an authentic speakers composition that includes- three IIT alumni and industry people, and some other master engineers of their respective fields, some having worked with Google and Yahoo.

They will be conducting Seminars, Webinars and technical talks, and workshops in Engineering Colleges where you can be guided by some ‘real talents’ of engineering regarding knowledge and exposure over the respective subjects and industrial experience.

At iWillStudy.com, they have come up with some innovations that makes you richer- by education and hence, more successful. They want the students who face the problems in building their career because they lack in quality education, to gather the required knowledge, and then go out and find success in the world.

They have quality engineers and entrepreneurs, who will guide you in the seminars that they will be conducting throughout India.

In the workshops and seminars their focus will be on giving a rich knowledge about respected subjects and technologies.

Their research team comes up with various innovative ways of providing a rich and quality education. This includes: educating students on the latest technologies; educating students about the first principles of engineering; and conducting entrepreneurship sessions.

They also capture videos of their events so that if in case you miss them, you can view it on our website.

They believe that education should not have geographical boundaries. Their teams connect to the colleges of the city, and do a thorough survey, where they plan their next seminar. All this is based on the survey feed-backs provided by the colleges.

When it comes to online education and bringing skills for the future to their populace, India takes a back seat to no one.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, RB:

While many bloggers toil in anonymity, hoping to gain traction and maybe some Google ad money, I found an online magazine that is more aggressive in its marketplace approach.

Smidge Magazine, which was started August 1st, 2009, and based in Ohio, is dedicated in bringing the reader, a fun and enjoyable reading experience.

They provide subscriptions that start monthly at $1.99. Their content changes on a monthly basis and they cover topics from family issues to a 365-day movie blog. The site also has forums and music integrated though the site.

Holly Sodeman runs the magazine and her goal is to presenting a user friendly, helpful monthly online magazine.

The magazine touches on the following topics; Children (the magazine touches upon “the good, the bad and the ugly” of raising children); Education (the magazine will focus on how to enhance our student’s minds and succeed in things that they do and helping students get the right education and getting through the school years and beyond. It will also focus on adults going back to college and the affordability of college in this financial crisis); Environment (How we can enhance this planet we live on); Family Issues (the inner workings and dynamic of family, step parenting, in-laws, mothers and fathers); Finances (we will talk about getting into a 401k, investing, trying to survive in the slump economy); Pets (fun loving dogs, cats, fish and other animals, finding the right pet, living with them); Home Maintenance (gardening, painting, getting a home and more); Fertility Issues (what to do when it happens, what to do if a miracle happens, and all the attendant emotions); Marriage (the ups and downs of marriage, divorce, weddings etc.); the Movie Blog (must be a member) reviewing a movie a day for the next 365 days; Recipes; Single Life (parenting, dating tips, single parent dating tips and much more, when to let the bum go or know when you have a keeper); Work (Starting up businesses, working from the lowliest job to the highest, the dynamics of the work environment with other employees and bosses. How to stay sane in an insane environment) Health (Depression, postpartum depression, mental health, stress and dealing with stress, making a better you, the dreaded exercise, eating healthier, feeding children healthier and family and tips on how to when you are busy busy.)

Every subscription order is a recurring payment.

The Staff of Smidge Magazine is as follows:

Holly Sodeman-Owner

Stephanie Hand-Column Writer:
lives in Texas, but was born and raised in Denver, Colorado is married and has two amazing daughters (7 and 4) and two outstanding step-sons (8 and 6). Stephanie is currently learning to take on the challenge of being a step mom. She is a stay at home mom and a coach’s wife. Those two things alone keep her pretty busy, but she is always up for a challenge and ready to tackle life’s obstacles! She will focus on articles dealing with how to deal with life in general.

Kathy Carr-Column Writer:
lives in Ohio with her husband, and three kids.. She also is a stay at home mom and is busy with volunteering for her local MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) group and helps out with Sunday School at her church.

Kara McElhinny-Column Writer:
is a married, mother of two (a son and a daughter.) and also a stay at home mom and works part time at a local bookstore. New to writing, she hopes to share her journey and inspire readers to go after what they believe in.

Obviously, the magazine is geared towards woman and family issues. It will be interesting to see if it catches on.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

Free language translations are ubiquitous on the web. Google and Yahoo! both have free language tools. However, if you have ever used these and other like services you realize that there are severe limitations. Colloquialisms, slang and difficult syntax make these computer translators difficult to use for anything other than simple translations.

There are also numerous software programs that provide language lessons such as Rosetta Stone; however obtaining translations for business projects in a pinch is obviously not the strong suit of these programs.

The founders of a Bulgaria based website launched in August of 2009 aims to change all that.

The founders of TranslationsPal.com started the site because they were frustrated with the existing options for getting things translated. They aimed to solve the two problems associated with language translations. The inaccuracies of the “machine-based” or automatic translators and the expense and slowness of a traditional translation agency point to a need in the market for such a site.

TranslationsPal.com claims to be three to four times lower than in price than other language services in the United States and Europe.

TranslationsPal.com is a web-based, real time online translation service powered by human translators. The fact that human translators power it is the key. It aims to be a fast, low cost translation service, providing translations in all major languages provided by native speakers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all around the world. The site provides instant pricing that you can review online.

This professional translation service can be used for all publications and documents; it can become a dedicated multilingual outsourcing support for service sectors. You can use it for the production of emails, letters, product description, annual reports, agreements, sales brochures, websites and just about any other kind of text.

Clients can review their project costs online without hard sales telephone conversations by translation suppliers. They can, in the privacy of their own offices, compile budgets with accurate pricing for high quality, speedy, low-cost translation for any length of project.

Clients can deposit files for translation using TranslationsPal’s service via a secure connection website and the work will be processed immediately. Clients are kept informed of the status of their project via TranslationsPal’s unique web-based interface and even pay for the work on-line securely.

It is easy to use and to price your next project’s translation needs.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

For many people the Internet is a vast, unwieldy, intimidating organism. For other it is a vast playground with fun around every corner. For others it is merely a business. No matter where you fit on this spectrum, it is nice to learn and get feedback on various websites you might encounter.

Hiztoria.com, a Kansas City based start up launched in July of 2009, is a place for people to share and discover anything and everything about websites. Users can rate, review, share, and discuss websites both big and small. Users can earn points and level up by contributing to the site and writing reviews.

A totally revamped Hiztoria 2.0 is launching in a few short weeks. This brand new version of our Hiztoria will feature brand new designs and improved features.

As stated, Hiztoria can be used for web behemoths like Facebook and Google, to even the minutest websites in the corners of the Internet universe. Every website has an unknown counterpart or competitor, and Hiztoria plans to reveal the true gems in the ever-expanding digital world. Hiztoria users can do more than just rate, review, and talk about websites; users also even have the power to add new websites to Hiztoria.

Currently, there are over 1000 websites reviewed in the Hiztoria directory. You can sort them by name, category, most views, most fans, rating or date added. In case you are interested, Facebook.com has the most fans and Espn.com has the highest rating.

According to its blog announcement new features on Hiztoria 2.0 will include:
· A totally re-designed User Profile.
· A notification system that lets you know when your submissions are approved, when you earn points, level up, and more.
· A REPLY system for all comments (It also lets you delete, and report comments)
· A professional Forums system (A very clean design, complete with a notifications system to let you know when people reply).
· Easier navigation (No more dead ends, every link has a purpose now).
· A cleaner interface.
· A widget for webmasters. (This lets you put a link to your website’s Hiztoria profile on your own website).
I really enjoyed cruising around on the Hiztoria site a look forward to the redesign.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

If you have a question that you want to pose on the web, there are several major sites where you can go. Yahoo!Answers and WikiAnswers are two examples. Google has discontinued GoogleAnswers but you can still search the old database.

A new website called IdeaOffer.com has added a money component in an effort to attract more useful answers or “ideas” to questions or “projects” posed on the website. IdeaOffer.com bills itself as an online idea community. It is a subsidiary of Wasabi Ventures LLC, a venture capital firm and holding company. It is one of the incubated properties of New Concept Factory.

IdeaOffer.com posits that there are many aspiring entrepreneurs and creative thinkers out there with great ideas that could be masterpieces and they simply have no way to express them, share them with the world, and capitalize on their idea’s potential. If anything, the web is full of people sharing and expressing the ideas. The real problem is getting useful feedback from a large and diverse group. That is where IdeaOffer.com offers some intrigue.

IdeaOffer.com allows you to post a “project” on its website and offer a prize to the best idea on your “project” or question. The example on the site (provided in a “How it works” video below) is “how can we bring peace to the world?” You then offer a prize and whoever you judge to have the best idea wins the prize. Others who offer their ideas share in a pool called the “motivation”, which is 10% of the prize. The site takes a 20% fee.

I think the site has potential but I think the company’s grandiose mission statement obscures the more practical uses of the site. Indeed, the questions on the “Project List” on the site are in large measure practical in nature-best crab recipe, best use of fresh tomatoes, how to design a cheap 2.0 website, options for an unfinished basement etc. I think these are the types of “projects” will be most effective in getting useful responses. Open-ended or high concept questions (such as the world peace example) might be fun, but is anyone really going to pay to have such questions answered?

The site currently is offering a $100.00 prize to the best idea for publicizing IdeaOffer.com. My idea would be to get them to focus on attracting practical projects that people will pay to gather feedback.

If I were to post a project, my first project might be-is ideaoffer.com a good idea?

Post from: GreatStartups.com