INVESTORS

The Educational CyberPlayGround is creating a new paradigm, that taps the inherent power of the internet and exploits its potential to a degree that will dwarf what has come before it. This site, has killer content and a robust delivery system that crosses all boundaries, geographic - economic and cultural, for business and consumer alike.

Founder and visionary Karen Ellis does what companies seldom can do for themselves, break down boundaries. She ignites the company's creativity, tatters carefully tailored but counterproductive edges, and generally opens the team to the humane skills that make a great Web company. She really "gets the net", and has an uncanny ability to mix authenticity, brutal honesty, and occasionally biting humor to deliver her message about education, marketing and business methodologies on the web. She is willing to challenge traditional boundaries in return for exceptional results.

Commerce without Conscience

"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest" ~ Samuel Clemens

"Bottom Line" model

"Bottom Line" model where the ONLY thing that appears to matter is the money at the end of the day. Is the Bottom Line All that Matters?
Successful businesses do not care about being "better people they want to be a RICHER people. Does Money Equal Happiness?
See the Database of Happiness - Continuous register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life.
Mr. Schachter wrote a research note, which suggests that he still doesn't quite get the concept of serving customers first, and worrying about revenues later"
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world

Do you think MONEY is all that matters and HOW you make it is irrelevant, as along as it is not through an illegal means? The Educational CyberPlayGRound will help you start thinking in an entirely different perspective:

Commerce With Conscience Craigslist Meets the Capitalists 12/8/06

Do You Have . . .

Noble Purpose
... a sense of transcendence.
Sound Principles
... something lasting
... that has depth and reliability
... as a basic core.
Reasonable Profit
... this, of course, in contrast to "greed"
... money becomes the life blood that permeates and renews
... not just a way of keeping score
Sensitivity to People
...an understanding of the human element, the interiors of people, their hopes and dreams
... and that customers are not just numbers
... This is what Karen Ellis refers to as "mushing"
A respect for the natural ecology of everything
... from the environment, to the elegant patterns within a business, so that actions are measured against this touchstone
... making possible the power of the THIRD WIN.

Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics [source]
Basic conclusions about Entrepreneurs:

seem to worry equally about financial autonomy and/or a feeling of being motivated in their jobs.
are worse at coming up with reasons they might fail
don't care what other people think about them.

If baseball owners and players had only played the win:win game, but the integrity of the sport itself was tarnished

... that would have been a win : win : lose
... And without the Third Win, society will be, at some level, damaged.

Not for Profit isn't Against Profit, but exactly the opposite is true.
"If you choose to work in the nonprofit sector, you're not taking a vow of poverty, but you are saying you're motivated by something besides how do I make the most possible money," said John Vogel, a professor of nonprofit management at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. "The chief executive officer's salary does send a signal. It does say what kind of organization you are, what you value, what you care about."

Educational CyberPlayground™

Personal Mission Statement
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Mission_Statement.html

ECP Mission Statement
Improving literacy through arts education and advocacy by providing collaborative and interdisciplinary resources for understanding world culture

Answers the Business & Technology Questions

Problem Identification
Description of Technology Application
Explanation of this Leading Edge, Breakthrough Technology
Evidence of Contribution
How we measure results
Description of Potential Negative or Unintended Consequences
Discussion of Replication Potential

Our true scarcity is ATTENTION not culture.

Partnerships and Corporate Sponsor Benefits

ECP is a for profit corporation. However, under the The National Endowment of the Arts umbrella ECP can also provide a (501)(c)(3) to interested Sponsors. We will be happy to speak with you about this.

ABOUT MONEY

JOBS

RESOURCES FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Venture Capital Firms, Incubators, Accelerators and Angel Investment Groups in the Philly Region.

How to Recruit Smart People
Lifestyle proclivities represent a profound new force in the economy and life of America. How to keep members of the creative class: a fast-growing, highly educated, and well-paid segment of the workforce on whose efforts corporate profits and economic growth increasingly depend. Members of the creative class do a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries---from technology to entertainment, journalism to finance, high-end manufacturing to the arts. They do not consciously think of themselves as a class. Yet they share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference, and merit. Find Large Cities Creativity Rankings.

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide By Sabrina I. Pacifici and Donna Cavallini

Small Business Loans
Fast Upfront can help you get money for your business. We offer Small Business Loans and Business Cash Advances based on your future credit card receivables. This is similar to an unsecured loan that is given out even if you have bad credit.

Ease of Doing Buisness Ranked

Leadership Is Confusing as Hell

The Shareholder Value Trap

Can a public company satisfy shortsighted Wall Street investors looking for the next quarterly return and still build a company directed by long-term strategies? Some see the conflict in stark terms. You can build a company that serves customers or build a company that serves shareholders, but you can't easily serve both constituencies well.

2004 - In seeking venture capital investment, however, a company is hungry not just for cash but also for the venture firm’s “reputation and access to a network of relationships – with customers, suppliers, investments bankers and other important constituents in the universe that the entrepreneur cares about,” Professor Hsu says. This may not be a startling insight to technology entrepreneurs who are familiar with venture capitalists. What Hsu’s paper does, however, is provide “a scientific measurement” of the magnitude of this phenomenon. He found that offers from more reputable venture capitalists are three times more likely to be accepted by entrepreneurial companies and that, on average, these favored investors acquire start-up equity in the companies at a 10-14% discount. What Hsu discovered is that “a lot of money is left on the table” by the companies, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the pre-money valuation accepted by the companies. Less than half of the firms surveyed accepted their best financial offer. High-reputation VCs primarily syndicate with other high-reputation VCs." Affiliating with the right venture capital partner can certify the merits of a company to other parties, such as other investors.” These investors typically invest between $50,000 and $50,000,000 in new ventures. Review each site to determine what each firm likes to invest in. Source registration required.

"They Rule"

THEY RULE are the board members of Fortune 100 companies, and you can use this site to see the relationships between these companies. Click on "Add Company" and select a favorite, then click on the board table's "plus" sign and select "Expand" to see the names of that company's board of directors. Next, click on a board member's briefcase -- let's try Sam Nunn -- and select "Expand" again to view other companies on whose board that person sits. (Nunn also sits on the boards of General Electric, Texaco, and Dell Computers.) You can also click on "Load Map" to see the connections that others have suggested. Did you know that there are 72 guys named "John" on the boards of Fortune 100 companies? Or how few steps there are between Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard? Also see Open Secrets

WEALTH DISTRIBUTION

Why the Rich Get Richer

ART OF MONEY GETTING

Golden Rules for Making Money by P. T. Barnum 1880

WEALTH DISTRIBUTION: WHY DO RICH PEOPLE HAVE ALL THE MONEY?

Startup Company Valuation Calculator
This is an educational and humorous multiple-choice quiz for estimating the value of an early-stage company.

Old-Boy Network's Power Exposed

Soon it could take more than a secret handshake to swing boards' decisions.
Nature Science Update 4 October 2002 PHILIP BALL http://www.nature.com/nsu/021001/021001-12.html
Cliques of well-connected businessmen can easily corrupt or distort corporate board decisions, but now a team of scientists say they can assess how much power old-boy networks have over boardroom meetings. "A well-connected lobby of a minority of directors can drive the decision of the board," say Stefano Battiston of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and co-workers. But they think that it is possible to predict the chances that a board will agree with the opinion of such a lobby. If this is so, the power of the lobby can be assessed and the changes needed to break its dominance identified. It all depends, say the researchers, on how many members of a board also sit together on other boards. It's a common situation. Almost 100 years ago Louis Brandeis, a judge in the US Supreme Court, spoke of a "financial oligarchy controlling the business of the country". Not much has changed. Directors and board members of large companies form a kind of social network in which many individuals sit with at least one other person on more than one corporate board.

Company Attitude - What do you know ?

If major harassment suits have been filed against a company, a search on the web will often reveal them. In the way of general rumours: http://www.f{xxx}edcompany.com/ The best dirt comes with a subscription, but searching on a prospective or present employer can be an illuminating experience, even with a free search.

U.S. Sage Attacks Executive Greed
From Abigail Rayner in Omaha, Nebraska
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-669779,00.html

WARREN BUFFETT, the US investor whose folksy style masks one of the shrewdest minds in corporate America, used the annual gathering of his Berkshire Hathaway vehicle to launch a fierce attack on US executive greed and President Bush¹s planned tax cuts.
The shareholder meeting in Mr Buffett¹s home town of Omaha, Nebraska, which attracts some 14,000 "Buffeteers", is dubbed the "Woodstock for Capitalists" and is a fixture in the investment calendar. But this year¹s gathering at times seemed more like an antiglobalisation rally.
The second richest man in the world, Mr Buffett, known as the "Sage of Omaha", criticized plans for tax cuts that he said were designed to fleece the poor and reward the rich.
"I am not for the Bush plan. It screams of injustice. The main beneficiaries will be people like me and Charlie," he said, referring to the Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger. Mr Buffett said the tax plan was equivalent to "us giving a lesser percentage of our incomes to Washington than the people working in our shoe factories".
He called on investors to rise up and revolt over colossal executive pay packages, saying in the past 20 years there had been "an enormous disparity in the rates of compensation between people at the top and people at the bottom, and a disconnect between people at the top and the shareowners who give them the money.
"Arise shareholders," he concluded, raising both palms skyward. Famed for his integrity and modest lifestyle, Mr Buffett paid himself $100,000 (£62,000) in salary and a further $300,000 in bonuses last year. He still lives in the grey stucco house he bought in 1956 for $31,500.
Berkshire Hathaway, the insurance-to-candy conglomerate that he chairs, would report record operating profits of $1.7 billion in the first quarter, benefiting from the strength of the insurance sector, he said. This was double the $818 million reported for the first three months of 2001.
Mr Buffett reported a "soft" performance of Berkshire¹s consumer businesses, citing weak consumer spending power, which he claimed was not fairly reflected in the figures for US gross domestic product.
Mr Buffett said Berkshire had accumulated investable cash or "float" of $42.5 billion, up from about $37 billion a year ago. The conglomerate owns a diverse range of companies including Geico, the sixth largest auto insurer in the US, and General Re, a leading reinsurer.
Last Friday the company announced plans to buy McLane, a wholesale grocery distributor owned by Wal-Mart, for $1.5 billion.
When asked about the increase in dubious litigation in the US, Mr Buffett acknowledged the problem but seemed more concerned about the growing number of plaintiffs with a genuine grievance against a US corporation.

THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS

The Science of Happiness By Mike Rudin

[... Scientists say they can actually measure happiness. Neuroscientists are measuring pleasure. They suggest that happiness is more than a vague concept or mood; it is real.

What makes us happy?

According to psychologist Professor Ed Diener there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital.

First, family and friends are crucial - the wider and deeper the relationships with those around you the better.
It is even suggested that friendship can ward off germs. Our brains control many of the mechanisms in our bodies which are responsible for disease.
Just as stress can trigger ill health, it is thought that friendship and happiness can have a protective effect. According to happiness research, friendship has a much bigger effect on average on happiness than a typical person's income itself.
{England} One economist, Professor Oswald at Warwick University, has a formula to work out how much extra cash we would need to make up for not having friends. The answer is 50,000.
Marriage also seems to be very important. According to research the effect of marriage adds an average seven years to the life of a man and something like four for a woman.
The second vital ingredient is having meaning in life, a belief in something bigger than yourself - from religion, spirituality or a philosophy of life.
The third element is having goals embedded in your long term values that you're working for, but also that you find enjoyable.

Psychologists argue that we need to find fulfillment through having goals that are interesting to work on and which use our strengths and abilities.

Measuring happiness:

The leading American psychologist Professor Ed Diener from the University of Illinois, says that the science of happiness is based on one straightforward idea:
"It may sound silly but we ask people 'How happy are you 1-7, 1-10? "And the interesting thing is that produces real answers that are valid, they're not perfect but they're valid and they predict all sorts of real things in their lives."
One type of measurement even tries to record people's levels of happiness throughout the day wherever they are. Ecological momentary assessment uses hand held computers. The person being quizzed is bleeped and then taken through a questionnaire.
"The measures are not perfect yet I think they are in many ways as good as the measures economists use," said Professor Diener.
It is a remarkable claim. Simply by asking people, we have a measure of happiness that is as good as the economists' measure of poverty or growth.
And if true, governments could be judged by how happy they make us.
An adviser to the Prime Minister, David Halpern, told us that within the next 10 years the government would be measured against how happy it made everybody.
Power of happiness
Happiness seems to have almost magical properties. We have not got proof, but the science suggests it leads to long life, health, resilience and good performance.
-----
Standard of living has increased dramatically and
happiness has increased not at all Professor Daniel Kahneman, University of Princeton
-----
Scientists work by comparing people's reported happiness and a host of other factors such as age, sex, marital status, religion, health, income, unemployment and so on. In survey after survey involving huge groups of people, significant correlations between happiness and some other factors are repeated. At the moment scientists cannot prove causation, whether for example people are healthy because they are happy, or whether people are happy because they are healthy. However, psychologists have been able to identify some very strong links. According to Professor Diener the evidence suggests that happy people live longer than depressed people. "In one study, the difference was nine years between the happiest group and the unhappiest group, so that's a huge effect.
"Cigarette smoking can knock a few years off your life, three years, if you really smoke a lot, six years. "So nine years for happiness is a huge effect."

Richer but no happier

Happiness researchers have been monitoring people's life satisfaction for decades. Yet despite all the massive increase in our wealth in the last 50 years our levels of happiness have not increased. "Standard of living has increased dramatically and happiness has increased not at all, and in some cases has diminished slightly," said Professor Daniel Kahneman of the University of Princeton.

"There is a lot of evidence that being richer... isn't making us happier"

The research suggests that richer countries do tend to be happier than poor ones, but once you have a home, food and clothes, then extra money does not seem to make people much happier. It seems that that level is after average incomes in a country top about 10,000 a year. (England)

Scientists think they know the reason why we do not feel happier despite all the extra money and material things we can buy.

First, it is thought we adapt to pleasure. We go for things which give us short bursts of pleasure whether it is a chocolate bar or buying a new car.But it quickly wears off.
You can't take a grouch and make him giggle all the time Professor Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania
Second, its thought that we tend to see our life as judged against other people.
We compare our lot against others. Richer people do get happier when they compare themselves against poorer people, but poorer people are less happy if they compare up.
The good news is that we can choose how much and who we compare ourselves with and about what, and researchers suggest we adapt less quickly to more meaningful things such as friendship and life goals.

AWARDS