Category Archives: Economic Impact
Benjamin Franklin on Daylight Saving Time
Letter to the Editor of the Journal of Paris, 1784 To THE AUTHORS of The Journal of Paris 1784 MESSIEURS, You often entertain us with accounts of new discoveries. Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, one … Continue reading
NASDAQ Ends Above 5000 for First Time Since Dot-Com Era
nasdaq-5000-03-09-2000 Wall Street Journal: The Nasdaq’s march back up to 5000 has been slow but steady, driven by growth in earnings and dividend payments of its companies. Although the index’s rise is nowhere near as rapid as it was in … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Impact
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Cyber Monday Launched
Today in 2005, Shop.org announced in a press release “‘Cyber Monday’ Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year.” According to Shop.org/BizRate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, 77% of online retailers said that their sales “increased substantially” … Continue reading
Posted in eCommerce, Economic Impact, Internet, World Wide Web
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Cash Flow: First ATM Installed
Today in 1969, Chemical Bank installed the first ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York. The first ATMs were designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card. A … Continue reading
Posted in Automation, eCommerce, Economic Impact
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The Dvorak Keyboard: Network Effect or Market Efficiency?
Today in 1936, U.S. patent No. 2,040,248 was issued to August Dvorak and William Dealey for their keyboard layout design, later to be commonly known as the Dvorak keyboard. Wikipedia: “A discussion of the Dvorak layout is sometimes used as an … Continue reading
iTunes Launched
Today in 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store. The store sold more than 1 million tracks in its first five days and became the biggest music vendor in the U.S. five years later. Here are iTunes stats, … Continue reading
Crowdfunding: The Kickstarter Experience
Crowdsourcing.org: Jeanne Pi of AppsBlogger used a sample of over 45,000 Kickstarter projects (failed and funded) to create this infographic that paints a wholistic picture of the best-known crowdfunding platform.
Cattle Logs from 1882 to 2012
After seeing a card catalogue in the Iowa State University library in 1882, Thomas B. Wales, the secretary of the Holstein-Friesian Association of America, applied the idea to the 40,000 animals in the Holstein-Friesian Herd Book. He estimated that the number … Continue reading
The Past and Future of Moving Money
Stephanie Buck, Masahable: “…are consumers ready to wholeheartedly adopt the latest in mobile payment technology? Adults who are unbanked, for instance, may face a barrier to mobile transactions — there are currently 17 million unbanked adults in the U.S. But many … Continue reading
The Story of Information 