Harnessing wind power for use in residential applications has been a challenge, but a new breed of vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) from Helix Wind offers a promising design that may change the way we do wind at home. The Helix Wind Savonious 2.0 uses a unique rotor capable of capturing omni-directional winds to provide quieter, kinder small wind power for your urban home.

The Helix Wind Savonious 2.0 is a 2kW rated turbine that can be tower-mounted between 14 and 35 feet or roof mounted just 2 feet above roof line. The rotor measures 6ft by 4ft (1.8m by 1.2m) and utilizes long helical blade scoops to maximize energy performance in turbulent, gusty or multi-directional wind conditions.

The capabilities of the rotor to spin in any wind make it ideal for urban settings. The combination of lower height and quieter action make Helix’s turbine more neighbor and zoning commission friendly. As far as noise, the Helix Savonious 2.0 operates at less than 5 decibels above background noise.

And there’s good news for the bird lover in all of us - the Helix is safer for wildlife. The rotor spins at much slower speeds than horizontal turbines and both birds and bats recognize the rotor as a solid object. Bird-blade collisions are mostly a concern in “big” wind but the fact that the Helix rotor doesn’t fatally confuse our feathered friends is a big plus.

At present, the Helix Savonious 2.0 is undergoing evaluation for UL and cUL listings to make it eligible for rebates under all state Renewable Energy Programs. The base price for the Helix Savonious 2.0 is $6,500 before tower and installation. A low wind version starts at $8,500 and a larger 5kW model starts at $16,500.

+ Helix Personal Wind Turbine
+ Helix on YouTube

Introduction

I’m going to take you through the features of the current wave of excellent web site designs, dissect the most significant features, explain why each one can be good, and show you how to use them in your own sites.

If I had to sum up “Web 2.0″ design in one word, it would have to be “simplicity”, so that’s where we’ll start.

I’m a great believer in simplicity. I think it’s the way forward for web design.

Today’s simple, bold, elegant page designs deliver more with less:

• They enable designers to shoot straight for the site’s goals, by guiding the site visitor’s eye through the use of fewer, well-chosen visual elements.
• They use fewer words but say more, and carefully selected imagery to create the desired feel.
• They reject the idea that we can’t guess what people want from our sites

1Simplicity

“Use as few features as are necessary to achieve what you need to achieve”

Web design is simpler than ever, and that’s a good thing.

2.0 design means focused, clean and simple.

That doesn’t necessarily mean minimalist, as I’ll explain later.

I really believe in simplicity. That’s not to say that all web sites should be minimal, but that we should use as few features as are necessary to achieve what you need to achieve.

I’ve written elsewhere about Occam’s Razor, which is a principle I use all the time. One way of interpreting it is: Given any two possible solutions to a problem, the simpler one is better.

Here are some examples. Note how unnecessary elements have been stripped out from each. There could be a lot more on each page than there is… but would that make them stronger?

The result is that you have to look at the content. You find yourself interacting with exactly the screen features the designer intended. And you don’t mind - it’s easy, and you get just what you came for.

Why simplicity is good

• Web sites have goals and all web pages have purposes.
• Users’ attention is a finite resource.
• It’s the designer’s job to help users to find what they want (or to notice what the site wants them to notice)
• Stuff on the screen attracts the eye. The more stuff there is, the more different things there are to notice, and the less likely a user is to notice the important stuff.
• So we need to enable certain communication, and we also need to minimise noise. That means we need to find a solution that’s does its stuff with as little as possible. That’s economy, or simplicity.

When & how to make your designs simple

When?

Always!

How?

There are two important aspects to achieving success with simplicity:

1. Remove unnecessary components, without sacrificing effectiveness.
2. Try out alternative solutions that achieve the same result more simply.

Whenever you’re designing, take it as a discipline consciously to remove all unnecessary visual elements.

Concentrate particularly on areas of the layout that are less relevant to the purpose of a page, because visual activity in these areas will distract attention from the key content and navigation.

Use visual detail - whether lines, words, shapes, colour - to communicate the relevant information, not just to decorate.

Here’s an example of a design that suffers from not enough simplicity.

Yaxay’s interface uses a lot of pixels, but the vast majority of them are decorative, part of the page background. Relatively few pixels are used to user to find or understand information or interact with the site.

See how much “stuff” there is to look at, and notice how few of the pixels are used to clarify actual navigation, actual content, or actual interactive features.

Edward Tufte is the boss when it comes to the design of information. He uses the terms “data ink” (i.e. detail that enables information transfer) and “non-data ink” (i.e. detail that’s just detail) to describe this phenomenon.

One way Tufte specifically measures the effectiveness of information design (graphs, charts, presentations etc.) is using the ratio of data-ink to non-data-ink. The higher the proportion of data-ink used, the more likely it is that a design is effective.

Taking the Yaxay detail above, there’s a lot of what I call “busyness”, i.e. a lot of edges, tonal changes, colour variations, shapes, lines… a lot of stuff to look at. But, in this detail, the only useful features are:

1. The site logo, and
2. the label on the nav button (which reads “art gallery”)

All the rest of the “busyness”: the shapes in the background, the diagonal lines in the interface panel, the grid, the gradients… all this is noise, it’s all “non-data ink”, because it’s not enabling communication.

I’m not against richness, complexity or beauty in web design

Simplicity means:

Use as many pixels as you need, in whatever way you need, to facilitate the communication that needs to happen.

Of course, often what you’re communicating isn’t hard data, but soft information.

Hard data

means facts, like news, stock prices, train times, or how much money is in your bank account…

Soft information

covers the qualitative aspects of communication, like the first impression about the quality of a company, the sense of how approachable a service provider is, and whether you feel a product will be right for you. It can be just as important!

Whether what you’re communicating is hard or soft, your pixels count, so use them consciously and with care.

Take the example below:

Alex Dukal’s site is rich, interesting and appealing. It uses a range of visual techniques to draw your attention, make you interested and to give you a warm feeling about the quality of Alex’s work.

But it’s also simple, because it uses its pixels/ink/busyness with care and sensitivity. It’s not gratuitous, it’s economical and rich.

Whatever you’re saying, choose wisely where you use your ink/pixels. Use it to communicate, first and foremost. Then, ask whether you can communicate just as effectively with less. If so, do it.

2Central layout

(More about this on the Current Style page). Basically, the vast majority of sites these days are positioned centrally within the browser window. Relatively few are full-screen (liquid) or left-aligned / fixed-size, compared to a few years ago.

Why a central layout is good

This “2.0″ style is simple, bold and honest. Sites that sit straight front & center feel more simple, bold and honest.

Also, because we’re being more economical with our pixels (and content), we’re not as pressurised to cram as much information as possible above the waterline/fold.

We’re using less to say more, so we can be a bit more free and easy with the amount of space used, and pad out our content with lots of lovely white space.

When & how to use a central layout

I’d say, position your site centrally unless there’s a really good reason not to.

You may be wanting to get more creative with the space, or get as much information on-screen as possible (for example with a web app).

3Fewer columns

A few years ago, 3-column sites were the norm, and 4-column sites weren’t uncommon. Today, 2 is more common, and 3 is the mainstream maximum.

Why using fewer columns is good

Less is more. Fewer columns feels simpler, bolder, and more honest. We’re communicating less information more clearly.

There’s also a by-product of the domination of centered layouts. Because we’re not filling the whole screen so much, and not trying to get as much on-screen at any one time, we simply don’t need as many columns of information.

37Signals have always been at the front when it comes to questioning the status quo and coming up with simple answers.

Here, they use 2 columns. This a great case study in simplicity. It lets the message speak, and adds nothing that could get in the way.

Apple is the other leader in elegant simplicity.

This kind of layout works really, really well. Each time I experience Apple’s simple design, the more convinced I become that its zen approach is the holy grail of design.

This typical Apple layout shows that someone has honestly asked, “How many boxes/columns/lines do we really need?”. Then they’ve boldly edited out unnecessary elements, and the result is undeniably the cleanest, most effective communication.

How to choose your columns

I’d definitely recommend using no more than 3 columns, simply because you should use no more of anything than you need to.

There are always exceptions, so here are a few examples of more than 3 columns used effectively.

Derek Powazek’s blog site uses 3 columns for the main section of his blog, but 4 lower down.

The lower section is a kind of pick & mix, where the abundance of columns emphasises the “Take what you like” feel.

Amazon (UK) has two side columns, and products arranged centrally in 3 additional columns.

It works beacuse the purpose of each column is clear from its design. The left col is definitely navigation; the right column is “other stuff”. The products in the middle are clearly tiled and separated by white space, so they don’t overwhelm.

Popurls.com contains loads of pick-n-mix information, collating the hot links from other sites like digg and del.icio.us, but it still keeps to 3 columns for the main blocks of text.

Further down, it shows thumbnails of popular images on the photo-sharing site Flickr (and there are Youtube vids later). These are tiled in several columns, which is fine, because it’s a sit-back, scan and pick your experience moment…

And here’s a site that gets it wrong…

Here’s All Things Web2.0 using 4 columns: 2 side columns and 2 central columns.

The downside of this layout is that you don’t know where to start looking. Everything is somehow low-priority (partly because of the darkish background).

As we saw, Amazon differentiates the page to this extent, but the design helps you instantly identify what each area of screen real-estate is for, so it’s not confusing.

4Separate top sections

This means making the top of the screen (the main branding & nav area) distinct from the rest (the main content).

Of course, there’s nothing new about this approach. It’s a good idea, and has been used for ever. But it’s being used more than ever now, and the distinction is often stronger.

See how clear the “page-tops” are in these 6 samples, even at small scale:

Why distinct top sections are good

The top section says “Here’s the top of the page”. Sounds obvious, but it feels good to know clearly where the page starts.

It also starts the site/page experience with a strong, bold statement. This is very “2.0″-spirited. We like strong, simple, bold attitude.

2 of these top-sections contain just branding (Protolize, Mediconmedia), 1 has just navigation (Cross Connector), and the remaining 3 have both.

The weakness of Cross Connector, in my view, is that the logo comes after the nav. I prefer the nav to be high-up, and clear (like e.g. Simple Bits).

When & how to use a distinct top section

On any site, both the main branding and main navigation should be obvious, bold and clear.

So it’s a good idea to create a clear space at the top of a web site design that positions the logo and nav boldly.

Always put your logo right up the top of the screen. I’d always recommend putting your main navigation right after it.

It’s definitely a good thing to mark the top of the page with a section that marks out the high-level screen features as separate from the main site content.

The top section should be visually distinct from the rest of the page content. The strongest way to differentiate is to use a bold, solid block of different colour or tone, but there are alternatives.

Here are 2 examples where the top section is separated with a solid line, rather than being solid colour itself.

And here, the top section contents simply sit boldly outside the main column area.

5Solid areas of screen real-estate

Leading on from the clearly differentiated top area, you’ll notice that lots of sites define the various areas of real-estate boldly and clearly.

Real estate comes in various forms, including:

• Navigation
• Background / canvas
• Main content area
• Other stuff
• Callouts / cross-links

It’s possible to design a web page so that these areas are immediately distinct from their neighbours.

The strongest way to do this is using colour.

But white space can be just as effective.

The risk with strong colour is that it draws the eye, so it can take attention away from other relevant screen elements.

I think that placing clean content on white space creates an easier experience, helping the viewer to feel more relaxed and free to browse.

6Simple nav

Permanent navigation - your global site nav that appears on every page as part of the page template - needs to be clearly identifiable as navigation, and should be easy to interpret, target and select.

• 2.0 design makes global navigation large, bold, clean and obvious.
• Inline hyperlinks (links within text) are typically clearly differentiated from normal text.

Why simple navigation is better

Users need to be able to identify navigation, which tells them various important information:

• Where they are (in the scheme of things)
• Where else they can go from here
• And what options they have for doing stuff

Following the principle of simplicity, and general reduction of noise, the best ways to clarify navigation are:

• Positioning permanent navigation links apart from content
• Differentiating navigation using colour, tone and shape
• Making navigation items large and bold
• Using clear text to make the purpose of each link unambiguous

How to keep your nav simple

Simply remember the key: navigation should be clearly distinguishable from non-navigation.

Just follow the guidelines above, regarding differentiation through position, colour and clarity.

My article about navigation »

Inline hyperlinks should also stand out sufficiently from the text around them.

Check out these snippets. In each case, you’re in do doubt what’s a link. (Personally, I prefer using blue text (non-underlined) which turns to underlined red on hover…)

Read “Save the Pixel - the Art of Simple Web Design”

For the best professional insight into how to create super-simple, effective designs, get Ben Hunt’s new e-book.

It features 10 brand new chapters teaching pro pixel-saving skills, plus 22 worked example case studies. Buy it now, only £15

Howie Jacobson, author of “Adwords for Dummies”, says…

“Save the Pixel is the best book on web design and usability I’ve ever read, and one of the best books on internet marketing in general. If you’re sending traffic to your web site via Google AdWords and you haven’t discovered the strategies and tactics in Save the Pixel, I guarantee you’re throwing away money.

“It’s not just information, but a systematic way of designing a site for your customers rather than your web designer’s online portfolio. Save the Pixel is the one book I insist my clients read before I’ll roll out an AdWords campaign for them.”

7Bold logos

A clear, bold, strong brand - incorporating attitude, tone of voice, and first impression - is helped by a bold logo.

Here are some (100% scale). Notice that logos are tending to be quite large, in line with the general 2.0 principles.

Why?

Strong, bold logos say “This is who we are.” in a way that we can believe.

When & how?

See my articles on logos and text-based logos.

It’s very hard to say how to create a good logo, but in brief…

Your logo should:

• work visually in its main context, and any other uses in which it may be used (like flyers or t-shirts?)
• be recognisable and distinctive
• represent your brand’s personality and qualities on first viewing

More info…

8Bigger text

Lots of “2.0″ web sites have big text, compared to older-style sites.

If you fill the same amount of space with less “stuff”, you have more room.

When you’ve made more room, you can choose to make more important elements bigger than less important elements (if they’re still there).

Making things bigger makes them more noticeable than lesser elements. This effect has been used throughout the history of print design, on headings, title pages and headlines.

Not only does big text stand out, but it’s also more accessible to more people. That’s not just people with visual impairments, but also people looking on LCD screens in sunlight, people sitting a little further from the screen, and people just skimming the page. If you think about it, that could be quite a lot of people!

When & how to use big text

Big text makes most pages more usable for more people, so it’s a good thing.

Of course, size is relative. You can’t take a normal, busy site, make ALL the text bigger, and make it more usable. That might not work, that might be worse.

In order to use big text, you have to make room by simplifying, removing unnecessary elements.

You also need to haave a reason to make some text bigger than other text. And the text must be meaningful and useful. There’s no point adding some big text just because it’s oh-so 2.0!

If you need to have a lot of information on a page, and it’s all relatively equal in importance, then maybe you can keep it all small.

9Bold text introductions

Leading on from the big text theme, many sites lead with strong all-text headline descriptions.

These normally set out the site’s USP, elevator pitch or main message.

They tend to be graphical, rather than regular text. The reason for this is that designers want a lot of control over the page’s visual impact, especially early on in a browsing experience.

When & how to use a bold text intro

Only use one if you’ve got something bold to say. v (If you haven’t got something bold to say, maybe it’s worth having a think about the purpose of your page/site and coming up with somethign worth saying boldly!)

If you have a simple message that you want to be seen first, go ahead and headline it. Make it clear by putting it against a relatively plain background.

10Strong colours

Bright, strong colours draw the eye. Use them to divide the page into clear sections, and to highlight important elements.

When you have a simple, stripped-out design, you can use a bit of intense colour to help differentiate areas of real-estate and to draw attention to items you want the visitor to notice.

The Treo Mobile site uses 3 areas of strong colour to mark out and advertise 3 main areas of the site.

The background colour makes it clear that this isn’t main content, and large, bold title text helps you see quickly what’s in each one, so you can decide whether it interests you.

Colorschemer sections the page with bands of intense, bright, cheerful colour, set against a more neutral background.

Apple’s design has always used a great balanced combination of tone (darks), rich effects and colour to draw the eye.

It may be the most perfectly designed web site there is, in my opinion.

In this image, the intense dark areas and strong colour are used sparingly to pick out important content.

Colour is also a great medium for communicating brand values

Here, the colour isn’t bright, but it is strong, partly because of the amount of green used.

This design uses green to communicate the values of “quality” and “health”.

Note: site design doesn’t match this image!

This site sells outdoor clothes exclusively for females, and the soft colours reinforce the chosen brand personality.

Be careful to use intense colour on or around high-value features

A nice, effective page design is compromised by the use of large areas of intense colour outside the main page area.

The result is that the eye is drawn away from the real content.

The Aurum Newtech site risks the same effect, but the colour is just pale enough to keep the content noticeable.

Also, the big, bold and well-spaced content elements help draw attention away from the “attractive” background.

Remember to use sparingly

If you’re using strong colours to attract the eye, it only works if there’s lots of area that isn’t strongly coloured.

If everything is trying to attract the eye, then the eye just gets confused, and the site will feel confusing and chaotic.

11Rich surfaces

Most 2.0-style sites use subtle 3D effects, sparingly, to enhance the qualitative feel of the design.

We all know that these little touches just feel nice, but we may not know why.

Realistic surface effects (like drop-shadows, gradients and reflections) help make a visual interface feel more real, solid and “finished”.

They may also remind us of certain tactile or aesthetic qualities of real-world objects, such as water droplets, shiny plastic buttons, and marble floors. Making stuff look solid and real can make it look “touchable”, which is likely to appeal.

When & how to use rich surfaces

The golden rule here is to use with care, and not to overdo it.

As I explain in the tutorial on 3D Effects, these effects should not be applied to everything.

It can also be important to maintain a consistent light-source. Although this can get more complex with the illusion of back-lit diffusion in buttons etc., you still know whether an overall design feels consistent.

3D effects can also make elements seem to stand out from the page, but only if the rest of the page is relatively flat.

Avoid trying to make your entire design 3D-realistic because:

• It’s more work
• It will increase the overall size of the page assets
• And you don’t need to. 3D effects use lots of different pixels, and different pixels should be used deliberately to draw the visitor’s attention to key content elements, or to enhance “soft” informational aspects. A little goes a long way.

12Gradients

Web 2.0 design has more gradients than the Alps.

Why gradients are so useful

Gradients soften areas that would otherwise be flat colour/tone.

They can create the illusion of a non-flat surface, used to good effect on Alex Dukal’s portfolio.

Gradients can be used to fade a colour into a lighter or darker tone, which can help create mood.

In page backgrounds, they may also create an illusion of distance.

A common gradient combo is blue-to-white, which evokes the effect of aerial perspective, creating the sense that the background fades away towards the horizon.

They are commonly used at the very top of page backgrounds, where they help denote the boundary of the viewable area.

They’re also an integral part of drop-shadows, and the inner-glows and specular highlights you see on glass- or plastic-style buttons.

Note that gradients usually work best when juxtaposed with areas of flat colour or tone.

On the Curve2 homepage, the gradients are more effective because each one is positioned adjacent to a flat white or grey section.

It’s common to find gradients enhancing the base colour (using mix effects like color-burn or overlay in Photoshop), which create subtly different hues.

Here, the highlighted green colour is warmer and friendlier than the darker base colour. The overall effect is both softer and richer.

13Reflections

The illusion of reflection is one of the most common applications on gradients.

These commonly come in 2 kinds:

• Highlights caused by light reflecting on shiny surfaces
• That shiny table effect!

Specular highlights

Realistic effects of water droplets, glass beads, shiny plastic buttons etc. have been very popular over the past couple of years.

I don’t know where the trends started, but Apple’s web site must have been one of the most influential, preceding their Aqua interface look & feel.

Here are some examples:

The classic Apple.com shiny plastic tabs, still in use today.

These use highlights caused by a light source above the tabs, combined with an inner, diffuse glow that creates the plastic effect.

These tabs, from one of my recent redesigns, have a polished (from the strong white highlight) carbon-fibre appearance. The carbon effect comes from the warm diagonal-stroke pattern from the icon’s glow.

More nice shiny plastic. Notice how the reflections fall off at the edge of the shape, which create the illusion of rounded edges.

Similar effect on a square shape looks like a badge.

The non-horizontal angle creates a sense of dynamism.

This shiny button from cafepress.com uses a rounded reflection that suggests a wide light source coming off a rounded surface.

This button from web hosts Mediatemple has a more diffuse reflection, suggesting a matt glass finish.

That shiny table effect!

Pioneered by Apple again (I’m sure). This is a really nice effect which is so prevalent now, it’s in danger of being overused, now starting to look tired and is falling out of favour with designers.

Remember, of course, that web designers are usually more sensitive to these things, so even if we’re getting turned off by it, the general public may still think it’s cool for some time to come.

The standard Apple look. Greyed-out and fading on a white base.

On a coloured background

Fading out to either side (my one this, not published yet)

More extreme angle, and a rich layered effect reflecting the colour of the solid object

Here’s how to do it (from photoshoplab.com) »

14Cute icons

Icons play an important role in Web 2.0 design. Today we use fewer, better icons that carry more meaning.

Icons can be useful when they’re easily recognisable and carry a clear meaning. In lots of other cases, a simple word is more effective.

In the old days, icons were sometimes overused. It seemed that everyone wanted an icon for every navigation link or tab. Now, we use clear text more extensively, and are less ready to litter a page with icons.

Where 2.0 designers do employ icons, they are reserved for higher-value spots, where .

Simpler, more spacious designs demand less attention and allow for a richer icons.

Some examples, demonstrating various attributes.

Simple and clean

Cute and quirky

Do not necessarily have to feature tiny hills!

Richly detailed

Creatively inspired by Mac OSX. See Enhanced Labs for a great showcase.

15Star flashes

These are the star-shaped labels that you see stuck on web pages, alerting you to something important.

They work by evoking price stickers in low-cost stores. For this reason, they suit the start-up ethic of many 2.0 sites, but for the same reason may cheapen other sites.

They can really work well, but of course should only be used to draw attention to something important.

I’d recommend only using one on a page (at most!).

Another style that’s seeming over-used, and will probably run its course over the next year.

Read “Save the Pixel - the Art of Simple Web Design”

For the best professional insight into how to create super-simple, effective designs, get Ben Hunt’s new e-book.

It features 10 brand new chapters teaching pro pixel-saving skills, plus 22 worked example case studies. Buy it now, only £15

Howie Jacobson, author of “Adwords for Dummies”, says…

“Save the Pixel is the best book on web design and usability I’ve ever read, and one of the best books on internet marketing in general. If you’re sending traffic to your web site via Google AdWords and you haven’t discovered the strategies and tactics in Save the Pixel, I guarantee you’re throwing away money.

“It’s not just information, but a systematic way of designing a site for your customers rather than your web designer’s online portfolio. Save the Pixel is the one book I insist my clients read before I’ll roll out an AdWords campaign for them.”

Also see…

• Real Web2.0 Design & Branding: Explains that Web 2.0 design is not the same as star flashes and shiny table effects - it’s about simple, bold, honest brand experiences.
• 9 Essential principles for good web design, by Collis
• To find out how to do it in Photoshop, go here and scroll halfway down (from photoshoplab.com)
• Information Design Principles For Web 2.0 Design: Simple & Social (Ellyssa Kroski, Master New Media)

LONDON (Reuters) - Emerging markets are very likely the next bubble, but don’t let that stop you.

Emerging market shares are already expensive relative to developed market ones, but economic growth in places like China and India will continue to pull away, and investors will pay an increasing premium for that, especially if the ageing economic giants of the 20th century slip from their long term growth paths.

And in a process we’ve seen before with internet stocks and houses, big returns will attract big money, driving further rises and making it all seem very sensible, at least for a while.

The definition of “a while” is of course, as with all bubbles, the key question.

Amazingly, the case for emerging markets being both a bubble and a good investment is being made by legendary value investor Jeremy Grantham.

“This bubble, like all bubbles, will not be justified by long-term value but at least will be one of the least flaky bubble cases ever,” Grantham, chairman of fund manager GMO, wrote in a note to clients.

“Perhaps once in a career any self respecting strategist, even a one trick “mean reversion” one like GMO, should have a go at predicting a major divergence, a true bubble. And this is ours.”

He points out that U.S. gross domestic product has in recent years been growing at below its long term 3.5 percent rate in real terms, despite a very supportive global environment and huge amounts of cheap financing.

At the same time, growth in emerging markets is higher, and is supported by boom prices for commodities and by a seemingly unstoppable movement of people into cities, driving both consumption and higher productivity.

Grantham’s thesis, essentially, is that these diverging trends will continue, that everyone will realise it and that they will pile into emerging markets, thus inflating the bubble.

How big a bubble? The Japanese bubble peaked at a price to earnings ratios two to three times that of the rest of the world’s stocks, while the NASDAQ one reached similar figures, according to GMO. Grantham argues that emerging markets could achieve a premium of 50 percent, which would be “far less than normal,” but still a heck of a lot higher than current levels.

DECOUPLED, WEAKLY COUPLED OR TIED AT THE NECK?

Emerging market shares are now more expensive on a reported earnings basis than developed market stocks, a historically unusual situation.

Emerging shares are now selling at 15.9 times their reported earnings, as against just 14 times for developed markets. The median over the past 13 years is 15.6 for emerging and 22 times for developed, according to data from Societe Generale.

So, investors are paying more for a dollar in emerging markets earnings than they will for a developed earnings dollar, and a major relative change in valuation has already happened. Can this continue, even if growth in the United States and Europe is weak?

Andrew Lapthorne, global quantitative strategist at Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking in London, is not so sure.

“Are emerging markets a commodity play? Yes. Do they have better growth prospects? Yes. Can they withstand a slowdown in the United States and Europe? Probably not,” he said.

Grantham, for his part, believes that the bubble will be influenced, and perhaps delayed, by problems elsewhere.

“Such interruptions may be quite violent but, despite them, at the next low point for the U.S. market the emerging markets are quite likely to do no worse and in the recovery they will go to a very large premium,” he writes, adding that in the slower case the 50 percent premium would be reached within five years. If the United States somehow skates through, then it would be all the faster.

There are other arguments in support of emerging markets that are actually strengthened by the woes elsewhere. Leverage is lower in emerging markets than developed, both at the corporate and household level. If we are going through a sustained period of lowering the amount of borrowing that is acceptable, Asia’s banks and consumers are less exposed.

And the increasingly affluence of consumers in emerging markets offers another potential stabiliser. Credit Suisse points out that about half of global emerging market exports are to other emerging markets, as against 18 percent to the United States.

There is also a school of thought that says, like it or not, global financial capitalism is inherently prone to bubbles, so we should all just relax and enjoy it.

Indeed, since the Federal Reserve and other authorities have demonstrated that they will step in to cushion the effects of a popping bubble but not act to stop one inflating, you can be forgiven if you think it might be fun to hitch a ride.

It may be moral hazard, but what, after all, is a speculator to do?

Just make sure you get out good and early.

– At the time of publication James Saft did not own any direct investments in securities mentioned in this article. He may be an owner indirectly as an investor in a fund –

(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

Taken from http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-33289320080429?sp=true

CHICAGO (Reuters.com) — LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace… Ask any professional under 50 where they network and virtual communities are sure to come up
with starring roles in this 24-7 world of meet-and-greet.

Yet the ascendancy of social networking doesn’t mean pressing the flesh has gone the way of Hula Hoops and brick-sized mobile phones.

Entrepreneurs appear to be doing more face-to-face networking than ever, says Diane Darling, a Boston-based networking consultant and author of The Networking Survival Guide (McGraw-Hill).

“People are diversifying their networking,” says Darling, who runs networking seminars for accountants, executives and others. “They don’t give each other and themselves enough credit for the networking they’re doing all the time.”

The good news for those who get sweaty palms is that a lot networking is done where we feel most comfortable: during recreation, at church, helping our favorite cause - even standing in line at the grocery store.

If you approach all your social activities with an open mind, you may find some worthwhile connections that can give you a leg up professionally. Here are a few favorites among some professionals we polled informally; we hope they inspire you to think about your own daily interactions as potential networking opportunities.

Sister act

Jenn Hoffman, Orca Communications Unlimited LLC, Phoenix, Arizona

She’s responsible for bringing in new business at this small public relations firm specializing in entrepreneurial accounts and says she found some trusted new business contacts in an unusual place: helping to raise money for V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women.

Hoffman’s also acted in a local production of the “Vagina Monologues”, the popular play affiliated with the effort that has gained a reputation for its comedic and quite candid take on women’s issues.

“I feel like we all got straight down to business, we all kind of trust each other,” says Hoffman, who was later invited to sit on a local board as a result of a V-Day contact she made. “It was good … you know the people share the same core values as you.”

Wheels in spin

Guy Hayward, 180 Amsterdam

He’s a partner in this international advertising and marketing firm whose clients include Adidas, BMW and Sony. He stresses the importance of bicycling to his firm’s business connections. The agency is so committed to the activity, in fact, that its Web site talks up the fact that 120 people in the Amsterdam office (no great surprise) use their bikes as a preferred means of getting around.

“I can’t tell you how often I hear Monday morning work conversations begin with, “When I was out riding, one of the guys told me…,” says Hayward.

“Seems like groups form in companies, attach to others, invite others,” he adds, noting that two recent senior hires at 180 resulted from networking that took place during cycling events.

Passing the political hat

Andrea Silbert, Eos Foundation, Harwich Port, Massachusetts

President of this Boston-area foundation investing in community causes that aim to combat poverty, Silbert says political campaigns are one of the best ways to connect with movers and shakers.

A former candidate for lieutenant governor in the 2006 Massachusetts Democratic primary, Silbert has worked on the campaigns of prior Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

“I met lots of business leaders and people who share my interest in politics and my ideals,” she says. “It was great networking and lots of fun. If you do fundraising, you host or co-host events and invite your friends to come.”

Not bored here

Keith Ashmus, Frantz Ward LLP, Cleveland, Ohio

A partner and specialist in labor and employment law, Ashmus stresses the importance of non-profit boards to his networking efforts. He sits on the boards of the Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Ohio State Bar Association and the National Small Business Administration. He also counts the board of the Westwood Country Club as a client.

“Favorite places to network are generally places where you feel comfortable and want to be for reasons apart from networking,” says Ashmus. “If you are doing something you think is important, you demonstrate your integrity, dependability, creativity, etc., to others.”

Power play

Deirdre Joy Smith, POWER, Chicago

She’s the founder and executive director of this Chicago-based women’s initiative and has made successful networking her business. A former political fundraiser for Al Gore and other prominent Democrats, she founded POWER Opening Doors for Women in 2004 as a way for professional women to meet and mentor those coming up in the corporate ranks.

The highlight? The group’s annual event, which puts the city’s established female stars as well as up-and-comers together in one big room where they mix, mingle and later break out to different venues for panel discussions, dinners and - you guessed it - more networking within their specialty areas.

“There’s just not enough women in corporate suites,” says Smith, who is planning a satellite POWER project in Philadelphia and has designs on Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina and Austin, Texas. “There’s still something to be said for people having experience and being able to pass that on.”

School ties

Allegra Biery, Northern Trust Corp., Chicago

Senior vice-president, personal financial services for this Midwest financial institution, Biery relies on a host of networking activities to keep in touch.

Along with her involvement on several Chicago-area boards and the Chicago women’s networking group POWER, the Smith College graduate is active in the local chapter of her alumni association.

“My alumni network is terrific,” she says, noting that she’ll periodically get emails from fellow alums requesting a referral or vice versa. “The most effective networking is built on relationships of trust.”

Deborah Cohen covers small business for Reuters.com. She can be reached at smallbusinessbigissues@yahoo.com.

Taken from http://features.us.reuters.com/entrepreneur/news/832DCD4A-FF40-11DC-8F70-F263AA7B.html

“Not everybody has full energy and full brain capacity at the same time every day,” says Hoffman, who vows never to return to a corporate environment. “There’s no way that these designated hours of nine to five are the most productive hours for every person every day - that’s so archaic.” Deborah Cohen covers small business for Reuters.com. She can be reached at smallbusinessbigissues@yahoo.com.

Taken from http://features.us.reuters.com/entrepreneur/news/01637696-09A6-11DD-ABC8-A7E53A9A.html

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Technologies that help businesses use power more efficiently should become a bigger money-maker in the next decade, even if surging demand for data means overall energy use in the tech sector will still rise.

Executives at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit this week said businesses often see saving money as a way to help reduce their environmental impact by cutting waste, particularly of power.

IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), for example, consults with customers on how to streamline power use in their data centers, sometimes even forestalling the need to build new facilities.

“In the fourth quarter we did $300 million worth of business signings in green data centers,” IBM Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said, referring to deals to develop computer operations that consume less power.

“There’s going to be more demand,” he said.

EMC Corp (EMC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has introduced data storage systems that use less power by spinning down disk drives when they aren’t being used, for instance.

“We are trying to help customers manage that growth,” EMC CFO David Goulden said. “They equate green to energy costs and energy being one of the biggest drivers of data center costs.”

With data use growing at about 60 percent annually, total energy use will rise from the technology sector, executives predicted. But companies will find ways to reduce individual consumption.

“If you look at power consumed per employee, I absolutely expect that we will consume less power because we are driving things like server consolidation,” Symantec Corp (SYMC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem said.

One major form of server consolidation is the push to use software to let a single computer do the work of many machines, a process known as virtualization, which also saves energy.

THE POWER OF DENMARK

VMware Inc (VMW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) expects 50 percent revenue growth this year, riding on a wave of virtualization.

It works with utilities in California to get rebates for its customers who markedly cut data center power consumption, and expects as many as 20 more to join in North America.

“We estimate something like 6 million servers have been virtualized since we started with VMware,” CEO Diane Greene said. “We’ve saved approximately the … power that Denmark uses in a year.”

Applied Materials Inc (AMAT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) sees growth in its business for coating glass with a film that helps insulate large office buildings, reducing both cooling and heating costs.

“When there is a building boom in Dubai or Shanghai or Beijing or Mumbai, glass companies in those areas start to buy our machines,” Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter said.

CORPORATE GREEN, PERSONAL GREEN

While corporate customers see an immediate financial benefit to reducing power use, the average consumer may not be ready to relinquish the shiny wrappings of technology.

For example, Virgin Mobile USA Inc (VM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) tried to deliver cell phones in a recycled paper carton.

“We found that consumers walked away from it because they thought the phone was cheap as a result of the packaging,” Virgin Mobile USA CEO Dan Schulman said.

But Fujitsu Executive Vice President Chiaki Ito said consumers should find it easier to make simple, green choices.

“For instance, now many people use cell phones as a substitute for a PC to check (email). This reduces the consumption of energy,” he said.

Many executives at the summit said they are improving their personal habits when it comes to environmental impact. Some, like VMware’s Greene, occasionally ride their bikes to work.

Applied Materials’s Splinter says he recently changed all 150 light bulbs at home to the compact fluorescent variety. Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) CFO Rick Simonson said one of his daughters decided to become a vegan recently.

But Bill Watkins, CEO of Seagate (STX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), sees his biggest task as finding a way for his company to properly dispose of the storage drives it builds.

“I get on a private jet and fly to New York, so it’s kind of hard for me to talk about separating my cans from plastic,” he said.

“They actually wanted me to convert to a full electric car,” he said. “I drive a Bentley. This is the car of my life … I’ll be honest, I couldn’t do it.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google Inc co-founder Larry Page was in Washington on Thursday to promote the company’s proposal for a new generation of wireless devices to operate on soon-to-be-vacant television airwaves.

Page was scheduled to meet with lawmakers in Congress and officials at the Federal Communications Commission hoping to convince them to allow the “white space” between television channels to be accessed by low-power wireless devices.

“I think it will make a huge difference to everybody,” Page said during a morning appearance at a Washington think tank.

Page highlighted the benefits of making more spectrum available, while downplaying opposition from broadcasters, and makers and users of wireless microphones, who fear the wireless devices would cause interference.

“I think the debate’s really been politicized,” Page said.

Page said making more spectrum available would benefit computer users, giving them Internet connections with greater range and speed.

He said it would also benefit Google itself.

“If we have 10 percent better connectivity in the U.S., we get 10 percent more revenue in the U.S., and those are big numbers for us,” Page said.

Google is part of a coalition of technology companies that has been lobbying the FCC to allow unlicensed use of white-space spectrum.

The group also includes Microsoft Corp, Dell Inc, Intel Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and the north American unit of Philips Electronics.

The idea is fiercely opposed

The white-space airwaves could become available in February 2009, when TV broadcasters switch from analog to more efficient digital signals.

Proponents of the mew class of Wi-Fi devices say the airwaves could eventually offer data transmission speeds of billions of bits per second — far faster than the millions of bits per second available on most current broadband networks. Consumers could watch movies on wireless devices and do other things that are currently difficult on slower networks.

The FCC has been testing equipment to see whether the white-space spectrum can be used without interfering with television broadcasts. Even though several prototypes have run into problems in testing, Page said problems with interference could be overcome.

“I am totally confident that if we have rules that say you can use the spectrum under conditions that you cause no interference, that those devices will get produced. And, in fact, hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested in making those devices non-interfering,” Page said.

Page’s remarks were immediately disputed by the National Association of Broadcasters.

“Given the numerous device failures that have resulted during FCC testing, it seems a little disingenuous for Mr. Page to simply dismiss the interference concerns,” Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said in a statement.

“Jeopardizing the future of digital television with an unproven technology would be unwise and unwarranted,” Wharton said.

Simpatigo creates personalized tour guides complete with directions and markers for attractions along the way. Users select beginning and ending points for the trip they’d like to take, along with which categories of attractions they’re interested in—historical, budget, kid-oriented or restaurants, for example. Simpatigo then returns map-based driving or walking instructions along with descriptions of the relevant points of interest along the route. Not only can users search for and get travel routes, but—in Wikitravel fashion—they can also input local attractions of their own, which then get added to those Simpatigo includes on its routes. So, a user seeking to get directions from point A to point B in San Francisco, for example, will see not just a standard list of mainstream attractions described by sources like the New York Times and TripAdvisor.com, but also others that have been input and described by users.

Simpatigo is still rough around the edges, with attractions listed mostly just for select, well-populated areas in the United States, but its premise is a good one, promising to give users focused, relevant information along with a way to shape what others see. As the site gains traction, advertisers and local businesses will surely be clamouring to add their own locations as points of interest. After all, the restaurateur who skips an opportunity to reach users who have specifically said they’re interested in local restaurants may not be a restaurateur for long…!

JetSuite’s ownership program is designed to let customers enjoy the luxury and convenience of owning a private jet without the prohibitive costs, liability, regulatory risks and operational hassles. With a down payment and an asset-secured note, each customer takes ownership of a brand-new USD 3.4 million Embraer Phenom 100—a very light jet with a range of up to 1,200 statute miles and a cruising altitude of 41,000 feet. With that price comes a set number of hours of use each year for free; additional hours can be purchased at a discount. JetSuite, meanwhile, takes care of all the regulatory requirements, aircraft maintenance, hangar facilities, and even hiring and training of pilots. The most interesting part, however, is that when the owner isn’t using their plane, JetSuite charters it to someone who does, and the revenue from that—JetSuite guarantees at least USD 25,000 per month—goes back to the owner.

Las Vegas-based JetSuite was launched last week by Alex Wilcox, who was also a founding member of both JetBlue and Kingfisher Airlines. He explains: “We’re taking the hassle, expense and surprises out of private jet ownership. What’s more, with the Phenom, you get all the comfort with less than half the fuel burn of the most popular charter aircraft.”

JetSuite expects to begin operations next April, focusing at first on the southwestern and western US and later rolling out nationwide. It is interested in partnership possibilities; one to work with in the skies near you? Or consider applying the concept to other categories.

Launched earlier this year, Chicago-based crowdSPRING is an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of all creative services. Buyers that need a new logo, website, marketing materials or other creative content post what they need, when they need it and how much they’d like to pay. They also deposit their payment up front into an escrow account with crowdSPRING, where it will remain until an artist is chosen. Designers, illustrators, writers or photographers around the world can then work on the project and submit their creations for review. Buyers can sort, rate and give feedback on the designs they like until they find the right one. Once that happens, rights to the work are transferred, crowdSPRING takes a 15 percent fee and payment is made. crowdSPRING offers a money-back guarantee so that if buyers don’t get at least 25 entries, they can walk away with a full refund; creatives, meanwhile, are assured that their projects won’t get cancelled or abandoned for no good reason. Every transaction is protected by a free, customized legal contract with digital watermarking, as well as being automatically filed away in an intellectual property vault with IP Registry at no extra cost. Community tools available on the site include public profiles with feedback, ratings and stats; private messaging; portfolios; and creative community forums.

Some designers may balk at the idea of creating a full-fledged work before having a guaranteed buyer. On the other hand, by allowing both established creative professionals and talented newcomers to compete based solely on their creativity and the quality of their ideas—rather than bids, proposals or portfolios—crowdSPRING could also level the competitive playing field for creative people worldwide. To wit: when the site launched into beta in March, it posted just a stark website and asked the crowd to redesign it for a winning prize of USD 5,000. A few weeks later, a student in the Netherlands beat out 80 creatives and 337 other entries with a winning design. Lesson: never underestimate the power of the crowds!