Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises — and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script…watch the video yourself!

Qihoo 360 was the first Chinese internet company to IPO in the US this year, but there are many more to come. Ge Yang, NYSE’s representative in Beijing, states, “Following Qihoo 360 we expect another batch of Chinese firms to go public, with a number of different business models.”

The 17 Chinese internet firms shooting for an IPO this year fall into 5 categories: social networks, online TV and video, mobile Internet, e-commerce, and online media.

1) Social Networks

RenRen

RenRen claims to be China’s largest real-name social network. Its forerunner was XiaoNei, which launched in 2005. Xiaonei was purchased by Oak Pacific Interactive in 2006 and in 2009 subsequently changed its name to RenRen (“the people’s web” in Chinese).

Softbank is the largest investor in RenRen with about a 40% stake. RenRen has 160 million registered users. Its primary revenue sources are web games and advertising.

On February 19, 2011, Sina Tech reported that RenRen plans to IPO in the U.S, with the aim of raising about $500 million.

Kaixin001

Kaixin (Kaixin001.com), founded in March 2008, is one of China’s largest social networks. In August of 2010, it claimed 86 million registered users, with an average of 50 million monthly active users. Its revenues are about 300 million yuan, primarily from advertising (about 80%), virtual goods, and third party developers. CEO Binghao Cheng stated that by the second quarter of 2010 monthly profits were over 10 million yuan.

At the end of last year Caijing reported that the company plans to IPO in 2011. On March 16, it was leaked that Kaixin had already selected JP Morgan and Citigroup to serve as underwriters of the IPO.

Taomee

Taomee (taomee.com) is a children’s social network. It claims to have 180 million registered users with active users of 30-50 million. In January 2011 it announced that it had reached profitability.

In October 2010, Caijing reported that Taomee will IPO on NASDAQ in 2011. It has fulfilled basic preparations at present.

Jia Yuan

In December 2010, Tencent Tech quoted an industry insider, “The Chinese dating site Jia Yuan intends to list on the NASDAQ next year, with the aim of raising $100 million.” Jia Yuan would be China’s first dating site to go public.

2) Online TV and Video

Tudou

Tudou launch on April 15, 2005 as China’s first video sharing site. On November 10, 2010, Tudou filed with the SEC for listing as TUDO on the NASDAQ with the aim of raising $120 million.

The magazine China Entrepreneur reports two possible reasons for the delay since then: 1) Tudou CEO Gary Wang violated the “quiet period”; or 2) A lawsuit from the ex-wife of Tudou CEO Gary Wang which claims a stake in the company. Gary Wang holds a 13.4% stake in Tudou according to the SEC filing.

PPLive

PPLive (PPTV) provides TV streaming and video-on-demand.

In February, PPLive received a $250 million investment from Softbank. According to Caijing Daily, CEO Xinchen Yao aims to list on NASDAQ by the end of the year.

PPStream

PPStream provides TV streaming and video-on-demand.

On February 17, TechWeb reported that PPStream intends IPO in the US and raise $200-300 million. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS Investment Bank will serve as underwriters.

Xunlei

Shenzhen-based Xunlei is China’s largest download client, used primarily for movies and music. Advertising is its largest source of revenue, but the firm also sells value-added services to users, like cloud storage space to host videos and music.

On March 3, Bloomberg quoted an industry insider who stated that plans to list in the US this year to raise about $200 million. Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan will serve as underwriters. On March 23, Reuters reported that Xunlei could IPO as soon as April, but was waiting for the right market conditions.

3) Mobile Internet

NetQin

NetQin is a mobile security software firm. On March 16, NetQin filed with the NYSE with the intention of raising $100 million.

The eve of its IPO China’s CCTV accused NetQin of plotting to disseminate malware via Feiliu, a firm it invested in, and then charge users for NetQin’s services to remove the malware. There is concern that this revelation may hinder NetQin’s chances for an IPO.

UCWeb

UCWeb’s core product is the UCWeb mobile browser. In March 2011, it claimed to have more than 200 million users and over 700 million downloads.

On March 25, Sohu IT reported that the company was reaching out to investors in preparation for an IPO this year.

3G.cn

3G.cn claims to be China’s largest mobile portal. According to management advertising accounts for over 70% of revenues and it estimates 2010 revenues will surpass 200 million yuan.

In July 2010, after completing a third round of investment for $100 million, CEO Yuqiang Deng stated, “This is our last round of financing before an IPO. We plan to list at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.”

Yicha

Yicha was established in February 2004 and was China’s first mobile search engine.

In May 2010, Chairman Bin Liu stated, “Yicha originally planned to list in Japan this year, but due to a weak market we’ll wait until next year; we estimate 2010 revenues will reach $10 million.”

4) E-commerce

Qunar

Qunar is a price-comparison site for booking plane tickets, hotels, and travel packages, similar to Kayak in the US.

In September 2010, Qunar’s CEO told Reuters, “At the earliest we hope to list in the second half of next year and release 20-25% of our shares. Our first choice is NASDAQ.”

Red Baby

Red Baby is China’s largest site for mothers and babies. Sales reached 2 billion yuan in 2009.

In December 2010, the managing director of New Enterprise Associates China, an investor in Red Baby, stated that the firm plans to IPO in the US in the next year.

5) Online Media

Shanda Literature

Shanda Literature is a subsidiary of the Shanda Group and includes well-known literature sites like Chinese Web.

On February 16 HeXun Tech quoted an insider saying the Shanda Literature plans to IPO on the NASDAQ in June.

HeXun

HeXun is a famous Chinese financial portal. Last December Chinese Entrepreneur reported an employee who stated management was aiming for an IPO in the second quarter of 2011.

iFeng Media

iFeng is a cross-platform media company that includes a portal (www.ifeng.com) , a mobile site (3g.ifeng.com) and iFeng video.

iFeng Deputy Director Xinzeng Liu revealed last year that the firm plans to IPO in the third quarter of 2011 and that the video property would be included as a selling point.

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

Without further do, here are the 10 WHYs:

1. Multiple social network profiles, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn All-In-One
I coach and work with many brand social media managers, one of the questions I receive frequently is “how do you jiggle multiple social network profiles at once?” With HootSuite, you no longer need to waste time “sign in, sign out.” One account login will give you access to viewing multiple Twitter feeds, the Facebook news feed, your Fan Page wall and your LinkedIn Network Updates without ever leaving the application. AND, you can update all of them at once if you’d like, just make sure you select the correct profile(s) before you hit the “send” button!

2. Multiple editors, different levels of control
Want to invite a few others to tweet with you but keep the Twitter password to yourself? If you are the ultimate keeper of your brand social media properties, you can simply add “editors” on HootSuite while maintaining control of the profiles. Basically, there are two types of users on HootSuite – level 1 “admin” is the account owner who can add/remove social network profiles and invite other users to participate on selected ones; level 2 “editor” is capable of tweeting & viewing but has no visibility to the social network credentials. I find this feature very useful for organizations that feature occasional guest Twitters or event reporters. After they are done chiming in, “admins“ can easily remove the “editor” access.

3. Schedule tweets for later
This feature is essential for Twitter time management. Unless your full-time job is to tweet, I’d suggest you create a content calendar and compose Tweets ahead of time based on promotional campaigns, upcoming deals, store circular, etc. Depends on your objective of the Twitter account, your tweeting frequency and response time may vary. However, “schedule tweets for later” allows you to put more thoughts into the broadcasting messages before they go out. As a results, you can spend the day-to-day focusing on real-time RTs and @reply. Once you schedule your tweet, it will appear in the “Pending” column for that Twitter profile. And yes, all the scheduled tweets you and your teammates created will appear under the same column. Be sure you’ve got your time zone set correctly! Check the Settings page if you need to double-check it.

4. RSS feeds integration
Nice alternative if you are looking for something to replace twitterfeed.com. Your company’s blog feed or news feed can be set to a specific update frequency. If HootSuite finds more than one post to send, you can tell them how many you’d like to push to Twitter each time. HootSuite could publish a maximum of 5 posts per cycle to multiple Twitter profiles.

5. Ow.ly
HootSuite’s branded URL shortener. It’s a great and convenient tool for users to keep track of the clicks from their posts. No separate signup required, no API needed, and you don’t have to leave HootSuite to do it. Plus you can post pictures and share files from your computer, Ow.ly.com is the hosting platform for all.

6. Embedded tracking
As long as you use Ow.ly as the shortener, HootSuite tracks all the clicks and delivers useful charts to analyze your performance.

The summary stat will show you:

• Total clicks (for the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or from within a certain date range)
• Daily clicks
• Clicks by region (overall)
• Top referrers (overall)
• Most popular tweets

The individual stat will show you:

• The total clicks on an individual ow.ly link you tweeted out

7. drag-n-drop tabs/columns
HootSuite has the most customizable, user-friendly interface I’ve seen so far. You create tabs, then add your twitter mention, direct message, search feed, pending feed and so on as columns. You can edit the tabs and columns to change their title and refresh rate (every 5 min, 10 min, etc). In addition, you can re-order their positions by drag-n-drop. For those organizations that intend to display a Twitter search feed on the .com website, HootSuite even gives you the codes for it. Click the [< >] embed button at the top of the search column. You can change the title of the embeddable column and modify its height/width. Once you’ve set it up, click “Grab Code” to generate the HTML for the embeddable column.

8. Twitter lists management
About half a year ago, Twitter debuted the “list” feature to boost their user adoption and potentially tighten the social graph on Twitter. HootSuite has now integrated their “group” feature with Twitter Lists – users can import existing lists from the Twitter.com; set the List as Private to have it behave like a Group; or create a public list by dragging and dropping Twitter avatars to the new column. It is much easier than managing lists on Twitter.com, take my words for it.

9. Hootlet
It is the secret weapon that got me addicted to HootSuite at the first place. Hootlet is basically a bookmark plug-in you can drag to your browser toolbar, but in 2 seconds, it will change the way you update all the social media profiles. Want to share a link? Hit the Hootlet button, and automatically, the URL is shortened and text is grabbed from the site.

10. Last but not the least, HootSuite is an ultra lightweight web application. Once you sign up an account, you can start manage tweets anywhere on any machine on any web browser. The ultimate portability means more efficiency for your business, less time worrying about installation & MAC/PC comparability.

In conclusion, I urge you to give HootSuite a try! It’s not perfect, but it has helped my clients to manage their social media profiles more efficiently! What tools have you used lately? What additional criteria are you looking for?

A Must Watch Forecast by TrendHunter, these top 20 Consumer Trends shall keep all the designer, marketer-types going back for more.

The upcoming year we will see increasing opportunities because of this world of fragmentation and the proliferation of media channels. Along with the continuous technology advancements, LOCATION is becoming more important than ever.  In 2010, I think there are 3 “hyperlocal” trends that will grow and re-shape the social & mobile business -

1. Local advertising becoming ubiquitous

WHY: Advertisers have been constantly evaluating and experimenting with new models to bring more relevancy and context to the online ad kingdom. After behavior-targeting & social-targeting getting their debut in 2009, location-targeting advertising models start to emerge. There is a future in hyperlocal, and advertising certainly is a big part of it.

WHAT TO EXPECT: New ad-generating application such as Place Local will get more traction as it automates the ad creation, sales and management. Since local restaurants, retail outlets and entertainment venues are the most popular search categories, we will see local business owners jumping on the bandwagon first. As more companies seeking to take advantage of the growth in local ad dollars, more widgets and apps will be available, creating location-based ads will be easier than ever.

2.  Local media replacing big journalism

WHY: Traditional news organizations faced cutbacks or closures in 2009, by contrast, small and local publications are doing pretty well by serving niche markets. Although the market is smaller, the community is much tighter.  Additionally, Twitter just bought Mixer Lab in an effort to pinpoint the locations of people posting messages on its service. Biz Stone believes that when current location is added to tweets, new and valuable services emerge – everything from breaking news to finding friends or local businesses can be dramatically enhanced.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Those who understand the fragmented media landscape and know how to reach customers cost-effectively will thrive.  Highly entrepreneurial sites that are a blend of community-building and a focus on tech expertise such as Oakland Local will look to fill the gap in news content. On the Twitter side, location-aware tweets will simply be the main source of future breaking news. Remember how Twitter beat CNN on reporting the plane crash over Hudson River? Expect the real-time location-aware updates to substitute big journalism, very often.

3. Local on-the-go searches

WHY: As we know, the majority of smartphone owners in North America are the younger consumers. According to Forrester’s latest Technographic survey, Gen Yers and Gen Xers are 4-5 times more likely to perform local searches than Boomers and Seniors. Those GPS embedded devices have enhanced the mobile search experience tremendously.

WHAT TO EXPECT: In 2010, GPS embedded handsets will become a necessity while mobile-based local search process will continue to evolve.  More web 2.0 sites will translate into the mobile channel; more mobile apps will incorporate maps/destination-search function to extend the usefulness of their core offering. More attention on the location-based social networks and mobile games  Foursquare & Gowalla? You bet,  their service is proving to be more useful by the day. The possibility is endless!

As the location-battle rages on, what you do you keep an eye on?

This multinational fan-based crowdsourced music video had just made my day! I can’t begin to imagine how much coordination it takes to synchronize all those webcams all over the world. It’s eye-opening and jaw-dropping guaranteed, take a look yourself.

For more info on the artists and lyrics, please click here.