Working Anywhere

Need A Job? Go Virtual With Cisco, Equifax and Harris

As many of you know my entire team works virtually. But a few weeks back my good friend Tony Loiacono's company, Heads & Tails TV, launched a truly virtual work place called United Nations Citizen, with some heavyweight partners. Cisco, Harris and Equifax plus some other big brands like Apple.

Here are some key points about it:

1. The 1st Virtual World that focuses on television content (sports, music, entertainment & lifestyle) and licensed properties (as real and virtual goods). 

2. CISCO, HARRIS & EQUIFAX join UNC as strategic partners together with over 300 National Retailers signed to affiliate marketing agreements

3. This is the 1st Virtual World with a fully functional shopping mall, populated by avatars-slash-sales persons & avatars-slash-paying consumers. 

4. The 1st Virtual World that is program agnostic (cross-platform) where the brand is central to growth when coupled with compelling content and goods.

5. The Virtual World operates as a defacto zoning schema -- some worlds are designed for play, some for training/education and others for commerce.

When you visit the virtual world it include in-world HD television screens with "passion point" programming and active website links from the 'Citizens' favorite search and social media sites; virtual/real sales of condos/homes, cars, vacations, licensed merchandise and more; audio chat capabilities with paid greeters from in-world companies; state-of-the-art media file servers to ensure a pure HD experience; hyper-local programming opportunities, such as high school sports, festivals, fashion, games, languages and learning; plus mobile and online extensions for a more robust experience.

Tony likes to call it a Virtual Google. I call it a new place to live, work and play. It's also a way for many to find jobs in an economy period when there's not a lot a jobs here or there.

Since it launched it has 65 job applicants. The UNCitizen jobs go live February 3, with at least twenty percent getting work from the start.

Not bad for a concept without any VC funding yet. How many startups walk in with Cisco, Equifax and Harris Corporation as partners and backers of the idea, plus already have 337 affiliate marketing and retail partners in hand.

When the world of Augmented Reality is supposed to be so big, shouldn't the smart money go where the big names are already realizing what's real.

Novatel MiFi Has Security Issue

UMPC has learned about a security hole on the MiFi. Thankfully, Novatel is reacting very quickly and is in the process of fixing things.

Update on GoGO

Joe Sharkey has an update on the state of in flight WiFi in today's New York Times.

As a road warrior I choose my flights and hotels based on the broadband options available. Over the past month my trips to Northern California were 90 percent on Virgin America and only ten percent on Southwest. As an A Lister on Southwest the switch to Virgin for flights to SFO vs. using SWA was simply based on the Aircell GoGo service being available. It didn't matter that the service was free, as I've paid for it before, and would again. The difference is simple. I can get off the plane and have a clean inbox, have read current news, blog posts and tweets, and most of all, relaxed.

Getting off the plane without WiFi during the work week, especially in the month leading up to CES means the volume of email traffic, documents to write, send or review increases. This doesn't change much the first three months of the year when you have on average one trade event a month, a series of meetings, new business pitches and the usual correspondence to sort through. The hour or so in each direction to the Bay Area with WiFi connectivity is a total catch up time. That means when I get to where I'm going, I know most of what needed to be addressed has been. The difference is that instead of factoring in an extra hour or so of working before meetings.

The other factor that has to be realized by airlines without WiFi is that I now reserve those flights for weekends or lower priced later hours. The value add of WiFi for the business traveler equates directly to their bottom line. At the end of the day, I choose my hotels based on broadband, and now, when I can, I choose my flights the same way.

Chicken Wire Makes WiFi Inoperable

Great story in today's Wall Street Journal that explains why some walls make WiFi impenetrable due to Chicken Wire.