TechCrunch50 is finally over after witnessing two day successful event. The conference had 50 startup presentations. All had something new and unique about them. However, fortunately or unfortunately, like every event has only one eventual winner, TechCrunch50 too announced Redbeacon as the winner. Redbeacon walked away with the valuable prize money of $50,000. What a way to start a business!

Ethan Anderson, Yaron Binur, and Aaron Lee, the founders of Redbeacon are former Google product managers and engineers. So, it’s not all that surprising that their startup was adjudged the best amongst the other 49 strong contenders. Threadsy, AnyClip, and CitySourced are the three runners up for the top TechCrunch50 prize.
Redbeacon aims to help consumers find local service providers such as plumbers, bakers, and contractors. This service makes our life so much easier. We at TrendsUpdates were indeed very impressed with Redbeacon at the TechCrunch50, and we covered a post on this startup on our site too. While there is no denying the fact that Redbeacon will become even more popular within no time, but many are still wondering how they are going to resolve the chicken and egg problem. Well, only time will tell us.

Via: TechCrunch\TrendsUpdtes

The invitation applies to big-time developers and financiers, that is. Major industry players the world over will definitely be enticed by the country’s proven reserves of 115 billion barrels, the third largest in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran. Millions of barrels more lie undiscovered.

Unlike Saudi Arabia and Iran where the respective oil industries are well-entrenched, Iraq is a diamond in the rough, so to speak. After years of war and state-controlling dictatorship before that, Iraq’s oil industry has remained underdeveloped, to say the least. It is observed to be lacking in necessary resources and efficient management systems.

The oil playground is expansive. Iraq has 80 known oilfields. Only 15 of these have been developed. The current production capacity is at a paltry 2.4 million barrels per day.

Some long-term service contracts have been signed. Shell has partnered with China on a $4bn joint venture ‘to collect and market the 700 million cubic feet of gas flared from 19,000 square kilometers of oil field in the Basra region.’ China National Petroleum Corporation is on a $3bn contract to develop the Ahdab field in central Iraq. The company is also talking with Shell to develop the reserves at Kirkuk.

Oil exports account for 95 percent of government revenue in Iraq. These funds are imperative to rebuild the wartorn country. To produce the targeted 6 million barrels per day by 2014, the Iraqi government needs an estimated $50bn in investment. To lure investors, Iraq has upped the contractor’s stake to 75 percent from the erstwhile 49 percent.

So, let the battle for Iraq’s oil begin!

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Via The Independent

When companies tighten their proverbial belts in a time of economic crisis, employment is the first to go haywire. In the U.S. alone, 4.4 million jobs are said to have been lost. In this time of recession, full-time employment has become a shaky concept.

Based on a recent survey, companies are now outsourcing more tasks and functions, as well as trying out outsourcing on previously unoutsourced business function component (28.5%). Recession has brought forth the replacement of regular employees with contractors or contractual work during the last year. The same survey records this figure at 14.6%. Corollarily, 14.5% have opted to avail of contractual work, thus giving temporary employment to those disadvantaged even more by the economic crisis.

In the U.S. today, and largely due to the economic crisis, US-based companies have started to take more advantage of the proliferation of freelance talent, and farming out jobs. Many of those unemployed since last year have turned to freelancing for economic purposes, as well as to enjoy the advantage of the ‘work anywhere’ freelance culture. Thus, the freelance economy in the country is enjoying an unprecedented boom. After all, business must always be as usual.

Would America adopt the freelance and contractual practice even after the recession is over? Some things grow in the dark.

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Via oDesk blog