dotloop: Live Chat!
- 04/01/10 07:27 AM
Today, I'd like to showcase a DotLoop feature some of you may not know about. It's our Live Chat feature. Below is a quick video on how it all works. This will be rolled out soon, along with a plethora of other little goodies, so be sure to check us out in the coming days! … (2 comments)
dotloop: RETSO Recap
- 03/31/10 12:42 AM
Yesterday, REtechSouth released pictures taken from the 2010 REtechSouth Convention held last week in Atlanta. I, unfortunately, was still back here in Cincinnati, and these pictures only remind me of all the fun I missed. For those who were there - fill me in on the fun and tell me some of the stories you encountered.Meanwhile, enjoy the video below (also found here) of DotLoop CEO Austin Allison speaking with Brad Nix about RETSO.
dotloop.com … (1 comments)
dotloop: iPadding Your Wallet?
- 03/29/10 05:05 AM
Saturday will be known as Holy Saturday for some of us, and I'm not referring to Easter Weekend. This Saturday, the iPad will finally go on sale, and Apple fanatics the country over will be hammering for the holy grail of computing. But as a real estate professional, should you be in line, too? Many of us in the industry already use a computer at some level, but will the iPad change the way we use personal computers the way the iPod changed the way we listened to music or the way the iPhone changed what we thought of as … (1 comments)
dotloop: Friday Farewell - "CSA In The USA"
- 03/26/10 08:33 AM
Earlier this month, my girlfriend and I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and this past weekend, we had a tour of the facilities. For a few hours a month of volunteer time and a few bucks a week, we'll be able to enjoy fresh, locally grown food every week until next fall. My taste buds and stomach are smiling at the prospect of receiving fresh, local produce that I had a hand in growing, but the best part is that I'll know exactly where my food came from. In her amazing book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, author Barbara Kingslover talks about … (0 comments)
dotloop: Apps In The Cradle
- 03/26/10 05:20 AM
DotLoop's Chief Technology Officer, Matt Vorst, handed me his copy of Fast Company this morning and thought I might be interested in the cover article about the smart phone revolution.The article discusses how kids are becoming more and more in-tuned with technology and starts by detailing the smart phone habits of Eliana and Gemma Singer, who are both three years old.I found it fascinating, if only because I have a three-year old niece who is just the same and always seems tethered to both her stuffed giraffe toy and some sort of tech toy, as if she's a link between the … (0 comments)
dotloop: How Many Miles Per Gallon Does Your Home Get?
- 03/25/10 02:55 AM
I'm not sure if you heard or not, but this week, the federal government announced a major policy change that will most likely affect every American.Don't worry, I'm not talking about the health care overhaul - I'll let others debate the merits of that. What I am talking about is the new Housing and Transportation Affordability Index.Here's the low-down: it used to be that the standard measure of affordability was that housing costs should be no more than 30% of your paycheck. The new standards add in transportation costs - now, the affordability is that less than 45% of your paycheck … (4 comments)
dotloop: Get Smart
- 03/23/10 07:14 AM
My girlfriend wants a smartphone, but I keep telling her that she already has a smart boyfriend with a phone, so isn't that close enough?But she's a fan of foursquare (I tell her she already has me; she just needs three more) and her old phone isn't making the grade.Of course, she's not alone. In 2009, smartphone sales grew by 41% over 2008 numbers and some have gone so far as to say that smartphones have changed their lives.People are quickly turning their attention to their phones. A new Pew Internet study showed that 33% of adults get their news from … (1 comments)
dotloop: Friday Farewell - "Tools of the Human Spirit"
- 03/19/10 08:44 AM
This week, I've been discussing the future broadband. For today's Friday Farewell post, I thought I'd show you just how far we've come. This news clip from 1993 discusses the "revolution" going on in rec rooms that allows people to pass on cooking tips.
It's funny to laugh at now, but consider this: according to this report, there were only 15 million users of the Internet in 1993, a scant amount relative to today. Yet, notice he says it cost about $200 a year (Canadian). That averages out to about $13/month in US dollars. Now, you'd think, with more people … (2 comments)
dotloop: What Happened To Our Broadband?
- 03/17/10 12:47 AM
On Monday, the FCC announced its new broadband initiative for the next decade. That got me to thinking, because didn't we have a broadband initiative back in the 90s? I could have sworn I remember seeing pictures of then-Vice President Al Gore installing fiber optic cables in schools when I was in middle school.Telecom Again?Actually, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 did create a broadband policy and most states paid a total of $320 billion to have a few companies (most notably, AT&T and Verizon) replace old copper wiring with new fiber-optic cables throughout the US. The idea was to then have … (2 comments)
dotloop: We're Number Fifteen! We're Number Fifteen!
- 03/16/10 04:28 AM
Consider this: Slovakia is ahead of the United States. South Korea is also ahead of the United States. Oh don't worry, we still have the bigger military and more cup holders in our cars, but America lags behind these two countries - and 13 others - in terms of Internet speed. Currently, the average download speeds of the Internet within the United States range between 3.9Mbps (Megabits per second) and 5.1Mbps, whereas South Korea leads with average download speeds ranging from 14.6Mbps to 20.4Mbps. That places the United States in 15th place, although even those numbers vary - some say it's … (0 comments)
dotloop: Is Broadband the New Running Water?
- 03/15/10 07:29 AM
Take a think of this: unemployment has been hovering around 10% (underemployment has been even higher - around 17%) for a while. Now, imagine you are either unemployed or underemployed. How would you go about looking for a job? Would you ask your family and friends or perhaps take a look at the local classifieds in the morning paper?Or, if you're like most of us, would you hop onto your computer and head over to monster.com or careerbuilder.com?But what if you didn't have access to the Internet?Last Tuesday, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan discussed the importance of broadband access for all. Arguing … (33 comments)
dotloop: Jarring Your Senses
- 03/12/10 12:49 AM
This week I've been talking a lot about connectivity; about how everyone finds themselves placing everything they encounter into its own little jar and slapping a label on it. And how, as we start to organize our cupboards, we begin to realize that it's not as easy as it seems.Here we've been distilling and dividing, separating and sifting, only to find that there were no jars.Because we finally realize that everything is connected.And it sounds very Woodstocky, doesn’t it? But I don’t mean connected just in the Avatar Na’vi , kumbaya sense, but in the real, actual trying-to-divide-water kind of sense.Take … (0 comments)
dotloop: What Are YOU Doing Saturday?
- 03/11/10 12:51 AM
On Tuesday, I had an opportunity to listen to Brad Nix speak on blogtalkradio.com and he had this to say about my personal favorite day of the week: “Nothing defines your local community better than what people do on Saturday.”He continued:“Saturday’s the only day where you don’t have to work, and you don’t have to work the next day. Whether it’s going to little league or grilling out with your friends or taking your wife or girlfriend out on a date, that’s what really goes on in your community.”My Saturday includes volunteering at InkTank, a local no-profit and attending a friend's … (3 comments)
dotloop: Limestone Lane
- 03/10/10 06:49 AM
I had planned on writing a bit more on connectivity today, but I found this video created last summer and thought it was amazing enough of an idea to share. Luckily, it deals with the connectivity between nature and cities, so it seems appropriate. I think this is riveting, although maybe I'm just a sucker for English accents. If you haven't been to ted.com, I'd recommend taking a look - there are some brilliant ideas out there. Of course, I'd like to think that DotLoop is just one of them. <!--copy and paste--> … (0 comments)
dotloop: Separation Anxiety
- 03/09/10 04:46 AM
DotLoop is growing and, with growth comes departments and teams. We have the forms team and the sales team and the marketing team. Each has its own function, of course, but we all work together quite seamlessly, kind of like DotLoop itself.It's working great here at DotLoop, but I've been thinking a lot lately about how erroneously compartmentalized we have made our world. As a news junkie, I stop by all kinds of news sites and see the same separating tabs: politics, business, entertainment, science and technology, health. Of course lately, everyone - even those not within the industry - are … (0 comments)
dotloop: DotLoop Is Heading To Austin
- 03/04/10 05:20 AM
DotLoop will be heading to Austin, Texas this weekend for the 2010 Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. annual conference. "With more than 62,000 agents, Prudential is a monster, and the exact type of player we’re looking for on our team. Their brand, professionalism and legacy is timeless,” says G. Austin Allison, the co-founder and CEO. “Most companies, if they haven’t yet incorporated an online sales system into their business plan, are in the process of doing so. Agents today are too mobile, manipulating too much information on their hand-held devices, to not have access to a system like DotLoop,” said Anthony … (0 comments)
dotloop: Time Is On My Side
- 03/03/10 12:06 AM
As it turns out, not only are humans hardwired to run on a 25-hour day, but with last week's earthquake, we lost even more time. It seems the Chilean earthquake threw off the earth's axis just enough to shorten our day by 0.00000126 seconds. Granted, it will take approximately 2100 years before a one-second delay kicks in, but if you're feeling more harried than usual this week, at least now you know why.
Of course, by using DotLoop instead of running around town gathering signatures and idling in traffic, you could more than easily make up that lost time. … (0 comments)
dotloop: Razing the Roots
- 03/02/10 02:55 AM
Here in DotLoop's home city of Cincinnati, we're having a bit of our own housing crisis. Last week, it was announced that the Gamble House, so named because it was owned by the co-founder of Proctor & Gamble, is about to be razed, because it's cheaper to get rid of it than spend money on repairs and restoration. The house is a local landmark, with gorgeous 19th-Century architecture. As the old adage says, "they don't make 'em like that anymore." But it is in disrepair and is in desperate need of a doctor for Gamble.But is it really cheaper to raze … (0 comments)
dotloop: I Can't Drive (After 85?)
- 03/01/10 01:41 AM
Exactly one month ago, I wrote about designing communities for the elderly. Just last Friday, I read about a local elderly couple who went to the store and got lost coming home. They spent the next 30 hours driving around trying to find their home, sparking a statewide senior alert that included a helicopter search and some 14,000 phone calls by the police looking for leads.Luckily, the couple were found safely about 125 miles way, in another state. But others have not fared so well and the question of when should a senior's license should be revoked can provoke heated debate. … (2 comments)
dotloop: Why Connected Will Never Replace Connection
- 02/24/10 03:56 AM
I am "attending" the 2010 National Real Estate CyberConvention and Exposition. For those who don't know, this great trade show all takes place online--you can network in your pajamas. This is my fourth day (the convention started on Sunday) and I have a few thoughts on "cyber" forums: 1. Information is easier to digest with an online convention. At a normal trade show or conference, you get barraged by so much information, nothing really seeps in. Everyone is vying for your attention, handing out promotional fliers and pens and stress balls (makes sense). With an online convention, you can access all … (0 comments)
Today, I'd like to showcase a DotLoop feature some of you may not know about. It's our Live Chat feature. Below is a quick video on how it all works. This will be rolled out soon, along with a plethora of other little goodies, so be sure to check us out in the coming days!
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