Why Second Life Failed

You may not have even heard of Second Life, but around 2006 are so everyone thought it was going to be the next big thing. You dressed up like an anime raver in a virtual environment so you could conduct business with virtual dollars.  Yes, some people actually thought this was a professional environment that would be used for actual business transactions.

Good blogger explanation here.

"Second Life was originally developed in 2002-2003 on two reasonable but ultimately wrong assumptions: That the desktop computer market would continue growing, and that dedicated broadband lines would be the main way people would access the Internet. Instead, the market largely shifted to laptops, and now to tablets, and also to smartphones, all of which depend on wireless Internet connectivity. The most popular platforms for accessing the Internet now are the least conducive to using Second Life, which performs poorly on wireless laptops, and can't fully perform on smartphones or tablets at all. At the same time, social networks, especially Facebook, provided many of the features that Second Life offered, but in a way that was much less resource and time-consuming."

Why Second Life Failed from Slate

Article digresses into predictive model of which social media will succeed , but still interesting.

Finding SWOTs

SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. These are great reports that discuss competition, product development, regulation (important to drug companies among others) and the macroeconomic picture that might affect a company.

Recommended databases:

Business Source Complete – from the main page, scroll down and choose SWOT analyses on the right side and search your company

Marketline Advantage - Type in your company name, get results and then select SWOT on the right side of the screen.

ABI Inform (keyword search your company and the word SWOT)

San Marcos (or anywhere else) on American Factfnder

U.S. Census Breakdown on San Marcos demographic and economic information

This page starts you off with demographics, but there's tons of economic data on the left side of the screen. I think it's the single best source of information for this kind of information.

Of course, you can change your county, city, zip code and more geographic parameters to search for other locations. 

Sanborn Maps

Sanborn maps are a great way to study the historical layout of a town. Originally conceived as fire insurance maps, Sanborn Maps have proven to be of use to local historians, civic planners, real estate developers and sometimes small business people (just got a question that involved using Sanborn maps).

Sanborn maps cover the years 1867-1970 - and they do include small to middle sized towns, as well as large cities.

We have a Sanborn Maps Database.

Searching For SEC Documents

Here are your two best options.

You can search the official EDGAR database.

You can use our database Mergent and select government filings as the search option.  I prefer the search interface on Mergent.

Art As an Investment

Interested in art as an investment?  Here are some books that talk about that.

Wall Street Journal

Here's how you find the Wall Street Journal. You could get a paper copy on the third floor in periodicals. The most recent edition is kept at the periodicals desk.

Or, you can read the Journal online in ABI Inform. You can browse a daily edition by setting the date to one day only.

Older editions (1889-1995) are available fulltext online at ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Here's a complete list of our Wall Street Journal links.