15 WEBSITES WITH ENGAGING USER EXPERIENCES

1. Black Negative (http://www.blacknegative.com)

2. Adidas Design Studio (http://www.adidasdesignstudios.com)

3. Project Re: Brief by Google (http://www.projectrebrief.com)

4. The Interactive UK Energy Consumption Guide

 (http://www.evoenergy.co.uk/uk-energy-guide)
 

5. Beyonce (http://www.beyonce.com)
 

6. Reebok (http://www.reebok.com)
 

7. Optimo Hats (http://www.optimohats.com)
 

8. Piccsy Pitchdeck (http://www.piccsy.com/investors)
 

9. Captain Dash (http://captaindash.com)
 

10. Orange Sprocket (http://www.orangesprocket.com)
 

11. WWF Earth Hour 2012 (http://assets.wwf.org.uk/custom/foodstory)
 

12. Onst Creative (http://www.onstcreative.com)
 

13. Nike Air Jordan (http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/aj2012)
 

14. Tim Roussilhe Portfolio (http://timothee-roussilhe.com)
 

15. The Thomas Oliver Band (http://thethomasoliverband.com)
 

Inspired to add interactivity and engagement in your designs? Have a favorite from this list? Let us know in the comments!

By Jessica Mooni

50 Places You Can Learn to Code (for Free) Online

If you’re curious about learning a programming language then you’re in luck: there’s no shortage of resources for learning how to code online. University-level courses, tutorials, cheat sheets, and coding communities all offer excellent ways to pick up a new language, and maybe even a new job, too. Read on, and you’ll discover 50 great places to learn how to code, for free, online.

University

Many big names in education including MIT and Stanford offer programming courses, absolutely free.

1. UC Berkeley Webcasts:UC Berkeley’s Computer Science department offers a huge collection of online college courses in programming and computing.
2. MIT OpenCourseWare:Find more than a hundred online course materials for electrical engineering and computer science in MIT’s OpenCourseWare collection.
3. Stanford University:Through iTunesU and Coursera, Stanford University offers plenty of programming courses, including Coding Together: Apps for iPhone and iPad, Programming Methodology, and Human-Computer Interaction.
4. The Open University:U.K.-based Open University has a variety of learning units in computing and ICT.
5. University of Southern Queensland:From the University of Southern Queensland, you’ll find courses in Object Oriented Programming in C++ and Creating Interactive Multimedia.
6. Princeton:Through Princeton University’s Coursera site, you can find courses on algorithms, computer architecture, and networks.
7. University of Michigan:From the University of Michigan, you’ll get access to great programming courses including Computer Vision and Internet History, Technology, and Security.

General

If you’re just dipping your toes into programming, or you want to find a variety of resources, these sites offer several different ways to learn how to code.

8. School of Webcraft:Mozilla Foundation’s School of Webcraft is a peer-powered school that offers free web development education.
9. Google Code University:Google Code University is full of excellent resources for code learning, including tutorials, introductions, courses, and discussion forums.
10. Google Code:Search Google’s repository of code through this awesome resource.
11. Webmonkey:On Webmonkey, you’ll find tutorials for everything from building your first website to developing with HTML5.
12. OER Commons:Find programming courses from the Saylor Foundation, Teachers’ Domain, and more in this directory of open education.
13. ArsDigita University:In ArsDigita’s curriculum, you’ll find excellent courses for programming design, computer science, and even artificial intelligence.
14. Code School:Many of Code School’s courses are paid, but they do offer rare gems like Rails for Zombies that are worth checking out.
15. SitePoint Reference:Find references for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on Sitepoint.
16. Khan Academy:Video tutorial site Khan Academy offers computer science courses with an introduction to programming and computer science, including lots of Python resources.
17. Lifehacker Night School:Lifehacker.com offers this concise guide to learning code, with 4.5 lessons offering the basics of programming.
18. Wikiversity:Through Wikiversity’s School of Computer Science, you’ll be able to study techniques for programming in computer systems.
19. Wikibooks:Check out the Computer Programming section of Wikibooks to find resources in just about every coding language.
20. Programmer 101:Another one from Lifehacker.com, Programmer 101 is a great guide to getting started with programming.
21. Mozilla Developer Network:Find plenty of resources for learning web technologies on Mozilla’s Developer Network, including lessons in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
22. Landofcode:Get an introduction to programming from Landofcode, with practice resource, reference, tools, and how-tos.
23. Academic Earth:Academic Earth’s collection of video courses is impressive, boasting computer science and programming courses from Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more.
24. Skillcrush:Learn how to develop anything you want with this site, offering explanations of terms, resources, and cheat sheets.
25. Udacity:Udacity is a great resource for finding programming courses, including Intro to Computer Science, Web Application Engineering, and Software Testing.
26. Udemy:Learn computer programming from these popular courses on Udemy. Many are free, but be sure to check; some are paid.
27. Learn Code the Hard Way:On Learn Code The Hard Way, you’ll find books and courses to learn Python, Ruby, C, SQL, and Regex. Although courses aren’t free, the books are.
28. The New Boston:The New Boston offers an incredible collection of video tutorials for all types of programming, including iPhone and computer game development.
29. HakTip:Check out this weekly web show to find programming how-tos that you can use.
30. Onvard:Onvard offers a self-guided resource for learning different tracks, including Ruby on Rails, HTML, and PHP.
31. WiBit.net:Wibit.net shares several courses and videos offering free education in programming, especially C and Java.

Community

Learn how to code on these sites with a heavy community influence ready to offer help to newbs.

32. Stack Exchange:This Q&A community, programming is one of the most popular subjects, offering users a great way to learn from peers.
33. Stack Overflow:Like Stack Exchange, Stack Overflow is a Q&A site, but this one is all about language-independent programming questions.
34. Codecademy:Check out Codecademy for an easy, interactive way to learn how to code.
35. Code Year:A part of Codecademy, Code Year is a project that provides participants with a new interactive programming lesson each week.
36. The Code Project:This incredible development resource offers articles, discussions, quick answers, and tips for programming.
37. Village88:Learn how to code for free with the help of a personal mentor on Village88. You can even get certified and find a job through the site.
38. Dream.In.Code:Find tutorials, discussion, and more on this community learning site for programmers.
39. Ladies Learning Code:Join this community, and especially the email list, to find tech help and resources for code learning.
40. Programr:In this IT community, you’ll be able to start projects, join contests, and more, all for developing your programming skills.
41. Processing Forum:Check out the Processing forum to find a great community for answering programming questions.

Language Specific

Drill down to the language you really want on these sites, offering expansive learning in one or two specific languages.

6 Emerging Trends In Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship

When you live and work in Silicon Valley, it’s easy to get caught up in trends billowing from within the echo chamber. Around here, the availability of capital resources helps trends popularize and commercialize faster than anywhere else in the world. From the outside, it seems today’s latest trend is tomorrow’s IPO practically overnight (discounting, conveniently, the 10+ years of persistence required of entrepreneurs along the way). As Paul Graham has noted time and time again, most successful companies always seem like bad ideas at first. This makes it difficult for entrepreneurs and investors to endure the pain required to turn these seemingly “bad ideas” into successful companies. By that definition of success, those companies wouldn’t even make it onto a list of trends in the first place.

As an entrepreneur, it’s difficult to track trends without getting caught up in them. Trends are usually indicators, albeit imperfect ones, of what’s ahead in part because investors and customers are behind them. Here are the recent entrepreneurial trends from Silicon Valley:

1. Products And Platforms For Engineers

Today, many companies are targeting – at least initially – engineers. Engineers make up a majority of the active and early adopter community online and they can provide the early boost necessary to achieve a critical mass. Your grandma may be on Facebook FB +2.29% but she’s likely not paying for new online services like the more technically-savvy online population. In recent years, services like Github have helped further the needs of a thriving early adopter market that’s technical and willing to spend money. As a bonus, this audience is also well-connected which helps startups and entrepreneurs targeting them gain traction faster than other products. This has become especially true with the help of communities like Hacker News and Reddit. Infrastructure, revision control and APIs may not be “sexy” but they have a paying, trendsetting audience that’s willing to spread the word.

2. Technical Teams (Still) Rule The Valley

How To Grow A Venture Capital EcosystemVictor W. HwangContributor

Latest Batch Of Y Combinator Startups: Established Entrepreneurs Solving Real-World ProblemsParmy OlsonForbes Staff

Aussie Startups Looking Up To Brighter FutureRebecca FanninContributor

5 Things I Learned About Running Startup Board MeetingsRod EbrahimiContributor

This is perhaps the longest running trend but it’s worth noting nonetheless. Without a doubt, business acumen is an important aspect when building and scaling a viable long-term business but, at their core, most Silicon Valley companies that build extreme value for customers tend to be technical from the ground up. There are very few other ways to create a lot of value in a short period of time than with technology and software. Technology is hard to get right and execution speed can often make the difference between success and failure. All things being equal, you can typically outdo competition and create larger barriers to entry by applying additional technical prowess than you can with added business prowess (at least in the early days). Technical teams that can execute well will attract and retain more customers and better partners. Of course this depends on your business but here in Silicon Valley it applies to almost every company whether you are selling beauty products or creating next generation databases. Y Combinator’s Paul Graham has repeatedly proven this in practice, focusing his investments almost exclusively in technically-inclined teams that are building “something people want”.

3. “Big Data” And Machine Learning

This trend is another example of approaches that aren’t new and have only recently become trendy again. Today, if you mix big data or machine learning in some way you will certainly get additional attention from investors and the press. Yes, there are many well-known companies (especially advertising related ones) turning these technologies into huge profit-generating businesses i.e. Google GOOG -0.19% and Facebook FB +2.29%. Unfortunately, there are fewer startups that have enough data to turn themselves into a profit-generating machine (at least for now). With that said, there are companies using data to tackle important problems and doing well; companies likeFactual and OnDeck Capital. While many investors remain bullish on this trend, the theory is much more exciting than the reality.

4. Automated Personal Finance

I’ve written about recent financial services trendsbefore so I won’t rehash it further here. As people get more comfortable mixing their hard-earned money and new technology, we’ll see a growth in personal financial technology companies that will attempt to automate our financial lives. Fromretirement investing to paying off debt (our company) and everything in between. We are seeing control and transparency shifting directly to the customer, a trend that will certainly continue strong in the coming years.

5. The “Sharing Economy”

Whether you buy into the hype or not, there is a growing trend around a new “sharing economy.” If you’re an entrepreneur who follows ongoing challenges, you know these companies have often had an early, difficult legal history but are now thriving. Companies like ZipCar (hourly car sharing) and LendingClub(peer to peer lending) had a difficult time getting off the ground initially but have since helped pave the way for newer companies like AirBnb, TaskRabbit,Etsy and Uber. Now there are a variety of “AirBnb for X” and “Uber for Y” companies addressing new verticals. This trend is promising and appealing because it’s based on the same principles that helped turn the Internet into such a success. Arguably, Ebay EBAY -0.36% was the first successful “sharing economy” pioneer helping people connect with, buy from and sell to, strangers on the Internet from all over the world. Here in Silicon Valley it’s unlikely you can find someone who hasn’t tried Uber or AirBnb; the “Sharing Economy” is strong here in Silicon Valley – a powerful trend that will likely continue.

6. Better Communities And Support For Entrepreneurs

Last but not least, this trend is one of the more exciting ones for new entrepreneurs here in Silicon Valley. Accelerators and incubators (like Y Combinator, TechStars and 500 Startups) as well as prominent investors likeFred Wilson have helped open up what was once a world only accessible to industry insiders. Standard investment terms are now publicly available and resources like AngelList and Kickstarter make fundraising more accessible (for both investors and entrepreneurs). Some have even speculated this new, transparent fundraising model could significantly impact the venture capital industry in the years to come. Other resources like Quora provide entrepreneurs with an authoritative online community for entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, building a team around a common vision is hard enough, so the availability of additional insights and a supportive community is powerful. It’s less lonely when you hear from entrepreneurs-turned-investors like Marc Andreesen using their authentic voices to demystify the challenges of an entrepreneur building a successful company. The additional support from Y Combinator and other entrepreneurs who “pay it forward” continues to help our team at ReadyForZero as well.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on these and other trends.

Young Entrepreneur Scholarship Winners For Yanik’s Underground Written by Michael | Posted in Young Entrepreneurs

This is the third year Yanik Silver has offered young entrepreneurs around the world a chance to come to his seminar for free. For the past two years, I have hosted the competition on Retireat21! Every year we say we will accept 10 winners, but it’s more like 12 because we have so many great applications, this year we accepted even more because of that same reason. Check these guys out, expect to see great things from them in the future.

If your heading to Underground this year, let us know! Will be great to see everyone.

Top Young Entrepreneurs In The Making

Benjamin Jacques

My name is Benjamin Jacques and I’m the founder of MeltingWaves.com. I’m a graphic design student at the Savannah College of Art and Design and I live and breathe art. I created Melting Waves with the intentions of helping artists in college share their artwork and make a name for themselves so that they can be set when they graduate from school. If you look at any marketer that has products to promote and services to sell, you’ll see that there’s a talented designer behind them making everything look nice and marketable. Well what if designers themselves learned how to create their own products and services to sell and really jumped into the “make money online” business? They wouldn’t have to hire anyone else to design for them because they already have that knowledge! I created Melting Waves to show designers that they have a tremendous advantage in this industry and that they can get started a lot faster than anyone who doesn’t have design knowledge. I really just want to see artists do well because they bring so much creativity to the world and they would have such an advantage over the crowds trying to make money online if they just knew where to begin. That’s where Melting Waves takes them by the hand and shows them how to use their skills to their advantage, to make a name for themselves, increase their incomes, and dive into online marketing industries that they have probably never considered before. I want to bring more creativity into an already beautiful world, and I know I can do that by giving aspiring artists a helping hand when it comes to creating success.

Eddys Velasquez

Eddys Velasquez always knew that the 9 to 5 job was not for him and because of this he decided to take massive action and become his own boss going from $0 to $60 per hour within 1 year, at the age of 15.  He then stumbled on a twitter post that introduced him to online marketing where within a few short weeks he made his 1st $1,500 online in a span of 3 days.  Soon after that he discovered that his passion was to help his friends achieve the same success doing what they love to do and that’s why he decided to start IncomeBoss.com

David King

I started off in myspace marketing when myspace was still cool and built a business using myspace and myspace groups.  As myspace faded away I evolved as the web did and started using facebook, twitter and youtube and blogging.  I began affiliate and info-marketing through search engine optimization and social marketing and haven’t looked back since.  I have been working full time from home online for 2 years now and love every minute of it.  I have info-products in the health markets and in the internet marketing/biz markets and will continue to create more. Consistency and persistency really pays off!

Kirsty Price

My name is Kirsty Price and I am 20 years old, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I am in my final year of studying Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. I started my first business at the age of 19 and I jumped head-first into entrepreneurship to help me pay my rent! At that time, I set up my first ecommerce site and I also dabbled in ebay for a while. This first site was a failure because I really had no idea what I was doing, so I went back to the drawing board and learned from my mistakes. A few months later I started my second business. This time I was determined to succeed. This was another ecommerce site called Mademoiselle Boutique which sold luxury adult products primarily to females. This business did much better because I went away and studied everything I could find about online business in my spare time. I loved running it, but I still wanted something more that my ecommerce site wouldn’t allow for. Before I became interested in online business and entrepreneurship, I wanted to be a teacher. I realised that I still wanted to teach and inspire, but not in a classroom. Thanks to the internet, I could! So in late 2010, I moved on from my ecommerce business and I decided to combine my passion for teaching and online business to create my current business, Laptop Rebels! Laptop Rebels is still very new, but it will soon sell information products and online courses for other young (primarily twenty-something females) people looking to learn the basics about starting an online business so they can avoid working a 9 to 5 job they have no passion for.

Brian Moran

Created Get10000Fans.com after making it big on Facebook in the baseball industry. Using Get 10,000 Fans to teach other small business how to use Facebook to actually grow their business, increase sales, and build a huge following of loyal fans.

–

–

-

Dusty Reron

My name is Dusty Reron and I am from Lethbridge, Alberta (Canada). I’m the founder of iJailbreak.com, a leading web blog covering everything latest about jailbreaking/unlocking Apple’s iDevices, Sony and any other revolutionary device that can jailbroken. We provide in depth tutorials, app and product reviews, and have been featured on many popular sites. It’s a blog that stands out from the crowd with our focus on building a community that you need to see to understand.

–

Jaden Easton-Ellett

My name is Jaden Easton-Ellett and I am from Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). I am currently 16 years old and I am the Co-Founder of a technology blog called iJailbreak.com. Where we focus writing in-depth news, how-to’s and reviews on electronic devices such as the iPhone. Our blog is also a leading promoter of jailbreaking (opening up electronic devices to user driven modifications), where we share our knowledge and help other users jailbreak their devices. Ever since we started iJailbreak.com we have been big believers in running a culture based blog that cares about our readers; not just our profits. This has lead to the success of our blog and has brought us phenomenal results in only 3 months that you need to see to believe!

Molly Dunkle & Katie Barstow

Katie and I started our company together in 2006. We began with a hobby for making lip balm and turned it into a full business. We are just revamping our company website (www.sweetscosmetics.com) this month, and we are hoping to have it finished by March! Our goal for this conference is to learn some techniques and tips for selling online. Looking forward to meeting everyone and networking! Thank you again for a wonderful opportunity, it is going to be a great trip!

—

Jack Cascio

I am Jack Cascio and I run an online business “Jump Out The Gym”.  I started this business with the former strength coach/physical therapist of the New York Mets (Jeff Cavaliere).  My business is dedicated to increasing an athletes vertical jump.  I have seen continuous growth with this business and am looking to get into other niches (speed, quickness, etc) as well as releasing my own workout supplement line.

—

James Sun

My name is James Sun and I am a Grade 10 high school student at Earl Haig Secondary School who has a passion for business and entrepreneurship. I also am very involved with sports,public speaking, DECA and I also chair a Student Advisory Board for a new non-profit organization called One Prosper International. I first started doing business last year as the President of a Junior Achievement company called RAWR which sold gift baskets and candy kebabs. We had our ups and downs and I learned a lot from the mistakes. This learning experience got me excited to do even more business!

As a result, after our company liquidated, this year, I became the President of another Junior Achievement company named Top-Out. This company has twenty student employees from over the Toronto area. Our slogan is “A Story Behind Each and Every T-Shirt” because we sell unique hand-made customized t-shirts. What really distinguishes us from our competitors is that our products are considered affordable artwork created by students.

Freeman LaFleur

I am the twenty three year old cofounder of LoDo Magazine, Denver’s alternative lifestyle and entertainment source. I’ve been involved in a variety of different startups since the  age of seventeen, including a clothing line, a non profit, and multiple websites. I am a strong advocate of entrepreneurship and personal branding because I know how life changing your first sale or client can be. My eventual goal is to coach others through DIYPersonalBranding.com on how to take their business or service to the next level by getting it online, promoting it effectively, and automating it. I truly believe that we are about to see a massive jump in the number of entrepreneurs over the next few years, as people begin to realize that it has never been easier to start a business and that digital marketing is the biggest game changer in history.

Mattis Weiler

My name is Mattis Weiler, I’m 20 years old and a starting internet entrepreneur based in Munich, Germany, I had the pleasure to meet Michael at the Awesomenessfest in Costa Rica before Christmas. Since I had always been madly into 3D graphics and animation, but was not keen on working 60h+/week on a feature film production as an average paid specialist only following orders and fulfilling somebody else’s dream, I was looking for alternative ways to get make some money with my passion. So I started freelancing and did some minor project work, but it still didn’t fit for me. When I got to meet Michael in December, I was highly impressed of his techniques and the lifestyle he had, and decided to work out a plan of combining my two passions, 3d animation and the internet, and my desire to work where I want, whenever I want.

My website ww.cgiant.com is going to provide a free video tutorial search engine and recommendations covering (3d animation, video, web and photo as categorys)to allow users on specific skill levels to gain quick refferal to the most suitable instructions on their needs. I also plan on providing interviews and reviews to various products like training, software and other goodies related to the making of computer graphics.

Daniel McClure

Daniel McClure is a young entrepreneur that is working towards his dream of running a digital empire that can be run from anywhere. Currently based in the UK, he serves clients from around the globe developing membership websites and blogs that enable business owners to share thier vision with the world. Whilst initially only offering one-to-one web development and marketing services you can now find everything from; review sites based upon real experience, through to marketing focused WordPress skins amongst his digital portfolio.

About Michael

Michael created this website back in 2007. Since then, it has gone on to receive millions of visitors, featured in newspapers, magazines and some of the worlds top websites. If you want to do something similar, keep reading.