Alex Osterwalder (business_design) tweets during the WEF Davos: very, very inspiring

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via Alex Osterwalder (business_design) on Twitter.

1. • Reply
   • Retweet

2. jeffjarvis
   RT @larrybrilliant: #Davos #WEF: many catastrophic risks are today at tipping pointsabout 4 hours ago from SeesmicRetweeted by business_design and 3 others

3. “We are what we allow to happen” Archbishop of Dublin#WorldEconomicForum @WEFabout 4 hours ago from TweetDeck

4. “We need to become the change that we wish to see”#WorldEconomicForum @WEFabout 4 hours ago from TweetDeck

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• Reading A special report on social networking: A world of connections | The Economist (fredzimny.wordpress.com)

[Via http://fredzimny.wordpress.com]

Australians love social networking

The latest Nielsen stats show that Australians spend more time on social networks than any other country. We’re spending nearly seven hours a month on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, with the US and UK a distant second and third at just more than six hours. Nielsen reports that nearly 10 million Australians are now using social media.

Time Spent on Social Sites by Country, December 2009 Country Unique Audience (000) Time per Person (hh:mm:ss) United States 142,052 6:09:13 Japan 46,558 2:50:21 Brazil 31,345 4:33:10 United Kingdom 29,129 6:07:54 Germany 28,057 4:11:45 France 26,786 4:04:39 Spain 19,456 5:30:55 Italy 18,256 6:00:07 Australia 9,895 6:52:28 Switzerland 2,451 3:54:34 Source: The Nielsen Company, 2009

[Via http://wellingdigital.com.au]

Praising Kristen Stewart & Helping Welcome To The Riley's Get Distributed

Hello all, welcome back & if its your first time visiting, Welcome!!

Sundance Film Festival or StewDance as we’ve renamed it is OVER, le sigh. What a fun bumpy ride it was for us KStew Devotee’s. Our fingers are a bit sore due to the click & refresh & copy & paste. But so worth it. Why? Well…

The Runaways & Welcome To The Riley’s premiered & boy did they premier. The reviews we’ve read so far are incredible.

The Runaways

“Stewart as Joan Jett physically embodies the role and curses and growls as the part demands.” – MTVBlog

“Kristen Stewart finally breaks loose delivering a stunning performance that covers a wide range of the acting spectrum yet achieved in a way that is far from self-conscious.”- Dark Horizons

“Stewart, on the other hand, makes a living by being a mess on-screen. Her emotions seem to pour out of her without passing through the filter of self-consciousness, an astonishing openness that can be mistaken for a lack of technique.” – IFC.com

“Stewart captures the intensity perfectly, but never completely immerses herself in the character. She’s aggressive, sexual and all things rock-n-roll.” -FilmSchoolRejects

“Kristen Stewart does a dead-on performance of Joan Jett that has you thinking she’s the real thing.” – MusicCityRambling

“Kristen Stewart steps out of her normal angsty girl act and nails down the punk rock, hard as nails Jett.” – Cinematical

“It’s one of her strongest performances so far as she captures Jett’s fierce work ethic and undiluted desire.” – HitFix

Welcome To The Riley’s

“The film belongs to Kristen Stewart, raw, uncompromising, magnificent at every turn, delivering a ferocious and emotionally charged performance.” – Dark Horizons

“Kristen is a very brave actress and has a great presence.”- Thermocard

“What could be one of the best performances of Stewart’s career.”- WeAreMovieGeeks

“Stewart risks making a spectacle of herself, but she remains intriguingly subdued.”- TheWrap.com

“You cannot walk away from a viewing and say the actress doesn’t fearlessly expose herself physically and emotionally, and doesn’t do so with astonishing maturity and believability.” – MTVBlog

“Stewart plays through all of these layers incredibly well. She’s sexy, tortured and frightened. At some points, all at once. This isn’t her character from Twilight. It is a far more mature role, and one that is a polar opposite to Bella. Unless Bella starts showing her bare ass in the third movie…” – FilmSchoolRejects *lol*

 JJ on Stew

 “It’s hard for me to look at myself and judge myself from the outside. But I thought she had a quiet intensity.”

& now…

This post isn’t only about the amazing reviews & praises Kristen received for her acting in both films, We all know that The Runaways has been pick up for distribution by Apparition now we need to help to show distributors that Welcome To The Riley’s has as supporters worldwide!

Here’s some things we can do to help:

Follow the Official Welcome To The Riley’s Twitter by clicking here: @Welcome2Rileys

Raise the IMDb’s Star-O-Meter by clicking on it’s official page: IMDb

& Add them on FaceBook

Sign up for a chance to see an advanced screening of Welcome To The Riley’s http://bit.ly/aLyfXI This is not a scam & you will not have to pay a penny until you are chosen. So far Distributors only want to release Welcome To The Riley’s in 2 cities. Let’s show them that us Stew-pporters are WORLDWIDE.

I mean come on now guys… Did this 1 minute clip not keep you on the edge of your seat?

Let’s do this, not only for Kristen but for the amazing director, producers & cast in this film!

& a HUGE THANK YOU to Gio for keeping us fans up to date with everything having to do with the film. We truly appreciate it.

–The Sources

[Via http://kstewdevotee.wordpress.com]

Boring Twitter stats for January

I can safely say I’m now addicted to Twitter after a month of using it every day, but lately I’ve hardly been tweeting anywhere near as much. Largely because I’ve been busy, but I must do better nonetheless!

Below is a graph to show how I started well, then I was flying high, then I kinda levelled off. Still, the resolution on January 1st 2010 was to tweet a minimum of three times per day, which over a year is 1,095 tweets, and so far this year I’ve tweeted 1,034 times (not including today).

Hoping for a big day on it today, though. I’ve no excuses!

[Via http://matthewnewman.wordpress.com]

Twitter Subscribers: the global breakdown...

I decided to have a  look at the “Twitter Phenomenon” by looking at some interesting facts and figures  and it was quite a revelation. I looked at

• Growth Rates in comparison to other social media
• Subscribers by Country
• Country interest in Twitter as measured by Google searches

The USA has the largest Twitter user base due to its population size and early adoption of the the technology the other nations are  quickly taking a high level of interest.

Current estimates have Twitter with over 8 Million users after 3 years at the end of March, 2009 .

Growth rates compared to other social media

Nielsen (Figures as published February, 2009) also looked at Twitter and compared it with other social networking sites in terms of growth  over the last 12 months and Twitter easily took top spot with a phenomenonal 1382% growth compared to Zimbio with 240% annual growth and Facebook with228%

Twitter\’s blog shows the subscriber share from different countries 

  The USA is top in overall market share at  40%  This equates to approximately 3.2 Million Tweeters in the US with the international community sharing the other 6o%

1. Japan has 39% of the International share with approx 1.87 Million
2. Spain at 11% (approx 528,000)
3. UK  is 10%  (approx 480,000)
4. Brazil has 7%  ( approx 336,000)
5. Canada\’s share is 7% ( approx 336,000)
6. France 6% (288,000)
7. Germany 6% (288,000)
8. Italy at 5% (240,000)
9. Netherlands rounds out the Internationals at 4% with approximately 192,000
10. The other countries add up to 244,000 

Interest measured by search inquiries by country

I utilised the new Google feature \”Google insights for Search\”  to check to see what the level of google search interest from different countries was, in searching for twitter (as adjusted for population) and there were a few surprises.

So what are the rankings?

1. The United Kingdom ranked number 1 with a rating of 100

2. The United States ranked second with 82

3. Ireland with 72

4. Canada with  70

5. Australia is fifth with 65

6. New Zealand comes in with a 50

7. The Netherlands is number 7 with with 41

8. Singapore is ranked 8th with 37

9. Portugal scores 36

10. Norway rounds out the top 10 with 29

Is Twitter a fad or is it the real deal, and will it make a major impact on the Internet world that Google and Facebook have. Going on these numbers its well on its way.

[Via http://speaktorobster.wordpress.com]

SCBWI Winter Conference 2010

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger!

But I’ve had good reason: I’m leaving in the morning for the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York!

*runs around room screaming*

I will be posting pics and info and fascinating whatnots here on the blog while I’m there.  I’ll also be posting to my Facebook and to Twitter as well.

And of course when I get back, I’ll share with you all at length everything I learned.

Wish me luck!

[Via http://amyknichols.wordpress.com]

Social media's role in helping out Haiti

In yet another example of social media permeating our lives, and in this case most certainly in a positive sense, it has played a significant role both in the dissemination of information about the Haiti earthquake, and in helping to raise awareness and funds for the various relief campaigns set up to help the disaster stricken country.

Thanks to social media, word of the earthquake spread immediately. With the infrastructure of the country in ruin, miraculously mobile phones and satellite broadband systems continued working, allowing tweets to provide a real-time view of what has been unfolding; images posted on TwitPic; Facebook; and Flickr, as well as videos on YouTube, to give a visual account of the situation; and bloggers like Troy Livesay and Carel Pedre to get the word out. Facebook has also become a hub of information as people desperately try to find out about family and friends in Haiti. Even the more traditional news organisations have been relying on social media to gather information.

Along with the use of social media to spread the word about the disaster, significant donations and word of mouth in support of the people of Haiti through social media channels have been seen. Haiti is still a trending topic on Twitter, with updates and information on how and where to donate appearing constantly, while Facebook has gone as far as setting up a new website,www.facebook.com/globalrelief, to help its members find ways to help. Bloggers have also jumped on the bandwagon, urging readers to donate if they can, and pointing them in the right direction to do so.

It is heartening to see the level of generosity generated in the wake of disaster, and the use that has been made of social media to spread the word. We have an array of technology tools at our disposal, some of which were not available during past disasters, which could make a real difference as the battered nation struggles to recover.

Let us know of any interesting campaigns you have come across or are involved in by leaving your comments here.

[Via http://mediaupdate.wordpress.com]

Redgage (Does this count as a mention?)

Last night, someone that I was following through Twitter has status updates to pictures posted on Redgage.  Naturally I had to see what this was about and if Redgage is actually any good.  So I did.  They have this form that has several pieces of personal information including gender and day of birth.  All of this is mandatory, but I thought this is all on my Facebook account and I thought of all the job sites that have my Social Security Number.  So I registered anyway.

My initial reaction to this site is one of some disdain.  I mean that I can see the usefulness of it.  There is a initial import tool to draw blogs, status updates and other social media tools into RedGage.  This is shown on the left.  Once its on RedGage, you can earn money by people viewing your stuff.  It’s almost like a get something for nothing scheme.

However, it is more like a get nothing for nothing scheme.  To get anything, there must be a large amount of people viewing the blog or picture or something.  You can withdrawal in $25 increments and you lose $5.00 for the first transaction and 5% for any transaction following.  I have a whopping two cents from last night.

There is also a daily contest where you can get a $25 prize (big money).  There are three methods of getting raffle tickets.  Write a knowledge-based article for all the Redgage-ians, invite others, or mention RedGage and provide a link to anywhere in the RedGage domain.  If you haven’t found out by now, that is what I’m doing with this post (if the moderators actually allow this slightly-unfavorable review of their website).

I decided to invite some friends because … well … I don’t know but I really wanted $25 dollars for some reason.  So now I did what I don’t like on Facebook is those annoying invite requests for some application: “Dan really likes Farmville and thinks you should join as well.”  This was exactly the same and to those that haven’t changed the email notification settings of Facebook will be getting an email.  I essentially spammed them.  Everyone probably ignores those notifications anyway.  I ignore by not using Facebook that much anymore.  My mom uses Facebook more than I do.

So what do you actually get with this website?  You get a viewing window for all your objects (blogs, pictures, etc.) and that viewing window looks ugly.  The red outline looks not that good.  Look at the picture on the left?  Does that look familiar?  Yes, it is a WordPress blog post a few days ago.  The upload and import functions work well and if you like everything at the same place, its a good idea.  However, you lose a lot from keeping things separate.  (I enjoy the blog stats for some reason.)

As there are other applications that interface sites together (such as Ping.fm), I’m not sure if I want everything together.  I use Facebook and Twitter very differently.  Status updates on Facebook are very rare now, but as I see how useful Twitter can be, I use it more.  Furthermore, I’m not commenting on my joblessness on Facebook because I have an uncle that always comments on it.  I know that it is supposed to be encouraging, but I don’t enjoy his comments.

Now, today’s contest ends in 38 minutes and some seconds.  Now, I have a question to all the moderators (or whatever they call themselves on RedGage.)  ”Does this count as a mention?”  Not that I really care about $25 anyway.

[Via http://spufool.wordpress.com]

Twitter better for immediate search than Google

It’s Wednesday, January 13, 2009. We have a swim meet this weekend in Newburgh NY and we are told it’s postponed…

We are told the pool is unavailable. That’s very believable especially the week after a vacation.  Our pool (HHHW) often has chlorine and chemical issues the week after a vacation. OK. That seems a likely scenario.

But — the rumors abound. One kid. The next kid. The next kid. Texting. Texting. Texting…

A stabbing? A murder? I had better check it out.

I hop onto Google and enter “Newburgh stabbing”.   Results are returned but the most recent news related to a stabbing is dated January 4, 2009.  (Click.) That’s 9 days earlier. Could the pool, or school facilities, be closed because of a stabbing over a week ago?

Better check Twitter.

I hit Twitter and search for “Newburgh stabbing”. Records are immediately returned. One the the links point to this short link http://bit.ly/7DK7zr . A stabbing had occurred that day. The local news site had posted an article about the stabbing 2 hours earlier.

Thanks Twitter!

The immediacy of Twitter was great.  We immediately knew the true story (assuming we believe the Mid Hudson News) that there was a stabbing.  The paper immediately tweet’d the news and it was available for us all.  How long would it have taken for it to be picked up on Google?  Would the AP have picked it up and then the AP picked up by Google?  How often does The Mid Hudon News get spidered by Google?

When I need information, my first search remains with Google. But, depending upon the results, I will always check with Twitter.

As far as my content, I will always post a link on Twitter.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * *

That leads me to think…

How long before Google purchases Twitter? It makes sense.

[Via http://esavvy.wordpress.com]

DavidArchie's Twitter food party

David asked us about what he should have for lunch and of course, we replied him immediately. (But I missed this fun)

Finally, David decided on Mexican food:

He decided on Mexican food.

[Via http://davidarchuletavn.com]

Bill Gates nieuwe Twitter-koning

Gisteren las ik op verschillende websites dat Bill Gates een Twitter account heeft aangemaakt. Toen ik ging zoeken, bleek dat er op Twitter meerdere oprichters van Microsoft bestaan. Vreemd, dus mogelijk was er weer een grapjas actief om de wereld voor de gek te houden.

Ondertussen ben ik dan toch eindelijk overtuigd, want de nieuwsberichten vliegen me om de oren. Volgens de website van Dutch Cowboys is de officiële account van meneer Gates vandaag al meer dan 18 uur een feit. Tenminste, toen plaatste hij zijn eerste tweet. Het aantal followers steeg in korte tijd tot boven de 100.000. Na een tweet van ene Caroline Mizumoto begon het balletje pas echt te rollen. Bill Gates vestigde een nieuw record door vanaf dat moment een groei van 20.000 volgers per uur te creëren. Ze schreef: “psst…follow @BillGates it’s realy him. ”.

Het is voor het eerst sinds Oprah ging Twitteren dat iemand zo snel zoveel volgers wist te bemachtigen. Helaas voor Oprah wint ze het in populariteit niet van Bill, want zij had “slechts” 60.000 en nog wat volgers voordat ze haar eerste tweet had geplaatst. Op nummer één dus vanaf nu: Bill Gates met 100.000 followers alvorens hij zijn eerste tweet plaatste!

Who’s next?

[Via http://bart1989.wordpress.com]

Consumers spend more time on Social Networks

The Nielson Company released a report that shows increasing amounts of online consumers using social networks like Twitter and Facebook. From the article:

” Facebook was the No. 1 global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67% of global social media users visited the site during the month. Time on site for Facebook has also been on the rise, with global users spending nearly six hours per month on the site.”

[Via http://socialnetworksguide.wordpress.com]

Twittergate

I’ve just started a PR diploma, which is encouraging me to learn all about social media. I’m a little behind, but I’m doing my best to catch up fast.

So far it’s been a great experience – I’ve found friends that I haven’t spoken to since college, I’m writing this blog which provides me some much-needed respite from the never-ending chapters of PR text that I’m trawling through each evening, and I’ve discovered Twitter!

Twitter is great, honestly – I was like so many non-believers who thought that by signing up I would somehow get sucked into a parallel universe in which I would feel the need to “tweet” about the contents of my lunch and every bowel movement. While some of this is true (not the latter,  I assure you) it’s an incredible way to socialise with people – like-minded people that you would never normally meet, who have information to share – there’s a sincerity to it . .  or so I thought!

Yesterday I made friends with Bill Gates – kind of.  I felt a surge of joy when I discovered he’d got a Twitter account and that I could follow him, I felt special . . . . for about a minute and a half – when I realised that I and every other computer literate person in the world was sharing the same “special” feeling.

My mate Bill is now the most popular geek on the planet – 250,000 Twitter followers in less than 24 hours – that’s impressive! I couldn’t help feeling a little put out, a little less special – and then to make matters worse, Bill tweets that he’s launching a new website  – Gates Notes – and there it is, social media in a nutshell, Mr Gates had amassed himself a ready-made nation of prospective Gates Notes-subscribers  in the  simple action of opening a Twitter account . This concluded my initiation to social media – I don’t feel so special anymore, I do, however, feel like I’ve leant an important lesson.

On a more personal note – I feel like microwaved crap today. I have a cold, and I’m feeling utterly sorry for myself, perhaps if my new mate Bill reads my latest tweet he’ll reward my twittership by sending me a Lemsip gift basic – or a million pounds – I’m sure one if not both will do the trick!

[Via http://steffilewlew.wordpress.com]

LIVE.

Hace poco comente en Twitter, que mis 3 bandas favoritas son Metric, Nirvana y The Velvet Undreground. Asi que hoy les regalaré 3 de mis discos favoritos, los 3 son en vivo, LOL.

The Velvet Underground: The Velvet es una banda que debió de estar a la par de The Beattles, su influencia en el rock y música en general es incalculable, ha sido fuente de inspiración de cientos de bandas, sus letras fueron muy adelantadas a su época letras en las que ya hablaban de drogas, sexo y demás placeres. Si a alguien la música los trato mal fue a ellos.

Este disco es el ultimo de The Velvet fue grabado después de la muerte de Nico. A pesar de ser un gran disco, algunos arreglos que le hacen a las canciones no me gustan del todo mas sin embargo no deja de ser un excelente material donde Lou Reed nos demuestra por que es uno de los mas grandes genios musicales que existen en la actualidad.

MCMXCIII (1)

MCMXCIII (2)

Nirvana: Live at Reading es sin lugar a dudas mi disco en vivo favorito no solo de Nirvana si no de cualquier banda, la conexion que logran tener con el publico es impresionante y mas impresionante aun es el hecho de que logren transmitirlo a travez de unas bocinas a años y kilometros de distancia.

Live at Reading

Metric. Un gran disco donde Metric toca sus mejores canciones como lo son: Poster of a Girl, Love is a Place, Monster Hospital, Too Litle Too Late, entre otras. Lo que Emily Haines hace con cada una de las canciones es fantástico, un disco que te engancha desde el principio.

Live at Metropolis

Este post les va a interesar.

[Via http://loscomisionadoz.wordpress.com]

This, that and chicken pie

Won a competition on Twitter last week that meant I was to receive delivery of not one but  five pizzas from Crust. And not over a bunch of different days. ALL IN THE SAME NIGHT!!

Managed to negotiate for a Sunday evening delivery instead of Friday and invited a few people ‘round to assist in the eating. Great competition! I entered on a lark but somehow won the dang thing. Never happens to me. Til now I guess.

Also, just finished making a poster for Nadine to promote Mark Whitwell’s visit to Melbourne in a few weeks. Now I look at it, I can see a few things I woulda done differently or refined… but it’s not too bad I guess. Teaching myself Photoshop is fun…

Click to view larger image!

Finally had that ultrasound on my left shoulder (from my bike crash) couple of days back. Sure, I shoulda done it months ago perhaps… *cough*. See, I’m just not terribly good at taking care of myself although I’m working on it!

After almost being drowned in the incredibly sudden torrential downpour, I wait almosted half an hour to see the Scanner dude. In the waiting room I was subjected to daytime TV (which I rarely watched even when I was unemployed) and learned of something called a Shamwow, which apparently people like. Even 13 year old boys.

Just as I was getting impatient enough to interrogate the receptionists, my name was called. And it went a little like this:

Scanner dude: Okay, take off your top and put this gown on… are you done? Great, sit over here… *prod poke scan* *repeat* *repeat* So that tattoo you’ve got on your back, does it mean anything?

Me: Yeah… [wincing at prod/poke/scan] I got it in Thailand…

Scanner dude: Does it have any significance?

Me: Yeah… but it’s a little complicated to explain [especially to you right now while I’m half naked and you’re prodding and poking my sore shoulder and there’s a very strong possibility that you’re Jewish and therefore might be offended by my heathenness anyways...]

Scanner dude: Okay… *prod poke scan* *repeat* *repeat*

Me: [sharp intake of breath] *WINCE*

Scanner dude: Ah, you didn’t like that one did you?

Me: *head goes all smooshy* *stomach churns*

Scanner dude: *swiftly leaves room & returns with Doctor dude*

Doctor dude: Hi, I’m the Doctor dude.

Me: Hi…

Doctor dude &/or Scanner dude: So what’s going on?

Me: I’m not sure, but I feel really nauseous…

Doctor dude &/or Scanner dude: Why do you feel nauseous? Are you in pain? Does your shoulder injury normally feel nauseous?

Me: *breathes deeply* *head between knees*

Doctor dude &/or Scanner dude: Where is the pain? Do you have the pain all the time? What happened to you? Why is your shoulder injured?

Me: I fell off my bike last year and it flared up again at the end of the year. I’ve never felt sick like this before though. It just came on when Scanner dude pressed down on my shoulder…

Doctor dude: *Asks more questions in rapid fire that I can’t answer* Well, it’s very difficult to diagnose when you can’t give us more information.

Me: *head swirls* *body temperature rises*

Doctor dude: Okay well I don’t think its rotator cuff damage. It might be your AC joint…

Me: Okay…

Yeah, whatever. All I know is that I have a doctor’s appointment Thursday night and my shoulder hasn’t stopped hurting since that little episode. I briefly Googled ‘AC joint shoulder’ but I didn’t like what I read. So very cowardly-ish, I’ve stopped researching for now.

And today for no reason I can tell (although perhaps the abovementioned trauma had something to do with it?), I’m in Panic Attack World. Not too serious. I don’t feel like I’m going to die. But still, it’s far from comfortable. My heart and lungs are heavily congested and my heart rate is up, of course.

I’m safely ensconced in the office and there’s no stress in my job (unless you count having to revise budgets for my projects). And yet I’m in the grip of a very physical reaction I can’t control.

But I’m sans Emergency Essence (note to self: fix that), and it’s all about making it to the end of the day. And the tram ride home.

But everything looks weirder when you’re in a heightened state of anxiety. The person I sat next to on the tram that I thought was a girl? Turns out to be a boy with VERY emo and feminine hair. And how was I supposed to know? I mean, she/he had the kind of thunder thighs you normally only see on a girl (speaking from experience)… Everything is too loud. I want my sound-glasses (a little invention I thought of where putting them on creates an ambient noise filter, no iPod or headphones required). I’m too strung up to read.

So I just breathe.

Normally in these states, I go to ground. Burrow deeply into the couch and try to remain vewy vewy still… not that it helps. But comatose is usually better than anything else. Or so I’d thought.

I’ve had this idea in my head since last weekend that I wanted to make a chicken pie. Never made one before, but seemed like tonight was the night. Had to go get an ingredient at my corner store – another thing I never could’ve done before while in Panic Attack mode. And yet I did. And I liked it, the little walk down the street.

Even spoke to the neighbourhood black and white moggy who always looks seriously freaked out. But he/she is actually very friendly. So we spoke for a bit and puss listened to my ramblings. Even took a couple of steps towards me from its position on the brick wall. I giggled.

A photo of kitty from another day

Maybe it was the air. Or the cat. Or the fact that it’d stopped raining. Or observing my breath. Or all of the above. Or perhaps I’m just getting better at handling the panic attacks when they come. Maybe it’s that, and so I don’t freak out as much (adding to the fun). Dunno.

But it turns out that being active, running around and making food works just as well (if not better) than being comatose for the episode’s duration. Or maybe that’s just how it is now, given I’m less comatose-like in general? Can I mark that one down to progress perhaps?

Almost back to normal after about six hours of stress from no known source… and the pie was good, too.

My chicken & vegie pie!

~Svasti

[Via http://svasti.wordpress.com]

Tentang timing untuk jatuh sakit...

Sudah enam bulan lebih berlalu sejak terakhir saya sakit dan tidak masuk kantor. Lalu, kemarin saya jatuh sakit lagi. Menurut saya, sakit yang kemarin (untungnya) tidak parah dan timingnya cukup oke!

Kenapa oke? Karena pekerjaan sedang tidak ada yang terlalu urgent kemarin.. Jadi, kemarin saya memutuskan untuk pulang lebih cepat dari kantor untuk istirahat di rumah. Pada pagi hari saya memang sudah merasa kurang sedap di badan, tetapi karena masih kuat untuk pergi ke kantor, saya pun berangkat ke kantor.

Sampai di kantor ternyata saya masih lemas. Kata seorang teman, mata saya turun. Entah apa maksudnya…, pikir saya kemarin. Pagi ini, saya tahu maksudnya, karena memang mata saya terasa lebih besar. Kemarin rasanya mata saya lebih kecil, lebih menutup. Dan kelopaknya terasa panas. Mungkin efek flu dan sedikit meriang.

Si bos pun mengirimkan sebuah email yang isinya menyuruh saya pulang dan istirahat, karena sedang tidak ada yang urgent hari itu. Dan, supaya tidak sakit di hari-hari berikutnya ketika pekerjaan mulai menumpuk!

Jadi, jam 11.30 saya meninggalkan kantor, dan teman-teman di divisi saya yang melambaikan sapu tangan sambil berkaca-kaca (yah, sedikit lebai sih, tapi you got the picture..).Tak lama, pesan-pesan macam ini masuk via Twitter..

*terima kasih yaa, teman-teman..

Setengah jam kemudian saya sudah sampai di rumah, disuruh makan oleh ibu saya (sepotong lasagna sisa dari hari sebelumnya) dan minum air putih yang banyak, serta minum Neurobion 500 (katanya untuk menjaga daya tahan tubuh saya). Tak lama setelah itu saya terlelap…

Jam 15.00 saya terbangun, hanya untuk minum air putih, pindah ke kamar ibu saya, dan terlelap lagi. Jam 5 sore akhirnya saya benar-benar terbangun. Berkeringat deras, kegerahan, merasa kedinginan. Saya pun memutuskan untuk membuat secangkir kopi susu (iya, iya, memang seharusnya teh sihh.. tapi kaan..), dan (lagi-lagi) leyeh-leyeh di atas kursi panjang.. Setelah banyak tidur dan leyeh-leyeh, selepas maghrib saya merasa jauh lebih enak.

Ternyata benar kata si bos. Lebih baik pulang dan istirahat sebelum sakitnya semakin parah… Timingnya tepat – untuk mulai sedikit sakit, dan istirahat, dan kembali lagi ke kantor dengan segar dan sehat.

Pagi ini saya merasa sehat, berangkat ke kantor 20 menit lebih awal (karena kemacetan di Jakarta semakin merajalela), dan sampai di kantor dengan semangat! Dan bekerja dengan lebih keras karena pekerjaan banyak menanti…

Intinya, timingku pas untuk sakit!! So, I am happy!!

*especiale thanke for si Bos, Cupcup, Sharon dan mbak Eva.. aciih!!

[Via http://laquesta.wordpress.com]

What does Rob do on a Saturday night?

Last night Twitter was alive with the buzz of possible a sighting of Robert Pattinson!

Minutes later another tweeter responded with information from a recent interview she did with Rob in which he talked about the Library..

Anyone else guessing hes doing a bit of research for Bel-Ami?

Soooo if  Robs spending his saturday nights locked away in the Library that has to mean Kristen is back in LA? He wouldn’t ditch her for the library on a saturday night, surely?

On a more particual note though – sundance kicks on 21st January so its more than likely Kristen will already be back and preparing for the onslaught of promotions she going to be doing over the coming weeks.

[Via http://fireandicexx.wordpress.com]

Ahh, Social Networking.

I just wanted to drop in really quick to say I am making new profiles here and here. If you don’t have Facebook or Myspace, feel free to follow me on Twitter or just keep up with what I am making at the shop.

Alright, that is enough self-promotion for one night, don’t you think?

How are you all? What has your weekend been like so far?

love, scout

[Via http://erinsunday.wordpress.com]

Kate's Corner ~ Medical Team abandons Haitian Hospital, CNN steps in

By Kate Doak

Port-au-Prince victims of the Haiti Earthquake were left writhering in pain overnight, after UN personnel ordered the closure of a Make-shift hospital and the evacuation of its Belgian Medical Team, due to security concerns.

In a move which is bound to have severe repurcussions for the UN, the Hospital’s patients were forcably abandoned, leaving only a CNN News Team led by Dr Sanjay Gupta to care for them. If it wasn’t for these individuals and a few caring locals stepping in, it is highly probable that many of the patients would have died.

After being informed that the Hospital was closing overnight, Dr Gupta was left as the only Doctor to care for these patients, many of who had just suffered severe head injuries and other major trauma’s. In an interview with CNN, Gupta expressed the following:

“What is striking to me as a physician is that patients who just had surgery, patients who are critically ill are essentially being left here, nobody to care for them.”

In another interview with CNN, Lt. Gen. Russell Honoré, US Army (Ret.), who led relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, commented upon the situation:

“Search and Rescue must trump Security. I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. They need to man up and get back in there.”

Now normally I have the utmost respect for Doctors and the UN, though decisions and actions such as this are just completely unforgivable, not to meantion shameful. If the Doctors were being ordered to move, they should have taken their patients with them. If they weren’t allowed to, they should have given the relevant UN Officials the “Bird”, and carried on with their work. If a location isn’t safe enough for the Medical Team, then it most certainly isn’t safe enough for patients to be just left to die. Whether they were forced to go or not, the Doctors shouldn’t have abandoned their patients.

In contrast however, I have the utmost admiration, appreciation and respect for Dr Gupta and his team from CNN. This team includes CNN’s Tim Crock, Jonathan Schaer and one of my mentors, the intrepid Danielle Dellorto. Having witnessed her kindness, honesty and wisdom during my own darkest hour, I know that “Dani” would have done her best to help and comfort the injured, while she would have been a source of inspiration and encouragement for the rest of her team. In a world dominated by instant communication, neither words or photographs can describe how proud I am of my mentor and her colleagues.

Here are some of the Tweets from CNN’s Dr Gupta and Danielle Dellorto from throughout the night:

Kate Doak is a Postgraduate Student at the University of New England, Australia.  Over several years she has changed beats twice, genders once and has interviewed some of Australia’s top Authors, Politicians, Musicians and Journalists for TUNE! FM.  Nowadays, Kate primarily focuses on International History and Current Affairs.

[Via http://dailydose.us]

Bebo Norman Urges Fans to Give to Haiti and Auctions Guitar on Ebay

Overture Media (Nashville)– This week the world has mourned together the devastation that Haiti has suffered with the 7.0 earthquake.  Desiring to give and somehow help in the relief effort, Bebo Norman and wife Roshare jumped on board by asking Twitter fans on Wednesday to give to Compassion International.  The Normans committed for a one-day matching of $5 for every re-tweet of his original message.  Due to the overwhelming response by his fans and wanting to do even more, Bebo will put one of his personal guitars up for auction on EBay starting on January 15th at 8 pm Central.  The auction will be for one week concluding January 22nd at 8 pm Central. All funds are going directly to Compassion International for Haiti. The auction link will be posted at Bebo’s site: http://www.bebonorman.com/news/haitiguitarauction.
“I honestly can’t place a value on this guitar since it is Number 00-01 in a very limited production (only 128 ever made) and has been in my personal guitar collection as one of my primary ‘songwriting guitars’ for 10 years,” shares Bebo. “This guitar has been the source of quite a few of my songs (“Nothing Without You,” “Try,” “Borrow Mine”), spent one year on tour with me, and is in absolutely amazing condition.  This guitar is priceless as far as I’m concerned. The only way I would even DREAM of letting this guitar go is for a cause as important as serving the people of Haiti and meeting them in their time of crisis.”

About the Everett Laurel Guitar: This hand-made Everett Laurel Guitar is THE very first production guitar (Number 00-01) in the Laurel Series and was given to Bebo Norman as a personal gift from the builder himself, Kent Everett (Atlanta, GA).  This Laurel First Edition is solid Sitka topped with Rosewood back and sides, highly flamed Maple bindings, Maple rosette, and Rosewood fingerboard and bridge.  Bebo has autographed the custom interior label next to the production number and Kent Everett’s custom wax seal that ensures authenticity. Also included in the auction pack: TKL hardcase for the guitar, 4 packs of Elixir Medium Gauge Nanoweb guitar strings, and the entire Bebo Norman discography, autographed.  Discography includes “The Fabric of Verse” (1996, Out of Print), “Ten Thousand Days” (1999), “Big Blue Sky” (2000), “Myself When I Am Real” (2002), “Try” (2004), “Between the Dreaming and the Coming True” (2006), “Christmas from the Realms of Glory” (2007), and “Bebo Norman” (2008).

For more information on Bebo Norman, visit him online at bebonorman.com or follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/bebonorman).  Also, don’t forget to check out Backseat Writer’s interview with Bebo as well as our other great Bebo Norman coverage.

[Via http://backseatwriter.wordpress.com]

G-Dragon me2day Updates on January 14!

G-Dragon: What events will there be in this concert?

Jiyongie has finally updated! Although it’s not exactly the message that I would like lol. we know he is doing good enough to post. ^^

Translations: alee @ ibigbang.wordpress.com
If taking out please credit!

[Via http://ibigbang.wordpress.com]

15 Minutes Starts...NOW

Big thanks to the team at Wordswell! I am honored to have a guest spot on this weeks Wordswell Blog.

If you aren’t familiar with them yet, I highly suggest you become familiar with them and do so quickly. Their Communiqué is something I really look forward to reading and what they are doing with brand development and social media is amazing and inspiring. Check them out. Connect with them. They’re everywhere.

wordswell.com

communiqué

my guest spot

[Via http://kristerdunn.wordpress.com]

Business use of social media in Finland

Back from a day’s recuperation from colds, I thought the talk about social media is a soft topic for the second week of 2010. Certainly, it’s a favorite subject for us since we have introduced Google Maps, Twitter, and LinkedIn to PlanMill systems already in 2009!

Google Maps and LinkedIn goes to PlanMill CRM, Project, PSA & ERP.

However, it’s high time that Finnish companies, big and small alike take this issue–use of social media in business– seriously. Finland, a Nordic country considered as a pioneer in the global ICT market, however reveals a few surprises.

First, big companies in Finland don’t care about blogging — possibly the reasons can range from lack of resources or motivation.

My Twitter contact Miia Äkkinen from the Helsinki School of Economics: Information Systems gave me a good lead today. With her co-researchers Professor Virpi Tuunainen and Professor Matti Rossi, they explored the use of social media in Finnish and Swedish companies, evaluated the social media use in companies using Facebook business accounts (Facebook fan pages) and Twitter microblogging accounts.

Miia recenly wrote in her blog:

“Taloussanomat just reported that large Finnish companies don’t use blogs in their business. In Sweden large companies use blogs a lot but in Finland only Nokia blogs. The blogging culture of 132 large Nordic companies was studied by consulting office Pohjoisranta and Burson-Marsteller. And only 11 blogs were found: 1 in Finland (Nokia), 1 in Norway and 9 in Sweden (e.g. ABB, Volvo, Ericsson, Electrolux, Skanska).”

What can this imply? If the one of the main points of Finnish innovation is internationalization — ergo, we have to meet the international markets halfway!

Also recently asked by Antti Vilpponen from Arctic StartUp “Why Is Finland The Mongolia Of Internet Marketing?“

“There are a lot of reasons, but one of the key reasons in my opinion is that we fail to see the potential in harnessing the online marketing channels for the benefit of our businesses,” Antti explained. “It’s 2010 and only now are the largest companies (in Finland) waking up to the potential of e-mail marketing.”

(Btw, you might find a few valid objections in blog comments against the parallelism between Mongolia and remoteness, of which Antti justified that “physically and psychologically (Mongolia is) very distant to us Finns and thus we don’t consider it close to us in any manner.”)

Everyone at Arctic Index seems to be equally passionate about the subject. One of the reading list I had recently included
“Use Your Users: Driving Online Media in 2010 by Nick Mueller” , which explores the thread of thought for online media entrepreneurs and content creators.

I can’t wait for the results of Miia’s research project; meanwhile you can view HSE’s abstract and slides to give us a glimpse of things to come: “Social Media in Business Use – Extent of use in Finland and Sweden”.

Meanwhile, if not for business, one can also use social media for sports! Try and register with HeiaHeia, a Finnish startup offering a simplified training log for sharing your activities with friends in a simple and fun way! Read more from “Moozement Rebrands Itself And Becomes HeiaHeia, One Of The First ‘Nokia Funded’ Startups To Emerge“

[Via http://planmill.wordpress.com]

Pause

I’m exhausted, and should be asleep, yet all I can do is think. (Must be the “teacher brain” I keep hearing about everywhere!) Seriously, I think that’s part of the reason I AM exhausted. My head will not stop thinking about things I want to try and do in class with my students, comments they’ve made, things I can do better, etc. And it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with this kind of non-stop, busy feeling (after all, many of you already know I like to stay busy).

Then I was glad I came across this post which harps upon the importance of taking advantage of “me” time and served as a reminder for me. I’ve talked about it. I’ve made conscious decisions to improve in this area. And I’m trying.

So, this is just a “gentle” reminder to myself to simply push “pause.” (And be ok with it!) And though “me” time may be my biggest weakness because I am absolutely one to overload and go 110 mph ALL of the time, I AM improving already (through the use of my yellow “idea” notebook, a new twitter app , trying new, different ideas one class at a time , spacing out major assignments with my classes, exercising, writing, reading, playing games , and many more things to help me improve in this area, including taking the time to pause).

But my question to all of you out there is this…what do you find to be your biggest weakness as a teacher? And how do you push yourself to become better at whatever “it” is?

[Via http://englishteacher2.wordpress.com]

Twitter status update via curl

Sometimes,,you just need to waste your time just to sending status update to your twitter.

Here’s my suggestion to make your wasting time more wasted ,, by sending twitter status update via curl in bash scripting environment.

vi some-file.sh, and write this bunch of code :
#!/bin/bash
/usr/local/bin/curl --basic --proxy 10.2.249.250:8080 --user $1:$2 --data status="$3" twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

Then save the file using (:wq!)
give chmod +x some-file.sh to your script
Here you can call your script using :
./some-file.sh username passwd "your status"

I recommend to use (“) in your status,,,so that the script can detect that everything in between ” is your status..

have fun !

[Via http://antonrifco.wordpress.com]

Online Identity Management (A beginner's guide)

A dinner table discussion on Online identity management is what got me to write this post. Intended to be a nerd’s guide to “doing things” on the net.

Personal identities are migrating to the internet based social,crowd and professional networking platforms. Given the transformatory and disruptive effects that internet has brought on to societies, communities, businesses, information, and technology, it was about time that indentities went online as well. This post discusses Online identity management as a template.

Why do we need Online identities?
The “global village” term never seemed more true. What the internet has done is that it has multiplied reach and accessibility and democratized information. The internet is fast becoming every individual’s window to the world. What we choose to showcase through that Window is what we want to project ourselves as to the world at large. That is what i refer to as Online identity.

Online identities
The online identities may vary basis age demographics (assuming that the user is a normal internet user). So while students have a very heavy element of social networking in their online identities, executives and professionals will see a balance of social and professional networking elements. The reasons are obivious. Thus we have established the two important platforms: Social Networking and Professional networking as the two pillars of Online Identity management. Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut are the prominent social networking sites and Facebook is the biggest amongst them. While Facebook also can be used for Professsional networking, my choice of Professional networking site is Linkedin because of the many other things that it allows you to do beside meeting and knowing people in the same profession. I use Facebook for my Social Networking and Linkedin for my Professional networking requirements. Sites such as Slideshare and Box.Net are important supports to my networking needs as they can be referenced readily for relevant subjects and material.

What has emerged with Twitter is the trend of conversation. Even before Twitter, Facebook, Orkut,MySpace and other Social networking sites featured conversations but then Twitter democratized it by taking the conversation to the crowd rather than limiting it to our immediate circle of friends and relatives and collegues. Twitter thus has become a worldwide portal to meet people, discuss ideas, microblog ones opinions, create an online presence and publicizing self. It is also incredibly useful as a forum where one can talk to the experts and gain some recognition in the crowd. I strongly suggest refraining from status updates like “Taking my dog for a walk” on Twitter. That is a waste of time and unless you are Paris Hilton, no one really bothers about you or your dog.

In the heart of Online Identity management is the “I, me, myself” thing. And nothing defines it better than an online blog, or a website for self. The decision to blog is not about an “impulsive do” but revolves around a larger context of “How i define myself? What is my expertise? What is my chosen area of work?” and a doggedness of voicing views regularly. As with the starters, it takes patience and time for the scale and number of blogs and the traffic to build. It takes time getting hits and reviews and comments. Hence this is a slow burn activity. One can however support his blog with publicity on Twitter, Professional and Social networking sites. Depending upon the relevance of the message and the target consumers of the information, traffic follows. A YouTube is a higher order blog where you can audio-visual your ideas and thoughts. The thing with Online content is that it needs to be relevant to the audience else you end up making monkeying yourself.

The Fourth pillar in Online identity management is not much of “identity” stuff anyway. It is more of “convenience and storage” over the internet.So there are Google Docs,Calendar; there is Microsoft Sky Drive; there is GMail for all your mails; there is Picassa/Flickr for all your photos and more. It makes sense putting the data up in the cloud so that it can be accessed readily by you instead of lugging around your laptop.One good thing is that most of these portals can be connected through with each other such that a change in one updates others as well.

So there you have it.. It isnt easy.. It is time taking and the whole idea needs to be strategically thought through in context of how you are, what you do and where you are willing to go. The decision and the thought predate everything else in building the online identity.

[Via http://ronnie05.wordpress.com]

#weloveshindong

Astaga.. sampe jam 7:47 WIB, #weloveshindong masih menempati urutan 4!!!

Sejak jam 4-5 an tadi!!!!

Keren…

You go girls!

Let’s show ELF’s love!!!!

Omong2, belakangan yang rame itu beritanya Shindong ya??

Hehhe

Dan Btw lagi, Shindong sekareng sedang berada di Bangkok!!!

[Via http://chaminra.wordpress.com]

FaceBook or PhoneBook?

Here’s an interesting question for you to ponder over the weekend.

If, as GigaOm and other commentators suggest: 

Facebook’s core asset is its social graph — a diagram of people and their connections.

The Dawn of Facebook’s People-organized Web 

Why don’t the Telcos simply put a real-time Business Intelligence layer on their landline, broadband and mobile phone networks, remap their network data records and then publish the aggregated data as their localised social graph? 

After all their network data (i.e. call) records are an infinitely more accurate record of people and their connections than Facebook attempts at “playing the game”.  

The same thing goes for Twitter and SMS.

If the world’s Telcos pooled, mapped, shared and mined their network data records at a global level they would make both FaceBook and Twitter look irrelevant in terms of their audience size, accuracy and quality of connections, and in the volume of activity (i.e. messages). 

So what’s the answer? After all the Telcos could have done this 15 years ago. Is the right answer FaceBook’s the core asset, its social graph, is not worth the effort, or is it the privacy laws that restrict Telcos from repurposing their data or is it simply the Telcos can’t see the “wood for the trees?”

After all, adding a real time business intelligence technology layer that would add $1 to $10 Billion to their market value must be worth at least a strategic plan or two? Plus it would help them to improve their customer billing

[Via http://excapite.wordpress.com]

Social Media - Another Top Twits List

I am sooooo lazy. It makes me feel almost unbearably guilty. It is linked in to my innate shallowness. (Shallowance? Shallocity? Or is that a characteristic pertaining to a small onion?) Anyway, what it all means is that I simply cannot be bothered to re-invent this splendid (but metaphorical) wheel. It’s a post by communications and customer services blogger Rich Baker (nice blog Rich, keep up the good work, excellent content, opinion and thinking – worth a read, blog snorkellers mine) which gives the full listing of Klout founder @JoeFernandez’s Top Twitter Influencers in the United Kingdom.

(No. You don’t listen. I’m lazy. You will have to research Klout for yourself. And Joe Fernandez.)

Anyway, the point is the same as the point I attempted to make when I posted this – which was a similar list, posted by INQ Mobile.

The point – or, rather, the question, dear blog snorkellers – is this. Do you really, really want to live in a world which has, as its Top Influencers, the likes of Lily Allen, Chris Moyles, Duncan Bannantyne, Peter Andre and Dougie Poynter? I’ve nothing against them, but they’re hardly at the apogee of intellect, culture, education or morality, are they?

Sadly, it merely underlines the vapid, transient and shallow nature of Twitter, and the medium’s arrogant and misguided belief that it actually has an influence.

I read yesterday, elsewhere on the net, that Pepsi is spending/has spent $20m on social media marketing. Some wag had posted a comment which suggested that the company should have held on to its money, because it would probably be able to buy Twitter for that amount in the not-too-distant future. I have a suspicion this might be nearer to the truth than anyone thinks.

[Via http://thewordmonger.wordpress.com]

"Fade To Black" Newsletter #3 | Jan 6, 2010

FADE TO BLACK

E-Blast Newsletter | Issue 3
Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Produced by
Black Professionals Global Alliance
NYC * HOU * ATL * MIA * BMORE * NC

Greetings everyone.

It is an honor to be able to greet all of you in this new month of a new year in good health and spirit. We have much to be thankful for today, and that is how I am able to embrace all of you. You are my extended family in life and in business. It is only through our working together will we reach the many goals included in our mission statement-the center of that which states “to change the face of OUR WORLD one person at a time.” It starts with ME doing me, and you doing you. ABOUT US (CURRENTLY)

We are in the following cities:

New York City
OVERVIEW…our base is Flatbush, Brooklyn, but we also have an organizer in Downtown Brooklyn, Harlem and the Wall Street area. These areas tend to be where our meetings and events take place. MEMBERSHIP REGION…for NYC include the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island), Westchester County (members in Mt Vernon, Yonkers, White Plains and Peekskill), Long Island, New Jersey (members in Hoboken, Newark, Orange and Jersey City), Connecticut (members in Hartford, New Haven and Stamford) ORIGIN…The NYC chapter was founded online October 9 and launched its first event that same evening. There are 113 members in the meetup and nearly 300 throughout NYC. NEXT EVENT…January 12, Tuesday, 7pm @ Velour Lounge: “Mary J Blige DJ tribute” WEBSITE…www.meetup.com/bpofnyc Houston… OVERVIEW…we don’t have a specific location yet, but are working on a stable and central office location. MEMBERSHIP REGION…members are in and around Houston, with a few as far east as Beaumont, as far south as Galveston, as far west as Katy (no one has mentioned San Antonio yet!), and as far north as The Woodlands. Interestingly enough, our sisters in Dallas have a group known as the Black Young Professionals of Dallas who we are working on a few events with, but we do not have any registered members in Dallas. ORIGIN…The Houston chapter was founded online October 15, 2009, and launched its first event November 6, 2009. There are 135 members via meetup and close to 200 total representing the Houston chapter. NEXT EVENT…February 10, Wednesday, 7pm (location TBA): “Rich Black Poor Black: 12 Keys To Success For Black Professionals” WEBSITE…www.meetup.com/bphouston Atlanta… OVERVIEW…downtown Atlanta is the most ideal location, but we do not have a specific and central office location yet. MEMBERSHIP REGION…members are in and around Atlanta. There are a few in regions beyond the city limits (19 mile radius) but our focus will clearly be centered in the downtown areas of Atlanta. ORIGIN…The Atlanta chapter was founded online October 13, 2009 and launched its first event November 20, 2009. There are 109 members via meetup and an additional 20-30 representing the Atlanta chapter. NEXT EVENT…January 11, Monday, 7pm @ Royale Vizionz Lounge: “Rich Black Poor Black: 12 Keys To Success For Black Professionals” WEBSITE…www.meetup.com/bpatlanta Miami… OVERVIEW…South Beach is the chosen location for our base of operations, and Kitchen 305-a restaurant inside of the Newport Beach Resort and Hotel in Sunny Isles, Miami (centered between Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale) has been our base of events. MEMBERSHIP REGION…members are scattered all over Miami and go as far south as Key West, as far northeast as Fort Lauderdale and as far north as Orlando. We are mainly focused on events in Miami to Fort Lauderdale. ORIGIN…The Miami chapter was founded online October 25, 2009 and founded December 4, 2009. There are 89 members via meetup as well as an additional 1-200 representing the Miami chapter. NEXT EVENT…as the most active chapter, there are events posted twice a week. Go to the site to see what’s coming. WEBSITE…www.meetup.com/bpmiami Baltimore… OVERVIEW…No specific area has been designated for our base of operations. MEMBERSHIP REGION…members are in Baltimore and Washington D.C. This chapter’s reach may extend as far north as Philadelphia (although events will still be centered in Baltimore and D.C.) but only as far south as Washington D.C. ORIGIN…The Baltimore chapter was founded online November 3, 2009 and will officially launch Friday, January 22, 2010. There are 126 members in the online group at meetup, nearly 100 in D.C. and an additional number in Philly and Richmond. NEXT EVENT…”Baltimore Winter Restaurant Week” Friday, January 22, 2010, 12noon. WEBSITE…www.meetup.com/bpbmore North Carolina (Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte)… OVERVIEW…Raleigh is the base of operations for this soon-to-be-launched chapter. It is unique from all others in that it represents the full state of North Carolina. MEMBERSHIP REGION…Greensboro and Charlotte have Assistant Organizers who are occasionally going to host events in those cities, but Raleigh is where the chapter originated and thus where events will primarily be focused at this time. ORIGIN…The North Carolina chapter launched online December 5, 2009 and will launch offline Friday, January 15, 2010. There are 36 members in the group online at meetup and nearly 100 total throughout the state of North Carolina. NEXT EVENT…”Meet And Greet” @ Leslie’s Lounge, Raleigh, NC Friday, January 15, 2010, 7pm. WEBSITE…www.meetup.com/blackcarolina LOCAL EVENTS
Local gatherings are a way for members new and seasoned to get together to discuss business and be social without the pressure of a formal environment. Our groups favor social networking events as the primary way to get together with business networking a close second. Within those two categories we will explore a wide range of events. Most of the time our gatherings will be free. Members are encouraged to join our leadership ranks and assist in organizing events, finding venues, hosting the events and leading discussions. We’d also ask members who are business owners or know of local businesses that would be interested in sponsoring our group to come forward. Any members interested should reach out to their group leaders through their respective chapter websites and/or emails. Some organizers also encourage you to call them. NATIONAL EVENTS
National events are events that more than one chapter will host and present to its membership. In a few cases, there are events that appeal to ALL of the chapters, as well as a few that will be presented to every chapter by our founding chapter in New York City that every chapter will host. A few events on our 2010 calendar include: “All Star Weekend” (Various hotels; BPGA is hosting exclusive parties nightly | Dallas and Arlington, Texas) February 11-14, 2010 NOTE: Hotel packages are still available but going fast so please contact your chapter leader ASAP to reserve!
“Vegas, Baby! Weekend Getaway” (Various hotels | Las Vegas) March 12-14, 2010 “In The Mix Music Festival” (Various hotels & venues | South Beach & Sunny Isles, Miami) March 23-27, 2010 “The Jamaica Jumpoff” (Various hotels & venues | Montego Bay, Jamaica) June 10-14, 2010 “Essence Music Festival” (Louisiana Superdome & various venues in The French Quarter | New Orleans) July 1-4, 2010 “Blacks Over 40 Cruise” (San Juan * St Thomas * Dominica * Barbados * St Lucia * St Maarten * St Kitts | Carnival Victory) September 5-12, 2010 NOTE: We feature a number of smaller groups throughout the year for close to a dozen specialized and exclusive cruises aboard Princess, Royal Caribbean, NCL and MSC Cruise Lines. Refer to your chapter leaders/group organizers! “The First Annual Black Professionals Business Conference And Awards” (Newport Beach Resort and Hotel, Sunny Isles, Miami) October 1-3, 2010 NOTE: This event is the exclusive creation of Black Professionals Global Alliance. We recently put 100 rooms and suites on hold for our members to reserve at the host hotel, but also have others in Fort Lauderdale, downtown Miami, Miami Beach and South Beach (but we recommend the host hotel for the best rates and convenience). It will be posted to each group’s website by this weekend, but you are welcome to inquire for more information. We’ll be discussing it in future newsletters.
“1st Annual Black Travel Conference” (Location TBA!) June, 2011 NOTE: This event is still being formed by our Travel Committee, but we welcome members interested in starting a career or business in hospitality and travel, or looking to further their knowledge of the business to come forward with interest in participating.
Each of the above events are available to all BP members at special rates. You are welcome to invite anyone to attend. You may also get involved by organizing a group of your own for profit or to fundraise; let your chapter leaders and/or group organizers know and they will guide you in the right direction. As always, we encourage members who have ideas and would like to help organize in any capacity to come forward. We are only as strong as the members who participate! IN CLOSING
As always, I encourage every member to take a few minutes to check out their group pages each week AT LEAST once a week-twice a week if you can-and familiarize yourself with what is going on. If you don’t see something you like, say something to your group’s organizer! Send them a note directly (or you can write me anytime as well, of course). I respond to everyone who does, and to the best of our ability we will answer your question, address your interest and take on what inspires you and share that with the group-or in my case, with several of the chapters across the country. Enjoy your week and I look forward to meeting each of you in the near future. Regards,

Freedom Justice | Founder/Organizer

Black Professionals Global Alliance www.blackprofessionals.wordpress.com Join our FAN page on Facebook (“Black Professionals Global Alliance”) and follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/bpga)

[Via http://blackprofessionals.wordpress.com]

#Kerryout?

Interesting developments surrounding Kerry McCarthy, Labour’s ‘Twitter Tsar/Czar’…

There is a growing Internet campaign to see her ousted from her parliamentary seat, driven by #kerryout and Kerry Out.net

The about section of the site says:

“Ironically this promotion [to Twitter Tsar/Czar] has been Kerry McCarthy’s downfall. Her new power and responsibility has highlighted her utter incompetence and unsuitability to serve the House of Commons. Leaving aside her deceitful double furniture claims and her utter contempt of the anger caused by the expenses scandal last year, McCarthy has shown herself to be completely unsuitable to serve the people of Bristol East.

The KerryOut campaign does not believe her conduct befits a public servant. She constantly mischaracterises her opponents, throws tantrums and when backed into a corner resorts to accusing her opponents of racism or sexism. Few of her followers are from her constituency, and few of her tweets regard her constituency – she is constantly engaging in tribal and trite arguments instead of getting on with her job.
Self proclaimed vegan, McCarthy has attempted to paint herself as the new face of accessible politicians.

She is an utter fraud though given the fact that she failed to turn up to the Commons for no fewer than SEVEN votes that would have increased the transparency of Parliament and made her more accountable to her electorate. Incidentally one of the votes she did bother to turn up to was to vote AGAINST external audits of MPs expenses and a block on allowing them to buy more furniture on expenses.”

It’ll be interesting to see if an Internet campaign such as this will a) last until the election b) actually work c) be picked up by the general public and subsequently influence their view and voting

This could be groundbreaking stuff for the UK political sphere IMO…

What do you think?

[Via http://geetarchurchy.wordpress.com]

Marketing the Orange Bowl to the Yellow Jackets

It is game day for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The team has been in Miami since the middle part of last week practicing for the Orange Bowl. Luckily, I have been enjoying the inside scoop from my favorite Yellow Jacket Equipment Manager   He has updated his Twitter and Facebook frequently with pictures from the adventures in Miami. It has been pretty cool talking to him about his trip, as I never realized how much work and effort goes in behind the scenes to make a Bowl Game possible. What I especially love about all the pictures and inside scoop is the marketing behind the whole process.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets traveled on a chartered plane to spend the week in Miami. They were greeted on the Tarmac by an orange carpet, orange suited officials and even the Orange Bowl mascot:

The players and staff were then invited to the welcoming ceremony complete with a GT ice sculpture.

After the welcoming ceremonies, they were able to explore the hotel a little bit. Let’s just say the Orange Bowl Committee had decked out the hotel in Orange Bowl marketing tactics. Complete with Orange Bowl baskets in EACH of the rooms and signs throughout the hotel.

After a few days of practice, the team made it to the final destination to set up camp for game day. Not but 24 hours after having a NFL game in the stadium, the Orange Bowl Committee transformed the stadium and locker rooms in to an Oasis of Orange.

Since the stadium is primarily used by the Miami Dolphins, the Orange Bowl Committee needed to bring their own flair into the place. Every little bit of logo from the Miami Dolphins was covered in Georgia Tech or Orange Bowl Logos.

Needless to say, I love the marketing efforts that the Orange Bowl Committee has put in to making the Georgia Tech team feel welcome in the town of Miami.

Thanks to my wonderful friends on the equipment team who are working so hard for the Yellow Jackets (especially the one in the middle )

Go Jackets!

[Via http://msbuzzworthy.wordpress.com]

Koobface коледен подарък :D

О, измамници, знаеш ли срам. В усилията си да се възползват празник развесели, нов зловреден софтуер атака поставя като поздрав Коледа на Facebook, но всъщност се инсталира на гаден червей Koobface на компютрите на потребителите.
Червеят се разпространява като заразени ипотпал публикувате приветствие към стените на своите приятели, които след това от своя страна се заразяват, когато те се провери на предполага поздрав.
Ето как Panda Security го описва:
“След изпращането на злонамерен връзки на стени Facebook потребителите, стръв насочва към фалшива вградени видео ипотпал, който поставя като поздрав Коледа. Когато потребителите се опитат да играят на видео или кликнете върху връзката на страницата, на компютрите си изтеглите и инсталирате вариант на добре известни червей Koobface, Koobface.GK.

[Via http://ipotpalex.wordpress.com]

2010, Facebook and Twitter So Soft Targets Hackers

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are expected to face increasing attacks by hackers in 2010, according to web security firm observations, McAfee. “Spike in the number of applications for Facebook and other services would be an ideal vector for cybercriminal, who will take advantage of a trusted friend to click a link that would threaten the user if not careful.” McAfee said.

In a report titled 2010 Threat Predictions, McAfee also revealed that there are increasing threats to the security vulnerability of banking and the use botnet to infect computers by spreading malicious software or malware. McAfee revealed that Adobe products, especially Acrobat Reader and Flash, Microsoft Office will also be a threat in the next three years and the operating system was released Google Chrome will provide kesepatan hackers to trick users. Hackers will also try to take advantage of the short service URL, like bit.ly and tinyurl.com.

[Via http://computer0810.wordpress.com]

5 Ways to Use Twitter Lists

Twitter users can now organize users they follow into groups, or lists. allows you to group the stream of messages from a specific set of users and isolate them in a separate time line.

Lists make it easier to follow the messages that flow through your account by categorizing them into various topics that you create. Twitter allows you to have 20 lists with a maximum of 500 persons per list.

How To Create Twitter Lists
Create a list by selecting “create new list” in the right sidebar.  By visiting your “following” page next to the username use the drop down menu allowing you to add that person to a particular list.

Create lists consisting of:

• Competitors
• Clients
• Prospects
• Friends
• News
• Industry Thought Leaders

What Lists To Follow and Who Has You Listed
In the right sidebar of your Twitter homepage , there are two tabs “lists following you” and “lists you follow”. You’ll also see other lists that twitter user has made and an option to block the Twitter user entirely.

Here are 5 Ways to Use Twitter Lists:
1. Access to Experts. Feed tweets into meaningful real-time experiences. OPEN Forum does a great job of this for small businesses.

2. Manage Who You Are Following Feed tweets into meaningful real-time experiences. New York Times has its featured and curated lists that make it easy to access the information.

3. Industry News Monitoring. Breaking news, trends and information

4. Job Search.  If your looking for a job, set up a list of companies for which you would like to work. Also include executive search contacts so you can keep on top of what jobs are available.

5. Private Lists.  Putting an account in a List doesn’t mean you are following them.  This is a useful tool for people who may post too frequently or that you don’t want to show up in your stream.

Check out tools like:
List Widget let you create a collaborative widget. Once you enter your information to customize it, you can see what people are tweeting about. There are other tools like

Looking for lists?
Listorious is a directory of lists on Twitter.

Ultimately, the value of any Twitter feature is only as great as the community of users makes it.

© 2009 LACHAPELLE DESIGN

[Via http://suelachapelle.wordpress.com]

Don't write a business plan

Don’t write a business plan

by Jason on December 14, 2009 · 61 comments

in Essays

“You need a business plan” is the mantra of MBA types.

As they say, businesses don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan! Who could argue with such a clever turn of phrase?

Let’s do some quotes:

• “Without a business plan, how will you know whether you can make a profit?” (source)
• “A complete business plan should include five-year financial projections. These projections will assist investors with making decisions about your business and help you to know how much funding you will need to get things rolling.” (source)
• “Many businesses fail due to poor planning. It is important for every business owner to understand the entire depth, flexibility, strength and weakness of their business plan.” (source)
• “Adjust your business plan as needed, but be sure to not stray too far off of your original idea.” (source)

Surely those Harvard MBA grads are correct! After all they don’t give out those MBAs for nothing — you have to at least start a business yourself! Oh wait, you don’t have to do that? Oh.

Trouble is, this advice is inconsistent with how real (small) businesses operate, as you can often see for yourself in the same articles that promote the use of the business plan.

For example, Kenrya Naasel writing for Latina.com starts by saying “A business plan is the most important document you’ll ever create.” (And you thought your website’s home page was important? Ha.) But later she quotes a successful entrepreneur who admits “We operated with no real plan for years” and “Things don’t generally go as planned.”

That’s one thing everyone can agree with: Things don’t go as planned. Yeah, so how are you supposed to write a three-year projection with a straight face?

Or take Sean Davis of Success on my Mind who tells us “Writing a business plan is your most important step,” but then admits that his past two (successful!) projects were “simply an idea I ran with.”

The telling part comes in the comment section where Sean adds:

Now that I think back on it, I’ve done plenty of marketing that led sites to success… but it was all from trial and error. Had I known BEFORE what I know now, I could have had a plan and reached my goals much earlier.”

Here inlies the fallacy. You never “know before what you know now.” If success is “all from trial and error,” how exactly do you write a plan?

Marketing is trial and error! Features, messaging, the path to customers, your competitive edge, your pricing model — all this gets figured out as you go. You can’t know what’s going to work ahead of time, so why is Sean concluding that he should have written a business plan?

Business plans are just guesses, and they’re almost always wrong.

The very idea of “planning” is ridiculous:

• If you had written a business plan in 2007, what would your assumptions have been? Investors love “Web 2.0,” MySpace is how to reach young people, the economy is growing without limit, and products with demonstrable ROIs will get healthy slices of corporate budgets.Of course every assumption in your plan was reversed in 2008. The world economy exploded. Getting money from budgets is like squeezing water from rock. MySpace is dead, long live Facebook. The term “Web 2.0″ is passé. Twitter went mainstream and might be more important for “word of mouth” than blogging.Good thing you spent all that time planning.
• At the beginning you don’t know anything about what your business will look like. Your product will evolve to fit the market. You’ll test marketing messages on AdWords and make unexpected discoveries about what works. Good and bad luck shape your company. You have no answers, no predictive power. Nor should you artificially pin yourself down! Even a “plan” buried in a drawer makes you less likely to consider the radical new idea that changes everything and makes you successful.
• Have you tried actually writing a plan? Go ahead, try it! Be sure to include your mission statement, your vision, your five-year profit-and-loss statement, decide who will be your key personnel, define your pricing strategy, explain the risks, position yourself against competitors.Now be honest, where did this data come from? I’m guessing you reached right up your ass and pulled it out. For the five-year plan you were so deep you tickled your spleen. You know this is crap; why are you doing this when you could, oh I don’t know, just talk to potential customers?

But enough from me. What do VCs have to say about this? What if you’re trying to raise money, don’t you need a business plan? What do other entrepreneurs say?

• From Venture Hacks, a great blog written by entrepreneurs-turned-VCs: “Don’t send a business plan to investors. Nobody reads them and nobody executes them. … Document your detailed plans on a napkin.”
• From David Cowham, Bessemer Venture Partners: “Nothing slows down a VC as much as a comprehensive business plan.”
• From Mike Moritz, Sequoia Capital in a Guy Kawasaki fireside chat, “Five-year plans aren’t worth the ink cartridge they’re printed with.”
• I could fill three pages with links to 37signals railing against business plans (did you like that pun y’all?). From When was the last time you looked at your business plan: “[All three businesses] are still alive but have also completely rethought their original plans. They’ve changed focus, services, salaries, partnership arrangements, etc. … If these companies’ one year projections were so far off, imagine how worthless those year three (or five) projections turned out to be.” Or, from The only plan is to learn as you go: “Stop presuming you can be right in a world of massive uncertainty. The only plan you should make is to plan on improvising.”
• A study found that “quality of business plans had zero impact on the amount of VC funding being raised.”
• From VentureBlog, VC David Hornik derides an article on Wired and TechCrunch about how to raise money: “VCs tend not to read business plans because a) they are too long and b) your business will likely have changed by the time anyone gets around to reading your business plan.”
• From Business Insider, Kevin Ryan, founder of six companies, says “I don’t do a detailed plan. If a VC focuses a lot on the details on the financial model, I won’t work with them.”
• From Steve Blank, “In the real world, most business plans don’t survive the first few months of customer contact. And even if they did — customers don’t ask to see your business plan.” And then from an article called Startups are Inherently Chaos: “As a founder you need to prepare yourself to think creatively and independently, because more often than not, conditions on the ground will change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant.”

Do I really need to go on, or are you sufficiently bludgeoned into not writing that business plan?

In fact, stop reading this article and do something useful like A/B test a landing page.

[Via http://entrepreneurbizplans.wordpress.com]