Bridget's Active Rain Blog

Organizing Friends on Facebook

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:13:40 -0600

Facebook is a place to connect, share, and grow your personal and professional networks.

When you join Facebook, your first action is to create a profile by adding a profile picture, a small professional bio, a mixture of personal and professional photos, and some personal interests. After you build your profile Facebook will prompt you to connect with friends from your email database that are currently on Facebook. If you do not have a lot of contacts on Facebook then Facebook will walk you through how to invite your closest and most dear to join and become your friend. Finally, Facebook will look at information like your high school, college, city, and employer to connect you with individuals that you may have lost track of.

Everyone who accepts your friend requests goes into your friends list. As this list grows it becomes one big, unorganized, mishmash of potential. Luckily, Facebook allows you to bring order to your database by grouping your friends into lists. You can create lists for your childhood friends, family, co-workers, clients, strategic business partners, and so on and so forth. By creating lists to organize your Facebook friends you will be turning your social profile into a strategic social and business resource.

Important things to remember about organizing friends on Facebook:

* Start early, the longer you wait to create lists the more time it will take

* You can add friends to more than one friend list

* Friend lists should be treated like the categories and distribution lists in your contact management software

* Friend Lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them

Once you have designated your friend categories they can then be used to apply different privacy policies. For example, you may want your friends to see photos from the party you were at last night, but you don’t want your family or professional contacts to see those photos. When you announce work related updates and/or events you can send them to the contacts that will most appreciate that information, excluding friends and family who would rather see pictures of little Jonny’s soccer game.

As your friends list grows organizing them becomes a benefit for you and your contacts. For instance, if you travel quite a bit or belong to multiple networks and/or organizations you can categorize people by location (city, state, country), where you met them (conference, networking, organization), and your relationship with them (professional, family, social, etc).

By having a well structured contact lists you will not only be able to effectively communicate for yourself but also on the behalf of others. One of the best components to social networking is the support that the individuals within the network provide to one another. When you are able to help other business owners and professionals spread the word they will return that favor by helping you. Endorsement is the strongest most effective way that one networker can help another it can turn a random contact list into a strategic marketing list.

So, when you look at that growing list of Facebook friends and think where do I start? Just remember the time you spend now will pay for itself later. You have done this before look at your Outlook, contact management software, or email client for grouping ideas. You can configure your friend lists by visiting the friends area of your Facebook profile.

How do you keep your friends organized?

Bridget Ayers

GSW Consulting

www.gswconsultinggroup.com * www.Twitter.com/GetSmartWomen * www.LinkedIn.com/in/bridgetayers

POWERleap...Energy Derived From Every Step We Take

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:39:09 -0500

Some of the most brilliant ideas come from the simplest of places, an apple falling out of a tree, a child playing with a kite, the every day occurrence of a bird flying through the air.

Elizabeth Redmond and her newest invention POWERleap, falls into this category it stems from the act of people walking, and it's just simply brilliant.

Elizabeth Redmond invented the POWERleap, a flooring system that generates electricity every time you move on one of the tiles. Constructed with glass and concrete, the energy generating tiles can bear a heavy load and are being designed to be placed in areas that experience high-foot traffic. It is Elizabeth's intention to have cities powered by the people who live, work, and play there rather than outside energy sources.

Elizabeth explains her invention on the Sundance Channel :

Now that it is out there this idea seems so obvious. It makes you wonder why we haven't done anything like this until now, and what other absolutely obvious things we are missing?

The science behind POWERleap from Elizabeth's website

At rest, your body is emitting 100 watts of power. That is more than enough energy to power the computer on which this is written. Given this, imagine how much energy we are emitting while walking to [or at] work, running at the gym, or dancing at the club! It doesn’t take a genius to appreciate the thought of that energy doing something more for us than dissipating into the ground or environment… POWERleap is currently manifested in an installation of urban sidewalk tiles designed and engineered by Elizabeth Redmond. The system utilizes the phenomena of piezoelectricity: electricity from applied stress, founded by the Curie brothers in the 1880’s. A piezoelectric material when compressed distributes a charge across the surface of the material that can be harnessed and used to generate electricity. Project POWERLeap has come up with a solution to the problem of wasted human kinetic energy. We have designed a flooring system that will harness your exerted kinetic energy, and use it to generate electricity for us to enjoy. By integrating these interfaces that generate electricity from our daily activities in public and semi-public built environments, each individual will have the ability to generate electricity for their community.

WHERE WILL POWERleap BE USED?

CITY SIDEWALKS * AIRPORT TERMINALS * TRAIN STATIONS * SPORTS STADIUMS * CONFERENCE HALLS * DANCE CLUBS * CORPORATE CAMPUSES * UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES * FITNESS CLUBS * PUBLIC PARKS

POWERleap is still in it's infancy stage and looking for backers, investors, and contributors to get it into the mainstream. Here are some other sources for more information:

Here is a link to her NPR radio interview http://www.here-now.org

Here is a link to her Earth Keepers at Changents http://www.changents.com/powerleaper ("Changents is an entertainment-driven online destination that enables "change agents" to tell their amazing stories while building a network of fans around the world who want to help them. Through videos, photos, blogs, mobile messaging and podcast dispatches from the field, change agents draw in "backers" to lend a hand - virtually or in person.)

POWERleap website: www.powerleap.net

Brought to you by

See How Websites are Connected.....Walk2Web

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:31:00 -0500

Sometimes it is hard to visualize how the World Wide Web is interconnected, how one web site can lead to another and to another, and so on and so forth. For those individuals that are on the Internet all day every day it is a bit easier, because you experience it firsthand through the people you meet and the paths you take to gather information. However, for those individuals that need to see rather than experience how the web works there is a web site called Walk2Web.

This site demonstrates visually, and in real time, how one web site or blog is tied to hundreds and thousands of other sites. A word of warning...when you go visit walk2web.com it has a live site show which means it is streaming live web sites, apparently without filtering out adult content. So be prepared to see some very questionable material pop up from time to time.

When you get to the site there is an area to enter in a URL (this is your starting point) and from there you walk the web. Once you enter in a blog or web site Walk2Web starts showing you the sites that are linked to your starting point. There are no more than six at a time, split between incoming and outgoing links with options to display more in either direction. The network grows as you explore, and is color coded to make it easy to differentiate between incoming links (green) and outgoing links (blue).

You can further explore a link by scrolling or clicking on it, the program then shows you a screen shot of the linked site and will also display the site's RSS feed so you can see the most recent posts. There are also visual cues (plus and minuses) that show you positive and negative indicators of the community.

There is a browser plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer that brings the interface to you. "So if you wind up on a site that is worthy of a little walk on the Web 2.0 side, simply start the walk from there to bring up the network.

There are widgets of course, one that allows your visitors to walk you and one that displays the live site feed on your blog or web site. Not sure I will be displaying the live site show since anything can and does show up on that feed but a link showing visitors who I am connected to would be cool.

Overall this is a very interesting tool that can either help you understand the inner workings of the web, or that can just be used to take a walking tour of the World Wide Web.

Brought to you by:

Not Just A Skateboard.....Eco-Furniture That Looks Good

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:52:33 -0500

I am always impressed with people who see the world just a little bit differently than the masses. Those people that have an overactive imagination and are not afraid to use it. These are the people that give us the most useful and innovative resources, making our lives just a bit more interesting.

I recently saw an article that caught my eye; Eco-Furniture that Started Out As Skateboards, Bikes and Cars from lemondrop.com.

The green/recycle/earth friendly movement is important and companies that are leading the way are worth checking out. The companies Lemondrop.com highlight's in the post are impressive so I have listed them, but of the three one stood out for me and was worth a post of its own.

The Three Eco-Furniture Co's:

Bike Furniture Design studio re-purposes bicycles into tables, chairs and mirrors.

Steven Shaver turns automobiles into coffee tables, car couches, clocks and more.

Skate Study House uses skateboards for contemporary home decor.

The Stand Out Company:

Skate Study House

The two guys behind this company are PIERRE ANDRE SENIZERGUES (PAS), founder and CEO of Sole Technology, parent company of etnies, etnies Girl, etnies Plus, éS, Emerica, Altamont Apparel and ThirtyTwo and GIL LE BON DE LAPOINTE, a designer for over 20 years in the action sports industry in visual marketing and merchandising. Both of these gents are long time skateboarders, which shows in their work.

From the web site:

SKATE STUDY HOUSE (SSH) is an innovative design concept specializing in recreating popular furniture through the vision of a skateboarder. The movement of a skateboarder constantly changes -- it recreates itself by transcending boundaries and inventing ways to conquer obstacles. It’s constantly about anticipation and adaptation to one’s environment. The same is true for living design. The combination of the two produces a mixture of contemporary lifestyle, art and action sports culture, which is all found in this unique collection.

The Product:

What is so impressive about this company and their product's is that they are not only recycling and creating useful items, but the furniture looks good. These are pieces that you could place in a commercial or residential location. The items have personality and a high-end look. On top of that these guys seem to be having fun, they enjoy their work and it shows in the furniture they create.

Finally, this company is just one more example of how a person can take what they love and turn into a business. So the next time you find yourself thinking wouldn't it be nice to wake up in the morning excited about going to work, stop thinking it and just do it. Take your passion and turn it into your career, it doesn't mean you have to start your own business-though you can, it could mean just finding a company that ignites your passion.

So tell me what you think...could you see this furniture in your home or office??

This Post was brought to you by:

Commercial Real Estate Site Rofo Open For Business

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:47:50 -0500

Established by two former commercial real estate brokers, Alan Bernier and Garrett Krueger, the idea for Rofo—which stands for Right of First Offer—came from their firsthand experience as commercial real estate brokers.

While larger businesses typically had the people and resources on-hand to find and compare space, we saw entrepreneurs and small
businesses struggle repeatedly in their search for the right place to
locate their business.

Rofo's site is easy to navigate, broken into 4 distinct areas, search, needs, advice, and listing additions. This commercial real estate site addresses unfamiliar real estate jargon, average pricing for the area, reliable service providers, and has a forum for questions and answers.

Once items come across your account inbox, you can send property managers requests for showings, conduct Q&A sessions with users, and even publish reviews and directions for fellow users to consider when searching for space and ruminating needs. Mashable

I agree with Paul at Mashable, "that as a search utility alone Rofo is quite good if unfortunately very selective in regional focus." Rofo announced on their blog 9/20/2008 their milestone acquisition of their 6,000th commercial listing in the Bay Area. Rofo is California based and predominately Bay Area focused, but like any good thing with more time and exposure looks like it could grow nationally, possibly even globally.

Rofo will be a great addition to the ever growing residential sites out there, my favorites being Activerain and Trulia.

Financial Rollar Coaster Continues

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:49:29 -0500

Financial sector is in trouble again today, the Dow Jones industrial average down 460 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has fallen 54 points, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 74 points. The big news makers are Lehman Brothers, Merill Lynch, Bank of America, AIG, and the Fed buy up of $70 Billion in mortgage-baked repos.

Last week we discussed the Fannie & Freddie Bailout and in my opinion it was a necessary move by the Treasury but a move that would only maintain the status quo not improve the "credit crunch" or "mortgage meltdown" situation.

Today a few things have happened to strengthen that opinion, the Fed has fulfilled $70 Billion in mortgage-backed repos of the $173 billion in mortgage-backed repos out on the market. Lenders are still not seeing interest in mortgage-backed securities because of global concerns with the US financial industry and with todays news the Feds may be stepping up to buy more of these repos in the not too distant future. Lehman Brothers is looking at bankruptcy and Merill Lynch is being gobbled up by Bank of America at $29 a share, equating to $50 billion in stock.

Finally, AIG is looking to do a 3 part plan to raise $50 billion in liquidity. AIG has negotiated a deal with the state of New York to access $2o billion of its assets held by their subsidiaries to stay in business. There is no plan to have the Fed come in and bailout this company directly, instead the Fed has hired Morgan Stanley to negotiate a bridge loan for AIG. This bridge loan, if it happens, will be based on $20 to $25 billion in treasury reserves on assets that are worth twice that. Rumor had it that Berkshire Hathaway was in talks with AIG but backed out, probably because the deal isn't good enough for Warren Buffet to expend the $50 billion to save this insurance giant. Lehman believes they have until Wednesday to raise the needed capital and from all vantage points this is not a company that we can afford to see fall, so let's hope they can do it.

It is like throwing a rock into a pond and watching the ripples as they flow out into the deeper water. Everything is interconnected, there is no one action that is going to fix the financial, housing, and insurance industries in one fell swoop.

The Fed's are scheduled to meet and possibly cut rates on Tuesday September 16th, with the market shift and subsequent panic, if they do not cut it will be a surprise. Previously expectations on the street were that the Feds would leave the rate unchanged, however they are now expecting that there will be a a 25 to 50 basis point cut. The Fed's have room for a cut and may today feel a need to insure some confidence by cutting the fed funds rate.

Now what does all of this mean to homeowners, home buyers, investors, and the average consumer?

The bad news is the difficulty in obtaining home loans that has been felt for the last year will unfortunately continue. There is no reason that mortgage-backed securities are going to turn into a profitable or even safe investment, if anything they are looking worse than ever, so the tightening on lending guidelines will move forward. For investors out there if you had money tied up in any of these entities you are feeling some definite pain today. Stocks have dropped significantly and quickly, so money has been lost. If you had investment or saving accounts with these institutions you should be protected in most cases, but a good practice is diversification you should never keep all of your money in one place.

The good news for consumers is if the Fed cut happens your interest rate will improve by a quarter to a half of a percent on credit cards, equity lines, car loans, student loans, etc.. Long term interest rates, your 30, 20 and 15 year fixed mortgages will see some short term improvement, so for those individuals that are able to purchase or refinance this is a good time to do it.

When you turn on the news this evening remember to keep it all in perspective, the media is equivalent to a dog with a bone, they will take this news and beat it to death. The outlook will be ground shaking doom and gloom, no different than any other day and any other news story. The experts will you show how this crisis will move into the overall economy and trickle down to the unsuspecting masses. The news is taken from a global world perspective, you are an individual living in a micro world which is affected by this news but not controlled by it.

If you are ready to buy or refinance a home, do it. If you are ready to start or grow a business, do it. And if you are an investor add this information to your ongoing research and invest accordingly. The only thing that has really changed with all of this news is that interest rates may see a short term improvement and investors may need to restructure their investment portfolios. Stay educated and you will make the right decisions.

Fannie & Freddie Bailout a Band-Aid at Best

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:47:32 -0500

The Fed to the rescue....??

This weekend Henry Paulson announced the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In Paulson's words "the housing downturn is at the heart of the economic downturn." Fannie and Freddie combined are projected to have $14 billion in loses. Fannie was able to raise capital, Freddie not so able.

The goal of this Fed plan is supposed to be:

The plan to inject up to $100 billion in each of the government-chartered mortgage companies could not only help lower mortgage rates but, some investors are hoping, buoy the overall economy. The plan could help banks feel more open to write new mortgages and to refinance existing mortgages at lower rates, offering a possible lifeline to consumers struggling with increasing payments.

Is this good news?

Well investors in the stock market seemed to think so, at least on Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose over 250 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index jumped 24 points, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 17 points. This rally was short lived though as the market has opened down today, fickle investors have started to shorten the financial's. Not a big surprise, investors are reactionary and tend to sprint when they should be pacing, today we see that a bit more thought is being given to the ramifications of this takeover.

Now that we have the market's take on this, what does this mean to Joe homeowner and Susie home buyer? The ultimate goal is to create a more advantageous lending environment, thus stimulating the housing market, and the overall economy right? So, will this action by Treasury do that?

In my humble opinion, the answer is no or at least not in the short term. I have personally been in the mortgage trenches these last 6 years and I have seen how the lenders have handled the housing market turn thus far. This move to bailout Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a band-aid at best, it will keep the status quo not create a more favorable lending environment.

Let's recap what has been done thus far to help the mortgage meltdown:

1. The Fed's lower rates, making money cheaper.

2. The Fed's opened up more money to the lenders.

3. The Fed's personally bailed out some of the lenders.

4. The conventional and government loan limits were raised to allow Fannie, Freddie, and more government backed loans.

5. Tax breaks on mortgage insurance extended and no taxation for short sale recipients.

What did these five things do for the mortgage and housing industry up to this point?

1. Banks only want to do Fannie, Freddie, and government backed loans

2. Loan guidelines tightened across the board.

3. Harder for buyers to qualify for loans.

4. Less loans being given to home buyers.

5. Less homes being sold.

Now the Feds are stepping in and bailing out Fannie and Freddie the two entities, excluding FHA and VA, that are doing the most loans. So my question is, if Fannie and Freddie are already backing most of the loans today how does a bailout increase the number of loans that will be given? FHA and VA loans are government backed loans, and like Fannie and Freddie they have tightened their guidelines since the onslaught of the credit crunch, so will the Feds come in and ease up guidelines for their new companies? Obvious answer is no.

So what has changed with the Fed's taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? confidence is the only thing that can be and so far has been helped with this move. For the consumer that means you could see a nice little dip in interest rates. How long will that dip last, is anyone's guess. The bond market is affected by more than just housing and the financial's. You still have oil, inflation, employment, the global economy, world issues, and a presidential election to contend with.

Interest rates are not the reason home buyers are having issues qualifying for loans, it has been the tightening in lending guidelines that were instituted by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA, coupled with the loss of investors for mortgage backed securities that have made obtaining home loans harder and harder.

Before the mortgage meltdown there was a healthy secondary market for mortgage backed securities, which created 100's of loan options and a competitive lending environment-granted it got a little too competitive, but it allowed more people to buy homes. The only way there will be a positive turn in the housing market is if diversity comes back, more lenders, more loan programs. Putting the four major lenders under one boss does not bring diversity into the lending industry, if anything it tells the world that the only mortgage backed securities that are safe to buy are those that are backed by the government.

This move by the Fed to create security is going to do the opposite and handicap lenders, just look at what investors are doing to the financial's today. Now there will be no confidence in a bank's ability to set their own lending guidelines and this is not just for home loans it will move into auto, credit cards, business, and commercial loans.

Personally, I think this move by the Fed helps Fannie and Freddie two very important lending institutions, but hurts the financial industry as a whole.

~Bridget

www.thegetsmartblog.com

www.getsmartlender.com

Fusing Technology with Social Responsibility

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:14:31 -0500

In a previous post Sexy Bluetooth I wrote about the Jawbone 2 Bluetooth headset and how necessity, function, and fashion can all merge together in one device. The Aliph company is the owner of the JAWBONE but the designer is Yves Behar and his company Fuseproject.

Yves Behar is unique in that he believes that it is his mission to bring technology into the human experience. Behar uses design to transform every day items by considering the human need, finding new functionality, while also merging utility and beauty.

Yves Behar felt that the JAWBONE should be more than just a headset and designed it in such a way that it becomes a useful attribute rather than an annoying distraction.

"Humanistic technology rests on your skin, knows when you are talking, take out all the techie and nerdy pieces and make it beautiful. If it isn't beautiful it doesn't belong on your face."

Behar's designs go far beyond a Bluetooth headset, to watches, computers, home interior and technology, footware, as well as architectural pursuits. Yves Behar proves that the merging of art with science not only enhances an object, but can improve the performance and function of that object.

The tag line for Fuseproject is Design Brings Stories To Life, watch this Ted.com video to see the story behind Behar's designs.

Yves Behar on Ted.com

From the Ted website:

Over the past decade, Yves Behar and his firm fuseproject have become the design group that companies turn to for a game-changing idea. Take the re-invention of the Bluetooth headset, for one; or the re-envigoration of the venerable but dowdy Birkenstock line; or Behar's LED-chic Leaf lamp for Herman Miller.

And yes, Behar and fuseproject are the people who put the green bunny ears on the XO laptop -- and are redesigning the next-gen XOXO laptop due in 2010. This quirky but deeply felt project encapsulates much of his recent work, fusing gotta-have-it design with a mission of social responsibility.

"[Behar] has the ability to strip something down to its basic functional logic and then apply a set of emotional and aesthetic considerations to create something unique. It's an art."

Chris Hacker, chief design officer at Johnson & Johnson

www.thegetsmartblog.com

Social Networking....Cut Down the Overload

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:27:44 -0500

In order to capitalize on the social networking phenomenon, you need to ask yourself some questions....

Who are you?

What are you looking for?

Where do you want this machine to take you?

Why are you here?

When will you have the time?

How do you exchange your ideas?

I am sure you know this but there are oodles and oodles of social sites out on the web to join, and though your first inclination may be to jump on as many as possible, if you become part of too many you will never keep up! Your efforts will be diluted and counterproductive. The idea is to connect, build mutually beneficial relationships, and enjoy a little self expression.

Are you a music buff, does your business fall into or compliment the music world? Then you may like one of these:

Bebo * Imeem * Pandora * Ijigg * Last.FM

http://www.social-music.info/

Are you an art or photography connoisseur, or perhaps you are trying to promote a creative business endeavor? Here are a few sites for you:

Flickr * Stumbleupon * Mixx * Squidoo * Myspace

Are you a news or information addict, does your business provide a service that would be benefited by the exchange of information? Then here are some sites to check out:

Digg * Reddit * Del.icio.us * Mixx * Twitter * Plurk

Are you part of the video revolution or would video help your business? Then these sites may interest you:

Youtube * Vimeo * Seesmic * Dailymotion * Break * Stumbleupon

Are you looking for business collaboration and networking? Then pop on by a few of these:

LinkedIn * Plaxo * Startupnation * Zoom Info * Biznik

I haven't even scratched the surface with this list, I could literally go on for days maybe even months listing social and networking sites. So how do you choose which to join and spend what little time you have on? Your personality, motivation, business style and/or type will dictate which social sites you should sign up for.

Whichever way you go the trick with these sites is to know the website's demographic, to be active, and like the name says BE SOCIAL. If you are not meeting people, creating rapport, and establishing mutually beneficial relationships these sites will not help you. Like high school the more popular you are, the more people you will meet, and the more visible your business and website will be.

Finally do not fake it until you make it, the posers are easy to spot, and they will eat you up and spit you out. Don't waste your time, if you can not be there and be real find another way to market yourself and your business.

Here are few more sources you may want to check out:

Wikipedia Social Website List

http://www.mobile-social-network.info/

http://www.social-travel.info/

http://www.social-tv.info/

Brought to you by: GetSmartWomen

Do You Digg It....Changes to the Social Network

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:52:03 -0500

So it looks like DIGG is changin it up a bit!?! Hallelujah! I am a DIGGer but I have not really DUGG as much as I should. The idea behind this site is great:

"Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online."

I find that the reality doesn't meet up with the concept, what I mean by that is that the site is a bit congested and convoluted. When I joined DIGG I thought it would cut down on my web scroungin. I search the net for interesting information, and enjoy it-can we say nerd! This site touts the discover and share component, ergo no need to spend hours searching the web right? Aaah no!

There is so much stuff on this site that doesn't interest me it is hard to find the stuff that does. Also if I find something out there I like unless the site has a DIGG button I wont DIGG it, and though I have DIGG Bro's that shoot me shouts that doesn't lead me to those interesting tidbits I am looking for. DIGG, DUGG, shoot, shout if you need the primer for the DIGG Lingo let me know?

So what are they changing over there in the DIGG world? On June 30th the DIGG Blog announced the roll out of the Recommendation Engine

"Now that there are more than 16,000 stories submitted to the Upcoming section every day, it’s difficult to sort through everything to find the best content." The Recommendation Engine uses your past digging activity to identify what we call Diggers Like You to suggest stories you might like.

It's like they read my mind!!

But what exactly does it do and how does it work, will I meet more people-this is a social site right, and will I finally be able find the good stuff?

Well I think that Technology Review's article answered my questions the best: Technology Review: Digging a Smarter Crowd.

Every time a user digs a story, the system compares that action with the actions of everyone else in the system, and it finds which users have the most digs in common. To keep recommendations from being all over the map, the system calculates connections for each topic separately, so that two users who share an interest in video games won't necessarily be thought to have, say, like opinions on political stories. To keep recommendations diverse, the system shows only a certain number of stories from each compatible user and, each time the user requests recommendations, fills out its quota of suggestions employing stories selected by less compatible users. The recommendation engine also limits the effect that a single dig can have, so that someone who digs a very popular story won't suddenly become connected to thousands of other users. Because the system calculates correlations in real time, using separate servers devoted to performing the computations, Kast says that a new dig will affect the recommendation system within one or two minutes.

That was a mouthful, well in essence they are trying to cut down the clutter and get people connected....good concept. I will wait to see the reality of it though, in the meantime I guess I will get back on the DIGG train and see how this new feature plays out. How about you?

If you are not sure what DIGG is let me know I can definitely start from the beginning and work up to the intricate stuff. DIGG gives me a lot of traffic on my outside blog, it can be a bit time consuming-what isn't, but if used properly very helpful.

Bridget ~ getsmartwomen.com & thegetsmartblog.com

Technorati Tags: DIGG,Recommendation engine,Technology Review

The Big World of Little Technology

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:18:36 -0500

Today we are focusing on the big world of little technology. I'm considered a "little girl"-in stature that is.....and I love small tech that I can put into my purse, bag, or even pocket. It just makes life easier.

I picked out a few essentials gadgets that could prove useful for that person who wants to be able to work from just about anywhere!

__________________________________________________________

Aiptek PocketCinema V10 pocket-size projector

(This isn't out yet but man when it is this little gadget will complete me! I will be able to record, print, and now project all on the go from gadgets that will not break my back to carry!)

Photo: Company, June 5, 2008

Aiptek showcased its PocketCinema V10 mini projector at Computex 2008. Aiptek's PocketCinema V10, is a pocket size media player projector equipped with 3M's revolutionary miniature projection technology, which can project a 50-inch image.
The display content can come from a video capable device via the 3-in-1 AV jack. The device can also playback videos and photos from the 1GB internal memory or the SD/MMC/MS Pro card. The V10 supports JPEG, ASF, AVI and MPEG-4 formats and features a stereo speaker and built-in battery

AIPTEK USA

___________________________________________________________

IS-DV2.4 (Red)
Small, Compact Camcorder w/ 2.4" LCD Display

Photo: Company, June 30, 2008

Multi-function camera: The Aiptek IS-DV2.4 functions like five devices in one—a digital still camera, digital camcorder, MP3 player, voice recorder and data storage device.

8-megapixel photos: Equipped with a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor, the still image resolution of the IS-DV2.4 can be enhanced to 8-megapixels. Enjoy high-quality photos—perfect for prints up to 8” x 10”.

Records movies in MPEG-4 format: Easily record 720 x 480 video clips at 30 frames per second— share them over the Internet by e-mail, post on Web pages or view on your PC or television. State-of-the-art MPEG-4 format lets you capture more video in less disc space.

Up to 8 Mega Pixel Digital Camera
● Record 720 x 480 MPEG-4 Video
● Digital Video Stabilization

● Stereo MP3 Player
● 4x Digital Zoom
● 2.4" Swivel-Reversible LCD

● Flash Strobe
● LED Lights
● 4GB SD Card Slot Expansion

● TV/VCR Output

AIPTEK USA

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Canon Pixma IP90

The Canon Pixma iP90 is a sleek, lightweight, go-anywhere portable inkjet printer that creates full-size documents and color graphics, as well as 4x6-inch color photographs. Thanks to built-in PictBridge and infrared (IrDA) ports, you can print directly from your digital camera, PDA, or cell phone without a computer. You can also add Bluetooth functionality, a battery, or a power adapter for your car.

Turned off, the iP90 snaps shut into a tight, seamless capsule. When open, the front cover becomes an input tray for plain paper or glossy photo media, from legal to credit card size. You can fill the paper tray with either 30 plain pages, five envelopes, or 10 sheets of 4x6-inch photo paper. If you're printing 8x10-inch glossy photos, you'll have to feed them into the machine one at a time.

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Brother MPrint

This has got to be the smallest portable printer out there. The MPrint family of ultra-portable, mobile printers measure just 6.3" x 3.9" x 0.7", and weigh less than 11 ounces! They produce crisp, quiet, 300 dpi printing on five different media cassettes, including notepaper, self-adhesive labels, and 2-ply carbon copy sheets.

Brother MPrint mobile printers interface with Windows^® notebooks and tablet PCs, Pocket PC, Palm, and BlackBerry devices, and Windows Mobile-based Smartphones. Current MPrint models include: the MW-100, with USB and IrDA interfaces; the MW-120, with USB, Serial, and IrDA interfaces; and the MW-140BT, with USB and Bluetooth interfaces.

Included with each printer is a 50-sheet paper cassette and a built-in, rechargeable lithium ion battery capable of printing up to 100 pages on a single charge. Their compact size, internal paper cassette and variety of output media make them a perfect addition to many mobile applications. Software development kits are available for the major OS platforms to integrate mobile printing into new and existing vertical applications.

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Solar Style Solar Charger

Now that you are completely mobile you need to be able to charge those gadgets and let me tell you finding an outlet is not always easy so here is a tool that will help you get the energy you need anywhere.

Recommended for:

·Standard Mobile phones
·Smart phones
·PDAs
·MP3 players
·And other electronic devices with similar or lesser energy consumption/battery needs.
Charger
Output Voltage- 3.6/5.5V
Output Current- >300mA
Dimensions- 107.5x72x22.5mm Weight- 131g
Full Charge- AC/Car= 4-5 Hours Sun= 6-8 Hours
Battery-On-Board (Li-ion)
Capacity- 750mAh
Voltage- 3.7V
mAh- 750
Solar Panels
Output Voltage- 7.0V
Output Current- 180mA(x2)

You do not need direct sunshine to charge, any light will work, and you can continue to charge at night since the energy is stored in the device. It is not waterproof, only works with one device at a time, and though they are working on it the charger can not charge laptops. You can get more information on the Solar Style website.

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Sierra Solar Laptop Charger

Because we can't forget about the laptops. Power your laptop when you’re away from the power lines. Two or three- 10 watt PV modules provide enough power to run and/or charge most laptop computers including nearly all Macintosh as well as PC portables. Anywhere you go, just unfold the solar array, put it in the sunshine, plug in a 12 volt DC lighter adapter and you’re set. A 10 foot cord allows you to be in the shade (like under a tree at the beach) while the solar module is out in the sun working. The Notepower solar charger can charge other 12 Volt DC powered devices with rechargeable batteries too. Cell phones and other devices with DC chargers can be plugged into the Notepower solar charger and recharged as well.

Sierra Solar has three laptop chargers checkout the Sierra website for more info.

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Cardscan Products

I get so many business cards and most of them end up at the bottom of my bag, to be found weeks or months later. I love this little guy, it plugs into my laptop, I scan the card in immediately (front & back) add in notes on where, when, why and then sync it with my Outlook. Bam!

A little snippet from there site:

Scan up to 30 cards a minute
Easy-to-use software is a complete contact management solution, contact information from almost anywhere (business cards, email signatures, web pages and more)
CardScan puts your contact information where you want it and keeps you in sync (Outlook, ACT!, Notes, GoldMine, Palm or Windows Mobile, Blackberry and more)
CardScan keeps your contact data safe, securely backing up your data to our CardScan at Your service online service at no charge

Get more info on the Cardscan website

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So there you have it....small tech solutions that will keep you organized and Green!!

www.thegetsmartblog.com

You've Got Mail

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:52:56 -0500

I don't know about you but I have tons of email accounts, six business and three personal. Now I know that I probably have more accounts than most of you out there but even if you have two or three accounts keeping up on them can be pretty hard.

So what can you do to cut down the time, effort, and frustration of trying to keep up with all of these accounts?

First you should get the accounts to come into your desktop email program. I have Outlook 2007 and Vista as my operating system (wooh is me...Vista is the bane my existence) so you are going to see a lot about Outlook in here but most of these links will address multiple programs and methods of accomplishing this same goal.

I am including links to other websites and blogs, and I know that this may look a bit complicated...perhaps even scary, but it's really not. There are too many Outlook versions and operating systems for me to do it any other way, trust me you will be fine, the links will link you directly into the method that best suits your individual computer setup.

I am not outlining business email accounts as those are easy to pull into Outlook, if you do not know how to do it talk to your company tech support or web administrator they can walk you through POP, IMAP, or Microsoft exchange servers. If your work email comes in as an IMAP or from a Microsoft exchange server it will automatically separate the files out, but POP accounts need to be manually separated so scroll down to the last link.

Now onto the freebie email accounts.....

Gmail is easy to get into Outlook:

1. Tools

2. Account Settings

3. Add Email

4. Name, email address, password, remember password

Vwala...it's that easy!

Hotmail/MSN email accounts couldn't be done previously on the free accounts, now there are a couple of ways to do it. My favorite and the easiest is downloading Outlook Connector 2007 (which is free) and it will do the work for you. You can also use Windows Live this is the program we talked about in last week's post A Blogger's BFF. Finally if you are still old school and have older versions of Outlook the Other Methods section is for you.

Getting Hotmail and MSN free accounts into Outlook:

Outlook Connector:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7aad7e6a-931e-438a-950c-5e9ea66322d4&displaylang=en

Other Methods:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/11/02/set-up-and-add-hotmail-account-in-microsoft-outlook-2007/

Now Yahoo, to get Yahoo into Outlook there are a couple of ways to do it. If you have Vista expect problems-well if you have vista you already know that, and I cannot promise that if and when you do get it to work that it will continue to work. Outlook 2007 needs a special download which is the Ypop link below and it too is in testing/beta phase so check out their discussion group for updates and fixes.

Getting Yahoo free accounts into Outlook:

http://email.about.com/od/yahoomailtips/Yahoo_Mail_Tips_Tricks_and_Secrets.htm

Ypop download for Outlook 2007:

http://ypopsemail.com/download

For those Firefox users you can actually get to your email accounts through your web browser, check out this link below for more information.

http://mashable.com/2007/08/27/firefox-email/

Segregation is a Good Thing!!

Now that you have all of the email accounts coming into good old Outlook, you should separate them so they do not come in as a mass jumble to your in-box. The Outlook Connector will automatically create a separate file for hotmail, but for the remainder you will have to do it yourself. The link below will walk you through each version of Outlook and how you can accomplish email segregation. It took me some finagling with the first one, as a new task often does, but from there it is like clockwork!

Separating all those email accounts:

Separate mail coming from multiple POP3 accounts | HowTo-Outlook

I highly recommend taking the time to do this, systematizing and organizing doesn't sound exciting, but it will save you time and money in the end. Who couldn't use more time and less headaches!!

Why I love Lijit.com

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:42:17 -0500

Lijit is a “personal” search engine it is a tool that allows people to see what you are up to in the big beautiful social Internet world! It covers social and group associations, all of your content, blog statistics, and your blog buddies.

So let’s break down what I like about each area:

Social & Group Associations - Lijit is a handy way of showing people where you are at and how they can find you. The widget is easy to create, you can put it anywhere, and it doesn’t take up much room. My content – This portion really falls in line with the social & group associations, by clicking on the icons you can go see what I am digging, stumbling, favorite(ing), Twitting, etc. You can also use the search box to search through my blog posts. The thing that would make this a bit cooler would be if you could use the search box and it searched all my social sites as well as my blog for content. It would also be cool if they could add Ted.com I love that site and Qik.com so I have another reason to get a new phone (hint, hint).

Blog Statistics - I like this feature most of all. I am a visual person and I ~~have control issues~~ like clear cut organization with cool graphics, Lijit has that and more. The site shows you page views, top posts, searches, and where readers came from. The where is the coolest because it not only looks at where on the Internet you are coming from but where in the world. It breaks it all down with summaries, charts, graphs, and pictures – yes I am a nerd and proud of it! Blog Buddies - I haven’t really availed myself of this feature, it includes your blogroll, any blogs you want to watch (Google reader does this for me), blogs in MyBlogLog communities (easier to pick thru than MyBlogLog), and other Lijit users (I don’t have any Lijit buddies).

Search Engine - I hadn’t checked this feature out much until I wrote this post but it is kinda cool if you know what you’re doing with it. You can put in search terms and it will first search my blogs and then you can also search the web (web portion powered by the Google gods). I know that a couple of people have used it because my stats told me so! Whoever you are I hope you found what you were looking for.

Support – Initially I wasn’t too happy with their support because I couldn’t figure out how to get to them quickly (it’s that instant gratification control thing I have). Then one day I got frustrated because I couldn’t figure out how to get Lijit to recognize MyBlogLog and Flickr, in my frustration I blasted a whinny twit/tweet, whatever. It said something like, “Lijit is p#@^*ing me off and the worst part of it is that it’s probably my fault” well within minutes Tara from Lijit Twitters me. So sweetly too; “I saw your twitter can I help you?” Once I got over my shock and Big Brother conspiracy moment I got her to help me, and I apologized for slamming them on Twitter (my mother told me my mouth would get me in trouble one day)!

Walking the Talk – So it turns out that Lijit is using Twitter to get in touch with their members and for customer support. That is pretty cool…I like it! I am not sure how long they’ll keep that up, have you seen what people put on that site (well duh you just saw what I brilliantly put on there)? But it is pretty sweet that they are out there in the thick of things.

So be careful what you say on Twitter - they are watching….

Qik.com - Live Streaming Video From Your Phone

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:42:10 -0500

Qik.com, Qik enables you to stream live video directly from your cell phone!

Now, I am not a 100% sure which carriers have which phone models-you will have to check that out on your own, so if it turns out that Verizon has one of these phones, hooray! I have a Blackberry without the camera because Verizon can't get in the game doesn't have that model. In any case Blackberry and iPhone don't look to be compatible at this time. Some of these Nokia models are cheap though, I would spend the dough just to have live streaming video from anywhere... that is too much!

For real estate this could be great, show property to anyone anywhere. No more redundancy, at a caravan find a property stream it to your website. Out and about find a perfect property for that very particular client call them up stream the video live. I love things that make life easier!!

Here are the specs for this service from their website:

Since Qik is new to this they say that they are constantly adding support for new phones - which would be nice since none of the phones are Blackberry or iPhone! Currently, they support video streaming on Nokia S60 phones: N71, N73, N75, N76, N77, N80, N82, N91, N92, N93i, N95, E50, E51, E61i, E65, E70m E90 Communicator, 3250, 5500, 5700 Xpress Music, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, and 6290. You also need a Data Plan and it is advisable to have an Unlimited Data Plan from your service provider as video streaming can consume considerable amount of bandwidth.

This company is in their alpha release so registration is only through invitations. If you are interested, you can go to Qik.com and enter your phone number. They send you an SMS with a link to verify your request. Once you click the link from the SMS and confirm your request they will evaluate your request and get back to you.

WujWuj...No More Crappy Gifts

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:00:00 -0500

Party Time!! I don't know about you but for almost all party occasions my friends and I use evite.com. Evite is easy to use, it's easy to manage the guest list, it's cutesy-which of course is important, and it can be monitored from anywhere. So when planning a get together most of the time I go to that site to do it, but I was out there surfing the web again...I have no life, and I found a new site that I think is super cool!!

WUJWUJ.com is evite with group gifting (evite+egift)....how killer is that! WUJWUJ according to the website stands for With Upmost Joy - like it. You sign up (which is free), create your event, add your attendees, and you can then select gifts for everyone to contribute to. So if you have a graduation, special birthday, or anniversary, anything that you want to get some people in on a good gift for-now you can do it online.

My family is everywhere, California, Florida, Hawaii, Washington, Colorado, Maryland, the list goes on. Trying to get everyone coordinated to go in on a gift is difficult, who's contributing, who collects, who purchases, who delivers the gift, it is always such a pain to figure out. So this website looks great, you pick the gift it is included in the invitation, your invitees (is that a word?) go to the "event" page contribute to the gift and WujWuj purchases it and sends it to the address listed.

I love the virtual world!!

So that's today's get smart tip, I would love to hear your feedback about the site....

Technorati Profile

Dictation & Translation Tools

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:09:00 -0500

There are two tools I want to talk about for you dictators!! That is "dictators" that like to dictate rather than write....I do not have tools for you tyrannical leaders out there, sorry!

The first cool tool is Jott a voice to text service that allows you to call an 800 number and turn your spoken wisdom into emails, text reminders, a to-do list, or Twitter, post a blog, text a group, the list goes on and on. This technological marvel is the brainchild of two guys with long complicated names headquartered in Seattle, WA. Since its introduction in late 2006, Jott has made world class voice transcription accessible to anyone with a cell phone. This is a free service.

Just in case you are looking for this same capability but do not want to call in to a number there is Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance, it starts at $99. Here is a little snippet from their website:

With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard you can talk to your computer and watch words quickly appear in documents, e-mails, instant messages and even surf the web simply by speaking! It's amazingly accurate - up to 99% - and really easy to use. There's no script reading or "voice training" required, so you can get started dictating right away. Perfect for the whole family - busy parents, kids just learning to type, and even grandparents!

Sounds super fun....huh? Actually it isn't half bad, setting up is a bit of a pain but once you get the hang of it the program works rather well.

Finally this is not a dictation tool but once you have your voice turned into text you can go to this site below and translate it into another language.

http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/

Hopefully these tools will help you take some of the clutter out of your day. Let me know what you think of these sources, would love to hear the feedback.

Investing in Green Communities.....looking for feedback

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:41:12 -0500

I found this article below online and I wanted to see if anyone had any feedback? The article talks about being a great buy for investors. I understand the advantages for primary and/or second home purchasers (I've written about it) and possible long term potential for investors, but not short term. I also think it is an informative article but with no real facts on where these communities are or how to find them, so any feedback there would be appreciated also.

Are Sustainable Living Communities the Next Hot Real Estate Market? "Green" Real Estate Can Save You Plenty of "GreenBacks"

Spy Pig....The Name Says It All

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:41:21 -0500

I am a sucker for new and cool gadgets! I also like to know how my marketing, communication efforts, and time allocation is paying off. Now I do not want to be too big brother, because like everyone else out there I have avoidance and procrastination issues, but knowing when someone has read my email could be useful. In marketing I moved away from mailers because I couldn't tell when people received the mailer and I didn't get enough feedback telling me what people thought of the "item of value." I switched instead to email campaigns and most especially video email campaigns so I could see when and how many times my clients/business partners watched the video. The change was astounding, I got more business, and incredible feedback so much so that I have never looked back. I am a video junkie...and proud of it!

Now after reading a blog post at Creativebits.org I have a new toy that may come in handy. It is called SpyPig, the name alone makes me want to use it. Does anyone ever tell you that they didn't get your email? Usually it is the email they didn't want to get. Now you can find out when your email has been read by the recipient! No more guessing: "Has he or she read my email yet?" I know you can send out a read receipt with your email but who really clicks a response when that pops up...I know I don't. SpyPig is a simple email tracking system that sends you a notification email as soon as the recipient opens and reads your message. It works with virtually all modern email programs: Outlook, Eudora, Yahoo Email, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL Email and many others.

I am still playing with this new and cool gadget but so far I would say that it is a something you may want to use here and there and not on your bulk emails. The website says you can use it on bulk emails you just won't know who read the email, but you will get notified when it is read.

Best of all, SpyPig is FREE! No spam, no virus, no adware, no spyware. You can use it as often as you like, and there's no catch.

Check it out and tell me what you think www.spypig.com

Show Me the Money

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:10:21 -0500

Starting or even running a small business often requires you to explore multiple options for capital,so once you've exhausted your local resources where do you go next? Where banks are scaling back it seems more and more opportunities for private money are popping up. We will look at two venture capital and/or angel money sources and two private people to people lending websites.

A couple of investor-entrepreneur connection websites that may fit your needs are the GoBIGNetwork.com and RaiseCapital.com. Go Big Founded in 2006, already has 70,000 start-ups and 4,000 investors online. They also boast that 82% of the Member Requests that are posted to the system are responded to. RaiseCapital.com started in 2007, lists over 2,300 investors on their site and does not give any other statistics from there.

Both online fund generation portals are free to join but then charge you for upgrades and or premium services, they both also try to supplement the investor-entrepreneur connections by offering links to business resources, news, and communities. Members of Go BIG can either search profiles of other members and contact them or they can post a request (like a classified ad) and let other members see what they are looking for. Members pay a fee to post their requests and to contact other members of the network who they do not have a relationship with. As a member seeking capital on RaiseCarpital.com, you will be able to market your venture to investors using text descriptions, pictures and/or streaming video. Additional free benefits include your own posting blog, a counter that allows you to see how many people viewed your post, a unique URL for your venture, and premium services such as showcase, feature and highlighted posts.

Where Go Big is more basic with text style classified ads, RaiseCapital.com allows you to use pictures, video, and text in your posts which are useful in giving potential investors an inside feel for you business. Go Big has more business resources to offer, with job postings and service provider communities.

So you've looked at the investor route and don't want them messing with your business let's look at private loan scenarios. Two private loan websites to consider are LendingClub.com and Prosper.com which bring individual borrowers and lenders together. Lending Club is a social lending network where members can borrow money and lend money among themselves at better interest rates. LendingClub.com bases loan rates on the borrower's credit profile borrowers get low interest rates, and lenders get better returns. At Prosper.com, parties on both sides negotiate the rate, though borrowers can set a maximum they are willing to pay. The companies oversee loan repayment and provide all the necessary paperwork. Some borrowers have found this is an easier way to get money, at more favorable terms, than through traditional sources.

Both of these sites are free to join and connect on, their fees start when a deal has been struck and the loan needs to be drawn up and disbursed. There are fees charged to the borrower, lender, and collection fees should the borrower stop paying. Fees for the borrower range from .75% of the loan amount up to 3% depending on the borrower profile and website. A 1% servicing fee is charged to the lender on both sites, and collection fees vary should these services be needed. Interest rates also differ depending on the site and the borrower profile, Lending Club sets the rates on the borrower profile, while Prosper allows the borrower and lender to negotiate terms.

So if you have found that your local bank, government, grant program, or local investors are not interested in your business you may want to take that leap into the Internet world and see what can be found online. The results may surprise you.

Blogs That Talk

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:24:07 -0500

So you are sitting down to write your blog, you have tons of ideas and you are ready to go, but then the idea of sitting down organizing and typing out your thoughts just seems too tedious for words! So what do you do? Well you could just do a video but for us ego driven women that is work in its own right, you have to do your hair, put your make-up on, find the right top, set the right lighting……

I like to mix it up a bit find new ways to do things, really I like to find easier ways to do things, but new and easy go hand in hand for me. I started playing around on the internet, I really didn’t know what I was looking for but then I found BlogTalkRadio.com. Interesting, I do not have to write or get gussied up and I can pull other people into my blog by interviewing them. New, easy, and it is free what more could a smart girl ask for?!

So what is it this talk radio thing, well low and behold it is a social networking website….surprise, surprise. According to the site you have the features listed below as part of your membership.

Free Internet radio talk show: No software download Free.
Shared Revenue Program. [banner and audio adds, host plugs]
Live Chat: Lets hosts chat with listeners during and after live show
Multiple participants: Receive up to 5 simultaneous guests/listeners on your show
Promotional Tools: Copy and paste flash player and buttons to any blog or web site
Show Archive: Saved automatically and available as MP3, RSS subscription or iTunes
Reminders: Customized alerts by email or phone of upcoming shows
Friends and Favorites; Collect listeners and add your favorite shows
Customizable Profile: Add video, a blog, links to other sites or other widgets

What I like about this is that you can meet more people, mix up the drudgery of day to day blogging, and you do not have to worry about spell check. Nice!! Now there are some of you that are saying what am I going to talk about and who am I going to interview? My answer is the sky’s the limit! Have fun with this, get creative, hide in the anonymity of radio. Of course we will have to see if I can walk the talk because Get Smart Women has just signed up and we are working on our radio platform and schedule.

If the idea of radio listeners scares the bejeezuz out of you, there are other ways to put audio interviews and audio tracts on your blog or website. You can also have your audio transcribed and put that on your website as a downloadable resource. I wasn't kidding when I said the sky’s the limit…..so go crazy!!

Here are a few links to check out:

http://castingwords.com/

http://www.greatteleseminars.com/

http://www.mychingo.com/

http://recordedmoments.com/

http://thebasementventures.com/

http://www.helloworld.com/seeclearly/

http://www.audioacrobat.com/

How Green Are you??

Bridget Ayers (GSW Consulting Group) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:37:32 -0500

Well Al Gore may have been green with envy when he lost the presidential race, but leave it to a politician to turn green into a good thing. When Al Gore came out with his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" I wondered what his angle was. I knew about his previous book "Earth in Balance" but that was published a long time ago, and as we know most politicians turn their good intentions into political agendas, so I didn't pay Gore much attention when the documentary came out. Then he goes and wins an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize who can ignore him now and really if I am honest I do not want to ignore him. I appreciate the books, the documentary, and even his sense of humor which was far from evident as Vice President.

So Gore you started the train and now it is rumbling quite quickly and loudly down the track. I really can't give him credit for the whole kit and caboodle, one way to get people to listen is to hit their pocket book. Throw in high gas prices, a little recession, some inflation and you have the perfect ecological awareness cocktail. So where do we go from here? Well I for one am looking around to not only do my part by recycling and buying energy efficient appliances, but also at ways to stimulate green technology and industry diversification.

The lagging US economy needs a transfusion and what better way to get that fresh blood pumping then to go green. Green companies, cars, homes, technology, energy, and ultimately communities. This green movement is everywhere and I couldn't be happier, I happen to look pretty good in green. In my search to be a Green Girl I have found quite a few ways to bring the green in, here are a few of the areas I have found to get a little green.

Green Real Estate: http://www.ecobroker.com/

The EcoBroker green real estate web site is a resource for real estate professionals and consumers looking to buy, sell, or educate themselves on green real estate. The web site has some good resources for converting a home into a green home, buying a green home, or even getting a green mortgage. On the mortgage side the website gives a "snap shot" of the benefits of a green mortgage and then directs you to a few lenders that can help you. The mortgage they are highlighting is the Fannie Mae EEM (energy efficient mortgage) which they say can go up to 115% of the value of your home. What they do not say is that you still need to bring in the minimum down payment required by Fannie Mae and then you can include the cost to convert or upgrade your home into an energy efficient home into the mortgage. FHA and VA also have EEM's, and FHA actually takes into account the monthly utility bill savings the home owner will have into the qualifying debt ratios.

Green Tax Deductions: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits

The link above has a comprehensive list of what energy efficient tax credits can be claimed by home owners for 2006 & 2007. Though many of these credits expire in 2007 some have been extended to 2008, and if we are smart in this election year we will work to get these type of tax credits/deductions increased and extended further into the future. One important point to take into account is that even if there is no tax credit for energy efficient homes and appliances and initially these products may cost more to purchase than standard models, they will pay you back in lower energy bills within a reasonable amount of time.

Green Driving: http://www.greencar.com/

Whether you are looking for a hybrid, an electric car, an alternate fuel vehicle, or just a smart car, greencar.com will keep in you in Know! This website highlights what is here, what's coming, and what's just hype. Qualifying alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) purchased or placed into service between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2010 may be eligible for a federal income tax credit of up to $4,000. Vehicles placed into service before January 1, 2005 may be eligible for a $2,000 clean-fuel vehicle tax deduction. Check with your CPA to see if there are additional tax advantages to owning green automobiles.

Green Gadgets: http://www.greendaily.com/2007/12/19/best-of-2007-8-coolest-green-gadgets/

Now for the tech lover, her are the cool green-theme gadgets to keep your must-have tech toys working. Greendaily.com released their 8 favorite gadgets for 2007 that will lower your electric bill and save a tiny bit of planet earth. This is a great website to help you keep up on just about anything green.

I hope you look good in green as well, because it looks like green is taking over, it's about time!