Virginia DeBolt's blog

Women in Tech: Technically Women

2009-07-04T09:39:35-05:00

Welcome Technically Women into the world of women in tech. Technically Women is a fairly new site, organized by an international group of business women who intend to examine the way technology is changing the world of business.

I want to give you a mini-profile of the business women involved in the site. Ten women create the core of Technically Women. When I looked at their About page, the first thing I noticed was that each woman gave her Twitter info first in her profile. Not a job title, not a URL to her business site: a Twitter link. I find that a fascinating clue to what this powerhouse group of women will do to market themselves and their website.

Let's take a quick look at each of the women who make up Technically Women.

First is Cathy Brooks (@CathyBrooks). Cathy runs a site called Other Than That. She's a journalist who writes in places like Bitch Buzz and The Huffington Post. She's worked with Guidewire Group and helped develop the LeWeb3 Conference.

Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) is a Twitter maven who I've written about before and who may already be familiar to BlogHer readers. Her business site is Pistachio Consulting. She's been writing a book called Twitter for Dummies, which looks like it might be ready just about the time BlogHer09 convenes in Chicago. Laura will be speaking at BlogHer09 on a panel called Advanced Social Media, Syndication and Stats.

Maggie Fox (@MaggieFox) is an expert in big business, with experience in working with corporate-sized clients. Her own business, Social Media Group is a large company. She's the CEO and founder. Her past positions include working for New Sun Creative and in broadcasting.

Rachel Happe (@rhappe) moves in the world of enterprise social networking and enterprise software applications. She co-founded a business called The Community Roundtable and writes at The Social Organization. The Social Organization has a backlog of great posts that prompted me to subscribe to the feed for more of what Rachel has to say.

Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter) writes for ZDNet's Social Business Blog and is a co-host of Quick-n-Dirty on Blog Talk Radio. Her blog is Media Phyter. I subscribed to this blog, too. I cannot resist a technology blogger, especially one who will tattoo her blog name on the back of her neck.

Adele McAlear (@AdeleMcAlear) runs McAlear Marketing and a blog called Marketing Monster. Adele was a co-founder of Digital Eve way back in 2000. Digital Eve was a early site bring women together around the topic of technology. It offers support and education and has real-world chapters in locations around the world.

Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) comes from re: The Auditors about the accounting industry. Francine is a blogger at The Huffington Post. She's writing a book about the Big 4 audit firms which is tentatively titled The Button-Down Mafia - How the Big 4 Audit Firms Run A Racket on Investors. Francine is the President of McKenna Partners LLC.

Anne Kathrine Petterøe (@yojibee) comes from a background in web design. Her blog is Yojibee, which she tells us is pronounced yo-j-ee-bee. Anne's interests include her work for SAP and the Adobe SAP Alliance.

Marilyn Pratt (@MarilynPratt) also worked for SAP in the SAP Developer Network. Her background is in theater and acting; she once lived in a kibbutz. She blogs at A time to mourn a time to rejoice.... and Greenshow.me.

This brings us near the end of the alphabet and to the final name as a founder of Technically Women.

Susan Scrupski (@ITSinsider) is founder of SoCo Partners, a firm that helps companies with socio-collaborative engagement or adopting social media strategies for business. Susan blogs at IT Insider, where she coins words like "collaborosphere" to explain what her work and interests are all about.

Technically Women is three months old. To date, there are 9 posts on the site. In spite of this modest beginnning, I have high hopes that the women involved will provide interested readers like myself a steady stream of leadership and information. Here's to you, Technically Women, may you grow and prosper.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Michael Jackson on TMZ, Iran on Twitter: The Social Media News

2009-06-30T07:16:48-05:00

Remember how remarkable it seemed several months ago when a plane sat down in the Hudson River and the first news and photos of the crash came from Twitter? Then the fly ash spill in TVA's Kingston plant was covered first on Twitter. That was about the time that articles about how the old media just didn't get digital media started appearing.

An economic meltdown that dumped publishing and media into a period of hard times along with the rest of society came next, bringing a series of new articles and speculation about how media was going to survive and adapt. Newspapers are closing or moving to web only operations, or just struggling along hoping the weather the economic situation.

Media was big news again with the Iran election. Many mainstream media outlets were getting their news from blogs, YouTube, and Twitter. With journalists scarce in Iran, the "organized" media outlets were struggling to get the story by following what they could from the people on the ground who were tweeting and uploading video to YouTube.

Which brings us to the celebrity deaths in the past week, particularly the death of Michael Jackson. TMZ a gossip site with a reputation as trash, broke the story of Jackson's death. Tweets went out within seconds and the quest for news on the topic was immediate and overwhelming. But nobody wanted to take the word of TMZ. News people wanted to hear from The LA Times or some other big media outlet that they considered "trustworthy."

That's a long lead-up to the topic I want to discuss. What are people thinking and saying about the media and the reporting of events regarding Michael Jackson? Here are a few comments.

Pauline from webgrrls reports that she was at the nail salon. In Cyberspace Behavior when Celebrities Die she said,

I was at my local nail salon when the headlines on television caught everyone’s attention: Michael Jackson passed away. As I sat in my massage chair getting a pedicure, I automatically reached for my phone, but unfortunately had no Internet service in that area. I received texts and made a phone call to a friend, while looking up at the television screen to see the news unfold. Other women around me pulled out their phones to call and text the news at a frantic pace. While the shock was palpable in the salon, I started thinking about what was going on in cyberspace.

I first heard the news from Twitter. I told my two grandchildren and they both immediately called their mothers to tell them. As soon as the calls were finished, they started texting friends. But, like Pauline, my thoughts went immediately to how the story was being reported. We had Ryan Seacrest on the radio in the car—oh, the things you must listen to when driving your grandkids—and he was hesitant to confirm TMZ, he quoted CNN's more tentative reports that it was a coma for several more minutes.

Not to make less of people's memories of Michael Jackson, but I was interested in the social media aspect of the story from the very first.

TMZ breaks news Michael Jackson is dead; does that also spell the death of traditional media showbiz coverage? from TampaBay.com:

It also raises yet another challenge for traditional news outlets, still scrambling to keep pace with a younger pop culture press moving quicker to break and advance the hottest showbusiness news.

Early in the reporting, people attached caveats to the news. At Written, Inc's Michael Jackson dead, the comment was,

Ooh, it's turning into a really bad week for celebrities - if the report from gutter-grabbing celeb "news" site TMZ.com is true.

At BNET, Catherine P. Taylor wrote Michael Jackson's Death Illustrates How Much Media Has Changed. Her points, which I abbreviate here, are:

1. That, unfortunately, the notion of confirming a story is becoming quaint.
2. That almost everyone wanted in on the story in the name of traffic (I suppose you could include this blog in that … go ahead).
3. That if real-time search has a business model it’s in these huge, spiking news stories, particularly news stories with a heavy commercial angle. While there’s no real commerce to be had in the Iran protests, nor should there be, the sudden interest in a dead celebrity’s entertainment output should mean dollar signs for media.
4. That user-generated content shows the problems with the TMZ age writ-large, when anyone can publish anything, if they feel like it — and distribute it to millions.

Catherine's points mentioned search. According to Search Engine Journal's early article called Michael Jackson Dead: Microsoft Bing FAILS in Coverage, Twitter and Facebook Break News, the search engine response to the story was very slow.

In terms of search relevance and breaking news, even with conflicting news amongst various media outlets and social media, Google has not caught up to the rush of Michael Jackson news. Google is showing only ONE headline in its Google News Universal Search Onebox about the rumored passing of Jackson . . .

Yahoo Search News Shortcuts, on the other hand, is right on top of the news. . . .

Is Google Search lagging in breaking news coverage? Indeed it is. Microsoft BING however, has ABSOLUTELY FAILED in their coverage of the passing of Michael

Once the news was finally accepted as real by mainstream media, they went on a reporting frenzy of their own that continues to unfold. Twitter almost crashed from all the comments about Michael Jackson that people wanted to share. Twitter was so full of Jackson tweets that people began complaining that other things were more important. Laura Fitton, aka @Pistashio, commented,

Pistachio But see, Twitter's about "what do we have in common." 500 million have just Thriller in common, let alone the rest of his life/career...

We all have pop culture in common, but I think we need to remember that news about Iran's election was big, too. And when the fly ash story broke it was pre-Oprah, pre-Ashton Kutcher, pre Twitter goes mainstream. Twitter didn't almost crash over the plane in the Hudson, either. But Twitter has been growing so fast you can't really compare one event to another one months later in terms of tweets because of increased membership on Twitter.

Big media had defenders for its reluctance to accept the word of TMZ with stories like What the Michael Jackson / TMZ news timing teaches us about credibility at Eat Sleep Publish.

If anything, what this incident proves is that credibility is a very valuable quality. TMZ bet on the accuracy of their story, and they won that bet. Why make the bet? They want to earn a reputation for credibility.

And you know what “old media” has in droves right now? Credibility. Michael Jackson wasn’t, as far as I could tell, widely considered dead until the LA Times independently reported that doctors had pronounced him dead.

It’s not true until I say it’s true. That’s power.

News as a social medium at the San Francisco Chronicle said,

Jeff Jarvis, director of the interactive journalism program at City University of New York and author of the media blog BuzzMachine, said the growing popularity of social-media sites is recasting the job of traditional journalists. He sees them as curating, vetting and giving context to news that bubbles up from teams of reliable amateurs they've already recruited.

Curating and vetting. That's what we saw with the news from Iran. The man in the street tweets something and the journalists curate and vet. Social media feeds the mainstream media. It used to be the other way around. CNN even has a site for citizen journalism called iReport.

In Is Faster Better? Or is it Just Faster? Sarah Perez argues,

You see, I actually watched the CNN coverage and it was good. . . .

It also was a lot more interesting that watching a million “RIP MJ” tweets stream by.

Sarah's comments relate to the story after it was confirmed by traditional media. Does that mean quality is measured by depth (aka curating and vetting.) Or is it turning into something more immediate? There's the initial moment when we think, "OMG, Michael Jackson died," and then there's the feeding frenzy for details that follows. I think I'm more interested in the "OMG" moment in this article, and not so much in how the week played out after the news was blessed by big media.

An interesting perspective on the overloading of websites relates back to the previous quote from Laura Fitton. In Michael Jackson, Media Convergence and The Decline of the Global Superstar we find:

The mass media’s dependence on new media, especially of this nature, is pointing to a new media convergence that is both liberating and alarming. Do we need this many perspectives to contend with, and how much is verified before stated on air? Immediacy in any breaking event is always a waste of time because details will settle and change, and these social networking platforms are probably the most immediate forms of media there ever were. The crash of these technology-based social networks ostensibly shows an active rather than passive collectivity, meaning rather than experiencing a historical moment together via the exact same channels (limited to a few mass media networks), people wanted to reach out and create their own moment, their own reportage and rapport; however, this crash of systems also points to some intense displays of cultural capital, something a lot of these social networks are built upon.

Waxing Philosophical took a different approach in 3 Unexpected Economic Effects of Michael Jackson’s Death. She talked about money, and her points (which I again abbreviate) are:

1. If Michael Jackson’s death can break the internet, what will we do when there’s a global meltdown for reals?
2. Even a millionaire (billionaire?) needs a budget.
3. Jackson’s debt-ridden estate might just be saved by an unexpected run on iTunes.

In the next news cycle or during the next big story, will mainstream media remain inclined to wait for confirmation from the AP or The New York Times? Or will we begin to accept the word of sources that may be regarded as sleazy some of the time? Is news turning into the world according to Twitter?

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Super Additions to the Technology Blogs

2009-06-27T09:00:00-05:00

Several super technology bloggers have joined BlogHer lately. Since a notice of their new blog listing comes to my inbox, I've been busy subscribing to great blogs for the past couple of weeks. I'm really impressed with what I'm seeing and hope you will find our new BlogHers as interesting as I do.

Case in point: Lgesin's Blog, the work of Laura Gesin. Laura is a high school teacher in New Jersey. She offers up vegan recipes, education commentary, and technology posts. Quite a combination of topics, but she makes it work. Her blog is young; her food photos are outstanding. Give her some love to encourage her to keep going. Among her tech posts, you'll find Is #followfriday freaky or friendly? My experience with this Twitter phenomenon. She likes #followfriday, which I mostly find annoying. Here's why Laura likes it.

I believe the power of Twitter lies in its potential for networking. The opportunity to interact with people of similar interests and professions without the limitation of proximity, economy or technology makes Twitter my social and professional networking tool of preference. I started actively tweeting on April 20th and this week, I reached 400 followers; I follow approximately 350 of those twitterers (sorry Brittney, just not into that sex tape).

She also admits,

I blame Twitter for my newfound vegan lifestyle, all thanks to #followfriday.

Other interesting posts on lgesin's Blog include Social Networking vs. Internet Safety or … and Facebook is my new classroom.

You'll enjoy the hilarious antics at My Nephew is a Poodle and Other Random Thoughts from Pam Victor. Pam is an improv comedian and homeschooling parent. Recently she's been running a series on Facebook, beginning with My First Session with Dr. Facebook and moving to "Facebook Rehab" by Samantha Greene, wherein "Samantha Greene" begins a series of posts on Facebook addiction with this warning,

Warning: The following is a diary of one woman’s Facebook withdrawal program. Because of the intense nature of this endeavor, material in here will not be suitable for young readers and those with delicate sensibilities. Reader discretion is advised.

After 6 posts, we reach Facebook Rehab 6: The Epilogue in which we learn,

Michael Corleone and I have something in common besides a love for Diane Keaton: “Just when I thought I was out….they pull me back in.” Facebook is my Mafia godfather, forcing me to prostrate myself and kiss his ring daily in the form of status updates and socializing with people tens and a hundreds and thousands of miles away.

There are plenty of posts about parenting at My Nephew is a Poodle and Other Random Thoughts as well.

I'm happy to feature a blog from Gail Carmichael, a grad student working on a Masters in Computer Science. Her blog is The Female Perspective of Computer Science. Gail talks about everything from games (Zombies! and Becoming Viral with the Sims 3) to Teaching Computer Science with Augmented Reality. In the latter post, she said,

After watching the video about the augmented reality zombies game, I was thinking to myself, "What kind of cool stuff can I make for my PhD?" I know I really want to work on augmented reality (whether it's for the main dissertation or smaller research projects). I'm also rather interested in the role video games can play in education (either as entertainment designed to teach new skills, or as a motivation for learning computer science). Combining all these things together only seems natural.

As you might expect from a blog called The Female Perspective of Computer Science, Gail has quite a few posts on the topic of Women.

Finding new techonology bloggers is always a cause for celebration to me. Welcome to these new additions to the BlogHer technology blogroll.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Reports from The 140 Characters Conference

2009-06-23T09:34:14-05:00

We all know that if it's 140 characters it must be Twitter. Jeff Pulver organized The 140 Character Conference, held June 16-17 in New York City. There are future conferences in the works, to be held in Los Angeles and London.

Pulver's description of the conference:

The schedule for this two day event was unique and fast paced. It was my intention to provide a platform for as many people as possible to share their thoughts and engage in conversation with the attending delegates. You will find individual talks set to: 10 minutes; “Featured talks” 15 and 20 minutes and the various panel discussions are set for 15 and 20 minutes.

The format set up by Pulver seemed to bring about as much conversation as Twitter itself has. Aliza Sherman, writing at Web Worker Daily in The 140 Character Conference, or Why Twitter Matters Now commented,

There was as much grumbling about the Twitter-style format of the 140 Character Conference in New York this week as there often is about 140-character limit in Twitter itself. Anything new or different can drive some people up the wall. Others, however, embrace the newness and the challenge of doing something completely different, and that is where the conference broke new ground, or at least it felt like that to many of us.

She wrote her observations about the conference in the post. It's worth your time to check them out.

Connect with Your Teens was there. In her post Twitter 140 Characters Conference Highlights she wrote,

The number one highlight of the conference was the panel on TV newsers. Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) was the moderator and Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) and her producer were there as well as Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn) and his colleague from CNN. What a heated and intelligent discussion. CNN had been criticized over the past weekend for not covering the Iran election protests enough. Twitter took the lead in this coverage, so much so that the U.S. State Department asked twitter to postpone a scheduled shutdown for maintenace. Rick Sanchez was very loud and persistent in his defence of CNN. Scoble said that twitter won't take over the news media but will force it into a smaller role. Ann Curry has become my new idol. Every word out of her mouth was gold.

Connect with Your Teens is not the only attendee who was impressed with Ann Curry's remarks. Jackie Danicki blogged about the conference in 140 Characters Conference, NYC - day one. She managed a photo with Ann Curry and linked to more about what Curry had to say in this article by Gillian Reagan in the New York Observer. Reagan quoted Curry:

Ms. Curry had just returned from Iran to tape an hour-long special titled "Inside Iran" for Dateline NBC, which aired Sunday night. Ms. Curry blogged her coverage for Dateline’s site, took pictures during her tour and, of course, Twittered.

"There is a set of rules,” she said about her “real-time” reporting. “I feel a great obligation never to Twitter something that is wrong."

Annie at banannie trippin' wrote about the cost in We The Tweeple. She said,

Of course, I realize that with a $1000+ price tag and a very business-centric schedule this conference wasn’t made for the everyday users, it was made for marketers and PR people.

But if people don’t get Twitter, and therefore don’t use Twitter, who are all those marketers and PR folks going to talk to?

Rachel Skiar on Flickr seems to share those sentiments about cost, as her photo shows.

You can see the live stream of tweets from the conference at 140 Characters Conference Live on social approach. The speakers, AKA the characters, at the conference are listed with their Twitter names on the conference site. (We at BlogHer tend to look at gender ratios at conferences like this one. I didn't actually count them to get a ratio of male to female, but the representation of women looked pretty good to me.)

Twitter has become important whether we like it or not, whether we "get it" or not. I think even people who don't want to use Twitter need to learn how to get on the web and follow a twitter hashtag during important events. I won't be surprised to see more Twitter themed conferences in the future.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Get Going with Tabs

2009-06-20T08:00:03-05:00

Are you working as fast and smart as you could in your browser? One way to do that is with tabs. You'll learn about working with tabs in Firefox in this article. Most of these tips will also apply to Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera—though you may have to search the menus for the capability.

To open a page in a new tab means that you can have more than one browser window and web site open in a browser at a time. This is a time saver if you often use more than one site at a time. (My tabs are colored because I use a Firefox add-on called Colorful Tabs.) This image show several tabs open in my Firefox.

Using tabs means you don't have to use separate windows for each page you are viewing. It keeps everything in one place and let's you move from tab to tab without searching out a minimized or covered window. There are other advantages, too.

Lisa Williams suggested that having sites preloaded in tabs was a good technique when speaking in Give a Better Presentation!

Do not trust the local technology.

Do not assume that the Internet will work. Take screenshots or screen video of the sites you want to demonstrate. Less stable but quicker, load them as tabs in a tabbed browser and flip through the tabs as you talk (but if you accidentally click a link, you may not be able to reload if the internet connection is not good). Do not assume that you will be able to demo audio from your computer unless you specifically ask.

You can set the Firefox Preferences to open new pages in a new Tab. In Preferences, select the radio button for 'a new tab' under New pages should be opened in:

You can also open a page in a new tab, even if your Preferences aren't set that way, by right clicking (Ctrl-click on a Mac) and selecting 'Open link in new tab' from the contextual menu that pops up. Here's the contextual menu I see when I right-click a link.

If you have a folder of bookmarks, you can open them all at once in tabs. This is nice if you always open up the same set of pages when you start working. Make them all open quickly using bookmark folders and tabs.

An excellent article by Gina Trapani at Lifehacker tells How to Work with groups of tabs in Firefox. My favorite tip from this article is this one.

Bookmark a group of tabs into a folder. Open up the group of tabs - like all the sites you need to work on a specific project - and choose "Bookmark All Tabs" from the Bookmarks menu. (Or use the Shift+Ctrl+D keyboard shortcut (Shift+Cmd+D on the Mac.)) Then, set the folder name (like the name of your project.)

When you are ready to open the bookmarks in tabs, select the folder. Then find the link at the bottom of the set of bookmarks that says 'Open all in Tabs.' Select 'Open all in Tabs' and all the bookmarks in the folder will open immediately.

You can also save additional bookmarks to this folder once you have it set up. Simply choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu and make sure the new bookmark gets added to the folder you created.

If you are working with a set of tabs open and your computer or browser crashes or you close the browser for the night without bookmarking the group of tabs, you can set up Firefox to open with the same set of tabs the next time you use it. Set this up in Preferences. In the Main category, under Startup, use the pull down menu after When Firefox starts to select "Show my windows and tabs from last time."

You search with Google, right? You get a page of search results. You click one of them. The new page comes up and the search results are gone. Don't you hate that? You can set Google to open pages you click in your search results in a new window so that you can have multiple pages open in tabs and still have the page of search results there, too. Go to google.com. Beside the search box, click Preferences. Scroll down a bit to find 'Results Window.' Select the box for 'Open search results in a new browser window.' Now you'll get tabbed pages of search results that can be saved until you are finished with the search.

One caveat on the Google search, since I do this in Firefox and have the Preferences set to open new pages in a new tab, as I explained above, I get tabbed results for search pages. If you aren't running your browser this way, you might get a whole new browser window, which is not as useful as a new tab.

More resources to help you work smart with tabs:
MacTips: Tabbed Browser Tips for Safari browsers.
How to Handle Safari Tabs at KnowIT.
How to Work with Tabs in Firefox 3 an article of mine on eHow.
Firefox tutorial: Sorting your bookmarks at Pop ups of my Mind.
Browser Settings covers most major browsers—from History of Science Online.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Protect Against Identity Theft

2009-06-18T06:53:58-05:00

If you have any experience with identity theft, perhaps you'll share you story and help those of us who are concerned about it develop some good habits and protections that will keep us safe.

Identity theft is a serious problem. It's also a common problem. Most of all, it's a horrible situation to deal with once your identity has been stolen. There are all sorts of police reports, credit records, and other legal problems to clear up and correct. Credit cards or other stolen accounts must be closed and protected.

The best plan of action is to do everything in your power to prevent your identity from being stolen.

Safeguard your information. Don't reveal sensitive information such as social security numbers, account information or passwords. E-mail asking for your account information is always a scam attempt to steal your identity. Never respond to these emails at all.

Safeguard your paper work. Shred anything that contains sensitive information. Don't carry important papers like social security cards in your wallet. In fact, strip down what you carry on your person down to the absolute essentials. If you can do without a purse and carry only the cash or card you need for a particular trip or errand, you will be much safer. A purse over the shoulder is a very vulnerable point of attack and thieves have learned to grab purses from moving automobiles as women walk into and out of stores. If you have your whole life hanging off your shoulder where it's easy to grab, it's time to rethink what you need to carry around in parking lots and stores.

Create secure PINs and passwords for everything. Memorize some random numbers for your PIN or use some meaningless word or phrase for a password. Your birth date and your dog's name are not secure choices.

Keep your computer virus-free. Use virus protection and scan regularly for malicious software on your computer. Don't agree to letting web sites have access to your address book unless you are 100% sure about who is asking and what they will do with the information. Use a good browser such as Firefox or Safari that will alert you to suspicious links that might be to phishing sites.

Keep an eye on your accounts for suspicious activity and report it immediately. One sign that something might be amiss is not receiving a monthly statement as usual. Someone may have diverted the statement to a different address in hopes of using your account to run up a lot of charges before you notice it's been highjacked. Check your credit regularly. You can get free credit reports that will help you keep an eye on your credit.

You can find some helpful resources at Privacy Rights with safety tips and also checklists of what to do it your identity is stolen. These articles by BlogHers will also be valuable:

What tips do you think are valuable for protecting against identity theft?

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor

Thinking about a Switch to a Mac?

2009-06-16T07:59:49-05:00

I am planning to give my daughter my old laptop for her birthday. It's a two year old MacBook that I have completely filled up. When it's all cleaned up from my files and programs, it will be perfect for her. Her only worry is that she is so used to a Windows machine, she won't be able to use a Mac.

I actually hear this a lot. Stories like Computer Buying Advice Wanted appear on BlogHer. People ask me about switching to a Mac. I tell them it's like the difference between a Ford and a Chevy. They may have slight differences to get used to, but if you can drive one, you can drive the other.

Here, for the sake of my daughter and any others who might be thinking of making the switch, is a review of the basic differences you need to know about to bring yourself up to speed on a Mac.

There's no Start menu on a Mac. Use the Dock to open programs. The Dock is normally across to bottom of the screen. To open any program, just click it in the dock. You can tell when a program is open by looking at the Dock. An open program has a little arrow marker under it. You can also close programs using the Dock. Ctrl-click on anything in the Dock to see a menu for opening, closing and other tasks.

There is no My Computer or Windows Explorer on a Mac. The same feature on a Mac is called the Finder. The column on the left lists the computer contents as well as the Documents Folder (which is the equivalent of the My Documents folder on Windows) and the Applications folder (which is the equivalent of Program Files on Windows). The Finder can be arranged to show icons or columns and can be searched using the search bar at the upper right. Programs can also be opened by finding them in the Applications folder and double clicking the application name.

In addition to searching in the Finder, Spotlight can be used to find files. To use Spotlight, click the magnafying glass icon at the extreme upper right of the screen. Then type what you are looking for in the search box. Spotlight can search almost anywhere on your computer by content or by file name.

Most Macs don't have left and right click buttons on the mouse. If you love that contextual menu you get with a right click on Windows, have no fear. You get the same menu on a Mac by using Ctrl-click.

A Mac does have a Ctrl key, but most of the keyboard shortcuts you know and love from Windows using the Ctrl key use the Apple key, which is also called the Command key. Print is Cmd-P and Copy is Cmd-C. The keyboard commands are the same, except with the Command key. The Command key is used with the Tab key to change from app to app, a keyboard option on Windows that uses Alt-Tab. You can also change from app to app by clicking open apps in the Dock to bring them to the top.

Things you might be accustomed to doing on Windows with the Alt key may be done on a Mac using the Option key, which is next to the Command key. If you don't see the contextual menu you are looking for with a Cmd-click, try an Option-click instead.

There's no big X in the upper right corner of a Mac window. Instead, there are three buttons on the upper left. The plus sign makes the window open up to full screen, the minus sign minimizes the window and puts in in the Dock. You can click the window in the Dock to bring it back up. The X will close the window. On Windows, the X closes the application. On Mac, it only closes the window, the application is still open. To close the application you must choose Quit. Quit is normally found in the menu under the application name. The keyboard command for Quit is Cmd-Q.

The equivalent of the Windows Control Panel is called System Preferences. You can open it from the Dock or using the Apple menu at the upper left of your screen. You also find the Log off and Shut Down commands under the Apple menu at the upper left.

Not too much to learn, really. Since I love keyboard shortcuts, the one that drives me crazy when I switch from Windows to Mac or visa-versa is the Control vs. Command key issue, because they use different fingers. If I had one wish granted by the computer manufacturers, it would be that the Control key on Windows and the Command key on Mac be in the same location on a keyboard and use the same fingers. Otherwise, it only takes a day or so to get used to what you're doing.

Jules wrote a series of articles about using Mac (and Windows on a Mac) on Jules Says. At Elizabeth's Little Blog you can learn why she is happy with her switch to Mac. At PixoBebo, Kate made a break with Mac and went to Windows instead. Not long after that switch, she wrote Worst. Mistake. Ever. and went back to Mac again.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

What's in Your Traveling Bag?

2009-06-13T09:00:00-05:00

We're all running here and there to conferences and meetups–not the least of which are the upcoming BlogHer conferences. Traveling, traveling . . . but in a high-tech, gadget-happy world, what do you pack? What do you leave at home?

I'm very curious about this, because the conversation at conferences has largely switched from live blogging to Twitter. Which means phones can do it all. And because schlepping a bunch of heavy stuff all over a conference center gets tiresome. And because I ran into the fabulous tech-wonderful Sarah Dopp, founder of Genderfork, at SXSW last March and she was packing only a small notebook and a pen! Sarah explains,

I've given up on carrying around my laptop at conferences. It's heavy, it's hard to keep it charged, it's too big to lug around for the after-conference cocktail hours, and it makes me more social. I've found that combining old school with new school seems to be the solution: a small moleskin notebook with a reliable ballpoint pen, and an iPhone. The pen and paper are for notes, and the iPhone's for photos, twittering, and looking up the conference schedule if they've made a mobile version of it available. (Tip: If cell phone service is iffy in the conference hall, I'll take screenshots of the schedule so it can live in my photo archive instead of on the web browser.) If I'm thinking ahead that morning, I'll even wear cargo pants so it can all fit in my pockets, and I won't have to carry a bag.

Another great tip I picked up is putting a small stack of my business cards in my conference badge holder (you know, those plastic sleeves that they slip your name into and stick on a lanyard around your neck -- they can hold a lot more than your name). Then I know they're always on me, even if I've gone back to my hotel room to change my clothes before the evening.

With Sarah as my mentor, here's what I've decided to lug about during the day. A small notebook and pen! My iPhone for tweets and some pictures. My Sony DSC-H2 because it has flash, 12X zoom, does video, and it hangs around my neck without tiring me out. Business cards stashed in my badge. I feel lighter just typing that. I'll bring my MacBook, but won't carry it all day. In the evenings, I can use it to upload the camera's photos and do any blogging I need to do while in my room.

I asked a few others who plan to attend BlogHer conferences to share what they intended to bring.

Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen plans this:

I'm not too into gadgets for a blogger! I'm bringing laptop, wireless mouse, maybe keyboard, dslr camera + 2 lenses, camera battery charger, and low-tech cell phone. That's it!

(I will confess though that I'm thinking seriously about buying an iphone. Just waiting to see what my new house payment is going to be!)

I have a Flip video camera (retirement gift from my brother!) I'll definitely bring that too, but might not use it.

Mir from Woulda Coulda Shoulda said,

I'm bringing my new MiFi because the internet connection at BlogHer is usually spotty. (And because I can have up to 5 people using it at once, I figure it's a great way to make friends! Ha!)

Mir, can we be friends? If you say no, Liz Henry from Composite is my fallback person to go to. She says,

I carry the Airport Express with me, which is a tiny little box the size of a laptop power brick; plug it into the hotel ethernet cable, and then everyone in the room can use the wireless

Liz also reminds people to carry power strips.

Elisa Camahort Page from Worker Bees Blog and BlogHer, sent this list.

Having just traveled for the first time with my new Kindle?
Absolutely must-have

iPhone...provides constant touch to Twitter and email, so I don't
always have to carry laptop

MacBook Pro Laptop...mostly for catching up in my hotel room and
doing real work

iPod...this is just for the plane trips. I have nearly 90 GBs of
music, so could never put it on my iPhone

Noise-canceling headphones...again for plane trip

Flip video...that I will likely bring with all good intentions, and
rarely use

Digital camera...same as with Flip. I carry it everywhere, and
don't use it nearly enough

It's actually kind of scary to think about the aggregate value of the gadgets I carry! Thank goodness for hotel room safes!

I'll second that hurrah for hotel safes.

Megan from Megan's Minute has these plans:

I'm taking BlackBerry Curve which of course has emails, Facebook, TweetBerry and Chatter. Not to mention it also has my own music and Pandora.

My Acer 4620-4605 Vista PC laptop and USB cable to use to hook up BlackBerry as a modem for the laptop.

My Canon SD750 still camera which I will use quite a lot and for the first time a Flip camera as well. Don't know much I'll use that but we'll see.

I'll also have my new VooDoo Poken that I won in Denise's giveaway.

Let's see, oh also a thumb drive.

I'm glad Megan mentioned the Poken. I didn't see many at SXSW, so I'll be fascinated to see if they are a hit at a BlogHer conference. Will this be the year of the Poken?

Susan Mernit has this list:

macbook pro
Blackberry
Canon powershot SD770
Ipod for multimedia and music
Western digital passport external drive
2 thumb drives
That is it.

Pam Mandel from Nerd's Eye View is bringing this:

MSI Wind Netbook, you rule.

iPod because I'm something of an insomniac and podcasts make that tolerable.

Fancy a$$ Nikon D200 w/awesome 28-300 only-lens-you-need-for-traveling.

The Planet's Oldest Cell Phone - ask me, I'll show you, it's ancient. I use it for... PHONE CALLS!

Bajillion CF cards because I hate running out of memory for my camera. Oh, and extra batteries for the camera too.

Universal card reader.

Might try to get a Flip for the road trip out there. Undecided on that.

MS Life Cam show, a really nice little USB webcam with a decent quality built in mic.

Ukulele by Flea. Does that count as technology? :)

Related, I bought a very nice backpack by KATA for all this crap recently, totally worth it.

Since Pam is a knowledgeable traveler as well as an awesome photographer, I take her list seriously. She is the only person so far who's mentioned a Netbook—maybe because she's the only person who needs room for her ukulele. Netbooks are another thing I'm going to be interested in looking for this year. Will this be the year of the Netbook?

Karen from Chookooloonks says this,

Macbook

Nikon D300. A couple of lenses (not sure which ones yet), battery charger, download cord.

I plan on buying myself an iPhone for my birthday, which is right before the conference. So I anticipate having that.

And that's it. I'm feeling rather neophyte-y, since my list of technology is so short!

And then there's Gena, from Out on the Stoop. Here's her packing list.

Kodak Zi6 High Def Camcorder - hey not everybody wants The Flip, but
it was close, Removable SD Cards and AA Power sealed the deal

My JVC Hard Drive Camcorder with upteen hours of recording time & tripod.

Two different mp3 players that don't hold a charge well or I might
breakdown and by a Zune

Either my Ubuntu netbook or my Toshba Laptop running Vista. Not both.
If I'm doing demos or helping out in the Geek Room then I will bring the
Laptop. If not, the Netbook

Mass quantiles of SD Cards, batteries, , recharger, cords and cables.

My plain vanilla cell phone & plug, I think. If I don't upgrade.

Maybe my digital voice recorder.

My old Panasonic Lumix Still DigiCamera if I can find it. If not they
maybe time for a new compact digital still camera.

There might be others I'm not remembering but one thing is certain, I
have techno-lust and I'm not alone.

In unity there is voltage.
Tearing up at the love.

Oh, Gena, I'm tearing up, too. It's that serious video vibe you give off. It's very touching.

Heather from No Pasa Nada has a short list of tech gadgets.

Macbook
Sony A-100
iPhone
Flip Video camera
Canon powershot

This is the easy list. Wait till you see how I'm going to pack my shoes...

I say we use all those cameras we're going to be bringing to create a lasting record of Heather's shoes.

Here's Queen of Spain, Erin Kotecke Vest's rather short list.

Macbook
Flip cam
elf cam
poken
iPhone
Blackberry

We know there will be at least two people with Pokens. You two be sure to get together and do whatever it is you do with those things. Speaking of off color remarks, somebody wanted to know if a vibrator would count as a tech gadget. I personally think it would only count if it were Internet capable and sent out a tweet each time you . . . activated it.

GoonSquadSarah plans to take

MacBook
IPhone
Power Shot
Nikon d60 + lenses
Card reader
Flip (which I bring everywhere and never ever use)

What is it with the Flip cameras? Everybody brings one but nobody uses it. Their marketing must be really good. Or their device must be really bad. What is it?

Em Zanotti from American Princess doesn't have to pack at all. She'll have everything she owns right there.

Haha. I live eight blocks away.

On that note:
MacBook
Blackberry (no, I can't gets an iPhone b/c they'll charge me to change my plan)
My Fujifilm Finepix s1000fd (one day I will be able to get a D60, it is my dream)
Flip
Aaaaand....my little love from Japan, my Polaroid Mio, which takes adorable, sticky-backed indie looking pics.

Deb Roby from A Stitch in Time is working on a list that includes,

Sony MP3 Player for the flights, I think
Sony Vaio laptop
Canon camera which I won't use enough or at all.
Canon video camera? Not sure if I'll bring it or not
Samsung cellphone
I may be buying an ITouch for my birthday, in which case I'll bring that too. Or bring that and leave the mp3 player at home.

or..

making those decisions already??

Maria Young from Immoral Matriarch

Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop
iPhone
Flip MinoHD video camera
Nikon d40 w/ 18-55mm and 50mm 1.4 lenses, extra battery and extra memory card.
Chargers for everything :)

Check out what Rita Arens from Surrender Dorothy is bringing:

The lost Flip, if I can find it, my camera and my T-mobile Dash. Chargers. That's it. I intend to focus on your lovely faces instead of my gadgets. I find taking notes on paper has always done me right at BlogHer.

Laurie White from Laurie Writes saw everyone else's list and sent her own:

I'm in line with many of you...

Macbook
iPhone
Canon Digital Rebel (lenses are unexceptional. Maybe next year.)
Flip - which like you Sarah I never use so I have no idea why I bring it everywhere.
Canon PowerShot IS somethingsomething (best little cameras but I can never remember the model I have. I really love taking photos in and of Chicago or I'd be tempted to just bring this one.)
I'll bring my HD video camera if someone will teach me how to upload the videos to my Macbook while we're there, seriously.

That's it. I never have the time I think I will to upload photos while I'm there and the iPhone's mobile posting capability is making me much more obnoxious in that capacity. It's just so much fun, I can't help it.

Curious: what are you all doing with thumb drives, if you don't mind me asking? I don't use them at all unless I'm at work.

I'm with you, Laurie, I was wondering about those thumb drives myself. Anybody ready to volunteer to help Laurie learn to upload video to her MacBook?

Karen, aka sassymonkey, who will be crossing an international border to get to Chicago, plans to bring

1. MacBook
2. Cell phone (assuming it doesn't die by then and which I won't really be using b/c US roaming charges scare me)
3. Canon Powershot
4. Poken
5. Sony Reader PRS-700 (I can't tell you much lighter my luggage will because of this thing) and the AC charger

Do U.S. roaming charges on the phone rule out Twitter, too? This could be serious!

Joanne, from Pundit Mom thinks she's pretty lame next to all the techies. Her list is short:

1. Laptop
2. iPhone
3. Flip camera
4. Point & shoot digital cam ( would live to bring Nikon D60, but I want to be able to carry on luggage !!)

Wow, a short list and a Flip camera with no disclaimer about not ever using it. Can I be in one of your video shoots, Joanne? I'll say something political.

Catherine from Her Bad Mother had a unique list last year:

Last I brought pretty much every gadget that I own, plus an 8 week old infant, and the infant was the only thing that I actually used. So, this year I'm downsizing in the brought gadgetry department: smartphone and digital camera. If I have a netbook by then, I might bring that, although in the last three BlogHers I've attended I've not once cracked open a computer.

Infant is no longer travel-sized and so I'm leaving him home, too.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking Catherine might have a very good time this year and maybe catch a little extra sleep in the bargain.

Sarah Dopp and I will not be alone going analog. Here's a list from Heather at ClizBiz.

I've fallen behind in the gadget department and am in desperate need of a technology makeover. Therefore, I will be bringing the following:

Matches
Blankets
Mirrors
Pigeons
Hammer
Chisel

I hope she doesn't carve blog posts into the bathroom counter tops with that hammer and chisel.

All right people, I'll stop listing already. That's a lot of serious techy gadgetry. DON'T FORGET THE CHARGERS. Thanks to BlogHer events manager Lori Luna for that tip and to Alanna Kellogg from Kitchen Parade for the photo of the bag of power cords.

Impressed as I am by all those lists, I'm still planning to go to the store today to make sure I have a small, pocket-sized notebook. It will be my goal to record the name of everyone whose photo I take in my little notebook. No more anonymous BlogHers in my Flickr stream.

This might be a good time to state that nobody is getting paid to identify any products mentioned in this post. This is genuine, unpaid, product discussion you're getting here. Now it's your turn to share. What are your must-haves? What can you do without? Any tips for lightening the load?

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Tech Tips and Tidbits

2009-06-09T07:58:52-05:00

Looking for a steady stream of good tech tips and tidbits? Join me for a journey through some of the sources of said bits.

Let's start on a light note and work toward something more serious. At Cake Wrecks: The Problem with Phone Orders you can see the hilarious results of an inadequate comprehension of tech devices.

That cake kind of reminds me of the good old days when someone called tech support about the cup holder on their computer—which turned out to be the retractable drawer for the CD Rom drive.

For those of you with children and digital cameras, here's a nice tip from Rookie Moms in Take 1-2-3 pictures. Rookie Moms has regular ideas and tips for photographing your kids.

Consider yourself tech-handicapped? Then Tech for Luddites is the place to subscribe. You'll get a steady flow of great and simple tips for making your life easier to enable. How about this one: Send Tweets to Facebook Using Tweetdeck. Or this one: F4 The Magic MS Office Key No One Knows About. I really enjoy the tips on this blog and suggest you give it a try.

For those of you using Macs, you should get acquainted with Know IT because it is the source of hundreds of useful Mac Tips. Sample Browser Power Tip: Use Workspaces with OmniWeb. You can also learn a lot about WordPress and get some reflections on usability, such as in When Safety Messages Go Wildly Wrong.

Another blogger whose adventures I love to hear about is Female Science Professor. She writes about the life of a professor in a high ed world full of fascinating people. Recently she talked about the success of her PowerPoint presentations in They Heart Powerpoint. Since we have all endured a large number of bad PowerPoint presentation and only a few good ones, I wish she'd shared a few of the slides with us so we could see why the students were so enthusiastic.

I promised a serious techy resource, and here it is: CSS, JavaScript and XHTML Explained. The latest really cool thing from this blogger is a big data table showing All CSS 2.1 Properties, Values and Browser Support which tells all regarding which CSS works in which browser.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Online Resources for Self-Publishing a Book

2009-06-06T07:43:57-05:00

Not long ago in a discussion here about the Kindle, Shelley from Burningbird commented that she was planning on self-publishing her next book. She also wrote about it in My DRM Free Self. Her comment set me to thinking about self-publishing.

Most bloggers who publish regularly may have enough material already written on their blogs to put it together in book format. There are numerous ways to accomplish the publishing itself.

First, let's take a look at what you already have as a blogger. You have an audience. You have a following. You have a recognizable voice. Multiply that by your outreach via Facebook and Twitter and whatever other online networking you do.

A backlog of text in the form of blog posts is not the only option. If you create podcasts and videos, you can use that material in certain kinds of self-publishing. For example, a self-published ebook in PDF format can contain images as well as links to your podcasts and videos on your own site or on YouTube. Podcasts and videos may not translate into a print-on-demand bound book on paper, but that isn't the only possibility for publishing these day.

Once you have your material put together in a way that makes sense as a book, where do you go? Here are a few of the possibilites.

Smashwords

Smashwords describes what it does this way:

Smashwords is a self-publishing platform and online bookstore for indepedent ebook authors, publishers and readers. We offer multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device.

The list of e-reading devices that work with Smashwords includes iPhone, iPod Touch, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and IRex Iliad. Here's the Smashwords upload page: fill in a simple form and you're in. I see this site being most useful to bloggers who have a pretty good following, because you do your own marketing.

Scribd

Scribd describes itself as a social publishing company. It will publish books, magazines, brocures and other material. It's very easy to upload your own documents. The upload button is everywhere on this site, you can't miss it.

Even Tim O'Reilly from O'Reilly Publishing is selling books on Scribd, such as this $5 download of The Twitter Book.

Scribd uses an online document reader called iPaper.

Amazon

This page gives you the basics of the Amazon eBook Program and includes links to a 72 page PDF document describing the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines and several other items that may help you get an ebook published and listed on Amazon.com.

Of course, the Amazon distribution system would make your book available on Kindle, smart phones, and all sorts of mobile devices. It would put your book in a marketplace that gets searched on all sorts of topics by millions of people each day.

Blurb

Blurb is popular for books that will be printed and bound. It does a nice job with art work and photos in print, so it's popular for books that contain a lot of images along with the text. Consider it for cookbooks, travel books, and photography books.

Read Blurb's Tips and Tricks to learn about how to get started.

Lulu

The venerable Lulu has been around a while (at least in Internet years). It offers just about everything: eBooks, hardcover books, even DVD and CD materials. Other valuable services like finding editing help, getting cover design help and getting an ISBN are also available through Lulu. For a fee, they will even help you with marketing your book.

Remember that paragraph at the beginning the this article about what you have already? Your own platform as a writer in the form of a blog or some sort of social media presence? Well, you'll need that with any of the book creation services listed here. That's because you'll be doing a lot of self-promoting to your own audience. In fact, that may be the only marketing you get—your own. You'll use ads, links, promos, posts, tweets, and every other attention getter you can come up with to promote the book yourself.

The good thing is that this endeavor to self-publish using online resources is often free or very inexpensive. So even if you only sell 50 books, you've still accomplished the feat of writing and publishing a book bearing your name.

What do you think? Are you going to give it a try? Have you already done it and do you have a resource or tip to share?

More Resources:

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Handling Trolls in the Blogosphere

2009-06-04T10:00:00-05:00

Trolls, cyberbullies—whatever you call them, they are the bane of the blogosphere. They come to your site and harass you. They post nastly comments about you on other sites. Trolls try to start inflammatory conversations to provoke emotional, often off-topic, responses. Then they sit back and enjoy everyone's anguish.

Meg Fowler defined trolls in how not to be an asshole or encourage assholism on the internet: a handy guide:

They’re the ones making inflammatory and threatening comments, trying to create conflict where none is necessary. They’re the ones who send vicious mail to mommy bloggers because they made some cosmic mistake like feeding their child a donut. They’re the ones who take other peoples’ pictures and writing and pass them off as their own. They’re the ones who believe that debate is a bloodsport, whether it be political, social or anything in between.

They’re the ones who infect peoples’ screens with hate. They’re the ones who use their OWN blogs to comment on how other people live/work/write/exist… and then send their anger zinging towards their targets with trackbacks.

What can you do about them?

BlogHer's policy is that unacceptable content is not allowed on the site. The Community Guidelines spell out in full what unacceptable means, but two of the unacceptable behaviors posting content which is:

Being used to abuse, harass, stalk or threaten a person or persons

Libelous, defamatory, knowingly false or misrepresents another person

On BlogHer, unacceptable content is removed. Period.

When I was teaching fourth grade, children would come up to me on the playground and complain that "so and so keeps chasing me." My response was, "Don't run, then they can't chase you." This advice confused many ten-year-olds, who couldn't quite grasp the implications of what I was telling them.

I agree with Huffenglish, who said, Don't feed the trolls. With trolls, no response is a good response. Don't play their vicious game. Delete their comments and ignore them. In ListServ groups, don't particpate in threads that turn into flame wars. If you're in a ListServ that is prone to that, unsubscribe. If someone launches a vicious attack against you on their web site, don't engage. Instead, notify their web hosting company with documentation that shows what they are doing. Trolls may think they are anonymous, but you can often find out who they actually are if you use the tools available for tracing IP numbers and identity on the Internet.

There are some very famous bloggers who seem to attract trolls because of their visibility. Some bloggers have stopped blogging because of it. Some have shut down the comment function on their blog. Some have hired help just to moderate comments.

For a while, there was a bug on Facebook that allowed troll attacks, such as this one on Hillary Clinton's Facebook page. This has been fixed, but be sure that the software you are using will support your efforts to eliminate the unwanted from your site.

Can you suggest other good methods of dealing with trolls?

More Resources:

Dealing with hate speech, flaming, and trolls includes a number of tips
A Tweet Too Far about Twitter's lack of enforcement of its terms of service.
Commenting Policy from Teh Portly Dyke
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor

Employers and Employees and the Great Cyberspace Meetup

2009-06-02T11:00:00-05:00

Social media is changing everything about how employers find workers and how workers find jobs. The hunt to match up people, skills, and jobs is moving online.

Someone who knows someone you know may send you a Jobvite for a job you didn't even apply for. Perhaps for a job that was never advertised anywhere. In Recruiting Via Your Employee's Socal Networks, in the New York Times, that pointed out,

Until recently, Facebook might have been more likely to be viewed as a barrier to getting a job. Cautionary tales circulate of job offers rescinded after an employer discovered unseemly content on an applicant’s Facebook page. Social network users have been advised to sanitize their personal pages when job hunting, lest potential employers spot an inappropriate photo or comment.

But now more personal pages, profiles and social networks are serving as fodder for companies looking to fill jobs.

Jennifer Leggio reported on a survey done by Jobvite in Survey shows influx of companies using social networks for recruiting.

The data shows that employers are more and more extensively recruiting on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. It also shows that the companies appear more satisfied with these types of recruits versus the ones they find solely from job boards.

As Elana Centor wrote about in Looking For A Job? Have You Told Your Friends On Twitter, LinkedIn and FaceBook? the jobs are not in the newspaper classifieds any longer. Britt Bravo mentioned the same group of web sites for job hunting in 6 Ways to Use the Web to Find a Nonprofit Job.

Social networking is the universe: the medium and the message. Social networking reduces the degree of separation between you and everyone else you can potentially reach. Sandra Fathi from tech affect talks about how social media has a multiplier effect on your Dunbar number in Finding a Job Throught Social Media.

Social media offers us opportunities to expand our Dunbar Number (theoretical number of sustainable social relationships that one person can maintain) from 150 to hundreds of thousands.

Career Communique Radio on Blog Talk Radio, a program co-hosted by Annemarie Cross and Keith Keller has a number of programs social media in a job hunt, including Twitter for Job Seekers and Taking your job search to the next level with Social Networking. Blog Talk Radio isn't the only source of career advice that urges both job seekers and employers to take to the social networks. Mashable features Top 10 Social Sites for Finding a Job and 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media.

Laid off people are joining together using social media to help each other find new employment. Some examples from the Seattle area are Eggsprout and a group formed by West Seattle Blog. The blog Lords and Ladies of Leisure, which attempts to lighten up a difficult situation, is by the same unemployed Seattlite as the West Seattle Blog. In Fear, shut yer pie hole she says,

It’s official: there’s no more hierarchy. There are no more titles. There’s definitely no ladder with endless ambiguous rungs to be climbed. Whatever you want to do, do it. It’s the 21st century, and there’s absolutely no reason not to.

If you have a couch, a coffeemaker, a laptop, and a couple kindred like-minded souls whose talents complement yours, congratulations, you’ve got a company. With the multitude of how-to’s and tutorials on the web, the amazing software available, and the ease with which you can now create business cards and websites, there is absolutely nothing standing in the way of you doing exactly what you want to do, exactly the way you want to do it.

Pam Mandel from Nerd's Eye View found a job through Twitter. She told me,

I found my last gig through The Twitter. I didn't blog about it, I don't blog work, but briefly, I mentioned that I was looking and a Twitter follower hooked me up -- the place she was working happened to be hiring for exactly what I do. I interviewed, they hired me. They didn't talk to any other candidates and the job was never listed anywhere.

I'd totally use The Twitter to mention that I needed work again.

From an employer perspective, Laura Scott from pingv told me,

We got great response from advertising a design position on Facebook. It was the only paid ad we ran, and because we could target so well,
it did not cost us much at all.

For employers, it isn't so much about recruiting workers as it is about building relationships that might attract new employees and making your company look attractive.

Workers, particularly younger workers, don't stay with a company or a job for life. They tend to change jobs often. The smart ones stay in touch with their extended network from all the positions they have held. Often they end up being hired again for another job by the same company when some new project comes up that is a good fit. Each job, each set of friends, each new group in the social media world, is another possible referral, reference, mention, and unexpected letter from Jobvite.

In a bygone era, maybe 3 years ago, finding a job meant reading the classifieds and mailing out resumes. These days, it might mean being a helpful person to know on Twitter.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Google Web Elements

2009-05-30T07:44:44-05:00

The big hoopla this week in the world of technology came from Google's I/O conference. Among the announcements was one about Google Web Elements. What are they and what can you do with them?

Google Web Elements are widgitized versions of Google products such as calendars, chat, maps, custom search, YouTube news, and docs. You can add these widgets to your site or blog. Most of the widgets were already available. Now they've been aggregated in one spot. YouTube News is a newly added item.

It's very easy to use one of these widgets. Making a map widget took about three seconds. I entered the address of the New Mexico State Capitol, commonly called The Roundhouse. I selected a satellite map display. Google handed me a bit of code, which I copied to get this map. If you close in on the map, you'll understand the nickname.

Denise Wakeman at Biz Tips Blog described making a map widget in Google Launches Web Elements for Your Blog.

Have an event you're promoting and want to include a map on the registration page or in a blog post? Choose the size map you want, type in the address, a title for the location and you immediately get the HTML to paste in your blog. Nothing could be easier. (click on the image to get the full size graphic)

Since Google Docs can be widgitized, you can embed a spreadsheet or a presentation in a web page.

The custom search widget lets you choose an option that will add AdSense for the search. I didn't choose that option for this example, but you might want it for your own blog. You're going to get Google ads no matter what. You don't have to tell Google anything, even the URL of your site, to get search code. Try searching BlogHer. When you're finished use the small x beside the Search button to close the search.

Widgets are nothing new. You may already have ways to do what Google wants you to do using their products. The Conversation Element, which allows chats on your site, is similar to a FriendFeed widget. A Google Docs Presentation widget is similar to SlideShare services.

Barb Dybwad at Obsessable, commented in Google launches Web Elements suite, embeddable widgets for integrating Google products to your site. She included some tweets on the topic and explained the Conversation Element.

A "Conversation" widget allows readers to post comments and videos that can become shared global threads via Google Friend Connect.

Kate Green, reported on Google's announcement for Techology Review in Google Launches Web Elements.

In the spirit of simplifying software, Google announced a new way to easily integrate its products, like News and Maps, into a personal website. The offering is called Web Elements and was demonstrated today at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco.

At the event, DeWitt Clinton, the technical leader on Google's developer team, illustrated how to use Web Elements within a blog. He embedded a Google News feed, a map, and a live conversation widget in about the same amount of time it takes to embed a YouTube video. While similar tools have been available for some time, it's interesting to see Google's take on letting users easily add some of its popular products to their sites. Currently there are eight products available, with the possibility of more to come.

Do Google Web Elements have any advantages over all the other widgets available already? If you are a Google Docs user, they might make things easier to share, especially presentations. They should work on most blogs and web sites. I'm not ready to say that they are superior to any other widget choices, but they are sure easy to use.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Wanna get techie? You can do it in Chicago this summer.

2009-05-26T07:40:20-05:00

Have you looked at the list of speakers for BlogHer09 yet? I read it the other day and was completely pumped about how great the programming for the conference is going to be. I decided to take a closer look at the blogs of some of the more tech-oriented speakers. I separated out a few of them from the roster.

Don't forget that there will be an open Geek Lab running during both days of the conference. Elisa described the Geek Lab here. You can get 30 minute bits on specific tech topics in the Geek Lab.

Even if you aren't able to attend BlogHer09, there's nothing stopping you from getting the techie goodness these speakers offer up each week on their blogs.

Corvida Raven is the author of SheGeeks.net. Corvida recently opted to receive recommendations by email from StumbleUpon. She quickly realized that the email information was inadequate and wrote How To Make It Into My Inbox Without Getting Marked As Spam. If you use StumbleUpon, her suggestions to make the email more functional and useful will certainly make sense to you. For example,

Improve Amount of Site Information – What’s the name of the site? What categories has it been tagged under? Other than a screenshot or image from the site and some text there’s not much to go off that would motivate me to click-through to any of the recommended sites.

Corvida also write about topics like Twitter and iPhone apps.

Danah Boyd from apophenia will be speaking. One of her recent blog posts is Is Facebook for old people?. She describes discussions with two social media users: one 14 and one 17. Her analysis of what they tell her is part of what makes Danah's research so interesting.

These two narratives reflect different views about the salience of age in social network site participation. At one level, we can simply read Kaitlyn as rebellious, anti-authoritarian. Yet, that doesn't quite work. Kaitlyn is not rebelling against her parents or teachers; she simply doesn't see why interacting with them alongside her friends would make any sense whatsoever. She sees her world as starkly age segregated and she sees this as completely normal. Connor, on the other hand, sees the integration of adults and peers as a natural part of growing up. The difference in their ages is part of the story - Connor is two grades ahead of Kaitlyn.

Other fascinating posts from Danah include answers to questions from Twitter on teen practices and I want to evolve to not hear the cell phone.

Daniela Capistrano from Daniela's Lair is speaking at BlogHer09. She discovered a series by Isabella Rossellini called Green Porno and wrote Stuff I Love: Green Porno.

One late night a few months ago, I was browsing through my free movies-on-demand and stumbled across a series of peculiarly pervy-sounding short films starring Isabella Rossellini, called Green Porno.

About thirty seconds into watching one of my favorite actresses scamper around in a giant spider costumer, I gasped!

Rossellini was reenacting the mating rituals of various bugs!

I devoured all eight films and was enthralled; I had to see more.

Daniela's interests range from TweetStock to video related topics like How-To: Use Orb.com To Spy On Your Cat With Your BlackBerry Storm.

Speaker Laura "Pistachio" Fitton from Pistachio Consulting often just goes by her Twitter name of @Pistachio. Twitter and microsharing have been catapults for Laura. She blogs as Pistachio, but is more often microblogging on Twitter.

In Twitter is my Village, she commented,

New to Twitter, it makes no sense. Post 140 characters into the ether? Stare at the public timeline’s chaos washing over me? Why the h…?

How does Twitter shift from idiotic to amazing? It takes a village - a critical mass of interesting people - to read and write to. When my brain started to connect with the brains (and hearts) of others, it got really, REALLY cool for me. You may be looking for like minds, or you may want to be totally shaken up by new ideas. Both work. One day I suddenly realized this was, for me, tribe-finding. For arguably the first time in my life I didn’t feel as weird and different.

Her expertise in emerging technology has won her awards and gotten her speaking gigs in all sorts of impressive places.

These are not the only speakers with technical expertise that you can follow and read and see in Chicago. But they are certainly outstanding examples of what will be offered at the conference.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Big Aaargh! for Dell's Della

2009-05-23T07:27:44-05:00

The New York Times reported (in the technology section, not the style section) that Dell Computer opened a new area of their website aimed at women in What Do Women Want in a Laptop?. Dell calls the new section Della. If you go there now to take at look at it, you won't see what was originally there. Here's how the NYT described the original site:

The site originally featured tech “tips” that recommended calorie counting, finding recipes and watching cooking videos as ways for women to get the most from a laptop.

Yes, the tech tips were about counting calories and recipes. That didn't go over very well with the target audience: women looking to buy a laptop. Women looking to buy a laptop roared a response to Dell that the site was ridiculous and demeaning and sexist. A few responses:

Joanna Stern in Dear Della, Sexism Doesn't Sell Laptops said,

If a Web site were to be designed by a PC manufacturer to market its laptops and netbooks to men, what would it look like? Would the tips section be full of pointers on how to stream porn? Or how to check sports scores more efficiently on a shrunken screen?

Doubtful, because men already know how to use a laptop, right? It also would perpetuate a stereotype that all men partake in those activities at their computers. And of course, we all know that not all men spend their time at the computer scouring the Interwebs for dirty pictures of Miss California.

Andrea Learned in Della Disaster: What Makes a Computer 'For Women'? said,

Is the Della pitch stereotyped? Yes. Will some women still buy? It's possible. Overall, however, the core female customer they were trying to reach may instead be writing and talking about the irrelevance of all Dell's good intentioned, marketing to women efforts.

Yes, women are discussing Dell's marketing, and not in a favorable way. Learned also predicted that Dell would have to change what it's doing. She was right. More on that in a bit.

Vanessa at Feministing wrote Just add an "a" at the end, in which she made this point,

But regardless of what they've omitted, marketing a product to a woman by dumbing down the language and making it cutesy and fashionable isn't good marketing - it's insulting. The very pitch on Dell's homepage website featuring Della says, "Find out how technology fits your lifestyle." I guess in this case, "lifestyle" seems to be your gender.

Slackmistress wrote Dell Unveils New Site that Even My Dumb Vagina Can Understand to make her outrage clear.

Dell has launched Della, a site geared toward women. Because apparently I needed a penis to surf the regular Dell site.

Jezebel was a bit more polite in Dell Discovers Ladies Use Computers For More Than Diet Tips.

When Della launched earlier this week to promote the computer manufacturer's line of Inspirion Mini 10 netbooks, the site included a video on shopping for vintage clothing and "Tech Tips" explaining how ladies could use this strange device, as of course, we don't know how to use real laptops.

It wasn't only women taking part in the anti-Della firestorm. Here's a sample comment from the men, namely Matt Hickey in Dell's Della site for girls causes facepalmage.

You see, computers are computers are computers. They are gender-neutral. Your ads should be, too. The good news is you listened to consumer feedback over the past few days. Gone from the Della site are the tacky 1950s-style housewifeisms and the "shoe shopping" stuff. They've been replaced by more appropriate language.

Still, Della, your "site" for women, is still a little too Sex in the City and not enough "it's 2009 and we all have computers".

As Jezebel and Matt pointed out, Dell realized after a few days of this negative onslaught that they had been clueless, misguided, and downright insulting to the women they wanted to pitch. Dell tried to take it back.

At the Direct2Dell site, Dell's Laura B posted The Della Connection. Laura B explained,

For those who don’t find this convergence of technology, style and personalization appealing – well, there was obviously no intent to stereotype or otherwise offend anyone.

That said, we can do better and are already making changes based on what you’re telling us. For example, we’ve made the "tech tips" section, well, more technical. We’ll be incorporating more business-oriented products and information. And there’s less pink. We are listening.

Dell got a dose of what happened when Facebook redesigned recently. Or what happened when Twitter changed @replies. Corporations are no longer something "out there" that provides what they want which we accept without comment. We are interconnected, networked, personalized, optimized, and plenty capable of letting our voices be heard when things are not exactly the way we want them to be. The one way street closed some time ago. It's a two way street now. Merge, Della, merge.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words