These days our mailman rarely delivers any joy, just drudgery. A jury duty notice from the county, a license renewal application from DMV, and, of course, bills, bills, and more bills, and even more catalogues, addressed to me and past occupants of this old house.

In the olden days, as our daughter refers to all eras pre-her and pre-Google, I used to look forward to the daily haul, hoping for a party invitation, a letter, a postcard. But no more. Now Evite, email, and the likes of internet cafes around the globe have put an end to the majority of pleasant postal surprises.

I have a trunk in my attic filled with the ups and downs of  my past: more Dear John letters than I would like to admit (Would those now take the form of an efficient but poorly punctuated text?  its not u its me), old diaries (Would these now take the form of a let-it-all-hang-out myspace page?), worn photographs, whose faded quality speaks to the passage of time (flickr?). 

Don’t get me wrong. I love the Internet, I’m as Google-happy as the next gal. Since September, 1998, when the search engine started to chug, I’ve googled everything and everybody I have ever known, wished I had known, wished I hadn’t known, and hope to know. It’s just that I mourn whatever it is that is dying with the diminishing habit of letter-writing. As a ghostwriter and book researcher, I can tell you that one of the most fruitful and satisfying dimensions of combing through my subjects’ personal histories has been my own front row seat to the epistolary drama that unfolds before me with each new project.

After our first date, my husband Fed-Exed me a package. I thought the extravagant gesture of overnighting something to a destination two miles across town was a clear sign. Here is a man who values the symbolism of letter-sending, I thought. Inside, was a book he had told me about over drinks. I Never Came to You in White was an epistolary novel by one of our colleagues, Judith Farr, about Emily Dickinson’s life told through a series of imagined letters.

So that’s why I was happy to read about Thomas Mallon’s new book, Yours Ever, and am hoping some co-blogger with the initials DT puts it under our Christmas tree.  Slate uses the occasion of this book’s publication to write a fine piece on the value of letter-writing.  

I miss getting letters. I miss the intimacy, the feeling of opening up the envelope and pulling out an expensive piece of stationery or a silly card –tangible proof that someone cared enough to go to the trouble. “I sent an email, do I still need to write a thank-you note?” my daughter asked after celebrating a recent birthday.

Well, you don’t have to,” I responded wistfully, “but it sure would be nice.”

–Barbara

Addendum: just as I was about to hit the “publish” button, a new email came in. It was an e-card sent by a friend, via something called someecards, its motto: “when you care enough to hit send.”

Are you having a Christmas party? Or maybe an Open House? What about a New Year’s Eve get together? Well, if you are like me, you forget to send out the invites until it’s almost too late (that & our postal system where I live has some…issues sometimes). I have the perfect solution for you! Evite.com!

They have lots of themes to choose from & your guests can respond online to your invite. They get to choose between “yes”, “no”, and “maybe”. Plus there’s room to leave a message so they can explain why they aren’t coming! Wow- so people may actually rsvp!? That’s great!

It’s fantastic & very easy! Not only is it super simple to make up the invites, but they have things like budget calculators & drink calculators & stuff! They have a blog with lots of ideas (& apparently they are going to be upgrading soon!) There’s a gift idea helper & a list of upcoming holidays as well.

I highly recommend using Evite for not just holiday celebrations, but any kind of party or get-together you might be planning!

ASPP DC/SOUTH CHAPTER HOLIDAY GATHERING

Host: ASPP DC/South
Location: Busboys and Poets – Cullen Room
1025 5th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001 US
When: Thursday, December 10, 6:30PM to 9:00PM
Phone: 703-391-6889

Please join us for the ASPP DC/South Holiday Get Together.

Gather with fellow ASPP Members and Friends to Celebrate the Holidays. We will provide light hors d’oeuvres and refreshments. There will be a cash bar but if you RSVP by Dec 6th then you get a ticket for one free drink !

ASPP Members are allowed to bring one guest. There will be a small charge of $10 that night for your guest.

PLEASE RSVP via the Evite delivered to your mailbox. You can’t get in w/o an RSVP! – (Free Drink Ticket with RSVP).

Not a member yet: Join today! http://www.aspp.com/index.php/chapters/dcsouth/

Il y a deux types de personnes dans ce monde, et le plus tôt vous le comprenez, plus vite vous vous sentirez heureux, épanoui, efficace – même si cela signifie devoir vous séparer de votre meilleur ami, voisin, voire même, oui même, de votre mère.
Le premier type, positif, vous apporte de l’énergie. Ce sont les personnes qui vous motivent, vous donnent de la force, vous donnent envie de devenir une personne meilleure, vous inspirent, vous font vous sentir bien dans votre vie, vous encouragent à prendre des risques, et vous aident à atteindre vos but et réaliser vos rêves.
Le second type, négatif, ce sont les sangsues. Ce sont les personnes qui drainent votre énergie, qui vous font vous sentir mal dans votre peau et dans votre vie, se plaignent sans cesse, sont négatives, répandent des commérages, vous parlent pour ne rien dire, et vous démotivent.
Qui que ce soit, au sein de votre entourage, famille, voisinage, au boulot peut être classé dans l’un ou l’autre catégorie. Plus de temps vous passez en compagnie des négatifs, plus vous devenez malheureux. Mais savez-vous comment dire qui est positif ou négatif?

Voici comment vous pouvez faire:

• 1ère étape. Faites une liste de tous vos amis, collègues, associés, membres de la famille, et des personnes avec qui vous êtes régulièrement en contact.

• 2ème étape. Maintenant mettez un + devant chaque personne positive, et un - devant chaque personne négative (vous pouvez tout aussi bien mettre un sourire ou une grimace à la place, ou tout autre signe expressif à votre convenance). Pour 95 pour cent de votre liste, il sera plutôt facile d’identifier qui vous transmet de l’énergie et qui vous en pompe. Les 5 derniers pour cent seront un peu plus difficiles à définir, ils peuvent avoir une attitude variable, tantôt positive, tantôt négative. Alors comment les classifier ? Fermez vos yeux, imaginez-les. Que ressentez vous au fond de vous? Positif ou Négatif?

Maintenant que vous avez classé chacun selon ses mérites, il est temps de faire le ménage : sortir les négatifs de votre vie. Pensez à ces personnes comme à une vilaine dangereuse et contagieuse maladie. Votre but est d’éviter ces personnes à tout prix.

Que faire si vous ne pouvez les éviter? Que faire si vous devez travailler avec ces personnes? Tant que vous ne pouvez les éviter totalement, essayez au moins de passer le moins de temps possible en leur compagnie. Quand vont-ils manger? Allez-y à un autre moment. Ne vous engagez pas dans les projets où ils sont impliqués.
Il y a un parent facheux, qui ne fait que se plaindre, à chaque fois que vous le rencontrez devant le club de sport où vous déposez vos enfants? Déposez vos enfants ou plus tôt ou plus tard. Soyez créatif. Préparez-vous une liste de réponses automatiques que vous pouvez sortir quand vous n’avez pas le temps de leur parler. Voici quelques exemples:

J’attends un appel urgent.

J’aimerai beaucoup deviser en votre compagnie sur l’état du monde, mais je dois vous quitter précipitamment pour résoudre une affaire de la plus haute importance. Je vous en prie, n’hésitez pas à m’envoyer un mel.

Bon, d’accord, ce dernier est un peu poussé. Quoique…

Vous ne pouvez pas éliminer toutes les personnes négatives de votre vie, mais vous pouvez limiter très sérieusement le temps que vous devez passer en leur compagnie et donc les dommages qu’ils peuvent vous causer. Mais, que faire s’il s’agit de votre épouse, enfant majeur et adulte, père, sœur, grand mère, petite amie, cousin, voisin, meilleur ami, ou mère? Sortez-les de votre vie! S’ils vous démoralisent, vous prennent votre énergie, vous font sentir minable, virez les.
Ça vous paraît extrême? Faux. La vie est trop courte pour devoir subir une telle nuisance. Vous pouvez être forcé de travailler avec des sangsues, mais ce que vous faites en dehors du bureau vous appartient. Vous pouvez choisir avec qui passer ces précieuses heures. Ne vous sentez pas coupable ou obligé de vous lier ou de parler avec qui que ce soit qui ne vous encourage pas. Demandez plus aux personnes qui partagent votre vie.
Votre mission est de passer au moins une heure cette semaine avec une personne positive, et de virer une sangsue de votre vie. Coupez le cordon.

Alors, qui allez-vous virer?

J’ai pensé que cela pouvais vous interesser. Si vous trouvez là une aide, vous aurez peut être à coeur de me le faire savoir en faisant une donation.

I sometimes live on the bleeding edge of technology. Some like to call this being an “early adapter.” Others think I should join a support program with a twelve-step program. My office has a room devoted to hardware and software I’ve bought, tried out, experimented upon, recommended, and sometimes even installed for my consulting company clients, including quite a few law firms.

When I built a new house a few years ago, I just had to investigate the new energy conservation devices, which could lower my utility bills, reduce my “carbon footprint,” and save the world. Likewise, I just had to experiment with design of home theatre and security system wiring, and the home computer network itself. I sometimes chatted about these with others in the neighborhood who were building houses, but didn’t mention one “enhancement” I had secretly worked on.

As the house was being built, I realized it would be more cost efficient to do all the wiring I would ever need, up front, rather than piece-mealing it later. I had been reading about the strides toward creation of working “smart houses” and other Web 3.0 applications, so I decided to make an investment in the future.

I worked with the various vendors installing my alarm system, home theater, cable, phone and other electronic systems, and got them to lay the groundwork for me. Then, being the bleeding edge geek I am, I began my own tinkering, gradually adding new components, as they entered beta stage. Fortunately, one of my clients is an appliance company, so I was able to make some relatively good purchases and get great deals on some important components.

When Thanksgiving came up on my calendar this year, I decided it was time to give the new system a trial run. I really wasn’t ready for a full-blown trial run, but one of my sons knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, so I figured if I got some of the system up and running, he would be in town at Thanksgiving to give me a hand debugging the parts.

This was also going to be the first year with multiple grandchildren, in addition to some of our friends who had become annual Thanksgiving dinner guests. That meant we had to get out the extra leaf for the dining room table, but it really meant the logistics were starting to add up to the point of being almost unmanageable. The question was whether or not I somehow pull off this Web 3.0 Thanksgiving plan in time to really help.

I got out my copy of Microsoft Project and went to work. This had to be a collaborative effort and, fortunately, seemed to be an interesting challenge for the partners in the project. Admittedly, I felt a little like Chevy Chase in one of my favorite movies of the season, Christmas Vacation, trying to pull off wiring the house to win the neighborhood Christmas lighting prize, but eventually, I finished and it was time to send out the invitations.

I decided to start with an old favorite, evite®, so I could at least try to track who would really be coming and send guest updates in a burst. It also helped get a few other issues out of the way early, such as special dietary concerns of some of the guests, coordinating menu items for those who always insist on bringing Aunt Tillie’s famous recipe, etc. I know there are lots of invitation applications out there, but since I’ve used evite® for many events and was familiar with the foibles and periodic “surprises” as it continues to develop, it was an easy choice for alerting guests to “save the date,” and then to harvest the data as we got closer to The Big Day.

Like many American families, we have established some traditions over the years. That meant timing of various parts of the event had to be precise. With folks arriving at various times, subject to last minute variables, this was always a challenge. I thought it would be interesting to see if a preview of a Web 3.0 world would be any better.

Once the first round of evite® responses started to come back and we had our first estimate of the number of guests and basic menu, I was able to get some online counsel for wine pairings with the various dishes, estimate the number of bottles needed, and place my order. One task completed.

About the time we were building our new house, I happened to read Christoper Allbritton’s story in Popular Mechanics, Control Your Appliances Over The Internet. I tried to remain mindful of Albritton’s reference to the “Terminator” sci-fi movies, and scenario where the  fictional military artificial intelligence defense system, Skynet, takes over for humans and then starts to eradicate them as a potential threat. Since my plans didn’t include any air-to-ground missiles, I decided that LG Electronics’ HomNet was a good place to start. After all, their home page says:

LG HomNet is the total home network solution providing a convenient secure, joyful and affluent lifestyle anywhere and anytime with the integration of various digital home appliances. LG HomNet makes the future lifestyle into reality. LG HomNet will usher into a future lifestyle that used to be possible only in the movies and the imagination, together with ultra-high speed Internet, artificial intelligence, and advanced robots.

LG HomNet, a home network system developed by state-of-the-art technologies from LG Electronics!

You will be provided with a new pleasant and convenient digital living culture of the 21^st century through intelligent networking of all-digital appliances, agnostic to any wired and wireless communication technology.

We invite you to a new living culture which has been dreamed about by the whole human race.

Aside from the grammatical issues in LG’s statement, and hoping their use of the term “agnostic” was meant to be closer to the original Greek, as opposed to the more recent religious interpretation, who could resist something, which would provide a convenient, secure, joyful, and affluent lifestyle, anywhere and anytime? Not me.

After taking the HomNet Experience online, I started with the refrigerator/server, adding the ovens, microwaves, and some other appliances in the kitchen. This proved a handy way to coordinate keeping foods chilled, cooking the hot foods, timing the warming of those foods in the food queue, and even providing a shopping list tied into the menu archive, and the family calendar, which is always visible on the door of the refrigerator. This was also great to avoid the previously inevitable, last minute return trips to the grocery for an item that didn’t make it on the old paper grocery lists. Now we could take remote inventory from the store, to make sure we really had walnuts for the dressing or enough whipping cream for the pie.

Once the big day came, we could actually sit back for the first time, and just wait for last minute evite® updates on arrival times. Granted, as James Gunter points out in his law enforcement blog post, Twitter is Not the Holy Grail of Emergency Notification, using Twitter alone as an alarm system is dangerous, but if only the turkey is at state, this may be sufficient. With our Twitter early warning system tied into the day’s calendar on our refrigerator, we were notified, in order, that: our oldest son and girlfriend were on their way; younger son and new grandchildren would be slightly delayed, due to a diaper change; our daughter’s friends would have to make a stop to pick something up on the way; and my old law firm partner and family would be here “soon.”

“Soon” always had a special meaning for my old partner’s arrival, but having done an earlier blog post on the Twitter Geoloction API, I had convinced him to start “tweeting.” With a little advanced coordination, I was able to tell they had not left home yet, was alerted when they started to move in our direction, and a new ETA appeared next to their family avatar on our handy refrigerator/server/message center. Our voice recognition system and data-to speech-program even announced that guests were arriving, making those already inside our “smart house” feel like they were early guests at a presidential ball, where dignitaries are announced as they enter. This was particularly helpful in marshalling the troops to help get the new twins inside before the fresh air woke them up.

Really Cool, New Sixth-Sense Technology was the pride and joy of my new system, even if it was still a beta version. The cobbled aggregation consists of off-the-shelf, Web cam, portable battery-powered 3-D projection system, and other devices connected to the user’s cell phone. The system’s ability to project keypads and other tools onto any surface, to make it a device like those used by Tom Cruise in Minority Report, proved very helpful in the game room. The RFID tracking system allowed us to locate the kids who were tardy in departure from the media room, turning down the heat in that room during dinner, and returning them to the appropriate spot in the movie they were watching upon their return.

We were able to use all this technology to time when dinner started, so the parents of the little kids enjoyed the rare treat of being able to eat in relative peace, coordinating with nap and infant feeding schedules for that optimal state of “joyfulness” promised by the appliance company. It also allowed us to finish before the preselected football games appeared on the adult’s monitors, cartoons came up for the tikes, and video games for the rest of the younger kids.

The background music, which gradually came up as we sat down to eat was a nice touch, as was the list of conversation points, which appeared in the wireless 3D i-glasses some had elected to wear. The ability to look through the glasses at a guest, allow the facial recognition and identification system enough time to identify the guest, and then call up conversation topics suggested by their Facebook references, and other social media search results, including their blogs, proved interesting, if not a little too revealing for some.

The great meal now being history, we can review the video record of the whole event to work on ways to improve it for next year. Using the facial recognition and identification system, we can piece together the level of “joyfulness” for each family member and guest, item-by-item, and plug these back into project software to start planning next year’s event.

The transportation alert module paid off in the first year, letting my oldest son and girlfriend know the system was well on the way to rerouting them back to Chicago, due to a snow storm interrupting their original plans to fly back into O’Hare. The placemats, inspired by some iPhone apps,  allowed us to check just how much food each family member and guest had consumed, and for those who desired it, their iPhone apps would now “remind” them of the exercise plan the system had outlined to return them to normal size, including, of course, the appropriate level of play on their Wii Fit™ system at home.

Now, on to Cyber Monday Shopping.

__________________________________________________________

Apologies to Berners Lee, whose article, The Semantic Web, in a 2001 edition of Scientific American, gave rise to this story. Lucy, in the original story, instructed her Semantic Web agent through her handheld Web browser to conduct a search which started to define the term, Web 3.0.

That’s what I think. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

If you are really interested, I just started yet another free group on LinkedIn, Social Media Search and Forensics. Many of these articles and discussion about them are posted there. Please join us.

1. What does RSVP mean?

RSVP, commonly used on invitations, is an acronym for the French phrase: répondez, s’il vous plaît, which means respond please. Not, respond if you please. It means to respond if you are coming or not, and to do so by a certain date. When drafting an invitation, don’t write “please RSVP”. It is redundant and sounds desperate.

2. What is the use of RSVP?

A properly executed RSVP is essential for a host to know who’s coming to their event. This is as important for a small gathering (a seated dinner) as it is for a large one (a wedding). It effects all aspects of the event planning; seating, menu, favors, arrangements, etc. Arabs love to wait until the last minute to RSVP. Sometimes, it is an innocent mistake. But other times, they delay their response in order to see who else is going or to keep the date free as long as possible (in case something better comes up). This delay causes great anxiety to the host who becomes frantic not knowing how many people will show up. Also, an Arab’s RSVP is not a guarantee that they will actually show up. Or they may show up with guests of their own. So when you invite 20 Arabs over for dinner, you can expect anywhere between 10-30.

Note: The people who RSVP properly (the same or next day of receiving an invitation) are usually the people who arrive on time.

3. What is evite?

In the post-postal age of the internet, electronic invitations (evites) have become the standard way to invite a group of people. This technological advancement saves time, money and the environment (a bit). It is very simple to use. If you receive an evite, just open the invitation and click whether you want to go or not. Done.

4. Why is the guest list closed for some evites?

Why should it be open? When you receive a traditional invitation in the mail, does it come with an attached guest list? In any case the open guest list option obviously does not work for Arabs. Since Arabs don’t RSVP until the last minute (see #2), no one will RSVP, because everyone thinks that no one is going to party, because the guest list is empty, because no one has RSVP’d yet. To avoid this vicious cycle, keep your list closed and ignore nosy people’s requests for guest lists.

5. Why should I care about RSVP’ing?

All Arabs complain to each other about their guests not RSVP’ing to an event. So everyone knows what it feels like, yet when they are invited somewhere they still don’t RSVP on time. FYI, here is what happens every time you don’t RSVP:

1. Your host freaks out.

2. Host will tell those who RSVP’d on time about those who didn’t.

3. You call last minute (after hearing that the party is going to be super-fun) to ask if you can still come. Frustrated host tries to sound gracious on the phone and says “of course”.

4. Host hangs up and calls all friends to tell them how rude you are.

5. Host proceeds to cook more food.

6. There is enough food at party (to last for days of leftovers). Because we all know Arabs will never run out of food at a party (future post).

7. What goes around come around. You will find yourself wondering 2 days before your party: will I have 20 or 50 guests? You freak out… Back to step 1.

6. What is the worst RSVP faux pas?

When you RSVP yes and then don’t show up. Host will only forgive you if you have a reasonable excuse. If this is a repeated offense, soon you will be socially isolated and no one will invite you, ever. Also, when you RSVP for a charity function without paying in advance and then don’t show up, the charity still has to pay for the cost of your ticket and you potentially took a space that could have been reserved for someone else. So, you could be responsible for a hungry orphan not getting her meal, because the charity had to pay for yours. Next time that happens, do the right thing and send a donation with an apology. The orphans will thank you.

So go, dig out your invitations from the junk mail pile, log on to evite, and RSVP please (yes, I am desperate!) Or the karma police will get you…

Not long ago, when I began to embark on all things bridal, it occurred to me that I live an extremely wired life. My work as an in-house legal counsel requires me to be online the whole time because I cover 11 different countries in the Asia Pacific region and I rarely see my internal clients face to face. Everything is handled online.

Beyond that, I’m a pretty steady networker with most of the networking activities being done online via Facebook, Twitter, etc. The World Wide Web is my absolute favourite resource for entertainment, music, information (Wikipedia rocks!), keeping up with long-lost compadres of yesteryear, looking up good takeout places around my condo, etc.

 Since I’ve started this blog, only a handful of my real-life friends know about this, as I wanted to keep the wedding a secret until perhaps two months before. Right about now.  Planning to announce my impending marriage by the end of the month at which point this blog is gonna go public!

 Now keeping a blog is heaps of fun…sometimes too much fun! J But, it doesn’t really help me keep organized when it comes to tracking invitations, managing guest-lists etc. How would guests across half a dozen countries in the world get the information they need to fly down to Sabah for the wedding? How would they RSVP? How do I get all of their mailing addresses when all I have (for most of them) is just their email contact? How do I upload pictures and video files so that loved ones from far away can still be part of our special day?

 So I decided that in the age of technology, a wedding website is the way to go!

 I did a little research and found two brilliant sites: one is www.weddingwindow.com and the other is www.theknot.com and they BOTH rock!

 www.theknot.com actually provides a free website which tracks your guest list as you input the information, and even tells you how many invitations you need at the end of the day (because some guests bring their spouse, others get invited as a family, etc.), and it tells you how many actual people would be there too! That way you can manage the number of invitations you need more accurately, and you can manage the number of pax for food, seating etc. Beyond that, the site is packed with useful wedding-related information and inspiring ideas, pictures of real weddings, anything and everything a Bridezilla worth her stripes would die over!

 I started with www.theknot.com but ended up purchasing a package at www.weddingwindow.com because it had some of the features I really liked. So it’s really a matter of choice. Learning how to navigate and build your website will take a few trial & errors but once you get the hang of it, easy-peasy!

With www.weddingwindow.com I get a choice of having everything on my website reduced into a CD at the end of my subscription (you get anything from 3 months till kingdom come). As a keepsake, you know? I also elected to purchase our own domain name for a small fee. Something easy to remember. I’d recommend this option, for sure.

Here’s a Bridezilla tip for ya: If you’re getting many tech-savvy guests from overseas, a wedding website is really the way to go, because it will save you the hassle of getting everybody’s addresses, etc. Both sites mentioned also allow you to customize a ‘Save The Date’ which has your website address on it so that people can go online and check out all sorts of useful information about the wedding. BUT…don’t expect the oldies to get down with this website thang. You should emphasise that you are not going to skip the formal invitation rite; this is really something extra that some guests may appreciate, especially if they’ve never been to the place where the wedding would take place.

You could also choose to go one step further and use www.evite.com to get some sort of confirmed numbers first before following up with invitations. I love that they have a ‘respond’ function so you’ll know! ‘Save The Dates’ only go so far as to inform someone you’re getting married, but it doesn’t make them respond as to whether they’ll be making the perilous journey to the end of the world to share in your matrimonial celebrations!

 If you want the best of both worlds, you’ll do what I’m going to, and link your website to your evite!

 Bridezilla suggests this order:

 Step One:

Send electronic ‘Save the Dates’ as early as you can so that guests from overseas can make travel arrangements. Your ‘Save the Dates’ should have your wedding website address on it so that they can get information on accommodation, flights, etc. and plan their trip.

Step Two:

About six to eight weeks before the wedding, send your evite with the response option. Your wedding website address should be in the evite as well. And this evite function will handle all the reminders for you. J

Step Three:

Four to six weeks before the wedding, send your formal invitations. By now you’d have had some responses on evite and can figure out how many formal invitations you’ll actually need. Seating charts, food preparation etc would be a cinch also. All your invitations should have an electronic RSVP option with your wedding website address on it as well.

Picking the design for the website was super-easy because all the templates were nice. I just picked the colours from our theme and that was that!

So without further ado…here it is: Bridezilla’s wedding website!

  http://nigelandjosephine.com

Now wasn’t that easy?

Disclaimer: As with everything on this site, the following is representative of my best assessment of the tools discussed and their features and functions. As such, it is recommended that you not take my word as “being law” (smile).

Before we get started on Part III, here are links to Part I and Part II. If nothing else, reading these first might give you a little better feel for the conversation. Continuing ……

FaceBook: FaceBook creates some very interesting possibilities for creating and publicizing events. You first have to look at two things…even more enormous numbers in terms of members than LinkedIn (a plus) and a much more open network than LinkedIn (also a plus). Then you need to evaluate those areas on FaceBook that will allow you to create events. I count three. They are: your own profile page, FaceBook Group Pages, and FaceBook Fan Pages. If it is your goal to promote your business in addition to your event, I am going to suggest that you use Fan Pages for this purpose. Fan Pages, you see, are maybe more often used as Business Pages.

The events application is really very nice. It does allow you to broadcast your event to your friends in your network, email to contacts outside of FaceBook, and update your event to your profile. While folks who do not belong to FaceBook will be able to see your event, they must join the network in order to be able to RSVP. Speaking of RSVP, FaceBook does a nice job with that also. If you want to allow for on-line registration for a fee based event, you will want to use something like EventBrite or Constant Contact or your own website. Important Note: I  have never been entirely comfortable with FaceBook. Nothing against FaceBook mind you. I’m just not a FaceBook kinda’ guy. However, and this goes the same for LinkedIn, if you are wanting to be active in putting on events, there is not a better case than this for making as many damn friends on this site as you possibly can (smile).

Your Website or Blog: If you have a website and do not have the capability to create events and have attendees register on-line and pay on-line, I can just about guarantee that this oversight can be corrected. Call your web geek if that is not you. WordPress.org blogs can use a variety of third-party plug-ins to accomplish this task. This is a WordPress.com blog so that is a little more limited but even I could easily create an event or events on this site and then provide a link to a third-party source for on-line registration and payment and could use something as simple as an email with a link to direct folks to the event. Pretty easy.

iContact: If you have made the decision that emailing links to your event will at least be a part of your promotion efforts, but you would like a nice looking invitation to be a part of that email, consider iContact. For starting at $9.95 per month you will have access to over 200 templates and an email newsletter program to boot. Not too shabby.

Constant Contact: Constant Contact is very similar to iContact in terms of features and what it can do for you. A little bit more expensive, however, and this may also be an additional fee, it also has a product specifically designed for events, on-line registration, and on-line payment in one neat package. Definitely worth a look.

EventBrite: There are an awful lot of folks using this service so you had best take a look. Certainly would be a site to link to from your event invitation if that service did not provide for on-line registration and fee pay. Whereas iContact and Constant Contact charge flat monthly fees, EventBrite charges a per attendee fee based on a percent of the admission and a small service fee.

Evite: I have never heard of this service but just received an email invitation to an event via this. What’s better is it appears to be a free service. If it’s free, it’s for me, I’ll take three (smile).

Publishing and Promoting: Here’s where it can get fun and adventurous (smile). Use Twitter to post URL links to your events. Use Ping.fm to post these same links to multiple sites including Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and many others. Allow Twitterfeed to automatically post new events created in Ning (from the resident “events” RSS feed) to Twitter, FaceBook, and Ping.fm. The “Share on FaceBook” bookmarklet will allow you to capture the URL to any website that you are viewing, say your event on either Ning or EventBrite, and post that to your FaceBook profile. The Hootlet bookmarklet from Hootsuite will do the same thing for Twitter or Ping.fm. SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater) will allow you to schedule tweets ahead of time and could then, therefore, give you the ability to repeat tweets regarding your event. A word of caution on that though. Apparently Twitter has banned repeating Tweets so you may be risking account suspension or worse. Am I missing any? Probably but that should be enough for you to have some fun.

I’m stickin’ a fork in this topic. I’m done. Ain’t gonna’ be no Part IV (smile). Thanks for visiting and best of luck with your events!

Craig

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Realizar todo por sí mismo es un error. Delegue las tareas y observará los buenos resultados.

Evite ser manager 'monopolista'

Un dirigente monopolista es aquel que quiere hacerlo todo por sí mismo y no recurre al inmenso caudal de recursos que tiene a su disposición. ¿Existe posibilidad para que un manager así alcance el éxito hoy? Muy pocas.

En la actualidad, los mercados están saturados de productos y servicios distintos que compiten entre sí y por tanto se necesita de muchas cabezas pensantes dentro de una empresa, una sola no basta.

Sin embargo, muchos dirigentes pretenden continuar con sus operaciones sin delegar y tratando hacer todo por si mismos, o como dirían los ingleses “do it yourself“.

En realidad el mensaje del dirigente que adopta la actitud acaparadora es poner el futuro de su empresa en manos de la “improvisación“, para muchos, el camino más directo al error.

El diccionario de la Real Academia Española de la Lengua (RAE) define: “improvisar, hacer una cosa de pronto, sin preparación alguna“. Y nótese que este término posee la misma raíz etimológica que la palabra “impru-dencia“.

Consecuencias del enfoque ‘monopolista’

Cuando un manager descarta los recursos de gestión existentes y opta por el enfoque “no necesito a nadie, lo hago todo por mi mismo“, se enfrenta a múltiples consecuencias negativas, entre ellas:

1. Desperdicio de tiempo, esfuerzo y dinero de su empresa, repitiendo las mismas pruebas que miles de empresarios han hecho antes que usted y han demostrado que estaban equivocadas.

2. Incrementar de forma exponencial la posibilidad de adoptar decisiones equivocadas, que acarrean más desperdicio de tiempo, esfuerzo y dinero.

Nota Original: Evite ser manager ‘monopolista’

Fuente: Altonivel.com.mx
www.altonivel.com.mx

Lea También:

Los 10 errores de un manager

Características de un buen manager

OPA!

Hoje vai apenas uma dica BEM simples e fácil de ser seguida (por quem quiser, obviamente, porque nenhuma regra é absoluta e apenas servem para a maioria dos casos, não para TODOS).

Mas os homens devem evitar a CAMISA SOCIAL de manga CURTA com GRAVATA.

Primeiro porque realmente parece que não essa combinação não se “encaixa“, a menos que você seja um nativo dos EUA ou EUROPA (já que eles adoram isso).

Segundo porque a grande maioria das mulheres ABOMINA esse LOOK. (não é Fashion e não MODA)

O mais bacana mesmo para os dias mais quentes é uma bela camisa social com mangas longas DOBRADAS e a gravata.

fica a dica.

“o estilo diz tudo“
Rei da Moda.

Olá pessoal,

Estou lançando um alerta em relação a spamers que atuam nos servidores de email.

O que é spam?

É uma tentativa de envio de informação, na maioria das vezes comerciais, não solicitada e enviada de forma massiva.

É crime?

Sim é crime.

Qual o texto do artigo, da constituição, sobre o tema?

O spam fere os princípios constitucionais da intimidade e da privacidade, especificados, no artigo 5º, X e XII:

X – são invioláveis a intimidade, a vida privada, a honra e a imagem das pessoas, assegurado o direito a indenização pelo dano material ou moral decorrente de sua violação;

XII – é inviolável o sigilo da correspondência e das comunicações telegráficas, de dados e das comunicações telefônicas, salvo, no último caso, por ordem judicial, nas hipóteses e na forma que a lei estabelecer para fins de investigação criminal ou instrução processual penal; (ABREU FILHO, 2007, p. 15-16)

Como me encontram?

Aqueles velhos emails que você responde ou encaminha, ou seja, as Correntes.

Como evitar?

Não crie nem repasse correntes.

Como denunciar?

A empresa reguladora da internet no Brasil é a ANATEL, logo você pode denunciar direto no site desta.

www.anatel.gov.br

A empresa que concede o WWW (os domínios da Word Web Wide) é a REGISTRO.BR, lá você também poderá denunciar.

www.registro.br

, abraços.

Caio Barbosa
Desenvolvedor Web

Comme promis hier, voila la vidéo de Raffaele de Rosa dans ses oeuvres sur le circuit de Mugello et une seul chose a dire, quel talent pour un jeune de 22 ans!!!!

Impressionnant de calme et de maitrise dans un exercice plutot cavalier….

“I’m way behind in responding to all my Evite invitations!”