So… My girlfriend broke up with me, 6 months ago. Couldn’t  get her to change her mind, said she was tired of the same old, same old. And I loved her deeply, and have been walking around with a reversed stomach and a broken heart ever since.

That is, until I found out about this. It is a website by men, for men who are having trouble finding the right one. This technique shows you how to make use of social profile sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. It’s real easy and you’ll have so much fun doing it, because you will experience a whole new dimension of what people call “a social life”. Matchbookmethod has several videos on their website showing you the results of their newly found method.

To those that are feeling a bit lonely, or those that feel like they are just missing out on love, why not take this chance? What’s to lose? You’ll end up losing more money when going out, so check out this page!

I met a girl on MySpace and we are already talking about a date, so who knows. I might have a new girlfriend soon.

I’m sure that you have heard all the buzz on social networking, social media and/or social marketing.  Rest assured that it is a big deal.  This is not all hype.  Social media allows us immediate interaction online, which makes it much more immediately effective and impactful because things do change over time.

For those of you that keep hearing how Twitter is losing visitor traffic to the website and therefore it isn’t important, don’t listen to the naysayers.  That is a bunk statistic because what powers all those Tweets are third party applications and texting from smartphones or PDA devices.  Only recently has Twitter updated the user home page with web 2.0 scripting which allows them to update the user with new Tweet alerts, so no one was really accessing Twitter webpages too much in the first place. Most people are using it from desktop applications on their PC, notebook or netbook, on their smart phone or PDA, and they are using it from all over as they live their day, not just from home.

I can even attest that I have increased sales through Twitter by trying to be helpful, a good resource, and plugging my websites a bit without being spammy.  If you need help with it, just tweet me as @Domainating, or through one of my branded domain names for sale posting account brand names of either @DomainNameGamer or @PremiumBrand.  I am also online there with other accounts, but you might think I am spamming the group if I listed them all (and some of you probably think I am already being too spammy, but I am also trying to elaborate on my point that if you have multiple brands to protect, you should do so).

When “tweeting” on Twitter, remember that you are limited to 140 characters.  All the people (tweople) who follow you will be able to see your tweets (your posts).  It is much like social blogging in 140 character increments.  Anyone searching for posts that use certain keywords can actually see your posts as well.  And you can use this to your advantage by searching for customers looking for recommendations, as well.

Some Simple Tweeting Tips:

Your tweets (posts) can also be seen by even more people when they are retweeted.

As an example, let’s say I saw this tweet from JoeTrippi:

JoeTrippi  Google to improve upon HTTP protocol? Tests show it could speed up page loads by more than 50% http://bit.ly/u6mt9

So maybe I think the Web Design and Development group (WDaDg) members and followers should know this, so I “retweet it” by copying Joe Trippi’s whole post.

Then I start the next post I make with “RT @” – RT means ReTweet, and the @ (at-sign) in front of a username functions as a mention so that they get credit and anyone seeing the retweet can check them out by clicking on the username (and possibly add them as a resource to follow).  so now it looks like this:

RT @JoeTrippi Google to improve upon HTTP protocol? Tests show it could speed up page loads by more than 50% http://bit.ly/u6mt9

…now, everyone following me will see that, as well.  So if you have something significant or valuable to say and do it consistently, you might be followed as a good resource by those who are searching related keywords in posts to follow.

When you mention other tweople’s usernames using the @ mark, they will see it in a special mentions area.  However, others may not see it if it is the @ sign is the first character of the post.  If you want others to see something, you just have to make sure that another character (other than a space) precedes the @.  Lots of tweople use a simple dot so that a reply to someone by mentioning them in the post where they want others to see might look like:

.@Domainating Thanks for the tip.

If you don’t use the dot or other character to precede the @, others still may be able to see it, so not using the dot or other preceding character does NOT make it a private message.  For instance, it still can be seen in your quick quip next to your picture on any of your follower’s (people following you) following page (the list of people they are following, which is accessible from their profile page) as the last post you made when listed there (there are usually multiple pages, you would only be listed on one of them).

If you want to send a message directly to another person (tweep) privately that only they will see, you can send them a Direct message by using a “D”:

D Domainating, you are ugly and your mom wears army boots!

…only I would see that post (or anyone looking over my shoulder when I was accessing it).

The catch is that you can only D (Direct message) your friends.  That means that in order to D the username you want to, you have to be following him/her/it AND they have to be following you (which is considered a mutual friendship).  Perhaps this is why they made @ kind of private if there are no characters in front of it and the username in a message?

The “#” (aka the number sign, the American pound sign of weight, or at Twitter it is most often called the hash tag) mark helps categorize posts and trends that people can access as a keyword or category, so that people can browse tagged messages according to subject.  So I might post…

ICANN accredidation means nothing because all registrars have to follow ICANN rules, and ICANN does not police registrars. #domain #domains

So now this post has been categorized using the hashmark so that other people looking for posts using the domains and domain keywords can easily find them.  They also speak to the trends of subjects in the social network.

Note that you will find tweople looking for recommendations on a web designer, a CMS, a domain registrar, a smartphone, a wireless service, an antiviri & security suite software package, and more, and Twitter can put you immediately in touch with these people.  Now THAT’s real time (social) marketing.

Twitter can be quite useful.  And you will find that as you establish relationships and have engaging conversations, you will reap the most benefits.

Twitter Tools and Utilities:

There are also several directories that specialize in listing tweople.  The most popular is wefollow and by listing yourself there you can gain a following of others interested in the same subjects.

Klout (http://) is a Twitter analysation tool that you may be interested in.

TweetStats n. an app to graph your Twitter stats (or anyone else’s, incase you want to check them out before you follow them if you are worried).  The graphs are nice, but I like to see the most used words and hash tags.

As noted above, I use a Twitter client (third party software) to monitor my Tweets.  My favorite is an Adobe Air application, @TweetDeck:

TweetDeck “TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more.  TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organised and up to date.” …from the homepage itself.

…hope that helps you get started (if you aren’t already)!

Thanks for reading!

I’ve been doing a bit of strategy work recently around social communities. I’ve posted before about communities and how 2009 seems to be the year they are coming of age. I’m pretty excited about where the community space is going in terms of functionality, deployability, and sustainability.

Building a social community isn’t viable for every company but given the breadth of good platforms (from Ning, through to enterprise solutions like Xeequa, Awareness, Mzinga, and Igloo) they warrant attention and discussion within the context of your social media strategy.

This presentation is a simple overview of Social Communities. It’s an extract from a larger presentation that I put together for TEC groups here in Australia and New Zealand.

Satheesh Kumar Adepu

+91 994 975 3143

adepusathy@gmail.com

Career Objective

Looking for a position of Senior Project Lead/Manager in SEO, utilizing my strong analytical and interpersonal skills to contribute using my knowledge and hard work, while gaining hands on exposure, and interested to perceive new skills with full enthusiasm and hard work, willing to take up challenging role towards career.

Career Summary

• 3.5 years of industry experience in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
• Knowledge in Web-Analytics, SEM, PPC Campaigns.
• Excellent client handling and team co-ordination skills.
• Expertise in Handling On-Page & Off-Page tasks for the projects.
• Knowledge of LSI, SILO.
• Very good exposure to project management overview.
• Excellent communication, analytical, interpersonal and presentation skills.
• Excellent Leadership skills.
• Has been rewarded with the Achiever of the Year for 2006-07 and 2007-08 in Ani SEO.

Work Profile

Name of the Organization: Cat Technologies Ltd.,

Position held: Sr. SEO Developer

Sep 2009 to present

Role & Responsibilities:

• Handle Client Requests (voice, email, chat) – being Resident Organic SEO Expert in NC, US.
• Coordinate with the Marketing team to build new contracts.
• Prepare SEO/SEM proposals for the projects.
• Prepare budget & timelines of the projects.
• Handle SEO for Non-English projects.
• Active participation in the Project Meetings (Voice conference)
• Update the SEO plans according to the Google updates and Matt Cutts announcements.
• Handle on page & off page optimization tasks..
• Generating Monthly/Weekly Analysis (reports).
• Web promotion by posting blogs, forums, newsletters, press releases, message boards etc.
• Preparing preliminary website analysis & competitor analysis.
• Bringing websites in to top ranking on major search engines.
• Finalizing keywords & Meta Tags.
• Keyword analysis & selection.
• Competitor analysis.
• Meta tags generation.
• Handle link building campaigns.
• Keyword analysis for PPC campaigns.
• Research on SEO tools.

Name of the Organization: Ani SEO Consulting Pvt. Ltd.,

Position held: Sr. Search Marketing Engineer.

June 2006 to July 2009

Role & Responsibilities:

• Handle Client Requests (voice, email, chat)
• Prepare SEO/SEM proposals for the projects.
• Prepare budget & timelines of the projects.
• Update the SEO plans according to the Google updates and Matt Cutts announcements.
• Handle on page & off page optimization tasks.
• Coordinate with the graphics and programming team to build search engine friendly website.
• Generating Monthly/Weekly Analysis (reports).
• Identify spam activities in website & remove.
• Web promotion by posting blogs, forums, newsletters, press releases, message boards etc.
• Preparing preliminary website analysis & competitor analysis.
• Bringing websites in to top ranking on major search engines.
• Finalizing keywords & Meta Tags.
• Keyword analysis & selection.
• Competitor analysis.
• Meta tags generation.
• Handle link building campaigns.
• Handle a team of 15 for Article Syndication and Social Media Optimization.
• Directory submission (paid & non-paid).
• Keyword analysis for PPC campaigns.
• Validation of the websites which are using Black-Hat techniques.
• Research on SEO tools.

Software Skill Set

Operating Systems

Windows 2000/XP/Vista, and Windows NT.

Languages:

Web/App servers:

Scripting Languages

Java Script, PHP

Markup Languages

HTML, XML.

Databases

Soft Skills

Presentation Skills, Communication and Client Interaction Skills.

Tools

IBP, Google Analytics, Easy PHP

Educational Qualifications

• B.Tech in Computer Science and engineering with 61.89% (Affiliated to J.N.T. University, A.P.).
• Intermediate Education with 87.3% aggregate (Board of Intermediate Education, A.P.).

• SSC with 83% aggregate (Board of Secondary Education, A.P.).

Extra Curricular

• NCC Army ‘C’ Certified.
• Participated in State Level Athletics (Shot-put), Held at Suryapet, in 2002.
• Second Topper in School.

For Complete Resume:

Satheesh_Resume

Seesmic hat schon zuvor eine neue Supportfunktion für die neuen Twitterlisten seiner Desktop-Anwendung eingeführt. Diese Funktion wird nun auch für die Web-Anwendung verbreitet. Hinzu kommt ein neuer Bonus: der Geolocation Support.

Ein Großteil der Nutzer wird immer noch nicht imstande sein, diese Funktion zu nutzen, da Twitter sie für seine User erst zugänglich machen muss. Für diejenigen Nutzer, die den Zugang bereits erhalten haben, unterstützt Seesmic die neue Funktion. Sie können in diesem Fall den Mauszeiger über die Standortmarkierung bewegen, um in Google Maps anzeigen zu lassen, von wo der Tweet bei Twitter versendet wurde (siehe Screenshot).

Mittlerweile kann die Listen-Unterstützung (list support) in der Web-Anwendung ebenfalls genutzt werden. Wenn man mit dem Mauszeiger über den Twitter Nutzernamen fährt, kann man den User problemlos zu seiner Liste hinzufügen. Auch eine andere webbasierte Anwendung für Twitter, Brizzly, hat eine neue Listenunterstützung erst kürzlich eingeführt. Es wird geplant Brizzly „Gruppen“ (auch eine Art Liste) mit den Twitterlisten zu synchronisieren. Dasselbe gilt für die Synchronisierung von Seesmic Listen mit Twitter Listen.

Bisher ist noch nicht klar, wann Twitter seinen Geolocation Support einführt, aber der Zeitpunkt scheint immer näher zu kommen.

#11. Pokerface

After giving up my last year in University to the Facebook app My Heroes Ability and the early 2000’s Poker craze (I literally did nothing but play that game for a year straight) told myself I would get away from the whole Facebook app addiction. Unfortunately a friend of mine won an Xbox-360 playing this app and, well, my greed for free swag is all it took for me to be hooked.

PokerFace is the only Facebook poker application that randomly – and frequently, – awards prizes to its players. You don’t have to be a cutthroat player with the highest chip count. It’s all about the poker experience from beginning to end. Essentially the more time you are online and at the tables the better your odds are of winning the prizes they give out. Monthly prizes include gaming systems, entertainment units, iPods, Zunes, and other smaller prizes.

App pare here

#10. Pet Society

I have no idea how this app is ranked so high on active accounts and MUA’s (monthly active users)? Apparently there are far too many lonely women and 8 year olds on facebook. Just read the “about” from the app’s main page below:

In the world of Pet Society you and your pet can have a great time! You can play games, decorate your house and even bring gifts for your friends when you visit them. You can enjoy many different games and activities in Pet Society, playing ball, jumping with your skipping rope or going on treasure hunts for coins in the city. For those who like to compete you can take part in contests against other pets at the Pet Stadium!

Vomit. App page here

#9. Cause

How do you make a difference in the world without getting off your ass and actually doing something. You make a difference on Facebook. If you are an individual activist, nonprofit, foundation, company, or anyone else wanting to learn more about how to utilize Causes please visit Causes Exchange.
Causes empowers anyone with a good idea or passion for change to impact the world. Using our platform, individuals mobilize their network of friends to grow lasting social and political movements.

App page here

#8. Flixster

Rate movies and share what you saw or want to see with friends. Compare your movie taste. Take over 100,000 movie trivia quizzes. Join over 40 Million people using Flixster on Facebook. Flixster is one of the largest movie communities on the web. Also available on MySpace, Bebo, the iPhone and at Flixster.com.

App page here

#7. Mindjolt Games

Mindjold games allows you to play over 500 games as well as compete with your friends online. You can play any of the many Arcade, Puzzle, Strategy and Sports games they offer for free. Challenge your friends or play by yourself.
Either way, you’re sure to have hours of fun and get absolutely nothing done at work.

App page here

#6. Slots

You may have not played Slots on Facebook before but around 70,000 people have played and a whopping 52.02 percent of those users return every single day. There are two other games in the leaderboard which are part of this application’s “network”. You can play “Scratch and Win” (3rd most engaging application) and “Pull Tabs” (10th most engaging application), and use the tokens that you’ve won from those applications to bet on slots.

While it may not be the most popular application on Facebook, the developers behind this game are most definitely generating some decent cash flow through repeat users. Also, given that incentive based advertising is the most profitable thing on Facebook, owning a leading gambling application is not a bad position to be in.

App page here.

#5. iLike

iLike lets you add music, playlists, and videos to your profile, dedicate songs to your friends, and see who’s going to what concerts.

App page here

#4. SCRABBLE Beta

While the Agarwalla brothers still have the most engaging word game on Facebook, Electronic Arts has done a good job with their Hasbro licensed version of SCRABBLE. The application has almost 200,000 users returning to the application daily. It’s an impressive feat for any developer even if it’s one of the largest gaming companies in the world that developed it.

The application has been in “Beta” for months now so I’m not sure if the company ever plans on changing that. Scrabble is clearly a popular game and Facebook has proved to be a great platform for creating turn-based games like Scrabble. If “Wordscraper” wasn’t good enough for you, you can check out Scrabble Beta if you are in the U.S. or Canada.

#3.  Mafia Wars

Mafia Wars is available on Facebook, Myspace, Tagged, and Yahoo. On April 8, 2009 Zynga released a version of the game as a free downloadable iPhone App. On Facebook alone, as of October 2009, Mafia Wars has more than 25.9 million monthly active accounts; many active clans run shell accounts for increased availability of the energy resource.

Mafia Wars is set in New York City and Little Italy, with the option for players to travel between New York and Cuba once they reach level 35 and Moscow once they reach level 70. The game revolves around doing jobs in order to earn cash, and eventually establishing and advancing one’s criminal empire. Players create mafias by recruiting players and using reward points to hire extra mafia members. Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster allow players to recruit from within their friends network to build their mafia and fight against other players. Players can also improve their stats by visiting the Godfather or making a micropayment.

App page here

#2. Facebook for BlackBerry/iPhone/Smartphones

It’s not surprising to find a Facebook owned application in this leaderboard considering that 50 percent of active Facebook users return to the site daily. If you have a BlackBerry/iPhone, there’s a good chance that you’ve already installed this application. Out of the 3.5 million users that have installed the application, 1.7 million are using it daily.

#1. Farmville

With nearly 35 million monthly users, the game will soon surpass the 35,554,755 record achieved by the How Well Do You Know Me? application. It owes its popularity to a growing trend among urbanites to try their hand in the rural life by harvesting vegetables, milking cows, and shearing sheep. I know that sounds retarded and much like I pulled it out of my ass but clearly 35 million people can’t be argued with. Players spend an average of 20 minutes a day tending to their farms, with much of that time taken up with planting their fields, as well as plastering their friends walls with annoying and intrusive “Requests to Join” messages.

App page here

Slashdot It!

DotProperty, der professionelle Online-Marktplatz für Anlage- und Gewerbeimmobilien, hat die Trendumfrage im Zeitraum 01.09. – 30.10.2009 durchgeführt. Insgesamt haben 580 Teilnehmer aus der Immobilienwirtschaft teilgenommen. Nachfolgend finden Sie die wichtigsten Ergebnisse:

Zukunftspotential von Web 2.0 und mobilen Internetdiensten

68 Prozent der Umfrage-Teilnehmer sind von dem Zukunftspotential des Web 2.0 überzeugt. 32 Prozent der Befragten äußerten, die Relevanz von Web 2.0 und mobilen Internetdiensten werde in der Zukunft abnehmen.

Quelle: DotProperty, Trendumfrage

68% – Starke bis sehr starke Zunahme der Relevanz

32% – Geringe bis abnehmende Relevanz

Erwartungen an das Web 2.0 in der Immobilienbranche

Quelle: DotProperty, Trendumfrage

36% – Keine Nutzung vorgesehen

23% – Keine besond. Erwartungen

27% – Positive Veränderung erwartet

14% – Überdurchschnittlicher Nutzen erwartet

Nutzung des Web 2.0 im Berufsleben

Quelle: DotProperty, Trendumfrage

Die Nutzung des Web 2.0 im alltäglichen Berufsleben bleibt in der Immobilienwirtschaft weiterhin sehr gering, nur 22 Prozent der Befragten nutzen die neuen Internetdienste aktiv.

78% – Keine bis sehr geringe Nutzung

22% – Starke bis tägliche Nutzung

Web 2.0 Wissen der Mitarbeiter

Quelle: DotProperty, Trendumfrage

Es mangelt bisher weiterhin an fundiertem Wissen im Bereich des Web 2.0. 64 Prozent der Befragten gaben an, dass bei ihren Mitarbeitern kein bis wenig Wissen zum Thema Web 2.0 vorhanden sei.

64% – Kein bis sehr geringes Wissen

17% – Ausreichendes Wissen

19% – Gutes bis sehr gutes Wissen

Aktive Nutzung von Xing, Facebook und Twitter

Quelle: DotProperty, Trendumfrage

In der Trendumfrage verzeichnete DotProperty eine deutliche Tendenz: Professionelle Kontaktnetzwerke im Internet, die dem hohen Anspruch der Immobilienbranche entgegenkommen, Vertrauen auf Partnerbasis zu schaffen, erfreuen sich einer immer häufigeren Nutzung. Allen Anderen voran, zeigte sich das europaweite Kontaktnetzwerk Xing, das von 28% der Befragten genutzt wird.

28% – Xing

9% – Facebook

4% – Twitter

Here’s the killer chart…

During the launch of the Fiber One Bar, General Mills could see a nearly exact correlation between weekly online postings and volume.  As Mark Roddicks, General Mills’ CMO, points out in his inspiring presentation General Mills Goes Social, it’s the kind of chart you can take to management to prove the value of consumer participation in the development and launch of products through social media tools.

General Mills has a stable of well-known, iconic food brands, including such favorites as Pillsbury, Cheerios, Green Giant and that venerable but ageless queen of the kitchen, Betty Crocker.  Back in the 40’s, the Betty Crocker brand received up to 3,000 letters a day from passionate homemakers.  Social communities built around brands have existed for decades.  Only now, thanks to today’s online social tools, General Mills can leverage the power and passion of those communities in unprecedented ways.

Here’s just a few examples of how General Mills is “going social,” because, as Addicks says, the company has only recently started on this journey and continues to learn as they go.

General Mills regularly gets new products into the hands, and kitchens, of engaged consumers before they launch.  The company uses social media tools to encourage those consumers to talk about the product, share experiences and feed back opinions and suggestions.  Not all the feedback is positive, but that’s how the company learns.

Two tools they use for this are My Block Spark and Pssst…, which invite connected consumers and bloggers to participate and provide them with platforms to share and provide feedback.

By leveraging communities in this way, General Mills builds early awareness and involvement among influencers, which facilitates fast word of mouth when the product actually launches.  Progresso Broth was launched through the Pssst… community with almost no support from traditional media.

One way General Mills gets the conversation going is by saying to consumers, here’s why we created this product, here’s how we think it works, tell us what you think.  Feedback can be in different forms, including video, and the ensuing dialogue provides rich insights for the product developers and food experts.

General Mills brands also support a number of causes.  The effectiveness of these programs has been enhanced through web 2.0 tools put in consumers’ hands.  The Yoplait “Save Lids to Save Lives” initiative in support of  Susan G. Komen for the cure saw participation increase by nearly 50% when women were provided with online tools to set up their own teams behind the program.

Addicks understands that going social with consumers with this degree of transparency can seem pretty radical to C-suite members who are used to a traditional tell and sell approach.  One way he suggests to get started is within the company itself.  One of the first things General Mills did was to create a common portal inside the organization, which enabled employees to form communities, discussion groups and interactive best practices.  This helped senior management understand the power of becoming social by demonstrating the power of the organization to help itself through these kind of tools.

Inspiring stuff.  You can see the presentation deck, as well as a video of Addicks presenting it, at the Business Building Blog.

A friend expressed her unpleasant mood on a post the other day at another friend’s post from their My Space Pages.  What the exact issue was I forget, but it was basically over something she read that had been posted to her and she had completely misinterpreted the intent of the words.  Now purely from an entertainment point of view, this is where it gets exciting to anyone dropping by to read her post.  She is the type of person the freely gives her opinions and emotions on the board.  It’s great.   It is nearly as good as a sitcom or one of those reality TV shows, and fortunately this episode had a happy ending.  You never know with these reality things.

The theme of this particular episode had an old issue that has been kicked around the internet before, and it seems to get a favorable response from the majority of people.  That is a universal sarcasm font, or the lack of not having one.  When people talk in these communities it is just too easy not to know when someone is being sarcastic or talking/typing in jest.

So, at least designate a sarcasm font for use in these large social communities.  This would stop some of this above confusion and add an easy level of expression to one’s conversation.  Now, I have been informed that if you are a good writer such font is not needed, HUM-BUG.   Most people are not trying to be creative geniuses when communicating their ramblings on the net.  They just want to quickly convey a message with the fewest keystrokes.  They are not trying to be writers,   just social. The internet is a communication service that should adapt to desires of its clients, especially, a desire that makes communication more open.

Some say it is simply an emotional font and what other emotions would you want to address as a font.  Well,that is just not true.  Sarcasm changes the interpretation of a sentence or word.  I can say, “I love your soup,” but if I put a sarcastic font on it the meaning changes to the opposite of what I just said.  So we will take this argument out to the shooting range…  Oh… never mind there already a hole blown in it.

I personally like creative reading but I do not want to misunderstand what my wife is typing to me because I cannot hear a tone in her voice from what she wrote.  Also, I may not be able to go back immediately and clarify my interpretation of that tone.  The couch is comfortable but it not that comfortable.  So help me out and other husbands, boyfriends and vice-versa give us the sarcasm font.

One final note, people frequently use words now a days that have double meaning even when they shouldn’t.   Such phrase would include, “That is really bad.”  So did you mean that is bad as in it is good, or it is horrible?  Yes, Face Book, My Space and many other communities out there could use sarcastic fonts.  They have ignored petitions to add such a font for way too long.  Well I am adding my call for a sarcastic font to be developed.  Hopefully it will not interfere with my reality reading program.  In fact, maybe it will just add to it.

And That’s The Way I See It

Jonathan S. Brooks

A few notes for companies that might be interested in hiring me:

1. I answer my phone with “Symbiotic Design, this is Doug, how may I help you?” …because I work out of my home office as Symbiotic Design.  Please don’t hang-up on me, you have the right number.
2. If I’m not at home, my son or wife might grab the phone, and they still answer it as “Symbiotic Design”.  And even though my son is only 9, he does a great job taking messages.  Don’t hang-up because he’s a little kid, please.  He’s an advanced gifted child, holds a black belt and is a member of the local divisional pee-wee football champion team, the Warriors.  I will get the message, just be sure to leave your number.
3. If the answering machine picks-up, it will allow you to hit a button in order to contact Symbiotic Design, Domain Hostmaster or HD Web Hosting.  They are all me, you can hit any button or just wait for the beep.
4. I can quit doing work as Symbiotic Design for the right position.
5. I am more than happy to relocate right way (immediately) for the right position.  I can send for the family later.
6. Although you will find this blog (as well as my personal portfolio) a bit gruff, I market myself to potential clients and they do need the personal touch.  I am often gruff, or brutally honest.  But I am a company man in a corporate environment.  My clientele has to know I am a human, they prefer dealing with me in a personal manner.  But I will check my personal attitude at home and perform my job as a professional. Unless you require some attitude, of course. 

Just don’t take anything I say/do in my personal blog/portfolio too seriously.  I’m working on a professional portfolio, but it is all done in HTML5 and CSS3.  That’s because that’s what I will need to know next, for you, to do my job.

I have a great work ethic and I am tired of not having a steady paycheck.  I need you, you need me if you want a graphic & web designer that is capable of managing a team, understands SEO and both online and social marketing techniques, works well with others and loves to be creative.

I am an expert in Photoshop, Illustrator & Dreamweaver.  I have some Flash & QuarkXPress/InDesign smarts.  I know (X)HTML, CSS, domains, branding & advertising.  I write great online web copy.  I also know video & how to leverage it on the web to the company’s advantage.

I’m not saying you would be making a mistake if you pass me up.  If you do, you are probably looking for a programmer.  But I am the best creative director you could imagine and if you need a creative guy, you would not do wrong grabbing me before anyone else does. 

Your call…

Thanks!
-Doug

Noch ein Tool für collaboratives Arbeiten. Alle arbeiten an ein und demselben Dokument in Echtzeit. Mal ausprobieren….

etherpad

Tool für collaboratives Arbeiten. Alle arbeiten an ein und demselben Dokument. Mal ausprobieren….

revizr

Ein interessanter Vortrag auf dem Bildungskongress in Düsseldorf von Prof. Peter Kruse zum Thema Zukunft der Bildung

Kollektive Intelligenz

amazing. Ein MailBrowserBlogWikiFlickrYouTubePicasaFacebookTwitterCRMChatClient

Google Waves

Announcements on our Design for persuasion conference, October the 1th in Brussels

Xeesm is a social site manager. You can put all your social networks, blogs and other social media sites, you are active on, in just one page. If this page becomes your startup page, you can access everything in a split second. As for me it is kind of a morning ritual to check them all, it is easy to do and to manage!

Put your http://xeesm.com/ChristelDeMaeyer/, in your mail signature, and your contacts know what you are doing, and where you hang out in this virtual world.

People see where you are, and might get stimulated to join other and new networks or blogs, they are interested in, it is a viral stimulater.

I really like this, and looking forward to more of it! Great product/tool!

Two nights ago, better yesterday morning, at around 5 o’clock it came to me that the my topic for my final paper will be something that has to do with Europe, Internet, Integration, Civil Society, Online Communities and Social Networks. I have had some ideas around all these different themes, but I could simply never make a clue out of them.

Then it came to me.

While reading Eco, Umberto: Das Foucaultsche Pendel, Miland 1988 I recognized the beauty of language in a quasi scientific story. Within minutes I read the first 4 pages until I realized, that this book was going to be a good friend of mine within the next weeks, but that for now it would not be what I needed. Keeping that in mind I looked for an other book on my shelf. For some unknown reason I grabbed Massing, Peter; Breit, Gotthard (Ed.): Demokratie-Theorie – Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Bonn 2006. Certainly not quite a book for a drunk or something morning at around 5 o’clock. But actually I did not care.

I read the introduction while noticing that there were some ideas, which I all in all understood, questions, which I conceived to be the ones to be asked, but the suggested answers where by far not intending to reach out to what I wanted to have answered. Of course there has to be a history of participation, of course has there been a great deep ditch, expanding to become a kloof between politics and society. Of course is the only chance to overcome this growing discrepancy by communicating with each other, but why must this end at the communication level of science?

For sure there would not be any integration, nor any democracy the way we know or even live it, if there had not been Aristotle, Cicero, Thomas of Aquin, Hume, Mill, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Jaspers, Arendt, Habermas or even Foucault. But all these never led there discourse on the level of those who live within the level of discussion. Philosophers, scientists one or the other, are always on the above level between those who reign and those who are reigned. Though some tend to say they are living and acting between those who are reigned and those who reign. Which in opposition to the former just means that their perception of how the world actually functions is from the bottom up to the top instead of from the top down to the bottom.

Until now communication on the level of people and peoples is still considered to be a sub cultural non political phenomenon, which is not able to overcome the bounds of  strange- and foreignness by it-self. This perception leads to the idea, that only politics as a working language allied with the cants of sciences has the power to realistically overcome bounds and therefore acts out control over every other form of communication. In conclusion this means that communication it-self is understood as a tool of cohabit which is functioning hierarchally – by the ground perception that every act of speaking is an acting equivalent to every other deed – if bounds are to be over come between strangers and foreigners.

Finally this leads to thought that only politics and science are the ones who have the power to integrate. Which leads to a new view, showing the viewer that integration as a process acted out by politics and science is detached from the people and peoples because of the fact that hierarchy can never be the basic requirement for an integrative process between people and peoples who are intended to interact with each other in a peaceful society in which equality blossoms out of the dignity of every human being.

But where then, one has to ask, is the language which enables integration to gain ground? My answer to that question lies within the language of every social society. Still also here language is perceived as action. Integration means that different individuals or people learn to live with each other by inventing and going new ways of living through interaction, leading to the goal of a new whole. Keeping in mind that integration therefore is a process, no one says one day or the other I am now integrated.

To understand this process there have to be two preconditions: The first is accepting that politics and science cannot be the languages or deeds of integration because of their hierarchal structure; therefore communication of civil societies has to be conceived as detached from politics and science not just by its differing vocabulary but especially because by its heterarchic structure.

The second precondition is that communication as a tool of action within an integrative process needs not just senders and receivers but also an locus vivendi, meaning a public which is reachable by everyone interested with a minimum of effort, allowing to keep the equality of every human being intact, the internet.

Composing them implies to acknowledge that the misfit between those who are mandated to act power over others in order to keep a minimum of order within a social composition, and those who are supposed to behave within the banks of an a priori preassigned volonté general without having access to the social contract, is retrieving a balance through redefinition of interdepences of the public sphere. This enables integration between people or individuals to a society on the level of people and the exertion of power on the level of politics and science.

Having thought through all of this, I now know my topic for my research paper.

Today in Europe we do have the opinion that the integration process is running in two different tempi. Meaning, either that integration in different countries within the EU is not equally fast, which by accepting the fact that the EU is still a growing institution, is no wonder, every new part has to catch up, while the motor is still running. I do not consider this opinion as the one, which means that Europe running in two different speeds.

In my consideration the idea is more a psychological one, which became comprehensible within the last years after the EU-enlargement after 2004 and following years.

On the political level the integration of Europe, the forming of the European society is already formed. Sometimes one gets the impression that there must be already final pictures of how the EU must look like in the heads of some politicians. For the political elite Europe is already on society. Keeping in mind historical elites from the 16th century onwards, this is not really new.

But the actual integration between all those different Europes is still just beginning. There is no European society. There are European regions like the Rhine region, Quadropole or the border triangles in different parts of Europe, but there is by far no civil society which could be named European.

Quite contrary to a fast developing European society one can find eurosceptic tendencies in the different member states which seem to torpedo the pictures of some politicians and the whole idea it-self.

But there are of course also tendencies, driven by the shaft of support for the European Union, which work on a deeper integration of the European Union by launching project on establishing a civil European society. These tendencies find there expressions on the level of the different civil societies in the member states. Their concern is to support the process of integration in the way explained above.

With the emergence of social networks and social communities a locus vivendi as also discussed above is found which seems to have the potential to support either of both tendencies on the topic of European integration and a civil European society.

Keeping all that in mind, my interest is focused on the question whether or not the tendencies on the level of the civil societies in the member states that work on a deeper integration on the EU and the establishment of a civil European society  gain advantages from participating in social communities like Facebook or Small World and from social networks like Couchsurfing, either by their own appearance as such supporters or by the part taking of their members in such communities and networks. In the manner of a comparison I too want to find out how far this organized supporters percept their gains from such communities and networks in difference to diffuse supporters, like community and network users who participate in forums and groups on the topic, with in such communities and networks.

Since its is not possible to evaluate all 27 member states in the banks of a research paper with a 120 pages maximum, I limit the research on the 4 states France, Germany, Great Britain and Poland. I decided to focus on these countries since the stereotypes and resistements which rule the discourse on establishing a civil European society find – explained through the history of each state and the experience with the other states – their strongest vocable in the civil societies of these member states.

The research is planned to work on standardized questionnaires in the languages French, German, English and Polish.

From these SQ’s I intend to work out the results, which hopefully will bring clearness in in the dark field of the usefulness of social communities and social networks within a societal context.

Since this research I am asking every ready to support this research by either telling friends or when the time comes by answering my questionnaires. This would be a priceless help!

Thanks to every reader

Yesterday I was posting a status update on Facebook:

‘Economy of atoms and economy of bits, digital immigrants and digital natives’. Could we make a love story of this….

immediate reactions from ‘friends’, they guided me to the video and audio book of Chris Anderson latest book Free. I just read the release announcement for Belgian market with my hairdresser that morning, yes….

So, here is the video and the link to the audio book.

It was in San Francisco when I first heard this term ‘Economy of bits’, or people are thinking in bits now, and before in atoms, while having a discussion with Gordon Knox from the humanities lab Stanford. I’m sure we will hear a lot more about this, and while the masses uses the internet more and more in a functional way, the digital divide will get more narrow as we get along. Hopefully internet access will get free, bandwidth will be available everywhere and accessible every where.

I updated Domainer’s Names.  I didn’t do much, but I created a new Twibe, “Names“, so I added my Twitter and Twibe links to the site.  I also added my Facebook info and a Twitter tweets widget to the bottom of the page.

I still have to add a couple of “Follow Me” buttons for Twitter and for Facebook to the site.  I am still looking for a good selection of Facebook buttons, but I did find what I think is possibly the best collection of free high quality public domain Twitter icons ever, at http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/50-free-and-exclusive-twitter-icons/ – both raster and vector masters are included so that we can do anything we want with them (whether for personal use or for commercial use).  I hope I find some that are near as good for Facebook.

I did start a fan page for Symbiotic Design (my freelance design studio) on Facebook, but all I have done is create it and so I want to actually do something with it before I start linking to it (like design something there).  Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time as then I would wind-up messing with my unemployment.  I’ll also leave you a link to my facebook profile page as username “symbioticdesign“, even though I’ve never even sat down and looked at how I might actually design a decent facebook profile/wall/page, yet.  I need to get that stuff done, but I don’t have a large staff working for me, either.

Once I rewrite my resume (again) and  get my portfolio straightened-out for potential employers I probably will be able to tackle that, next.  Looking for a decent or dream job takes up a lot of time and energy, though.  And I’m not allowed to get too sophisticated with my new designs anymore because unemployment will only let me work a few hours a week on my own websites as that is deemed as work.  So I am trying to develop some clean and simple website designs to base others off, for now.

Right now I am just trying to clean-up My portfolio and make sure it’s presentable, as I am sure my next job will count on it, should I be lucky enough to find something in the lines of my chosen career path. There are a few domain names that I need to delete from the domain name portfolio at domainers.name/portfolio/, and a couple to add.  But I did update my main portfolio list at Symbiotic.Biz.

I did pick-up four new domains that I will use to showcase some of my photography and art as Twitter backdrops.  I’m going to use WordPress and post them via blog at TwiDrops.com (eventually) so that I don’t have to spend time designing a site for them.  Backing-up that main TwiDrops.com domain will also be TwiDrop.com, TweeDrops.com and TweeDrop.com.  Once again, I am making sure that I cover any possible misspells or misunderstandings of the brand so that the site can easily be found.

These 4 TwiDrops brand domains are the only ones that I have left off of the Symbiotic.Biz names list, but that domain name list is static and is actually short by about 100 other names that are more adult/poker oriented.   That list is easier for a kid to access, so I try to keep that one family friendly and kid safe.   I do try to list all my domains at Domainers.Name, and I am still updating that name portfolio now.

hello blogger world – let’s see how this works.

kann ja gar nicht mehr mitreden. Die kids bloggen, twittern, bookmarken, networken in social communities ….lauter webmüll. aber wenn es denn so sein soll.

bin jedem dankbar, der sich aufgerufen fühlt, mir auf die sprünge zu helfen.

This conference will be hosted by BJ Fogg and Christel De Maeyer

Highlights and announced speakers:

Persuasive technology is broadly defined as technology that is designed to change attitudes or behaviors of the users through persuasion and social influence, but not through coercion (Fogg 2002). Such technologies are regularly used in sales, diplomacy, politics, religion, military training, public health, and management, and may potentially be used in any area of human-human or human-computer interaction. Most self-identified persuasive technology research focuses on interactive, computational technologies, including desktop computers, Internet services, video games, and mobile devices (Oinas-Kukkonen et al. 2008), but this incorporates and builds on the results and methods of experimental psychology, rhetoric (Bogost 2007), human-computer interaction, and design with intent.

The mobile phone will soon become the most powerful channel for persuasion, more influential than TV, radio, print, or the Internet.

More info on BJ FOGG

BJ Fogg published several books  Persuasive technology and  Mobile Persuasion , both available on Amazon

Info and subscription, payment with credit card

Info and subscription payment upon invoice

Supported and sponsored by Belgacom, Inside, Digimedia, Medianet Vlaanderen, plugmedia and Eclic

Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde der digitalen Kommunikation,

neues Wissen und neue Kontakte, kluge Köpfe und eine angenehmeAtmosphäre in der Medienmetropole und Hauptstadt des Sommers – der Digitale Sommer verbindet seitjeher das Angenehme mit dem Nützlichen. Auch in diesem Jahr können Sie sich über aktuelle Entwicklungen aus dem Bereich der digitalen Kommunikation informieren, interessante Menschen kennen lernen und dabei das sommerliche Berlin genießen.

Zu den diesjährigen Themen gehören Personalmarketing im Internet ebenso wie Digital Story Telling und die Gestaltung interkultureller Webseiten. Doch auch Sound Branding, Konfliktmanagement und Radical Innovation sind Gegenstand der zahlreichen Workshops, Vorträge und Seminare, die im August und September stattfinden.

Links:

• www.digitalersommer.de
• Infobroschüre

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