Successful Business Web Presence

Just came across an article from Mashable about the "4 Elements of a Successful Business Web Presence". Website, Newsletter, Blog, and Social Sites -- all vital aspects of creating an online presence. Good read.

http://mashable.com/2010/02/10/business-web-presence/

C-Span Calls Out Obama

Karl Rove on C-SPAN's request to Congress to televise health care meetings. Watch the interview.

President Obama promised to make the Health care debate open and transparent. Stop your secret health care shenanigans and let C-SPAN cover the meetings. No more secret sessions. No more sweetheart deals. The American people have a right to know. If you don't have anything to hide, you would welcome the light. Let the cameras in. Sign the petition for health care transparency.

Utah First State to Offer iPhone App

Utah is first state in nation to offer government service through Apple iPhone Application

Press release

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Francine A. Giani, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Commerce announced today that Apple iPhone users can now search the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing's online database thanks to a free Apple application which can be downloaded from iTunes.

The Department of Commerce is the first state agency to offer an iPhone service and Utah is the first state nationwide to offer an Apple application for a government service. For instance, iPhone users will be able to look up a contractors license from a job site, patients can verify a doctors license from a waiting room and homeowners can search for a licensed electrician from their backyard.

"Utah is known for being on the cutting edge of technology and innovation and ensuring access to government services. With this new iPhone service leading the way for other state agencies, Utah can now say, 'Yeah, we have an app for that!' " said Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.

"We are thrilled to be the first to bring the convenience of iPhone applications to a state agency database", said Francine A. Giani, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Commerce, "Our Department looks forward to adding more Commerce services to iPhone users in the near future."

About the Utah Department of Commerce: The Department of Commerce contributes to the success of Utah businesses, professionals and consumers by creating a favorable economic environment. Our mission is to protect the public interest by ensuring fair commercial and professional practices. For more information about the Utah Department of Commerce log on to: www.commerce.utah.gov, or call (801) 530-6701.

About Utah.gov Utah.gov is the State of Utah's official Web portal (www.Utah.gov). It was ranked first in the 2008 Digital States Survey by the Center for Digital Government and also ranked first in the nation in the Center for Digital Government's 2007 Best of the Web competition. It is managed and operated without tax funds through a public-private partnership between the state and Utah Interactive, the Salt Lake City- based official eGovernment partner for the state of Utah. Utah Interactive is a subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV)

About NIC NIC is the nation's leading provider of official government portals, online services, and secure payment processing solutions. The company's innovative eGovernment services help reduce costs and increase efficiencies for government agencies, citizens, and businesses across the country. NIC provides eGovernment solutions for 2,900 federal, state, and local agencies that serve more than 70 million people in the United States.

Yahoo to Target Billboards Based on Passerbys

(As reported on MarketingVox)

"Yahoo Japan Corp. will begin distributing targeted content via electronic billboards in train stations and other facilities, based on who is walking past.

The company is teaming with Comel Co., which installs and operates electronic billboards. Cameras mounted on Comel's billboards will photograph passersby. Characteristics such as sex and age will be determined using facial analysis technology from NEC Soft Ltd., according to the companies (via MediaBuyerPlanner).

Yahoo Japan will begin the campaign with 500 billboards in train stations and shopping malls in Southern Japan, displaying content like news, weather and ads. Yahoo will then expand the service to Tokyo and Osaka, doubling the number of the billboards, writes CrunchGear.

Last summer, an article in The New York Times about billboards with facial-recognition capabilities caused a tempest over privacy issues. One company offering such technology, TruMedia Technologies, sent a letter to the paper explaining that the company would never record or store any video from the billboards.

The technology behind the billboards only analyzes the images its cameras take. No individually identifiable info is ever stored, the letter stated (via Engadget).

TruMedia’s camera-equipped billboards - inspired by Israeli surveillance - track viewers’ faces to gather reliable viewing data for digital displays and screens."

Facebook Owns Whatever You Post

The latest changes in the Facebook interface, filtering and real-time updating, some think are brilliant, however many of the less tech-savvy users feel it has become too complicated. First-time users may not intuitively understand how to configure privacy for photo albums and friend lists. The default sharing option is set to "everyone" so photos will be shared publicly.

Another privacy concern is the default setting to share personal information with everyone on a user's network (which could include an entire region or state). Some have indicated that Facebook should offer clear safety settings for those new to social networks and those not aware of the threat of scams and phishing and who do not understand they can and should change their privacy settings.

My biggest concern is the change in Terms of Service announced in February which indicates Facebook owns all content uploaded onto the site and reserves the right to sublicense the content as it sees fit.

WO! The implications there are really scary. Think about all of those who upload inappropriate photos -- they could end up on a porn site (legally if Facebook sells the photos)... or someone posting a scandalous image (which could now legally be sold to a tabloid) not that anyone would upload any inappropriate images...

But what about the professional photographer who legally owns the copyright to his / her own images or videos. If they share those images within their own network (family and friends), now they have given Facebook rights to that content -- which legally Facebook could sell to Getty Images, or other sites.

I'm not sure why there has not been more repercussions about the change in Terms of Service, and how Facebook could legally claim ownership to whatever is posted.

Any thoughts?

Android Computer & Home Phone

T-Mobile is creating an android-powered tablet pc computer and home phone. The phones should be available early next year as reported by MarketingVox. I think it looks interesting but can't make any predictions until we get some more official announcements about pricing, size, memory, and other specs.

Agilix Wins Top Microsoft Award

Agilix Selected as One of Three Winners in Microsoft's Ingenuity Point Competition

GoCourse Learning System Takes Top Award in Education Category as Part of Round Two of the International Competition to Drive Innovation

OREM, Utah, April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Agilix Labs, Inc. announced that its GoCourse Learning System solution has been selected as a winner in round two of Microsoft Corp.'s Ingenuity Point contest, a worldwide competition for independent software vendors (ISVs) that recognizes solutions built on Microsoft technology with the potential to drive positive change in the areas of education, healthcare and environmental sustainability. GoCourse Learning System, a personalized distributed learning platform for delivering online courses, is the winner in the education category.

"Educational institutions want to deliver personalized learning through rich, engaging content to their online students. We are pleased to work with Microsoft worldwide in providing a powerful new learning solution to schools and institutions that need the benefits of fully distributed learning," said Curt Allen, Agilix CEO.

"The Agilix GoCourse Learning System is the first hosted 'Software + Services' solution built on the Microsoft platform that can be easily customized and integrated with other components of a complete eLearning system through a suite of open XML APIs," said Allen.

GoCourse Learning System, which is now in its 2.0 released version, is a distributed online learning system designed to address the needs of distance and online education and training around the world.

GoCourse Learning System improves the lives of teachers and students. The solution provides the tools that allow any instructor or instructional designer to create and deliver rich and engaging courses with minimal effort. Instead of publishing course materials as a series of links and text in a browser, GoCourse delivers the entire course inline as a series of engaging learning experiences through an immersive course player environment. The combination of dynamic templates and simple drag-and-drop assembly methods supports the creation of course content, quizzes and assessments and learning activities that are accessed through either an Internet browser or an installed Windows application.

GoCourse's distributed learning model and personalized learning approach provide students with access to anywhere, anytime learning that expands the concept of the classroom to include anywhere the student has access to the course materials, even when Internet access may not be available.

"Ingenuity Point contest winners such as Agilix utilize Microsoft technology to build new, exciting applications that make a difference in the world and demonstrate the true power of software," said Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist at Microsoft. "We are pleased to recognize Agilix as an ISV leading the field of pioneering software solutions in the education category."

Agilix customers include schools and institutions, such as K-12 school districts, universities, professional associations, and corporate and military training organizations that use GoCourse to author, deliver, and track comprehensive online courses.

Once an online course is created, GoCourse Learning System delivers the course as a series of interactive and media-rich learning experiences, tracking both performance and time spent.

Agilix and the winners in the other two categories make up the final-round grand prize recipients of the yearlong Ingenuity Point competition and are joined by the three grand prize winners from round one. The six vertical winners selected in both award rounds are eligible to be chosen as the Platinum Ingenuity Point Award winner later this spring. Platinum Award winners will receive additional marketing support from Microsoft, as well as a coveted guest judge position at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 competition to be held in Paris.

More information about the contest and all winning ISVs is available at the Ingenuity Point Web site, http://www.theingenuitypoint.com.

About Agilix

Agilix Labs, Inc. enables educational institutions and organizations focused on distributed online learning to deliver rich and engaging online courses. Its flagship GoCourse(TM) Learning System is designed to radically transform instructional management and the learning experience and improve the lives of instructors and students. Agilix products enable delivery of rich interactive learning content through online and offline access. Through partnerships with some of the industry's most progressive technology leaders, including Microsoft, Intel, Higher Ed Holdings and FranklinCovey, Agilix delivers its software applications to hundreds of thousands of users in more than 110 countries worldwide. Founded in 2001, Agilix is based in Orem, Utah. For more information about Agilix, please visit http://www.agilix.com.

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Petition to Save Windows XP

InfoWorld is collecting signatures on a petition to save Windows XP. Click here to sign. I'm happy to add my signature. I'm in need of a new computer system, but hesitate to buy one because every machine comes with Vista -- and the time and money it will take to get all of the software I use upgraded, with patches, etc. -- just makes me not want to go there. I just don't have the time to deal with it. So I stick with my current system and hope it keeps working well. If I could get a new computer with Windows XP (that is not a DELL), I'd do it in a heartbeat. I hope Microsoft will listen to what their customers WANT and not keep trying to tell us what they want us to want -- and keep Windows XP around. (It won't be sold after June 30th).

Facebook to Launch IM Service

"Facebook is poised to launch its own instant messaging service as early as next week. The service will be built into Facebook profile pages.

Facebook's plans may be bad news for third parties like Social.IM and FriendVox, which built IM apps on Facebook.

The announcement comes a week after Bebo, the third biggest social network, was purchased by AOL. AOL says the merger's success hinges upon the successful integration of AIM into Bebo.

MySpace also offers a rather sporadic IM service, which debuted in 2004.

Early this month, Facebook announced a music partnership with iTunes, right on the heels of MySpace, which itself is developing a music service with the four major record companies."

http://www.marketingvox.com/facebook-to-launch-im-service-037361/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

vSpring Top 100 Entrepreneurs for 2007

Congratulations to two of my brothers - Curt Allen and Paul Allen for being included in the 2007 vSpring Top 100 Entrepreneurs. I think this is the 3rd year they have been on the list. Very Cool! Read the vSpring Press Release