Social media

To prevent an even stronger privacy proposition from appearing on the ballot in the fall, the California legislators rushed through a bill providing strong  privacy rights for all California citizens. Companies making lots of money from the ‘net dislike the bill but supported it in order to derail the proposition.

(Cross posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.

Since the law doesn’t go into effect until 2020, there is plenty of time for the legislators to agree with the inevitable demands from tech companies to water down the bill. Pending the expected vast dilution, the bill provides a few landmark protections for consumers, including:

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Major privacy bill approved in CaliforniaRead More »

Bruce Schneier has a series of articles that ponder the risks and rewards of jumping into cloud computing. That is the concept of storing your data and computing power with an on-line service provider.

(This discussion is cross-posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update, because the same issues apply in a CPA firm. You may find this discussion helpful for your clients who are pondering a jump to the cloud for major applications.)

Some things to consider:

6/10 – Schneier on Security – Should Companies Do Most of Their Computing in the Cloud? (Part 1) – The answer is complicated. The efficiencies and cost savings are real and a major advantage.

On the other hand, there may be legal issues, such as your government creates far higher privacy standards than the country where your data will be stored or another country places severe restrictions on data you store there. …

Thoughts on jumping into cloud computingRead More »

Double check who is getting your texts.

We’ve all heard the stories of hitting ‘reply all’ instead of ‘reply’ when discussing something in an e-mail that shouldn’t go to ‘all’.

Here’s a new oopsie I learned about personally but at low cost. (Cross posted from Nonprofit Update.)

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Yet another embarrassing tech error – sending a text message to the wrong personRead More »

Tech tools available today make it easy for a novice to create usable videos. No one will confuse what you create with what comes out of Hollywood or Madison Avenue, but it won’t cost thousands of dollars per minute of content either.

To show how easy it is, I’ve accumulated several of my videos and briefly discussed them on my other blog, Outrun Change:

• Why am I posting airplane videos on this blog?
• Airplane flyby videos – 1 of 2
• Airplane flyover videos – 2 of 2
• 2 animated cartoons illustrate the ease of making cartoons

 

Here is my most popular video, with over 3,600 views:

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qeibzgSemY]

 

Making videos is incredibly easy. I hope my simple efforts will encourage you to try it yourself.

Keep in mind I’m working with a point-and-shoot camera, have zero editing experience, and possess a level of creatively that is only slightly higher than the average accountant.

Equipment that is not cheapest on the market, some minimal experience, and measurable levels of creativity combined with the astounding tools available today would result in great video for your organization.

Jump in, the water’s fine!

Just the process of putting into words what you are thinking will produce tremendous growth. Actually thinking about what is going on around you, in your industry, or in the wider world will stretch you like nothing else.

Do it for yourself!

I have grown tremendously from writing on my blogs. Check out Seth Godin and Tom Peters making that point:

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=livzJTIWlmY]

 

A few great lines: 

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Get started blogging. Do it for yourself, even if nobody ever reads anything you ever post.Read More »

If you need to set up a simple website, consider using blogging software to do so.

I have found that using a blog as website is cheaper to run and far easier to maintain with better statistics available than my previous platform.

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Setting up a simple website on a blogging platformRead More »