Rejected Online!

Forget all that cr-- about community! This morning I tried to join the View Community -- having been "invited" on their site. After I put in Female, U.S. citizen, over 50, and hit continue

I got a message that said they were looking for different criteria. no kidding.

Then I went back to get the exact words, and somehow it will let me sign in. Must recognize

my computer and they would be sending me to the trash.

The web as Club 54 or whatever it was.

Depends on Your Point of View

For the first time ever, I went on Lou Dobbs' site to send an email. I ended up not doing it because prior to entering the comment, you have to select a box which says whether your comment is positive or negative.

Undoubtedly, what is positive to me is most likely negative to Lou Dobbs. But it is interesting how they screen comments.

Congratulations Hawaii Reporter!

Malia Zimmerman's Hawaii Reporter celebrated its 7th Anniversary today.

Putting the news online in 2002 was a prescient move -- and the new look of the site makes it a really up-to-date, easy-to-access local and national news source.

Malia and her talented staff are sought out by national television shows (20/20) and newspapers (The Wall Street Journal) for their help in reporting local issues of national interest.

The 7th Anniversary luncheon today honored 7 Hawaii Super heroes -- including Sam Slom

Rick Hamada, Dick Rowland, Jack Schneider, Dale Evans and Bobbie and Cliff Slater --- all representative of the independent thinking and intelligent, alternative community voices that Hawaii Reporter supports.

Malia and her partners, Jay McWilliams and Laura Brown also launched a newly revamped Public Records that is called Hawaii's Inside Track and will function as an independent site.

Way to go!

Pretty impressive!

Money Talks

BUT I GUARANTEE YOU IT IS NOT OVER ...


Facebook Reverts to Previous Terms of Service
February 17, 2009 - 11:58 pm PDT - by Adam Ostrow 23 Comments
That was quick. A day after trying to defend changes to its Terms of Use, Facebook has pulled a 180 and decided to revert to its previous terms.
Earlier today, the company began polling its users about the controversial changes, with only 6 percent supporting them and 56 percent opposing (the other 38 percent simply responded “don’t know”). We posted the same poll on Mashable and the results were far more decisive – 88 percent voting to revert, 7 percent to keep, and 5 percent indifferent (as of 11pm PT).
Once again, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the one breaking the news. In a blog post, he writes, “Going forward, we’ve decided to take a new approach towards developing our terms. We concluded that returning to our previous terms was the right thing for now. As I said yesterday, we think that a lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective so we don’t plan to leave it there for long.”
In a smart response to what I’ve previously characterized as a breakdown in communication more than anything else, the company has also established a Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities group, where members are encouraged to “give input and suggestions on Facebook’s Terms of Use.”
Smart move, Facebook. Unlike the breakdown over Beacon, which lasted for weeks, Facebook has diffused this crisis in a matter of days. Of course, it could’ve been prevented in the first place by clearly explaining the changes before posting them, but it appears Facebook has taken steps to ensure that this issue doesn’t plague the social network in the future.

SHould Be Called WeLiedToYouBook

So much for social networking --innocents of the internet underworld beware:

Facebook now owns old content
February 16th 2009
Author
by Edward Barrera
Feed
XML Feed
ADOTAS — Facebook has changed its terms of service, and apparently now, if you close your account, it can do anything it wants with your old content.
The terms of service used to say that when you closed an account on its network, any rights it claimed to the original content would expire. But things might have changed.
“we reserve the right to change any aspect or feature of the Facebook Service at any time without notice. The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.”
Facebook can even sublicense content:
“You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.”
Apparently the line that covered you if you did close your account is missing.
“You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”
I’m not sure exactly how much this matters to me, but I’m sure others have a better understanding of this. I’m also unclear about say, photographers who post their stuff. Would that be Facebook property?

Arab hand dryers found in Chicago restroom

Kidding. they were Dyson Airblade hand dryers. New to visitors from Hawaii, North Carolina, and Connecticut. Like little girls bending over and sitting up so the seeing eye toilets will flush,

we all had to go to the ladies room to dry our hands after being alerted to the new device by the

astute North Carolinian.

They definitely dry your hands faster than the old fashioned push and blow kind, but did Dyson

really mean to use the word "blade"? Seems a little harsh, especially because you don't expect to have your hand cut off in a public WC.

P.S. they apparently operate at 400 mph or the equivalent thereof, cost just under $2000 and dry your hands in 12 seconds.

From One Digital Immigrant to Another

This just in from our good friend and content expert, Mary Goodbody -- James Beard Award winning cookbook author, and content creator for the new website cookstr.com -- Take that, you digital natives.

What I Have Learned

I learned how to type on a big, black manual typewriter in typing class one summer with the keys covered with tiny squares of masking tape to hide the letters and numbers. This is how I learned to touch type. I also learned to make carbon copies, to use Wite-Out when necessary. Then I learned to use an electric typewriter, followed by an IBM Selectric — super fast — with self-correcting tape. Then came computers. I learned first on an Apple II E and then switched gears and learned WordStar on an IBM computer. WordStar was a crazy word processing program that covered all the bases. Once you got it, you loved it. But then WordPerfect came out and I learned that, because while not as effective as WordStar, it was easier and knocked WordStar off the shelves. Soon, the programs were already installed in the computer when you bought it — no longer did we have to program our own computers or have to decide what program to use. I learned to use a fax machine, with the perforated paper — the same paper we had to feed into our old printers. Next, I bought a fax that used regular paper: a godsend. Ditto for my printer. And then I learned about email and the fax seemed old fashioned. I learned about modems, how to attach documents, to download photographs and pdf files. Concurrent to all this I learned how to buy a stereo, to test drive the huge speakers at stereo stores so that my 33s sounded amazing. Then I learned to operate a Walkman and all sorts of cassette-driven machines. But wait, say goodbye to cassettes. I then learned about CDs and CD players. But what about downloading music onto iPods? And first there were Beta tapes, soon replaced by VCR tapes and VCRs we had to hook up to our televisions. I learned about DVD players, DVRs and TiVo. And watching televison on my laptop. I also remember using rotary dial phones, then pushbuttons, and then cordless. Who needs more? Oh yes, answering machines you had to hook up yourself but allowed you to screen calls, replaced by voicemail operated by the phone company and caller ID so you could screen calls. I went through car phones, cell phones with huge antenae, and then tiny cell phones that flipped open. And Skype.
I think I can create a Facebook page...

Just A Question

Who is buying Egglands' other eggs?

Want to Get In On The Social Network Game?

Try Kiva.org. Kiva.org is one of the earliest, if not earliest, social entreprenuer sites, where micro loans are made by citizens from all over the world (heavily supported by folks from the U.S. and Canada).

You can read journals about the success that the loans have brought the entrepreneurs.

You can join the site. You can join a team of lenders. Your can order Kiva gifts made by the entreprenuers. And of course you can make a loan.

Shown here is Fatmata Jollah, and here is a short bit from the journal of her Kiva adviser:

Fatmata explained to me how she used the loan she got from you. As you might already know from her business description and early photo, Fatmata sells a number of items which include: cottons, “laise” clothes, “wax” clothes, jewelries and more. But however, with this loan she received from you, she decided to invest all of it (Le 400,000) on jean trousers and the balance on transportations and other costs associated with the business. She chose to use the whole loan on jeans because jeans sell faster and make more profit for her than all other items she sells. It is in neighboring Guinea that she buys the jeans from. A pair of jean trousers costs her Le 25,000 (about $ 8.4) and she sells at Le 30,000 (about $ 10).

Just Another Ordinary Day in Hawaii

The Pro Bowl just concluded a thiry year history in Hawaii. Alas, next year it will be in Miami the week before the Super Bowl.

There will be blue skies, there will be "B" roll shots of the Atlantic Ocean. But here is what will be missing: some of the best players won't be there, because they can't risk an injury before the Super Bowl. The blue skies of Hawaii. The Pacific Ocean. Beautiful faces of many different colors. Leis and Hula.

And here's what Hawaii will miss: one of the best advertisements there has ever been for our beautiful state. Sure, we were disappointed that not as many people came for the Pro Bowl this year -- they were at home, looking for new jobs -- but they got to see it on TV -- hopefully HDTV. Viewers not only saw "B" roll of our majestic volcanoes, no longer active, but blowing our minds every time we see them -- they saw the interaction of people -- of the faces of Hawaii, the Aloha, the friendliness.

One year, the Hawaii Visitors Bureau had a campaign Come for the Beauty, Stay for the People. Boy is that ever true. So next year, we won't have the Pro Bowl. But we'll still have Hawaii.

Hallmark IS definitely About Relationships

Less than 24 hours after my post I got a personal response from the Public Affairs folks at Hallmark replying to the comments I made.

Here are the lessons:

• everybody's watching. Remember what your mother said about having your words on the front page of the New York Times.


• It's brave new world.


• We are all connected.
  
• The internet is magic.


• Hallmark is true to it's brand.
  

Here is part of the very thoughtful reply I received from Deidre Mize. My advice to readers: stick with Hallmark. They understand you.

Hi Gloria,
My name is Deidre Mize, I work at Hallmark in Public Affairs and
Communications.
I noticed your recent blog posting about one of Hallmark's Valentine's Day
commercials and wanted to respond.
When creating this commercial we wanted to show that love can be expressed
in a number of creative, economical and heartfelt ways, including Mom's
voice in a valentine.
As is our normal practice, our marketing team tested this commercial before
it aired among consumers, including mothers. These consumers responded
favorably, so we appreciate receiving different points of view like the one
you shared on your blog...
We are continually learning about the intricacies of these connections, and your perspective will help us to look at this differently in the future...

Thank you Deidre, and thank you, Hallmark.

Hallmark makes an unusual stumble with its Brand

Currently Hallmark is running commercials about Valentine's Day, specifically promoting their talking/signing cards. Specifically, there is a scene in a school cafeteria where three girls show what cute things thei rmoms did for them for Valentine's Day. The first put tiny little heart stickers all around an apple, the second girl's Mom had made a bologna sandwich on whole wheat bread cut like a heart. But the third girl -- her mother gave her a hallmark signing card with Mylie Cyrus.

Of course the cafeteria screams on cue with envy and the little girl with the heart-studded apple is crestfallen.

This figures in brand digital because I saw it in HDTV. Hallmark is about relationships not about competition and making people feel badly.