Showing posts with label Social Media Assistant. Show all posts

Finding the Best People

There are a variety of ways that you can find the people that you need. Most business owners have used them all at one time or another. None of them are perfect, but as we say, "Cast a wide net." The more ways that you have to find good people, the more probable that you will find the people you need at the right time.

Referrals
Fully 85% of key people are found through referrals and word-of-mouth. Someone knows someone who knows someone else and recommends that person to you. The way you tap into this invisible network of possible candidates is by mentioning regularly that you are looking for good people to join your company. Your word will soon get out and people will start to phone you to recommend someone who has just become available, or to express interest themselves.

Personnel Placement Services
These companies continually advertise for candidates. They interview them and check their past histories and experience. They hire some and then send them on to you while keeping them on their payroll. You should find one or two personnel placement agencies in your community and talk with them about your present and future needs.

These companies vary in quality, so you must be selective in finding a company that you are happy working with. They may charge a little more, but they can save you many hours of time-consuming interviews and frustrating experiences in employing the wrong person.

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Newspaper Advertisement
These will attract the greatest number of candidates, but you must use the ads with care. You should be very clear in your ads about the results expected, the experience required, and the work responsibility involved. Even if you're careful and clear, nine out of ten people who respond to your ads will be totally inappropriate.

It is almost as if they are applying for every job advertised in the newspaper without even reading the requirements. If you advertise in the newspaper, create a five-to-seven part questionnaire that someone, even your receptionist, can ask anyone who phones. A few questions about the specifics of your ad will screen callers very quickly.

After a few questions, it will be clear to both you and the caller if there's a possibility worth pursuing. If the applicant gives appropriate answers to these questions, ask for a resume, either by mail, in person or by e-mail.

Action Exercise
Look for candidates with successful track records doing key jobs that you need to have done. How could you attract them to work for you?

"Hire and Keep Great People to Grow Your Business"
People are the most important part of your business. The more you invest into finding the perfect new hire, the better your business will do in the long run.

Listen to this program to find out how you can ALWAYS hire the best people for your business.
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7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers

The possibilities for social media tools in the classroom are vast. In the hands of the right teacher, they can be used to engage students in creative ways, encourage collaboration and inspire discussion among even soft-spoken students. But we’ve already made our case for why teachers should consider using social media in their classrooms. What about the how?
Even when people say they want to incorporate social media, they don’t always know the best ways to do so. It’s especially daunting when those efforts can affect the education of your students.
To help, we’ve collected seven of the the best classroom tools for incorporating social media into your lesson plans.

1. EDU 2.0

EDU 2.0 is a lot like online course management systems Blackboard and Moodle, but with a couple of distinct advantages. First, teachers can share their lesson plans, quizzes, videos, experiments and other resources in a shared library that currently hosts more than 15,000 pieces of content. Second, a community section allows teachers and students to network and collaborate with other members who share the same educational interests. And third, everything is hosted in the cloud for free.
The founder of software company The Mind Electric, who has roots in education, self-funded the development of EDU 2.0 in what the site describes as a “labor of love.”
This means free access to some great tools: An online gradebook, customized quizzes, a debate tool, chat, classroom blogs, the ability to track proficiency and a customized portal page. You can also create a network by connecting classes by school and schools by districts.

2. SymbalooEDU

The popular visual organizing and sharing tool Symbaloo launched its “EDU” version last month. According to the company, 50,000 teachers are already using Symbaloo to organize classroom resources. The new EDU version comes with academic subject-specific resource pages or “webmixes” and top tools like TeacherTube, Slideshare, Google Docs, Flickr and more are fully embeddable. Teachers with a “Free Plus” account can add their school logo and customize the links. The site also allows students to easily share their Symbaloo pages and projects with classmates.
“It not only becomes a way to organize yourself and find your websites, but a place to put your work,” explains Randy Hollinger, the middle school science teacher featured in the above video. “[SymbalooEDU] becomes sort of the e-portfolio.”
The tool is free for up to 50 userkeys, which include a school branded website and customized domain. Mashable readers can sign-up for a free plus account and get 150 userkeys here. A premium package for unlimited users starts at $2.00 per user.

3. Collaborize Classroom

There’s no replacement for hosting in-person discussions in classrooms, but there are some benefits to moving portions of the discussion online. As high school English teacher Catlin Tucker points out in the above video, “Class discussions seem to be dominated by about five to seven students. The same kids talk, the same kids don’t speak at all…” For some students, however, online discussions are less intimidating to participate in.
This app gives teachers four discussion format choices. Students can either agree or disagree with a statement, answer a multiple choice question, post responses, or have the choice between adding a new response or voting for someone else’s response. Teachers can add photos or videos to their prompts and all of the discussions take place on one class page.
Tucker says in the video that she uses the site for ice-breaking activities, creative writing prompts and peer editing. Other lesson plans are conveniently posted on a teacher resource page.
Democrasoft, the company that developed Collaborative Classroom, clearly field tested the product with their other businessiness-targeted products. The site is simple and effective; it’s clear how to ask a question, invite class members and send messages. The service is free for one year if you sign up before October 31.

4. Edublogs

This WordPress-like blogging platform only supports educational content and thus, unlike WordPress, usually isn’t blocked by school filters. Since 2005, it has hosted more than a million blogs from students and teachers.
Common uses for blogs in classrooms include group projects, reflection journals, school newspapers, class web pages and parent newsletters. But, as evidenced by the winners of the 2009 Edublog awards, there are plenty of other creative options for integrating the blogs into curriculum.
The award winners are public blogs but there is also an option to keep blogs private. This is one of many safety features. Another is that unlike general platforms like Blogger or WordPress, there is no exposure to other blogs. One aspect that might raise red flags for teachers is that ads are allowed on the free version of the site. A $3.33 per month fee, however, removes all advertising from up to 50 student blogs.

5. Kidsblog

Teacher Matt Hardy developed the first version of Kidsblog to use in his 3rd and 4th grade classrooms. He thought (correctly, it turned out) that his students would enjoy the collaborative nature of blogs, but general blogging platforms lacked safety considerations that would make them appropriate for school use. Kidsblog doesn’t advertise to kids, doesn’t ask for their e-mail addresses, and gives the teacher full moderation power.
Kidsblog is a bit more specific than Edublogs. There are fewer options to adjust the appearance of the main page, and it’s hard to use the platform for anything other than as a system for managing individual class blogs. The homepage serves as a catalog of student blogs on the right with a recent post feed on the left.
Having said that, if you want to introduce individual class blogs to your K-8 classroom, this is the perfect tool for it. The interface is easier to navigate than Edublogs, and you can generate user names and passwords for students, teachers, administrators, and guests with a couple of intuitive clicks. Teachers are able to edit and remove any of their students’ posts.
Teachers can also control how private they want the blogs to be. They can keep them student-and-teacher only, allow parents to log in with a password, or make them open to the public.

6. Edmodo

Edmodo looks and functions much like Facebook. But unlike Facebook, it’s a controlled environment that teachers can effectively leverage to encourage class engagement. The platform allows teachers and students to share ideas, files and assignments on a communal wall. Teachers can organize different groups of students and monitor them from the same dashboard. Once they’ve organized classes, they can post assignments to the wall and grade them online. They can then archive the class groups and begin new ones.
There are several aspects that make the site safer than Facebook: There’s a group security code that users need in order to view class discussion pages, and although students and teachers can communicate privately, there’s no private communication function between students.
Some other nice advantages of using this site are the ability to connect with other teachers, a group calendar where students can easily see when assignments are due, and a mobile version that allows teachers to moderate discussions from anywhere.

7. TeacherTube and SchoolTube and YouTube

As the name implies, TeacherTube is YouTube for teachers. It’s a great resource for lesson ideas but videos can also be used during class to supplement a lecture. For instance, you can let Mrs. Burk rap about perimeters if you like her idea but lack the rhyming skills to pull it off yourself. This site also has a crowdsourced stock of documents, audio and photos that can be added to your lesson plans. Unfortunately, every video is preceded by an ad.
SchoolTube is another YouTube alternative. Unlike other video sharing sites, it is not generally blocked by school filters because all of its content is moderated.
The original, generic YouTube also has a bevy of teacher resources, though it’s often blocked in schools. Khan Academy consistently puts out high-quality lessons for every subject, but a general search on any topic usually yields a handful of lesson approaches. Some of the better ones are indexed on WatchKnow.
What resources have you found, are there any social media tools should absolutely should not miss? Let us know in the comments below.

How Predictive Analytics Can Make Money for Social Networks

You’ve likely been experiencing a deluge of online information coming at you in recent years — an overwhelming number of status updates, e-mails, tagged images and so forth. You’ve probably also seen, and potentially been alarmed by, the growing accuracy of targeted advertisements — “People You May Know,” and other “offers” online.
As the quantity of irrelevant information has exploded online, so too has the market for the delivery of targeted offers and information. Social networks, in theory and in practice, expose many people to contact and influence. Without precise models, people will continue to be bombarded with ineffective offers and other irrelevant information. Predictive analytics, a branch of data mining concerned with predicting future probabilities and trends, applies a filter to users’ online interactions with the aim of delivering more value from a sea of irrelevance.
With increased value comes the potential for social networks to make money as well. Here’s a look at some specific ways in which predictive analytics will make social networks money.

Recruiting

Many recruiting sites out there on the web, from LinkedIn to SelectMinds to Monster, promise to be able to match candidates with job requirements in unique and increasingly accurate ways. Predictive analytics is at the core of their business model, as it automates the process of making these matches.
When a recruiter posts a job description, a predictive algorithm runs through candidates and calculates compatibility. The technology is, in many cases, embedded in search applications. The most accurate and efficient of these analytics will deliver the most value and see the greatest adoption over time. Those recruiting and talent acquisition sites that allow businesses to leverage the existing social networks of their current and former employees are the best positioned to monetize their users’ employment data in new ways. Businesses can get value from these existing networks without the time and resource commitment it takes to build their own.

Sentiment Analysis

As sites like Twitter and Facebook gain value to the business world, many companies have cropped up to analyze and establish what the sentiment is of the collective online intelligence and also to identify individuals with influence and authority. Companies including Klout, ViralHeat and Radian6 all scan blogs and other social media channels with predictive models to determine if the content surrounding a brand or person is negative, positive or neutral. As this information becomes increasingly valuable to businesses of all sizes, these sentiment analysis companies are expected to grow rapidly.

Market Fluctuation

Social media channels are open to everyone. Day traders, retail investors and analysts are cruising around on Twitter and Facebook. What these types of people say and do online is not insignificant in an era when [Flash Crashes and Fat Fingers] are being closely scrutinized and regulated. New models are cropping up to predict stock fluctuations based on Twitter posts. Similar to sentiment analysis, these companies are able to look at the total number of tweets, as well as positive and negative comments to predict whether a stock price will go up or down. These types of companies will become a hot commodity as investors begin to rely on the wisdom of crowds.

Recommendation Engines

No one likes to be bombarded with irrelevant offers and content while using their favorite social network. But the more active you are online, the more effectively predictive analytics can work to deliver targeted and relevant offers.
Sometimes it feels like Facebook knows you better than you know yourself. RSVPed “Yes” to that big gala? You may see a discount offer for Saks. [Are you a woman between the ages of 18 and 34? A Facebook ad may tell you how you can lose those extra inches around your waist.] These offers are no longer random and are therefore increasingly effective. Leveraging the existing data from your previous activity to predict what will happen in the future is becoming, rightly, more prevalent and valuable to social networks that can sell this promise to businesses and intermediaries.

Location-Based Marketing

Do you walk down the same street at dinner time every day? Wish restaurants on that street would compete in real-time for your business?
As social networks add in more location-aware features like Facebook Places and whole new businesses are built on the promise of geo-location including SCVNGR and ShopKick, predictive analytics deliver insights into where groups and individuals will be and when, not to mention what their interests may be. For businesses, there is big money to be spent on location-based advertising in the coming years. As a result, social networks can run their existing location data through predictive models to provide companies with future insights into where to allocate their marketing and advertising budgets for the biggest returns.

The 3 Critical Success Factors

If I have to choose 3 critical success factors in achieving success in your career, these would be my choices – Belief, Action and Discipline.
Of course, I do not deny that there are other critical factors that can determine one’s career success. My opinion is that if there were such a thing as simplifying the factors that determines success, then these would be the three.

1. Belief
In order for you to achieve anything in your career, in fact your life - you have to first believe. You need to believe in yourself that you can achieve it. You need to have faith in your goals and your path to that success. Once your mind is convinced that you can do it, nothing is impossible. Belief is the ‘mind and heart’ part of your 3 critical success factors. It is the ‘think and feel’ part of it.

2. Action
Nothing moves until you do something. Believing alone is not going to achieve anything for you. It must be followed up with concrete action. Your plan for career success is nothing unless you act upon it whole-heartedly. When you act upon what you believe, there is focus. And there is energy. That energy propels you to greater heights. Action is the ‘hands and legs’ part of your 3 critical success factors. It is the ‘do’ part of it.

3. Discipline
Action in itself is not enough to increase the chances of success. But disciplined action would do that. One of the main reasons why people fail is that there is no discipline in their action. They give themselves excuses why they cannot consistently follow up on their plans. There is no self-control to their action. You would need some form of sacrifice if you were to achieve a certain degree of success in your career. For example, sacrificing some personal time to do initiatives. That sacrifice takes discipline. Discipline also ensures that you can be persistent. Especially when faced with challenges after challenges in their journey to success.

One of my favourite quotes is by Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Discipline is the ‘untiring, determined hands and legs’ part of your 3 critical success factors. It is the ‘no excuse, persistently doing and doing’ part of it.
When what you think, feel and do becomes one, there is nothing that can stop you from achieving career success. In fact, these are my 3 critical success factors in life.

Sony’s Google TV-Powered Devices Have Arrived

Sony has unveiled its newest line of Internet-enabled TVs, complete with the highly anticipated Google TVsoftware.

Sony’s new Internet HDTVs, unveiled earlier today at a press event in New York City, sport 1080p edge-lit LED screens, with the exception of the 24-inch model. They come with four USB ports, four HDMI inputs and Wi-Fi capabilities. They are available in four sizes: 24-inch, 32-inch, 40-inch and 46-inch. The 24-inch model rings in at $599, while the 46-inch will cost you a hefty $1,399.

The big selling point of the new TVs is their inclusion of Google TV. The Internet TV software brings Hulu, Twitter, Netflix, YouTube and Pandora to your living room screen, not to mention search capabilities and a myriad of Android apps. Web surfing is powered by Google Chrome, while apps are powered by the Android OS. It integrates the web with your existing cable or satellite TV by making it simple to search your TV shows and your favorite websites at the same time. The service was revealed earlier this year at Google I/O.

One of the more controversial parts of Sony’s new Google TV-enabled devices is the remote, though. It looks like a combination of a PlayStation 3 controller and a QWERTY keyboard, complete with dozens and dozens of buttons. In fact, Sony says some of the remote’s design elements are borrowed from the PS3. Some people may love the extra functionality, but others might be turned off by all of the buttons.

The new TVs become available this Saturday on SonyStyle.com and in Best Buy stores nationwide this Sunday, making this weekend the first indicator of whether consumers are demanding TVs that can also surf the web. Google desperately wants to dominate the living room screen and get people to use the web even more than they already do. Whether consumers will pony up the extra cash for Google TV devices is a question we’ll soon be able to answer.

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Gates Foundation Announces $20 Million Fund to Improve Education with Tech

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is about to announce that his charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is launching a $20 million grant designed to get entrepreneurs to develop new technologies to help students obtain their college degrees.
The Gates Foundation is seeking to get entrepreneurs involved in tackling the issues surrounding America’s struggling education system. The foundation has already put billions toward education-related grants, and Bill Gates was a prominent character in Waiting for Superman, a new documentary that analyzes the failures of the American education system.
The Next Generation Learning Challenges fund will be divided into grants ranging from $250,000 to $750,000, focused on technologies that emphasize blended learning models, deepen student engagement and learning through interactive application, high-quality open courseware and learning analytics for monitoring student progress.
The deadline for the program is November 17; grants will be announced in March 2011. While the Gates Foundation will provide funds for the project, the nonprofit organization EDUCAUSE will run the program. It will award grants every six to 12 months.
Bill Gates is about to host a conference call on the new fund. We’ll update this post with more details as they are announced.

No Excuses--The Power of Self-Discipline

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10 Useful Apple iPad Tips and Tricks

We’d be the first to admit using Apple’s iPad isn’t exactly rocket science, and we will also admit that Apple is at the top of its game when it comes to easy-to-use products.
But if you didn’t take the time to read the owner’s manual, we have some quick and neat tips and tricks that can help you get the most out of your tablet.
From managing the sound levels of your tunes, to organization your apps, to muting in the case of emergency, we have 10 handy hints for you to work your way to iPad ninja status.
Check out our tried and tested iPad tips, and impress your friends when they come to you for help with their iPad. Be sure to let us know if there are any shortcuts you’d like to share in the comments below.

1. Open Safari Links in a New Page

Remember that you can have multiple webpages loaded in Safari () simultaneously. So if you’re not sure about a link or want to keep your current page open, you can open the link in a new window (a little like tabbed browsing, but without the tabs).
To do this, rather than just tap the link, press and hold it until you see an option to “Open in New Page,” hit this, and Safari will open a new window and load that link.
To manage the pages you have open or to return to another page, look to the top of the browser and there you’ll see an icon that looks like two overlapping boxes or pages. If you press the icon, it will show you all the pages you have open (just like in the graphic below). From here you can tap any of the “X” buttons to close an individual page.

2. Activate AutoFill in Safari

The AutoFill option is a great time saver for anyone who knows and trusts anyone else who might use their iPad, as it automatically remembers your usernames and passwords for services.
To activate it, ensure your details are saved in “Contacts,” then head to “Settings,” choose “Safari,” and click “AutoFill” and then set both options to “On” and select your file from “Contacts” in the “My Info” field.

3. Quick Mute Your iPad

Although the iPad has no “mute” option, you can still quickly silence your device by pressing and holding the down volume button — this quickly drops the volume down to zero in about two seconds.

4. Make Use of the Home Button

The iPad’s “Home” button will take you to your homepage if pressed once, but it has a few other functions worth knowing about as well.
To access these functions, go to “Settings,” press “General,” then choose “Home.” Here you can select which function you’d like a double press of the button to carry out, such as opening up “Spotlight Search” or accessing the iPod.
From this area in “Settings” you can also set “iPod Controls” to “On,” which will mean when you have music playing and you’re in another program or app, a double press of the “Home” button will bring up basic music controls.

5. Add a Website Shortcut to Your Home Screen

Although you won’t need to do this for Mashable (thanks to our free iPad app) there is a quick way to add shortcuts to your favorite sites directly to your home screen.
Head to the webpage you want to create the shortcut to, tap the “+” sign at the top of the page and select “Add to Home Screen.” This will then create a shortcut icon offering one-click access to your most-used sites.

6. Make iBooks More User-Friendly

The iBooks app’s swipe-to-turn the page function is really nice when you first play with it, but the truth is (and it’s especially true if you’re a fast reader) it gets a little old if you’re settling down to read more than a few pages.
You can tweak iBook’s settings to offer a shortcut to go to the next page, if you simply tap the left margin.
To make this the case, head to “Settings,” then under the “Apps ” section, press “iBooks,” then “Tap Left Margin” and make sure “Next Page” is ticked, which will change it from the default option — the previous page.

7. Activate iPod Sound Check

You know how annoying it is when your songs play at different volume levels, leaving you either scrambling to get across the room to turn it down, or sighing with frustration as an inaudible track comes on? Well there’s a way to stop that from happening.
All you need do is navigate yourself to “Settings,” click “iPod” and then turn “Sound Check” to “On,” which will help regulate volume levels.
Oh, and while you’re there, take note of the “EQ” menu that offers a ton of different sound options depending on the style of music you’re listening to, or you can regulate sound levels for spoken words to help optimize sound for podcasts or audio-books.

8. Squeeze Six Apps into the Dock

Until iOS4.2 arrives in November, bringing with it the joy of folders, there are a few ways to help organize your apps and make items you use often more accessible.
You can have 11 pages to arrange your apps on, so although there’s no way to make a games folder, for example, you could drag and drop all your games apps onto one page to create a themed “games” page.
Also, the dock can have up to six apps in it, so you can pick two more than the standard layout offers (just touch an app until it wiggles then drag it into the dock to move it) to make more items closer to hand from any screen.

9. Use a Space Bar Trick

In addition to the keyboard shortcuts, tips and tricks we have previously brought you for iOS devices, we have one more spacebar trick to share.
The spacebar will create as many spaces as there are fingers on it, so one finger will produce one space, two fingers two spaces and so on.
We can’t see that this is going to be the most useful trick you’ll ever learn, but it’s interesting if for no other reason than to see how the Apple engineers had fun with the display’s multi-touch capabilities.

10. Download the iPad User Guide eBook

Did you know you can download the official Apple iPad User Guide as an e-Book?
While available in Safari’s pre-loaded bookmarks, for offline access to the guide simply download it for free from the iBooks store, and search for “iPad”.
Download it now, and the next time you have a iPad query and are not hooked up to the ‘net you’ll be ready to go.

5 Tools for Keeping Track of Your Passwords

Time and time again, we’re warned of the importance of having strong, secure online passwords. Phishing scams — where legitimate looking e-mails and websites try to trick you into entering in your sensitive login information to a bank site, e-mail host or social network — are bad enough when a scammer is able to compromise your account, but the result can be many times worse if you use that same password for a number of online accounts.

Likewise, when crackers breach servers for various web services and expose the user information to other ne’er-do-wells, your accounts could be at the fate of many shady characters.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to use strong, secure and unique passwords for each of your online accounts. Of course, that sounds great in theory, but the main reason we often reuse the same password or passphrase is because trying to remember 50 different logins, each with various alphanumeric strings, is just not realistic.

Fortunately, there are some great tools and services available to users to not only keep your passwords secure, but to also make them accessible and usable from multiple computers or web browsers. Here are five of my favorites.

1. 1Password

1Password from Agile Web Solutions is my favorite way to manage, create and securely access my passwords from a Mac, iPhone, iPad or Android device. The program is $39.95 (a family license for 5 users is available for $59.95) but you can install it on as many of your own computers as you want. It’s a great way to create and fill-in passwords across the web.

The application has plugins for all the major web browsers — Safari, Firefox and Chrome, and you can also pull up your passwords from the application itself. The app works like this:

When you’re on a website and you create a new account, 1Password will prompt you to save that account to its database. In the future, rather than having to type it in manually or rely on your browser’s built-in manager, you can just use 1Password to automatically fill in your username and password data.

Even better, 1Password includes a truly fantastic password generator that lets you create robust passwords of a length that you choose. You can generate a password for an account and then automatically save it.

1Password saves all of your passwords and login information into its own secure database that is stored on your computer, but where 1Password really shines is with its ability to sync with Dropbox. Dropbox is a free service that lets you keep a cloud copy of anything within the Dropbox folder on your desktop. That folder is then accessible across computers and devices. Any change to that folder is synced across every connected computer. 1Password can use Dropbox to store its secure database, which means that if you use multiple Macs or want to have constant syncing on the iPhone, iPad or Android, you can.

1Password has a beta version of its app available for Windows. Like the Mac app, the Windows version can connect to a Dropbox account and sync its database with other platforms.

1Password can even store other form information like credit cards, address information, server logins for your website and software serial numbers.

2. LastPass

LastPass is a very popular cross-platform password manager that stores all of its data in the cloud. It works on Windows and Mac and in every major web browser. Like 1Password, LastPass can automatically save your logins, help you generate safe and secure passwords and automatically fill in your passwords when you visit a site.

The difference is that instead of storing its database on your computer or in Dropbox, it’s all stored on LastPass’s servers. LastPass actually has a really robust set of security around your data and if its center is compromised, your data still can’t be accessed.

LastPass is free to use but for $12 a year, you can gain access to LastPass’s many mobile apps (including iPhone, BlackBerry and Android) and gain access to priority support. It also means you get to skip any advertisements.

3. KeePass and KeePassX

KeePass and KeePassX (which is KeePass but for Mac or Linux) is a free, open-source password manager. It works very much like 1Password, in that the database is stored on your local computer. Like 1Password, you can use Dropbox to keep KeePass synced across machines and profiles.

KeePass can run off a USB drive, which makes it a great choice for users who frequently work on different machines but don’t want to leave any of their personal data on those machines.

KeePass isn’t as user-friendly as LastPass or 1Password, but its dedicated userbase loves it because it can be extended and used in a variety of ways. Plus, it’s free.

4. RoboForm

RoboForm is very similar to 1Password, but it’s just for Windows users. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and with Safari and Opera via a bookmarklet.

RoboForm also has mobile apps for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and Symbian. Like KeePass, you can even run it off of a USB drive, which is great for users who want a way to keep their passwords with them and use RoboForm on various computers they use, but don’t want to have to install a program on each of those computers.

You can also use RoboForm with Dropbox, which makes using it across machines that much easier. RoboForm is $29.95 for a single-user/computer license and you can get RoboForm with two computer licenses for $39.95.

5. Firefox Sync

Formerly known as Mozilla Weave, Firefox Sync is a plugin for Firefox 3.5/3.6 that will also be an integrated feature in the upcoming Firefox 4. Firefox Sync is a pretty cool concept and it takes a slightly different approach to password management and syncing from the other tools in this list.

Firefox Sync securely syncs and protects your passwords, bookmarks and browser tabs (you can choose to sync all or none of these items). When you login to another computer with Firefox on it, you can just login to Sync and have access to your existing data and even pull up tabs that are open on your other computer. When you log out, all of that information disappears.

Sync also has iPhone and Android apps so you can bring your tabs over to those mobile devices. The upcoming Firefox Mobile for MeeGo and Android will let you access your passwords securely and remotely as well.

By being built into the browser, Sync is a great way for Firefox users to keep track of their passwords. Because it is part of Firefox, Firefox Sync is really designed for people who use Firefox as their primary web browser. If you use Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari, you’ll want to look at the other options listed above.

Do you use a password manager or syncing tool? Let us know in the comments and also share any of your best password tips.

Update: Several readers in the comments mentioned Passpack, a tool that’s really great for sharing and keeping track of passwords for teams and groups.

Power Networking

Increase your contacts, expand your influence, and build your business faster.

By Brian Tracy

5 Tips for Utilizing Skype for Business

When it comes to business communication, Skype is an invaluable tool. Its impressive array of features make it ideal for sending files, checking in on business partners, holding video conferences and making international calls.
Its popularity cannot be denied; the VoIP client has over 550 million users and actually accounted for 12% of the world’s international calls in 2009. There’s definitely a reason why one-third of Skype users use it primarily for business.
Very few get the full value out of Skype, though. Many in the business world don’t realize just how useful Skype can be or how much time it can save for those that know its best features or the tricks for getting the most of the desktop client.
We could write a book-length guide on using Skype, but here are just five of our favorite tips for getting the most out of Skype for small business.

Tips for Better Utilizing Skype

1. Screen Sharing may be Skype’s best feature: It amazes me how many people still don’t know that you can share your computer screen with the person on the other end of the video call. It’s an ideal way to remotely give presentations, show code to another programmer and show others what’s currently in your browser. Just right-click during a video call and click “Share Your Screen” (or “Share Screen” on a Mac).2. Download Skype Extras: Skype is an extensible platform through its many plug-ins, known as “Extras.” You can download apps that do everything from enable you to play games to record Skype calls. For example, Unyte provides advanced small business collaboration tools, while Pamela includes call recording, Outlook integration and Voicemail.
3. Set up call forwarding: This is one of the most important things to set up if you’re a regular Skype user. You can forward incoming Skype calls to your cell phone, even if your computer is turned off. You need to set up the feature under the “Tools” menu, and you will use up Skype credit during forwarded calls, but it’s worth it, especially if you don’t have the Android or iPhone application (both of which run in the background). In fact, we suggest setting up call forwarding anyway, because the Skype mobile apps are well-known battery hogs.
4. Check in on the house/pets while you’re away: There’s an old trick for checking out your house if you’re away and have a home computer. Create two Skype accounts and log in to your new account at home, set it to auto-answer any incoming calls, have it set to start video automatically when you are in a call, and enable Skype Video. The end result is that, when you call this account from your business trip in Beijing or your office downtown, you will automatically be able to see what’s going on at home and put your mind at ease.

5. Turn Skype into your customer service tool: You don’t have to put your Skype username on your website to provide customer support; you can use a handy Skype button to make it easy for customers to contact you with issues concerning your product. That way, you can make it known that you’re available via Skype without distributing your username to the world.
These are our top five tips for utilizing Skype to the fullest. Add your tips in the comments below.

Panasonic Ty-cc10w Skype Enabled Camera Manufacturer part numbers: TY-CC10W

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