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"THE HUMAN SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY" for convenience, productivity, safety, profitability or fun. This is the place to be to keep your finger on the pulse in emerging technologies. When should you zig when everyone else zags? Where should you concentrate your time, money or effort to capitalize on the next technology tsunami? Stay tuned . . . -Published by SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Technology Summer Camps and Scholarships

Posted by Unknown Sunday, April 11, 2010 3 comments














Do you worry about your child being properly positioned to compete in the work force and climb up the proverbial corporate ladder?  Will s/he survive future societal and economic pressures?   In the article "Global Competition: U.S. Students vs. International Peers" by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, the chief executive officer of the International Society for Technology in Education,  Donald G. Knezek states “I don’t have to keep being pounded by the obvious facts about the dominant role technology is going to play in [students’] civic life, work and productivity, communication, and social interactions,”.

If it's true what experts say about China and India being more focused than the U.S. on developing students’ technical skills, Summer time is a perfect opportunity to combine fun with technology learning for our children.

Sure, you deserve to start planning a long overdue vacation to recharge your batteries. Is alone time only with your significant other part of your vacation planning? With some scholarships available, consider sending your child to a fun filled technology summer camp. From space exploration, to building roller coasters to crime scene investigation these camps offer social environments that make learning fun with math, science, computers, physics, biology, engineering and astronomy.

This is the time of the year when inner city youth programs focus on creating job opportunities for teenagers. What about the grammar and middle school children?  Technology summer camps prepare younger children for when it's their turn to work.  Let's not forget the life time skills these summer camp experiences provide.  My father always said, "travel experiences are the best education a parent's money can buy".  As a child I experienced "Indiana Jones" type educational adventures, including a 30 day car ride from the Bronx down to Mexico exploring the Aztec pyramid ruins, then on to Guatemala (age 11), going to school in Trinidad (age 12) and Fresh Air Fund wild life nature excursions (age 10).  These are just a few of my childhood summer camp adventures that set the stage for me to compete and become an extremely successful information technology career intrapreneur and entrepreneur over the last 28 years.

Below are some technology summer camp options to explore for your child.  Some scholarship deadlines may have expired.  Think of it as an opportunity to better plan your child's summer education and fun next year.

Hobbs Foundation Summer Science Camp Scholarship
Spend a week exploring outer space, building roller coasters, or
experimenting with Hollywood special effects. 
Application deadline is May 3, 2010.

Orlando Science Center Summer Camp
Spend a week up-close to Tyrannosaurus rex, launching rockets, or exploring outer space?

EXCITE Camp - Exploring Interests in Technology and Engineering
Empowers middle school girls in the fields of math, science, and engineering. Previous sponsors have included H.B. Fuller Company Foundation, IBM Corporation, the Medtronic STAR Foundation. 
Application deadline is May, 2010.

U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation Scholarships
The ultimate 6-day experience for campers ages 9 to 11 who want to be an astronaut!

Infotonics Summer Science Camp
Using popular themes, the camp helps students discover science, math, technology and engineering.  2010 programs include
Mission to Mars, CSI: Crime Scene Investigators and Magic of Harry Potter. Application deadline is may 31, 2010


Girlsstart Summer Camp
Empowers girls in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Scholarship application deadline is May 3rd, 2010

The Advancing Hispanic Excellence in Technology, Engineering, Math and Science (AHETEMS) Foundation offers Space Camp scholarships for Latino students in grades 6-8 or ages 11-14. Those awarded are able to participate in either a three or six day camp experience.

The Army Community Service Space Camp Scholarship is available to children military personnel, including those who are reserve or retired, and who live no more than 50 miles away from Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

The Bernard Curtis Brown II Memorial NASA Space Camp Scholarship allows the children of military personnel, past, present or reserve, to attend Space Camp.

What is Seen When Your Name is Typed in Google?

Posted by Unknown Monday, April 5, 2010 0 comments

In previous articles "Using Google Alerts to Track Your Web Presence" and "5 Quick tips to Grow Your Internet Web Presence", steps were provided on how to develop and monitor your web presence.  Now we'll cover why you should even be remotely interested in developing a positive web presence.

If anyone types your name in Google, what will they see? What will be seen beyond your LinkedIn profile to separate you or your business from the competition to expedite closing the deal, getting the interview/meeting or being hired?  In Keith Ferrazzi's book "Never Eat Alone" who knows you is more important than who you know. 

Why is marketing and branding both on-line and off-line important to your business or career? Here are some reasons why you need to be where your target audience hangs out.

2007 - OnRec (online recruitment tool)
20% of employers use "social networking" sites. Read more . . .

2008 - Career Builder Report via article in Personal Branding Blog
One-in-Five Employers (25%) Use Social Networking Sites to Research Job Candidates. Read more . . .

2009 - MarketWatch.com via article on Pre-Employ.com
40% of employers have searched Facebook and other social networking sites for information on potential hires. Read more . . .

2010 - 2nd to LinkedIn, Recruiters are hanging out on Twitter.
Some corporate recruitment firms use Twitter to analyze the employee’s communication skills and his work culture. According to few surveys among recruiters who use Twitter as a part of their recruitment process. Read more . . .

Online Marketing and Branding


- Ride the long tail with article comments on your favorite news sites
- Answer questions on www.LinkedIn.com
- Develop a positive web presence with upbeat questions and comments on LinkedIn and other social networks.
- Blog, Blog, Blog - Setup a free account on www.Blogger.com
- Acquire a vanity domain name - www.GoDaddy.com
- Make yourself an industry expert with articles within your knowledge space that resolve problems, improve processes or share outcome results of previous projects etc.

Offline
Marketing and Branding
- Personal networking produces the best results by tuning in to each persons' WIIFM
- Remote networking using telephone and contact management database
- Use voice mail as a marketing tool
- Maintain business posture through email with proper grammar, spelling and an email signature.

Managing Personal Technology ROI

Posted by Unknown Sunday, April 4, 2010 1 comments

Companies make staff go through gyrations analyzing implementations of new technology.  What's the cost? What is the return on investment (ROI)?  What is the short and long term benefit to the company, clients/customers, productivity and profitability? 

You know exactly what I'm talking about, because you've been there.  This also applies to entrepreneurs or small business owners running their own business.  Don't you or your chief financial officer make your employees do the same types of justifications?  Now ask yourself this question.  Do I apply the exact same business methodologies when purchasing personal technology for myself, family or home?  If not, why not?
 
The iPad is soon to be released (see video below). As with any new consumer technology gadget, especially when released by Apple, a buying frenzy occurs with a "got to have it" mentality.  This works perfectly for the company selling the gizmo. It's a credit to the engaged marketing machine producing sales results.  When done right, a perceived need is created for the consumer, when none exists.  It deftly and subtly overrides a "need vs. want" analysis. Do really just want it?  Or do you personally need it to be competitive with your career or business?

So back to performing return on investment analysis when making personal purchases of cell phones, computers, car gadgets, HDTV, cable TV, Internet services, FIOS, the triple play package etc...
 Transferring skills you use at work into running your career as a business is a key strategy to career management survival these days.  It positions you for being more valuable to clients at work.  This is accomplished by reinforcing personal life technology purchases with the same business practices companies employ.

My wife and I only purchased, upgrade and continue to pay our Blackberry bill every month [or any home technology], because it provides us with much return on our $90/month investment.  It answers the business acid test of providing ROI for productivity, clients [employers] and personal income profitability.  Our personal monthly ROI must cover the cost, plus produce a profit into our bank accounts.  Otherwise, it's just a firm grip on an empty sack.

When was the last time you beat up a vendor for hiccups in your personal cell phone service, like you do at work?  That's right. Services providers for home technology are still vendors to you.  No one should blindly pay a bill in full, if the FULL services have not been rendered.  It doesn't make good business sense for companies.  Why should it for you personally?  Read more on how to get vendors to pay you when personal technology services fall short.  When the weather knocks out satellite cable TV or vendors create service interruptions for hours or days with technology upgrades, that's not your problem. They owe you a credit.  You pay your bill "in full" for full services every month, no matter what.

Your career is your business. Your business is your career. Anyone who runs their career as a business, extended into your personal life purchases, is the smarter person who survives these days.

Secret Communication ( marketing ) Weapon

Posted by Unknown Friday, April 2, 2010 2 comments

You probably know this already, but I thought I would share it anyway :-)

If you don't have an email address for a person or they don't check email that often, you can still send email to their cell phone (comes to each person as a text message on their phone).  Many people in the "mature crowd" have a cell phone, but don't use email at all.  Now you can reach out to them more often via email.

Keep in mind people have a limited amount of characters they can receive in each text message. So keep email messages short to about 200 characters. That's enough to send a brief reminder about upcoming events, meetings or emergency alerts to multiple cell phones as part of email sends.

As long as you know the person's cell phone provider, you can use the formats below, employing your regular email system.

T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net

Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com

Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com

Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com


Alltel: phonenumber@message.alltel.com
 

AT&T: phonenumber@mms.att.net
 

SunCom: phonenumber@tms.suncom.com
 

VoiceStream: phonenumber@voicestream.net
 

Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com (text only)
             
phonenumber@vzwpix.com (pictures and videos)