Social Media Addicts Association Meeting

Top 10 Benefits of an Online Life

Squeezin' spare time into a busy life
With three very active kids, a full-time job and a few side projects, two cars and a house that are in constant need of repair and maintenance – my spare time is extremely limited, and lately it seems like it's even tougher than ever to find even a few minutes to do things I enjoy doing like blogging and reading blogs or trying to develop my artistic skills by doing purely creative stuff....

Enter the social space
Using online tools like Twitter, Flickr, Social|Median, FriendFeed, etc. etc. etc., and my favorite RSS feed reader is the only way for me to actually keep-up with the virtual onslaught of new and interesting products and services on the web. If you're a dog, you should be eating your own dog food AND the dog food others are cookin' up. That said, I've been using all sorts of services for years because I feel really strongly that:

• "You need to use it to design it effectively..."


• it's an easy and enjoyable way to stay on top of trends and try to become (or hopefully remain) hip...


• it helps you develop, respect, and maintain a healthy "user-centered" design and development approach...


• you meet some very interesting people, and learn a lot along the way...


• it feels good to help others to learn, and spread the love...


• create an online persona and personal brand to extend the "real you" and you might even learn things about yourself you may not have known before...


• gain experience and grow your design & technical capabilities and stay competitive...


• find yourself getting involved in really interesting projects...


• eliminate any possibility of becoming bored...


• it's a LOT of fun!

Props to some of "my peeps"
With these things in mind I want to just spread the love for some of the folks that have had a positive impact on my online experience(s). These folks are riding the latest waves and definitely on top of the latest trends. They've also got great insight, they're interesting people, have an active online life, and they will help you keep the creative juices flowing if you're stuck in a creative rut. I especially like the funny tweets, and interesting links. Twitter is and has always been lots of fun as well as one of my favorite services and sources of inspiration, so I'll start there. Here are some folks* you should really consider paying attention to and following:

• Orli


• imjustcreative


• adellecharles


• justcreative


• socialmedian


• chriscoyier


• pglyman


• beckychr007


• fermion


• Kitta


• hellyeahdude


• smashingmag


• fubiz


• Photoshop_GU


• aaronv


• cookbook


• hoshposh


• You?

*I do plan on adding to this list when I get more time — it's not everyone so sorry if I have not mentioned you yet. Also, If you want me to follow you just follow me and feed us some juicy tweets. If you are on this list and you'd rather not be, just let me know.

More to come soon I hope
Okay , that's all I have time for rite now, but I'll try to add to this soon... I'm off to the library to see if we can find some Babar books at the Library and drop the big girls off in the center.

Office Jargon v3.1

I'm trying to make time to read blogs again. Here's a recent post from Lyndonology that really made me actually LOL, and got me thinking about how great it is to be "working in the interactive Web 2.0 space" these days. His post is a derivative from BBC News Magazine's Article, 50 office-speak phrases you love to hate.

I've heard a bunch of the office phrases he lists in the post, but I haven't heard all of them before... there's a few really juicy ones in there. These days, I try use phrases like this in meetings and stuff just to see if I can get others to use them, and because they're generally empty phrases that lack any real useful substance. It's kinda fun in a twisted sort of way. Give it a try, just make sure you use these phrases with conviction, and never ever back-down or break into laughter if you're pressed into a situation where you'll need to actually explain what you mean. Just think quickly and make up another one, look at your watch and let that person know you have a meeting to get to!

Perk up those dull meetings
I used to work with a guy (he's hilarious) who made the greatest sounding "tech phrases" up and then use 'em in meetings to see how long it took to have his own phony phrases come back to him. It's just great to hear a CEO talk about the "creamy goodness" of a "web product's UI" or functionality.

In the beginning...
What about the early days? Remember when people used to want to make their web sites "sticky"? Kinda like fly paper, or maybe something you might find in a public restroom stall? Yeah, right... great. That'll make me want to bookmark you. I'm not sure you're "grokking it" though.¹ And here's a great old-style umbrella phrase that was used to describe everything but your microwave oven, "multimedia" ...it still has a certain zest to it, doesn't it?

Here's a recent one I've been hearing more frequently: "socialize". This one is really kinda growing on me — it's so upbeat and snappy! Doesn't it sound just groovy? Like we might get to dance or have drinks, and possibly even snuggle-up?

I think these phrases are great if you're just getting into the "high tech industry" or have a tough time putting several consecutive substantive and meaningful sentences together. They're great for making that flashy first impression too. They're also great to whip out in interviews, parties and even holiday get-togethers with old friends or your extended family. Go ahead, give them a whirl. Cousin Jed will think you're a real "rocket surgeon" who works on that "internet thing." Folks will think you're, "on the ball."

Here are a few more gems coupled with the reason(s) I find them interesting:

• Ah, let's revisit that again later"
  
  No, let's have a visit with it right now -- isn't that the reason we're having this forever-long meeting in the first place?



• [insert product or website name here] is getting a lot of buzz lately
  
  Dude, we're in a boardroom, you can't smoke that in here!



• Can you take that offline?
  
  We're in the parking lot, so technically we're not really "online" per se. Which leads me to this one...



• Technically speaking, blah, blah, blah...
  
  This one's very popular with engineers, folks who your frinds jobs have been outsourced to, and consultants.



• Let's continue to press on
  
  Very lively and invigorating! Um, yeah that's gonna make me type faster.

...and here's a few I hope to start circulating soon: "Yeah, I'm clickin' it..." or "ok you've got my bookmark" but maybe they need a little more post-processing?

:-|

Cool Site: FreeRice.com

If you have a few minutes, point your browser to FreeRice.com but you'd better bring your brain! I just spent just a few minutes and helped them donate over 1000 grains -- and you can too, just give it a try.

You are given a vocabulary word, and all you need to do is, "click on the answer that best defines the word." For each word you get right, they will donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

This is really innovative and a brilliant idea: create a vocabulary game to help folks learn English vocabulary (and test their wits), and donate all the advertising proceeds to a worthy cause. Simple, huh? The site launched in October, 2007 and they have already donated more than 12,369,264,510 grains of rice. That seems like a lot of rice!

It's easy to play and it feels good to do something good for someone... Why not give it a try?