My own personal ramblings

Sorry for the two posts in one day, but this is something else that is important for me to blog about.  Enjoy.

This post was written by Rob Reed. He is the founder of MomentFeed, a location-based marketing, strategy, and technology firm.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network.

Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn’t been the technology itself but how we’ve used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade.

Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We’ve decentralized media production and distribution. We’re doing the same for energy. And we’ll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce.

The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us—namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:

1. Checking in for Good: If Gowalla and Foursquare have taught us anything, it’s that people respond to simple incentives. By offering badges, mayorships, and other intangible rewards, millions of people are checking in to the places they go. Apps like Whrrl take this a step further and enable like-minded “societies” to form on a local basis. The next step is for these apps to add greater purpose by encouraging more meaningful checkins and offering corresponding badges and stamps, thus mapping the cause universe. Or for a dedicated app to be developed that rewards conscious consumption, social responsibility, and civic engagement. Yes, the CauseWorld app features a cause element, but it’s not about cause-worthy places.

2. Eating Locally: Sustainability demands that we source our food as close to its point of production as possible. Many so-called locavores subscribe to the 100-mile diet, which requires that one “eat nothing—or almost nothing—but sustenance drawn from within 100 miles of their home.” Given the difficulty of accessing and verifying this information in order to live by this standard, there’s a geo-powered Locavore app. It gives you info on in-season foods, those coming in-season, farmer’s markets, and links to recipes. This rather simple app is clearly just the start. In time, location-aware apps will guide us not only to the grocery store or farmer’s market but through them. All the while identifying foods based on our particular diet or sensibility.

3. Political Organizing: In the next presidential election, politics will not only be local but location-enabled. We saw the power of social media in Obama’s 2008 landslide victory. In 2012, location-based apps and technologies will play a central role in how campaigns are organized, managed, and ultimately won. Much of this will be visible through mobile apps and location-aware browsers. Activists and volunteers will be more empowered. Voters will be more engaged in the moment, right down to casting their votes. Behind the scenes, though, we’ll see massive new sets of data available to campaigns for targeting, empowerment, and optimization. The party, candidate, and/or cause that has the best handle on geolocation will have a measurable advantage. (The Elections app will soon be updated for 2010.)

4. Finding Green Businesses: The web has effectively replaced the paper Yellow Pages as a way to find local businesses and services. However, this “stationary web” experience is quickly being supplanted by the mobile web and mobile applications, which give us access to this information when we most need it. The Yelp and Around Me apps are popular ways to find restaurants, coffee shops, or hotels wherever you are, but what about green-rated businesses? Greenopia has transformed its printed, local guides into a dynamic, nationwide mobile application that lets you find local, green-rated businesses in any category. No more paper and a much better experience. The Green Map app is another that facilitates discovery and connects us to local green environments.

5. Traveling More Efficiently: We’ve had access to GPS navigation systems and static traffic information for some time, but only now are we seeing the full potential of these technologies. With access to more detailed traffic information that is specific to your route and updated in real time, we can minimize congestion and maximize traffic flow (as much as physically possible). The new turn-by-turn MapQuest 4 Mobile app is a good start, as you can get traffic alerts specific to the route you program. However, user-generated information from apps like Trapster and Waze can crowdsource more specific details, such as whether to avoid an intersection due to a toxic chemical spill. Or, if you want to avoid automobiles altogether, Google Maps makes it easy to use public transportation and take a bike.

6. Scanning for Ethical Products: With online shopping, we’ve become accustomed to reading reviews and making comparisons before we buy. This can now be done in the physical world through games like MyTown and services like Stikybits. By scanning a product barcode using a smartphone camera, you can unlock a treasure of additional information (not to mention deals) that can help with your purchase. This might include where it was produced, how far it traveled, the reputation of the manufacturer, chemical contents, carbon footprint, or the full lifecycle analysis. Location-aware applications can also transform commerce itself by giving us better access to local inventories and locally-produced goods. Whether it’s fruits and vegetables or books and electronics, if something can be found within blocks of your current location, it makes no sense to ship it from afar.

7. Networking Neighborhoods: One of the hottest categories in geolocation is neighborhood networking. The vision for many of these apps is to strengthen the very fabric of our communities. With DeHood, you can keep track of what’s happening in your neighborhood, share your favorite places, and grease the wheels for actually meeting people. After all, if you’ve made contact through the app, it’s a lot easier to say “Hello” in the real world. Blasterous is another that lets you share information locally, whereas BlockChalk does this on an anonymous basis. Finally, NeighborGoods uses your street address to facilitate one-to-one borrowing and trading of useful stuff. In the end, making connections with your neighbors can lead to safer, more productive, and more sustainable communities.

8. Tracking Environmental Disasters: The size and scope of environmental disasters appears to be growing. In 2008, we had the Tennessee coal ash spill, which was billed as “the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States.” And that was before we realized it was three times bigger than originally estimated. More recently, the BP oil spill set daily records for “largest environmental disaster in the U.S. ever.” In each case, geolocation technologies can be used by engaged citizens to monitor and track the effects. They can be used by response teams to coordinate containment and cleanup efforts. Ultimately, these technologies can be used to accurately measure the size and impact of a disaster in order to better understand its damages and costs.

9. Viewing the World Through an Eco Lens: Augmented reality (AR) follows geolocation as one of the hot trends in mobile technology. It enables you to view the world through a smartphone camera (or similar device) and see layers of geo-specific content or information. One of the most popular apps is Layar, an augmented reality browser/platform that lets you choose specific data layers or experiences. The potential for green- and cause-related content is tremendous. You might view green-rated businesses, LEED-certified buildings, or virtual GHG emissions as they enter the atmosphere. Combined with smart meter technology, you could see the most efficient and inefficient homes around you in real time. And for the cynics among us, you could view our mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans as they once were…before the effects of climate change and so many environmental disasters.

10. Capturing the Moment: Better access to information about what’s happening around us—right now—can dramatically improve quality of life. This sense of “geospatial awareness” is possible through today’s smartphones, whereby a piece of content or information—a moment—is captured and preserved based on the unique time and place in which it occurred. It is essentially to document spacetime. Protests, natural disasters, sporting events, parties, political crises…real-time information about anything happening anywhere at any time, as well as the history of what happened. This will take several years and a number of different applications to realize. In the end, though, it will revolutionize how we access and consume content. It will complete the democratization and decentralization of news and information…based on time and location.

Cautionary note: Privacy is the single biggest issue in the LBS industry. It’s important to understand what information you are sharing with regard to your location and with whom.

Author’s note: We’ll be hosting geolocation events for Social Media Week in Los Angeles this September. This is the third in Max Gladwell‘s #10Ways series of distributed blog posts. It was published simultaneously on as many as 300 blogs.

Today is the day I post about human rights violations.  I decided to expand that to general inequalities.  Today I’m posting about the gender gap.  I don’t think it’s right that women STILL get paid less than men.

Consider this blog post – Have We Really Come A Long Way Baby? The author points out some gloomy stats when it comes to women in the workforce.  I don’t know how this can be changed, but it needs to be changed quickly.

I found out about this “Am I Not Human” blogging campaign from Facebook.  I felt compelled to write something about this important issues.  Now instead of focusing on human rights violations happening across the sea, I decided to focus on human rights violations happening right here in the USA.  This leads me to the case of the Scott Sisters in Mississippi.  These women got two life sentences for supposedly robbing a man of $11.00

This makes absolutely no sense to me.  Also, according to the facts of the case, they didn’t even rob the people.  There’s more information on this case on the following sites:

http://www.blogher.com/social-media-takes-freeing-scott-sisters-mississippi

http://www.victimsofthestate.org/MS/Scott.htm

http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/

This is just wrong.  I don’t care if they had been male, white, or purple.  It just isn’t right for anyone to be convicted for a crime they didn’t commit.  Even if they were guilty of the robbery, the sentence was much too harsh for the crime.  I am hoping that my small little blog post helps to bring attention to this case and contributes to their freedom.  One even is suffering kidney failure and they are still treating her horribly.  Retweet this post, share it on facebook.  Or even better write a post about this on your own blog.  Write a congressmen.  Attend some of the rallies if you live near one that’s happening.  Writing about this problem and tweeting about it is a start, but those of us that can do something more should!

That’s my post for this month.  Thanks for reading!

I saw someone on twitter say that Black Women who had good dads should stand up and say so.  I wish I remember who that person was so I can include them in this post.  So here goes my tribute to my dad.

My dad is a hard working man.  He has been a computer programmer for all of my adult life.  For as long as I could remember he always had a job working somewhere.  I can’t remember the names of all of the companies. I know one was MSA, the other was Lithonia Lighting, and most currently BMC.  He also cooks and cleans.  He’s the reason why I watch sports.  He used to take me and my sister to the Hawks games (at the OMNI!).  He taught me about money as well.  And even though he didn’t understand why I had to be involved in the extracuricular activities that I picked when I was in high school, he supported me in every way he could.  He came to performances and that sort of thing.  Even now he’s doing the whole grandaddy thing to a t.  All I have to do is say “Hailey needs” and I’ll have it.  So that’s my shout out to my dad for this Father’s Day.

Happy Father’s Day Daddy! I’d include a pic or a link to his Facebook profile, but he’s kinda on the private side! But for those of you on Facebook that know him, be sure to tell him Happy Father’s Day!

I found out about Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce via the Product Review Place.

I tried it on my grilled chicken and mashed potatoes (that’s part of my usual Sunday dinner) and I must say I was quite pleased with the taste.  It added just enough flavor to my meat without overpowering it.

I also tried some on my stir fry.  I went a little overboard with the sauce that time and it became a little bit too spicy.  Moral of this story…Don’t use too much of this sauce.  You really only need a little bit.

Now for the fun part.  I have the privilege of giving away 2 bottles of this sauce to 2 of my readers.  This giveaway is only open to US residents.  When I pick the winner, I will forward the address to the merchant and the merchant will send you the prize.

Here’s what you have to do to win the prize.

To get one entry:

Leave a comment on this blog post.  Be sure to include a valid email address or I won’t be able to contact you if you are the winner.

To get two entries:

Visit the Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce and leave a comment in this post telling me what you’d like to try this sauce on.

To get three entries:

Go to twitter and tweet about this giveaway.  Post the link to the tweet in the comments section.

The winner will be chosen via a random generator.

This giveaway will end on February 23rd,  2010 at 11:59PM EST.

Disclaimer: I didn’t receive any compensation for this post except the free product.

Okay even though it’s Monday, I’m using this writing prompt to get started on my writing projects for this week.   So here goes…
Dusk was long gone and the café was quiet except for a middle-aged man sitting near the door who was typing feverishly on his laptop.  You see he was on a deadline.  He had to finish writing his ebook by the end of the week so he could start promoting it the next week.  He already had joint venture partners all lined up eager to promote his book.  There was just one problem. He couldn’t seem to put everything together in a coherent fashion when he was trying to work at his home office.

Everything kept distracting him.  First of all, there was this exciting playoff game on the television that was beckoning to him.  Secondly, he had his evergrowing honeydo list staring at him.  If that wasn’t bad enough, his kids kept barging into his home office with their various requests.  Finally he had had enough with all of the interruptions.  He told his wife that he was going out for a couple of hours so he could get some work done. So here he is typing his heart out when who should walk in but one of his business associates, Phil.  Now Phil just happened to be an expert in Search Engine Optimization, which is exactly what Dan was writing his ebook about.
“Phil!” Dan waves his hands frantically to get Phil’s attention since Phil was busy chatting on his cell phone.

Phil looks up and sees Dan waving at him. “Bye, Fran. I see one of my colleagues here.  I’ll have to call you back.”

“Hi Dan! How’s it going?”

“Not so good.  I’m trying to finish this darn ebook and I keep getting stuck.”

“Hmm.  What’s the ebook about?”

“It’s about Search Engine Optimization.  I’m writing a simple, easy to understand guide for people new to Internet Marketing.”

“You know that’s my specialty. Hey I’ve got an idea.  Do you have a tape recorder or a video camera on you?”

“I didn’t bring my flip camera, but I do have my voice recorder.”

“Why don’t you interview me and you can use what we say in the interview in your ebook?”

“Phil, that’s a great idea.”

So Dan completes the interview with Phil.  He was so excited that Phil walked into the cafe that day.  That helped him get the meat of his ebook completed.  Now if only he could get some help mowing the lawn….

In honor of  my new arrival, I decided to do something a little fun on this blog.  I found out about this product-Baby’s First Phone Call on The Product Review Place.  Since I had just given birth to a new baby girl, I thought that this product seemed really interesting.

Basically this is how the service works- You record your message via a toll free number.  Then you set up a calling tree with all of your family and friends phone numbers.  Then instead of having to make 20 phone calls after the baby is born, you just make one call and everyone gets the news at one time.

I think this is a very ingenious service.  It’s something I certainly could have used if I had known about it before Hailey decided to come early.   Oh well…

But here’s the fun part…The company has generously given me 5 $50 gift certificates to giveaway.  So here’s what you need to do.

If you’re interested in winning one of these gift certificates, leave a comment to get one entry.  You must leave me an email address or your entry won’t get counted.

If you want more than one entry, here’s what you need to do…

1) Visit Baby’s First Phone Call and leave a comment telling me who you’d give the gift certificate to (if not yourself).

2) Follow me on twitter and tweet this giveaway-Include @deannatroupe and leave the link in your comment.  Do this once a day.

The giveaway will end on 2/1/2010 midnight EST.  The winner will be chosen via a random number generator.  This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Disclaimer- I received no monetary compensation for this review.  I just received the 5 gift certificates to use for the giveaway.

P.S.  Here’s a picture of Hailey…

What is a protector? According to dictionary.com, a protector is a person or thing that protects; defender; guardian.  Do you have someone in your life that is a good protector? I do.  My husband is an awesome protector.  Even though sometimes he gets on my nerves with his over protection, he is really good at what he does.

So what exactly does it take to be a good protector?

I’m glad you asked.

In my opinion, a good protector is someone that will do whatever it takes to make sure that whatever it is they are protecting is safe.  Let’s go back to my husband again as an example.  He knows that mold will make everyone in the house very sick.  We also happen to live in a basement apartment that is prone to flooding if it rains heavily.  Now my husband will stay up all night checking the floor to make sure that the carpet is still dry.  I know this sounds small, but it allows me to sleep peacefully knowing he’s got everything handled.

So how can you be a good protector? Why should you want to be a good protector?

Well maybe you are a single parent or maybe you are a teacher of some sort.  Heck, maybe you’re just a concerned citizen that wants to help keep your neighborhood safe.  You can be a good protector simply by paying attention to what’s going on around you.  If you see a kid about to run into the street, yell at the kid so they won’t run into the street.  Notify the police if you see strange people wandering around your street.  You may even want to form a neighborhood watch program for your block.  These are just a few things that you can do to be a protector for the people in your life.

I have been busy over the past couple of weeks.  I just started a new job and I upgraded my web hosting. Now my blogs each have their own domain name. Pretty neat, huh? Now I have to upgrade them to the latest version of wordpress. I wish wordpress would give us a little break in between updates.   It seems like I’m updating my blog software every other week.

Since today is the day that Americans honor the memory of Dr. King (and Atlanta usually gets lots of attention on this day), I thought it would be fitting for me to write a letter to Dr.King for today’s post. I know I won’t get answers from him, but this is what I’d say to him if  I could.

***start letter*

Dear Dr. King,

It’s been an eventful last few months. I’m happy to tell you that we’ve elected the very first Black President! His name is Barack Obama and from what I can see, he seems to be a very intelligent and capable person.  I’ve got a few questions to ask you about this recent turn of events.

1. While this is quite an accomplishment, do you think this means that we can act like racism is dead?

2. I still have to put down what race and gender I am on job application forms. Is this what you had in mind when you gave the “I Have A Dream Speech”?

3. There’s still incredible poverty in this country due to the greed of a few wealthy people. Blacks are still on the bottom rung of society.  What would you do about this situation?

Well Dr. King, those are the only questions that I have for you. Thanks for what you did for our country and the world.  We’re still trying to keep the dream alive.

*end letter*

What do you think? What are your suggestions to help us come together as a country and address the problems that we have today? I’m interested in your suggestions. Leave them in the comment section.

P.S. I usually volunteer for the Hosea Williams Feed The Hungry Foundation, but I couldn’t do it this year due to some personal problems so this was my way of giving back.

If you’re on twitter tweeting anything Dr.King related could you use the #MLK hashtag? That would be awesome.  I’d love to wake up and see the #MLK tag trending on twitter search.