Celia Francis, WeeWorld.com

Celia Francis
CEO

WeeWorld

Favorite Web Aps of European Entrepreneurs from Traveling Geeks Trip

This is sixth in a series where I take JD Lasica’s meme “Coolest Power Tools” on a “spin” to see not what our US geeks are using, but what our European Brethren find as their favorite aps. They are digging up some fun new things which may be new to you.

I’ve queried some of my favorite new friends from Amsterdam, London and Cambridge about the tools they love. Here’s the sixth response, from Celia Francis, founder of WeeWorld in the UK.

Celia’s List:

Kodakgallery.com (used to be Ofoto in the olden days) – I post photos every month for my extended family in the UK and across the pond.
Facebook and LinkedIn – For the usual social/professional fun.
WeeWorld.com – Of course! WeeWorld is one of the most popular browser-based social games or virtual worlds for young teens.
Skype – So my kids can video chat with my parents.
Google Maps – To see exactly where I am going.
Etsy.com – Pure love of handmade items and beautiful design gets me back to this site all the time
Wolfram Alpha – Actually quite useful. It gave me the average temperature in Almeria, Spain in February. Graph and all! I like Bing too – much prettier than Google.

Image by sekhmet1776 via Flickr

Image by SusanBratton via Flickr

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Favorite Web Aps of European Entrepreneurs from Traveling Geeks Trip

This is fifth in a series where I take JD Lasica’s meme “Coolest Power Tools” on a “spin” to see not what our US geeks are using, but what our European Brethren find as their favorite aps. They are digging up some fun new things which may be new to you.

I’ve queried some of my favorite new friends from Amsterdam, London and Cambridge about the tools they love. Here’s the fifth response, from Jack Lang, EIR at University of Cambridge, Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. Jack is also the author of  “The High Tech Entrepreneur’s Handbook.”

Jack recommends Worldcard mobile. He saw this post of mine:

If CardScan, CaptureTalk and MagicSolver Had a Baby…

Jack says, “I’ve been using Worldcard mobile, and while not perfect (the OCR often needs some manual editing, and it would be nice to add pix and logos ) it has the advantage of capturing the business card then and there. It integrates to Outlook address book, which can then propagate.”

http://worldcard.penpowerinc.com/worldcard-mobile-standard.html

This is fourth in a series where I take JD Lasica’s meme “Coolest Power Tools” on a “spin” to see not what our US geeks are using, but what our European Brethren find as their favorite aps. They are digging up some fun new things which may be new to you.

I’ve queried some of my favorite new friends from Amsterdam, London and Cambridge about the tools they love. Here’s the third response, from, Andraz Tori, Founder of Zemanta, my favorite new ap.

Andraz Tori

Founder of Zemanta, a blogger's best friend

Andraz’s List:

Here are the coolest web apps by my standards:

s3:// a firefox extension. Simple yet powerful browser through your S3
data store/backup.

Google’s ‘essential’ Pack – Docs, Calc, Reader, Calendar, Blog Search
and Search
Sharing docs, data and news items has never been so easy and so useful!

Pearltrees This has been shown to me when I was in Paris. This is cool,
and sexy and I have absolutely no idea how to use it.

And naturally Zemanta, blogger’s best friend
Easy and simple.
My wider observation is that I don’t go and “use apps”. I go and “do tasks” which happen to include a mix of apps.
Now if I only could drop the requirement to “go to” certain web applications and those tools would instead seamlessly come to me wherever I am and whenever I need them…

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• How to configure Zemanta (zemanta.com)

This is third in a series where I take JD Lasica’s meme “Coolest Power Tools” on a “spin” to see not what our US geeks are using, but what our European Brethren find as their favorite aps. They are digging up some fun new things which may be new to you.

I’ve queried some of my favorite new friends from Amsterdam, London and Cambridge about the tools they love. Here’s the third response, from Alan Moore, Founder of Small Medium Large ExtraLarge Limited.

Alan Moore

Follow Alan on Twitter @alansmlxl

Read the SMLXL weblog on marketing communications innovation

Alan’s List

Noteflight is a great musical collaboration tool

Scrivner for organising chaotic ideas for writing

Novamind for mind mapping

The BBC iPlayer – what a media player should be

I just had the most amazing photos taken by Lesley Bohm, LA celebrity photographer. I’m working on some new information products to follow Talk Show Tips and wanted to update my “look” to my current styles.

I met Lesley at a Mastermind event and we hit it off. Once I saw her work, I realized I couldn’t live with anything less. Lesley is a celebrity portrait photographer. She LOVES to connect with people and make them look beautiful.

Lesley and Susan

Since so much of our contact is made online now, it’s more important than ever to have images that reflect who you are and bring out the best in you.

Here are some images from my shoot and photos of Lesley’s studio and of her working with another client.

This is second in a series where I take JD Lasica’s meme “Coolest Power Tools” on a “spin” to see not what our US geeks are using, but what our European Brethren find as their favorite aps.

I’ve queried some of my favorite new friends from Amsterdam, London and Cambridge about the tools they love. Here’s the second response, from Andy Hobsbawm, Co-founder of Green Thing.

Dothegreenthing.com
Follow Andy on Twitter @dothegreenthing

LIST & COMMENTS
Firefox for browsing
tweetdeck and hootsuite for tweeting
bit.ly for url tweeting
friendfeed for friend feeding
senduit.com for ftping
google docs for documenting
typepad for blogging
gmail for emailing
skype, google talk, ichat for chatting
delicious for bookmarking
Spotify and iTunes for playing music
Garageband for making music
Facebook for personal time-wasting
LinkedIn for professional time-wasting
iPhone for usual Apple apps + games + Twitterfon, Facebook, FixMyStreet, QuickVoice,  IfFound
incase for iphone battery life
YouTube and Vimeo for playing videos
Flip + iMovie for making videos
Time Machine and SugarSynch for backup
Flickr for photos
Photoshop for image hacking (badly)
Powerpoint for presenting and IA sketching (I know, I know)
Caffeine for screen-waking
Google maps for finding
SoThink Web Video Downloader for video grabbing
Screengrab! for screen grabbing

Click Here for Europreneur #1’s List: Mathys van Abbe, MobyPicture.

Here are my favorites:

Susan Bratton

• MobyPicture for syndicating my photos and videos from my iPhone and Mac across all my social nets simultaneously (kicks TwitPic’s booty). I wrote about it here.

• TweetLater Professional for scheduling tweets in advance (I wrote about it in my roundup of social media tools)

• Trackur for online reputation management and social listening. It’s superior to Google Alerts. (See my post on Online Reputation Guidelines.

• Testing uberVU, a social media commenting tracking and reply system, in their private beta. (See my post on this.)

• A Twitter Custom Search bookmark on her Firefox browser toolbar (see my post on how to do this).

• Skype with screen sharing (see Are You There? Skype is My Traveling Geeks Lifeline).

• Innovate Ads “video spokesperson” and video banners for my book, Talk Show Tips. See Creating a High Converting Video Spokesperson for Your Landing Page).

• iMovie with YouTube uploader

• Wordpress with Zemanta plug-in (image and article recommendations) for Firefox

• Facebook

• Flickr via iPhoto uploader

• Tweetdeck on her Mac Mini

• iPhone app: Twitterific

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• Europreneur Secrets – Favorite Web Aps of European Entrepreneurs from Traveling Geeks Trip #TG2009 (blogs.personallifemedia.com)

One Taste

What a disappointing piece of sensational journalism. An amazing group of teachers from OneTaste SF/NY were recently interviewed for Nightline, including Nicole Daedone, the founder. I have been waiting eagerly for the show to air because what they teach is “Orgasmic Meditation.” OMing is a practice that helps women feel more sensation through a stroking technique that OneTaste teaches.

Instead of accurately covering the value of this “massage” practice, ABC lumped OneTaste in with porn movies and eroticism. They completely missed the point of the practice and reverted to crappy, sensational journalism to drive traffic to this web page.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=8311520&page=1 (no link love from me, ABC)

See how ABC has optimized this page for the keywords “Porn” and “Erotic Film?” Desperate for traffic, ABC? How insulting. You entirely missed the point of OneTaste’s OMing practice. It’s a way that a woman can become in touch with her orgasmic potential and a way to feel a level of sensation that frankly, few partners can provide in the typical sexual context.

My husband and I were trained 4 years ago at OneTaste SF and it completely changed our relationship for the better. I’ve come into myself more as a woman and as a human being through this teaching. I have experienced a level of sensual sensation I cannot believe is possible and it continues to expand. My intimate connection with my husband is deep, comforting and hot. Every woman deserves to experience OMing.

I’m so passionate about it that I tell people about OMing all the time, produce podcasts with OneTaste and have recently co-created a “workshop in a box” with Dr. Patti Taylor for people who want to self-learn rather than going to a workshop with others. http://ExpandHerOrgasmTonight.com

Expand Her Orgasm Tonight: 21 Day Program for Partners

OneTaste’s teaching is important.

To liken it to porn is a slap in the face and an indication that Nightline’s reporters (and ABC’s webmaster/SEO people) completely missed the point. I am saddened by this terrible piece of reporting.

If you are intrigued by the possibility of exploring and growing your orgasmic potential, spend some time on the OneTaste website, go to one of their classes and/or listen to the podcasts we produce with them.

http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/215-taste-of-sex-reality-audio

http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/223-taste-of-sex-erotic-poetry

http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/213-taste-of-sex-guest-speaker

Klaas Wiema and Mathys van Abbe

This is first in a series where I take JD Lasica’s meme “Coolest Power Tools” on a “spin” to see not what our US geeks are using, but what our European Brethren find as their favorite aps.

I’ve queried some of my favorite new friends from Amsterdam, London and Cambridge about the tools they love. Here’s the first response, from Mathys van Abbe, founder of MobyPicture.

MATHYS VAN ABBE

My list:
- playfoursquare; In my opinion the first potential successful Location Based Service. Really like the fact they use playfulness to reach the necessary critical mass.

- soundcloud; Revolutionary collaborative tool for musicians. Not at all that musical myself, but really admire the distruptiveness of the service and the simple interface.

- startpix; Nice intuitive visual startpage which I use over 250 times a day. The fact it is visual and fills over time really makes it the easiest start on the web.

- mobypicture; founder and heaviest user ever since the launch. Not because you have to practise what you preach, but simply because I love to share my adventures!

Mathys’ blog:

http://mathys.vanabbe.com

Here are my favorites:

Susan Bratton

• MobyPicture for syndicating my photos and videos from my iPhone and Mac across all my social nets simultaneously (kicks TwitPic’s booty). I wrote about it here.

• TweetLater Professional for scheduling tweets in advance (I wrote about it in my roundup of social media tools)

• Trackur for online reputation management and social listening. It’s superior to Google Alerts. (See my post on Online Reputation Guidelines.

• Testing uberVU, a social media commenting tracking and reply system, in their private beta. (See my post on this.)

• A Twitter Custom Search bookmark on her Firefox browser toolbar (see my post on how to do this).

• Skype with screen sharing (see Are You There? Skype is My Traveling Geeks Lifeline).

• Innovate Ads “video spokesperson” and video banners for my book, Talk Show Tips. See Creating a High Converting Video Spokesperson for Your Landing Page).

• iMovie with YouTube uploader

• Wordpress with Zemanta plug-in (image and article recommendations) for Firefox

• Facebook

• Flickr via iPhoto uploader

• Tweetdeck on her Mac Mini

• iPhone app: Twitterific

Listen to my DishyMix interview with Joe Pine, author of Authenticity.

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

Author Joe Pine on the Principles of Influential Authenticity, The Experience Economy and Phoniness Generating Machines

Image by SusanBratton via Flickr

Here’s a verbatim reprint of Eric Schwartzman’s research findings. I wanted you to see it in its entirety.

For Immediate Release

Public Relations Leads Social Media Engagement at Most Organizations

Social Media Skills Now Required for Staffers, Study Shows

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 10, 2009) – Public relations professionals are taking the lead in managing the organization’s use of social media communications channels, and social media skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills when searching for and hiring public relations professionals, according to a new study.

The 2009 Digital Readiness Report, a study conducted by online newsroom provider iPressroom with support from Korn/Ferry International, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Trendstream, also identifies which new media and social media communications skills are most important to today’s hiring decision makers.
“The most commonly asked question at my social media workshops is ‘Which new or social media communications channels are most important?’” says iPressroom founder Eric Schwartzman.  “With more organizations realizing that there are tangible benefits to be gained from this type of engagement with their audiences, the importance of hiring individuals with advanced new media and social communications skills is increasing.”
Among the key insights from the study are:

1. When searching for prospective new hires, social media communications skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills.
2. Public relations leads marketing in the management and oversight of all social media communications channels within organizations.
3. When searching for prospective new hires, social media communications skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills.
4. Public relations leads marketing in the management and oversight of all social media communications channels within organizations.
5. Marketing leads public relations in the management and oversight of bulk email communications and search engine optimization.
6. Social networking, blogging and micro-blogging skills are the three most important social media communications skills for job candidates to have, according to public relations and marketing hiring decision makers.
7. Most organizations are considering hiring social media specialists.

The 2009 Digital Readiness Report, “Essential Online Public Relations and Marketing Skills.” is available for download free at http://www.ipressroom.com/readiness (registration is required).

Social Media Skills Influence Hiring Decisions
Schwartzman says the survey data also suggest that public relations and marketing professionals without new media and social media communications skills cannot, and will not, satisfy the requirements of today’s hiring decision makers.  To help professionals master these skills, Schwartzman and PRSA will conduct Social Media PR Boot Camps in four additional markets in 2009: Los Angeles (Aug 26 – 27), San Francisco (Sept. 24 – 25), Chicago (Oct. XX-XX) and New York on (Dec. 3 – 4).

“To circumvent the risk of obsolescence, communications professionals are seeking out new media and social media training oppor¬tunities that allow them to rapidly update their traditional public relations and communications skills-sets,” he says. “The demand for this type of knowledge is huge.”

The research also suggest a potential gap in online communications strategy at most organizations, since the channels with the greatest reach and adoption levels — email and search engine optimization — do not appear to be the most important channels in practice.
In addition, organizations do not appear to be as intent on leveraging the trust advantage of their own websites over social networking services to promote their company line.  Instead, organizations say they’re more focused on getting the word out than on using new media and social media channels to attract visitors to their own, destination websites.

About iPressroom
Online newsroom software as a service (SaaS) provider iPressroom (http://www.ipressroom.com/) was founded by social media strategist Eric Schwartzman, who also produces the award-winning PR podcast On the Record…Online (http://www.ontherecordpodcast.com), about how technology is changing the way organizations communicate, and how people consume media and information.  Based in Los Angeles, the company supports the rapid deployment of online newsrooms for businesses, nonprofits and government agencies.

#   #   #
Media Contact:
Arthur Yann
Vice President, Public Relations
Public Relations Society of America
212.460.1452