Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use Qr Codes

QR codes have been gaining popularity among marketers. You’ve probably see dozens of QR codes on your way to work. They are commonly used now on billboards at bus stops that advertise a movie or consumer product. You may have also seen QR codes when travelling and visiting tourist spots such as museums, walking tours, etc.  So, should nonprofits be experimenting with QR codes as another marketing vehicle too? Absolutely.

Before we dive into how nonprofits can incorporate QR codes into their marketing and outreach and discuss fees, it’s important to define what a QR code is from a technical perspective. QR Code stands for Quick Response Code.  It’s “a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background, and the encoded information can be text, URL or other data. QR codes present a valuable method of adding web based content (basically any URL) to real-world messages, objects or locations," says digital strategist Upasna Gautam on the Eventbrite blog. 

“QR codes allow you to land a visitor much farther down whatever funnel of engagement you’re interested in moving them through. Rather than trusting a visitor to type in www.yoursite.com, a QR code can send them directly to the specific page you’d like them to see," said Henry Quinn at the Idealware Blog.”

A QR code can link directly to music, video, news—on or off your site—it can activate a phone call, send an SMS, open forums for conversation or social networking—anything that’s online and that’s going increase their engagement with your organization, you can put in front of a user with a phone, immediately, with one click, said Quinn.

Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes

There are a variety of ways for nonprofits to use QR codes in their marketing and outreach. Here are few suggestions to think about experimenting with for your next multi-channel campaign.

1. Direct Mail: Sending out a direct mail appeal to your membership? Great, tag on a QR code in a visible place on the direct mail piece to encourage people to make a donation on your website. This is another great way to capture your offline donors email addresses so you can foster relationships with them online too. Note: The donation page should be a unique donation page so that you can track the response rates from the QR code.

Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes

Backlink: http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2011/8/9/five-ways-nonprofits-can-use-qr-codes.html

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10 Ways To Wind Down Your Green Startup

Some are expecting the cleantech graveyard of startups to start filling up, particularly in the second quarter of 2012. But how companies wind down, sell off their assets, or morph into new much slimmer versions of their former selves, is a personal choice for the companies and investors. Here’s 10 ways you can do it:

10 ways to wind down your green startup

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/M52Eunu4n-Q/

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INFOGRAPHIC: The Most Popular Ways To Chat

Last week’s Facebook Video Calling and Google+ Hangout announcements were just the latest in what seems like a string of massive developments in the digital communications space in recent months. In addition to the video chat services from our two beloved Internet behemoths, this Spring brought us the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft, surveys showing a dramatic increase in Internet phone calls, reports calling out VoIP as the fastest growing industry in the US, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. All signs are pointing to 2011 as a watershed year for web-based voice and video services.

 One of this year’s biggest online communication developments was T-Mobile’s launch of its Vivox-powered Bobsled Facebook application, which was the the first truly integrated voice chat app to appear on the social network. Not only does Bobsled let you call to ANY of your Facebook friends instantly- regardless of whether they’ve downloaded the application or not- but its initial iteration let users talk from within the site’s chat window, which is present on any page a user might be visiting on the site.

In concert with the Bobsled launch, Vivox conducted a survey on consumer use of digital communications services and their demand for VoIP within social networks in particular. Some of the results were quite compelling; compelling enough to serve as the basis of this infographic which shows visually the potential for voice chat in our newly social-ized world. In light of this week’s news, the graphic takes on even greater meaning.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

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See Also:

• Hey Trekkies! You'll Want This iPad App
• What's Missing From The Commentary About Google+
• The Guy Who Caught Derek Jeter’s 3,000th Hit Blew A Shot At $250,000

INFOGRAPHIC: The Most Popular Ways To Chat

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/epyXdYoAuy8/voice-everywhere-the-future-of-social-engagement-infographic-2011-7

The ways of men

when this century was born happened to be an admirer of classic lore and the sonorous names of antiquity. It is owing to his weakness in bestowing pompous cognomens on our embryo towns and villages that to-day names like Utica, Syracuse, and Ithaca, instead of evoking visions of historic pomp and circumstance, raise in the minds of most Americans the picture of cocky little cities, rich only in trolley-cars and Methodist meeting-houses.]]>

The ways of men

Backlink: http://www.slideshare.net/maanjoy/the-ways-of-men

Webcast: New Ways to Protect Your Network

Security guy Marcus Murray and Alex talk about security and new ways to protect your network. We get a good understanding of how we can defend ourselves against attacks.

Webcast: New Ways to Protect Your Network

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DTWB/~3/Ru-OXxRSkMw/

Google Nexus S Is "Better Than The iPhone In Most Ways," Says TechCrunch (GOOG, AAPL)

Google's Nexus S is a good phone, equal to, or better than the iPhone, says TechCrunch's Michael Arrington and Jason Kincaid in a review.

As far as we can tell, Google only handed out one review unit, and TechCrunch got it. Its review of the Nexus S is overwhelmingly positive, though its review of the Nexus One was also overwhelmingly positive.

Engadget also got some brief hands on time with the phone and liked it.

The Nexus S runs a "clean" version of Android. That means it's a phone with no extra crappy applications, and no extra skin on the OS from a carrier or hardware maker.

The last phone Google released like this was the Nexus One. While that phone was decent, it ultimately failed because Google tried to sell it through the web.

Google is not making that mistake this time. It will sell at Best Buy in the U.S. and Carphone Warehouse in the UK. So, there's a better chance it sells. Of course, Google doesn't really doesn't do much traditional marketing, so sales could be hurt.

The bottom line on the phone says TechCrunch, "If you are an iPhone user this isn’t going to make you switch. If you’re an Android user you will want this phone more than any other. If you’re currently neither, we recommend that you go with the Nexus S. It is better than the iPhone in most ways."

Here's more nuggets from the TC review:

• "The phone does not fail to please."

• It has "a high-end AMOLED 400 x 800 resolution screen that is second only to the iPhone 4."

• "The phone has a sleeker design than the Nexus One, although its generic black plastic case doesn’t exactly scream for attention. The case also feels somewhat cheap, unlike the solid feel of the iPhone and some previous Android phones."

• "Battery life is good ... We’ve been getting 6+ hours of heavy voice/data usage on the removable 1500 mAh Lithium Ion battery."

• "So far, not one dropped call." (They tested on T-Mobile.)

• The newest version of Android is "improved in a lot of small ways."

• "It is also much better at predicting words, and copy-and-paste has been improved as well. If the iPhone is 8/10 on text input, the Nexus One is probably 5/10 and the Nexus S is a solid 6/10."

• And here's one nugget from Engadget: "Firstly, the phone is fast. We mean blazingly fast. Not only that, but the animations, touch response and general framerate on everything seems to be cranked closer to the vicinity of the iPhone 4."

Don't Miss: Watch Google's Disorienting Hipster Ad For The Nexus S

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See Also:

• Watch Google's Disorienting Hipster Ad For The Nexus S
• Android Starting To "Lose Some Of Its Luster" For Verizon, Says Analyst
• Next Android Phone Features "Pure Google" Experience

Google Nexus S Is "Better Than The iPhone In Most Ways," Says TechCrunch (GOOG, AAPL)

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/UjAtALm2jog/nexus-s-review-2010-12

Gmail Labs Adds ‘Smart Mute’ and Easier Ways to Unmute Features

Gmail made some changes to its "muting" feature that help you keep you inbox empty from the mailing lists:

Gmail Labs Adds ‘Smart Mute’ and Easier Ways to Unmute Features

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DTWB/~3/tEEYSqf5OCM/

How Apple’s Closed Ways Could Land It Into Antitrust Trouble

While the antitrust spotlight has long been pointed at Google, the company that really has to watch its step is Apple. Beginning in the 1980s, Apple’s Steve Jobs left behind Apple’s original open design and began to champion a “closed”—or as the firm prefers, an “integrated”—approach to computing and entertainment delivery. This fact is familiar to any Apple user. Apple’s products are designed to work well with humans, other Apple stuff, and, at a distant third, other companies. “Foreign attachments” to the Apple system are sometimes accepted, but never quite loved. Contrary to what devoted “openists” might suggest, there are some advantages to Apple’s approach. Products engineered to work together often work better, if only because the firm’s engineers have more information. An Apple engineer building an application for the iPhone knows much more than someone programming an App for all the phones Android runs on. Moreover, to its credit, Apple isn’t an integration purist, like AT&T in the 1950s. Apple runs standard protocols like WiFi, allows outside Apps on the iPhone, and hasn’t tried to reinvent the World Wide Web. You might say that a clever, nuanced balancing of open and closed is Apple’s real secret.

Post originale: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/1nESdsmuwxo/

HTML5 Gives Microsoft, Apple Two Ways to Skin Android’s Cat

“Google Android is handily beating Apple in terms of market share, with an impressive 44 percent share of the entire smartphone market,
compared to Apple’s 26 percent share and Microsoft’s 3 percent share.”

Readers Share Ways to Get Experience in IT

We've gotten a lot of feedback to out post How to Overcome the Catch-22 of Finding a Job with No Experience.

That's where MJ Shoer, the president of Jenaly Technology Group, suggested breaking into IT by finding helpdesk position "geared to people with no or a very few years of basic experience." 

I'd take that one step further and suggest a lateral transition at your current job. The thing about getting hired cold is the employer doesn't know if you can do the job, or even if you are worth hiring.  In a lateral transition, you've at least answered the second question.

But I digress. On to the comments:

One user suggested that volunteering at a local non-profit is a good way to gain experience. It doesn't put food on the table, but it will provide you with the opportunity to solve real world problems, and help build up a resume.

Another wrote:

Here is a strategy I am beginning to implement. There are many open source technologies that are in demand. My focus in on Web Development/Design. So, these technologies include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, SQL, MySQL, etc. As I teach myself these skills, I update a website I created to demonstrate knowledge and initiative. This leads to side projects that demonstrate these skills, which ultimately leads to a job utilizing these skills. That's the theory, anyway.

Here's another idea: Set up a virtual lab. It may not be good for the resume, but it will go a long way toward giving you experience. You can read about deploying an antivirus package via ManagSoft all you want, but you won't come to understand the obstacles until you actually do it. Today, you can build a lab on your PC with free software.  When I first started out I used four-year-old physical PCs to build a domain controller, an SQL server, a print/ storage server and a workstation. Today, those could all be hosted on a laptop. And with VMWare, you can throw in a firewall DHCP box as well. Most software comes with a 30-day free trial. When it expires, re-image and start over.

There are a lot of ways to get experience to complement your certifications, but all require determination, since you're competing with many techs who are also looking for work.

-- Dino Londis

Post originale: http://career-resources.dice.com/articles/content/entry/ways_to_get_experience_in

Five Ways the Cloud Will Change Your Job

Datamation's Jeff Vance has insights about ways cloud computing will change businesses and careers. No matter how the cloud is defined, Vance suggests, it's the flexibility and relatively low cost of cloud-based implementations that promise to upend IT.

How many of Vance's predictions ring true to you?


1. Those with IT jobs should start worrying . . . now.



Recovery or not, certain types of IT jobs will almost certainly disappear. If your e-mail is in the cloud, for instance, you don't need to keep an IT worker on staff whose sole task is keeping Exchange up and running. At the same time, IT automation and cloud computing are displacing low-level, mundane IT jobs.



2. Knowledge workers say goodbye to the cubicle.



A smartphone that can access a range of applications via the cloud becomes a mini-PC.



For security pros, these mini-PCs are a boon, much better than laptops and even netbooks.Workers will no longer be compelled to sit in the office in order to access key data and applications. Telecommuting, virtual offices and mobility will all trend upward on the cloud.



3. Social networking becomes business critical.



It's not only IT workers who must cope with social media, but pretty much every knowledge worker. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are all standard marketing and business-development tools.



4. Tech adoption spreads to the masses, and the masses much become tech savvy to compete.



The cloud has a democratizing effect. Technologies that were previously packaged as expensive on-premise solutions, and which only large enterprises could afford, are now available as on-demand, pay-as-you-go solutions that even SMBs can adopt.



5. The cloud threatens incumbents.



The cloud removes many of the barriers to entry for technology start-ups. You no longer need a heavy infrastructure investment. You no longer need lengthy development cycles. You no longer need to invest in expensive devices and software.



-- Don Willmott

Post originale: http://app5.gemini.dice.com:9311/articles/content/entry/five_ways_the_cloud_will

7 Ways Windows Phone 7 Is Cooler Than The iPhone

This afternoon at Microsoft, I had my first hands-on demo of real phones running Windows Phone 7.

I spent the most time playing with the Samsung Focus, which is a pretty standard-feeling glass-encased phone like the iPhone, but also the HTC Surround, which is geared for multimedia fans with a pull-out speaker and kickstand so you can stand it up like a picture frame. (See the picture at right.)

The phones are fine, but they're not going to sell anybody on the new platform. What's going to get people talking--and, Microsoft hopes, buying--is the experience of using one. Until I actually had the chance to use one for a few minutes, I didn't understand how carefully the platform's designers have thought about every little detail. It's almost like they tried to channel Apple boss Steve Jobs, or at least ape some of his infamous perfectionism and focus on the end user.

This isn't a full review, but here are seven little things I noticed that could help convert the skeptics.

Show Me The 7 Ways...

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See Also:

• Snap Reaction To Windows Phone: It's Pretty Good
• Microsoft's Clever Windows Phone Ads Confuse Us
• Here's What Xbox Live Looks Like On Windows Phone 7

Post originale: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/cpq9FU5vA1c/seven-ways-windows-phone-7-could-sway-skeptics-2010-10