Posts tagged social networking
Is it time to do away with email?
Dec 15th
by Nestor E. Arellano
I’ll be off this Friday and two more days next week. My editor, Brian, will be taking a few days off this week as well and I imagine a few other writers at IT World Canada will be taking some staggered days off during the holiday season just as most workers in other companies will be this month and the next.
A good way to catch up on rest, spend some quality time with family and hopefully get away from work email.
But maybe that last thought on email isn’t quite right. Could you imagine how much mail your inbox would accumulate if it went unattended for even just a couple of days?
Nestor Arellano
Email overload has been a constant complaint ever since the technology was introduced to corporate communication. I seriously think that whatever amount of paper mail email might have done away with, it has returned a hundred fold in digital correspondence – to the point that the typical workforce is now weighed down by the daily churn of online messages pinging back and fort at the office.
Some studies say that if a worker receives an average of 15 emails a day, reading through them could take up at least an hour of interrupted work. If that worker is part of a 20-person workplace that could amount to 20 hours of work time lost each day or a loss of $2000 per week based on $20//hour salary. A survey by Salesforce.com also found that 70 per cent of emails sent at work were had no relevance to work at all. Read the rest of this entry »
How HoHoTO turned crowdsourcing into a cause
Dec 14th
By Shane Schick
Startups know what it means to be hungry. They tend to be launched by people who work extremely hard for what are sometimes small dividends, at least initially. They have to be very efficient with their expenses and other resources. They know they need to lean on each other for support occasionally, just to survive. They still have it a lot better than the many people in Toronto who go hungry every day — not hungry for success but for actual food. That’s probably why so many of them contribute to HohoTO.
Although it’s a holiday fundraiser rather than an actual company, after three years HoHoTO.ca already looks like more of a well-oiled machine than many other young Toronto tech firms vying for investors and customers. Launched by a group of friends in the local IT scene to help the Daily Bread Food Bank through the Christmas season, the project grew large part through word-of-Web, with the efforts of bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users tapping into their networks to solicit donations, team members or both. This year’s event will take place on Thursday, Dec. 15 at the Mod Club on College Street. ITBusiness.ca is proud to be among the many sponsors. Read the rest of this entry »
Giving a fair shake to the eyes in the sky
Dec 11th
by Francis Moran
In July 2002, a FedEx Boeing 727 carrying cargo crashed on its approach for a night-time landing in Tallahassee, Fl. A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigation identified the first officer’s colour vision deficiency as a factor in the crash and recommended that all existing colour vision testing protocols employed by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) be reviewed. Four years later, this case, and the issues which it raised about colour blindness testing in the commercial aviation industry, was the subject of a panel at an international workshop hosted by Saudi Arabian Airlines.
For Matt Lemelin, CEO of Genevolve Vision Diagnostics, stories such as this validate his company’s mandate, and commercial potential, to redefine how colour blindness is tested, diagnosed and treated. As Genevolve moves closer to its commercial launch, he is eagerly looking at specific industries such as aviation, where there is an opportunity for the company to establish new testing standards that are more fair and equitable. Genevolve’s ultimate goal is to create a global colour vision standard for all occupations. Read the rest of this entry »
SMBs actually hate social media
Nov 11th
Christine Wong
by Christine Wong
Time for a social media reality check, kids.
The myth: All companies are happily, constantly tweeting, posting and linking up a storm on social media, to their hearts’ delight and their bottom lines’ benefit.
The truth: … not so much.
The reality, based on a few new studies and a roomful of collective gaspers (I’ll get to them later), is that many SMBseither still haven’t jumped wholeheartedly onto the social media train – or the ones that have are struggling with how to use, manage and afford it.
Exhibit A: a surprising 49 per cent – yes, that’s half – of SMBs who responded to our ITB/Dell State of the Canadian SMB survey last year said they weren’t even using social media at all in their businesses. When we asked them why in this year’s survey, the top reason (cited by 35 per cent) was lack of time and resources. Another 16 per cent say they figure it’s just not worth investing in. Read the rest of this entry »
Is your Facebook activity jeopardizing your career?
Jun 8th
By Monica Goyal
Under normal circumstances, it’s unlikely that these comments will travel back to your superior and result in your dismissal. However, if you make your feelings known on a popular social networking site such as Facebook, it’s an entirely different story.
Monica Goyal
As two car dealership employees in British Columbia discovered last week, posting derogatory comments about your employer could get you fired. Read the rest of this entry »
New Brunswick grade schoolers place third in InterroBang
May 24th
A New Brunswick elementary class recently placed third at the InterroBang (http://playinterrobang.com/) competition, and international social networking contest designed to develop 21st Century learning skills.
The interesting twist is that the Grade 4 class was competing against middle and high school students in both Canada and the United States.
John Kershaw
New Maryland Elementary School (NMES) (http://nmes.nbed.nb.ca) is one of New Brunswick’s 21st Century schools. Teachers are integrating 21st Century competencies, such as leadership, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurialism, collaboration and digital competency into instructional practices. Steve Pierce, the principal, is leading the learning and teaching transformation and states that results are inspiring.
InterroBang is an on-line game where students complete real-world “missions” to learn and win prizes. It is a “social networking game for middle and high school students that encourages their natural energy and inclination to help others. Read the rest of this entry »
Canadians #tweettheresults in revolt against Election Act Sect 329
May 3rd
By Nestor Arellano
In a rare exhibition of election fervor Canadians vented their views about the polls and a few even braved the risk of being fined by Elections Canada by “illegally” tweeted early results of yesterday’s Federal Election.
Nestor Arellano
The act of online civil disobedience squarely went against the archaic but still in effect Elections Act, Section 329 which states: No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another district before the close of all the posting station in that other district.
Penalties for violating the act, which was introduced back in the 1930s to prevent election results from Atlantic Canada from being broadcasted to the rest of the country, could include a fine of up to $25,000 and five years in prison. Read the rest of this entry »
5 ways to get more Twitter followers
Apr 26th
By Kristin Burnham
Twitter has evolved into one of the most popular, go-to tools when it comes to reaching broad audiences, whether you’re promoting content, branding yourself as an expert in a field or networking with individuals who share similar interests.
One way to expand your reach on Twitter is to obtain more followers–but it’s not as simple hitting the follow button and hoping they follow you back. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to Rebecca Black’s Friday
Mar 18th
By Nestor E. Arellano
Who says you can’t buy fame in the social net? Well I did, last year. And I guess I’m having crow for dinner.
Tens of thousands of teenagers on March break will probably be cranking up Rebecca Black’s iTunes hit single Friday anytime to herald the weekend – not withstanding, or perhaps because, of the fact that it has been called the “the worst song ever.”
Nestor Arellano
When Rebecca’s feel good ode to the final day of the work week aired on YouTube in Feb. 10 it garnered a few thousand views. By this Thursday, “Friday” had hit more than 12. 7 million views on YouTube, had been the among the top trending topics on Twitter for more than three days and at 99 cents a pop was among iTune’s number 69 top selling songs. Read the rest of this entry »
3 smart reasons for SMBs to avoid Facebook
Feb 19th
By Katherine Noyes
For small businesses, the conventional wisdom today is that social media have become the best way to reach out to potential and current customers, and that companies need to be out there participating actively on Facebook and other social sites. After all, that’s where consumers are, right?
I’ve never been a big fan of the social networking site, and that feeling increases with each passing day. For small businesses, however, the benefits of using it are uncertain at best. The truth is, there are several reasons why the popular social network is not the right place for small businesses, and especially young ones. Here are just three of them.
