Eco-Friendly Digital Marketing Internship

Since 1982 there is a magic place in Ann Arbor devoted to the children and their education: the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.

Born from the work of Cynthia Yao and many other volunteers, who converted the old brick firehouse into what it is today, the Hands-On Museum is hosting more than 250 interactive exhibits for children. Each one of them has been built in order to teach kids about the world and its secrets, from science to physics, geology, math, music and more.

In their youngest age children are the smartest and the most longing to learn they will be in all their life, and it is our duty to feed them with the most interesting and useful knowledge which will turn them into bright young adults. This is the mission that enlights this museum’s work. By creating enjoyable ways of learning people in here are stimulating every day children’s minds: kids are not just spectators, they will have fun in becoming substantial parts of the exhibition, which make this experience much more impressive and the learned things absolutely unforgettable. And the adults bringing their children there can not help falling under the Hands-On Museum as well, the youngest part of them is coming out leading them to have more fun from exhibit to exhibit, and they will feel again that forgotten thirst for aknowledge!

It is in this background that the Hands-On Museum decided to go a little bit further, by organizing an event called Hands on Local Tech which will see as a protagonist not just the children, but their family and the local tech companies as well: the Hands-On Local Tech Event will gather them together on Saturday May 30 from 6 pm to enjoy a night of fun and growth. Children will be involved in educational and amusing games, the companies will describe their activities and teach people about that in extra-ordinary ways, and the parents will take advantage of this network oppurtunity or, which is my guess, will join the fun!

When amusement, knowledge, and sincere wish of staying together are meeting you can not prevent feeling enriched: occasions like this are what make our everyday life special.

I think we all need to thank the volunteers of the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum for their work, which is contributing to render this small city of Michigan a great place for families to stay.

Marta Battiston

Video conferencing seems to be a GREAT idea when having to commute long distances for meetings each week. Not only is it expensive, but it’s not very Green… The Ingenex interns looked around for alternative methods… I happened to stumble upon Oovoo, which is very similar to the platform Skype.

What makes this platform so unique is the multiple group chat function capabilities. Oovoo states that you can chat up to 6 different people at the same time. This makes video conferencing very convenient. You can also upgrade your account, which enables you to use your phone through Oovoo for long distance calls. You’d think with these types of services the phone providers would be making long distance calls cheaper…(??)

The plus about using Oovoo? I really enjoyed the user interface to it. It’s much edgier and easier to navigate around than other platforms. There isn’t a delay in the video chat, even when using 3 people at the same time. This is much more convenient than having to drive an hour for a meeting, when most of the work can be done through a video chat platform and Google docs!

The negatives, if you’re using a low bandwidth, it drops the video chat very easily.

Look into Oovoo, it might be something worth mentioning to your business who is trying to be Green considerate…

Not in a million years would I have fathomed receiving digital marketing advice from David Plouffe, President elect Barack Obama’s campaign manager, let alone be able to ask him questions.  Thanks to the incredible Digital Maketing World conference held by Marketing Profs on April 1st, 2009 I can actually say I have. 

A week ago if I was asked to attend a conference where David Plouffe was to be the guest speaker, despite my interest in it, I would have declined thinking it would be out of my budget to travel to the conference, pay for a hotel, and actually pay the fees to attend the varied events and seminars.  Today, my answer would be different. 

Marketing Profs Digital Marketing World virtual conference allowed everyone and anyone with an interest in digital marketing to attend a conference with some of the leaders in the Digital Marketing industry from the comfort of their own home at no cost.  Platform provider InXpo in conglomeration with Marketing Profs created an online conference that was far beyond any I have been to in person.  The conference included everything from an image of a beautiful convention centre where the conference was being held, to an auditorium where the speakers would present, an exhibit hall where companies could hold their booths, a resource center where you could download information provided by vendors and the event schedule, to a lounge where you could mix and mingle with others attending.

The conference also eliminated the need for vendors and participants to travel to the site.  It eliminated the need for vendors to create elaborate exhibits, print stacks of pamphlets and informational packages, as well as spend money on chotchkies and doodads to give away.  Making it one of the greenest conferences I have attended.

Other benefits to the online aspect included the fact that there was no line up in front of a booth for a chance to have a conversation with a vendor, there was no rush to get a seat at a seminar, or even the awkward conversation about the weather whilst trying to mingle with others around you. 

When you arrived at each booth a chat window would open where you could see all the conversations going on and join in, or ask for a one on one conversation.  There were several representatives at most booths so there was no waitin in line necessary.  Each booth also had ample information for you to look at with links to their websites, blogs, and so on.  Some vendors even went as far as to provide an opportunity to win prizes like an I-Pod or a book to those stopping by.

The auditorium held a scheduled set of speakers who provided visuals to go along with their live podcast as well as a question and answer session to which you could submit your questions via the live chat window, or via e-mail. 

It was an easy to use, entertaining, intriguing event with so much to offer.  Thankfully all the content and resources from the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing World virtual conference are still available for 90 days for anyone that missed out.

Deepti Dewan Chowdhry

First of all, is it me or are domain names getting weirder and weirder? The internet needs some kind of moderator to wipe out all the unused/idle domains so we can start over fresh. Oovoo, Twitter, Bebo, Hulu… nonsensical sounds and words that people have to use because all the regular words are taken up by domain squatting idiots. Not that I’m bitter about nateerickson.com, or anything. But I digress.

Omegle!

We’re coming a long way in social media, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if we’re moving too fast for the “social.” Are we still looking to build relationships, or are we just firing off as many links as quickly as we can before the rest of the clutter catches up? We’ve gone from World Wide Web to 2.0 to 3.0, Twitter became the new Facebook, then Facebook became the new Twitter, and it all changes so fast that you’re never quite sure what you’re “supposed” to be doing online anymore.

Well, Omegle takes all of that and throws it out the window. It’s barely a social networking site, if you can even call it that. It strips these interactions down to their base level — strangers talking to strangers. It’s a chatroom. Are we back to the World Wide Web again?

Omegle is the work of Leif K-Brooks, a teenager from Vermont. Who says teenagers never do anything constructive?

The interface looks like an old instant messenger (you kids remember what that is, right?) window — the only names on the screen are “You” and “Stranger.” Go ahead and talk to some strangers, if you dare. Anonymity does some weird things to people.

It’s interesting because you have the choice to reveal as much or as little about yourself as you want. The conversation can last for 3 hours or 3 seconds. It’s either participant’s call. I tried it out and read some things that made me smile, some things that made me laugh, and some things that made me worry about the future of the human race.

What’s your take? Worth it? What’s the point? Waste of time?

It’s certainly no LinkedIn, but catch the right person at the right time and maybe you can get something valuable.

Software development is a hapless job that requires patience and is often the butt of plenty Dilbert jokes. The primary source of most developers frustrations is explaing all of the ‘techie’ jargon to all of the non-technical minded ’suits’. TechSmith is a company based in Michigan that offers various screen-capture programs that offer several different utilities, such as image capturing, video editing, and web hosting. All with the goal of making developers and anyone who relies on presenting technical work lives easier.

One of their products, Jing, offers the same screen-capture options as other Techsmith products but where it shines is its shara-bility. Users can click-and-drag over images, sections or regions of their screen, then record audio instructions of what they are doing while also using text boxes and arrows. Collaboration of projects is much easier with Jing because the program includes buttons to instantly save and share to Screencast.com, TechSmith’s web hosting service, a separate FTP site, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr. After sharing, Jing automatically creates a URL that is copied to the Jing clipboard and can be share in e-mails, and instant messages.

Jing even offers a spoof portable applications Jing-2-Go

The program would be best suited for software developers who need to explain detailed instructions quickly and painlessly. Jing is FREE to download for both Windows and Mac.

On an eco-friendly note, Jing could potentially reduce fuel consumption, saving co-workers and collaborators the commute driving from office to office to sit through meetings. Al Gore allegedly uses Jing.