EON IT Project

CN Program to Count Toward BNI Educational Requirements

2009-03-26T14:22:00.001-04:00

During the last two fall terms, we have offered the Certified Networker program on the campus of Northwest State Community College. We hope to offer it again this fall. It is a wonderful program that will help you reduce your cold sales calls through learning how to do business networking.

I saw today on the CN site the following announcement:

"CN Grads, John Meyer and Kevin Carmony, Co-Executive Directors of BNI Ohio, have announced a way for a stronger link to exist between BNI and CN. Starting October 1, all BNI members in Ohio and Northern Kentucky will be able to contribute to their chapter's Continuing Education goals by attending a Certified Networker class. Each session will give the member 5 points. CN Grads will be able to earn those points by sitting through a module for review."

For more information on CN visit http://www.cnpofohio.com/. If you are a CN grad, please post here the most valuable take away you got from the program.

Who is the Ohio IT Alliance

2008-11-13T09:15:00.003-05:00

As mentioned in a previous post, at the IT Roundtable at EON we were pleased to have Sanjay Dudaney from the Ohio IT Alliance. If you have not heard of this organization it is worth your time to investigate it. From their website:

"Ohio IT Alliance is a state of Ohio Edison Technology Center, chartered by the Governor of Ohio with support and funding from the Ohio Department of Development's Thomas Edison Program. Our purpose is to aid in economic development of Ohio’s Information Technology Industry.

Our statewide network of Regional Partners participates in funding local economic development initiatives in the six regions of the state. We work with our partners to achieve one common goal: growing and improving the competitiveness of Ohio's information technology (IT) industry. In conjunction with our Regional Partners, OhioITA works with Ohio's 10,700 IT companies, ensuring that Ohio's IT resources are shared, leveraged and optimized for the benefit of the entire industry."

There are six regional partners to the organization. To read more about those click here. I was able to attend the Northwest Ohio CIO symposium last month and it was certainly worth my time to be there. If you want to have a good partner in technology and if you need additional information on the technology needs of your area, you should investigate this organization.

LinkedIn Upgrades

2008-11-10T07:35:00.002-05:00

I posted this on my CTS blog, but wanted to crosspost it here as well. As LinkedIn gains in popularity it continues to expand its services to members of the site. Since its inception the site has continued to expand its services by adding a questions are for people to participate in idea sharing and to show themselves as experts in their fields. The site, written in English is now also experimenting with a Spanish version.

Recently the site has added applications. Similar to what you find on Facebook and MySpace, applications are applets that allow you to expand the functionality of your profile. I have added a blog feed and filesharing to my profile. On the file sharing area I have uploaded our most recent e-newsletter. Other applications include: Reading List by Amazon, Google Presentation, and Company Buzz (Twitter feeds).

Now for a little shameless self-promotion: If you are interested in learning how to set up a LinkedIn account, CTS will be hosting a webinar on November 19, 9 am. Cost is $35 but mention this blog and you will receive $10 off the registration cost. Email me for details.

Wiki Sandbox for You

2008-10-29T23:21:00.002-04:00

As a follow up to my presentation today I have created a wiki on Zoho for you to experiment with. Feel free to check it out at http://techietami.wiki.zoho.com/.

You should be able to add your own information and edit existing information.

Enjoy!

EON Day 2

2008-10-29T17:53:00.003-04:00

Day 2 of the EON conference was another hit. Thanks to Trinity, Kathy, Marcia, Judy, Tina, Judy and Gretchen for all of their hard work!

Technology was the word today. You in the network are interested and today's sessions were well attended. We had a great deal of fun in the Techno Tools session looking at VOIP, Skype, Bluetooth, Smart Tools and even twittered. (I'm TechieTami on Skype and Twitter if you ever want to find me!) Great discussion in our forum on marketing non-traditional software application training (open source, etc). I appreciate everyone's participation in those two sessions plus the session I did with Debby Peters on low cost marketing strategies.

I talked about a Social Networking series that I am hosting via elearning technologies. Click here for more information if you are interested in signing up.

If you are checking out this blog because you heard about it at the conference, please use the comment feature and let us know.

Live from EON

2008-10-28T23:45:00.003-04:00

Day 1 of the EON conference is in the books and went well. The IT Roundtable found some great discussion about trends in the IT market and the need of the network campuses to keep up and to collaborate. A great article from Gartner on the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009 was reviewed (click here to read more). We also received an article entitled "Service Management May be the Degree of the Future" (click here to read).

A special guest was Sanjay Dudaney of the Ohio IT Alliance (www.OhioITA.org). Sanjay discussed the purpose of the alliance and was very interested to learn of the mission of EON. We hope our two organizations will be able to collaborate in our shared effort of furthering Ohio's technology proficiency and making Ohio more competitive in the global marketplace.

In the afternoon we had two sessions that focused on distance learning. There are many options out there that campuses can explore as an additional service to provide our clients.

Technology Sessions at EON

2008-10-22T11:01:00.002-04:00

Lots of opportunities for technology updates at next week's EnterpriseOhio Network fall conference:

10/28
IT Roundtable 10-12 Trombley & Norris
The Online Learning Process 2 - 3:15 Trombley & Bautz
Online Learning Vendors 3:45 - 5:00 Trombley & Bautz
Sakai Collaboration & Learning Environment 3:45 - 5:00 Akir

10/29
A New Generation of Learning 9:45 - 10:45 Milliron
Easy eMarketing Using Student Manager 1:30 - 2:30 Vogley & Boettger
New Techno Tools 1:30 - 2:30Trombley & Norris
Computer Application Training...You Mean There is Life Beyond Microsoft? 2:45 - 3:45 Norris

Hope to see you there.

Clickjacking

2008-10-20T09:13:00.001-04:00

Submitted by Julie Sharrow, Youngstown State

"Clickjacking (also known as user-interface or UI redressing and IFRAME overlay) is an exploit in which malicious coding is hidden beneath apparently legitimate buttons or other clickable content on a website.

Here's one example, among many possible scenarios: A visitor to a site thinks he is clicking on a button to close a window; instead, the action of clicking the "X" button prompts the computer to download a Trojan horse, transfer money from a bank account or turn on the computer's built-in microphone. The host website may be a legitimate site that's been hacked or a spoofed version of some well-known site. The attacker tricks users into visiting the site through links online or in email messages.

Researchers Jeremiah Grossman and Robert Hansen discovered the vulnerability. Here's how they describe the issue:

Think of any button on any Web site, internal or external, that you can get to appear between the browser walls, wire transfers on banks, Digg buttons, CPC advertising banners, Netflix queue, etc. The list is virtually endless and these are relatively harmless examples. Next, consider that an attack can invisibly hover these buttons below the users' mouse, so that when they click on something they visually see, they actually are clicking on something the attacker wants them to. [...] Say you have a home wireless router that you had authenticated prior to going to a web site. [The malicious coding] could place a tag under your mouse that frames in a single button an order to the router to, for example, delete all firewall rules.

The issue is said to result from an integral flaw in browser software and affects Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Safari and Opera. In fact, only non-GUI browsers, such as Lynx, are protected, simply because there is nothing in the interface that's clickable.

According to Hansen, there are multiple variants of clickjacking: "Some of it requires cross domain access, some doesn't. Some overlay entire pages over a page, some use iframes to get you to click on one spot. Some require JavaScript, some don't."

In his Security Corner blog, Ken Harthun advises: "For now, everyone should immediately disable scripting and iframes in whatever browser they're using. Firefox users should install NoScript and set the "Plugins Forbid iframe" option... I also recommend that everyone review US-CERT's article 'Securing Your Web Browser' to insure maximum protection against this and other security risks."

Open Office 3.0 Out, But Can You Get It?

2008-10-14T13:48:00.003-04:00

OpenOffice.org version 3.0 released Monday, but the high demand for the open source application overwhelmed the company's servers and users have had a hard time getting to the site. As of the writing of this blog, the site is still down, but does direct you to several mirror sites where you can download the software.

What makes this version so desirable is that it "supports the OpenDocument Format 1.2 standard, and can also open files (“docx”) created with Microsoft’s Office 2007 and Office 2008 for Mac OS X. It also features a new Start Centre, icons and zoom control in the status bar."

Let us know when you get it downloaded and what your thoughts are on this new release.

IT's Continuing Impact on Higher Education

2008-10-10T12:02:00.004-04:00

Today's "Inside Higher Ed" contains a summary of results from the latest Educause survey. Educause is an organizations which "which represents information technology in higher education." The survey was a collection of responses from 1,016 campuses, across all types of institutions and included many schools in Ohio among which were the University of Toledo, Case Western and Ohio Northern to name a few.

The survey points to an ever increasing need for technology-proficient professionals in the field of education. A few items of note from the survey:

Use of open source software increased to almost 51 percent of responding institutions, from 47 percent the previous year and 32 percent in 2005.

Over 35 percent of the institutions surveyed reported that they use course management systems such as Blackboard, WebCT or open source solutions like Moodle or Sakai for all or almost all of their courses, up from 29 percent the previous year. Only half a percent said they didn’t or didn’t plan to use such a system at all.

Among various technologies deployed on campus networks, several saw marked increases last year, including software that blocks spyware, personal firewalls and voice over IP (VoIP), among others.

Sixty-eight percent said they had performed a formal campus IT risk assessment, up from 63 percent last year. Forty-nine percent have deployed emergency notification systems (such as text message alerts) and 47 percent are exploring their options.

Link to the survey results: http://net.educause.edu/apps/coredata/reports/2007/index.asp?bhcp=1

I would submit that now is an important time for IT in higher education. First that we have a strong IT department to support programs and initiatives. Second that we have strong IT programs in both credit and non-credit offerings. Third that if we do not have strong offerings that we look to collaborate with those campuses that do through partnerships.

What emerging trends do you see in IT?
Is IT an outdated term? What should we call it?
Are higher education institutions in Ohio equipped to fill the need for IT workers?

NCCET Update 2

2008-10-07T17:16:00.002-04:00

Another good day at the conference.

This morning I attended a session by Stark State's Russ O'Neill on Kids College. They really have an amazing program and I would suggest contacting either Russ at Stark or Terra CC if you are interested in launching this initiative at your campus.

Our lunch speaker was Lt. Governor Lee Fisher. The LG spoke to the important role workforce development plays in the economic welfare of Ohio. If we want to be competitive we must have adequate educational resources. A few points..

"...need for critical thinkers for tomorrow..."
"We have to engage with the world"
"...skate where the puck is going..."

In the afternoon, Tina and I presented on EON and the IT project. It was a small group so we were able to have good conversation regarding the importance of networking. I content that to be successful, we must network with our vendors, our peers (other workforce development divisions) and our clients.

Tom Wylie attended an interesting session on Social Media and it aligns nicely with what the Lt. Governor said and with a movie that Tina & I will play at the EON IT Roundtable later this month...there are more people on MySpace than there is the population of the US and there are more text messages being sent daily than there are cell calls being made. The paradigm has shifted...have you?

NCCET Update 1

2008-10-06T18:13:00.002-04:00

Quick update before dinner:

Sunday's keynote was Beth Mooney, Vice Chair of Key Corp. Beth brought us an update on the events that led up to the crisis in the mortgage industry.

After the keynote was the first round of sessions.

I attended a session on "Creating an Institute of Government." This was presented by Tom Davenport of Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and was a good overview of working with local municipalities and elected officials to set up a training program for them.

The second session I attended was "Recession Proof Your Contract Training." In this session the room was full. Great ideas for keep up revenue in difficult financial times (I will post some of the tips later).

Monday brought my presentation on "eLearning is More than Online Courses" and in the afternoon a session on EON & Aceware. We also had a chance to meet with other members of the Great Lakes region and discuss future directions for NCCET.

Have seen several campus members from Ohio including Owens, Stark State, Terra and Washington State.

Well...off to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. More to follow.

Live from NCCET

2008-10-05T10:25:00.002-04:00

Well after dealing with a bout of the flu, I arrived mid-morning today at NCCET in Cleveland. I will be blogging about various events throughout the conference. I am especially interested in hearing the session titled "Recession Proof Your Contract Training Unit" and the Tuesday luncheon speaker, Lee Fisher.

Good luck to the EON members who are presenting. Look forward to connecting with our Ohio counterparts!

Ning Site Launches

2008-10-02T10:12:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to give a quick update on the Ning site I have created for the EON IT project. Ning is a social networking site that can accept RSS feeds, videos, discussion, photos and more. In fact I have some pictures from the ACEware conference uploaded on the site.

My thought is this can be a playground of sorts for you, our EON gang. If you would like to see the site visit http://eonohioit.ning.com/ to see what we have so far. If you would like to become a member email me at tnorris@northweststate.edu.

Productive Blogging

2008-10-01T10:04:00.004-04:00

I read an article today entitled "Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students." This article is on Campus Technology and while this site is geared toward degree/certificate programs, I find that it has a great deal of useful information for workforce development/non-credit programs as well.

To summarize, the 5 mistakes are:
1. Ineffective Contextualization
2. Unclear Learning Outcomes
3. Misuse of the environment
4. Illusive grading practices
5. Inadequate time allocation

To apply these to blogging with our students/clients I took away the following:
1. There should be a clear reason for the blog. Is it to discuss trends, technology, business?
2. Your target audience needs to know where it is, what it is and how to use it. Some will take more time than others.
3. Blogs are not wikis or chat rooms. "The essential difference between a blog and other online tools is that it is intended to be an individual publication: a one-way monologue or self-post to which others may comment but do not contribute. The original post remains as the person who posted it wanted it to be."
4. If you are going to use a blog as a tool in one of your classes, make sure the students understand the learning outcome. Is it online proficiency? Learning to analyze and articulate a position? If they don't know what you are expecting you are setting them up to fail.

Please let us know if you have successfully incorporated a blog into your campus or program.

Secure that Password

2008-09-24T10:45:00.001-04:00

You don't have to answer this on the blog, but ask yourself this...do you have the following passwords on any of your accounts? Password, 12345, your birthday? You might want to rethink that.

A couple of pointers on password security.

Test the strength of your passwords at: http://www.securitystats.com/tools/password.php

Do not use the same password for all your accounts. If somebody discovers it, they've got you!

Do write your passwords down. NOT on a sticky note on your monitor or even under your keyboard. Pretend that it is a $1,000 bill...how would you secure that?

Many passwords now accept symbols, numbers and are case sensitive so be creative. If your son's name is brad and he got his first car in 2006 you might try: 20Br@d06.What are your tips for password security?

See You At NCCET

2008-09-23T11:10:00.003-04:00

I'm looking forward to my first NCCET convention in just under two weeks (October 4-7). Thought you would like to know which Ohioans are presenting:

Sunday 4:15 pm - The Moses Chronicles: Tina Trombley (Washington State), Bill Beisel (Lakeland), Chuck the Aceware guy
Monday 11:15 am - eLearning: Tom Wylie & Tami Norris (Northwest State)
Monday 2:00 pm - Developing Partnerships: Tina Trombley (Washington State), Tami Norris (Northwest State), Chuck the Aceware guy
Monday 3:30 - Great Lakes region meeting
Tuesday 11:15 - Kids College: Russ O'Neill (Stark State)
Tuesday 2:00 - IT a Statewide Initiative: Tina Trombley (Washington State), Tami Norris (Northwest State)
Tuesday 3:15 - Improving Employee Selection Through Testing: Amy Mast (Akron Wayne)

Click here for a full conference program or visit the NCCET website (www.nccet.org).

Clean up That Trash

2008-09-22T16:38:00.003-04:00

Read about a couple of applications that can help you monitor what goes on with your computer and possibly help identify why it is running slow:

Process Explorer - "Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded."

AutoRuns - "shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them."

In the "handle with care" category you might also want to look at CCleaner "CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner." It can remove a lot of extra junk from your computer, but unfortunately it can also remove things you need so be very cautious with this application.

What do you use to monitor and clean your PC?

Cut, Copy and Paste

2008-09-16T15:48:00.002-04:00

It is so each click and drag, right click, copy, go to a new document, choose paste and you are done. Problem...is it copyright infringement or not? For some good insights on copyright visit
www.plagiarismtoday.com. I heard about this website on a technology list I subscribe to. There is information on licensing content, news links, plagiarism, issues surrounding blogs, pictures and more. Check it out, lots of interesting reading!

Are You LinkedIn Yet???

2008-09-11T09:59:00.002-04:00

If you haven't been to LinkedIn for awhile they have made a few improvements. One of the updates is the addition of discussions in the "Groups" area. This allows for a discussion thread visible to the members of a group. Remember that we have a group for EON members. Email me if you are on LinkedIn and would like to be added.

Today's question: have you had any success connecting with current or new customers via an online social networking site? Which ones are worth your time and which ones should be avoided?

Donor Beware

2008-09-04T12:07:00.002-04:00

Just saw this in Kim Kommando's newsletter and wanted to pass it on:

"Nearly 100 domains related to Hurricane Gustav have been recently registered. Experts warn scammers may use some. Be especially careful of those claiming to be charities." For the full article visit: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/02/Online_scammers_prep_for_Gustav_1.html

As always common sense and a little background research is always prudent.

Web 2.0 Meets Academia

2008-08-19T07:11:00.001-04:00

We have touched upon various Web 2.0 technologies here. In today's Inside Higher Ed is an article titled "Will Colleges Friend Facebook?"

Facebook originally had more of a student-centered following, but has recently expanded beyond that. What has been lacking is official sites for the colleges. Therefore, what one enterprising company looks to do is develop applications for colleges to create a presence on the social networking site. Inigral has developed "Schools" and has been testing it in beta form at Abilene Christian University. The application offers security to ease the schools' concerns and ability to integrate with school data to display class related information. Check out a virtual tour of schools at http://inigral.com/schools/.

Time Savings for Air Travelers with Laptops

2008-08-07T22:49:00.003-04:00

"Travelers Can Keep Laptops in Bags at Checkpoints" Bloomberg reports that as of August 16 air travelers will be able to keep their laptops in bags through security checkpoints...provided that the laptops are in a special type of bag. TSA hopes that this will decrease wait time in security.

"The bag must have a ``laptop only'' section that can unfold and lay flat on the X-ray belt, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said in a statement. Some bags that meet the standard can be purchased now and others will be available by mid-month, the agency said. "

For the full article visit http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aajZzlHVc9S8&refer=us.

What is your biggest complaint about the TSA? Are they using outdated technology?

Blogging's cousin...Vlogging

2008-07-31T08:59:00.003-04:00

In this technology blog we have talked about blogging and social networking. Today, I want to tell you about Vlogging. Jim Blue, former anchor at WNWO TV 24 in Toledo has launched "Jim Blue's Toledo Media Vlog" (http://www.jimblue.com/Flash/MediaVlog%207_22_08.html) Check it out, although I will let you know, he basically lays it out as he sees it in Toledo area media. He has recently left WNWO and is using this method (along with LinkedIn) to building a network and a following. Great use of technology!

Let us know what you think. Email Jim if you have any comments. I did and he responded back within a few hours!

Have you run across any vlogs lately?

Recover-wii

2008-07-23T18:56:00.003-04:00

Walk into Rehabilitation Services at St. Luke's Hospital in Maumee and you may be surprised to see patients playing on a Wii. The Wii system was funded through a grand from the St. Luke's Hospital Foundation. According to Sue Serrato, manager of Rehabilitation Serivces, the Wii "incorporates total body movements." Serrato adds that the system provides multisensory feedback which "aids in brain healing after a stroke and nerve-ending healing following injury or surgery." Additionally patients find themselves really enjoying the therapy.

This brings to question, how many health care providers have never touched a gaming system? How can our centers be a catalyst for change or a provider of training to help in this arena?

Alter Ego Required?

2008-07-15T11:22:00.003-04:00

If you are an avid blogger, you might find a point in time where you need to separate your work blogging from your personal blogging. Or do you feel that blogging on college time is even proper?

In addition to maintaining this blog I host one for our division and one for our college's participation in the We are IT initiative. I use the same profile on each as they are somewhat related in my eyes. I also enjoy blogging on outside interests such as NASCAR and politics and do that under separate cover. My thought is that I'm not hiding who I am, but I don't necessarily want a straight line connecting the dots. Topics like religion, politics, etc, can be divisive and potentially hurt your business in some ways.

What do you think? Does it matter? Do you have separate persona's online?

Free Stuff for Your Small Business Customers

2008-07-03T22:17:00.001-04:00

This month's edition of Inc. contains the article "Free Stuff for the Office." Here are some open source/web-based free packages for you to check out:

Security

www.untangle.com – open-source to help secure your data

Accounting Packages

www.gnucash.org

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/free-accounting-software.jsp

Virtual Meetings

www.dimdim.com – web conferencing

www.freeconferencecall.com – phone conferencing

E-commerce

CRM

Documents

Task/Project Management

www.openworkbench.org

Possible solutions for you to offer your small business customers. Please share your feedback once you have tried these out!

What other solutions have you found out there on the web?

Are You a CPI Yet?

2008-06-21T09:43:00.001-04:00

Certiport has created a new designation for instructors. CPI stands for Certified Professional Instructor. This designation is available in two areas, one that aligns with the MCAS program (Office 2007 + Vista) and another that aligns with their IC³(digital literacy). It is an involved process to apply including passing either MCAS or IC3 Master Instructor qualifications, references, proctor and other testing administrator training. There is a fee to apply with an additional yearly fee. I am halfway through the process and will keep you updated as I go through the CPI and administrator training.

What are the advantages of this program? (From Certiport's website)

Access standard teaching materials, program information and remediation tools
Develop and/or review new eLearning and instructional materials
Participate in professional forums and online collaborative sessions to share Best Practices
Receive discounts on workshop materials
Obtain Certiport sponsorship opportunities to participate in Certiport Conventions & Trade Shows
Partner with Certiport to deliver Train-The-Trainer and Certification Workshops
Gain access to professional courseware training guides and syllabi
Sponsorship opportunities
Access subcontracting opportunities
Receive the rights to use the CPI logo and Certiport business cards.

For more information visit www.certiport.com.

Now That You Jing, Can You Ning?

2008-06-15T15:28:00.001-04:00

In our last post we learned about a project called Jing. This time we are looking at a social network called Ning. Ning combines elements of a website, blog and social networking. On a Ning site you can store video, host a blog and a forum, add widgets and gadgets, advertise upcoming events and more! Ning is a network of networks. You can be invited to join or as you look around you might find some of interest and request to join. Networks I have found include NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) 2008, The Innovative Educator, Classroom 2.0 and Web 2.0 for teachers. The last 3 sites tend to lean more to the K-12 crowd, but do have good information.

The EON IT project now has a network on Ning as well. Visit us at http://eonohioit.ning.com/. I have uploaded a tutorial to this site on how to blog from Word 2007, have listed upcoming events and included an RSS feed to this blog. Check it out and join us!

What Web 2.0 technology are you using at your center? Which ones would you like to learn more about?

Do Ya’ Jing?

2008-06-06T20:01:00.001-04:00

The Jing Project is an application designed to help you capture images or record video and then share that information. Currently it is a free download as it is still in the development phase. "The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere." Jing is available for both MAC and Windows. As a participant in the Jing Project you will be given a free account on Screencast. Screencast "is a web hosting service from TechSmith Corporation. It's a premier hosting service specifically made for screen video content." I downloaded the project the other day and have found it easy to work with. You can leave it on while you work so you can capture whenever needed. Once captured, you can send the data to Screencast or save it locally on your computer. Currently the product is free while they gather feedback. This tool can be another item in your arsenal of tools to help capture information for presentations, webinars, etc.

What is your favorite screen capture/recording application?

Fun with Chuck

2008-05-28T22:21:00.001-04:00

Well…I know you have been waiting to hear about the ACEware users' convention, so here we go.

If your campus uses ACEware Student Manager you should make plans to attend. Each even year ACEware holds a national conference and on the odd years they hold regional meetings. At this conference we got to meet just about all of the gang. I had the pleasure of having dinner seating with Lauri Thompson & her husband as well as Michael and Daniel who are two of the techs. We had a preconference as well as two days of enjoyable training. I presented on custom reports. Another enjoyable part of the conference was meeting users from other campuses across the country..in addition to Ohio representatives Renee from Akron and Tally from Washington State. We found that North Dakota has an interesting Workforce Development system. Visit their website at http://www.trainnd.com/. You are probably wondering if there are pictures, http://www.aceware.com/Events/08conference.shtml and see if you can find me. (I will have my pictures with me at the next IT round table!)

We have an ACEware users meeting coming up, so please let Tina or I know what topics you would like us to bring up at this meeting or add it as a comment here. Also, thank you to Lakeland for their hospitality this month. A group of us went there to work with them on their Student Manager rollout. They asked tough but important questions and all in all it was a productive day. If you are interested in localized customized training on your Student Manager contact Tina Trombley.

Geek Speak

2008-05-28T10:58:00.001-04:00

Found another interesting website the other day. http://Geekspeakr.com is a website that lists women who speak on technology based topics. From the site: "Many organisers of technical conferences, meetups, and dinners want to have more gender-balance in their lineups, but they don't know where to find technical women speakers.

Enter geekspeakr.com, a simple directory and connections system to help technical women speakers and event organisers to find each other."

As you can see by the wording this is non-US specific. And yes, I of course had to register on it. It appears that it is still in beta and they are accepting applications. It has a simple search engine to find speakers by topic. I heard of this through a listserv I subscribe to called "WikiChix" a listserv for women interested in Wikis. Another site they mention that I have yet to check out is http://www.socialtext.net/speakers/index.cgi?the_speaker_s_wiki.

What interesting website have you stumbled upon this week?

In Plain English

2008-05-22T21:27:00.002-04:00

Got an email today about an interesting video series. The "In Plain English" series is from Common Craft and provides a simplified way of looking at a variety of topics. The series includes:

Social Networking In Plain English
Twitter in Plain English
RSS In Plain English
Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

Check them out at www.commoncraft.com or on Youtube! You just might see one of these videos coming soon to a webinar near you.

What other fun teaching tools have you found lately?

Your Topics Please

2008-05-08T15:08:00.004-04:00

EnterpriseOhio Network has just released their call for proposals for this fall's convention. "The Next Frontier" convention will be held October 28-30 at the Embassy Suites in Dublin. Please let us know what IT topics you would like to see presented. We plan on having the roundtable again and could also sponsor a session or two if you have something of interest.

A few topics I thought of:

Marketing Technical Programs
Office Productivity Tools can be Free (focus on using OpenOffice, Google Docs, etc)
ACEware Student Manager topics

Let us know what you would like to see.

Ta-Da!

2008-04-10T10:51:00.005-04:00

There is an interesting new website I read about in my local paper this weekend. Ta-Da List (www.tadalist.com). If you are a list maker, this may be the site for you. Now why not just use the tasks area of your handheld device? Well since Ta-Da is hosted on the web it is accessible from any device that has a browser. Additionally, the list is shareable. You may share an uneditable list with anyone (here is my list of software packages I'd like to learn: http://techietami.tadalist.com/lists/public/945977 or you may invited people to an editable version of your list. You may also subscribe to an RSS feed to be notified of updates to the list.

The basic features are free, but you will also see promotion for their "Backpack" organizational tool. This has a limited free version as well as a variety of more powerful versions that are fee based.

Do you see this as a viable tool or just another fad?

2008-04-02T20:18:00.006-04:00

Are you LinkedIn? I am and I currently have 52 connections! My "most connected connection award" goes to Rick Longenecker President - Armature Group in New York (268 connections). So how do I know Rick? We are both alumni of the University of Toledo. Rick was a Kappa Delta Rho and I was an Alpha Chi Omega.

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is an electronic business networking organization. According to Leasa Maxx of Maxx Grafx, "LinkedIn consists of more than 8.5 million professionals representing 130 industries from around the world." Also, all of the Fortune 500 companies have a presence on the site.

Why do people use the site? To make connections. Some are looking to secure new employment, others want business referrals while others simply want to reconnect with people they know. To use it effectively one should not only set up a profile, but answer the question of what you are looking for so people know why to contact you. Also, you have an opportunity to write recommendations for members of your network and they for you. This helps to solidify the relationship and tells others about your business/services. You are not able to randomly network with others, you must know them by some means or ask for a virtual introduction by someone in their network. Personal accounts are free, there is a charge for business accounts. One you and someone have connected, you will be able to see each others connections and be informed when you each connect with someone new.

Are you on LinkedIn? I have submitted a group for EON and will keep you posted when it is approved.

What social networking sites do you use?

Saved by Google Maps

2008-03-18T19:12:00.002-04:00

First I must admit that I am directionally challenged, so when it came time for me to plan my travels this month I turned to Google Maps for my directions. This month finds me heading to towns such as Newark and several spots in the Cleveland area. So what makes Google’s mapping tool so great? Interactivity! I often speak on the merits of Web 2.0 and this is another benefit. In addition to typical mapping capability, Google’s tool supports click and drag route modification. So let’s say that rather than taking I-90 through Cleveland I’d rather take 480; no problem…click and drag can make that happen. As you update the map, it automatically updates the printed directions. As with other mapping services Google supports terrain and satellite overlays. So for those of us too frugal to by GPS systems this provides a wonderful alternative.

What is your favorite mapping tool? (Map Quest, etc) Do you have any mapping horror stories? (like the time my mom found herself turning left according to the map and then realizing the street sign says no left turns)

OCHEA Day 2

2008-03-13T22:53:00.001-04:00

I am writing at the conclusion of the first full day of the OCHEA conference. I started here yesterday with the ACEware users group. This is my first OCHEA conference and I have to say I am glad I was able to attend. It gave me a wonderful opportunity to network with a variety of people from both 2- and 4-year campuses as well as both public and private institutions and career centers.

The day began with Paula Peinovich former President of Walden University. During this talk we did a SWOT analysis of the higher education profession. Through this team exercise we had an opportunity to take a series look at where we are and where we are going in higher education. I strongly urge each campus do this kind of analysis of their programs if they are not already doing so. It will help you see where you are and help point you in the right direction. Trends in higher education discussed included:

Democratization of technology
Global economy
Demographic diversity
Developing knowledge economy
Cries for accountability (driven by government rather than by consumers)

We can grow to meet these trends or get left behind. The choice is up to us.

I also attended a direct marketing roundtable led by Mike Prejna from KSU and Scott Burke of TriC. Many great ideas were shared in this forum with an interesting off shoot discussion on relationship marketing.

The last session I attended was an e-learning leadership roundtable led by Barbara Hanniford from CSU and Tom Erney from CSCC. Great discussion was held on a variety of techniques on e-learning and its various components. Two good resources for campuses:

http://www.csuohio.edu/elearning/faculty/index.html <-- Example resources for faculty who need help offering classes online

http://global.cscc.edu/index.asp <-- homepage for CSCC global campus

To help the faculty and the DL program to succeed in addition to offering professional development these two campuses also create a blackboard shell for every class whether the instructor uses it or not. In fact CSCC requires all instructors to at least upload their syllabi to the course page, whether they put anything else there or not.

If you attended OCHEA, what was your favorite session?

Live from OCHEA

2008-03-12T16:53:00.001-04:00

ACEware Users meeting – Today I am blogging from the ACEware users meeting that is preceding the OCHEA conference. Chuck from ACEware is here and in his usual upbeat style is giving us great tips on working with Student Manager. Here are a few for you to use…

Subject Codes – when you assign a subject matter code to a class, any student that registers for that class will automatically get that code added as an interest on their name record. (up to 8 char in length) Can edit an existing course and it will add the code to the students registered. This coding can help you query later for interest, mailings, etc.

Mailing to companies. ReportsàDemographicsàFirms w/o Namesàselect additional reports. This can help you create mailing labels to the firms you have listed in your database.

Marketing information. Use the Source code field on the name record to record where the person's information came from. Ideas could be trade shows, WIA, called in, website, etc. (up to 8 char in length). You can then run statistical reports to see where your registrants come from.

What about that annoying dialog box when you try to register someone in a course that already occurred (like contract training)? Preferences à Courseà on right side take check off "warn when registering old course"

What's What? HelpàAbout Student Manager. Gives you good overview information on your user level, computer, and database.

Budget Module – This is an optional module, but if you haven't looked at it, check it out through the demo version of Student Manager. Gives you ability to estimate expenses/revenue for classes, determine break even points, etc.

Recycle Query/Recycle Report – these checkboxes are found when running reports. Recycle report keeps you in the report dialog box so you can choose another report in the same category. Recycle Query keeps you in the report and you can choose different query criteria.

If you have a student whose last name starts with a lowercase letter you might have noticed that Student Manager will automatically capitalize it for you. What to do? Type in a space, then type the name. Go back and delete the space. On the name screen it will show as capitalized, but in any reports it will show correctly.

For those of you who use Student Manager; what is your favorite quick tip?

Touring Second Life

2008-03-04T09:21:00.004-05:00

I would like to thank Zaia Imako on Second Life for touring me around SL last night. When at Owens Community College, Zaia goes by the name of Ruth Couch. I met her at a We are IT statewide meeting last week. Last night she was in SL with some of her students and was kind enough to teleport me to their location where we spent approximately an hour touring various areas of SL including Owens' own island.

It was mentioned at the We are IT meeting that both Blackboard and OLN may have grant money for Second Life. Tina and I can do some more research on this for you if you are interested.

Is SL a fad or a legitimate way of combining DL through synchronous and asynchronous methods? What are your thoughts?

Ohio Ed/Tech Blogs

2008-03-03T22:33:00.010-05:00

I have been following things from ODCE and found a directory of technology related blogs. Thought I would share a few of them with you:

* Marietta College - http://mariettacte.blogspot.com/
U of Akron - http://blogs.uakron.edu/itmasters
* U of Cincinnati - http://fleeptuque.com/
Ohio University Libraries - http://libraryvoice.com/
Women & higher ed - http://proedportal.blogspot.com/

*These two are blogging from the ODCE conference and have posted today remarks regarding Chancellor Fingerhut's keynote address.
Read Marietta Post here: Instructional Technology Resources and Musings: What the Chancelor said
Read Cincinnati Post here: Chancellor Eric Fingerhut Addresses ODCE2008

Questions:

Do Blogs have a place in Higher Education?
-- As marketing tools?
-- To facilitate distance learning?
-- As a technology class?
-- To facilitate communication within the college?

What are your thoughts?

New Training Frontiers

2008-02-17T20:52:00.005-05:00

Are you ready for Second Life? Yes, I'm sure those who have visited this website have heard all the puns..."I'm having trouble with my first life, how can I handle a second one?" But are you ready to consider a virtual world to reach your next group of customers?

I first became aware of Second Life as an outreach of Ohio University. Muriel Ballou and Christopher Keesey will be presenting at the OCHEA conference in March on Ohio University without Boundaries. They are slated to discuss the January launch of their "3-dimensional virtual campus."

So what is Second Life? A virtual world is the easiest way to summarize it. For fun, my sister in law and I set up profiles in Second Life and started our virtual journey. Although I realize we have a lot to learn on the application, we did have a good deal of fun setting up our avatars and talking to people from different countries.

By the way, if you want to stop and say "hi", just look for me....Nascar Dumpling! Currently I am visiting Education Island and am learning about the various educational opportunities available.

Are you working in Second Life or another virtual world? How might you use this as an educational model?

Microsoft in the News

2008-02-03T14:58:00.000-05:00

According to an article in Computerworld the SP1 for Vista is due to release Monday, February 4. The topics addressed by the service pack include issues of security, performance and reliability. The service pack will first be available in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. Other language releases will follow later.

Also recently announced is Microsoft's bid to purchase Yahoo. According to a recent article in Computerworld, concerns are being raised in regards to privacy. Concerns center around too much private information being consolidated into one entity. Whereas Microsoft is looking to better compete in the online application world with Google.

Questions:

1. With the release of SP1 will more companies initiate a conversion to Vista? Or will they wait for the next version of Windows?

2. Microsoft and Yahoo under one roof....good idea or bad?

Cloud Computing

2008-01-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

At the EON Fall Convention, there were two sessions where the subject of “Cloud Computing” was talked about . . . In our IT Roundtable and the Computing In a Cloud session. This has been a hot topic. (To some this is old news . . . read ahead). But news continues to be reported about companies integrating and pushing this technology.
What is “Cloud Computing”? Cloud computing is the concept of using “remote services instead of users’ PCs to run programs and services. “ “A cloud is made up of machines that host a variety of applications that users access remotely via the internet. Cloud computing supports a wider range of applications as they be hosted virtually and distributed across the cluster of computers – the “cloud.””1
Wikipedia’s Definition is: “Cloud computing is a popular phrase that is shorthand for applications that were developed to be rich Internet applications that run on the Internet (or "cloud"). In the cloud computing paradigm, software that is traditionally installed on personal computers is shifted or extended to be accessible via the Internet. These "cloud applications" or "cloud apps" utilize massive data centers and powerful servers that host web applications and web services. They can be accessed by anyone with a suitable Internet connection and a standard web browser.
Ok, so we had the mainframe, then those became out of style. So then comes the PC which seemed to answer so many people’s prayers. “The desktop was the data center.” And now we are going to the “Cloud” which in my book looks very similar to the Mainframe but on a much bigger scale and web based. Now all the PCs are still there but they will have less and less to do.
Google and IBM just announced that they have joined forces to promote “cloud computing” in the education realm. The two technology giants will contribute up to $25 million to build data centers that can be used by university researchers and students in the US. “The two companies have dedicated a large cluster of several hundred computers (Google machines and IBM BladeCenter and systems x servers) that is planned to grow to more than 1,600 processors.”1
Chairman Eric Schmidt of Google, states “Cloud computing, has indeed succeeded the old high-performance staples: mainframes and client-server, both of which require local-area networks.” This is very much last year's news. "In this architecture, the data is mostly resident on servers 'somewhere on the Internet' and the application runs on both the 'cloud servers' and the user's browser. When you use Google Gmail, Maps, Yahoo's services, many of eBay's services, you are using this architecture." He added: "The consequence of this 'architectural shift' is the return of massive data centers."3
Massive data centers? How massive are we talking? Let’s look at Google . . . along the majestic evergreen mountains of the Northwest.
“Since Google (Schmidt) announced a plant in The Dalles, a manifestation of what he trumpets as "some of the best computer science ever performed." The facility in The Dalles is only the latest and most advanced of about two dozen Google data centers, which stretch from Silicon Valley to Dublin (yes, Ireland). All told, it's a staggering collection of hardware, whose constituent servers number 450,000, according to the lowest estimate.” It even has its own dam to power this mega complex. (“The Dalles Dam is a 1.8 gigawatt power station, and the half mile long dam is a crucial source of cheap electric power.”)
“When it's finished, the project will spread tens of thousands of servers across a few giant structures. By building its own infrastructure rather than relying on commercial data centers, Schmidt told analysts in May, Google gets "tremendous competitive advantage."
This change is as momentous as the industrial-age shift from craft production to mass manufacture, from individual workers in separate shops turning out finished products step by step to massive factories that break up production into thousands of parts and perform them simultaneously. No single computer could update millions of auctions in real time, as eBay does, and no one machine could track thousands of stock portfolios made up of offerings on all the world's exchanges, as Yahoo does. And those are, at most, terascale tasks. Scores of thousands of cheap computers working in parallel could perform petascale tasks. (Haven’t heard of Petabscale / Petabyte? See other article.) Google appears to have attained one of the holy grails of computer science: a scalable massively parallel architecture that can readily accommodate diverse software.”
WOW! This is big; however, my inner voice continues to bring up . . . Security of all this massive amounts of data . . . And do you want all of your personal data “exposed.”? Also, will people be willing to give up their PCs that house their personal information and applications? Would we want so much control over our information? For a whole different point of view on “Cloud Computing, go to http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-01/st_qa and read what Nicholas Carr, author (former Executive Editor of Harvard Business Review) thinks about the future of computing! Should we be pushing this technology!
1 www.eschoolnews.com
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
3 http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/cloudware_pr.html

Intellectual Property meet Open Source

2008-01-17T22:36:00.000-05:00

I was cruising the blogosphere tonight and saw a disturbing headline.."Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous". Oh no, not my Scrabulous! What is Scrabulous you ask? An online Scrabble-type game. I have been playing it for several years. You can play against other users, engage in chat or play against the computer. Usually I'll relax after work or maybe at lunchtime with a round or two. I hate to say this, but I have over the years played over 1500 games! I'm not the only one playing, according to the article Scrabulous "regularly racks up more than 500,000 daily users. "

"Lawyers for toy makers Hasbro and Mattel say Scrabulous infringes their copyright on the board-based word game. " This article and the corresponding blog entry do raise a good point. What separates intellectual property from ideas of Internet entrepreneurs? How long after something is released (according to the blog, Scrabble was released in 1938) before it becomes free to be modified. What are your thoughts? What are the implications?

Wanna Wiki?

2008-01-01T18:35:00.000-05:00

Have you Wiki’ed yet? If not, maybe 2008 is the year to give it a try.

Let’s take a look at what Wikis are for and then check out some resources for creating them.

Wiki is Hawaiian for “fast.” Based on Web 2.0 technology, basically a Wiki is a collection of web pages that are editable. Unlike other web pages, Wikis are not posted when they are in their final form, but rather are documents in progress. The book “Wikis for Dummies” compares a Wiki to a set of virtual index cards. With these index cards you can:

“Add new cards”
“Write on the cards”
“Link the cards”
“Sort the cards”
“Copy the cards”
"Track the changes made to the cards”

By storing the pages in a central location (either company server or a commercially hosted Wiki site) anyone can edit the pages. Additionally, the Wiki toolbox is set up to track changes and makes editing easy for almost anyone.

Eric Freeman of Disney was part of a group that used Twiki through the process of restructuring the go.com website. According to Eric “it has quickly become the central resource for ideas, notes, how to’s, specs, and brainstorming.”

To explore try:

http://twiki.org
http://pbwiki.com
http://www.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
http://www.wetpaint.com/
http://www.wikispaces.com/

Is your organization making use of a Wiki? Please share with us how you are using it and the advantages/disadvantages you have found.

Online Applications

2007-11-25T19:16:00.001-05:00

At the IT Roundtable and the Computing in the Cloud session at the EON convention discussion was held on the variety of online applications that are available. These are applications that reside in the cyberworld. What does this do for users?

1. Accessibility - You can access your application from any Internet connection

2. Storage - Documents are stored online reducing risk of local hardware failure or loss of portable media devices

3. Portability - Ability to save and use a variety of file formats

4. Sharing - Several of the applications have the ability for you to allow others to collaborate with you

Check out the following websites to get started:

http://www.zoho.com/

docs.google.com

us.ajax13.com/en/index.jsp

Have you tried these or any other online office applications? What are your opinions?

Hackers, Crackers and Unprotected Data

2007-11-14T12:54:00.000-05:00

Today on ZDnet on Ryan Naraine's Zero Day blog (http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/wp-trackback.php?p=663) is an interesting entry about lack of protection of SQL and Oracle web based databases. The entry opens "A survey by renowned database hacker David Litchfield has found a whopping 492,000 Microsoft SQL and Oracle database servers directly accessible to the Internet without firewall protection."

Your first response may be, a hacker is sharing this information, why? Actually the term hacker has taken on a new shade of meaning. Hacker can refer "to people engaged in ethical hacking...or to home computer hobbyists" while a Cracker is "a person who compromises computer security systems to gain unauthorized access." [Thank you Wikipedia for these definitions]

The article further states that Litchfield, who is the co-founder of Next Generation Security Software, ran port scans against 1,160,000 random IP addresses and found that these database servers were accessible and were not protected. Further, many of the database systems he hacked did not use the most recent versions of the software or have up to date patches installed. While all the data might not be sensitive, this illustrates a very real threat for businesses. Is your data secure? How easy is it to access your information? Litchfield was an ethical hacker doing research. He could have just as easily been a cracker looking for personal or business related information. Bottom line, make sure your data is behind a firewall and make sure you install the latest service patches and updates.

Question: do you have a horror story about out of date software?

Will You Be Ready?

2007-10-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

Windows 7. IE8. No, I am not kidding. If you like to read the techie buzz you may have heard bits and pieces about these next edition products. So what will it mean?

Windows 7 (also known as Vienna). Anticipated release in 2010. Buzz words include: Mobility, less bloated, MinWin (revamped kernel), hypervisors (allows a computer to run multiple operating systems) and more.

IE8. I found even less about this although buzz words include: web development tools, user interface customization, improved RSS & CSS support, and improved security. Anticipated release 2009.

For those who have been teaching in the industry this comes as no surprise. Many times we have heard that Microsoft is working on the next release of a product in the midst of the rollout of the current version. Some have speculated that Vista will be like Windows 2000. Many people went from 98 to XP never stopping on 2000 or {gasp} ME. You may have varying opinions on this, but one thing is certain, Microsoft has vision. They rarely release a product and sit back letting the world pass them by. They are always looking toward the future, trying to lead the pack rather than follow it.

A few links of interest:
http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/windows_7.asp
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20071019/eric-talk-demo-windows-7-minwin/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070502-microsoft-drops-hints-about-internet-explorer-8.html
http://www.news.com/Microsoft-hints-at-general-plan-for-IE-8/2100-1012_3-6181334.html?tag=html.alert.hed

So what have you heard about the latest and greatest coming from Microsoft?

Is Internet Radio for You?

2007-10-18T14:37:00.000-04:00

Over the past few months I have been lurking on a site called Talkshoe. This Internet talkcast/Podcasting service has a wide variety of live and recorded versions of internet radio shows. People can participate via phone, computer or “shoephone." Businesses can use this low to no cost service for B2C marketing, to record product information, for customer testimonials, user groups and more. Our workforce development divisions might consider this another tool in their distance learning arsenal. One of my favorite shows is “Networking on the Chin.” This is a production by one of our instructors. Check out this interesting site at http://www.talkshoe.com/. Now I will remind you, almost anyone can create and post a podcast and there are quite a variety of shows on the site…enough said.

Do you have a favorite podcast? What kind of information do you prefer to receive via Podcasting? How do you see it fitting into Workforce Development training in the future?

(Don Adams picture from http://www.tvacres.com/clothing_shoes_maxwell.htm)

Web Knowledge Required

2007-10-10T13:49:00.000-04:00

At the CIW conference that Tina and I attended, one of the speakers noted the following:

"Being web savvy is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity."

That got me thinking, how often do I reference company websites? I think about when I meet a new potential business referral. After checking their name on their business card I immediately look for an email address and a website. When I am considering doing business with a company I Google them to see if they have a site. Why? Well what I see when I get to their site tells me a great deal about the company. From navigating their site I can get a pretty good feel for the size of the company, their investment in technology (both in time and dollars), number of locations, are they a franchise, corporation or locally owned, what is their knowledge of the web, and more. Finding a well thought out website helps me to feel more secure about the permanence of the company. My thought is if they took the time to develop a user friendly, professional site, they must be an established company or one that expects to be around for awhile.

So today's questions are: have you ever done business or not done business with someone simply from what you saw on their website? What you consider to be a well put together website? (give us the link so we can check it out)

Our last thought for the day: If your website is some people's first impression of you, what do they see?

Web Certification

2007-10-01T23:31:00.000-04:00

Tina and I recently returned from the national CIW conference in Destin, Florida. CIW stands for Certified Internet Webmaster and is a multi-track certification program for students who desire to become web designers/administrators, etc. The program is offered through ComputerPrep and is a vendor-neutral certification. We had the opportunity to network with educators at various levels including high school teachers, community college instructors and state department of education officials. We do see potential for this program in Ohio and plan to bring you more information on it in the months to come. In the meantime, if your campus is offering this program please respond here. Please share whether it is offered under Workforce or as a credit program and other impressions you have of the program. Thank you for your input.

Marketing your Blog

2007-09-18T08:31:00.000-04:00

Technorati Profile
I came across a site called Technorati the other day (http://technorati.com). This website is an interesting place to come and learn more about the variety of topics that are discussed in blogs. Through this site you are able to search for blogs on many different topics. Have you already found blogs that you enjoy reading? You can create a profile on the site and mark your blogs and have one central location to come to and view all your favorites at once. For blog authors, this is a place to help drive traffic to your blogs. Upon creating a profile, you can "claim" your blogs and they will be listed in the blog index. This site is basically a virtual yellow pages of blog sites. It is an affordable way to potentially increase the number of visitors to your site. However, remember, that in order to get visitors to your site, the content must be interesting, relevant and updated regularly.

First "Test" Post

2007-07-16T22:53:00.000-04:00

This is the first test post for our new blog. Tell me what you think.