Girls In Tech

We all know that kids (and those who are kids at heart!)  follow the lead of their peers and favorite stars when connecting through social networks. (Witness, the outlandishly successful Twitter followings of those like Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber, Charlie Sheen and Alyssa Milano.)  But, that’s why country music’s 17-yr. old phenom, Jordyn Shellhart, has taken on as a personal project that she is passionate about —  joining forces with Yoursphere.com to champion a proactive approach to connecting with her fans in a safe, age-appropriate online environment.  For all of us out there with nieces, nephews, or children of our own, this should be greatly appreciated.

Jordyn’s enthusiastic youth fan base will add their voices to hers on Yoursphere’s tweens & teens-only social network. The site, hailed by cybercrime experts for its rigorous, proprietary approach to protecting kids, provides Shellhart and others a unique and secure platform to interact with young fans through their own “spheres.” For example, the “Songwriter Kids Camp Sphere” will expand on Jordyn’s personal passion for original music composition.

Jordyn claims: “Writing music is such a huge part of my life and being able to express myself quite honestly has helped pull me through some pretty difficult times. I hope to encourage this avenue of expression in others…on Yoursphere.com.”

With their proactive focus on privacy and safety, Yoursphere.com provides an online destination with a rich array of features for kids and teens to enjoy all in one place:  the social aspect, contests, rewards, their own avatar in a virtual world, a scholarship and philanthropy program, and hundreds of games.  Free and premium memberships are available, and offer an ideal place for ‘tweens & teens to hang out together this summer… and beyond.

You can read more about Yoursphere on their website, here.  Kudos to Jordyn for expressing her artistic roots, while also taking a responsible view of herself as role model to all her brilliant, young fans.

(photo credit: jordynshellhart.com)

Tags: Jordyn Shellhart, social networks, Yoursphere, youth
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You can never be too careful about what you post on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks.

A recent survey by California-based data security company Proofpoint found that 20% of the companies surveyed had investigated whether confidential company information had been exposed on a social networking site (including Facebook, MySpace and Linkedin) during the past twelve months (up from 12% over the last two years).  In addition, 20% of the companiessurveyed haddisciplined an employee for violations of company social network use policies (up from 10% in 2009) and 7% reported that they had terminated an employee for violating such policies.

It’s no secret that companies are also monitoring employees’ social network accounts and tweets more frequently than in the past to determine everything from whether employees’ online conduct might be harming the company’s public image to whether employees are lying about being out sick.

Here’s a roundup of some recent cautionary tales that have hit the news:

• A Connecticut school superintendent was fired after posting inappropriate status updates to his Facebook page during his first few days on the job.  The postings, which cost him his $150,000-a-year job, included: a comment that he slept in until 10:00 a.m. on his first day of work and that it would be “the best job ever” if that happened every day; and “counseling an administrator to retire or face termination. : )”.  (Reported by several Connecticut news outlets, including: www.necn.com and www.ctnow.com)

• Five nurses were fired from a hospital in Oceanside, California after they were caught discussing patient information on Facebook (causing concerns about HIPPA violations).  They were fired despite that fact they did not post any patient names, pictures, or other identifying information. (Reported by several San Diego news outlets, including: www.nbcsandiego.com and www.signonsandiego.com)

• An employee at a European insurance company was fired after her employer discovered she was actively using Facebook after she had requested leave, saying that she felt ill and needed to rest away from her computer.   (Reported by the Economic Times)

Maybe the above examples sound like something you would never do, but people have been fired for things far less obvious.  The new Facebook group “Fired Because of Facebook” has created a forum for employees to share their woes.  These incidents may not have made the news, but they are definitely anecdotes that people should read.

Meredith Davis Williams is an employment law attorney at Miller | Williams LLP in Los Angeles and can be reached at (213) 426-2144, mwilliams@millerwilliamslaw.com, or @MerEsqLA.

Tags: facebook, Fired Because of Facebook, Fired over Facebook, girls in tech, linkedin, Los Angeles, Meredith D Williams, social media, social networks, twitter, Using Social Networks at Work
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | 1 Comment »

Girls in Tech was on the scene yesterday as Virtual Goods Summit 2009 kicked off with VGS University.  Hundreds of people came out to the half day seminar to learn from case studies and presentations by Linden Lab, Mochi Media, IMVU, Gaia Online, Ning, Viximo, Shufflebrain and others.

The afternoon panel on the Payments Landscape featuring SuperRewards, TrialPay, BOKU, PlaySpan, and ORCA garnered a packed ballroom.  Charles Hudson, host of VGS09, moderated the panel and asked whether it’s a good or bad thing that the payments space is so chockfull of players.  Not surprisingly, the panel thought it was a good thing – and that it speaks to the vast potential opportunity for virtual goods in games.  They also agreed that the need for payment solution providers is high since payments are complex, requiring relationships with often hundreds of banks and wireless carriers if you take into account the international landscape.  Then there’s the sticky issue of fraud and security.  Finally, there’s scale of economies, and the idea that a game producer should concentrate on making great games instead of getting caught up with building a payment solution.  Overall, more payment providers means more choice for game publishers, and more pressure for payment providers to deliver better products and customer service.

The panel shared the following statistics: For free to play games on social networks, virtual goods conversion for those who actually pay is 3-4%. This of course varies depending on the virality and engagement quality of the game.  Lex Bayer from PlaySpan suggested that for each daily active user associated with a game on a social network, there is ten dollars of annual revenue potential.  Therefore, if you have five million DAU’s your potential revenue is $50 million in annual revenue.  Not shabby.

Big revenue potential and a young market makes for great energy, an eagerness for learning, sharing, and collaborating, with a good measure of competition and creativity thrown in.  This is going to be one good summit.  Join us today for part two of the third annual Virtual Goods Summit taking place today at the Westin in downtown San Francisco.  And stick around for the after party that Girls in Tech is co-hosting with Offerpal at Harlot nightclub!

Tags: Charles Hudson, Games, Lindin Lab, Mochi Media, Ning, social networks, Super Rewards, Tina Tran, TrialPay, Virtual Currency, Virtual Good Summit, Virutal Payments
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What an irony: With the 20th year milestone celebration of the Berlin Wall’s fall, the building of virtual walls and putting employees behind an iron curtain appears to be gaining ground. The Iron Fist approach to monitoring and removing communication rights seems to be a bit ironic in pro-capitalistic settings.

A recent study by the Morse Consulting firm reveals that UK employees spend about 4O minutes a week Tweeting. The firm concluded that this lost time is the equivalent of $2.39-billion of lost productivity. Not only do reports like this support the idea of enterprises shutting down access to information, they can potentially kill creative marketing opportunities. I imagine that similar data was the catalyst behind McCain’s support of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009.

So how about using the free market and simply changing with the times? John Sviokla of Diamond Management Consultants pointed out at Net Week’s Fourth Annual IT Directors’ Forum that getting rid of social networking could be a huge mistake for companies. To use his words, “incredible opportunities” may be overlooked. Instead of building walls via proxy blockers, citing Metcalfe’s Law, enterprises can use social networking not only to build their value, but for learning and experimenting.

So, how can enterprises capitalize on their Tweeting twits?

• As the Brits once practiced “teatime,” maybe it is time to change that to a more relevant slogan: Twitter Time (TT). TT could replace the American lunchtime. There is profit to be made—not walls to be built.

• Businesses could revamp their cafeterias with netbook docks and give a new meaning to “Internet cafes”. Employees might opt to stay onsite—saving time lost travelling to various eateries. In the long run, this may save a company money.

• From the learning aspect, I know firsthand that I had the most successful interaction from my middle and high school IT students when I decided to meet them where they congregate—Facebook. Instead of choosing to reprimand them for being engaged in social networking, I chose to meet them in their territory and teach them there. In terms of engagement and learning, I had over an 80% performance towards product completion. Not surprisingly, my stats didn’t stop the proxy wall from going up!

• Give employees something to talk about—content, content, content.

• Create a new IT position that specializes in providing interesting information that can draw the attention of your company employees and their followers—good test to see who is reading what.
• Post new content at the time of day that coincides with lunch.

• Build that database!

• Increase the company database by pulling in friends of employees to an informative company community that provides compelling content. Companies never know when a particular type of talent may be needed, so having a ready pool of individuals with similar interest can build brand awareness and improved image management for a company.

Hmmm. In the end, I have to wonder what former President Reagan would have said to businesses that seek to build walls to communication: Mrs. CIO, tear down this firewall!

Tags: Berlin Wall, GIT, IT Directors' Forum, Netweek, Reagan, social networks, tear down this wall, Twits, twitter
Posted in Athens Greece | No Comments »

As the holidays are fully under way with parties, sending out holiday cards, and exchanging gifts, the same spirit can be found in the world of social networks.

Hi5, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing social networks, launches it’s International Virtual Gifts Store. Initially the store will offer an assortment of 36 virtual gifts representing a variety of the world’s customs and cultures. This will give users a chance to celebrate their culture with their family and friends.

Some of the gifts that will be available are a virtual ‘Rosca’, which is a Mexican cake that is traditionally eaten on January 6th for the celebration of the ‘Three Kings Day’.  Also a dreidel, which is a very popular toy for children celebrating the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. As well as many other ornaments and symbols from a variety of cultures around the world.

This is a great way to highlight and celebrate the diversity of the Hi5 user base. Happy Holidays! Felices Fiestas! Chag Sameach!

Tags: "Lucia Giacomantonio", Adriana Gascoigne, celebrate, culture, dreidel, gifts, giving, hi5, holidays, Los Angeles, Robyn Cohen, rosca, San Francisco, season, social networks, Virtual Currency, Virtual Gifts, Virtual Goods, Virtual Worlds, world
Posted in Los Angeles | 1 Comment »