Electric Blogger

Social Media Best Practices: Corporate Charter, Governance, and Polices and Procedures

2011-02-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

Social media is being quickly adopted by many large corporate companies, and some are diving in head first into the pool without properly analyzing their social media strategies and requirements, staff abilities, or the legalities of social media. The corporate landscape is littered with false starts, miss-steps, and missed opportunities, as some companies just open the floodgates and let each business unit independently develop multiple social media channels, and messaging standards ranging from professional to flat out juvenile. Unfortunately it’s not the professional messages that get all the attention, it’s the faux pas that become infamous, including spelling and grammar mistakes, flaming messages, poor branding, or indifference to customer issues.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, as there are cost effective ways to implement back social media governance rules, and there are some great on-line resources and examples, which can help you get started.

Like any traditional communication methodology, there are rules and governance put in place to prevent a wide range of messaging mistakes from ever seeing the light of day, and negatively affecting a companies brand. One of the key rules for any company getting into social media, or repairing the damage from a false start, is to pull back and centralize the governance of social media. Typically the governance of social media messaging, or PR and Marketing, is put into the hands of professional marketing and communication experts.

I have written social media charters, governance, and policies and procedures for two large Canadian companies, TVCogeco and MCAP Service Corp, and have worked closely with their executive teams to build a tangible social media charter. I have also written scaled back polices and procedures for smaller companies, and in my experience these policies and procedures are an important part of communication (PR), legal, and HR methodologies to reach out to the stake-holders. Policies and procedures are absolutely critical for regulated industries, and this management process should be centrally governed to start, and only when the organization is comfortable with their grasp of social media can they move to a more decentralized model, such as Hub and Spoke (see the diagram below).

But policies and procedures are just part of the overall social media corporate charter and governance that should be analyzed and put in place before a small, medium or large organization starts using social media channels for the PR and Marketing, sales, or customer feedback. A standard social media corporate charter would include detailed mandates for the following areas:
1) Corporate social media goals, strategies, and tactics (short, mid and long term), divided into primary and secondary
2) Social Media PR and Marketing strategies and tactics to leverage the corporate mandate
3) SWOT and identifying the target demographic
4) Executive and management support mandates
5) Staff and business unit involvement and feedback
6) SEO/SEM/SMM integrated methodologies
7) Measurements of Success and ROI (Cost reductions on PR and Marketing)
8) Social media analytics from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google
9) Social media models: Conversion, engagement, feedback, viral messaging, retention, collaboration, and sharing
10) Traffic and Distribution through syndication, links, email, key influencers, partners, and SEO/SEM
11) Social media advertising
12) Resources, daily maintenance and operations
13) Social media resources, education and training
14) Best practices, quick guides, and widgets, tools and services for managing social media
15) Continuous social media review and experimentation: Mobile integration, Foursquare, geo-location, real-time analytics, QR codes

Social media policies and procedures goes well beyond messaging governance, and should cover the following areas:
1) Define social media: Explain to your staff what constitutes social media
2) Define acceptable social media channels
3) Content ownership
4) Developing social media content, including workflow processes (helps avoid spelling, grammar and broken link issues)
5) Escalation process processes (disaster)
6) Roles and responsibilities
7) Privacy rights
8) Management of social media
9) Three R’s of Social Media Engagement
10) Social Media Engagement for Business Purposes
11) Rules for Employee Participation in Social Media
12) Disclaimers and Disclosures
13) Social Media Topics and Content (Acceptable and Taboo)
14) Deleting content
15) Suspending or Deleting a Users Account
16) Legal and HR audit processes
17) Monitor the Social Media Conversation

If you would like more information on analyzing, developing, deploying and maintaining your corporate social media strategies, and integrated Social Media PR and marketing campaigns, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com

Social Media Traffic, Quantity or Quality?

2010-11-22T05:02:00.001-08:00

How important is high quality social media traffic? Over the past couple of years I have been involved in several Web 2.0 Social Media PR and Marketing campaigns, which have similarities to Web 1.0 campaigns. Traditional web marketing campaigns rely on a large number of people being funneled through a URL to view an ad or web page, to support a conversion model. The goal is that if enough people view the ad, or content, that this sheer traffic volume will translate into conversion (revenue, brand awareness, etc). Using industry standard analytics you then try to answer business questions, such as, did you sell more product or services during the campaign time-period, or is the target audience aware of our brand?

Effective social media advertising requires a different approach, since raw numbers can be meaningless, and can skew or distort the analytics, and return a false positive. For example, if your conversion model is designed to build a fan base in Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which in turn is routed to your web site to generate traffic, you may discover that even though your fan and traffic numbers have increased, this did not result in additional sales of your services or products, or conversion of the traffic. This is a result of relying on traffic volume to overcome a poorly executed traffic and distribution plan, which was not properly filtered through a targeted and geo-located demographic traffic sourcing model. Or possibly, weak business models, which do not encourage or motivate your audience to go the “Next Step”, through incentive promotions, such as, contests or coupons.

Web 2.0 Social Media PR and Marketing campaigns require high quality traffic, not quantity, which will have a positive impact on your business goals and measurements of success, resulting in a great ROI, and supports your conversion models. In order to improve the probability of success of your Web 2.0 Social Media PR and Marketing campaign, and develop high quality traffic, you will need to establish your business goals, and answer one question: What are you trying to achieve?

Business goals, which support high quality social media traffic:
1) Conversion: Encouraging your fans to do something. Contact you, sign-up for a services, purchase a product, or join a conversation?
2) Revenue: Did your social media campaign add to the bottom line, and do your analytic models clearly indicate this? For example, when you run a social media campaign for one week, your promoted product or service revenue increases by 5% to 10%.
3) Targeted crowd sourcing: Finding and validating your geo-located demographic traffic sources. This is gold standard to continuous quality traffic growth.
4) Engagement: Illicit feedback from your fans and followers. Did they comment, rate, share, or Like your content?
5) Awareness: Promote your brand and products. Do fans recognize your brand and read your PR articles? Do they share and Like your content?
6) Retention: Increase the length of a visit, and number of visits and page views. Did you increase the page views and fan visit time? What was the bounce rate? How often do fans return?
7) Key Influencers: Gather influential fans and followers who can help spread your message. Did you gather any influencers or partners who are sharing your message?
8) Viral Sharing: Encourage your fans to virally your content. Did your fans share your content? How much and with who? What motivates them to share?
9) Content and Message: Well written quality content and messages with proper SEO will support all the previous business goals.

Your Web 2.0 strategies and tactics, which drive quality social media traffic, should stem from your business goals, and should be supported with viable tactics and measurements of success. Building high quality social media traffic and the associated supporting business strategies and goals can take months, and is something every company should strive for, constantly maintain, and invest in. But, this effort is worthwhile, and should not be dismissed for mass volume traffic solutions, which deliver the traffic, but not the results. As well, exploring new social media technology to help improve connecting and engaging with the target audience.

If you would like more information on analyzing, developing, deploying and maintaining your corporate social media business models, and Web 2.0 PR and Marketing strategies, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com

Should Employees have Personal Social Media Brands?

2010-09-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

This question was asked on the Sticky Branding LinkedIn group, which I am a member. Great question. And here is my response:

In my experience helping a range of profit and non-profit companies with their Web 2।0 initiatives, personal branding is quickly becoming a norm for some companies as it helps put a human touch on the communication। Most companies, though, opt out for a nameless “corporate avatar” to represent the company interests on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc। This still enables the company to have representation, but with a buffer, and allows multiple people to respond depending on the communication required. Others let the C-level executives Tweet and interact with the social media crowd.

Policies and procedures (best practices), have to be established if staff are to post on Twitter and Facebook, and I have seen people fired for saying the wrong thing. Other dangers include, staff losing themselves in the social media channels and not getting their primary jobs done. I have also seen this, and it can be a huge time killer, and quite frankly annoying when you have to work with these individuals, who are constantly distracted by their wide range of Twitter and Facebook channels. Some companies are absolutely terrified with social media, by regulatory and legal, but also because they do not think it fits with their corporate strategy, and are essentially transfixed like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

These days, it can be an advantage to have your own personal business brand on-line, as you can show the potential employer that you clearly understand crowd sourcing, as long as the conversations are meaningful. But employers should not confuse size of Twitter and Facebook following with value. Social media messaging is about quality, not quantity, and bragging to a potential employer that you are a social media expert, without understanding their needs, or having proven success under your belt, may lead to a lot of eye rolling.

Unfortunately, not everyone can represent the companies best interests in a public facing social media channel, and the damage that can be unleashed can result in a wide range of headaches. Most staff are used to instant messaging, communicating with their close friends on Twitter and Facebook, but do not have a formal education or experience in PR, marketing, journalism, or communications, and as such, are not well suited to represent a company on any social media channel. Personally, I think corporate social media should be left in the hands of sales and marketing, public relations, and HR, as they are best suited to deal with outbound customer communications, which may impact the company.

Now having said that, I do believe that deploying private social media channels for staff to collaborate and interact, is critical to foster new ideas, and improve processes and communication. I have seen this process in action at TVCogeco, and it worked very well for their station staff and volunteers. As well, I am helping several clients set up private and public social media channels for pharmacists, and for the Government of Ontario for professional collaboration, which will be strictly regulated, not only by corporate policy, but by government regulations. Private social media networks seem to be a viable trend with private and government organizations, and will allow individuals to foster their own personal brand in a controlled social media setting.

Typically, what I have found most effective with social media messaging for staff, is that the corporations and staff understand the following:

Legal and social implications of corporate social media messaging
Policies and procedures and best practices, follow the 3 R’s for all staff social media communication with the customer: Respect, Representation, and Responsibility
Have a dedicated F/T or P/T body in place, who has the proven experience and education to take the lead and manage social media messaging
All the staff, indirectly and directly, involved in social media are trained properly in social media concepts and governance, and have a series of quick guides for them (daily messaging, Twitter guide, Facebook guide, etc)
The social media models deployed should support corporate strategies and goals, have ROI and measurements of success
Develop a strategy and tactics plan for staff who will represent themselves personally on corporate social media channels
Start slow, with a few social media models, which support the corporate strategies and goals, prove them, then expand at a reasonable pace, experiment, modify, and maintain. Do not try an boil the ocean with social media models
Establish measurements of success and gather the relevant social analytics
Document everything for future use and analysis
Expect some failure and have mitigation

If you would like more information on analyzing, developing, deploying and maintaining your corporate social media channels, and integrated Web 2.0 PR and marketing, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com

Keeping Social Media Real Simple

2010-08-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

Keeping Social Media Real Simple

Some of my clients are getting overwhelmed with the range of social media models and channels, which are available to help them engage with their target audience, and drive traffic and revenue, as each channel fights for market space and claims to be the ideal social medium. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, DIGG, Delicious, Blogs, Foursquare, YouTube, and the ever expanding universe of channels, categories of tools and services, and analytic tools, of which there are way too many to mention.

See a glimpse of the social media universe here: http://bit.ly/bVrqyE

and here: http://bit.ly/cQg20z

300 channels and counting, and so many different categories and uses. Scary isn’t it?

In this case, the social medium is not a very good message, it is a confusing mess, as clearly you cannot use all of these social media channels and methodologies and expect anything that remotely resembles success. I tell my clients to step back from the social media fray, analyze and pick a few popular channels, which support their strategies and goals, and leave the rest until their KPI’s or measurements of success are achieved. Only when they are comfortable with the results should they move ahead and pick a few more social media channels and models to deploy. The deployment should be done in measured steps, do not follow the hype, and above all, trust your analysis and strategy.

What many new media marketers, and social media mavens forget, is that most business people are maxed out in the current economic environment, barely have time to get the job at hand done, let alone think about the latest social media craze, or new Facebook or Twitter feature. They are traditionalists who understand conventional marketing concepts and values, and all they care about is reach and exposure to improve the the ROI for their content, product, or service they offer.

Over the last several years, I have developed a series of guidelines to help me quickly explain the benefits of social media to my clients:

Although tempting, do not inundate your client with your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogging and LinkedIn prowess
Start simple and show a couple of tangible examples of social media (i.e. Mr. Obama’s Facebook site, which effectively connects him with his stakeholders)
Forget the social media jargon, leave that for L8R, discuss social media in traditional marketing terms (ROI, KPI’s, reach, analysis, strategy, etc)
Start with the most popular and proven social media channels to get the biggest bang for the buck
Show demographic usage of the most popular social media channels (i.e. 5.5 million Facebook users in Ontario, Canada. Big WOW factor, and WOW is not World of Warcraft, WOW = wow)
Define the measurements of success, ROI, and KPI’s should be attached to all social media models
Develop a simple plan for deploying social media channels and models, with integrated traditional media, which support your clients current business strategies and goals
Be respectful of the client resources required to help analyze, deploy and maintain social media PR and Marketing
Like traditional media, explain that social media requires continuous experimentation, maintenance and modification, new campaigns, new channels, etc
Analytics will prove whether a social media channel is successful or a waste of time, but you can run small quick tests to test a model

Following these guidelines will help you manage your social media initiatives and keep the various participating teams in check to ensure your social media projects do not spin out of control and turn into a time vampires.

If you would like more information on analyzing, developing, deploying and maintaining your corporate social media channels, and integrated Web 2.0 PR and marketing, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com

Great Article by Odessa for the Drug Abuse YAC site

2010-08-24T05:57:00.000-07:00

What if my parents do drugs?
By Odessa on August 1, 2010

Parents play a huge role in the proper development of a child’s life, they help guide their children in the right direction, and act as the role model for their children. Because of the significant influence a parent has on their children, the parent’s behavior and habits tend to be passed on to their children because their children believe this is normal and acceptable behavior. As a result, if a parent uses drugs recreationally, the likelihood of their children using drugs in the future is increased.

Although every child has an option and choice to use drugs, the fact that their parents use drugs gives them the impression that it is okay to do drugs as well, especially when it is the only family environment they know. Although this circumstance looks bad, children always have the opportunity to improve the situation by hanging out with friends who have a strong family support system, and by taking part in extra curricular activities, they can avoid the pressure and influence of their parents poor decisions.

To read more, go here: What if my parents do drugs?

Successful Social Media Strategies

2010-06-23T18:24:00.001-07:00

Over the past six months I have been analyzing, developing, deploying, and helping maintain integrated Web 2.0 PR and Marketing campaigns for several B2B and B2C clients, ranging from local television, IT recruitment, non-profit, and regulatory. For some of these clients it was the their first attempt at deploying social media models, but for most, they had already deployed their social media plan and now they were trying to improve and refine their Web 2.0 strategy.

TVCogeco integrated social media channels: Portal community, Facebook, and Twitter

These projects had several common themes. First, a requirement for the analysis and integration of the strategical business goals with the Web 2.0 strategies. Second, the B2B and B2C clients all wanted to use social media channels to increase traffic and distribution, to extend their brand and message, and drive traffic back to a community portal. And lastly, they wanted to deploy processes, polices and procedures, and operational guidance, to help maintain their social media strategies.

Too often companies explore social media through baptism by fire, trying to deploy social media channels, models, and concepts without doing the proper analysis and ROI study. This initial effort can be compromised with insufficient resources to manage the social media analysis and deployment, and integrated PR and marketing, resulting in poor branding, messaging, traffic, abandoned social media channels, and the impression that social media is not yet ready for prime time. Or worse, discouraging staff and leaving them with the impression that the company does not take social media seriously.

Part of my job with each client was to find their social media balance between resources, business strategies and goals, processes and operations, and integration with their existing web community, technologies (RSS, SMS, rich media, immersive media), tools and services (forums, comments, ratings), and traditional media (print, radio, TV). In other words, I help companies find and deploy their social media recipe for success. Of course there are other variables involved in the social media analysis, but these were the critical items.

Social media is a powerful PR and marketing tool when deployed properly, and there are over 280 channels and usually limited corporate resources to mange the messaging, so you have to pick your channels carefully to achieve a reasonable ROI. As well, social media concepts are changing rapidly with new ideas and channels appearing on a monthly, if not weekly basis, so you constantly have to be plugged into the new media info stream to monitor these emerging concepts.

Council on Drug Abuse integrated social media channels: Portal community, Facebook, and Twitter

But it doesn't have to be complex to implement social media models, and here are 10 steps you can take to speed up the process of analyzing, developing, and integrating social media into your PR and marketing plan. This involves following some proven processes, measuring the result, and maintaining the social media PR and marketing over an extended period of time to gather useful analytics. In turn, this will justify the effort and clearly illustrate which social media channels/models are returning the biggest bang for the buck. As well, social media does not have to be an expensive endeavor as you can stick with the big four proven channels (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn), and analyze and deploy them one at a time, before you explore the complete range of integrated social media channels and models.

10 Step Social Media Set-Up Guide:
1) Establish a social media strategy, with defined goals, tactics, and measurements of success, and clearly define what are you trying to achieve with social media (SEO/SEM/SMM, Traffic and Distribution, Feedback, Engagement, Conversion, Retention, Viral, Key Influencers, target audience, etc)
2) Ensure that the social media strategies support the corporate goals (SWOT, ROI, target audience, traditional PR and marketing, sales, branding, analytics, etc)
3) Pick no more than 3 or 4 social media channels for your PR and Marketing campaign (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, DIGG, blogs, etc)
4) Integrate your social media campaign tactics with your traditional campaign, and integrate the social media channels (automated and manual systems, Google Adsense, Facebook ads, email blasts, etc)
5) Deploy your integrated social media campaign in clearly defined stages, and tactics, to help with analysis. Find and engage with your audience, listen to what your audience is saying, respond to their concerns, and provide quality content and value
6) Assign an internal social media leader who will take charge and assist with the training and knowledge transfer
7) Document your social media processes (messaging structure, viral messaging, channel usage, brand standards, best practices, policies and procedures, guidance, operations)
8) Establish short, medium and long term goals, and define your measurements of success, and analytics/metrics (PR/Marketing, traffic and distribution, revenue, awareness, reach, engagement, etc)
9) Maintain your social media campaign throughout the year, and use social media tools and services (Hootsuite, TweetDeck, blogs, forums RSS, SMS, email) to help manage the messaging, format, and processes
10) Review weekly/monthly social media analytics (Google analytics, Facebook Insight, Twitter Analyzer) to confirm your measurements of success, and continually improve your SM strategy and models

And of course, no social media guide would be complete without a list of great resource sites:
1) Mashable: http://www.mashable.com
2) SEO Chicks: http://www.seo-chicks.com
3) Social Media Examiner http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com
4) Twitter Tips: http://www.twitip.com"
5) Twitter Tools: http://http://www.oneforty.com" and http://http://www.twitdom.com"
6) Think Geek: http://http://www.thinkgeek.com"

This is a compressed Social Media Strategy Set-Up Guide, and the details are missing, but it will get you started on the path to successfully integrating social media channels into your existing PR and Marketing plan. If you would like more information on analyzing, developing, deploying and maintaining your corporate social media channels, and integrated Web 2.0 PR and marketing, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com

Biking in Cuba

2010-03-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

I had a great vacation in Cuba, which included a lot of biking on the Varadero strip and across to Matanzas. The roads in Varaderno are fantastic, very well maintained, with no pot holes and the topography is very flat, which is good for my out of shape winter legs.

In the past I have biked in Jibacoa where the roads are a lot more scenic and hilly, but are in terrible shape. Essentially the roads around Jibacoa are full of pot holes, deep ruts, broken pavement, and some hills are slick with oil from burst car crank cases. My average per km speed in Jibacoa was 31km/hr due to the road conditions, and I could not really get into an aero position due to the bumpy ride.

This trip the weather was also pretty good in the 18°C to 24°C range, but the winds were pretty high some days with a sustained 50km/hr side breeze. Good thing I brought along my wire front wheel. For the most part though, I rode my 3-blade carbon Nimbles and they performed very well.

Due to the direct sun, being so close to the equator, I drank a lot of electrolytes enhanced with sodium, which is highly recommended as you can quickly suffer from dehydration. Also, I learned a hard lesson with spare tubulars, which I typically only carry one. On my second ride I flated out within 10km due to a direct rock strike on my Conti Podium 19mm front tire. I then decided to extend my ride through the town of Varadero and when I turned around to head back to the resort I must have hit some glass, as the back tire deflated pretty fast and with that wonderful "Pffffft" sound.

Having no spare left, I walked over to a traffic cop who politely called a cab for me. For my last two rides I carried two spares, and of course did not flat out again.

The Cubans are indifferent to tourist cyclists, and stay out of the way, but occasionally they would stand to close to the road as they were trying to hail a ride from passing vehicles, and I would have to swerve out of the way.

My rides varied in distance from 40km to 65 km with and average speed of 35km/hr, which is not bad for my winter legs. Here is a shot of me getting ready to leave for another ride.

And here are some shots from my ride to Matanzas, which is a ocean side ride all the way into Matanzas with gently sweeping roads and a fantastic view of the ocean. Traffic is very light on the highway, which has cars flying by at speeds between 50km/hr to 120km/hr, and for the most part they give you a wide berth.

The turn around point about 10km from Matanzas:

The return ride passes through a toll booth with a rather picturesque view of the ocean.

And a great shot of a the crashing waves.

Hard Lessons from from the Software Legal Side, Part 2

2010-02-05T04:01:00.001-08:00

Continuing on from Hard Lessons from from the Software Legal Side, Part 1, the Pre-Trial Mediation is a critical stage, which allows you to gauge the willingness of the defendant to be fair and reasonable.

Pre-Trial mediation is such a fun process as you soon realize that "fair and reasonable", are terms devoid from the defendants vocabulary (and this is why you are in court). You get to sit at a table with the good folks who ripped you off, and listen to them lie, threaten you, and act like their behavior is perfectly acceptable. Unfortunately nothing said in mediation can be used in a court of law, so the inhibitions drop like a lawyer who has consumed 12 beers, and what follows is a bit of joke.

The goal in mediation is to avoid a trial and try to come to an agreeable settlement. Sometimes this may work, but most of the time the defendant will use this opportunity to try an intimidate the plaintiff (you). In some cases the defendant may go so far as to claim they will counter sue you. An offer may be made, but typically it will be far below your acceptable limit.

So, keep your cool, do not lose your temper and just let the defendants spout on like clowns, as the fond memories of their inane comments will become the basis for much laughter after the trial. The pre-trial judge will then ask you if you would like to proceed or accept their terms for settlement. Provided you have solid proof supporting your case, do not back down and proceed with a trial.

Now comes the trial preparation, which is complex and time consuming, but can be very rewarding. Be sure to review your claim very carefully and have it committed to memory. All your supporting documentation should be neatly divided into folders of relevant information, with yellow post-it-notes on key items to support your claim. Oh, and be sure to bring extra Post-It-Notes for the judge, which will score you additional points at the trial, as the judge usually likes to add notations to their copy of the trial submission, and those yellow stickies are so damn handy.

Prepare a list of questions you will ask the defendants in the stand, and make sure the questions are relevant and incriminating. Think very carefully about these questions and try to position them in a chronological order, or lead into another question. You will also be required to think on the fly, as the defendants may open themselves up to new questions while on the stand, and you can adjust your questioning accordingly.

Court date. This is the most stressful part. Get lot's of rest the night before, dress in suit, and be sure to address the judge with all due respect. And bring extra Post-It-Notes. Watch for part 3 in April.

Meet Ginger the Bengal Cat

2009-12-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

We finally decided to drop the hammer and get a pure bred Bengal cat. This guys is unreal, very affectionate, chirping, purring, and generally a fantastic range of vocalization, on top of lots of body rubbing and face pressing.

He has a marble pattern with lots of orange (hence the name Ginger), dark marble on the top, with spots and stripes on the underbelly.

So far he is very affectionate with my three teenagers, aged 14, 16, and 18, and he really likes my wife, which is critical, as she is not a cat person. Until today that is, as she cannot keep her hands off this guy.

I will update regularly as Ginger grows to 20 lbs, while hanging out with me in office as I work away on various Web 2.0 projects.

Confessions of a Casio Watch Freak

2009-12-02T06:38:00.001-08:00

I have been wearing Casio G-Shock watches since my University days, back in 1981, and on average they survive about 10 years with me, which is amazing as I abuse the hell out of these watches in my road bike, mountain bike, swimming, rowing, running, and weight lifting workouts. The latest G-Shock is unreal, the G-7800B, with white text on a black background, and a striking black bezel. This G-Shock is an updated version of the original, just with a range of cool features, and the standard tough resin watch band.

Here is the Casio marketing image of the G-Shock G-7800B:

Cool Stuff on the G-Shock:
- White text on a black ground
- Adjustable text contrast so the text practically jumps off the watch face
- Three small flashing LED's for the alarm setting (Think Cylon eye)
- Set alarm for weekday, weekend, day, or once
- Cool black metal bezel
- Cyan back light. Cyan is the new cool color.
- Two fonts to chose from. Funky techno-retro, and a thin font for day/date
- Adjustable day and date display
- Second world time display for over 30 cities
- Big, hard to press, metal buttons
- Day light savings time mode, which automatically adjusts for DLS

Stuff that is missing:
- Atomic clock automatic time sync
- Tough solar panel
- Titanium version
- When will colour LED be available? Red, blue, green and orange text would be very cool for each information quadrant.

Casio has some of the coolest watches on the planet with their Frogman series and Mr-G Titanium series. And yes, I have one of each of those watches too.

For $80 US, this watch is a very cool retro deal. Here is my photo of the G-Shock, and you will notice the bezel text is in black, not gray, but the screen text really jumps off the face of the watch when you set the contrast level to level 7. To find this watch on-line, just go to Amazon, which has some great prices.

Web 2.0 Social Media Musings

2009-11-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

After working on a handful of social media marketing and SEO/SEM projects over the past year, some consistent themes are emerging in my client work.

First, some SEO/SEM and social media marketing firms are claiming that their SMM/SEO/SEM techniques will put you at the top of a Google, Yahoo, or Bing search list. Well if that is the case, it’s like choosing 'firsts' with a baseball bat of infinite length. Not everyone can be first. And after some investigation, it turns out their secret sauce is nothing more than adding esoteric "words" to the "key words", which identify the content.

Secondly, companies are forgetting that traditional and classic marketing and PR methodologies must not be pushed aside, but can integrate with Web 2.0 methodologies, and that their corporate business goals and strategies should also be integrated into SMM/SEO/SEM.

And lastly, most companies underestimate the effort to maintain a social media site, not realizing that you must be constantly improving the Web 2.0 capabilities, adding new high quality content on a daily/weekly basis, seeding and joining in on the conversations, and educating your user base on the array of tools and services available to them.

Web 2.0 is not the be all and end all marketing methodology, and you can succeed with some common sense integrated marketing techniques to promote your brand and message to your targeted demographic.

Here are some guidelines to follow when analyzing and deploying Web 2.0 social media communities.

Business Goals and Strategy:
- Make sure you have business goals and strategies, which are supported by your Social Media Marketing
- Leverages these goals and strategies with multiple integrated social media channels to improve the traffic and distribution
- Protect your Brand, Message and Content. Have a brand guide for your staff to control your company image across all social media channels
- Have a Social Media Policies and Procedures guide for your staff. Not all staff know how to act in your companies best interests
- Focus your efforts on your targeted demographic, and keep it simple
Remember the user interface and user experience

Traditional Media Marketing (TMM: PR, Marketing and Communications):
- Have a plan, follow the plan, adjust the plan
- Never under estimate the power of TMM, yes that means print, snail mail, radio and TV
- Integrate SMM and TMM
- Establish partnerships and syndications

SEO/SEM:
- Have great content, including interactive and rich media
- Have great new content every day or several times a week
- Consider user generated content (iReports)
- Be topical, provocative and challenge your reader
- And yes, use relevant key words to define all your content assets
- Establish syndication and partnership relationships with relevant sources
- Use CSS, meta data, key words, and clean code

Social Media Marketing (SMM):
- Use social media channels to extend your product reach
- Use social media channels to drive traffic back to your community
- Use social media channels to communicate with your audience. Talk to them, don’t just shovel your news titles down their throat
- Don’t abuse Twitter. Some very well known Guy’s on Twitter inundate their audience with 100’s tph (Tweets per hour). Very bad form.
- Post great information on your Facebook and Twitter channels, with humorous musings, links to your content, and rich media
- Gain your audience trust with great meaningful information
- ReTweet and post relevant information from other sources. Become a good source of information, which is relevant and topical
- Encourage your audience to share your content and become ambassadors of your site, and give them the tools and knowledge to do so
- Educate your audience on your SM tools and services and how they can virally spread the word

Traffic and Distribution:
- Syndication
- Partnership
- Viral sharing
- RSS, XML, Query
- Mobile SMS
- Blogs and Forums
- Integrated social media channels

How to Stand Out:
- Be unique, develop a niche and have an angle
- Be smart, target a specific audience demographic
- Be accessible, talk and listen to your audience with social media channels
- Listen to your audience, sometimes they have good ideas
- Treat your audience with respect, gain their trust

Measurements of Success:
- What denotes success
- How do you measure success
- Release your SEO/SEM/SMM models in a staged manner to accurately measure their success or failure
- Adjust your business models and strategies to increase success
- Delete models, which show a low return
- Review your traditional and social media analytics for traffic trends and key influencers

Maintenance:
- Maintain your social community on a daily basis
- Train and educate your staff to constantly improve their SEO/SEM/SMM skills
- Establish new partnerships and syndication agreements
- Have a social media policy and procedure guide
- Constant review of Web 2.0 and improvements to your social media community
- Open new social media channels
- Always strive to have great content for your audience

Some Final Thoughts:
- Conduct a social media analysis
- Only deploy the social media models which match your budget
- Match your resources to the effort to maintain the social media models
- Deploy the social media models over time, not all at once
- Follow management best practices
- Follow development processes

To learn more about Electric Effect's Web 2.0 social media community portal software YellowSpace and YellowVision, and Web 2.0 social media services, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com

The Council on Drug Abuse teen drug abuse site is finally live

2009-10-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Council on Drug Abuse teen drug abuse site is finally live at http://www.yacers.ca

The YAC, or youth advisory council, will be using this Web 2.0 community site to communicate with youth across Canada, and engaging them through a range of social media tools, including blogs, forums, comments, and networks. Youth can join in on the conversations, build their own portal and easily collect and share content within the YAC site or to over 150 external social media channels.

The YAC site displays "Most Recent Articles and Comments" to help promote current info on the YAC site, giving a quick overview of new content. The YellowVision "Info" window will help the youth determine the relevancy of content, showing a range of social analytics, including number of times the content has been shared, friends with this content, and content rating. Auto alerts will let registered members know when their friends are sharing content with them, inviting them to join a network, or alert them when new comments or blog entries are posted.

Proprietary YellowSpace tools and services will allow registered members to quickly create content for their personal portal, collect content from the YAC site though a "One Button" click, share content with friends, join in on the forum conversations, rate content, and sign up for a range of info alerts.

Qualified CODA healthcare practitioners will be writing exclusive content for the YAC site, and engaging the students in conversations related to a range of drug abuse issues. The CODA administrators and Youth Advisory Committee members will be managing the site day to day, adding content, engaging in the conversations, and managing the YAC site with YellowSpace's intuitive front end editing tools.

The YAC site is driven by Electric Effect's YellowSpace social portal software, and has built in social analytics, traffic and distribution models, proprietary front end CMS editor (read content and edit instantly), forum/blog tools, and many other features.

To learn more about the YAC social site or Electric Effect's Web 2.0 social media community portal and Web 2.0 social media services, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com

Cervelo Rocks!

2009-09-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a couple of months riding the Cervelo Soloist 2 frame, and I have to admit that the carbon frame really rocks. I broke a 56 km TT course record today, which I set a few years ago, and that really hurt at my age (47). But what the hell, you only die once. My old record was 38.7km/hr, and the new record is 38.9 km/hr. I know it's only 0.2 km/hr faster, but at my age I will take any increment.

The biggest problem with pushing your body to extremes is that you are operating in a state of oxygen deprivation, on the anaerobic threshold, and you start to lose your sensibilities. This is not good when you are riding a bike in traffic. I took a few liberties with red lights and there were a couple of moments of mental failure due to crossing the anaerobic threshold for too long. Passing out is not a good option at 40 km/hr. Please consult your physician if you are going to attempt to stick your head into a pot of boiling water.

Here are some pictures of me trying to recover. I am sure I will be sore as hell tomorrow. And one picture of me hanging onto my wife's truck feeling like shit, but with a smile. Cervelo Rocks!

Recovery shot one. Legs all gone.

Hurting bad.

Already thinking I can crack 39 km/hr for the summer of 2010.

Hard Lessons from from the Software Legal Side, Part 1

2009-07-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

So you think your partnership with a software company is solid because you have a 2 year working history of successful projects? Think again. The following three part blog will discuss how to protect yourself against corporate misdeeds, preparing for a trial, and how to enforce the court ordered outcome.

I learned a very painful lesson over the last year and half after a partnership with another software company went very wrong. We had a strong working relationship with several projects successfully completed, an NDA, and I trusted them like my own family. But, when I brought in a large 6 figure commissioned account, our relationship went sour very fast.

One of the most important things I have learned in business is not to question why a company or individual gets greedy, just be prepared for the event. To ponder on this unfortunate turn of events is a complete waste of your time. Who knows why this company would do this, as it is small industry in the GTA and it is akin to pissing in your own bed.

Better to spend your time preparing your court case, as this is what saved my skin.

So how can you prepare yourself for these unfortunate events?

Here are some tips:
1) Remain calm. Avoid sending nasty emails (my mistake), and try to resolve the issue without lawyers.
2) Keep detailed notes of all the events, including emails, documents, and records of phone calls and meetings.
3) Never delete corporate emails. You never know when you will need to refer to them.
4) Ensure that you have detailed contracts for all your agreements, outlining compensation for work, partnerships, and commissions.
5) Ask around in your business circles about the company. Are they fair, have there been any problems in the past, etc? But sometimes you will hear nothing so do not rely on this as gospel.
6) Time stamp all your correspondence, and add your notes to documents to keep a clear and linear timeline.
7) Try to find a neutral third party with experience in these business matters to discuss the situation with.
8) Unfortunately even when confronted with detailed notes, the defendant may still choose to ignore the situation and claim no wrong doing. Remain calm.
9) Failing a fair resolution with the business partner you have two options, Small Claims Court (SCC) or hire a lawyer.
10) Above all stick to you guns, you know what is right and what is wrong and do NOT let the defendant try to convince you otherwise.
11) A lawyer is good if the amount your are seeking is in excess of $25,000, but it also depends on the character of the defendant. If they are completely unreasonable use SCC.
12) SCC is good if you want a good rapid result, but be prepared to spend up to a week collecting your documentation and writing your case.
13) As well, you have to read the SCC rules and regulations very carefully and seek legal counsel if you are unsure.
14) You will need to get the proper legal name of the company, and this can sometime be a lot more difficult than you think as some companies go out of their way to bury this very deep.
15) As you work with your partnership companies make sure you have clear documentation stating their legal name. The more documents the better.
16) And it is not a bad idea to record their clients and banking location, as this may come in handy if you have to enforce restitution.
17) Record the full name of all the executives and their titles, especially the ones you work directly with.
18) Try to understand the companies corporate structure, including share ownership, private investors, accounts, etc.
19) Of course all the information you collect should be done as a matter of business practice, should not breach your NDA, and should not done clandestinely. Ask openly and get permission to write the information down as part of normal business relations.
20) Name the company as the defendant on the SCC filing, using their legally incorporated name, and any executives as well, but only if executives did something illegal as an officer of the company.
21) Include copies of all relevant material with your SCC filing, and separate each topic with clearly labeled tabs as this will make it easy for the judge to reference your specific documents.
22) List your legal company as the defendant (and not your name), and only include useful or friendly witnesses.
23) Now you have to deliver the package to the defendant. This can be fun, especially if they refuse all your registered mail, as you will have to hand deliver the package.
24) If you do hand deliver, take a camera and snap picts of the individual accepting the package, and get their name and title. You can read more about this exciting opportunity to confront your antagonist in the SCC documents here: http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/courts/guides/default.asp

Some last thoughts:
Never EVER do any work or good will on the assumption that you will be compensated. No matter how tempting this is to save time and money on proper legal agreements.

So hopefully you are prepared for the next step, mediation and failing that, a SCC trial, which I will discuss in my next blog update in Part 2.

Cervelo Soloist 2 carbon frame review

2009-07-23T05:51:00.001-07:00

So after a couple of weeks of riding the Cervelo Soloist 2 carbon frame, I am very impressed. Compared to the Cervelo S1, which is aluminum, the ride is a lot quieter, with smoother acceleration, and a lot more responsive. The bottom bracket is massive, probably about 90mm wide and really prevents an lateral torquing of the frame when you sprint or crank up a hill.

Been out on a couple of 100 km rides and the comfort level is also higher, as the aluminum S1 was too rigid and you felt every small bump. The cable routing of the S2 is also improved with cables plugged right into the top of the frame behind the headset. Very clean and efficient looking.

The S2 frame is also a lot lighter 300 to 400 grams than the S1, but not sure if that makes any difference. But what does matter is the cleaner aerodynamic lines. I have a few time trials coming up so I will post results compared to my S1 times from last year. Last year I pulled off a 56km time trial averaging 38.7 km/hr on the S1 frame. Let's see what I can do with the S2 frame.

The S2 carbon frame is not painted black, that is raw carbon fiber, which when exposed to bright light has a beautiful iridescent glow of multi-layered carbon fiber. Very cool looking. I will try to post a close up so that you can see what I am talking about.

Main airfoil:

Bottom Bracket:

Nothing Rides Like a Carbon Soloist Cervelo

2009-07-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I managed to crack my Cervelo Soloist aluminum frame and Cervelo was kind enough to offer a discount to upgrade to the S2 carbon frames

Well the bike is rebuilt and aside from adjusting the brakes, the rear derailleur, and tightening some bolts, I was good to go for quick 50k ride. The carbon frame rides like nothing I have had between my legs, with a very positive power transfer, and solid response to acceleration and railway tracks. Silky smooth. The Cervelo S1 aluminum frame was a bit harsh, but I liked to feel the road. Let's see if after a couple of rides, which frame I prefer.

The carbon frame is really stunning and when the sun hits the black carbon fiber you can see the various multi layered weave. It's a guy thing, "ohhhh carbon fiber, very pretty".

Hopefully I will not wreck this frame. Here is a picture of me sitting on the bike to confirm proper leg bend. The group set is Campy carbon/titanium 10 speed, Easton carbon fork, Nimble Crosswind carbon wheels, and a internal combustion organic drive system.

Processes, we don't need no stinkin processes!

2009-05-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yes you do.

I agree that sometimes full PMP or SDLC processes can cause unnecessary project costs and delays, but deploying a light version of processes for project management, development and operations, can save you bundles of time and money, lower staff attrition and stop clients who abandon you out of frustration.

I have seen large and small companies go for years with minimal processes and only when clients start walking away and their best staff leave, do they decide to change their operational processes. Here are some general questions to ask yourself, kind of a litmus test to see if you are in need of some processes management.

1) Your IT projects are always over budget
2) Your IT projects always miss deadlines (by weeks or months)
3) You're unsure of the corporate business goals
4) No communication protocols
5) No disaster recover plan
6) Your technology framework is 3+ years old
7) Leadership, and roles and responsibilities are vague
8) Your clients are delaying projects or have moved on
9) Your projects start with the best intentions, full of energy, but fissile out and languish
10) Your project documentation is all on paper napkins
11) Your best staff are leaving or appear distracted
12) You really have no idea how many projects are on the go and what their status is

What to do? You have to stop the downward cycle of project destruction by first recognizing the problem, and then deploying light PMP and development processes (SDLC). Try the following:

1) Develop a Red Flag report, listing all the known problems within your development group
2) Develop a plan to fix the critical problems first, one per month
3) Ensure all projects have a BRD before you start them
4) The BRD should include analysis and confirmation that the project follows the corporate business vision
5) Review your technology framework and update if necessary
6) Assign roles and responsibilities to the team
7) Establish clear leadership roles (take responsibility)
8) Deploy light PM processes
9) Deploy light SDLC (software development life cycle) processes
10) Seek guidance from other IT professionals and peers

Here are some good reference links on processes:
1) http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/emf-cag/project-projet/projects-projets/overview-vue-eng.asp
2) http://www.pmi.org
3) http://www.mpmm.com
4) http://www.method123.com/project-management-kit.php
5) http://www.tenstep.com

Here are some good sources on software development processes:
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_process
2) http://www.december.com/web/develop/processes.html
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Rational_Unified_Process (this is a very comprehensive study on development processes and I highly recommend reviewing this link)
4) To review Agile, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
5) To review Iterative development, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterative_and_incremental_development

Don't Worry, Be Happy, Electric Effect has a new web site

2009-05-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

After procrastinating for God knows how long, I finally shelled out the big bucks and hired WonderMan Kato Grey and Grinder out of NYC to redesign my web. Cost a fortune, but worth every penny.

OK, I did it myself. I like it. For some reason it puts a smile on my face. Check out the new Electric Effect site: http://www. electriceffect.com

Web 2.0 Social Media is Blasting Off!

2009-04-25T10:38:00.001-07:00

All my clients appear really stressed out and over worked, and as a result, projects are being delayed. The only upside is there is a growing interest in my Web 2.0 work, including Electric Effect's proprietary social community software called YellowSpace, and the YellowVision real-time analytics window. See the screen image below of the prototype demo Electric Effect developed for the CODA/Shopper Youth Community, which illustrates proprietary YellowSpace and YellowVision concepts. The YAC Drug Abuse site will be live in October 2009. Anyone else experiencing this upswing in Web 2.0 social media business?

Electric Links

2009-04-25T10:37:00.001-07:00

The following list of link's relate to topics that have left an indelible mark on my brain over the past 20+ years, and my comments and observations are designed to be slightly humorous. Or immature depending on your point of view. So place your tongue firmly in your cheek, lighten up and enjoy, as you get a glimpse of the world through my eyes and slightly twisted mind.

1. Oakville Cycling Club: http://www.oakvillecc.com These guys literally saved my life by dragging my sorry ass out on 100K rides through the Halton Hills. They de-stressed me, challenged me, and taught me a lot about proper road cycling technique. Like how to empty your bladder on the roadside as if it were perfectly natural. And they taught me the value of team work. Win as a team, lose as a team. Except when you spot the blue road sign or you are 50 meters from the crest of a hill. Then all bets are off. Join them to learn these and other skilz.

2. The ERG: http://www.concept2.com Ever heard the term, "Saved by the ERG"? Of course you haven't, I just made that up. Rowing is my life, and makes up the bulk of my winter training and keeps my heart beating along at 160+ when I interval train, and 35 bpm when I rest, and in the low 20's when I sleep. Nailed the Top 3 a few times at the Canadian Open In-Door Rowing Championship. And once hit the Top 10 overall at the St. Catherine's indoor event. They don't call the 2k ERG race "Death Row" for nothing. I am sure the ERG is BORG technology.

3. Cervelo: http://www.cervelo.com The best bike company in the known universe. Well maybe just our galaxy, and the other one with the big horse head. OK, fine, just our planet. The Cervelo Soloist is the best damn value of any road bike, pared with Campy titanium and carbon group, and Nimble Crosswind wheels. My wife is jealous of my bike because I spend more time on my bike. See an image of me and my Cervelo: http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff149/stevco88/Steve/?action=view&current=bike.jpg

4. Yield: http://www.yield-ica.com Yield, resistance is futile”. Hey that’s good I should be in advertising. Wait I was. Anyway, they used to own part of my old software company, TiCORP, and Brad really is a linder hoser. I wonder if a Porsche can go "Faster miles an hour"? Anyway, I learned a lot about the ad industry, like how to claim a mountain bike as office equipment. Seriously though, great company, smart guy, and I still use the mountain bike, I mean office stapler, for cross training.

5. Apple: http://www.apple.com I have 5 iMacs. Enough said. Well OK, their iPods and Shuffles are pretty cool too. And the iPhones are great. I heard they are developing iWindows. I cannot wait to see that. Steve Jobs needs to get Castro’s doctor so he never dies and outlive 5 Microsoft administrations. iJoking.

6. Canoe: http://www.canoe.ca Up the creek with 4 paddles. I worked with Patrick and Stephen and this was one of the best consulting gigs ever. Great bunch of guys. Grant is cool too. Stephen likes Trappist beers and we hoist glasses of Belgian triples and quads once a year. Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Konings and Unibroue, are a great bunch of guys. Unibroue makes the best Belgian style ales in Canada. La Fin du Monde. Go Sleemans, and please drink responsibly.

7. Flying Cigar: http://www.flyingcigar.de OK, so I smoke a couple of fine aged Cuban EL and RE cigars every month. They don’t stink! Nino is a genius, great site, unreal photojournalism, some of the greatest images of very rare Cuban smokes, and he knows the real deal on vintage cigars, who owns them and who burns them. Cigar Aficionado has nothing on him.

8. HHGTTG & Duddy Kravitz: I am pretty sure Zaphod and Duddy are twin brothers in some pan-dimensional way. They both lie, cheat and steal, are pretty successful, and meet interesting female bipeds along the way, and get caught up in seemingly random unconnected, yet completely probable events. And they get into whacked out situations involving a strange assortment of grumpy Vogons and Montréalers. Hmmm to bad Richler and Adams have expired like a Norwegian Blue parrot, as I would of loved to have had a fine Cuban cigar and a couple of Trappist quads with them and discuss why “a man without a towel is nothing”, just what the hell is an “improbability drive”, and the meaning of life, the universe and poutine? But not necessarily in that order.

9. Sun: http://www.sun.com Drink JAVA everyday and you will be OK. I love J2EE and how it has changed the world according to Microsoft. JAVA, Struts, Hibernate, XML, AJAX, and JAVEX. Clean YES, germs NO!

10. Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com I hate them. No I love them because they popularized XML. What’s with the name though? Micro and Soft. I think a little blue pill can fix that. Just kidding Steve. iRelax. But, uh, what’s with the name Ballmer? Does it hurt?

11. Princess Margaret Hospital: http:www.uhn.ca I had the coolest job in TO back in the late 80’s and early 90's, as I guided their PMH Graphics Section from pen and ink to Macintosh computers, as the Graphics Section Supervisor. The best team ever, Stephen, Christine, Carol, Meta, Marlene, Alan and Keith. I miss you guys. I want my job back. No really, I want my job back.

12. Addicting Games: http://www.addictinggames.com Oh yea, you know what I am talking about, total pwnage and destruction, snipers, racers, crazy places, arcade games, silly games, wild clicking, shooting, smashing, mouse bashing, crashing, puzzles, and lots of other mind wasting stuff. And don't get me going on about on-line Halo. Ahh, I’m addicted. Somebody help me.

13. Yellow Pages Group: http://www.ypg.com They are really big and really yellow. I led the team that built their City Sites ( http://www.torontoplus.ca ) and we never slept for 5 months. Again team work. And we won. And then one day I went for a run in the woods and ended up with my face in leaves. Boy that job could kill ya.

14. Cool Knives: http://www.knifepurveyor.com Damascus steel, titanium liners, mammoth tusk scales, engraved spines, carved bronze bolsters. What more could a guy want? A Nate Clarke or Stephen Olszewski auto knife? Go there and you will understand. No women allowed. This is a guy thing.

15. Farmers: http://www.ontariofarmers.com I spent the better part of my teenage years and early 20’s on beef, cash crop and fruit farms in Southern Ontario, and put in an honest day of work, 7 days a week, 6am to 8pm, and learned that farmers are salt honest. Hats off to the Fonger’s and the Wright’s where ever you are. I have shoveled more than my share of cow manure, and I’m still a farmer at heart. But without the smell. Once I stumbled onto a grow op. But that's a story for another day.

16. Triathlon: http://www.ironman.com My life in the spring and summer chasing cars on my Cervelo road bike up Trafalgar Road into Milton. Love those escarpment climbs and the downhill rocket ride back to Oakville drafting cars. Running on the numerous cross-country ravine trails, avoiding dogs and the stuff they leave behind. Hey you gonna pick that up? No it's not mine. Hey, get back here!

17. Slovenia: http://www.slovenia.info If you can pronounce Ljubljana then you should go there. I spent every other summer in the mid 60's to late 70's at my grandfathers garden in downtown Ljubljana cooking marinated shish kabobs on a open pit fire and eating them with fresh bread. Fishing for trout in a narrow plant covered mountian river at Sticna with my grandfather was the highlight of the visit. I miss my grandfather a lot. The Adriatic coast, Bled, Kranj, Sava River, Kamnik, and Maribor. All good. Went biking there in the late 80's and had a riot, as I biked with a cycling team that went from mountain top pub to pub. I cannot remember how that ended.

18. And lastly, Google. If you need the URL you probably should restart your central binary organic cerebral cortex. To do this, lift your left arm up as if you were replacing a light bulb on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Now with your right hand, press your index and middle finger firmly between you 3rd and 4th ribs. Press hard for 5 seconds. When you regain consciousness you will be re-assimilated into Google Net. Resistance is futile.

If you would like your link added to the above list, just send me an email with the URL, and some witty sarcastic remarks, and I’ll see what I can do. If you are the legal representative of one of the companies listed above, phone my mom, as she was the one who suggested these links to my past, present and future, and ask her to remove the link, as she is also the CMS web master. She bakes a lot, so in between batches of cookies, I am sure she can accommodate your legal request to avoid litigation. Sore sport.