• Iceland Volcano Pictures: Lightning Adds Flash to Ash

  Lightening flashing inside the volcano in Iceland.

  tags: national, geographic, iceland, ash, volcano, lightening

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Yesterday, I saw a perfect example of this unfold throughout the afternoon. While taking a quick peek in on the Twitter traffic in between tasks I caught a post by Elise Bauer of @simplyrecipes:

I was intrigued… maybe it was the mention of a company my grandfather gave 40 years to… more than likely it was just seeing a tweet by simplyrecipes. SimplyRecipes.com is actually the first blog I ever added to Google Reader 4 years ago… it was the first blog I actually followed… it was the recipe site that wooed me away from a very passionate addiction to allrecipes.com. I don’t see Elise tweet often… so when I see one in the stream I pay attention and this one had really sparked my curiosity. I quickly scanned and saw a follow up post:

Simply Recipes is a federally registered trademark and has been for years. In order to keep the trademark valid, I must defend it.

Well, what was this I wondered… and skipped on over to check out the link… and found this title: How SimplyRecipes and Elise Bauer is Like Monsanto (Did ya catch that? Yes, Elise linked me to an article that was attacking her… I didn’t have to go find it – she sent me to it.) In the post on a third party blog (FocusOrganic.com) Mike Lieberman shares that he has a blog called SimpleRawRecipes.com – and has received notification that he is infringing on the SimplyRecipe trademark… long story short… Mike is not too happy about this and is voicing his opinion about the matter, which he has every right to do.

I read the post, formed my own opinion – a bit biased due to my loyalty and how much I know about domain names and trademark laws – and wondered what the comments looked like. Before Elise posted the link on Twitter the comments where in support of the author. Then, starting shortly after Elise’s tweet – the tone changes, the comments changed in support of Elise… did ya catch that one? That’s right… Elise did not and has not addressed the blog post. In fact, quite beautifully, if you go to SimplyRecipes.com the first post is about hope and ending world hunger – and I doubt that’s some political move – it just so happens to be that’s how SimplyRecipes rolls. Her support network addressed the post for her. And it grew from there… people who like simplyrecipes.com told other people about it and those people left their own comments (speaking from experience on that one.) When I checked the post this morning there were more than 80 comments – split between the 2 sides of the argument. Still, there is content in there in support (sometime passionate support) of SimplyRecipes and Elise. I don’t believe that would have happened to the extent it has if she had not alerted her supporters to the post’s existence.

Because SimplyRecipes has build up a network of supporters by putting out good content, good vibes, and good Karma for the last 5 years – when she needed them – those supporters came out for her.

I don’t know what the outcome of the conflict will be. It is like the wild wild west when it comes to precedent on trademark laws and domain names. And I think that Mike does make a valid point that generally speaking the folks with the money or connections for better lawyers often win – regardless of who is “right”. And it is true that Elise is legally obligated to defend or lose her trademark. Who knows how the cards will shuffle out on this one. What I do know is that from a PR and brand awareness perspective there are a couple of ways this could have gone:

1. Elise could have had no social media network and no way of alerting her supporters to the blog post to get them to help her out.
2. Elise could have simply ignored the post and hoped for the best – let the comments on the article go unchecked, building in volume with negative content about SimplyRecipes. Letting it eat up Google love for SimplyRecipes.
3. Alert the supporters, let them defend her and hopefully outweigh the negative content with positive – and if not, at least mix in positive content that does not generate from SimplyRecipes itself.

The first 2 options leave the negative content out there unchecked and growing – and this is why I think growing your social network NOW is a must.

Here are a couple of tips on how to handle someone saying something bad about you:

1. Set up Google Alerts for your name and your organization – so you get an email when someone writes about you online. Knowing is the first and most important step.
2. Be transparent, be honest, be graceful, be kind if you can… stick to the data… avoid judgments.
3. Address the issue head on… do not stick your head in the sand… it will only make it worse.
4. Let your supporters know how you would like them to support you… send them to the post to leave comments -or– write a post on your blog addressing the issue (once again, be transparent, honest, graceful and kind – get help with this if you are so pissed you can’t see straight!)

Remember… people will talk about you. You have no control over that. You can control how the conversation goes. If it is a valid complaint about your product or organization – address it, fix it, and THANK the person who brought it into the light – they just helped you make your product or company better. If it’s just a rant and bad for your brand- call in the people who love you and send them over to help you out.

Most importantly – use Social Media to find and connect the people who love you – help them – before you need them to help you.

Women are positively radiant when they talk about their creations… me included.

The start of many a conversation at Mom 2.0 was like any other networking function where strangers collide under the common umbrella of a conference’s theme… a bit dry, a little awkward, a dash of soooo… what to you do? And time and time again when the conversation turned to our kiddos’/new company’s/new book’s/etc.  latest and greatest milestone the tone completely changed, the woman I was talking to literally shined. I was over-joyed and honored to witness it time and time again this weekend.

Which leads me to my #2 Take Away…

(Thanx to d’n'c’s for the pic)

We have a saying  at Schipul… Content is King… Or Queen shall we say for this post…

And I heard time and time again in the Mom 2.0 panels that GOOD content is what will draw your audience to you. Whether you are an individual women looking to grow your personal brand’s influence and followers or you are corporate marketing looking for ways to connect with the women who buy your product…  content is the number one tool for your success or demise.

Every blog post, tweet, facebook status, email, etc… is an opportunity to stand out.

Be it funny, entertaining, enlighting, or educational… the content you put out there is more important than any crazy hair-brained gimick you come up with.

(Thanx to MarkWallace for the pic)

I send a special wave of gratitude out to my baby brother who served as a Military Police Officer in the Army for 5 years – 52 brutal weeks of that in Iraq. I thank God for his return. I am washed over with the memory of the fear and desperate desire for him to come home – even today when I think about it. It is a feeling the body never forgets.

As a Quaker I am always in support of peace and non-violent solutions. This does not mean I don’t see and honor those Americans who have chosen to enlist. Those who believe serving in the our military is the best way to protect our country, our freedoms, our children.

In honor of Veteran’s Day I have put together this list below of sites and stories. Places you can donate, ways to support our troops. Mostly I would ask that you connect with whatever you believe is greater than we are and you ask for peace to spread everywhere, that warriors from all places flow back to their homes, safe and whole.

Wounded Warrior Project: This is the organization my brother, and most of his unit, ask that we support

American Widow Project: The American
Widow Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to the new
generation of those who have lost the heroes of yesterday, today and
tomorrow, with an emphasis on healing through sharing stories, tears
and laughter

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True Light Resources is please to announce the
grand opening of our new digs…

Caroline
Collective has been a project in the making for several months, and has
finally arrived. We are happy to announce the unveiling of this
monumental space, that would not have come to fruition without the
collective help, advice, sweat equity and support from family, friends,
the Houston community and the global coworking community. The
announcement for the grand opening party follows below:

Well its the 2nd day of the year 2008… wow, I am actually a little freaked out by that.

2008… aren’t our cars supposed to be flying by now… and where is that push the button for a nutritious home-cooked meal gizzmo anyway??!!!

Anyhoo… True Light Resources is back to work, even if the kiddos are not. We got our new site up and running over the break… Yippee!! and Finally!!!

Now all I have to do is figure out how to juggle 2 little boys for 3 more days, then it is all systems go – I am excited about all the unwritten potential of a new year. Here is to our continued success and yours.

Happy New Year.

~ JJ

I first saw Cameron Sinclair and his Architecture for Humanity project when I watched "TED: The Future We Will Create" … ok, here is where I reveal how totally geeky I really am… I LOVED this movie. LOVED IT.  The TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) website: http://www.ted.com/ is truly one of my favorite sites… its one of the sites I visit most often. They are always updating it with stuff.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Our mission: Spreading ideas.

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

Cameron and his project (he is one of the co-founders) won one of the 3 TED Wishes in 2006. (The ONE campaign is Bono’s wish from the year before.)

Architecture for Humanity: 

By tapping a network of professionals willing to lend their time and their talents to helping those who would not otherwise be able to afford their services, we support community development, help communities rebuild after disaster and provide pro bono design services to community partners around the world.

In 2007 we launched the Open Architecture Network, the first site on the Web to provide access to open source architectural plans.

Anyway… Cameron Sinclair is COMING HERE! (and I can’t go… see… bummer!!!)

Cameron Sinclair Speaks at MFAH

On Wednesday October 10th, Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, and co-author of

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