Here are my slides from both presentations, and a huge thank you to both conferences for having me speak.

Social Media FTW, Portland, ME, September, 2010

Accelerate Maine, Bangor, ME, October 2010

Justin Kownacki’s post, referenced in the video, can be found here (and seriously, if Justin isn’t on your daily read list, you are missing out).

Douglas Rushkoff‘s book Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back
can be purchased here (affiliate link).

And last but not least, a link to the Pick My Brain experiment, for those to pressed for time (or lazy) to scroll down.

*the legal beagle yelled at me for not inserting something about “rates may change” in future. (I mean, duh, right?) So, there ya go, to make the legals happy.

Some of the tools I use to manage my business are tools I also use to manage and monitor my social media and online life as well. You’ll see those on both the “social media toolbox” list and the “CEO on the go toolbox” list. Also, it’s notable that several of the tools on both lists have had significant upgrades in recent months that make them even more integrated, collaborative with other tools, and useful.

As a refresher, my social media toolbox post highlighted: Evernote, Shareaholic (FireFox, Safari), Ping.fm, Ubiquity/FireFox, TweetDeck, TextExpander, Quicksilver, Google stuff, my HTC Mogul PDA and my MacBook. Expect an updated post on my social media tools to drop here or elsewhere soon, as some of those have been adjusted with passing time. You’ll notice that Evernote makes an appearance on both lists, and with good reason – the company introduced some nice on-the-go integrations recently.

So how do I run my business on the fly? It’s important for me to have as much data as possible accessible from anywhere. This means that I use a lot of web based solutions. Until they make a 1TB USB Flash thumb drive (and consider this an official “would someone PLEASE make one?” request), I can’t fit all of my data into any lightweight portable form to take with me. If you are a CEO with a MacBook Air or a netbook, this is doubly true for you – you have even less storage and need computing from the cloud solutions even more.

Equipment

My most essential tools are my MacBook and my HTC Mogul PDA. All of the tools I use for my business are accessible at least in basic form from both (some of the mobile sites leave something to be desired, but I find this true of many mobile sites). Along with that, I carry the chargers with me, which takes up valuable space in my League of Awesomeness laptop bag. Since power is key and cords are bulky, I am researching adding one of these to my arsenal. I also keep my iPod on me with a backup of my presentations, in case something horrible happens to the laptop – color me paranoid, but you never know.

Services

Evernote

Yes, Evernote is on both lists. It is a powerful, flexible way to annotate and track your life and business. I talked about the desktop and web plug in features in the last post. What makes it even more effective are the way it integrates these features into your mobile life. Evernote on my phone lets me keep track of anything I’m doing. I can handwrite a note using Ink Note; I can record a meeting, sing a song I’m writing, speak a poem or story idea I have or give myself a quick voice reminder using Audio Note; I can take a picture of anything and record it with the Photo Note feature; I can even send myself files and text notes. Evernote upped the game recently for this heavy Twitter user by allowing me to link my Twitter account to my Evernote account. By then following @myEV on Twitter, I can DM myself notes and reminders and links to add to my Evernote storage as well. With tagged search and other features, all of my notes are easy to find and ready for me to come back to the next time I load up the desktop app or go to the web site. I can even share the notes with people working on a project with me.

Freshbooks

I can not say enough nice things about FreshBooks. They recently won a Webware 100 award, and with good reason. This accounting solution is lightweight, easy to learn, easy to use and flexible enough to incorporate several other on-the-go tools to make it easier to track time, expenses, calls and more. I love that I can create estimates and invoices for my clients that include action items, allowing them to link to the live estimate or invoice and make change requests, accept the terms, pay online and more. It’s very convenient on both sides. Not only that, the customer who has an ongoing project can log in and track time spent on their project, see progress reports and more. It handles staff that work for you as well as clients, and now it is going social – allowing freelancers and subcontractors to link to projects as well, creating a network of people I work and collaborate with. I use this every day, either via the web client, the time tracking widget for my MacBook, my phone (using other services to text in time tracked, expense, or calls made) and more. An ideal accounting solution for the small to medium business that integrates with applications like Xpenser, SkyDeck, etc and exports compatible file types to other accounting software as well.

Xpenser

This little tool let’s me send a tweet, an email, an IM or an SMS from my phone to track expenses. It tracks mileage, meals, time on a project, and more. All you have to do is link it to FreshBooks using the FreshBooks API and it sends all of these expenses to FreshBooks to be associated with a client and project. It also offers a full slate of reports and other features to make it a good stand alone solution for export to desktop accounting programs.

SkyDeck

Another tool that integrates with FreshBooks, allowing me to sync my calls from my cell phone into my FreshBooks account and associate them with a client or project for billing time. It also has some pretty nifty other features, like being able to make a text or call right from the application, see who you call most, get reports to your email on your cell phone usage and even get nudged if you used to talk to someone and don’t call them as much anymore. There is a social aspect to SkyDeck, as it lets you connect with your friends who also use it, a nice touch.

Kall8

The Magnitude Media 800 number is run through a company called Kall8. It costs very little money to run the line, and comes with some nice features. A favorite is call block per number – you can log into the web site and block a number if you get put on a fax machine auto dial list or a telemarketer gets around the National DNC list somehow. This is very handy. Since it is web based, you can forward your calls anywhere you are, receive web based faxes (and send them), get voicemail and more.

YouMail

You may be thinking I spend a lot of time using call management solutions. I do. The less time I spend on the phone, the more work I get done, so I have several options for filtering calls. In addition to Kall8, I use YouMail. YouMail gives me the Caller ID of every caller, shows me when a friend is calling, but most importantly for this woman who hates to waste time checking voice mail, it transcribes my voice mail to text messages for me. Fantastic feature, and a total time saver.

PockeTwit

This Twitter client from Google Code is wonderful. It gives you an attractive, iPhone-like Twitter experience complete with avatars and a full feature set (as well as interacting with other services, like identi.ca, etc) for your WinMo Touch phone. The fact that I can use features like favorite, retweet and more while on the go is invaluable for me, as a heavy Twitter user.

QIK

This live streaming video solution for my phone lets me grab events and interviews on the fly and share them immediately without needing a ton of expensive equipment.

Contxts

Contxts give you Paperless Business Cards. Text geechee_girl to short code 50500 and you’ll see what I mean and why these are so handy.

Google Docs

I use Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office when traveling, as it lets me access my work from anywhere. At the home office I use iWork instead of Office, which imports and exports Google and Microsoft compatible formats.

Small Notepad and a Pen

Trust me, even with a phone and laptop on you, there will always be an occasion to use the old fashioned pen and paper when you are traveling. Your IMAP Gmail may hang up or fail, you may need to write notes larger than a business card back, your battery may run out of juice – stuff happens. Be prepared.

And there you have it, the tools that let me run two businesses (Uptown Uncorked, Social Mic), plan events like SMBNH and PodCamp NH, advise companies and write for my freelance writing clients while I’m on the go. What’s in your toolbox for business or for social media?

Disclosure: some links in this blog will be affiliate links

And 2009 should have a few big stories up its sleeve as well. There’s a lot coming, and hopefully most will be good. Here’s what I see happening…

I, like others, are predicting intense competition between high-speed internet providers to offer greater bandwidth at lower prices. Frankly, it’s about time. For the longest while, Comcast and a few select cable companies dominated the market, keeping bandwidth low and prices high. No longer. 2009 should see some good, old-fashioned capitalistic competition between high-speed broadband providers.

Expect to see a large number of Android-based handsets. Google has made it very clear that it intends to do what it can to drive Apple into the ground in the mobile arena, and there’s a good chance that simply due to the quantity of phones that will carry Android, that could happen. The iPhone will still amass followers, but Android will the year’s OS.

You can be sure you’ll see even greater drops in smartphone prices, as well as BIG jumps in handset hardware. Real camera phones will be everywhere, and manufacturers will need to build better, cheaper handsets to remain competitive. 8-10 megapixel camera phones will be available on every network. WiFi, 3G, UMA, high storage capacities, and GPS will be built into most smartphones.

With the increased competition between handset manufacturers, expect to see more competition between wireless carriers as well. Lower termination fees, plans that allow more people to be in your “circle,” cheaper upgrades, and big steps towards improving customer satisfaction will be the name of the game.

Apple, Apple, Apple! Though Apple has been steadily building a following in the computer market, I’m guessing we’ll see a big boost in adoption rates. Rumors are already going around that Apple is preparing a tablet-sized version of the iTouch with a screen of 7 or 9 inches, which should be announced at Macworld in January. If that device launches, expect to see it become just as popular, if not more popular, than the iPhone.

Smartphones will be everywhere, carried by everyone, and apps stores like those of Apple and Google will be offered by all carriers and manufacturers. Mobile social networking will receive massive support with new and improved mobile applications, which will push the adoption of social media and networking in general. You’ll live by your handset, not your computer.

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter (I like saying things three times when its important)! Facebook made a move last year to acquire the micro-blogging platform, and Twitter wisely refused. All the haters will try to imitate and replicate the popular client, but Twitter will stay on top. Even more people will use it, and Twitter will find a way to monetize its operation without ruining the experience.

Let’s not forget Obama. No, he isn’t social media or technology directly, but the man is more popular right now in media than JFK was. I’m honestly excited and curious to see what develops in Washington with Obama and his interesting potpourri of cabinet members in 2009.

There’s probably a lot more predictions that could be made, but these are the few that top my list. What are your predictions?

Probably everything you’ve heard about Google, T-Mobile and HTC’s new superchild, the G1 handset, is that it is the phone that will revolutionize the handset industry, take open software to a new level, and most significantly, crush the iPhone betwixt its powerful jaws (or something to that effect).  I won’t refute that completely, but there are some points I feel the mainstream media is leaving out when it comes to T-Mo’s new flagship device.

Let me start of by saying I completely intended to buy this device on the very first day of the pre-order period.  I’ve been a long-standing T-Mobile customer, and have followed all updates on the G1 since its baby pictures started circulating the intertubes.  In fact, I had set aside the money to purchase the device and darned near had my finger posed on my mouse to pre-order it, but some nagging thing in the back of my mind stopped me.

The biggest problem I had with the device, before it even was officially demoed, was that early reviewers were noting that the touch-scrolling function wasn’t as smooth as the iPhone.  Call me a nitpicker or what you will, but that was something with which I took issue.  At the very least, it kept me from ordering the device on day one.

So the other day, I decided to jump into a T-Mobile retailer to try the device myself.  After playing with it for five minutes, I decided that I was quite glad I hadn’t purchased it.  The G1, ladies and gents, is ugly.  Granted, that isn’t far from the aesthetic appeal of many late HTC devices, but with handsets like the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro on the market, I was left a little underwhelmed by the brutishly ugly cheap plastic look the G1 boasts.  Sure, the QWERTY keyboard is great and the slide-away screen made me happy, but the G1 looks like a device that will be replaced in short order for lack of a pretty face.

I have to say the early reviews that the interface didn’t scroll fluidly are accurate; I hate to do this, but compared to the iPhone, it just isn’t there.  The scrolling issue many reviewers thought might be easily resolved with a simple software update, but it seems Google doesn’t care or missed all those reviews, since no patch has arrived.

There is my completely unqualified review of the G1 for everyone to hate on.  I think there is something much deeper that needs to be discussed regarding the G1′s position in the handset market, that being Android itself on the device.

The iPhone is simple.  It is limited, much like the other products that Apple retails.  Everyone who knows anything about software will say that the iPhone’s interface isn’t as open as it might be (though Apple has worked to remedy this with the 3G), and that other platforms, where platforms as Linux-based platforms, Windows Mobile and Android are considered to be open.

For all that being open is worth, Apple’s approach to product simplicity has won the game in the mobile handset, personal computer and music player arenas quite unequivocally, wouldn’t you agree?  Android, for all the nifty slide functionality and multiple screens, just doesn’t feel as simple as the OS on an iPhone.

The reason this matters so much is that new handsets and operating systems need to be simple so that those who are switching from old-school handsets aren’t lost in translation.  If mobile customers are going to start adopting high-end smart handsets, there really can’t be a large learning curve; sure, Apple does Genius tutorials at their retail locations, but the iPhone isn’t that hard to pick up and use.  I can’t say the same about the G1.

I’m currently in the market for a new phone for my dear mother.  She’s not the most tech savvy of them all, but I do my best to get the right equipment in her paws so she has what she needs without calling me every five minutes to get a personalized tutorial.  She, too, is a T-Mobile customer, and as much as I think she’d like some of the functionality of the G1, I have to admit she’d probably be more comfortable with a Sidekick or the forthcoming Samsung touchscreen handset than the G1, simply because the G1 isn’t that user-friendly right out the door.

My mother wouldn’t be the only exception; there are no doubt more out there who will pick up a G1 and get utterly frustrated with the device in short order.  That won’t be good for adoption rates.

Don’t get me wrong; conceptually, I love Android on the HTC G1 handset.  I think the next generation (which is rumored to be coming out within a year) will probably rectify many of the problems that plague the current iteration.  But more importantly than aesthetics of the hardware and smoothness of the scrolling, Google’s Android team needs to be concerned with balancing simplicity with functionality if they have any desire to steal a piece of Apple’s pie.

Tonight’s Topics on Fire will be a lively one, as the topic is Politics and Social Media / Technology. Catch it live at 11 PM Eastern on TalkShoe.

Leslie Bradshaw from New Media Strategies and JESS3 will be joining us on the panel. Leslie is a frequent panelist here at Topics on Fire and was on the episode that generated the Strong Women in Tech initiative.

Sadly, Leslie Bradshaw is ill. Taking her place will be Andrew Feinberg of Capitol Valley and Technosailor.

New panelists this week are Justin Herman, creator of the Voter Registration Night with the Nationals and the Mets and former Hill staffer and Amy Greenlaw of PortalVideo.

Tune in on TalkShoe at 11PM Eastern and participate in chat. If you follow the call on TalkShoe you also get notified when each new episode is coming up.

The final panel for Episode 6 of Topics on Fire has been set and the topic will be Part Two of Gender Gap / Technology/New Media. Myself (Leslie Poston), Shireen Mitchell of Women Wired In, Leslie Bradshaw (recently featured on CSPAN covering the conventions), Meg Fowler of MegFowler.com (currently helping promote SM4SC.com), and Jen Nedeau will be paneling this discussion. Tonight’s podcast will be solution focused, as Part One zeroed in on defining the issues.

“Follow” the show on TalkShoe or stop back here for updates on each episode and notifications that a new episode is coming.

The first podcast on the Gender Gap and Technology was a lively one. As you all know I am always trying to push for real world solutions to the problems we talk about, and we didn’t come up with takeaways in the limited time the panel had to discuss it. Because of that, I’m scheduling a Part 2. I’m hoping that the same panel is willing to come back and take a different approach: instead of rehashing the existing and past issue of gender and technology, as valid as that is, I’d like to start Part 2 by stipulating that the problem exists and acknowledging that strong men and women have done much to pave the way for women in technology. Then I’d like to make the sole goal of Part 2 finding tangible ways to help women feel less disenfranchised in technology, to help women get access to technology for careers and educations and as many other solutions as we can think of in an hour of positive, focused, goal oriented discussion.

Future Topics on Fire Episodes include:

(as panelists confirm I will post them next to the podcast)

10/19 11PM Eastern Episode 7, Politics and Technology (Leslie Bradshaw, remaining panelists yet to be determined)

Tonight’s podcast will be a good one! We’ll be discussing education and new media, social media and technology with Dave LaMorte, John Herman and E. Christopher Clark.

I’m hoping to cover a lot of ground in an hour, so I won’t be opening up the phone lines until the recording is over. I know I usually let listeners call in ten minutes before the end, and I will be doing that again in the next podcast (part two of the gender gap topic). Our panelists are all active educators and need their rest for Monday morning school. HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean you can’t come participate in the lively chat room. We can see it while in the call and can handle questions live on air that way.

If you want to be notified of future podcasts, sign up for a TalkShoe account and “follow” the call. I send a reminder the day of the call to those who follow it.

See you there!

NOTE: We also have a new forum to give you a place to carry the discussions from the podcasts over into the real world, submit topic ideas, talk about social media, promote events, etc. You can SIGN UP FOR THE NEW FORUM right here.

Tonight’s Call:

Next Topics on Fire continues the conversation on Gender Gap and Technology, this time focusing on solutions and not rehashing the problem:

10/5 11PM Eastern Topics on Fire: Episode 6, Gender Gap and Technology Part 2 (Panelists: Corvida, Leslie Bradshaw, Micah Baldwin, Meg Fowler, Jen Nedeau)

Future episodes and panelists include:

10/19 11PM Eastern Topics on Fire: Episode 7, Politics and Technology (Leslie Bradshaw)

“Follow” the show on TalkShoe or stop back here for updates on each episode and notifications that a new episode is coming.

Listen to the podcast here, or via TalkShoe or iTunes subscription:

The podcast on the Gender Gap and Technology was a lively one. As you all know I am always trying to push for real world solutions to the problems we talk about, and we didn’t come up with takeaways in the limited time the panel had to discuss it this week. Because of that, I’m scheduling a Part 2. I’m hoping that the same panel is willing to come back and take a different approach: instead of rehashing the existing and past issue of gender and technology, as valid as that is, I’d like to start Part 2 by stipulating that the problem exists and acknowledging that strong men and women have done much to pave the way for women in technology. Then I’d like to make the sole goal of Part 2 finding tangible ways to help women feel less disenfranchised in technology, to help women get access to technology for careers and educations and as many other solutions as we can think of in an hour of positive, focused, goal oriented discussion.

If you were a panelist on the show and would like to come back for part 2 to finish the discussion we started, please let me know via email, Direct Message or in comments.

Future Topics on Fire Episodes include:

(as panelists confirm I will post them next to the podcast)

9/21 11PM Eastern Episode 5, Education and Technology (John Herman, E Christopher Clark)

10/5 11PM Eastern Episode 6, Gender Gap and Technology Part 2 (Corvida, Leslie Bradshaw, Micah Baldwin, Meg Fowler, Jen Nedeau)

10/19 11PM Eastern Episode 7, Politics and Technology (Leslie Bradshaw)

Topics on Fire is one of the many ways I’ve been tying to make social media effect real world change. This is a topic near and dear to my heart these days (you can tell, I went so far as to submit a panel for SXSW on the idea, which you can find, and vote on, here). The first two episodes talked about the poverty gap and technology and ways to use social media to bridge the gap, and led to a companion piece on Technosailor here on the Hidden Human Costs of the Government Going Green.

This week’s podcast will talk about the Generation Gap and Technology and ways to solve the problem/bridge the gap. We have a stellar cast of panelists and what looks like it will be a lively chat room, so please stop by Sunday night, August 24th at 11:00 PM Eastern to the TalkShoe podcast here. As a rule I only allow the panelists to talk for the main podcast, however; if you have a TalkShoe account I do tend to open all mics at the end for everyone to weigh in.

Moderating: me (Leslie Poston, UptownUncorked, Blorge and BGWE)

Representing the Millenials / Generation Y we have Ben Grossman of the PlenaryGroup and creator of the famed TalkToRunningMan.com campaign and in chat Michael J Cohen, programmer and web designer

Representing the Generation X / Slacker Generation we have Jim Keenan of Cre8Buzz, myself and Gradon Tripp of DesignBoston (schedule permitting)

Representing the Baby Boomer generation we have Jack Herman of Barnhouse Lighting (and father of John Herman, Gravityland.com creator) and Jonathan Yarmis of AMR Research

I got a phenomenal response to my call for panelists on this topic. I chose panelists in the order they shouted their interest. If you weren’t chosen, I do hope you come to the chat and participate so we can benefit from what you have to say. If you have an agenda item suggestion for us on this topic, please leave it in the comments.

See you all there!

The call recording is on TalkShoe and in the sidebar of this blog. You can also subscribe in iTunes under Topics on Fire