Guests are Brenda & Chuck Horton
hware.com
530-268-9495
brendah@hware.com
Specializing in strategic business planning for small business, startups, non-profits and government organizations.
They will be giving a seminar on Dec 15 from 9 to 4pm called Thrival.
Register before 12-12-8 & get a $50 discount.
The seminar is about…
1) How to use technology to grow your business.
2) How to recession proof your business.
3) The emerging green economy, implementing green strategies including decentralized work
4) How to create a blueprint for a business; starting with a vision, then planning and execution.

Mentioned is an example of open source software — open office openoffice.org at version 3, It's suggested make it to read & write in Microsoft Office format, rather than the default setting.

Place independent work, like cloud computing, uses remote applications and stores your data on a remote server. It allows access from anywhere using just a web browser or, sometimes, just a phone. Examples include…
MYSQL, a database for storing structured data.
salesforce.com for storing & managing information about your customers. A Salesforce demo account is available.

37signals.com created the open-source Ruby on Rails, a development framework for creating web applications.

Rich internet applications make the interface to web applications look like a desktop graphical user interface. They update your screen only with that which has changed thereby doing it faster, with less bandwidth and allowing even dial-up users a useful experience.
An example…
Basecamp by 37signals.com is for project management & collaboration.
Gmail is another example as well as docs.google.com
At hware.com, click on Learning Center for open-source (and other) links

The seminar will also cover business social networking to draw more customers to your business.

Making your site usable on a mobile device depends on what the tool you use to create the site.
Webpress can now be used to create web sites and, using plugins, it can be used optimize for mobiles.

Other cloud computing links…
docs.google.com
google.com/apps
When using the google applications, try right clicking to get the context menu.

Google's Chrome browser is mentioned. Not ready for prime time but if you want to try it go to google.com/chrome.

Google makes an application for Blackberry to allow you to search on google by talking instead of typing your search terms.
Another speech to text service, but for business only listings is 1-800-goog411

The seminar will also cover viral marketing to bring in customers.
An example of viral marketing is willitblend.com — videos of various things put in blenders.

Be careful about clicking on links in viral emails, they may lead to nefarious sites. The URLs you go to may not be what the actual text of a message says. Instead, google for, hopefully correct, links by using keywords in the particular subject of interest.

Business should..
Minimally have a web site.
Then do an online newsletter.
Then offer your customers email alerts.
Then blog.
You can create a google website for $10/yr with your own domain.

smarterbroadband.com is available for high speed connection in the Nevada City area.

Supposedly, studies show Wikipedia is as accurate as Britannica. Also, it can be corrected quickly and has an audit trail.

Other business social networking sites:
biznik.com
meetup.com

The Christmas "star" Venus along with Jupiter (& the crescent moon on 12-1-8) put on a show in the Southwest at sunset.