Over the weekend, a molehill has started to become a mountain. Or, in the view of some, a mountain became an even bigger mountain.

SageCircle posted a claim that Forrester Research will restrict its analysts from having personally-branded research blogs, implying that the policy will reduce the risk of analysts building their personal brands before bolting from the firm, taking their audiences with them.

Use of social media has become second nature to many, but one look at the range of comments on the SageCircle post reflects how strongly people still feel about the dichotomy of personal/professional social media usage and the tension around a company’s ownership of a worker’s intellectual property. Cries of Big Brother, paranoia and censorship abound, tempered by other statements that it’s good business practice or simply a matter of whose servers hold the data.

Source: speedy2

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We found this recent post by Justin Siefert especially interesting and valuable.  Not a day goes by where we aren’t having to defend our use and support of Twitter as a communications channel for our clients and for us, as a matter of fact.  Despite skepticism from late Twitter bloomers…end users are using this medium as a way to get info…and so are influencers.  Thanks for the insight, Justin…hope your eyes are better.

This Thursday night is the much anticipated “Tech The Halls: The Technologizer Holiday Bash 2009” party at Varnish Art Gallery in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood. The event is sure to entail all kinds of fun and insightful conversations with friends and colleagues from the media industry. Some of the latest consumer tech gear will be on display, and with this crowd there will be plenty of gadgets, apps, web tools and social media talk. Eastwick Communications is proud to work with Harry McCracken and Marie Domingo as the PR agency sponsor for The Technologizer Holiday Bash.

What will be the big trend of 2010 that everyone reads or writes about? How much more will we hear about the cloud? Or are you just plain curious what everyone predicts will be the talk of CES?  In what is sure to be one of the best nights of 2009, who knows what we’ll come up with as we celebrate the past year and look forward to the next one.

Registration is full, but you can participate virtually: Tag along with us between 7 and 9 PM on Twitter - hashtag is: #TechTheHalls or follow @eastwickcom. Join the conversation, ask questions or just see what’s going on with your favorite people.

A couple of stories piqued my interest today.

First, E.B. Boyd of Bay Newser reported that McSweeney’s has unveiled a preview of its broadsheet project, the San Francisco Panorama. It’s an ambitious effort to show, in essence, that print’s death has been exaggerated, its worth underestimated, and its creative potential untapped. The list of talent that is contributing to Panorama will make your head spin. To preorder a copy, click here. (Bay Area locals, apparently there is going to be a special Bay Area-only price, so hold your horses).

Story #2 is from Peter Kafka and is in regards to Will Ferrell’s “Funny or Die” setting up a channel on YouTube. You might ask why Will & crew would do such a thing, considering they already have their own site on which to host their own content.

The answer: millions of eyeballs.

It’s all about tapping into YouTube’s ridiculously large audience. They’re taking the funny over to a place where a gigantic community already exists, which should help them garner far more exposure. “Funny or Die” will still premiere content on its standalone branded site and give its loyal followers the first peek before taking it majorly mainstream.

And on that note, I leave you with the classic “Landlord” video:

It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously.” - Oscar Wilde

As anyone remotely familiar with Eastwick knows, we are big on Halloween.

Though our Black & Orange bash is on hiatus this year, our Halloween spirit is still in full effect. For the Eastwick office party, the one requirement was that people come in costume. Otherwise, all bets were off.

Everyone took the opportunity to exercise their individual creativity, sense of humor, and personality.

A passel of Eastwickers: (front row) Annemarie, Elizabeth, Katie, Sam (holding Dexter), Andrew & Tina; (back row) Elaine, Barb, Elisabeth, Lyda, Rachel, Kevin & Mo

We had:

The pop-culture phenoms: Adrian Monk and Jon Gosselin

The classic archetypes: Witches, Cat, Goddess, Valley Girl, Cowgirl and Gypsy Princess

The rockers: Def Leppard and Alice Cooper

The witty: A White Lie

The totally rad: A Chiquita Banana

Despite calling themselves “witches” for almost 20 years, two of our founders dressed as witches for the very first time.

Jon (Kevin) minus Kate, and the fastidious Mr. Monk (Andrew)

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I honor of Blog Action Day 2009 we got everyone here at Eastwick Communications involved. Check out what our awesome and bright staff have to say about Climate Change.

I am inspired by people and companies involved in The CleanTech Open who are building businesses on green and clean ideas. – Barbara Bates

I continue to be amazed by all the great, practical applications available for the iPhone, especially the green applications.  These apps make it so easy to stay current on the best food choices to make (check out the Seafood Watch app courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, transportation options (NextTrain is a good one) or connect with other like minded folks (see Twavel, where carbon calculator meets community.)  Who said it’s not easy being green?- Elaine Cummings

Rising oil and air pollution costs have caused serious environmental and economic impact and spawned a whole industry of clean tech solutions. For new, clean energy systems to be effective, we need a practical and cost-effective way to store energy. We are privileged to work with Extreme Capacitors, a company that’s tackling this challenge by developing an innovative new technology that promises a 100X improvement over the best energy storage options available today. It’s a game changer that could pave the way for wide-scale adoption of clean energy-powered cars, homes, and more.- Melissa Neumann

Middle East, Africa get State Department Funds for Social Networking – The US State Dept recently announced grants of $500,000 to $2.5 million.  The program is sponsored by the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), which provides support to the Middle East and North Africa for women’s empowerment, educational advancement, economic development, and political participation.- Mo Mahmoud

I think retailers and grocers should stop giving paper receipts. Can you imagine how much paper (i.e., trees) have been wasted from people throwing away their receipts? Companies have started to go green by encouraging paperless reports, press kits, etc, so it would be nice to have the same mentality applied to our everyday purchases. There is a lot of effort to enhance point-of-sale technology in the retail industry to make shopping more convenient for buyers, including touch screen technology. Perhaps a customer could have the receipt emailed to them via a point-of-sale (POS) kiosk and not have to worry about paper receipts ever again!!” – Elizabeth Hilton

Today’s advances with energy efficient technology and corporate social responsibility means that the large enterprises understand they need to be more eco-conscious. Given this is global concern, that’s a really good thing.- Kevin Cheng

Virtual events are sweet. Isn’t it great that you don’t even need to jump into a gas guzzler to be part of an important event? You can participate from the comfort of your own home…or desk chair. – Katie Zeiser

Technology plays both a thrilling and terrifying role in heightening awareness of climate change. Having had childhood dreams of becoming a “cloud scientist,” I’m fascinated by technology that documents unusual phenomena like noctilucent clouds, grateful for social media platforms that share that knowledge (in multimedia form, no less) to everyday people like me, and frightened that these clouds—potential harbingers of environmental change wrought by global warming—aren’t as unusual as one might hope.  – Rachel Shelton

I think what’s most exciting about working with cutting edge technology clients, especially those working to reduce carbon footprints due to computing, is the sense of passion they convey to be “green.” I get to be on the inside of how computing companies are transforming their respective industries without negatively impacting the environment – it’s a win-win situation for everyone!- Andrew Evangelista

It’s very exciting to see the promise of rapid growth in clean tech and how there is huge potential to positively impact our current economy and environment…Optimism is good!- Joanna Andrade

With the exception of David Letterman, we all know that business and pleasure don’t mix.  But the line drawn between personal and business social networking keeps getting fuzzier everyday.  We’ve all seen our outgoing co-workers’ embarrassing party pictures on the same Facebook page they promote client news on.

For this, and many other reasons, I’m not surprised by the results of a recent survey by Robert Half Technology.  According to the survey of 1,400 CIOs, 54 percent said their companies completely prohibit employees visiting social networking sites while at work.  Fair enough.  What really interested me was that 19 percent permit employees to use social networks for business purposes only.  Good luck with that.

The Robert Half survey came one day after Deloitte’s 2009 Tribalization of Business Study found that 94 percent of enterprises are looking to maintain or increase investment in social media and communities.  Only 6 percent plan to make less of an investment.  The survey included more than 400 companies.

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Facebook: Then and Now

Source: Tyra Show

• Initiation of “Facebook Stalking”- Spending an exorbitant amount of time going through your friends’, and friends-of-friends’, pictures and profile contents. This was my first exposure to staying informed. I hope they highlight that in The Facebook Movie. Good luck, Mr. Sexy Back.
• Groups only in your college network- Groups were only within college networks. I’m still in b#$ch please, I’m from California! (BU Chapter).
  • Today, groups can be international and mobilize the target audience. For example: Election ‘08- One million strong for Barack Obama. His PR team deserves a thumbs-up, “I like.”
    

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Congrats to Eastwick client StudentAid.com (www.studentaid.com) for launching its flagship product — a first-of-its-kind report to help students and families understand the true cost of college before they even apply.  Having been through the college routine a few times already with my step kids, I know that at best, the process is confusing and at worst, totally overwhelming.

Add to that, savings and investments are plummeting and many people are scrambling to figure out how they’ll pay for college.  The College Cost & Planning Report^TM comes at the right time - just as all those high school juniors and seniors are trying to figure out where they want to go and their parents are trying to figure out how to foot the bill.  Believe it or not, there is no other place a student or parent can find out what grants or aid will be available before the student applies.  The true cost of college only becomes apparent once the student is accepted and financial aid letters show up in mailboxes.  The folks at StudentAid.com are on a mission to change this picture with an affordable product (under $100) that will take the guesswork out of how to plan and pay for college.  And putting their money where their mouths are, they are also making the report available at no charge for the neediest students through their Access for All program.  With all the coverage that’s been coming out in the major media about the rising cost of college tuition, StudentAid.com is ready to jump into the conversation.  If you have a pre-college student or parent, I think you¹ll like what StudentAid.com has to say.

Check out of some of our favorite clips from VentureBeat and FOXBusiness!

Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.” He alludes to the fact that with an education comes the opportunity for people to thrive.  But what happens to those whose chance at an education is limited?

Because the Mexican government provides education only through the sixth grade, students who want to attend Middle School (Secondario) or High School (Preparatorio) must travel long distances and pay tuition.  As you can imagine, an “extended” education becomes less important when families barely have the means to survive, let alone prosper.

The Beca Program

This is exactly the case with many of the children that Eastwick’s pro bono client Comunidad Para Baja California serves.  As a non-profit dedicated to providing health care and educational services to the indigenous communities of Baja California, Comunidad is committed to providing assistance to students with the desire to continue their studies. The cost of attending Prepatorio and Secondario is $200/year, so Comunidad developed a Beca (scholarship) program to help tribal children pay the additional schooling expenses and keep their focus on education, rather than having to go work in the fields or factories.

Unfortunately, this year Comunidad has over 100 Nativo (native) children who will not be able to continue their schooling because of lack of funds. For just $200, it is possible to provide a student with tuition, books, transportation, uniform and room/board for an entire year.

Make a Difference

Eastwick would like to encourage anyone interested in truly changing the fate of these young children to visit the Comunidad site to learn more and donate to this specific cause.  Your donation can truly determine whether a child can break the hold of poverty and ignorance and take control of his or her life.

Contact

Teresa Moreno, Comunidad Beca Director

Teresa@teifeld.com
All contributions are tax-deductible.