Originally posted on Examiner.com

Social media blog, Mashable, recently announced a partnership with the location based social gaming site, Foursquare, to share tips and recommendations based on where users check in. The Mashable reporters and editors that you enjoy reading on the blog will now provide insider information based on the places they’ve been.

The partnership will focus on social media venues, tech gatherings and startup headquarters but will also provide personal recommendations for places to eat and hang out.

Foursquare is approach one million check ins and although primarily seen as a game, is starting to become a resource for folks that check in at various locations. In addition to the partnership with Mashable, Foursquare is known for working with businesses across the country to provide deals to customers that check in. For example, Starbuck’s is currently offering free beverages to the “mayor” of the various locations in San Francisco.

To learn more about the partnership, click here.

Originally published on bub.blicio.us

Fashionistas around the globe have probably already stumbled across the wonder that is Moxsie.com. I’m a casual shopper and frequent online deal finder but a fashionista, I am not. Imagine my excitement when I stumbled across an ad on PerezHilton for a bag that I instantly fell in love with (yes, I just admitted my guilty pleasures, bags and celebrity gossip).

The ad directed me to Moxsie.com, a Palo Alto based shopping site that helps visitors discover independent fashion designers. The products available are well priced, well made and most are wearable. I selected my bag and quickly purchased it and I learned something even more exciting than the opportunity to find unique products. I discovered that with each purchase, a portion of the proceeds are donated to a charity that the shopper can select from a preset list. There is no additional cost to the consumer and the charities are close the the heart of the designers and Moxsie team. What a great way to enjoy your shopping and give back at the same time.

If you click through the ad on Perezhilton, you get 15% off your purchase instantly. Happy Shopping!

As part of my job, I spend a lot of time researching blogs and bloggers that would be interested in a variety of topics including everything from politics to magic. There are an amazing amount of blogs out there and every now and again, I stumble across a blog that is a true gem.

Radicalparenting.com is site that approached parenting from a different perspective, the teenagers. A blog only makes up a portion of the site with those posts covering everything from teen trends to building confidence in teens. In addition to the blog portion of the site there are videos and other resources so parents and teens can get a little closer to being on the same page. Finding a way to bridge the communication gap between parents and teens is a challenge, with RadicalParenting making that gap a little smaller.

Vanessa Van Petten, author and founder of RadicalParenting.com, was kind enough to answer a few questions for the Bub.blicio.us audience. A teen herself when she began to explore the teen mentality, is 24 years old and provides a unique perspective on parenting by providing an opportunity for teens and their parents to connect through the social web.

What inspired you to create Radicalparenting.com?

I wanted to hear the teen voice in all of the parenting blogs out there. What did teens think about their behavior and what parents should do.

Who is the primary audience of your blog?

Parents of tweens and teens.

What type of feedback have you received from teens and their parents?

We have had an amazing response with over 200,000 reading the blog and we get applications for inters every week!

Where do you see Radicalparenting.com going in the next few years?

We plan to have even more teen writers to give them a voice and hopefully a few partnerships to expand our webinar and ebook offers.

As someone who is neither a teen or a parent, it’s interesting to read through issues and topics that are important to teens and how much that demographic has evolved since I was a teen and will continue to evolve. During my teen years, I would have loved having a resource like this so I wouldn’t have to explain to my parents what a Facebook wall is or what LOL means, I would just direct them to this site and roll my eyes (yep, I was an eye roller as a teen). There are also great opportunities for teens to participate in the site as a contributer and intern.

Have any Friday Find recommendations? Email me at pseudotechgirl@gmail.com

I love having the opportunity to connect with people through social media tools. I’ve reconnected with old friend, built bridges with former acquaintances and stayed in contact with those I see on a more frequent basis. From best friend to networking buddies, we’re all connected through one social network site or another.

A few weeks ago, I thought this would be a great tool to help my brother connect with some of the friends he’s made over the years. Let me tell you a little about big my brother, Peter. He has cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic. He can’t speak or communicate beyond a simple nod “yes” or “no”. He’s smart and stubborn, like all men in my family, and has a lot to offer the world, even though his body may limit him most of the time.

My brother and I get together to update Facebook as often as we can. It can be as simple as sharing what he had for dinner or posting the artwork he creates at one of his programs, Creativity Explored. He attends a program each weekday so it’s become an opportunity for communication between his aids and my family. His aids can share if he had a good day or a bad one and what they did so we know to ask Peter the right questions.

Facebook has also allowed for Peter to connect with his friends that have similar limitations. They may never be able to “talk” to one another but they can communicate through their Facebook pages and the person managing that page. I run everything by my brother before I post it and we play Farmville together. It’s not perfect but has opened so many communication doors. It has even inspired my brother to be interested in his communications device that he’s long given up on because it’s a challenge to learn to use. Bringing that enthusiasm into that challenge was difficult but Peter’s activities on Facebook presented and opportunity to reintroduce the idea.

My brother has 17 friends on Facebook. If this were a numbers race or some kind of client launch, it may not be viewed as a success but what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past few weeks is beyond measurable. There is not measurable ROI beyond the smile on his face when I show him some of the comments on his wall or the pictures posted by a friend. This is where I see the true value of social media: giving a voice to those that didn’t have one before.

*If you’re interested in checking out additional art by my brother and other artists at Creativity Explored, please click here for times/dates of gallery showings in San Francisco”

My computer is my life. Yes, that’s a bold statement but almost everything I do is tied to this one electronic. I know some people are tied to their phones or their cars but for me, my computer is everything.

My personal computer is also my work computer. It’s relatively new and still under the Apple store warranty so when the track pad started to act weird, I made an appointment with the Genius Bar to get it fixed. The Genius takes a look and finally convinces me to back up my data (smart!) and tells me the repair will take anywhere from one to four days (what?!?)

I can survive a weekend without my computer, I’ll plan ahead but four days could mean two full work days without a computer or access to important documents and information that I need. Sure, it’s all backed up now but I need to have the computer to access it.

I do have a Samsung Netbook (with a missing “M” on the keyboard) so I will have some access and my lovely iPhone functions almost like a Netbook. I won’t be without any access but I will be a challenge to be computer free for up to four days.

This is such a difficult decision. Do I bring in my computer on Friday after work and hope that it only takes until Sunday or do I just deal with a slightly less than perfect track pad? Addiction and separation anxiety is clearly how computer companies keep people from getting their products fixed. This is going to be touch…

Originally published on bub.blicio.us

Just a few more days until Thanksgiving followed quickly by Black Friday, the official beginning of the holiday shopping season. It’s true, there are some amazing deals that can be found on Black Friday but those deals come at a price. Waking up ridiculously early to shop with thousands of other people trying to get the best price on a new television or pair of designer jeans. This can be incredibly effective but the benefit doesn’t always out weight the difficulties, especially for a non-shopper. That’s where the web comes in.

For the non-shopper, there is another great shopping day, the Monday after Thanksgiving (this year, that is November 30th). Cyber Monday, the official kick off of the online shopping season, is a huge day for online retailers. This is the perfect time to track down great deals online, free shipping and discount codes. This may require waking up early but nothing beats the ease of shopping in your pajamas for those prized holiday gifts.

Of course, the web is vast so finding those deals can be another challenge. That’s where CyberMonday.com comes in. This site is the central hub for Cyber Monday deals at every store from Home Depot to Overstock.com and everything in between. They consolidate the deals from over 650 online retailers making it easy to search and find what you’re looking for. You can shop by category, deal of the week or a simple search.

So here’s my early holiday present to all of you, enjoy the Friday after Thanksgiving and worry about gifts for the holidays on Cyber Monday.

Happy Shopping!

Originally published on bub.blicio.us

Regardless of your stance on the healthcare debate, on Saturday the 7th history was made. Like so many others out there, I learned about this via Twitter. It was utilized successfully to help President Obama connect during his campaign and he has continued to use Twitter to communicate with his followers (all 2,620,260). This is the tweet shared after the vote:

Not too long ago, our access to politicians was limited to their “State of the (city, state, country) Addresses” and information shared through the press secretary. We now have unprecedented access thanks to social media. Some politicians are quick to jump into Twitter because they believe it will help them win elections. Others are true believers in the tool and how it allows them to connect with the supporters and non-supporters alike.

I am a big fan of lists so I’ve pulled together my list of the most interesting politicians to follow on Twitter. By interesting, I don’t mean that they have a similar viewpoint to mine, which means there are representatives from both parties and can lead to some entertaining updates. The list is in alphabetical order, enjoy!

• http://twitter.com/BarackObama
• http://twitter.com/Barbara_Boxer
• http://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley
• http://twitter.com/clairecmc
• http://twitter.com/EricCantor
• http://twitter.com/gavinNewsom
• http://twitter.com/joebiden
• http://twitter.com/JoeSestak
• http://twitter.com/schwarzenegger
• http://twitter.com/senjohnmccain

Originally published on bub.blicio.us

You can learn anything on the Internet. I recently decided to take a few a few violin lessons and when I went to pick up my rental, the shop owner asked me if I was going to be taking lessons. I responded with “Of course, how else would I learn to play the violin?”. Her response was classic, “Kids now a days try to learn everything on YouTube”. I planned to take lessons but thought I would check out videos on YouTube to quench my curiosity. One broken string and ten dollars later, I decided to stick with the in-person lessons I’ve already scheduled.

That did get me thinking about the amazing amount of topics that can be learned about online. As Gary Vaynerchuk said in his new books, Crush It, “skills are cheap”. Here are some free and/or cheap resources for finding online skill development opportunities whether for personal use or professional development.

Youtube.com: You can find almost any kind of video here. Whether you’re looking for music lessons or how to fix an appliance, you can find it here.

Gradschools.com: If you’re looking for a degree you can find both online and in person programs here.

Food Network: Recipes, tips and tricks to help improve your cooking skills. Yum!

DIY network: All sorts of tips on how to make and fix everything. There are a lot of fun do it yourself projects to be found.

Originally published on bub.blicio.us

As I shared my recent concert experience via Twitter (and this blog and YouTube) this past weekend, I wondered if anyone would be interested in hearing about it the next day since all the good bits were already published. For being a new media lover, I’m old school by nature and it took some conditioning to share any personal details online but have I crossed that line and become an oversharer?

Occasionally, we all cross the line between “informative” and “too much information” but before social media, those moments were quickly forgotten only to be retold as a funny story between friends. Not anymore, we are living more and more public lives and sharing our personal information on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.

I was recently introduced to a blog that chronicles social media oversharing, Oversharers.com. The posts range from funny to gross to NSFW (you have been warned). The blog is a great example that no matter who you are or where you post, remember that your audience may not be limited to your friends and loved ones. So take this as a pre-Halloween cautionary tale, before you describe the revenge your stomach takes on you for your over indulgence in candy corn, think about how much you don’t want that information to appear on this blog the next day.

If only there were an Oversharers Anonymous…

Originally published on bub.blicio.us

On Saturday, I had the fortune of attending and being back stage at the Bridge School Benefit Concert in Mountain View, CA. Before jumping into the concert, I want to share a bit more about the Bridge School and the impact that this benefit has on the students.

The annual concert, now in it’s 23rd year, is the primary source of funding for the Bridge School. The school was founded in 1986 and opened to students in 1987 and my brother, Peter Schlegel, was a member of the inaugural class. Founded by Pegi Young and Jim Forderer, the school was created to meet the needs of kids with severe speech and physical impairments. A group that is marginalized more often than not, the focus on these kids prepares them to lead fulfilling lives.

The concert itself was an amazing musical experience. This year, the show featured Neil Young, No Doubt, Chris Martin (of Coldplay), Jimmy Buffet, Sheryl Crow, Monsters of Folk, Fleet Foxes, Wolfmother and Gavin Rossdale. Adam Sandler is scheduled to perform in place of Jimmy Buffet during the Sunday show. What’s unique about this benefit is that the artists all perform acoustic sets.

No Doubt was by far my favorite performer of the day. Students from the school are seated on the stage behind the artists, which presents a challenge for the musicians, performing for both the kids and the audience at Shoreline Amphitheater. Gwen Stefani and her band were the most successful with that by singing to both the kids and the audience throughout the set. Chris Martin was also amazing. As a solo performer, singing Coldplay songs, he had the unique challenge of using just his voice and a piano to woo the 20,000 or so people in the audience. He did it beautifully and was joined by a violin-playing friend of his after the first song. He was funny, making jokes about his bad choice in hat (which had a “where’s Waldo?” feel) and sharing an incredible musical performance.

Earlier in the evening, Jimmy Buffet took the stage with his happy island music and all had a good time dancing to songs like “Margaritaville”. Sheryl Crow shared an emotional set featuring a lullaby she composed for her son. Monsters of Folk and Fleet Foxes were new bands to me but both impressed the crowd, making the most of the acoustic sets. I was a little late so I missed Wolfmother and Gavin Rossdale but I heard good reviews from the people around me.

This is the one show I look forward to every year. The tickets seem a little pricey but you always get your money worth and it’s all for a good cause. I realize that this post has absolutely nothing to do with social media but is an event that I want to share with the community, especially bay area based people who may be interested in attending next year.

To learn more about the Bridge School, please visit: http://www.bridgeschool.org/

To check out the videos I recorded at the concert head over to my YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/schlegelsteph