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New IRS Reporting Requirements for Debit/Credit Transactions

The IRS has implemented new compliance requirements through Internal Revenue Code Section 6050W that will affect all merchants (including government and non-profit entities). Beginning in calendar year 2011, all merchants will be required to report gross payments received through debit or credit card transactions to the IRS on an annual basis. To verify this reporting, banks and merchant service providers will be required to provide both merchants and the IRS with Form 1099-K by January of 2012.

7 Tips for Protecting your Online Identity

On July 2nd, 2011 I encountered my first (known) online identity theft.  Someone successfully hacked into my Facebook account using a Mountainview, CA IP address and proceeded to impersonate me using my Facebook messaging and posting to Facebook friend's walls.  They also setup a fake Yahoo email account using my name in the email address and solicited Facebook friends whose email addresses were available from their Facebook profile.

The solicitation emails claimed that I was injured in a car accident while attending a conference on climate change in London, my cell phone was lost in the accident and I needed money for hospital bills and airfare to return home. 

Fortunately no one that I know of fell for the scam, however one person did engage in a conversation using Facebook messaging in an approach towards responding out of concern for me.  Some Facebook friends saw it immediately for what it was and responded very firmly telling the hacker to get lost, knowing that I would never send an email solicitation like that.

Facebook security locked my account within 1 hour of the occurrence and required that I use their security system to verify my ownership of the account before I could get control back.

Here are 7 lessons I learned that you might find helpful:

1. If this ever happens to you, immediately change the password to any email account that you have associated with your Facebook account.  Hackers usually gain access to your email first and then move on to your Facebook account. 
2. Verify that your forwarding rules have not been changed in your email account.  Hackers who gain control often change the forwarding rules so that they can access your incoming emails.
3. Setup and adhere to a regular schedule for changing your on-line passwords.
4. Use alphanumeric passwords whenever possible.
5. Use different passwords for email accounts and social networking sites.
6. Be wary of 3rd party applications that connect to your Facebook or other social networking accounts in order to share information on your wall.  Some of these applications may in fact disclose your password to cyber criminals.
7. Hide your email address(es) on your Facebook information tab.  Hackers who gain entry to your Facebook Friend's accounts will be able to harvest your email address to use in their cyber criminal efforts.

Tips to Avoid the Risk of Losing Your Social Media Profile(s)

I have personally heard from more than one person who lost the access to some of their social media accounts and profiles because they only associated a company email address with their account.  Not a great idea if you lose your job or leave the company.  Your employer owns your email account and usually deletes it when you leave.

For example, if your company email address is the primary and only email address associated with your LinkedIn profile, you stand to lose your profile access and all of your network contacts.  Here is a tip right from the LinkedIn site:

You can change, add or remove email addresses on your LinkedIn account from the Settings page. We strongly recommend that you have more than one email address on your account. This will allow you to sign in to your account if you lose access to your primary email address. Your primary email address is where you want LinkedIn communications to be sent.

 

To see your current email settings:

1. Move your cursor over your name in the top right of your home page and then click Settings.
2. Go to the Personal Information section and click Email Addresses.

Is Social Media Fomenting a Revolution Against Your Organization?

It is clear that the recent revolutionary activity in the Middle East can be attributed in part to the role that social media has played in creating communication channels for citizens to express their malcontent and to rally others around a cause.  Some are even calling it a digital revolution, while in China, the term "Jasmine Revolution" has been blocked on the country's Internet and even the seemingly business minded LinkedIn has been banned because the group function can be used to spread information about a cause.

There is one key ingredient that takes a revolution to the streets, and that is passion for the cause.  If people believe strongly in the cause, they will even take risks to their own life in order to see the fruit of their passion.  So, thanks in part to social media, dictators have been put on notice.

So, let's examine the parallel between the dictator powered regimes and the association world.  Organizations who do not operate transparently are in danger of being overruled by individuals who care deeply about the organization's cause.  Even a hint or perception of a tight network of "cronies" running an organization behind a veil of secrecy is cause for a revolution.

While social media has the potential of doing great things, perhaps one of the greatest benefits is the pressure that it puts on organizations to operate transparently.  Your organization and its leaders may not have any intention of wrong doing, but may be overcome by just the perception.  Now is not the time to "block out" the network.  Rather it is time to listen in and hear what your caring community is talking about.

Social Media Revolution Vs 2

Erik Qualman, the creator of the original viral video, "Social Media Revolution", has done it again with his latest video, "Social Media Revolution 2".

The need for the video to be revised just 10 months after its original debut is an example of the speed at which social media is developing, growing, and improving constantly.

So how are YOU using this explosive tool to reach your association market?

 

Fun with my favorite PICO Projector

Tired of paying those exorbitant rental fees for an LCD projector?  Well, now for less than the rental cost, you can have your own pocket sized projector for small meetings and board rooms.  I've been using my Cinemin Swivel with great success.

It comes with all of the connectivity you need for your iPhone, iPod or iPad and you can get an optional cable to attach to your PC, too.  I use my Cinemin Swivel with an iPad and the Keynotes App.  Works great, and it fits easily into my computer bag. 

I bought mine at Brookstone ($279.95).

Here is a video with more information.

Flip Video Bundle: Two 1-Hour HD Video Cameras and One Tripod

Techsoup is offering a Flib Video Bundle to qualifying organizations for a $175 admin. Fee.  The Flip Video camera is one of the easiest to use, pocket sized cameras in HD.  I use the Flip to record on the fly video testimonials, capture clips of presentations and more.  It is easy to learn how to use digital storytelling to your advantage in this Learning Center article, Digital Storytelling: A Tutorial in 10 Easy Steps.

This donation is available to nonprofits with 501(c)(3) designation and to public libraries. Public libraries must either have valid 501(c)(3) nonprofit status or be listed in the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) database.

via home.techsoup.org

Group Collaboration Anyone? Good-bye Google.

I love technology, and in the worst of moments, I hate it too.  Sound familiar?  One of my recent frustrations is that Google has discontinued "Pages" on its group sites.  Care to guess how many groups I have setup in Google?  Clue: Way too many!  Another challenge with Google is getting the less tech savvy group members up the learning curve of creating a Google account. Yes, believe it or not, there are people who don't 'belong'.

So, along comes Wiggio.  Created by two Cornell grads, this site puts and end to the multiple sites and configurations for managing groups.  And you can invite people to your group without them having a Wiggio account.  Multiple groups?  Simply toggle between the groups.  Multiple calendars?  Consolidate the view so that all of your group activities are shown in one calendar.

Communicating?  You have email, text messaging, voice and post-it note options.  Virtual meetings and conference calls?  No problem.  Check it out, you'll love the intuitive user interface, too.

I'm so excited I won't be able to sleep tonight!  Good-bye Google....well Google Groups, anyway.

Getting the Most out of Your Professional Network

I've been using Gist for a few months now and I'm really getting to the point where I find the information that it provides invaluable.  If you haven't used Gist, you may want to check it out, and I'm providing you with a brief video overview which may help you understand the program more effectively than I can put in words.

What I like about the program is that it creates a side-bar for MS Outlook and also plugs into gmail.  It provides you with a real time synopsis of how you are connected with the individual and if they are using social media, it provides you with their latest updates.  If I get an inbound email from an individual, the latest information about that contact is immediately displayed in the side-bar. Your website account allows you to add details to your imported contacts and create annotations, groups and more.

I can really impress someone who is on the phone when I call up that information with a simple click.  It is also displayed when I start typing an email address in a new mail message.  How cool is that?

And of course, there is an app for that.  Gist has just announced a new i-phone app that you can use to help develop your memory when it comes to names and faces.  It will randomly call up the faces of your contacts (pulled from their social media sites) and quiz you to see if you can match the face with a name.

I've Been to the Future and There is No Google

I've been to the future and there is no Google. (Gasp!) For some reason my computer clock decided it is 7/30/7075. Of course the windows calendar doesn't think that far ahead but it did calculate that the Google security certificate was out of the computer's date range and so my email wouldn't download from gmail.

At first I didn't notice that my clock was incorrect.  It was when I went to setup a reminder in Outlook 2007 that I noticed the year was set at 2099 (the end date range for the windows calendar).  As I went exploring I noticed that my sent emails were dated in the year 1601. 

It wasn't that hard to correct, other than in order to reset the clock I had to scroll back through the years.  Trying to synchronize with an online clock didn't work.

Well, so much for a look into the future.  It wasn't that exciting.