Posts Tagged ‘Current Events’

We are launching this year’s first-ever fall fundraiser with a bang, or a riddle rather. While displaying the theme and all the accoutrements would be ok, we wanted to produce a little mystery for our YPCers to solve. So, while you wait with baited breath and exhausting anticipation for the many, many details to come, answer this riddle and you can receive $5 off your event ticket.  

Shorter days and longer nights 
Make for mysterious gatherings and festal sights

Relax and mingle with the unknown 
And prepare for fun we may or may not condone 

The everyday is veiled from show
When we dim the lights and turn the bass down low 

What appears anonymous on surface may be
Something familiar cloaked in secrecy  

Uncover the theme of our affair
And a discount on your ticket we will share 

What we can tell you about the event: 

Saturday, October 24 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Mars Gallery (1139 W. Fulton Market)

• Open bar and appetizers
• Raffle
• Silent auction
• Great music
• Ridiculous amounts of fun
• After party at Market with drink specials

YPC will offer reduced ticket pricing for the first 100 people to register, $30 for YPC members, $40 for non-members. Prices will go up closer to the event.

Facebook recently announced that users can create a personalized URL to their facebook pages. [For example, facebook.com/ErinEWright]

This option goes into effect on Saturday June 13, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. EST.

Facebook has also created an online form for TM owners to prevent their trademarks from being registered as usernames by other Facebook users.

Trademark owners can reserve their trademarks on Facebook by completing this form.

If you’re interested, the Facebook Blog provides more information and commentary. Facebook FAQ is also helpful.

Sorry to begin the title of this post with a sort of “non-word”. However, with all the talk about the troubled economic state of our nation I have been hearing the term “recession-proofing” in relation to many things: recession-proofing your relationship, your business, your budget, your IRA/401K, and the list goes on and on. I am sure that there are several more articles and pieces of advice out there about recession-proofing your happiness, so here is my take on the matter.

I thought that this would be a very important topic to address due to the sheer magnitude of the effect that this recession has had on people in every sector of our society. As a therapist, I have seen the emotional toll that this challenging time has taken on my patients from all walks of life. It seems that individuals from all socioeconomic levels have been affected in some way, be it in loss of savings or employment, increased stress in marriages and relationships, loss of role identification in relation to being the “breadwinner”, and multiple other ways. So, no matter who you are or where you are in your life or your career, it is likely that this recession has affected you in some way too. In my opinion, a major contributor to this atmosphere of (seeming) hopelessness and limitation has been the extremely negative focus that seems to be present in most of the media coverage related to this topic. Of course, I am not advocating that we all “put our heads in the sand” and pretend that this situation is not serious and challenging, because it is. But I think that there must be a way to achieve a balance between realistically appraising the situation so that we can all take steps to ensure the protection of our families and futures, and identifying how this difficult time may facilitate our personal growth and looking towards a more optimistic and hopeful future. Because the problem is that when all you hear from the media is negative feedback about how horrible the world is, and how it will continue to get even more horrible before it gets any better, it is very difficult to hold on to a positive attitude. And, having an optimistic outlook not only improves the quality of our lives (i.e., increasing life satisfaction and happiness, contributing to better health and more effective management of stress), but the absence of optimism can make it more difficult to navigate some of the disastrous effects of this recession. In my experience, having a negative or hopeless attitude makes it more difficult to obtain employment, communicate effectively in relationships, be supportive of others, and make choices in life that will result in positive outcomes. Also, I have observed that being hopeless about life increases stress and causes other physical health problems, which can exacerbate financial or other issues that are already existent.

In light of all of this, I have come up with a few simple suggestions that may assist you in maintaining a positive attitude despite the hopeless atmosphere that is present all around us at this time.****

1. Surround yourself with positive people as much as possible. Attitudes are usually “contagious”, so if you are spending most of your time with individuals who have a persistently negative attitude it will be much more difficult for you to maintain a hopeful outlook.

 

 

2. Don’t be afraid to change the subject when you are having a conversation with someone who is bringing you down. Of course we all need to vent from time to time, especially during these troubled times, and being a “shoulder to cry on” for loved ones is usually appreciated and reciprocated. But if you find yourself having discussions with a particular person that always seem to deteriorate into negativity, exercise your freedom to change the topic to something that is more conducive to your own well-being. Each person has the right to choose what information they would like to take in, and to limit conversational topics that make them feel bad or uncomfortable.

 

 

3. Meditation, exercise, and yoga have helped many people to relieve stress and achieve a more balanced and calm state of mind. However, since each person is different choose an activity that is helpful to you in reducing stress and increasing peace; the most important thing is that you take some time, no matter how little, to do something exclusively for and about yourself. It may not seem easy to take time out of your extremely busy day for the luxury of self-focused time. Try to do this as much as possible, and of course do not beat yourself up for not doing it as much as you think you should because this defeats the whole purpose!

 

 

4. Acknowledge the real difficulties that this time in history has caused you. Pretending that our problems do not exist usually makes it even more difficult to stop thinking about them, and makes it impossible to gather our internal resources to effectively find solutions. You can think about your problems as things that you would like to see change in your life, and focus on how you can use your personal strengths to accomplish this. It is also important to remember that there are many things in our lives that are not under our control, and sometimes all we can do is “weather the storm” until the next inspiration or solution comes along. But focusing on how our personal talents and assets can assist us in taking an active role in shaping our lives, and appreciating the aspects of our lives that we are happy with and grateful for, can provide an increased sense of control and self-efficacy.

**** These tips do not constitute medical or psychological advice or counseling, please contact a licensed medical provider or therapist if you feel you need help.

There is a lot of doom and gloom out there. With all the grim headlines, it’s pretty easy to feel down and out about your job search. If you were laid off, downsized, or euphemized, then it’s hard to stay positive and vigilant about taking a bright, successful next step.

The good news is that there are some recession-proof industries such as education, healthcare, energy, and the environmental sector that are still hiring. There are also a few great tips for any job seeker in any industry to help with a difficult job search:

1. Network, network, network.

You’ve heard it before – networking is the key to getting a job. Recruiting directors want a safe, easy hire. If they met you at a networking event or if your name was passed along to them by a friend or colleague, then you likely will stand out from the sea of candidates and resumes.

For some reason, many people dread this horrible word, “Networking”. Really, networking is just having conversations with your friends, family, colleagues, and peers. Here are just a few ideas to get started:

□ Your friends’ parents

□ Your parents’ friends

□ Your dentist

□ Your neighbors

□ Your college professors

□ Your alumni association

□ Your hair stylist

Talk to everyone you know. Reach out, and let them know what you’re seeking. You may be surprised with all of the connections your Uncle Phil has.

2. Join a professional organization.

Even though you are out of a job, you want to stay in the game. By joining a professional organization, you can stay up-to-date with industry news and developments. Of course, you also will meet leaders in your field. You can learn from them and make professional connections at numerous companies.

3. Volunteer your time.

Now that you have a little extra time on your hands, it’s the perfect opportunity to volunteer in your community. Serve on a board, organize a neighborhood recycling program, or design marketing pieces for a charity pro-bono. Helping others gets you off of the couch and thinking positively. You may even develop your skills and meet someone who can help you get a job.

4. Think differently.

If you’ve been out of work for awhile, it may be time to broaden your view on what your next step could be. Instead of one of the top, five advertising agencies, would you like to work at a regional agency or in the advertising department in-house? Maybe you can relocate or make a career change. You may even take a 10% pay cut, but you can bargain for an extra week of vacation. Think creatively on how you can make a successful next step.

5. Be Persistent.

It’s not going to be easy. Unfortunately, the game has changed a little bit, and companies can afford to be more selective. You’re going to have to network a lot, apply for numerous positions, and receive a few rejections. Hang in there. Follow up with recruiting directors if they don’t get back to you. If you didn’t meet anyone at the last networking event, go to another one. Who knows when you will be in the right place talking to the right person at the right time.

The virtual property an avatar acquires in a virtual world can have meaning and significance in the real world. After my last post, I wondered if people were thinking: “Who cares?” To answer this question, my goal is to show how virtual world activity can touch everyones’ lives, even if you do not have an avatar.

Back in the 1990s, the Internet started out as a one-dimensional interface where people would look up information. This version was analogous to a massive encyclopedia. Web 2.0 came along and brought us Facebook, LinkedIn, online chatting, etc. Web 2.0 allows us to interact with one another, instead of the unilateral search-and-find of the old days. This back story is important because it is likely to become extinct in the future. The Internet’s next gen interface will be 3-D. The future of the Internet will be structured so that we will move around the Internet much like we do our real-lives, instead of jumping from website to website like we do now. In the near future, it is likely that if you wanted to look up information about the Battle of Gettysburg online, your avatar would go to the virtual library and poke around in the virtual books, or you could visit Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, instead of googling Gettysburg and looking at pictures.

The future of the Internet is this 3-D model, so how does this affect you (and the company you work for)? First, it’s likely that the company you work for, the university you attended, or your next vacation spot, already exists in the virtual world. It is more likely than not that something linked to you exists in the virtual world. Second, whether it happens now or later, at some point, you’ll be connected to the virtual world directly, either by creating an avatar or knowing someone who has. Whether you or your employer are involved with virtual worlds now or later, here are some real world legal implications.

• Intellectual Property

You may decide to expand your small business to the virtual world to increase your visibility, and you may post your registered trademarks. Or, the company you work for may have trademarked goods or services that exist in the virtual world. Unfortunately, trademark infringement is rampant in the virtual world, largely because trademark owners are not aware of this activity. For instance, most virtual watches purchased in Second Life are Rolex, but none are trademarked. Counterfeit goods and services in the virtual world may lead to brand tarnishment. In addition, the longer the trademark infringement goes on, the more support builds for trademark abandonment which leaves the trademark owner with no recourse whatsoever.

• Taxes

Virtual property transactions that result in tangible income accumulation raise tax questions. Broadly speaking, virtual world transactions are only taxable when they are converted into “real” money. Yet this assertion grows far more complicated when we consider the magnitude of virtual world economies. The IRS has said that as early as 2001, the GNP within virtual worlds was equivalent to about $135M. That GNP per user was roughly equal to the per capita GNP of Russia. Some economists estimate that this translates to avatars earning roughly $3.42 an hour, which is more than some earn in many developing countries. You, your employer, or your company could be taxed based on your virtual earnings.

• Employment Law Considerations

Whether you or your employer hires an avatar in the virtual world, or whether your employer sets guidelines for what its employees can do in the virtual world, there may be employment law considerations. When hiring an avatar in the virtual world, you really can’t ascertain who you’re hiring. Employers need to be thinking about whether they are complying with child labor laws, and the reporting of income guidelines. In the future, the issue may become whether minimum wage regulations apply.  To the extent that employers regulate what employees’ avatars may do in the virtual world,  employers should specify business appropriate avatar behavior and appearance.

• Privacy Considerations

Just like your workplace emails are not private, your business meetings/conversations/transactions on Second life aren’t private. This is important because say your employer sets up a virtual world business meeting about existing products, the information being discussed is being stored. The question your employer needs to determine is who has access to that stored information? An employer’s trade secrets could potentially be divulged. Equally as damning, an avatar’s personal information including items purchased, social interactions, and the net worth of the avatar, could be divulged. In the aggregate, statistics on avatar behavior could be as valuable as our searching behavior on Google is to Google’s advertisers.

The take-away is this: virtual worlds are expanding and eventually will impact all of us, either directly or indirectly. Whether you, your employer, or your company are engaged in the virtual world, it is important to understand how avatars operate within the interface, and the consequences from doing so.

There is a lot of doom and gloom out there. With all the grim headlines, it’s pretty easy to feel down and out about your job search. If you were laid off, downsized, or euphemized, then it’s hard to stay positive and vigilant about taking a bright, successful next step.

The good news is that there are some recession-proof industries such as education, healthcare, energy, international business, and the environmental sector that are still hiring. There are also a few great tips for any job seeker in any industry to help with a difficult job search:

1. Network, network, network.

You’ve heard it before – networking is the key to getting a job. Recruiting directors want a safe, easy hire. If they met you at a networking event or if your name was passed along to them by a friend or colleague, then you likely will stand out from the sea of candidates and resumes.

For some reason, many people dread this horrible word, “Networking”. Really, networking is just having conversations with your friends, family, colleagues, and peers.  Talk to everyone you know – your friends, your parent’s friends, your friends’ parents, your old college professors, your alumni association, etc.  Reach out, and let them know what you’re seeking. You may be surprised with all of the connections your Uncle Phil has.

2. Join a professional organization.

Even though you are out of a job, you want to stay in the game. By joining a professional organization, you can stay up-to-date with industry news and developments. Of course, you also will meet leaders in your field. You can learn from them and make professional connections at numerous companies.

3. Volunteer your time.

Now that you have a little extra time on your hands, it’s the perfect opportunity to volunteer in your community. Serve on a board, organize a recycling program for your condo, or design marketing pieces for a charity. Helping others gets you off of the couch and thinking positively. You may even expand your skill set and meet someone who can help you get a job.

4. Think differently.

If you’ve been out of work for awhile, it may be time to broaden your view on what your next step could be. Instead of one of the top, five advertising agencies, would you like to work at a regional agency or in the advertising department in-house? Maybe you can relocate or make a career change. You may even take a 10% pay cut, but you can bargain for an extra week of vacation. Think creatively on how you can make a successful next step.

5. Be Persistent.

It’s not going to be easy. Unfortunately, the game has changed a little bit, and companies can afford to be more selective. You’re going to have to network a lot, apply for numerous positions, and receive a few rejections. Hang in there. Follow up with recruiting directors if they don’t get back to you. If you didn’t meet anyone at the last networking event, go to another one. Who knows when you will be in the right place talking to the right person at the right time.

Second Life, World of Warcraft, and the Sims Online are some of the many popular virtual worlds that exist online. Known as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), these virtual worlds boast larger populations than many countries on this planet. Strikingly, these games are not only popular, but profitable.  Anshe Chung, for example, was the first virtual millionaire and she earned two million dollars in just thirty months as a virtual real estate broker.

In Second Life, for instance, avatars amass wealth by engaging in real estate transactions, and buying and selling goods and services, among others things. Unique to the virtual world, players will pony up real dollars to purchase items. And it is virtual property that is now becoming an issue in real-life courts, as players seek to enforce their virtual property rights.

Last year, for example, a Pennsylvania lawyer sued a San Francisco-based company over a property deal that went bad. The lawyer sued in court for breach of contract and unfair trade practices after he purchased an expensive piece of Second Life real estate, only to find his account terminated shortly thereafter.

Virtual goods are so valuable that the (real) world saw its first virtual sweatshop in 2002. A Southern California company called Black Snow Interactive realized it would be profitable to acquire more virtual property in the MMOGs Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, and to sell the virtual property on eBay for real money. Black Snow’s business model entailed renting cheap office space in Tijijuana, Mexico, and hiring unskilled Mexican workers to play the games and acquire skills and gold. When the virtual sweatshop came to light, Black Snow filed suit in federal court with the goal of determining the extent of a gamers’ rights to trade goods outside of the game. Unfortunately, this suit was never resolved.

One man in China decided to bypass the courts and take his virtual property dispute into his own hands. A Shanghai gamer was sentenced to life in prison when he stabbed a competitor to death after the competitor sold his virtual sword for real money.

Enforcing virtual property rights in real world courts is a new concept and these examples highlight the types of disputes that may arise in the future. Breach of contract, unfair trade practices, and trademark and copyright infringement may be violations in the virtual world that are litigated and decided in the real world. For now, it appears that virtual property rights constitute real property rights, to the extent that those virtual items can be bought and sold outside of the virtual world, that is, in the real world.

Marck Cuban recently asked whether his tweets were protected by copyright. This is an interesting question that I’m going to think over.  In the meantime, I came across some interesting Twitter tools that you might find useful:

• Chirpcity shows the latest tweets from and about your city.
• TwitterLocal also filters by location.
• Filttr decides which posts are important to you, and filters your Twitter stream.
• HootSuite helps you manage multiple Twitter profiles.
• If you follow Mr. Tweet on Twitter, he will suggest people you should follow and recommend you to others.
• OutTwit allows you to use Outlook to update your Twitter status and follow others.
• This mashup, ToAnswer, helps you use Twitter to get your questions answered.
• Tweetag allows you to browse and search the most popular topics discussed within the last day.
• You can fileshare on TweetCube.
• If you want to write your Tweets in advance and schedule their release, use TweetLater.
• Graph your tweeting with TweetStats.
• Twellow is a Twitter user directory.
• You can add a bio, links, logo and more to your Twitter profile with TwitBacks.
• TwitBlockerallows you to block posts by someone you want to follow without unfollowing them.
• Share photos on Twitter with TwitPic.
• Measure the reach and authority of a Twitter use with Twitter Grader.
• Twitzu blasts out your meetings or seminar.
• Create polls with Twtpoll.

Whether your 140 characters are copyrightable or not, at least you can get the most from your tweets with these tools.

Facebook was in the news a few weeks ago when it changed its Terms of Use so that it could own and use all of the information you posted, even after you deleted your account. Within days, public outcry was so severe that Mark Zuckerberg reverted to the old Terms of Use.

I check out facebook daily and I practice privacy law, so this story peaked my interested.  I decided to read the Terms of Use to see what they were all about. Surprisingly, they’re easy to read. Privacy law has twin goals: shield the company from liability and make privacy protections available and understandable to the everyday people it protects. Facebook’s Term of Use do both.

If you take anything away from this post, take this: login to facebook and change your privacy settings — do not rely on the default settings. We can talk about workplace surveillance or protecting your online identity another time. I encourage you to change the privacy settings not because I’m passing judgment on whether they’re good or bad.  Rather, I encourage you to use the settings to ensure that facebook is customized to your particular lifestyle and interests. One size fits all is never a workable approach, and in this case, the terms are stacked in facebook’s favor.

Once you’ve changed your privacy settings to control who can see your personal content, the overarching question becomes: who owns the content? That’s where the Terms of Use come in. In the battle for ownership between you and facebook, here’s what the Terms of Use say:

• Facebook owns all of the site content (pictures, words, videos, information, music, etc).
  • You get a limited license to access and use the site. You can print or download the portions you have access to.
  • You can’t violate copyright or trademark laws and you can’t use facebook to datamine.
• Facebook gets to use anything you post forever and can copy it, display it, or use excerpts of it.
  • You can trump facebook’s irrevocable license to use your posts by taking the content down.
  • Facebook, however, can retain an archived copy of your posts.
  • You retain ownership over your intellectual property.

There are various other components regarding applications and mobile service; I’ve tried to highlight the most important parts.  Should you and facebook get into a dispute regarding your content or your privacy rights, your matter will be decided in arbitration and governed by Delaware law, regardless of where you live. That means no day in court and no jury.

So what does this all mean?  Facebook crafted its Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to comply with the law and to protect itself.  Generally speaking, the default privacy settings expose all of your information to everyone, and  facebook owns everything on its site.  In plain terms, facebook wins unless you do something about it. You can change this one-sided infrastructure by limiting who can see what, and by taking things down that may be valuable to you (like your business logo/trademark, or your copyrightable videos or ideas).

If facebook were a country, based on population, it would be the sixth largest in the world.  As between you and facebook, facebook generally has the upper hand but you can trump it by customizing your settings, protecting the content you post, and being aware of the rules of the game.

By now it’s old news that Blago was arrested and impeached based on those infamous tapes where his voice could be heard bargaining away Obama’s vacant Senate seat. This scenario poses an interesting question as to wiretapping in Illinois: who can do it, and how are they limited?

First we should probably start with the why: why do wiretaps occur? This is a complex question and I’m sure attenuated or nefarious circumstances come to mind. In general, wiretaps often occur in the criminal context when the police attempt to make an arrest. In the civil context, wiretapping could occur during a divorce, for instance, if one spouse sought to prove the other is cheating. I’ll allow you to create your own circumstance.

Once a person or entity decides to wiretap, the question becomes how? The Illinois wiretapping law requires that everyone on the telephone consent to being recorded; otherwise it’s illegal. Said another way, you can’t eavesdrop without everyone’s consent.

If you’re confused about whether Blago consented to being wiretapped, the answer is of course he didn’t. In Blago’s case, by the time the police were ready to wiretap, the police were interested in busting any conspirators. The police suspected Blago had already violated the law, and wanted to determine who else was involved.

So is wiretapping in Blago’s case legit or bunk under Illinois law? In order for wiretapping to be legal, judges limit the scope of the wiretap. In Blago’s case, the wiretap was limited to a specific period in time. Law enforcement was only able to listen to phone calls from certain designated numbers, and even when those numbers phoned, if the call was totally unrelated to the purpose of the wiretap, law enforcement was required to discontinue monitoring after 30 seconds. So for instance, if Blago’s wife called about dinner plans, law enforcement couldn’t listen.

Eventually all wiretaps must expire because to permit a wiretap to continue forever would be unconstitutional. In Blago’s case, the wiretap ended when U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald broke the story and filed a complaint.

Wiretapping under federal law will be left for another day. For now, wiretapping Blago under Illinois law appears legit.