Navigating the Global InternetWritten by Susan Dunn, MA, Internet Marketing Coach and Consultant
If you have clients or customers in other countries and work on Internet, here’s a primer to help you decipher URLs and emails you’ll be receiving.First of all, extensions. The most common are .com, for commercial sites; .edu or .ac for educational sites; .gov for government sites; and .org for organizational sites. There are also other extensions people use such as .net and .cc for various reasons, one of them being that their name was taken at .com level, and another being cost. For example, my name is Susan Dunn. SusanDunn.com belongs to someone who sells spa products, so I had to go to .cc in order to be able to use my own name. Next, United States uses no further extension, but every other country does. The extensions of other countries will always include .xx code in their respective URLs. It’s good to start getting familiar with them. If you’re like me, you’re already receiving emails with .mu or .ag and wondering where they’re from Some of these make perfect sense. Here are some examples:
| | To Meet or Not to Meet…What are the Questions?Written by Susan Friedmann
Meetings can be a total waste of time or a powerful and productive communication tool that solve problems, stimulate ideas, promote team spirit and generate action. The results lie totally in how they are run. Organized and well-managed meetings will inevitably produce effective results. Whereas, meetings that are poorly managed lack purpose and focus are a total waste of an organization’s time and money. From my observations working with hundreds of different companies, I have noticed that people seem to be meeting more, enjoying it less and frustrated that they have so little time to get their “real” work done. They talk about meetings as being a “necessary evil.” Research conducted by Annenberg School of Communications at UCLA and University of Minnesota’s Training & Development Research Center show that executives on average spend 40-50% of their working hours in meetings. The studies also point out that as much as 50% of meeting time is unproductive and that up to 25% is spent discussing irrelevant issues. I have certainly had more than my fair share of good, bad and ugly meetings, both as a paid employee and as a volunteer. I have also experienced wonderful sense of satisfaction from productive sessions, as well as frustration and anger from ineffective sessions. I believe that key to success lies not only in preparation and organization, but also in way in which meeting is managed. When ego and power can be put aside, it is so much easier to get on with task at hand. All of this begs to ask question, “Are meetings really necessary?” Well, sometimes they are and sometimes they aren’t. Wisdom is knowing difference and fully understanding this primary question.Are Meetings Really Necessary? Inherent as part of our society is need to come together with others to share information, make decisions, plan, discuss, talk things over, argue, question, iron out differences, compare notes, gossip, and much more. Families, schools, clubs, businesses and governments comprise groups of men, women and children all coming together for a specific purpose. All of this means that meeting is a natural function of our existence. As humans we need connection with others to survive. Very few people chose to be a hermit and seclude themselves from others. Although, I am sure, like me, many of you reading this may have fantasized about being alone on a desert island, far away from trials and tribulations of everyday life. We also need to belong, communicate and share a common purpose with likeminded individuals. The reality is that doing things alone for any length of time is counterproductive. It is only when we work in partnership with others and pool our resources that things get done in a more efficient and effective way. Meetings are becoming even more necessary for people’s survival with plethora of entrepreneurs operating from home-based businesses, employees telecommuting or working endless hours in front of computer screens. The need for human interaction is critical. Not to mention fact that meetings also minimize or eliminate many of those popular time-wasting activities such as phone tag, unnecessary e-mails, or volumes of paper. But, when we consider myriads of business meetings that take place every year, there are many, you know as well as I, which should never have taken place. Now $64,000 question is “When to hold a meeting (and when not to)? Thirteen Reasons to Hold a Meeting? Deciding to hold a meeting should be a serious consideration since there are so many costs involved, direct and indirect – people’s time and productivity, for example. So, first thing is for person wanting to hold meeting to determine how necessary it is to meet. Here is a list of thirteen major reasons people need to meet: · To communicate or request vital information. · When you need a group consensus. · To respond to questions or concerns. · When you need a decision or an evaluation on an issue. · When you need acceptance or support of an idea. · To sell an idea, product or service. · To brainstorm ideas. · To solve a problem, conflict or difference of opinion. · To generate a sense of team spirit. · To provide training or clarification of a project. · To alter perceptions or attitudes. · To provide reassurance on an issue or situation. · To create an awareness or interest in an idea, situation or project.
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