Alan Pruitt

Alan Pruitt will be presenting new Arizona Western College (Yuma AZ) Continuing Education Workshops on Friday, October 16th (Twitter Basics) and Friday, October 30th (Twitter for Business). Pre-registration is required. Fax the attached (link below) registration form to: (928) 317-6183, or e-mail your contact and registration information to: Carmen.madero [@] azwestern.edu

Alan is an experienced presenter about social media and open-source technology for small business owners.

Twitter Registration Form

Please use the “Share and Enjoy” social bookmarks (below this post) to spread the word about this workshop!

I love the applications that are constantly being developed in Google Labs. Today, it’s all about the new (beta) service called “Google Fast Flip“. Desktop and mobile applications. Read more…

From Google Labs:

One problem with reading news online today is that browsing can be really slow. A media-rich page loads dozens of files and can take as much as 10 seconds to load over broadband, which can be frustrating. What we need instead is a way to flip through articles really fast without unnatural delays, just as we can in print. The flow should feel seamless and let you rapidly flip forward to the content you like, without the constant wait for things to load. Imagine taking 10 seconds to turn the page of a print magazine!

Today we’re adding a new experiment to Google Labs: Google Fast Flip, accessible at fastflip.googlelabs.com. Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.

I am learning a lot about the cool features of the new smart phones that support multi-media. Although my Google Android (MT3G) has 4GB of (expandable) memory — I think it is silly to subscribe to the (default) Amazon mp3 music download feature — when there are great Internet radio options that can play on your mobile phone or other computer platforms of choice. My favorite (right now) is Pandora Radio.

Pandora Radio is part of the Music Genome Project, founded by Will Glaser, Jon Kraft, and Tim Westergren. My favorite Pandora channels that I created include; U2, Enigma, Massive Attack, The Eagles, and Celtic Women. Massive Attack is my favorite for playing in  the background while writing client reports and working on other projects. It serves as a great “white noise” generator — so that I can focus on task at hand. Pandora Radio is an easy widget download from the Google phone “Marketplace”.

So, the next time you are sitting out a six-hour surveillance or just want to listen to something besides the annoying music selections at Starbucks — just click on your Pandora widget on your smart phone and enjoy music on your terms.

I was an early adapter of Google Voice (in the “Grand Central” days) and when combined with the “smart power” of my new T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Google Android cell phone — it has remarkable basic and advanced features that can truly make unified communications (regardless of the size of your enterprise) an affordable (it’s already free — except for modest charges for internatonal class) application for anyone.

With Google Voice, any contact in my G-mail account (as long as I have the correct contact number/s) — is a FREE telephone call. The minutes I used on my T-Mobile plan were a grand total of three (3) minutes last month! Sure, it is a VoIP call — but the quality is very good and there is only some noticeable latency (delay) on certain calls received or placed.

Again, Google Voice is a tool that every “power” cell phone user should consider — for busienss and personal use. I reduced my daily cell phone holsters from three to ONE with just a little bit of work in Google Voice and with the friendly folks at Verizon.

Got Google?

Mark Shaw (UK) provides social marketing advice inside well done short videos that explain the business case for social media tools that I like to use. Learn to use search.twitter.com and listen to what your client, competitor, or investigation subject is doing in near real-time on Twitter.

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

Now that Facebook is the hip and cool way to let e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e know where you are and what you are up to — it is time to reduce your social media visibility just enough so that you don’t attract undue attention. This link offers some sound recommendation to all Facebook users and it receives “2 thumbs up” from this Facebook nerd.

Please join a professional discussion about Small Executive Protection Detail Information.

Alan’s note: If you have been following my posts about Online Identity Management (OIM), then a lot of this blog post is relevant to privacy and OIM. Following these “best practices” can create a larger “privacy bubble” for almost anyone’s situation.

Stay Safe!

Although not an all-inclusive list, the following suggestions can be used by small executive protection details as a starting point to help mitigate collection efforts against U.S. interests. Note: This information could apply differently depending on location. For detailed information on the feasibility of some of this information at the ground level, you could contact the Regional Security Office of the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

Suggestions for Protectees and their Families:

Legal Letter: Sometimes a local government will honor requests for personal names to be taken off official public records, as well as other open sources of information, like property titles, utility records, etc. This is something your legal department could pursue.

DBA (Doing Business As): In lieu of using the protectee’s name on legal and financial records, consider establishing a DBA entity for all owned property, credit cards, utilities, vehicle registration, loans, leases (including storage facilities), magazines/newspapers, etc. More »

Please contribute to a professional discussion about “The Art of Surveillance”.

Surveillance is the process of observing facilities, vehicles and persons in order to obtain detailed information. Past incidents demonstrate that terrorist attacks are generally preceeded by surveillance to gain target intelligence. Recognizing surveillance is the first step in protecting individuals from becoming victims of terrorism. Unfortunately, many do not have training in detecting surveillance. While terrorist organizations often implement sophisticated methods, the type of surveillance they conduct is not as elaborate, nor does it involve as many people or as much equipment, as that of intelligence organizations. Nevertheless, it is crucial to maintain some familiarity with the techniques used in surveillance in order to detect it.

Purpose of Surveillance

The purpose of surveillance is two-fold: first, to determine the suitability of the potential target based upon the physical and procedural security precautions that the individual has taken. Second, surveillance is used to establish the most suitable time, location, and method of attack. The surveillant rarely takes part in the attack and the attack will not take place while surveillance is still in progress. Surveillance may last for days or weeks depending upon the length of time it takes to obtain the information required to plot an attack. Naturally, it will take less time for a victim who has set routines and who takes few precautions. More »

It’s time for me to start cleaning out my professional library of articles and allow readers to enjoy “Content That You Can Build On.”

Carjacking is a (sadly) common problem and creates serious headaches for law enforcement and society in general. By adopting “best practices” and practicing “situational awareness” — individuals can do a lot to mitigate the physical and financial harm that carjacking causes.

My rule of thumb about carjacking defense — “Is 4,500 lbs of metal and plastic worth a life?” — not really — give up the car keys and just live to be a great witness. This is one instance where becoming a passive victim pays off with your life remaining intact.

STAY SAFE!

CARJACKING has become one of the most prevalent crimes in many parts of the world. Most carjackings occur for the sole purpose of taking the car; it is a crime without a political agenda and does not specifically target Americans.

You can protect yourself by becoming familiar with the methods, ruses, and locations commonly used by carjackers. More »

Welcome back readers! Our Online Identity Management (OIM) preparation continues:

Don’t Enter Contest

I don’t care if the contest is for free Gulfstream G5 executive jet — don’t enter contest! Your personal information will be harvested and re-purposed for other direct mail firms who are drooling for private information about you and your shopping (or wishful thinking) habits. You also have no control over what happens to that contest slip — b-e-c-a-u-s-e… you no longer “own” the information, once you place it into the barrel/bucket/box for the drawing. Not only is it stupid to enter contests — you will just cause every telemarketer in the country to call your telephone number and break you postal carrier’s back form all of the spam mail that s/he will deliver to your mail box. More »