Happy Civil Rights Commemoration 2011

Many people think the Civil Rights Movement is old hat, but for African-Americans in particular and Americans in general, many aspects of the Civil Rights Movement may take another hundred years to become equitable. From the field of communications for instance: the majority of African-Americans in the United States still receive most of their news and information, researched, edited and disseminated through the eyes of the descendants of Slave holders. While the descendants of Slave holders are of no fault, they too have a skewed view of the world – as amended through the experiences, cover ups, prejudices and apologies of Slave politics.

From the time African Slaves arrived in the United States (most captured between the Senegal to Angola wars), communications were used to reduce their humanity to that of beasts for free labor. After Slaves were declared free, they and their descendants were treated by thousands of Americans as 3/4ths of a person; and this view traversed the world. Even with the pre and post efforts of the Civil Rights Movement, where some broke free to become successful professionals and wealthy entrepreneurs, we were still treated as 3/4ths of a person. During the 20th Century, many financially free used their skills and resources to create communications and other businesses, targeted to build a legacy of pride and credibility for African-Americans. These efforts have allowed us to see ourselves and our possibilities through empathetic eyes. But, an estimated 10 million Slaves arrived in the Americas and today African-Americans number 36+ million; there are just too many stories for a few thousand people to tell. So we each must tell our own.

The world is in an Information Revolution and for the first time in the history of the United States, we can get our news, define ourselves, and make decisions about our communities and our station in life as 4/4ths of a human being. Those of us, who don’t know the country of our lineage can research, listen, learn and talk directly to African peoples via the web. We can begin stitching together the missing family, stories, culture, experiences and legacy of our heritage. In lieu of that, we can also learn about a favorite people or place on the continent and make the connections to adopt a country.

African-Americans, like many under-represented groups in the USA, have an unparalleled open access opportunity to use the tools and resources of the Information Revolution, to provide ourselves an equitable living. If we consider ourselves equal to others, then the issues of the world bear equal weight. We need to muster our super-human integrity, as we have done so many times in the past, to help solve local to global problems. In order to prepare ourselves for the tasks before us, we must look at our dreams, goals and experiences and match them with the education, skills and communications resources necessary to get out there as global citizens, and help save a corner of the world.

If you want to learn public speaking, professional consulting, how to turn your hobby or project into a small venture, or your venture into a business: join Eworkstyle Institute at www.eworkstyle.com.

PUBLIC\BUSINESS FACE

If you are new to looking at web servers, you'll want to begin with a highly experienced server farm that provides low cost, 24/7 support, no hidden fees, keeps an eye on what the market charges, adjusts their fees (lower) without asking, and offers easy to set-up templates that you can later convert when\if you master web design. I suggest http://www.powweb.com/ or http://www.monster.com/ I've used both with great success. When setting up your website, keep your naming - e.g. titles, subtitles, mission, address, phone numbers, email address, etc. the same as your website name. Put those matching opening introductions on your business cards, stationary, brochures and website. It sounds simple, but this introduction of a matching corporate identity is very important to your public face. Particularly paying attention as you grow, because you will change things from time to time. The most convenient method of keeping track and updating or refreshing your public\business face is create a system that allows you to change everything all in one sitting. Try putting all of your marketing materials in one folder on your computer and labeling that folder "Marketing Materials 2009." That way each year you can copy that folder, give it a new year end and update your public\business face to suit your current needs. For more information on creating and managing a public\business face, visit Paula Robinson at http://www.eworkstyle.com/

FROM UNEMPLOYMENT TO SELF-EMPLOYMENT

I believe the current trend in corporate downsizing and layoffs coupled with my generation of “baby-boomers” reaching retirement age will create the largest unemployed population in US history. As human beings, we have the brainpower and the technology to solve many of the world’s problems. The answers is empowering people by allowing them to do what they aspire to do and helping them do it well. The Internet has given us a new playing field - a new frontier if you will. We can use these tools and resources to inexpensively create two-way globally accessible broadcast media communications. We can set-up communities of interest as well as local, regional and international meetings to share, compare and solve local and global problems. I’ve begun to demonstrate this through an on-line community that helps people view, touch and learn the ‘hands-on’ use of broadcast and communications media technology. I’m betting everything I’ve got on my research; and through this blog you can see and participate in the results. For more information on self-employment, visit Paula Robinson at http://www.eworkstyle.com/

ABOUT WEB SERVERS

Because of the larger hosting capabilities of web servers and the expanded capacity of web software, I've decided to consolodate my six website servers to three. With that, I am reengineering my on-line community into a more progressive on-line magazine called eWORKstyle.com. Making this move has given me a new perspective. I didn't realize I had gotten so used to doing things with my old compiled website. Recreating documents for a sharp, crisp, engaging publication style that I want required more detailed editing than I'd imagined. For instance, I thought I could pretty much cut and paste most of the documents from my old website to my new one. However, I've had to do considerable cropping of stories to meet the look and feel of this new venue. My old website was innundated with hundreds of documents and photos. I decided that the new site should be quick in and out - short stories and lots of photos. There is no shortcut to the time needed to edit all of that work, I have - and you will to take time to refresh and revisit your work with fresh eyes. The upside with my old website turned out to be a design system I developed by creating my own templates which allowed me to copy and paste much of the website frame. I've found that using tables within tables instead of staid templates really works because tables are flexible and can easily be reformatted. If you've gotten used to outsourced predesigned templates for most of your work, you'll find that you won't have as much ease of adaptability when it comes to taking your web frame and copying it into a new website artchitecture. It's worth learning to use web design software to develop your own system so that you always have control and adaptability as your site grows. For more information on web servers, visit Paula Robinson at http://www.eworkstyle.com/

SETTING UP AN INTERNET OFFICE

Setting up an internet office can be relatively simple. In today's marketplace of predesigned templates, you dont really have to understand HTML or any other code. You do have to make time to focus on what you want for several hours so that you can put together a useful site. As you may know, quality takes time so you should set aside a few hours per week on a specific day to focus on this project. You can begin by putting together a list of the things you would like to have access to when you are on the road. If you carry a portfolio, briefcase or any work as part of your profession, you should consider getting everything digitized (scanned, typed, reformatted) so that it can be made readily available by computer. If all of your files are already on a computer then most of the archiving work is done. Create a folder on your computer and call it "uploads" to that you will remember what you need to copy to this folder. As you realize what you need to take with you copying those items to the uploads folder as a matter of habit will make your life easier when the pressure to perform hits. For more information on setting up an internet office, visit Paula Robinson at http://www.eworkstyle.com/

GET ORGANIZED WITH AN INTERNET OFFICE WEBSITE

Question: When is it time for you to set up a internet office website? Answer: When your files, resources, references and other necessary information get too heavy to carry with you. Other reasons for considering an internet office website may include access and presentation for instance: on-line resume\CV, electronic portfolio\gallery, family reference\archive, shared work, favorite links, teaching\lecture, fun group activities, project promotional campaign, membership enrollment, advertising and auction materials. An internet office is simply a website that you have private access to, which allows your files to be placed in a secure environment. You can do this in with two stages: 1) set up a website and 2) create private folders with login codes that only you and\or your staff can access. For more information on getting organized, visit Paula Robinson at http://www.eworkstyle.com/