Information connects; Stories bond

As you can see from the image below (a graphic depiction of recent topics here at Diablogue), I’ve had News and Information on my mind. Why? I just launched a news site for our local communities.

wordle-infoconnects

While information does connect us, it’s the locally flavored stories that create the bond between us.

Image source: http://www.wordle.net

A new blog and new domain do not add up to a new personal brand

Welcome to my new blog.

Yes, my blog just had a makeover – to make it more hospitable. And now it also has a new home: www.jaculynnpeterson.com.

A couple of months ago, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade from my free-hosted blog at http://diablogue.wordpress.com. Of course, the Diablogue domain name was already taken.

I thought: “So now what?”

Naturally, I turned to Twitter and asked for advice. Four people immediately responded with great suggestions and food for thought: Kim Woodbridge, Ari Herzog, Angela Recchia, and Kevin Grandia.

However, it was this reply that caught me off guard:  Continue reading

Living and breathing social networking

heart_in_cloudsRecently I joined “Fridays and Five,” a weekly get together of a local group of business professionals. I am glad I joined because this is not your typical chat-rub-elbows-grip-and-grin crowd.

As individuals and business professionals, members truly embody the essence of “social” networking. And they are literal, human examples of social marketing…as members of the group naturally promote each other and help each other.

For example, each week two drawings are held (using collected business cards):

1. Winner gets platform to talk about self and business. THEN has opportunity to throw a personal or business issue / problem / request on the table for the group. Group instantly crowdsources to address / resolve / respond. It’s a powerful representation and physical manifestation of life and business online in the Social Web.

2. The other drawing is for a “gift” that is donated by the venue benefitting from the Friday at Five business in that particular week.

Fridays at Five is the brilliant brainchild of marketing powerhouse Denise Rossetti of  Rossetti Marketing. Thanks Denise! I am grateful and lucky to be a member of this group of extraordinary individuals.  :)

Is it time for a Fridays at Five group in your city?

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The “State” of programs and policies in support of sustainability

“Since the 1970s, states have rapidly outpaced the federal government in both spending commitments to energy efficiency and adopting landmark efficiency policies, including appliance and equipment efficiency standards, building energy codes, and energy efficiency resource standards.”

- 2008 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, ACEEE, October 2008

Although America’s states have been independently embracing energy efficiency for the last 30+ years, the last decade in particular has been a healthy incubator period for the growth of vital programs and progressive policies in support of the 3Es of sustainability: Environment, Economy, Equity/Social Benefit.

One of the reasons it’s been healthy is because the “quantity of Executive Orders have declined while municipal and state requirements have increased,” according to the National Sustainable Building Advisor Program. In essence, the lack of Executive Orders is giving states and local municipalities the opportunity to creatively explore and courageously blaze trails for our future.

With over a decade of such activity now under our belt, we are in a better position to kick up these initiatives to the next level, just in time for some helpful Federal budget commitments and oversight. The reason the timing is right is because we now have baselines, standards, discoveries, methodologies and best practices that can feed into, shape, and insure the success of any future core missions and policies mandated by our Federal government.

By creating, learning, shaping, analyzing, documenting, and improving green building initiatives at the local level, we are forming a strong national foundation for the future of sustainability.

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