R|com Creative Blog

Tcho Chocolates

For this year’s sweetheart holiday, you might want to consider TCHO chocolates. Well, you don’t actually have to go there (Pier 17 in San Francisco), but if you do, there is a “chocolate tasting room” and soon, multimedia factory tours. There is also an awesome online store.

We love that Louis Rossetto, founder of Wired Magazine is now the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer for the two-year old start-up, joining former NASA Shuttle technologist Timothy Childs in this new venture. Seeing two technology experts developing a food venture using the latest technology in food development, high-quality training, and most interesting of all – using their own beans. How cool is that?

So, where to get TCHO? Starbucks has started selling the tasty chocs . Don’t let your sweetheart down on the 14th of Feb this year!

This is the final cut for the short film about Carol Anne McGuire and her program of music and education: Rock Our World.

Our team has recently completed production of a short mini-documentary project.  It has been one of the most delightful experiences we’ve had in the production space. The film is called “Harmony” and is about a remarkable teacher, Carol Anne McGuire, and her education program, Rock Our World. This is a “fine cut” of the project – a final cut will be completed shortly.

We first met Carol Anne five years ago. The Apple Distinguished Educator was part of a group of teachers we were videotaping for Apple. When we learned about Carol Anne and her interest in changing the world, we were smitten. At the time, Carol Anne was teaching at a school in Orange County, CA. She had just made a video film, using her students. The film was about themselves. All of the students were (and are) blind. But, that’s Carol Anne for you.

More recently (as discussed in a recent blog entry), Carol Anne has been working with the New Village Leadership Academy in Calabasas. She has been sharing her ongoing core curriculum teaching program that is founded on an international collaboration of music. The program is called “Rock Our World.” It is one of the most amazing methods of delivering education I’ve ever seen.

As Carol says, “when I was a kid, if I wanted to learn about Japan, I’d pick up a book and read it, and that book might have been ten, twenty, or even fifty years old.” Today, when Carol Anne’s students want to know something about Japan, they place a video chat call. Literally. By building musical scores with schools from around the world, and injecting core curriculum (math, science, social studies, etc.), Carol Anne’s children discover a bigger world. And by becoming part of it, they make it theirs – and perhaps a bit smaller, too.

This short video is hopefully a preview of a full-length documentary on the subject. The fine cut process is important, as it gives the filmmakers (us!) the chance to step back from the project for a few days. We can look at the film and evaluate little changes or updates that will help increase the end-result.

We’re continuing to make changes to our suite of web tools, including our content management system. The key for us is to keep our software both evolving and in line with current server solutions. To that end, we’ve added some additional security features, and have upgraded the system software capabilities (database, Apache, etc.) to ensure ease of installation or upgrading.

One of the things that always concerns me is the constant nature of web evolution. It always seems to be a matter of tossing what you had in favor of what’s new, and the relative costs that go along with that. We would prefer that our customers evolve as their needs to – but also based on their usage of the tools they’ve engaged us to provide. The net result is that upgrading with our team is painless, fast, and often involved additional capabilities as well.

On multiple occasions each year, we go through all of our servers, review the software being used, and work to ensure there is a solid solution in place to meet the needs of our clients. While we charge our clients for annual maintenance support for their installed applications, there is no requirement for us to maintain the latest versions (or most stable versions) of software for each box. But, as a matter of course, we keep that issue on the table and review our systems on a quarterly basis. It keeps us busy, but it also provides our clients with some confidence that we’re involved in their success.

Twitter is a powerful tool. For those not familiar with it, the concept of a “tweet” is essentially a micro-blog post. You are limited to 140 characters. Your “tweet” will then be available via your Twitter account to anyone who follows you, or will be broadcast to anyone who has signed up to receive tweets – they look like text messages.

And, just like everything else, there are people who get it and are building awareness, PR, marketing, or just sharing with friends and family – and there are people who are clogging our phones, PDAs, and web browsers with garbage.

Now, the beauty of Twitter is that you can publish anything, and of course, you don’t have to follow anyone you don’t want to. But, the issue comes up when you think you want to follow someone, and it turns out to be a bad mistake.

How should you use Twitter? Well, the short answer is anyway you’d like. The longer answer might be to share relevant and useful information. A good example of a solid tweet would be tweeting about a news story, YouTube video worth watching, or a change to your website. In these cases, you’re using Twitter as a broadcast mechanism to share additional news that may interest people who follow you.

A less than terrific use of Twitter is to share tweets that mislead people who sign up to follow the author. If you’re a photographer, people expect to get tweets about new photos online, client engagements, cool new technology, etc. But, if you’re a photog and you send tweets like, “my pies were burned, I’m so pissed!” – then you’re not really sharing with your audience.

So, if you’re following someone via Twitter, give them feedback about the value of their tweets. Make certain the emerging technologies we’re sharing with so many of clients are effective and hep them build business, not lose it.

As you begin to determine how you’ll use technology this year, there are more options to consider than ever before. The advent of Social Networking has become the current “topic du jour” and is being tossed around like a Ceasar Salad at Mastros Steakhouse in Beverly Hills. Fancy, but is there substance?

Well, in both cases, yes. Mastros has perhaps the best steaks in the LA area, and Social Networking is here – it’s real, and we’d better consider it when making our marketing plans this year. However, before we get too pumped up about telling everyone we’re a social networker, it’s probably a good idea to get a clue about what’s involved. Just as with blogs before this new craze, it isn’t something anyone will do properly.

The beauty of Social Networking is that anyone can do it. If you have the time, the experience, the ability to type, edit, follow up, and be diligent, then you’re good to go. If not, there are companies like ours that will help you.

And, note that the advent of a new business opportunity is exciting for a lot of people, so expect to see a lot of “Social Network Pros” out there. Before you sign them up, check to see if they’re using the tools. Do they have a blog? Do they update it? Are they using links appropriately? Are they, well, practicing what they’re selling?

Before you even consider taking on the challenge of social networking, it’s important to learn more about it and how it works. Scott Nichols at PC Magazine has written a terrific article this week that talks about the power of Social Networking – and most importantly, who’s using it. As it turns out, it’s probably your clients, vendors, kids, and even grandpa Olsen. If you thought it was a teenage daydream, think again.