Photo by Kelly Samardak: An Online Minute... Burgeoning Women's Networking Event Flings It For Spring At Armani/Ristorante

The most recent Digital Diva shin-dig inspired me, a little vino and a lot of chit-chat about social experiments and live streaming… all good stuff.

The ladies in the fabulous picture to the left, and I, were discussing live webcasting and what makes a live experience more compelling than just watching an on-demand web video?  Perhaps, we get a sense of intimacy that we share with the other viewers – when you know you are not alone in the “room” so to speak…  it is an intimate feeling, with the audience and the speaker, augmented by a sense of being there.  It makes the “viewer” more of a participant than a passive set of eyeballs.  Take that and top it off with some real-time interactivity and you have a fabulous recipe for attracting a real audience. read this entry »

I avoided Twitter as long as humanly possible, but of course one can only hold off on participating in the tech trends for so long without turning into some kind of geek prude.  It started just about a month ago when I was bored on a train ride out to D.C… and there it was… Twitter.

I created my profile and eased into the whole process of pushing out itty-bits of chars to define the otherwise frenetic moments of a working day.  Trends, projects and articles whiz by in twitter time and suddenly one is propelled into a world of conversations that, as it turns out, the entire world is listening in on. read this entry »

First of all you should all have registered here: https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx at the National Do Not Call Registry.  So, avid readers, as you are all aware, I have been very much against the use of caller ID blocking be it for Telemarketing purposes or for any associated harassment that would result from the use of caller id blocking, especially frustrated with spoofing and VoIp anonymity.

This week the House of Representatives passed a new bill, an amendment to the 1934 Communications Act to prohibit manipulation of caller identification information, this will outlaw [fingers crossed] the use of *67 , spoof cards and all that other crap I hate.  The proposed bill is only 8 pages long, but every word reassures me of the impact it will have on all of us into the future.

DSLreports writes:

Argh!

Congress has passed a law that bans all spoofing of caller ID identification, be it via traditional phone service or VoIP. The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010 (pdf copy here) was passed in the House of Representatives this week, and was primarily aimed at scammers who use spoofed phone numbers when pitching bogus wares (you’re probably familiar with the extended auto warranty scams by now.) The language of the bill:

It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any real time voice communications service, regard- less of the technology or network utilized, to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud or deceive.

The bill of course contains an exemption for police or federal agencies should they be using the tactic in law enforcement.

I breath a sigh of relief today.  Thank you HOR, now on to Congress!!