Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Google’s Street View Website Gets a Big Overhaul”

Probably the most interesting part of the site is the map which shows you where exactly you can see Street View imagery. The servicehas come a long way since its launch in March 2007, when it covered only several major cities; now it covers most of North America, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe, with pockets of availability in Japan, Indonesia and Brasil.

The new Street View site also brings a set of instructions for using the service, and explains the technology behind Street View’s 360 degrees imagery. You can also see 3D models of the vehicles Google has developed for gathering imagery in places where the car cannot go, such as the Trike, Snowmobile and Trolley.

[via @google]

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Name: Learnable

Quick Pitch: Learnable allows anyone to create and charge for online courses.

Genius Idea: Many schools have started to take online education seriously. By 2006, 66% of postsecondary learning institutions included in federal financial aid programs were already reporting that they offered some form of Internet learning, and a 2009 report from the U.S. Department of education found that those students who studied in online learning environments performed modelstly better than peers who were receiving face-to-face instruction.

This is great news for people who are looking to work toward a college degree, but there are few affordable parallels for people who just want to pick up a skill. Where does one go for affordable online lessons on homepage design? Javascript programming? Guitar? the Irish Whistle?

For many, the answers can be found on YouTube. But these “lessons” are usually one-off demonstrations rather than consecutive instruction. They lack a community component, and provide no revenue to reward the teacher.

Learnable aims to create what YouTube lacks as an education platform. Anybody can create a course by bundling articles, documents and videos into consecutive lessons that students work through at their own pace. A Q&A section attached to each course becomes its forum, and users can see who else is enrolled in the course.

Unlike a similar online learning platform called Udemy, Learnable offers an option for teachers to charge their students for lessons. Most lessons are priced around $20, and Learnable collects 50% of each student’s fee. Students can see an outline of course content and a bio of the instructor before they purchase a course, and all courses are approved by the company before they launch.

Learnable was spun off from Sitepoint.com, a resource for web developers that hosts forums, blogs, and, yes, courses on web topics. But the new site, which enjoys many of the same investors but is a separate entity, aims to be more universal than the site it sprung from. Only about a quarter of the 70 courses currently being offered relate to programming or web design (and yes, the Irish Whistle is represented).

Whether or not students will find courses like Learnable’s worth paying for, continue to rely on old how-to standbys like YouTube, or instead migrate to new (but free) learning platforms like Sophia and Udemy, is what will make or break the new platform. It may also shape how people learn from each other each other in the future.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

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In surveys, 34% of respondents said they read news online within the past 24 hours (as opposed to 31% who favored newspapers); and a full 41% said they get most of their news online, 10% more than those who said they got most of their news from a newspaper.

And of course, the 18-to-29-year-old group overwhelmingly cast their vote with the web; 65% said the Internet was their main news source.

Poynter’s annual State of the Media report showed that the web was the second most popular source of news; local television news is still the number one source for the majority of people. Local TV also led in revenues, with digital media coming in second.

Also, online news media was the only medium that saw growth year-over-year; from radio to television to newspapers and magazines, every other medium saw a decline in audience.

In general, it can be said that text-based news audiences are dwindling. Only 40% of people in Poynter’s study said they read the news in an online or print newspaper, a 12% drop from five years ago.

Last year marks the first time online advertising outpaced newspaper advertising. The sector grew 13.9% between 2009 and 2010 to reach a $25.8 billion total. Not all of that ad spend went to online news publications; in fact, search advertising continues to dominate the online ad spend landscape.

We’ve been watching the web’s impact on journalism for quite some time — both how the Internet is affecting newsrooms and newspapers and how it’s changing the way viewers and readers get news. With many outlets beefing up their online and mobile strategies even as print sales decline, the figures from Poynter’s research are nostalgia-inducing and predictable at the same time.

After all, once The New York Times admits print’s days are numbered, it’s pretty much a long, slow and painful downward spiral to the point that the newspaper, like the vinyl record, is a relic for collectors and anachronists.

For now, though, we continue to look forward. Poynter’s research showed that almost half of Americans in a survey said they got at least some of their news on a mobile device or tablet. And as tablet makers, app makers and news outlets continue to perfect the news consumption experience on that form factor, we’ll have a whole new breed to analyze and fret over this time next year.

Image courtesy of zoetnet.

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Gottfried, whose voice served as that of the Aflac duck, isn’t known for either tact or good timing; he famously made a 9/11 joke just three weeks after 9/11 happened. And the comedian’s Twitter stream is replete with jokes that some might describe as tasteless or insensitive.

In fact, this type of humor is so much a part of Gottfried’s persona that we wonder exactly what Aflac expected might happen in a situation like this.

The offending tweets have been deleted from Gottfried’s Twitter account, but they included the following one-liners:

• “Japan called me. They said ‘maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.’”
• “I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said ‘is there a school in this area.’ She said ‘not now, but just wait.’”

Although the jokes were deleted, Gottfried followed them up with the statement, “I was born without a censor button. My mouth and now e-mail will continue to get me into trouble.”

We’ve been covering the situation in Japan since the tsunami began destroying both lives and property, and we are strongly interested in promoting the safety and recovery of the Japanese people and state. There is no question that Gilbert Gottfried’s statements on Twitter were deeply insensitive — but then again, Gottfried’s humor has never centered around the delicate treatment of controversial subjects.

If Aflac, which is the top foreign insurance company in Japan and which gets 75% of its revenue from that market, was concerned about courtesy in public communication, it probably should not have hired Gottfried as a spokesperson in the first place.

In the comments, let us know what you think of Gottfried’s jokes — and Aflac’s response.

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Microsoft declined to comment on the future of the Zune players, but in a statement to Bloomberg noted that it remains “committed to supporting our devices in North America.”

Zune launched in November 2006 to much fanfare and hopes that it could beat Apple’s iPod. But sales never came close to reaching the levels of Apple’s best-selling and market changing music and media player.

In 2009, Microsoft decided to separate the Zune team into software and hardware divisions, and attempted to get developers to target the platform. It hasn’t really worked. Zune Marketplace support for the Xbox 360 aside, the Zune brand still has limited appeal outside of North America.

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft will continue to put its Zune features into Windows Phone 7 and in the Zune desktop software for Windows. Microsoft’s Zune Pass remains an economical way to stream and have access to a large array of music, but the fact that it only runs on Windows devices ruins its potential as a true iTunes competitor.

The Zune was never a bad MP3 player. The failure was that the product never managed to differentiate itself as being better or cheaper than the iPod. If anything, the Windows-only requirement made the device more limited.

For that reason, we don’t imagine many users will shed any tears over Zune’s passing.

Share your favorite Zune jokes in the comments.

More About: ipod, media player, microsoft, Windows, zune

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As relatively unimportant as it may seem, Japan’s factories are the lifeline for electronics companies the world over. Some 20% of all semiconductors and 40% of all flash memory chips sold in the world’s smartphones, tablets, cameras and computers are made in Japan. Manufacturers are facing a drastic reduction in supply, which could have significant knock-on effects in earnings, employment — and the global economy as a whole.

So which companies and products are most at risk? Here’s what we know so far:

Toshiba makes NAND Flash memory chips used in the iPhone, iPad and a string of tablets launching this year. Prices of the 32GB NAND chip jumped nearly 20% in component markets Monday. Toshiba says it is examining damage to its plant, and has no date set for reopening. Toshiba President Norio Sasaki has more important things on his mind at the moment: Prime Minister Naoto Kan has ordered him to help with efforts to stop radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant, according to reports.

Most affected products: The iPad 2 and similar tablets.

Sony, the nation’s largest consumer electronics exporter, shut down six factories last week and another two this week. One of those factories took a direct hit from the tsunami. The plants are all involved in making Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads, PlayStation 3s and lithium-ion batteries. The company makes about 10% of the world’s laptop batteries. The factories are likely to remain shut for at least the next two weeks.

Most affected products: Blu-ray DVDs, PlayStations, PC laptops.

Texas Instruments lost two of its plants making wafers and DLP chips. A spokesperson told Reuters it would take until July for them to come back online.

Most affected products: DLP TVs, video projectors.

Hitachi has six manufacturing facilities in the quake-struck north of Japan, all of them now closed, all of them now being inspected.

Most affected products: Plasma TVs, LCD TVs, camcorders and DVD players.

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Microsoft debuted the new browser at a launch event at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Dean Hachamovitch, the corporate vice president of Internet Explorer, told the story of how Microsoft built IE9 from scratch.

Microsoft launched the IE9 beta last year to generally positive reviews. Last month, Microsoft unveiled the IE9 release candidate. In total, the IE9 Beta and release code have already been downloaded more than 40 million times.

IE9 is not just an update to IE8, but a complete rebuild of Microsoft’s popular but maligned browser. It boasts radical speed and graphics improvements, thanks to its increased adherence to web standards and use of hardware acceleration. On stage, Hachamovitch touted its advanced support for HTML5 and its UI improvements. Everything from the back button to the taskbar has been revamped.

Microsoft is also touting IE9′s security features. Hachamovitch outlined the company’s take on privacy earlier this year at CES. IE9 includes tracking protection (its implementation of the “Do Not Track” list) and stronger filters against malware.

The final version of Internet Explorer 9 will be available for download at midnight ET/9:00 PM PT at BeautyoftheWeb.com.

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Earlier today, HP’s new chief executive revealed the company’s new strategy to a group of analysts and members of the press. His keynote can be summed up in five words: cloud, cloud and more cloud. HP intends to provide cloud-based tools, software and connected devices that will power enterprise and dominate the consumer market.

Central to HP’s consumer play is its 2010 acquisition of Palm, which gave the PC giant access to Palm’s webOS mobile operating system and the Pre line of smartphones.

HP dominates the PC business, selling two PCs and two printers every second — by far the most in the industry, according to Apotheker. Now it intends to dominate the smartphone and tablet businesses too.

“We just announced our new devices, the TouchPad and the [Pre] smartphones,” Apotheker says. “Going forward, we don’t intend to play in the [minor] league in this business.”

HP has an uphill battle to becoming a player in the mobile market. Apple leads the pack with the iPhone and the iPad, but Google, Microsoft and RIM are all making big moves in this space. Confirming previous rumors, HP said the TouchPad will come out this June.

Will you wait for a TouchPad? Does HP stand a chance of grabbing some mobile market share? Let us know what you think, in the comments.

More About: HP, hp touchpad, palm, Palm Pre, PCs, pre, printers, Touchpad, webOS

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“Hey, look at you!” I said. “Did you lose weight? You look amazing!” I knew the iPad 2 was all about the emotional response (as we wrote in our day one review). Here was one emotion I wasn’t expecting: a real surge of pride in an old pal’s new look.

But weight loss isn’t everything. It can hide a lot of underlying issues. After a long weekend of testing all my old apps on the iPad 2, I see the ways in which it is actually inferior to its former self, as well as superior. Lighter, faster and more confident as it seems — as a lot of us seem when we get thinner — it also gets much hotter in your lap, feels slightly cheaper, and its upgrade process is significantly flawed.

A little background: when the original iPad came out, the lack of a camera seemed such a glaring omission that I felt I was better off waiting for version two or three (the same strategy I had used, successfully, with the iPhone). But then a friend loaned me hers. A little reading, some light Netflixing and a few games of Marble Mixer, and I was hooked. This was lean-back computing a laptop could never hope to match. In the past year, I became an obsessive user, especially after iOS 4.2 introduced multitasking and folders to the device. I collected hundreds of apps and carefully arranged them in folders.

Therein lies the first problem for upgraders: It isn’t easy enough to re-add all those apps, and the iPad 2 sneers at your folder arrangement.

I plugged mine in and told it to restore from my most recent iPad backup. That it did, up to a point — it didn’t add the apps. I had to go through and manually check the box next to each one (for some reason, there’s no “select all” feature in this part of iTunes) and sync again. All good now — except more than half of my folders had simply vanished, and the other half were emptier than normal. Result: a long night of rearranging my app folders. (I did, however, come up with a much more intuitive system than I had previously — and had to wonder, was that Apple’s intention?)

Next I put the machine through its paces with one of its most processor-intensive games, Infinity Blade. The game loaded and ran noticeably faster. It almost felt like I was running it on a gaming PC instead of a handheld tablet. But that’s when I first noticed an unfamiliar sensation — a significant chunk of the back of the iPad 2 was getting very warm.

To a non-user, that may not seem surprising. There’s a couple of CPUs in there working overtime, and computers just get hot, right? Wrong — at least, wrong in the case of my original iPad. No matter how much I thrashed the original device with multiple power user apps, it retained a cold, metallic feel. Even out in the warm California sun, it didn’t lose its cool.

And that was a big part of the appeal. I’ve spent too many years burning my lap with so-called laptops. Here, finally, was a computer that promised never to cook your nether regions. The iPad 2 doesn’t ever get laptop hot — you can’t exactly fry an egg on it. But even a small amount of heat seems to break that promise. This is a device that is supposed to disappear, effectively, and leave you alone with your apps. Heat is a reminder that it’s still there.

The extra heat is likely a function of the redesigned aluminum unibody frame, which is responsible for much of the thinning down. I like the new curved design of the frame, which is slightly easier to hold than the original. Unlike some reviewers I haven’t had a problem putting the iPad 2 on its dock — it just takes a little more care.

But to me the frame also felt a little cheaper, almost as if it were plastic. (Before you write in, yes, I know it isn’t actually plastic — but the iPad 2 is about the way it makes you feel.) Is the trade-off worth it? Hard to judge, even after three days, but I will say this: I find myself holding my iPad 2 in two hands, just like the original. Don’t expect a Kindle here.

I also found myself longing for a combination device — the sturdy heft of the original with the speed of its younger sibling. But how do you tell an old friend you want him to gain back the pounds he just lost while keeping his new can-do attitude?

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Let’s face it: People in animal suits are just uniformly creepy — especially when they’re interacting with children. That’s why Ben Huh, founder and CEO of the Cheezburger Network, plans to launch a seasonal site dedicated to sketchy Easter bunnies.

The Cheezburger Network has already acquired Sketchy Santas — a site wholly featuring horrified children on Santa’s lap — it was only a matter of time before the comedy conglomerate tackled other holidays as well.

Huh took some time out from running around SXSW to chat with Mashable at our house down here in Austin. Check out the video for more info about the site, as well as Huh’s feelings on dirty bunnies.

More About: Ben Huh, cheezburger network, easter-bunnies, sxswi

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Thanks to the social web, each of us has the unprecedented ability to offer not only monetary support but also the reach of our own online networks in support of a cause. Non-profits can also tap into a myriad of sites enhanced by social media to turbo-charge fundraising campaigns and galvanize supporters.

Picking up where last year’s list left off, here are some of the best funding sites that leverage social networks and online crowds to help you do some (social) good. If there are others that you find worthwhile, please share them in the comments.

1. Causes

Fully integrated into the world’s largest social network, Causes lets Facebook users launch and participate in online campaigns for collective action, like fundraising, signing petitions and garnering attention for a cause or organization.

For Donors: The Causes application prompts individuals to create grassroots communities or "causes" in support of specific issues or non-profit organizations and then invite their Facebook friends to join them in their efforts.

For Non-profits: Non-profits can use Causes to build communities of supporters, run fundraising campaigns, distribute petitions and build a volunteer base for free. In order to accept donations through Causes, a non-profit must be a 501(c)3 that is also registered with GuideStar. Non-profits still must pay the 4.75% processing fee via Network for Good.

2. Crowdrise

Crowdrise offers online tools for personal fundraising, event fundraising, special occasion fundraising, team fundraising and sponsored volunteerism. Star power from co-founder Edward Norton and social media-powered, high-profile fundraisers have helped set this crowdfunding tool apart from others.

For Donors: In addition to starting a fundraising campaign, giving to one, volunteering or interacting within Crowdrise, you can accumulate points for your activities. You’ll earn 10 points for every dollar raised or donated and double points for giving to a featured charity. Top point winners get prizes such as electronics, clothing and giftcards.

For Non-profits: Non-profits can benefit from Crowdrise’s turn-key solution meant to complement their existing fundraising and volunteer activities. Basic accounts are free, and there is a $299/year cost for a Featured Account. Crowdrise deducts 5% on donations made through their site with a $1 transaction fee for donations under $25 or a $2.50 transaction fee for donations of $25 and up.

3. DonateNow/Network for Good

This site provides a secure donation system that powers the online fundraising efforts of many non-profits. It also has a Volunteer Network to connect individuals across the country with more than 200,000 virtual, local and global volunteer opportunities.

For Donors: Some people may not ever come into direct contact with Network for Good until they make an online contribution to a non-profit that uses DonateNow behind the scenes. But you can go to the Network for Good site and make donations and manage your giving history directly. You can also set up automated monthly giving, buy a charity gift card, or download a badge for your favorite charity to add to your website or blog.

For Non-profits: Using the DonateNow service, you can select from three plans: “Lite,” for a 5% fee per donation; “Main,” with a one-time account setup fee of $199.00 and a monthly fee of $49.95; and “DonateNow Deluxe” for $99 per month. The latter two plans have a 3% donation fee. They also offer a service called EventsNow powered by givezooks with transaction fees of 5.5% and $0.99 per ticket or donation and a fee-based e-mail service powered by Emma.

4. DonorsChoose

This site vets every classroom project request submitted by teachers and processes donor transactions. They then purchase all related classroom materials, ship the items directly to the schools and notify the principal of the pending shipments. They close the loop by providing photos of each project taking place with teacher and student letters and a cost report showing how donations were spent.

For Donors: You can donate to the classroom project of your choice and then invite your social network friends, fans and followers to join your efforts.

For Non-profits: Teachers are encouraged to submit classroom projects to the site and to use social media to garner support. Projects less than $400 have the best chance of being funded.

5. FirstGiving

This site empowers individuals to raise money for causes easily and provides non-profits with fundraising campaign management tools.

For Donors: The site provides individuals with the tools to raise money or donate to a cause. Donors can choose to cover the fees that are normally passed on as a transaction fee to the non-profit.

For Non-Profits: FirstGiving partners with non-profit organizations so they can plan, execute and measure their online fundraising campaigns. Non-profits can sign up for an account and receive donations weekly, less a 5% fee. Non-profits can also let their supporters know that anyone can create fundraising pages on behalf of the organization.

6. Givezooks!

Givezooks! is geared toward non-profits and provides them with tools to manage fundraising efforts. Fundraisers on givezooks! can be promoted using e-mail, widgets and through social media channels.

For Donors: While not specifically geared toward the individual donor, givezooks! provides a grassroots fundraising tool for non-profits. In turn, non-profits can encourage people like you to create grassroots fundraising campaigns on their behalf and individuals can tap into their own personal social networks for additional support.

For Non-profits: To get started, non-profits pick a plan, create a custom givezooks! fundraiser: a campaign, event or wish list. Organizations also select their payment gateway: Sage, PayPal, CyberSource, Authorize.net or AmazonPayments. The givezooks! Social Fundraising platform starts at $129 per month. Their Events product is priced separately based on a transaction fee starting at 2%.

7. Help Attack!

HelpAttack! wants to make it easy and fun for anyone to "turn social actions into social good." Anyone can pledge any amount of money for each action they take online (currently on Twitter and Facebook) and give it to their favorite non-profits. There’s a gaming and discovery component so users can unlock coins and learn about new non-profits and causes to support.

For Donors: Sign in to HelpAttack! with your Twitter or Facebook ID, choose a non-profit from the site’s database to support and pledge a specific amount per action for a 30-day period. Then simply go about your tweeting, commenting, uploading photos to Facebook, and engaging with your friends online. At the end of 30 days, the site tallies your social activities, and you can return to the site to make good on your promise.

For Non-profits: Any 501(c)(3) can be included in the site’s database and cultivate philanthropists from their fans and followers. The fee for non-profits is 4.75% via Network For Good. HelpAttack! has a freemium model with the paid upgrade costing $25 at sign up and an additional 4% from the donation stream.

8. Jumo

Jumo, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, considers itself a social network that connects individuals and organizations. Created by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, its functionality is linked closely with Facebook.

For Donors: You must have a Facebook account to sign up and use. As a donor, you can find issues and projects to support, follow related news and support those causes. In some cases, you donate to an organization through a donate button on their Jumo page.

For Non-profits: Jumo is open to all organizations or groups with a charitable mission. Non-profits can add their organizations or projects by clicking on "Add a Project" at the bottom of every site page. In some cases, a page may already be set up in an organization’s name, and they can click "Become the administrator" on the page to claim it. To receive donations through Jumo, non-profits must provide their organization's EIN. Donations on Jumo are processed via Network for Good so there is a 4.75% fee per transaction.

9. JustGive

Founded 11 years ago, JustGive was created to help individuals find charities to support. The JustGive Guide narrows a database of over 1.5 million charities (from Guidestar) down to the 1,000 organizations that meet stringent requirements and then groups them into 19 categories. The site also offers various ways individuals can support their causes, such as charity gift cards, charity wedding registrations and charity gift collections.

For Donors: The minimum donation through the site is $10 and payments can be made via American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa. You can also set up recurring donations to process on a monthly basis. Track the donations you make through your giving history, which helps at tax time.

For Non-profits: To create or correct their listing on JustGive, a non-profit needs to first register with Guidestar. Organizations can set up a JustGive donation page and download a "Donate Now" button to put on their website or blog and lead donors to JustGive to process donations. JustGive provides a record of donations downloadable as a CSV or PDF file. There are no setup costs but there is a 3% fee per donation.

10. Razoo

Razoo provides tools to search for and donate to charities, create an online fundraiser with no setup fees or monthly subscriptions and collaborate through social media.

For Donors: You can find and support your favorite cause or non-profit or set up your own fundraiser. You can also organize a team or join someone else’s to raise money including races and mission trips.

For Non-profits: With Razoo, non-profits can accept online donations and create fundraising campaigns for specific projects or start a fundraiser for a good cause. You can also claim access to your organization’s listing (based on the IRS Business Master File) to share your stories for free on your fundraising page and use the DonateAnywhere widget to accept donations through Razoo. Razoo’s per donation transaction fee is 2.9% with an additional 2.0% for team fundraising tools.

11. SocialVibe

SocialVibe is part of the social offerings from branding agency Svnetwork. The company refers to SocialVibe as a "social media utility" that connects people with brands in support of causes.

For Donors: By interacting with brands who have set up campaigns on SocialVibe, you can contribute to non-profit organizations partnered with the site. Each time you share branded content on your social media channels and blogs, you earn points that translate into micro-donations for the cause of your choice. The more social media accounts you connect to SocialVibe, the greater your impact. You can also add the SocialVibe app to your Facebook profile.

For Non-profits: SocialVibe is limited in how it works specifically with non-profits. It is currently affiliated with 40 charitable partners in the areas of education, environment, heath, hunger and poverty, animals, arts and culture, and peace and human rights.

12. Sparked

Sparked is an online-only volunteer network that incorporates crowdsourcing principles to bring talented individuals together in support of non-profits.

For Donors: Instead of donating money, you’re giving time and in-kind contributions. And if you have a spare moment, Sparked will help you fill it. You provide the site with your specific skills, such as copywriting or graphic design. Specify what types of causes interest you such as environmental or health. You’ll then start receiving requests from the site to help non-profits on relevant projects such as developing copy and designing a new direct mail piece for a conversation project.

For Non-profits: Any non-profit can create a profile specifying their sector and needs. They can then post challenges that are distributed to the vast volunteer network. Note that this site does not provide fundraising tools.

Conclusion

Before heading to any of these sites, take a look at the trends in social fundraising outlined by Geoff Livingston and then go forth and do social good. Hopefully, these resources will help you be strategic about your asking and giving.

Special thanks to Beth Kanter, Maggie Christ, Debi Aronson Pfitzenmaier and Andrea Weckerle who contributed input during the researching of this post.

Interested in more Social Good news? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover resources and information on your favorite Mashable topics.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, urbancow

More About: charity, crowd, fundraising, non-profit, social good, social media

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Bouncr’s simple idea for protecting e-mail addresses is really quite genius. Users need only enter an e-mail address to receive a shortened e-mail alias that they can then share out to social networks or with contacts. Users can also customize the assigned e-mail address to their liking.

Co-founder Max Mullen believes Bouncr addresses a real pain point as e-mail addresses are often abused by marketers, spammers and strangers. Bouncr provides e-mail with solicitation controls, so the minute a Bouncr e-mail address is being abused, the user can pull the plug on the alias.

Right now, Bouncr users are super limited in how they can use the product — a side effect of its infancy. Soon, users will be able to manage a bounce list and track responses. The next immediate feature release is boun.cr e-mail addresses (in lieu of bouncr.com e-mail addresses). Five hundred Mashable readers can get priority access to that feature here.

Bouncr’s eventual plan is to release a pro version that will be a white-label e-mail shortening platform for brands. The system will support campaigns and much more sophisticated management tools.

First things first, though, Bouncr will compete Monday against six startups in the StartupBus finale event. Regardless of the outcome, Mullen says he believes the seven-person team has built something with staying power.

More About: bouncr, e-mail, startup, sxsw

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The report, which was assembled using data from seven recent studies, indicates that young children are increasingly consuming all types of digital media, in many cases consuming more than one type at once.

Television use dwarfs internet use in both the number of children who surf the web and the amount of time they spend on it. The analysis found that during the week, most children spend at least three hours a day watching television, and that television use among preschoolers is the highest it has been in the past eight years. Of the time that children spend on all types of media, television accounts for a whopping 47%.

Heavy television viewing may even be partially responsible for the rising number of children who use the Internet. Parents in one study indicated that more than 60% of children under age three watch video online. That percentage decreases as children get older (the report suggests this is because school-age children have less time at home), but even 8- to 18-year-old children reported in another study that they consume about 20% of their video content online, on cellphones, or on other portable devices like iPods.

Internet and television use among children has become entwined in other ways as well. A 2010 Nielsen study suggests that 36% of children between the ages of 2 and 11 use both mediums simultaneously. Altogether, children between the ages of 8 and 10 spend about 5.5 hours each day using media — eight hours if you count the additional media consumed while multitasking.

The report doesn’t attempt to solve the more-than-decade-old debate of whether all of this screen time is good for children. Instead, it preaches balance: "My mother used to say that too much of anything isn't good for you, whether it be eating only protein, shooting hoops all day or ‘always being connected’ to the digital world,” said Dr. Lewis Bernstein, executive president at Sesame Workshop, in a press release.

It does, however, point out that time spent in front of books remains constant even as screen time increases.

About 90% of 5- to 9-year-olds who participated in a 2008 Sesame Workshop study reported spending at least an hour every day reading old-fashioned, physical texts.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, BrianAJackson

More About: Children, education, parenting

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This week in 2006, designers began creating a prototype of what would become Twitter. Jack Dorsey sent the world’s first tweet on March 21, 2006. On its blog, Twitter took the opportunity to point out some key stats, including:

• It took three years, two months and one day to get to the billionth tweet. Now there are a billion tweets a week.
• A year ago, people sent 50 million tweets a day. On March 11, 2011, the tally was 177 million.
• There were 456 tweets per second after Michael Jackson died in 2009. That record was broken on New Year’s Day this year with 6,939 tweets after midnight in Japan on New Year’s morning there.
• There were 572,000 new accounts created on March 12, 2011; there were 460,000 new accounts created daily, on average, in the past month.
• Mobile users increased 182% in the past year.
• Twitter has 400 employees today, compared to eight in January 2008.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock, and Nitin Garg

More About: twitter

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Mobile photo-sharing startup Picplz is certainly one to watch at SXSW this year. The iPhone and Android applications are popping at the festival, says founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell.

Caldwell, who dropped by the Mashable SXSWi House at Buffalo Billiards Monday, fielded questions about Picplz, the state of the online music industry, what it’s like to be a second-time founder and his thoughts on what’s hot at SXSW. Spoiler alert: He likes GroupMe.

Caldwell promised to fill in us on all the Picplz stats after the festival, so stay tuned.

More About: dalton caldwell, mobile photo sharing, picplz, sxsw

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Apotheker is about to deliver his keynote for the HP Summit in San Francisco. Hundreds of analysts and members of the press have gathered to hear what the newly minted CEO has to say about how he will steer HP into the future. Rumors are swirling that he will bring a stronger software focus to HP and de-emphasize its massive hardware businesses. He may also talk about webOS and its strategy for new products.

In addition to a presentation by Apotheker, CFO Cathie Lesjak and other executives will be diving into HP’s various business.

I’m here live at HP’s Summit. Here are my live notes.

Live Notes: HP Web Summit

All times are in Pacific Time

1:06 p.m.: Steve Fieler, VP of investor relations, is on stage to introduce Apotheker.

1:10: HP is showing one of its promotional videos. Not sure what the point of the video is about yet.

1:12: This video is talking about “transforming information into purpose. … Let’s not just create the next chapter of HP, but the next chapter of progress.”

1:13: Apotheker has taken the stage.

1:13: HP’s CEO says he’s been meeting with customers, executives and employees for the past four and a half months.

1:14: “Data is the world’s most valuable material and information is the world’s most valuable commodity.”

1:15: “Everybody On” — the new HP slogan. “Seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world.”

1:16: A slide with HP’s core strengths. Things like market leadership in all of its core markets, best-in-class supply chain, etc. It’s basically a “we’re a really, really strong company” slide.

1:17: Apotheker acknowledges the world is changing. He specifically mentions consumerization and cloud computing.

1:19: HP’s CEO is now discussing the problems facing modern companies, focused around data, dissecting information, cloud computing, etc. “At HP, we see a future where computing resources are scalable.”

1:21: Now he’s discussing the evolution of technology. He argues most technology today follows the traditional stack model, with networks at the bottom and devices at the top (networks –> infrastructure –> databases –> middleware –> applications –> OS –> devices).

1:23: HP ships 2 PCs and 2 printers per second.

1:23: Apotheker argues that PCs are simply not going away — people still like using them. He argues there are still a lot of growing markets for PCs, like Brazil. This kind of feels like a preemptive response to the arguments that tablets and mobile are the future of computing. Lucky for HP they’ve got the Pre 3 and the TouchPad coming out this summer.

1:25: The new model for technology — the cloud stack. Hybrid infrastructure –> platform services –> cloud services –> open cloud marketplace –> connected devices. 7 out of 10 cloud services are HP customers. 4 out of 5 search engines.

1:26: Shipped more than 3 million web-enabled printers in Q1 alone. 200 billion pages are moving from analog to digital per year.

1:27: “We’re positioned to lead with our portfolio to navigate the journey ahead.” Cloud will be the pervading technology for a long time to come.

1:28: Apotheker says HP is very well positioned for a cloud-based world. He cites HP’s cloud-based work with Dreamworks on the Shrek series as an example of how HP can help its customers with cloud-based architecture.

1:29: New slide: “A strategy for today and tomorrow.” Optimize traditional environments, build cloud-based architectures, enable transformation to hybrid models, define and deliver the connected world from the consumer to the enterprise.

1:30 This entire keynote can be summed up with five words: Cloud, cloud and more cloud.

1:31: Apotheker is still discussing HP’s cloud technology and how all of its devices will be connected to its cloud-based offering. It will deliver a complete ecosystem from the cloud for both consumers and the enterprise.

1:32: Connectivity: HP’s devices will be connected to the web and its web-based software. Things like connected printers and smartphones. The centerpiece of its connectivity strategy is webOS, though.

1:33: Information management and software: Apotheker is now talking up HP’s software services, especially in digitization and analytics.

1:35: HP is now discussing its acquisition of Vertica systems. Vertical provides real-time analytics for businesses at massive scale.

1:38: HP is showing off a HP & Vertica rack configuration so real-time analytics are available as soon as you buy your server rack. The Vertica acquisition is all about processing giant amounts of data.

1:41: It’s a demo of HP’s data-processing capabilities. The example is a car rental company trying to price rentals for a customer. By analyzing massive amounts of data on the customer’s history, weather, road conditions, etc., users can get the price and data they’re looking for.

1:44: HP is the fifth largest IT security company in the world, Apotheker says.

1:47: Apotheker: Some customers will want bundled offerings of hardware, software and services. Some just want hardware. Some will want HP to orchestrate their move into the hybrid/cloud world.

1:50: New slide: “Profitable growth and shareholder return.” Growth + margin expansion + capital allocation = shareholder return.

1:51: Apotheker’s talk is done. Now CFO Cathie Lesjak is on stage to talk about the nitty gritty financials. I am ending the liveblog here. Stay tuned though; we’re about to have a press conference with Apotheker.

More About: HP, Leo Apotheker, palm, pre

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The race for relevance in the realm of music subscription services is undoubtedly highly influenced by accessibility. In an effort to get ahead in said race, MOG recently announced new integrations with BMW’s MINI USA vehicle, as well as products from LG, Samsung, Sonos and Vizio.

At a press conference Monday at SXSW Interactive, MOG CEO David Hyman also announced that the service will soon be available for BlackBerry as well as Boxee. “Our goal is to be ubiquitous, like air,” he said. “It’s like buying a book and not being able to take it out of your house,” he said of increasing MOG’s presence across devices.

MOG launched its Fusion Program back at CES to help consumer electronics and auto manufacturers integrate MOG's APIs (including catalog search, playlisting, favoriting, etc.) into its products.

While a presence in consumer electronics like Sonos (other sub services like Rdio and Pandora are already on Sonos) is undoubtedly important when it comes to making services like MOG more ubiquitous, MOG’s new integration with the MINI is an exceptionally big coup.

Granted, the presence of streaming music services in vehicles is nothing new. MINI also added Pandora to its repertoire in recent months. In addition, Pandora is already available in Ford vehicles, and at CES Toyota announced that it will be bringing Pandora to the Toyota Entune multimedia system (along with iheartradio, which is definitely a service to watch, as Clear Channel recently acquired Thumbplay’s music service and plans to fold it into iheartradio in the future).

However, here’s the kicker with MOG: 1). MINI drivers will get on-demand music as well as radio, 2). They can download music for offline caching — so, for example, if you’re in a tunnel, you won’t lose your jams (other Internet radio stations have had this option before as well, but the on-demand aspect kicks it up a notch).

Slacker Radio is also working on an in-car solution — and will soon be releasing on-demand — so it’s only a matter of time before music subscription services make their way into automobiles full force. This step could be the one the business requires to finally garner a substantial user base.

Check out our demo above and let us know in the comments below what you think of the technology.

More About: cars, MOG, music, sxswi

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Here are some tips on how to network, share your information and/or promote your event(s) using social media:

• The Future of Event Planning and Social Media
• HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events with Social Media
• 35+ Ways to Find and Plan Events Online
• 8 Ways to Create Paperless Business Cards
• 5 Useful iPhone Apps for Business Networking

Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

Upcoming Mashable Events

Mashable SXSWi House — March 13-14, 2011, Austin, TX:
The Mashable SXSWi House 2011 will break the mold of the traditional SXSWi events schedule. Working with SXSWi and our partner sponsors, we will create a two-day platform that will include private events, VIP networking hours and large open parties. From Sunday, March 13 to Monday, March 14, Mashable will be hosting a combination of private events, open houses, meet-and-greet opportunities and of course, two nights of parties with open bars. The event is open to all 21+ SXSWi badge holders. Please RSVP on Eventbrite at http://sxswi.eventbrite.com.

Mashable Connect — May 12-14, 2011, Orlando, FL:
Mashable Connect 2011 will be an intimate experience that brings together leaders from the digital world for a weekend away to share and connect offline. Set away from the distractions of traditional conferences, Mashable Connect will recreate the Mashable web experience on the grounds of Disney World, creating an environment where attendees can truly engage and build lasting connections. The invite-only conference will cover new territory, break news and feature special events, with a touch of Disney magic.

March 14-17, 2011, Chicago, IL: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute's 3rd Forum on Strategic Internal Communications: How To Use Social Media & Traditional Communication Tools To Engage Employees, Drive Performance & Add Value, to learn how to how to transform the role of internal communications to one that adds value to your business. Hear practical advice, firsthand, from leading organizations such as: Southwest Airlines; American Red Cross; Dean Foods Company; Sprint; Mars Chocolate North America; Northwestern Mutual; Kaiser Permanente; City of Milwaukee, WI; Edelman Change and Employee Engagement; and more. Register and mention Mashable to save $200.

March 14-15, 2011, Jacksonville, FL: Paging all health care communicators! Social media won't be flat lining anytime soon. Join us at our Health Care Marketing and PR Social Media Summit, hosted by Ragan Communications and Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. Explore the hottest social media case studies and learn how to transform your communications strategy with mobile health applications. Empower yourself to convince executive non-believers that social media doesn't waste employees' time, but it actually increases productivity! Register with the promo code MASH11 to get a $100 discount on this previously sold-out conference. Can't attend? We're webcasting the entire experience!

March 15, 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Want to know successful stories on how big brands build their brand and reputation online? Everyone can go online, but can you STAY online? Our conference, Digitalize Your Marketing Strategy, is going to be most anticipated event of the year! WE are bringing you the Malaysian's most valuable brands, review their successful stories and provide you hands on tips to manage your online marketing strategy. Our privileged speakers from Digi, Dell, Unilever, Intel and Microsoft will share case studies using social media, digital and search engine. Register with the promo code DYMSMASH and save 20%!

March 16, 2011, Washington, DC: The Innovative Giving Foundation presents the 2011 Innogive Conference – "Mobile Giving Applied". This will be a one day event focuses on applying the best practices in mobile giving and communications for social good, and will address integrating SMS appeals, mobile apps and other emerging innovative giving technologies. The Innogive format combines a great mix of respected keynotes, riveting innovation speakers and super informative panels and hands on classes. Organizations of all sizes should attend! Register and use the promo code IGF for $50 off.

March 17-19, 2011, Washington, DC: The annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) is the Nonprofit Technology Network’s signature event, a three-day gathering bringing together nearly 2,000 nonprofit professionals from around the world to collaborate, innovate, and maximize effectiveness. Our members share the common goal of helping nonprofits use all aspects of technology more effectively; the NTC brings them face-to-face to connect, learn — and return to their organizations brimming with the energy, strategies, and networks they need to change the world. For more information and to register, please click here.

March 17-18, 2011, Vilnius, Lithuania: LOGIN 2011 is a festival, dedicated to the Internet, technology, trends and creativity. It is the biggest Internet event in the Baltic states, held annually in Vilnius, Lithuania. More than 2000 participants from all over the Baltics will gather to listen to inspiring keynote speeches, participate in seminars and creative workshops. Login 2011 – more than 40 speakers, such as Peter Sunde (The Pirate Bay), Ben Hammersley (WIRED), Christian Heilmann (Mozilla), Aral Balkan (Nokla Labs) just to name a few! For more information, please click here.

March 18, 2011, New York, NY: Facebook, In-Depth is an intensive full-day event that educates marketers and senior management on the world's largest social network. L2 is inviting an unprecedented group of scholars, thinkers, entrepreneurs, technologists and exemplar brands for a full day immersion on Facebook. Topics covered will range from best practices on branded Facebook pages to growing your fans and followers to Facebook commerce and advertising. Register with the discount code Mashable_friends to get 25% off.

March 19, 2011, Cape Cod, MA: Geek Girl Tech Boot Camp (Cape Cod 2011): Geek Girl Boot Camps are full-day technology “unconferences” for women, taught by women, of all ages and knowledge levels where you can find workshops on everything to do with computers and the Internet! Workshops include PC and Mac, Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), Location (foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp) Photoshop, QuickBooks, Blogging, Podcasting, WordPress, Google Tools, Dreamweaver, Video, Inbound Marketing, digital photography, and more. The workshops are designed for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. There are Discussion Groups and an all day Help Desk. The Mission of Geek Girl Camp is to educate and empower every girl and woman at every age level, on every skill level, at every income level on computer technology with fun and provide a legacy by giving back and paying it forward. Mashable readers get an exclusive $30 discount off the standard pricing of $139 with special code mashable2011 when registering!

March 21-25, 2011, New York, NY: Learn how to power up your online campaign through search, social and display at SES New York Conference & Expo. Search, social media, behavioral targeting, mobile, and video are just a few of the areas marketers have struggled to keep pace with within the last year. Advancements like Google Instant, Yahoo’s merger with Bing, and Twitter’s launch of Promoted Tweets, are just a few of the technological advancements which marketers have had to absorb. Helping marketers keep pace with a quickly developing digital landscape, the SES Conference & Expo series brings in experts from throughout the industry, providing insight, case studies, and tangible tactics for businesses to employ. SES New York, one of our most comprehensive shows of the year, attracts up to 6,000 attendees annually from leading brands across the business landscape. Attendees join to connect with the digital community at large, looking to build in-house skills in an array of digital marketing fields. Register with the promo code 20MASH and SAVE 20%.

March 21-23, 2011, Boston, MA: BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media is the definitive conference on local digital advertising and marketing. Join the interactive local media community in Boston for ILM East where the focus will be on new local marketplaces, keying in on the latest developments in search, mobile, geolocation, reviews, group buying and deals. Register with the promo code ILMEMASH and save $200!

March 21-22, 24-25, 2011, Hong Kong & Singapore: Branding in a Digital Age – Join us at this 2-day conference to learn the best methodologies and tactics to boost your brand. Obtain a clear understanding of consumer behaviour and trends, and leverage on this knowledge to amplify your brand through digital platforms. Find out how brands such as Virgin Mobile, adidas, Dell, Sunkist, Flawless, Allianz and the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau have successfully incorporated digital as a means of delivering real-time, holistic and interactive brand experiences. Learn practical and actionable solutions from real-life case studies, and how to implement these new-formed insights for your brand! Register today!

March 21, 2011, Orlando, FL: The Mobile Web and Apps World Forum is the official Mobile Web and App event of International CTIA. Now in our 4th great year, we will once again bring together top minds from around the world to discuss how to develop, market, deploy and monetize mobile web and applications. This year's theme is "rise of mobile application commerce" and includes Facebook commerce, location based and viral marketing issues.

March 22-24, 2011, Washington, DC: The Publishing Xchange is a two-plus day interactive conference with discussions revolving around the latest market dynamics as they relate to real-world publishing and marketing processes. You'll learn about the latest technologies and how to achieve the greatest return on your efforts and investments while utilizing the new media channels. Choose from 6 tracks produced by Outsell, The Seybold Report, InfoTrends, Thad McIlroy The Future of Publishing, What They Think and IDEAlliance. Discover the future of publishing, how to implement a cross-media campaign, how a printer can make the leap into this new world & so much more!

March 22-24, 2011, Washington, DC: Ready or not, the way workers create, manage, share and consume information is changing in profound and unprecedented ways. Join us as thousands of technologists and business users from the world’s top companies gather to explore the technologies that are changing the way the world works. Choose from 19 conference tracks and programs, including the SharePoint Summit @ info360, EMC's Information Intelligence Summit @ info360 and Oracle @ info360. Visit www.info360show.com for details.

March 22, 2011, Orlando, FL: After the overwhelming response to our first tablets event in San Francisco (formerly iPad and Tablets: Entertainment and Publishing Apps) we are proud to once again present the next Future of Tablets event at International CTIA in Orlando. We will be covering issues that are important to the publishing, media and entertainment industries. Topics include market research and trends, deployment on multiple platforms, digital newsstands, ad-funded, sponsored and premium apps, business and revenue models, incorporating multimedia communities and much more

March 23-24, 2010, Las Vegas, NV: Hear groundbreaking social media ROI case studies at Social Pulse 2011: The Corporate Social Media Marketing Event! This conference provides corporate marketing leaders from across industries the newest insights and case studies on how to drive measurable results and marketing ROI through smart social media strategy. Moving beyond theory and assumptions, it is the only conference that focuses on social media initiatives that have generated measurable results for America’s leading corporations. Register online or call 1-800-647-7600, and use the promo code MJK233 to save $200!

March 23, 2011, New York, NY: The Social Consumer: Case Studies and Roundtables — Representatives from PepsiCo, Sony, Unilever, Kotex, and others will demonstrate the best case studies of how leading brands engage, influence and service consumers through innovative social programs. Register and use the promo code MASH for a discounted rate of $155.

March 23, 2011, New York, NY: GigaOM presents "Structure Big Data" That “fire hose” of information pouring through your company’s databases and systems? That data, whether real-time or historic, presents an enormous opportunity to gain business insights to maximize profits and improve products. Structure Big Data, GigaOM’s newest conference, is focused on helping technology executives develop a big data strategy. Turn your company’s information into your next big revenue opportunity. Register with the promo code BDMASH and save $100!

March 24, 2011, Tulsa, OK: It's time for the very first Social Media Tulsa Conference. Social media thought leaders, internet marketers, PR specialists, mobile pioneers, and tech enthusiasts all in one place for a day of sharing knowledge, sparking ideas, and networking with the best from all walks of life. It all began with Social Media Day Tulsa at Fat Guys Burger Bar in the historic Greenwood district. Social Media Tulsa is a community that invites its members to gather and talk about the impact of Social Media on business, news, entertainment, sports, non profit, and other topics. Registration includes lunch, sessions, and beverage coupons. Register and use the promo code SMTulsaMash for a 15% discount.

March 28-29, 2011, Paris, France: The Marketing 2.0 Conference features leading social media experts who will discuss and learn about the social media initiatives from brands, advertisers, researchers and analysts. Hear from leading people in social media about their strategies, revenue models and how they are approaching upcoming trends in the field. The event will also examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading researchers. Use the promo code mash2011 to receive a discount off the registration price.

March 28-31, 2011, San Francisco, CA: The Web 2.0 Expo brings together thousands of designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, and business strategists each year to learn and discuss the latest web technology trends and challenges. At the next Web 2.0 Expo, we’ll reveal the key pieces of the digital economy and the ways you can leverage important ideas for your own success. We'll apply the economic filter to data collection, social connections, social media platforms, browser successes, old media in new channels, and global commerce. Register for this multi-track conference and expo with code websf11bart4 to save 20% on all conference passes, or register and use the promo code websf11bae4 for a FREE Expo Hall Only pass.

March 29-30, 2011, San Francisco, CA: Following the success of our inaugural summit, the SSN 2nd Alternative Payment Systems Innovations Summit will enable industry senior executives and decision-makers to share implementation challenges and success stories for capitalizing on the explosive growth of the rapidly evolving mobile payments arena. Merchants, payment processors, telecom carriers, developers and solutions providers will gather for provoking discussions on topics such as upcoming plans for accepting mobile payments in stores, facilitating collaboration amongst all players in the mobile payments space and direct-to-mobile billing. Register with the promo code APSIMA1 and save $300 off registration rate!

March 29-30, 2011 London, UK: Social Media World Forum Europe is now in its 3rd year, the event this year will be providing a format for networking, engagement, and lots of social media debate around the latest tools, technologies, platforms, and emerging trends within social media marketing. With over 4000 attendees last year, the show has grown significantly to become one of the leading shows in its field, hosting a variety of free to attend workshops & conferences for marketers, pr professionals, developers, and the like. Mashable readers receive a 20% discount when they register and use the promo code MASH2011.

March 29, 2011, New York, NY: GE, H&R Block, Scholastic, Walmart, Scripps Networks, HP, and more will share case studies in corporate social media at BlogWell New York: How Big Brands Use Social Media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250. Get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. Presented by GasPedal and SocialMedia.org. Register with promo code THANKSMASHABLE and save 10%!

March 30-April 1, 2011, Boston, MA: NSDI ’11 brings together leading researchers to explore the design principles of large-scale networked and distributed systems. This year’s technical program includes 27 technical papers with topics including data-intensive computing, energy and storage, debugging and correctness, and more. NSDI ’11 will also feature a poster session showcasing early research in progress. Take advantage of this opportunity to meet with premier researchers in the computer networking, distributed systems, and operating systems communities. Register and use the promo code NSDI11MASH for a $100 discount.

March 30, 2011, Culver City, CA: IdeaMensch LA showcases some of Los Angeles' most passionate people who have successfully brought their ideas to life. With a focus on being inspirational, informative and super awesome, the event will include six 10-minute presentations from successful business folks, tech entrepreneurs, authors and filmmakers. Speakers include Pro Founder CEO Jessica Jackley and Dan Gould, the co-founder of Namesake. Register and use the promo code Mashable to save $5.

March 31 – April 1, 2011, New York, NY: Produced by Mediabistro, AllFacebook and SocialTimes, Socialize: Monetizing Social Media unites business leaders in gaming, virtual goods, social mobile, marketing, and media for two days of learning, connecting, and sharing about all things social. Attendees come to Socialize for the real-world insight that our unique blend of industry heavyweights, business visionaries and results-oriented practitioners bring to the table. Expert speakers include Mitch Joel (President, Twist Image), Ian Schafer (Founder and CEO, Deep Focus), Geoff Cook (CEO, myYearbook), and more. For full details and registration, visit the site. Register with the promo code SOCMASH and save 15%!

March 31, 2011, Toronto, Canada: Influence People is hosting a one-day Social Media Monitoring event. It will bring together some of the finest minds in social media to highlight the best tools and techniques for listening and measurement. Topics covered include sentiment detection, influencer analysis, how to measure social media ROI, data access and quality, small business monitoring and reputation management for brands. Speakers include Murray Newlands, Trey Pennington and Joseph Thornley. Register with the promo code mashable to save 10%.

April 1-3, 2011, Washington, DC: Please join us for the first annual Social Learning Summit, brought to you by the American University Social Media Club. This weekend conference will bring together students, educators, and professionals to learn from each other and with each other about a broad swath of topics at the intersection of social media, technology, and education. Speakers include professors, researchers, students, and professionals from all fields of study, and all are invited to attend. Registration is only $10, so register today!

April 4-7, 2011, Vancouver, BC: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute's 25th Updated Forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results, to learn how to incorporate social media into your communications and marketing plans, and leverage the latest interactive Web 2.0 tools and techniques to advance your organizational goals. Hear practical advice from: BC Ministry of Environment; Department of National Defence; City of Seattle, WA; BC Public Affairs Bureau, City of Oshawa, ON; Genome Alberta; Alberta Environment; Deloitte and more. Register and mention Mashable when registering to save $200!

April 4-7, 2011, Cannes, France: The mobile media, technology and entertainment industries converge for Connected Creativity, the first-ever global forum on connected entertainment, April 4-7th, in Cannes, France. As a part of MIPTV, Connected Creativity participants get the full benefits of joining 10,000 industry players at the world's greatest gathering in TV and media. This multi-billion dollar content market gives the world its first taste of the newest content that will shape the year to come for TV, Internet, mobile and all video-rich platforms. For more information and to register, please visit connected-creativity.com.

April 4-6, 2011, Boston, MA: SOCIAL MEDIA & COMMUNITY 2.0 STRATEGIES is a unique event that focuses on the business value of social media for established brands, as well as entrepreneurial companies. It brings together community experts with lines of business leaders who are using social media strategically to drive their business. From setting the strategy, to operationalizing it, to measuring the results – this event is a high-level think tank for and by those particularly focused on understanding and improving efforts and investments in the Social Media & Community space. Join the evolution and register today (Save 20% with the promo code SOCIAL11MASH).

April 4, 2011, San Francisco, CA: Data 2.0 Conference – Learn from Google, Microsoft, SimpleGeo, Factual, and 50 other innovators about what's next in the world of data. The first conference to examine the growing importance of information accessibility in business, technology and society, the midVentures Data 2.0 Conference focuses on how the web is becoming the new database, and how businesses can better analyze and monetize this information. Discussions will span the next decade of data, from the data ecosystem and commoditization of information, to personal data control and open data initiatives. How will you use data to better target your new customers? Register and use the code data2mash for a 15% discount.

April 4, 2011, Munich, Germany: The International Search Summit is partnering with SMX to run its global search and social media program at SMX München. Focusing specifically on international and multilingual topics, the summit will run on 4th of April and give delegates the opportunity to attend both events. Topics at the Summit will include international link building, the impact of display on global search, international SEO case studies and multilingual video optimisation. All sessions will be in English. The agenda can be found here, and will be regularly updated with confirmed speakers. Combo or Summit only tickets are available. Early Bird rates apply and Mashable readers can get 15% off the booking price with the discount code MASHABLE011. For more information and to register, please click here.

April 5-6, 2011, San Francisco, CA: iStrategy is an inspirational, 2-day, digital media conference for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a sound digital strategy. iStrategy has recruited keynote speakers, panelists, workshop facilitators and attendees with expertise in the online channels that drive successful outcomes and tools that provide ongoing measurement including: Social Media, Mobile Marketing and Applications, Display Advertising, SEO/SEM, Email Marketing, Database Marketing, Web Analytics, E-commerce and Content Strategy. Register with the promo code MASHSJ10 to receive a 10% discount off the ticket price.

April 6-8, 2011, Phoenix, AZ: K-12 educators from across the country are invited to the Mobile Learning Experience 2011. Over the course of three days dozens of breakout sessions are offered. Leaders and visionaries like Travis Allen, Graham Brown-Martin, Scott Meech, Tony Vincent, and Susan Wells give inspirational, informative, and practical presentations. In addition to breakouts, there are keynote presentations, panel discussions, app sharing opportunities, and scavenger hunts. Topics include classroom management, assistive technology, higher-order thinking, movie-making, research, and personalized learning. Register at http://mobile2011.org.

April 6-8, 2011, New York City, NY: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ring the closing bell at NASDAQ? Now you don't have to – you can be there as an added bonus for attending our conference The 2011 Content Summit for Corporate Communicators & PR, presented by Ragan Communications and hosted by NASDAQ OMX. You'll discover new ways to tell a story that are echo-worthy in both social media and traditional media. Register with the promo code MASH11 to save $200 off the regular registration price.

April 6-8, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: Hispanicize 2011, the 2nd Annual Hispanic PR & Social Media Conference, is the first and largest conference devoted to Latino social media, bloggers and public relations professionals. The three-day conference will feature top industry keynote speakers and more than 24 professional development sessions. It’s also the first event to gather all the Latino and multicultural bloggers together for first time. For more information, please click here.

April 6, 2011, New York, NY: The annual We Media Conference features the people and ideas shaping media, technology and society. This year's conference is a lightening-strike for fast-movers: a one-day event filled with must-have intelligence, inspired ideas and brilliant people looking ahead to what’s next and what to do about it. Dozens of new projects, hundreds of new relationships and scores of solutions, partnerships and investments have emerged from the activities and key connections forged at We Media conferences around the world. The conference also features the finals of the $50k We Media PitchIt Challenge, a contest to help turn two startup ideas into something real. Register with the promo code WEMASH and save 10%!

April 7, 2011, London, UK: The third Social Media in Recruitment Conference will again help recruiters get the most from using Social Media through Case Studies, Latest Trends and Best Practice. Discover how the British Army introduced Social Media in recruiting, how Nokia uses LinkedIn on a global basis to build a talent pipeline, and how the European Personnel Selection Office in Brussels (who have careers web sites in twenty three different languages) use multilingual Social Media sites to attract new hires. Register and save 10% with the discount code MASHABLE.

April 7, 2011, London, UK: MI EXPO, a one day conference and exhibition taking place at The Delfina London is a platform showcasing innovation within the marketing sector. The event promises to inspire and educate, whilst bring together the companies and individuals driving the industry forward creating networking and new business opportunities. The Marketing Innovation Awards, nominated for by the UTalkMarketing Community will take place at the end of the day during a drinks reception. Register and use the promo code MASH15 to receive a 15% discount.

April 7, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: Social Media Advanced Skills Huddle – SMASH is an interactive conference designed to help you make better decisions about deploying social media for marketing, public relations and corporate communications. Presenters and attendees will huddle to air issues, seek advice, and tap into each other’s wisdom while arriving at practical solutions. This event is part of a series of unique how-to huddles on the campuses of the world’s best universities, taught by some of America’s top social media practitioners and experts. SMASH pushes the traditional conference into something much more interactive and practical. Register and use the promo code smashmash11.

April 10-13, 2011, Denver, CO: 360|Flex, the world’s first and still best Flex Developer conference, will be held in Denver, CO and bring together the best and brightest of the Flex development community! Speakers include many leading community members and Adobe engineers. With over 50 sessions, including hands-on training the Sunday before the conference, 360|Flex offers more content than any other Flex/AIR developer event in the world. Register and use the promo code flexmash to save 20% off the ticket price.

April 11-14, 2011, Santa Clara, CA: The O’Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo is an interactive learning community, spreading the latest and best knowledge on MySQL and related technologies to the global open source community. Harness the power of MySQL and celebrate the huge MySQL ecosystem over 4 days of in-depth training, sessions, plenary discussions, case studies, networking with hundreds of your peers, and more. Register and use the discount code mys11msh to save 15%.

April, 11-13, 2011, London, UK: The London Book Fair is the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. With 1600 exhibiting companies from over 50 countries, the fair brings together all corners of the international publishing industry to meet and do business. Celebrating its 40th year, The London Book Fair has grown into an industry hub bringing you three days of education, networking and business opportunities. For more information and to register, please visit www.londonbookfair.co.uk/mashable.

April 11-13, 2011, San Francisco, CA: Mix and mingle with more than 10,000 digital marketers at ad:tech. Discover the latest innovations in social media, mobile, search, e-mail, location-based marketing and much more. Find hundreds of the hottest digital marketing and advertising companies to network with and learn from. For more information and to register, please click here.

April 12-14, 2001, New York, NY: Market Research and Insights In Action is a connecting platform where global leaders meet to discuss strategic and key topics, exchange most recent experiences, and brainstorm on future developments. The event will include keynote presentations, case studies, interactive sessions, workshops, talking circles, panel discussions, business meetings and formal and informal networking activities designed to link and connect senior executives within the field of Market Research and Consumer / Customer Insights. Why not treat yourself to one of our exclusive VIP passes? Let us pick you up from the airport and drive you directly to the venue. Register with a promo code MRIUS11/003 to save 10%.

April 12, 2011 New York, NY: The Sentiment Analysis Symposium bridges technology and business in one of the most exciting applications to emerge in recent years: software that discovers business value in opinions and attitudes in social media, news, and enterprise feedback. The Sentiment Analysis Symposium provides an unmatched opportunity to learn about sentiment technologies, how they are applied, return on investment, and how to choose from among the many available solution options. Meet and learn from fellow experts, business executives, and practitioners. Keynotes, presentation tracks covering important business applications, a start-up showcase and peer-networking opportunities are planned.

April 13-15, 2011, Singapore: The Internet Show Asia 2011 is a series of seminars and a large end-to-end showcase of the latest internet technologies and solutions. More than 10,000 attendees will be at the exhibition and conference to find new ways of doing internet business and enhancing product offerings through the internet – through case study presentations and speaking directly with solution partners. The show will aim to increase your ROI, it's all about business, not a technology show. For more details and registrations, please visit www.theinternetshows.com/2010/Singapore.

April 13, 2011, Knoxville, TN: Some of the brightest minds in social media in the country are coming to Knoxville for this can't-miss marketing and PR event of the year: Social Slam 2011! Join for us for four expert panels and nationally acclaimed keynote speakers, including: Jay Baer, Christina "CK" Kerley, Trey Pennington and Brian Winter. For more information, please visit socslam.com.

April 14-16, 2011, New Orleans, LA: Whether you're a mom entrepreneur, blogger, a brand trying to connect with moms, or are just passionate about the online world, Mom 2.0 Summit is the conference for you. Talk shop with social media influencers, industry leaders and leading brands as they share best practices. Discuss ways to create smarter web-based marketing, and discover social media tools that engage your audience and build relationships. Register and use the promo code mashable2011 to save $35 off the ticket price.

April 14-15, 2011, Toronto, Canada: Gain cutting edge strategies to manage the risks and uncertainties involved in your organization's use of social media – all in just 2 days! Attend The Canadian Institute's Advanced Forum on Managing Legal and Business Risks in Social Media, and walk away with the tools you need to prepare a thorough plan for your organization to successfully navigate this ever-changing online world. Register and use the Mashable discount code 248CX01 to save 15% off the conference.

April 14, 2011, Boston, MA: Interested in meeting early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Boston? If so, then register for the FundingPost event on April 14th! FundingPost has hosted 175+ sold-out venture events in 20 cities over the past 9 years. At our next Boston event, the panel of investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing: How to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check! For more information and to register, please click here.

April 16, 2011, Everywhere: What started in 2010 as a grass-roots efforts to motivate people to get out and check in is back and now with the support of over 100 local foursquare committees around the world. On April 16th (4 and 4 squared) foursquare users are self-organizing meetups, lectures, swarms, scavenger hunts, and much more. Foursquare users can visit 4sqday.com to find out about about nearby events. Find out how cities such as Cincinnati are getting Foursquare Day officially proclaimed by reading the blog. The official slogan of Foursquare Day 2011, selected by fans in an online vote, is “Foursquare Day: When the World is Your Venue.” Events are not profit-driven and no event is too big or too small.

April 17-21, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: The Mobile Connections Conference is a first of its kind technology event that provides technical cross-platform knowledge for mobile developers. Attendees will gain understanding on how to leverage cloud based services, how to market and sell apps, app security solutions and the latest market predictions. Developers will be able to network with peers, IT professionals, carriers and a wide range of mobile infrastructure, product and service vendors. Register with promo code 100MASH and save $100!

April 18-20, 2011, Dubai, UAE: Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 is a three day conference dedicated to the opportunities and challenges of mobile applications in the Arab world. The event is for app developers, content providers, device manufacturers, network operators and brands to meet and discuss the current challenges and opportunities presented in this growing market. Key issues addressed will include; the sustainability of the current business models, consumer engagement, developer recruitment, app discoverability, platform choice and the importance of social media networks. Register with promo code Mashable and save 20%!

April 18-19, 2011, London, UK: The Mobile Research Conference is the must-attend annual event for brands, agencies and academics interested in engaging consumers and capturing real-time feedback through mobile phones. Mobile, along with social media and online networks, represents the latest frontier for market research. Attend MRC 2011 and discover how to engage respondents, extract insights for product innovation and optimize marketing activities. This 2-day event is designed for consumer insights professionals; corporate, agency and academic survey researchers; mobile operators and tech companies. Register and use the promo code FF-MASHABLE to receive 20% off the main registration price!

April 19-21, 2011, Santa Clara, CA: Now in it's 7th year, Where 2.0 is the premier conference for all things location-aware. Join us where the grassroots and leading-edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the business leaders, marketers, and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. Register now and save 25% with the discount code whr11mash.

April 25-30, 2011, Philadelphia, PA: Philly Tech Week is a week-long celebration of technology and innovation in Philadelphia. Rock to 8-bit chiptunes, discover the ins and outs of augmented reality, or see the next great Philly startups as Technically Philly hosts over 25 technology-focused events in the city of Brotherly Love. Most events are free.

April 26-28, 2011, San Francisco, CA: GSMI presents Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit. GSMI has diligently worked to find the best, brightest and most distinct speakers in the Mobile Marketing industry. Our 2011 Mobile Marketing Summit will provide valuable information, through case studies, presentations and hands on workshops. Attendees will leave the conference with the tools and knowledge needed to keep their brands competitive in the Mobile Marketing industry. Register and use the promo code MikeSM.

April 26, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: LA Games Conference – Over 300 of the most influential decision-makers in the games industry gather for the LA Games Conference to network, do deals, and share ideas about the future of console, PC, online and mobile games. LA Games Conference – now in its 4th year – features a lively and fun debate on timely cutting-edge business topics, demos as well unrivaled access to some of the most progressive companies in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond. We invite you to join us at the event and take part in the discussion with executives, creators, investors, analysts, press and gamers who will be instrumental in shaping the future of this booming business. For a limited time we are offering a special Early Bird Rate of $299 – a $400 saving, plus plus receive 15% off with the promo code MASH15! Don’t miss the opportunity – Book NOW to reserve your seat!

April 28, 2011, New York, NY: Don't miss the Guardian newspaper’s gathering for leaders working across all sectors who are proving that, through the use of technology and the internet, we can make the world a better place. Confirmed speakers include Nicholas Negroponte, Craig Newmark, Arianna Huffington, Nathan Eagle, Jeff Jarvis, Emily Bell, Iqbal Quadir, Bruce Schneier and Benjamin Bratton among others. For more information, please visit www.guardian.co.uk/activate/new-york.

April 28, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: Interested in meeting early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Las Vegas? If so, then register for the FundingPost event on April 28th! FundingPost has hosted 175+ sold-out venture events in 20 cities over the past 9 years. At our next event, the panel of investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing: How to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check! For more information and to register, please click here.

May 2-4, 2011, Toronto, Canada: Now in its 10th year, FITC Toronto is one of the largest and longest running events of its kind in the world. With some of the most unique and engaging presenters from around the globe, FITC Toronto is a blitz of presentations, demonstrations, and panel discussions, sandwiched between the legendary FITC parties and abundant networking opportunities. Register with the promo code Mashable10 and save 10%!

May 2-3, 2011, Chicago, IL: At Technology Driven Market Research, the focus is on presenting ground-breaking tools and technologies that are being used NOW and those on the horizon. These technologies are enabling “in the moment” research to more clearly understand consumer behavior. Through real-world experienced based presentations, this event will look at brand-mind placement, eye tracking research in a virtual retail environment, social gaming as a research device, and social and mobile analysis plus much more. Register with the promo code TDMR11MASH and save 20% off the standard rate.

May 3-7, 2011, London, UK: Digital Shoreditch is the voice of everything happening in Shoreditch. The festival explores and celebrates digital technologies; unites the digital community; and provides a platform for sharing knowledge. The activity culminates in a series of exhibitions, parties, presentations, open studios and games.

May 4, 2011, Washington, D.C.: ConAgra Foods, United Health Group, the IRS, the U.S. Navy, and more will share case studies in corporate social media at BlogWell Washington, D.C.: How Big Brands Use Social Media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250. Get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. Presented by GasPedal and SocialMedia.org. Register with promo code THANKSMASHABLE and save 10%!

May 9-11, 2001, Chicago, IL: School of WOM is the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s annual spring conference. School of WOM will provide marketers with in-depth practical knowledge on the arts and sciences of Word of Mouth and Social Media marketing. School of WOM attendees learn the techniques, methods, and processes that are being implemented into your business practices today that they can bring back and implement tomorrow. At School of WOM, you’ll learn to stay ahead of the competition and ensure your company remains talkable for all the right reasons. Go to www.womma.org for more information. Register and use code the promo code WOMMASOWMASH when registering for the event.

May 9-11, 2011, Minneapolis, MN: Content strategy is the next big thing. Is it your thing, too? Whether you’re a content strategy veteran or curious about where to start, Confab: The Content Strategy Conference is for you. Real-world case studies from major companies like Disney, eBay, Facebook and Merck. Hands-on workshops. All the experts. Mix and mingle with other content strategists. Share your insights. Hear the insights of others. Plus, there will be some fantastic parties. Get ahead of the curve in your business and career … come to Confab: The Content Strategy Conference. Register with the promo code MASHABLE and save $150.

May 10-11, 2011, Hollywood, FL: Following an incredible inaugural year in 2010, the annual Social Media Customer Response Summit is back with more excitement and even better sessions addressing the industry's key issues. This year’s theme will focus on ideas surrounding how corporate America is responding to emerging ‘Customer Response’ channels through social media, web 2.0, video streaming and mobile applications. During this two-day seminar, attendees will be able to listen, learn and collaborate with prominent industry leaders such as Bob Simmonds of Disney, David Thornton of Bank of America, Robert Lamb of AT&T, and Jim Moloney of General Motors on the challenges/benefits with using an ‘interactive social media customer response strategy,’ and what technological developments will continue to affect the industry, plus much more. C-Level executives interested in attending can find more information about the Summit’s Agenda & Registration at customerresponsesummit.com.

May 11-12, 2011, Amsterdam: iStrategy is an inspirational, 2-day, digital media conference for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a sound digital strategy. iStrategy has recruited keynote speakers, panelists, workshop facilitators and attendees with expertise in the online channels that drive successful outcomes and tools that provide ongoing measurement including: Social Media, Mobile Marketing and Applications, Display Advertising, SEO/SEM, Email Marketing, Database Marketing, Web Analytics, E-commerce and Content Strategy. Register with the promo code MASHEU10 to receive a 10% discount.

May 12-14, 2011, Chicago, IL: unGeeked Elite Retreats brings together 24 speakers over the course of three days. The format is “open discussion”. The topics focus on enhancing, positioning and leveraging both the internal and external brand. PPTs and Prezi’s are strongly discouraged and instead, on-going and intimate discussions among keynotes, regional speakers and attendees are encouraged. Speakers include: Amanda Hite, Jason Falls, Oliver Blanchard, Spike Jones, and Anita Campbell. Register with the promo code unGeekedChicago and save 5% off regular ticket price. Tickets includes the latest book from Olivier Blanchard and entry into the Chris Brogan Roast.

May 12-14, 2011, Chicago, IL: unGeeked Elite Retreats will be held at the SYNCUBATOR and brings together 24 speakers over the course of three days. The format is styled as an “open discussion” with topics centered around enhancing, positioning and leveraging boththe internal and external brand. PPTs and Prezi’s are strongly discouraged and instead, on-going and intimate discussions among keynotes, regional speakers and attendees are encouraged. Speakers include Julian Smith, Jason Falls, Spike Jones, Amanda Hite and more. Register with promo code unGeekedChi and save 5% off regular ticket price.

May 16-19, 2011, Prague, Czech Republic: The TERENA Networking Conference (TNC) is the largest and most prestigious European research networking conference – over 500 participants, including decision makers, networking specialists and managers from all major European networking and research organisations, universities, worldwide sister institutions and industry representatives attend. Through keynote speeches by renowned specialists and many parallel sessions, TNC presents an overview of the latest developments in research networking, both in the technical field and in the areas of application and management. For more information, click here.

May 16-18, 2011, London, UK: The Future of Web Design (FOWD) hits London again this May! Following on from the success of last year, we’re bringing you 3 full days of essential web learning: a day of in-depth workshops, followed up by a two day conference, covering all of the hottest topics across two stages. Big names, rising stars, great networking opportunities and some fabulous catering thrown in for good measure. Hope you can join us!

May 16-17, 2011, Atlanta, GA: Digital Summit 2011 will feature over 100 speakers and an audience of over 1,000 internet execs, entrepreneurs and senior marketers. Join dozens of industry leaders and innovators in the conversation on topics such as Social Media, Mobile, Cloud Computing, Online Advertising, Analytics, Search, Video, Ecommerce and more. Top brands and thought leaders converge on one of America’s Most Wired Cities. Register and use the promo code MASH for 20% off.

May 17-19, 2011, Boston, MA: In the ever changing world of social media and mobile marketing organizations are finding it difficult to navigate the complicated legal waters. At the 2011 Social Media Legal Risks and Strategies Summit, attendee's will have the opportunity to learn practical strategies for staying compliant with regulations and safeguarding against legal risks. During this 3 day summit attendee's will learn, first hand, from top legal minds from such brands as, The Walt Disney Company, General Mills, General Electric and The Better Business Bureau. Register and use the promo code MikeSM to receive a discount. http://socialmedialegalrisks.com

May 17-19, 2011, London, UK: The World E-Reading Congress brings together digital and print publishers with e-reading platforms and device manufacturers to discuss the business models and opportunities provided by the growth of the e-reading industry. Publishers must be prepared for this dramatic industry upheaval. They must learn how to embrace this disruptive technology and the World E-Reading Congress will enable them to discover how they can profit from the E-Reading revolution. Visit our website for more information and register before January to save 10%!

May 17-18, 2011, Sydney, Australia: With an estimated 200,000 loyalty programs currently operating in Australia, it is vital for businesses to understand how to make their brand stand out from the crowd. More than ever, your success hinges on your ability to gain a greater understanding of your customers’ wants and needs.Traditional modes of marketing have evolved and it is necessary to embrace more personalised communications across numerous channels. The Customer Loyalty 2011 Conference is a case-study driven program that will explore different strategies to add the value that your customers want from your loyalty initiative. It will discuss evolving definitions of best practice in loyalty marketing and help you make your mark in this evolving multichannel landscape. Register with the promo code CC*MASHABLE and save 10%!

May 18-19, 2011, Boston, MA: Text analytics has grown from an interesting but little known software application into an invaluable commercial tool being used by businesses worldwide. Forward thinking executives across a myriad of industries are using text analytics solutions to increase efficiency and unlock essential information that they never had access to before. Whether you are a software developer, an experienced analytics user, or new to the text analytics industry, the Text Analytics Summit is the only place to get the information that you need to stay ahead of the competition and profit from text mining. Register and use the promo code mashable to save 10%.

May 18, 2011, London, UK: The International Search Summit is partnering with SMX to run its global search and social media program at SMX Advanced in London. Focusing specifically on international and multilingual topics, the summit will run on 18th May and give delegates the opportunity to attend both events in just one trip and on one pass. Topics at the Summit will include international link building, managing global content, international SEO case studies and emerging markers. The agenda will be regularly updated with confirmed speakers. Combo or Summit only tickets are available. Early Bird rates apply and Mashable readers can get a 15% discount on the booking price with the discount code MASHABLE011. For more information and to register, please click here.

May 19-20, 2011, Miami, FL: Following the success of the 2010 edition, LBS LATAM returns in 2011 to continue the discussions and thought provoking market topics of interest. Responding to industry demands, the conference will be held for two days in Miami, Florida. For more information, please click here.

May 20-22, 2011, Ft. Lauderdale, FL: SheCon’s 2011 New Media Expo is the industry’s first free, three-day social media event that is bringing together some of the industry’s most renowned experts to condense a four-year journalism school experience into three days of new media sessions, with sessions and panels ranging from general to specific, niche market discussions. Combined with the educational sessions, the expo will bring together a diverse group of exhibitors that will be focusing on a brand integration, rather than forced brand interaction, concept for engaging and building relationships with attendees.

May 23-24, 2011, San Francisco, CA: Produced by Mediabistro and SocialTimes, Socialize Media Optimization Conference (SMOC) is a two-day event dedicated to social media optimization and social advertising. Boost search engine visibility, increase linkability, and fuel your readers' desire to share your content. Industry leaders will also show you how to get results whenadvertising on the social web in terms of strategy, targeting, privacy, and metrics. Our experts include Brian Solis (author, Engage), Rohit Bhargava (SVP, Digital, Strategy & Planning Group), Gary Ware (Covario), and many more. Register and use the promo code MASH to save 15%.

May 24-26, 2011, San Francisco, CA: All About the Cloud — Save $100 with the promo code PRMMASH to attend the software industry's leading ISV conference on Cloud Computing. (Note: discount valid off the individual non-member rate only and does apply to current attendees.) You'll join an anticipated audience of more than 500 senior executives from ISVs, resellers, and platform / technology providers, as well as the industry's leading analysts, bankers, venture capitalists and the media. Key networking events include: a Golf Tournament, a Speed Networking Event, a Mardi Gras-themed Welcome Reception and an offsite Networking Reception featuring the Microsoft Rock Band Challenge. For details, including registration information, please visit AllAbouttheCloud.net.

May 24-26 2011, Gateshead, UK: Thinking Digital is an annual conference where the world’s greatest thinkers and innovators discuss the latest ideas, innovations and technologies. The conference provides an experience like no other, stimulating new thinking and new ideas. It's about what you'll learn, and who you'll meet. Our eclectic schedule means you'll listen to world-class authorities, meet amazing people, be entertained and outrageously inspired! When you leave Thinking Digital you'll know about things that you previously didn't even realise existed and have become part of our unique community. Register with the promo code TDCMASH and save 10%.

May 25-27, 2011, Portland, OR: WebVisions explores the future of web design, technology, user experience and business strategy in a punchy, new format! The all-star lineup of speakers includes author Douglas Rushkoff, design strategist David Armano, mobile researcher Rachel Hinman, usability expert Jared Spool, design ethnographer Kelly Goto and many more. Take advantage of package deals for workshops and conference passes, discounts on hotels, and networking events and after hour parties. Register here and save up to 30% off the Standard Admission rates! rates.

May 25, 2011, London, UK: The Guardian Sustainable Business Awards aim to showcase genuine innovation in corporate sustainability and reward those who take sustainability to the very heart of their business. Enter the awards today at guardian.co.uk/gsb-awards to get the recognition you deserve. Winners will be invited to a ceremony held in London in May and will feature in a supplement published on guardian.co.uk. All entries meeting the criteria will be added to the new Guardian Sustainable Business best practice exchange – an online database allowing sustainability professionals to share their learning. Enter before February 7th at guardian.co.uk/gsb-awards.

May 29-30, 2011, Dubai, UAE: Social Media Marketing – The Way Forward – It is undeniable that social media has fundamentally transformed and evolved the architecture of business, communications, and the dissemination of information and influence. In July 2010, Facebook announced it had over 500 million users worldwide,of which at least 15 million were in Middle East.Survey findings also indicated that one out of five Facebook users is from Asia or Middle East. Participants at this two-day conference will be exposed to the intricacies of corporate social media strategies tailored for your industry. Participants would gain insights to maximizing the usage of social and establishing and maintaining a good relationship with consumers, thus effectively introducing their brands online and engaging long-term relationship with the audience. For more information, please click here.

June 3-4, 2011, Victoria, BC, Canada: Last year’s event was the largest social media event in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. This year’s Social Media Camp will feature more time, more sessions, more speakers, more exhibitors and more sunshine! This year’s keynote speakers are the critically acclaimed authors of “The Now Revolution”, Jay Baer and Amber Naslund. Whether you are an avid Facebook user, interested in learning about Twitter, or you're trying to grow your business by leveraging social media tools – there is something for everyone at this event! Register and use the promo code MASHABLE to save $50!

June 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA: The 2011 Semantic Technology Conference (SemTech) is the world's largest educational conference for the community of executives, technologists, researchers, investors and customers who are involved with semantic technologies. The SemTech conference draws together more than 1,000 forward-thinking technology and business leaders from around the world, representing the entire marketplace of vendors, developers, researchers, start-ups, investors and customers. SemTech 2011 features five days of presentations, panels, tutorials, announcements, new company/product launches, and conversations. It’s a place for new learning, professional networking, and business development. For details and registration, visit the site. Register and use the promo code MASH to save 15%.!

June 6-8, 2011, Chicago, IL: The Art & Science of Integrating Traditional & Social Media Marketing – Measure Up, is the world's most comprehensive cross-dimensional view of marketing measurement best practices. With a focus on return on investment (ROI) as it relates to the integration of traditional, online and mobile activities; specifically, social media, this event explores analytics across the entire marketing mix and incorporates those results into marketing strategies and tactics to drive higher revenue, profit and brand share. Register and use the promo code XU2308MASH and save 10%!

June 7-8, 2011, Munich, Germany: a4uexpo Europe is the largest pan European Affiliate and Performance Marketing Conference. With over 1000 delegates, a diverse conference programme, a focus on quality, knowledge transfer and unparalleled networking opportunities with delegates and key industry figures from around the world, a4uexpo Europe is a must attend educational and networking event. Whether a new or established affiliate, agency, entrepreneur, search specialist, merchant or network – a4uexpo is the conference for those serious about making an impact in Affiliate and Performance Marketing. Register with the promo code MASHABLE25 and save €25 on a full conference pass for a4uexpo Europe.

June 8, 2011, Singapore: With the phenomenal growth of apps worldwide, Asia is the next big market to watch out for. Planet of the Apps Asia is the leading event dedicated to mobile applications in Asia. The two day conference plus a dedicated masterclass day brings together the mobile application ecosystem in one location. The event will shine on a light on the latest innovations and showcase the latest solutions in the world of mobile applications. Be part of this definitive event and network with professionals from all around the globe.

June 15-18, 2011, Nairobi, Kenya: The spotlight in AfriTech Kenya 2011 will be on "Brand building using a digital platform". It’s projected to be the largest gathering of digital media gurus and industry shapers in the African continent. The conference will be held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) on June 15-18, 2011. Outstanding business luminaries, philanthropists, government decision-makers and investors will be participating during this four day historic summit. For more information and to register, please visit afri-tech.com.

June 15-16, 2011, New York, NY: “Exploring the State of NOW” – The 140 Characters Conference: New York City (#140conf) will be taking place June 15-16, 2011 at the 92nd Street Y, where we will continue to explore the effects of the real-time web on both business and on people. This event is expected to be the largest worldwide gathering of people interested in the effects of the real-time Internet on both business and "we" the people. #140conf exposes you to the power the Internet has to disrupt businesses, change lives and create serendipity. You will leave with a fresh outlook on how the real time web can be used in your business or personal life to actually do something meaningful. Register TODAY and take advantage of the "Early Bird" prices.

June 16, 2011, London, UK: The Augmented Reality Summit is designed to explore this new dynamic reality and provide delegates with the perfect opportunity to uncover Augmented Reality in full and explore the opportunity's AR brings any brand or company. The AR Summit is positioned at the forefront of this exciting continually developing new industry. Whether you are a Brand, Advertiser or Agency, Technology provider or Developer looking to meet key industry figures, keep up with the latest developments, technology's & tools or simply to network with other from the world of AR – Register and use the promo code ARMASH to save 25%!

June 21-22, 2011, New York, NY: The SSecond Annual Corporate Social Media Summit is 'the' event for big business using social media. This year we have speakers from Dell, Best Buy, Kodak, Coca-Cola, Southwest Airlines and many more. They will share best practice to help your company leverage the power of social media for better marketing, customer engagement and enhance profitability. The conference is designed for corporates like you – and our agenda is based on three months of research with your peers. Download a brochure here for all the info you need. Register and use the promo code MASH11 to save 10%.

June 21-22, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: Digital Content Monitization West 2011 is a unique opportunity to find out how to drive revenue and profitability from different content and formats across a wide variety of channels. 60+ senior level speakers from will help you sort out the best short and medium term strategies for delivering revenue through digital content. With its focus on west coast industries, you’ll dig deep into how the film, music and games sectors are driving new sources of revenue. Plus the publishing, sports, TV and news sectors will provide detailed information about how to monetize rich media content. Register online at dcm-west.com and use the promo code DCM MASH for early booking discounts.

June 27-29, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) is coming to Vegas. After successfully running shows in Miami and London, the conference hits Vegas for the first time in June. A conference for web developers and entrepreneurs, there are 3 days of jam packed web fun including a day of workshops and 2 conference days of two tracks. As well as App Clinics and Expo Area, you can learn and network with people who have passion for the web! Register with the code FOWA_MASHABLE and receive 10% off our 2 day conference passes.

July 14-16, 2011, Dallas, TX: The Big Design Conference is an intense day of learning within the scope of Strategy, Social Media, User Experience, Gaming, Mobile, Usability, Design, and Code Development. Experts from across the country will gather to present theories, research, experiences, and best practices to students, professionals, and executives looking to stay on the bleeding edge. Experts include Beverly Robertson (President, National Civil Rights Museum), Russ Unger (Director of UX, Happy Cog), Jeremy Johnson (Director of UX, Game Stop), Brian Sullivan (Usability Principal, Sabre), Joshua Clark (author of Tapworthy), Jared Spool (Founder, User Interface Engineering), and many more. Mashable readers receive 20% off conference registration by using the code MASHABLE during the checkout process.

September 6-8, 2011, Cleveland, OH: At Content Marketing World, you'll learn how to transform your marketing department into a storytelling factory, engaging your prospects and customers in all the right channels with the right messages– including social, mobile, email, online and even print and in-person strategies. Through 24+ breakout sessions and amazing keynotes led by worldwide experts, you'll get the tools you need to be a successful content marketer. Plus, you'll experience the best of what Cleveland has to offer, starting with our opening night reception at the infamous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Register and use the promo code mash to receive $100 off the current price of a ticket.

September 11-14, 2011, Denver, CO: Come join the best and brightest of the iOS development community at 360|iDev, the first iOS developer event to be held by the developer community! Speakers include many leading community members, and app store success stories. With over 40 sessions, including hands-on training the sunday before the conference, 360|iDev offers more content than any other iOS developer event in the world. Register and use the promo code iosmash to save 20% of the ticket price.

September 12-13, 2011, Renaissance Glendale, Phoenix, AZ: The third Social Media Optimization Summit event, presented by Multifamilypro, brings together small to mid-sized business owners with an interest in putting social media to work successfully within their organizations in ways that are proven to generate results. The event offers two full days of intensive, hands-on workshops from the intermediate to advanced level, led by top social media experts. The unique "See it. Hear it. Do it." approach allows attendees to learn by doing, and begin immediately applying newly-acquired skills and knowledge while the event is underway. See what others are saying about the event and register now at optimizationsummits.com and use discount code Mashable to save $100!

Sept 21-22, 2011, London, UK: ad:tech London is the UK’s essential free to attend event for professionals seeking to stay ahead of the latest interactive media, advertising and marketing trends. The event unites advertisers, media owners and agencies to harness the power of digital and deliver real marketing ROI. Alongside the exhibition, there is also a conference featuring 100+ international speakers for serious digital innovators and marketers. Mashable readers can take 20% off their conference ticket price. Register online now with the promo code MASH11 at www.ad-techlondon.co.uk.

September 26-29, 2011, Kaua’i, HI: The Search and Social Woot! is an elite conference unlike any other that will provide you with the strategies and complete know how to thrive in this ever changing environment. Each day begins with morning sessions around the hottest topics. With Keynote Bruce Clay of Bruce Clay, Inc. and speakers from corporations such as Real Networks, Network Solutions, AT&T, Microsoft Bing and Logitech. Afternoons are spent in a relaxed environment including planned activities in which individual attendees can get to know speakers and each other on a more personal level continuing the discussion and building long lasting relationships. Register and use the promo code SSWootMash to save 10%.

September 29-October 1, 2011, Atlanta, GA: As pet owners, bloggers, consumer brands and those connected to the industry – including veterinarians – continue to build upon social media & marketing, pet social media education & networking is an extremely important aspect to mobilizing efforts and to address the challenges faced by pet owners. Whether you use YouTube, Twitter, Dog/Catbook or online forums to gather & share information about pets, it's increasingly important for this community to have a face-to-face forum. Established in 2009, the BarkWorld Conference & Expo is the only pet social media conference covering ALL facets of social media & pet education. Our 2011 annual conference will focus on many topics, including: how to take great photos your pet & use it online, how to build/design a blog & monetize, mobile applications, metrics/SEO, pet food demonstrations, promoting your pet/business via social media and using online forums. Join us for this 2 ½ day conference. You'll be amazed with the information you'll walk away with and the new connections you'll make; your well-trained, leashed, pet is welcome. Register with the promo code MASH2011 to receive a 25% discount.

November 16-18, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: The WOMMA Summit is the only word of mouth marketing conference where research and measurement integrate with online social media and offline conversations. The Summit is a year-end review of BEST and NEXT practices in word or mouth and social media marketing in addition to future trends. WOMMA Summit showcases through leadership from some of the innovative and forward thinking. Go to www.womma.org to learn more about the event and use code WOMMASummitMASH when registering for the event.

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Biz Stone announced his new role in a post on his personal blog. Stone, who has always been Twitter’s socially conscious voice, will advise AOL (specifically its new Huffington Post Media Group) on cause-based initiatives and best corporate practices for philanthropy and corporate responsibility.

In a related blog post, Huffington announced AOL’s new social challenge. “Starting today and throughout the month, AOLers and HuffPosters (who are now AOLers!) will be volunteering in their local communities … in addition, today on every section of HuffPost we’re featuring stories about organizations and individuals who are taking action to help others,” Huffington wrote.

According to AllThingsD, Stone will be getting a piece of AOL equity in return for becoming an advisor to the rapidly evolving company. The deal isn’t about Twitter partnering with AOL, but Stone striking a deal with Huffington.

AOL could use some positive press after it announced hundreds of layoffs as part of its acquisition of The Huffington Post. Since then, some of its highest-profile writers and editors have announced their departures, including Engadget Editor in Chief Joshua Topolsky. A charity campaign should probably do the trick.

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Blogger, the 11-year-old blog publishing service acquired by Google in 2003, has begun teasing a complete revamp of its blogging platform.

Blogger is one of the world’s top 10 biggest websites, far larger than WordPress.com, Tumblr or Posterous. Yet these blogging platforms have secured the most hype over the years. And if you could count the websites that run off WordPress.org software (including Mashable), you could argue that WordPress has surpassed Blogger’s reach.

Google’s blogging platform is fighting back though. The company highlighted some of its impressive stats and upcoming features in a blog post. It now boasts more than 400 million active readers around the world. More impressive are its publishing stats; Blogger says more than 500 million blog posts have been published on its platform, amounting to more than 500 billion words. That’s more than 5 million novels’ worth of content, according to the promotional video Google posted on YouTube Monday.

The most interesting part of Google’s blog post is the sneak peek into what appears to be a complete redesign of Blogger’s user interface, one the search giant calls “cleaner and more modern.” Google also teased updated analytics, new publishing features, an updated mobile interface and “smarter content discovery.”

Google published a few screenshots of the new interface (which we have included at the end of this post) showing off an interface that is essentially a complete departure from Blogger’s current UI. It is also showing off the new interface at its booth at South by Southwest Interactive.

There’s no set date for the launch of Blogger’s redesign, but we assume Google’s just polishing the product, since the company is already showing it off. Blogger’s been in need of a revamp for a long, long time. Whether it will be enough to make it competitive with WordPress and Tumblr is another story.

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Keeping your social media profiles updated is a key component to your success. If you want potential opportunities to come your way via social media channels, then your profile has to be current. This is especially true if you are using social media as part of your strategy to get a new job.

Since 2002, LinkedIn has been building the world's largest professional network on the Internet. It now has more than 90 million users in 200 countries, who conducted nearly two billion people searches last year.

LinkedIn recently introduced a new section to user profiles, which helps you organize your skills and assets. In this new section, displayed immediately after your education credentials, you can add a section that highlights skills, languages, patents, certifications and publications. Prior to this, you had to get creative and figure out a good place to place these brag-worthy items, often in the education or summary sections. Now they can stand out on their own and show what a well-rounded job candidate you are.

When LinkedIn introduced this new section, the immediate thought would be that showcasing these areas on your profile would move you up in LinkedIn search queries — and it very well may do that. But it appears that some of the new sections might not be in the search algorithms… yet. That being said, don't ignore what these new sections can add to your LinkedIn profile and how they might impress the recruiters who might be searching for you.

Think Like a Recruiter

Kelly Dingee, strategic recruiting manager for Staffing Advisors, a retained search firm in the Washington D.C. area, says the new features on LinkedIn allow jobseekers to think like recruiters and use multiple keywords to describe their skills. "A Java Developer can include Java, JSP, J2EE, and javascript, but they can also introduce skills they're developing, like Python,” Dingee says. And this benefit isn’t limited to the tech workers. “An experienced accounting professional can highlight their use of ADP, Solomon, Deltek, Paychex, Excel and so on. Right now, this isn't a pre-set menu option, so jobseekers can use everything, including acronyms and phrases to give recruiters an accurate picture of what they do without requiring them to upload a full resume,” she adds.

Dingee also emphasizes the importance of noting certifications. "I still meet so many hiring managers that look for, or shall I say 'prefer' certifications. This section now allows people to document such achievements, and they'll be keyword-searchable.” She notes that jobseekers can use acronyms as well as phrases to optimize their profile for searches. For example, a recipient of the SPHR would not only use the acronym, but also "Senior Professional in Human Resources."

Ultimately, the importance of these new sections is to profile your experience to make yourself more discoverable to a recruiter. Dingee adds, "I've been doing a lot of recruiting in the healthcare research arena, and I have to do spend double the effort to research both LinkedIn to capture profiles and PubMed to cross-reference publications. It would be huge to have people document their publications on the site to allow one-stop shopping for someone like me."

Don’t Fake It

As more people try to leverage the benefits of LinkedIn, having an optimized profile becomes essential. However, this doesn't mean that you should use this new section to manipulate your background to increase where you show up in the rankings.

Viveka von Rosen, founder and social media evangelist for Linked into Business, a consultancy specializing in training for social media and inbound marketing, says this is the real strength of the new skills section. "Showing up in the skills search doesn't seem to be affected by how many times you put variations of your keywords in the skills section. Trust me -– I've tested it! Many of the experts listed in the skills section don't have optimized profiles, and don't show up in a simple LinkedIn People Search under those same skills. This indicates to me that perhaps the skills section more accurately displays those with true skills."

Remember that your goal is to get the interview, and von Rosen cautions you might be expected to prove what you claimed to be true. "I would highly recommend to LinkedIn users, jobseekers and candidates that they make sure to list their true qualifications and skills in this section. Not because it will get them found in a search, but because this is where you can differentiate yourself from the pack. Don't list yourself as an expert in your field if you aren't."

Target Your Strengths

There's a consensus that the desired outcome in completing LinkedIn's skills and certification sections is to make yourself easier to be found online –- and for the right things. Mike Ramer CPC CSP, president of Ramer Search Consultants, which specializes in recruiting mid-to-senior level professionals for the banking, medical, media and energy industries, points out the importance of pinpointing your strengths with the new skills section. "If you are looking for a job, recruiters look for specific skill sets. If they see a match, they will contact you,” he says.

Ramer says the pros outweigh the cons for users to complete these sections, and he shares some guidance on how to focus your credentials. "I would advise users to be 100% accurate and not over-list. Select the key skills and credentials you want to be known for. Don't include a laundry list of certifications that have expired or are out-of-date."

And while all of the new sections are important to complete, if you only have the inclination to choose one, Ramer suggests either certifications or skills. "These are the most global, that is, the majority of people seeking to connect with others will look for this first and it allows you to identify yourself as a professional in your field. For example, I am a CPC (Certified Personnel Consultant) and a CSP (Certified Staffing Professional). If you have specific credentials or certifications in your industry, for example, a CPA, MBA or SPHR, you can list these and be found by others."

Market Your Expertise

Even if you're not looking for a job today, your LinkedIn profile serves as a professional introduction of your experience and expertise. Jennifer McClure, president of Unbridled Talent LLC, a consulting firm focused on innovative solutions in the areas of attracting, recruiting and developing employees, says your LinkedIn profile is part of your personal brand. "Often LinkedIn profiles aren't fully completed either because people are intimidated by the idea of writing a professional summary or aren't skilled at effectively summarizing their experience. Many users are also 'passive' in terms of considering job opportunities, so they don't feel that they need to do much with their profile. LinkedIn profiles should be viewed as a personal marketing brochure and as such, they need to be concise, informative and compelling."

Focus on the word concise. McClure notes that because the skills section allows users to select as many skills as they would like, they run the risk of adding too much information to their profiles that isn't relevant or doesn't differentiate them in any way. "Listing relevant skills in the skills section that truly differentiate a candidate can be helpful because LinkedIn users are also asked to indicate their level and number of years of experience with each skill."

McClure recommends steering clear of the skills listed in the auto-complete drop downs. "They're a bit ambiguous and don't really add anything to a person's portfolio of experience. For example: 'documentation,' 'planning,' 'teamwork.' Many also fall into the recently published over-used LinkedIn profile buzzwords. Users shouldn't be encouraged to perpetuate that!"

LinkedIn continues to make adjustments and improvements to the user experience, all of which are all designed to connect business professionals and create opportunities. If you are looking to showcase your skills and experience and make your profile stand out, these new features are worth checking out.

Are you already using the new LinkedIn sections such as skills, certifications, patents, languages or publications? Let us know your experience in the comments.

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

• Digital Media Analyst at The Advertising Council, Inc in New York, NY.
• Group Director at SS+K in New York, NY.
• Managing Director for Digital Media at Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates in Washington DC.

More Job Search Resources from Mashable:

- Top 5 Tips for Creating Impressive Video Resumes
- Are Cover Letters Still Relevant For Social Media and Tech Jobs?
- HOW TO: Land a Job at 9 Hot Startups
- Top 5 Online Communities for Starting Your Career
- HOW TO: Land a Business Development Job

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“Right now, there's no Rosetta Stone for location allowing you to link information about a real-world place from one database to any other,” reads the Foursquare announcement on the Venue Project.

The problem, Crowley explained in an interview with Mashable, is that everyone has their own place database, and that means that Foursquare’s venue IDs — it now has 14 million places in its database — don’t match Google’s or Twitter’s venue IDs. “The Venue Harmonization Map aims to solve that, by translating those numbers so that you only have to look up the ID once,” according to the post.

Foursquare is launching the project with four partners: The New York Times, Thrillist, MenuPages and New York Magazine. New Foursquare venue APIs will provide access to this communal database so partners can find and search places by third-party IDs and URLs.

It’s an aggressive endeavor that’s sure to ruffle a few feathers, as place databases are considered proprietary data by the companies who have spent years amassing them. Still, Crowley would love to eventually see both Google and Twitter join the project.

During the keynote address, Crowley will also talk about how Foursquare is broadening its venues API. The startup is removing previous rate limits, releasing an API endpoint for trending venues and now allowing developers to use the API to tag photos as on Instagram, drinks via Untappd or any other data. Soon, Foursquare will also make APIs available for recommendations and the leaderboard.

The API and Venue Project news comes as the last piece of SXSW news for Foursquare. The startup has kicked off an automatic credit card swipe loyalty reward with American Express, launched version 3.0 of the app with recommendations and will be hosting a Big Boi concert later Monday evening.

Image courtesy of Lisa Bettany

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Diller, the CEO of IAC, which owns The Daily Beast, said that he hopes that “the DNA” of The Daily Beast will infuse Newsweek. He added that Newsweek‘s former owners had been looking for an Internet-based entity to buy it. “The manager of the Washington Post [Newsweek's owner] believed [Newsweek was going to be sold to an Internet company," Diller said. "The only way to survive print was to take this infrastructure of the Internet and meld it into a print property." Diller said that in six to eight months, he'd know if "this experiment" of the Daily Beast-Newsweek merger would work.

But when asked about Rupert Murdoch's The Daily, Diller pulled no punches. "I find it amazing that they put out a product called The Daily and promoted it enormously and it's impossible to download," he said. "To me, that's a gating issue." Diller said he had no plans for a similar, iPad-only product. "I don't know why you'd do an original product only for anything," he said.

Diller also broached the subject of net neutrality, of which he is a big proponent. Diller says he believes it is fair for Internet providers to charge extra for extra usage, "like electricity," but that those cable and telecom companies shouldn't be able to control access to various sites. Said Diller: "We need an unambiguous rule of law that no one will step between the publisher and the consumer. Full stop."

When asked about Hulu, Diller compared the venture to a rocket that launched, but no one knew where it would land. "The system [Hulu] put in place was nowhere near as commercially viable,” he said, adding “the people in the entertainment system want to keep things the way they are.”

More About: Barry Diller, iac, Newsweek, sxsw, sxswi, The Daily, the daily beast

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While the earthquake knocked out electricity supplies and shut down two nuclear power plants, Internet availability remains relatively unaffected, according to a blog post from Internet monitoring company Renesys.

In a message sent Friday from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to U.S. citizens in Japan, the Embassy encouraged Americans “to continue your efforts to be in contact with your loved one(s) using SMS texting and other social media (e.g., FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) that your loved one(s) may use.”

Additionally, the message suggested Americans in Japan use other online services including the Google Person Finder and the Red Cross’s Family Links website in order to make their whereabouts and conditions known.

Google often creates Person Finder sites during emergencies that allow people to leave information about their whereabouts or information about a missing person. At the time of writing, there were about 158,700 records for Japan — more than 140,000 more records than were submitted to the last such site it set up for the victims of the Christchurch earthquake in February.

The Red Cross site operates in a similar manner, publishing a list of names with contact information of people who want to make it known that they are alive and people whose relatives have indicated they are missing.

But perhaps the most simple method people in Japan have turned to for connecting with loved ones throughout the emergency is posting to their social media accounts. Less than an hour after the quake, the number of tweets from Tokyo topped 1,200 per minute, according to Tweet-o-Meter. An interactive graphic created by Facebook to illustrate status updates related to the quake shows Japan’s activity on Facebook during that day was also high.

Some shared stories of connecting with loved ones using the platform are on the Facebook stories page.

“We have spent the morning doing a roll call with all of our family and friends in Japan, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and all over the South Pacific Ocean,” reads one submission to the page. “Much faster and easier than the Red Cross or even trying to get through on the phone lines!”

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For DSL customers, usage will be capped at 150GB per month, and for U-Verse customers, the cap will be 250GB. Overage charges will only be imposed on customers “who consistently exceed the new caps,” according to Broadband Reports.

After a user exceeds the cap three times, he or she will pay $10 for every additional 50GB over the limit. And that’s three times throughout the lifetime of the account, not within each month.

Customers will be alerted of their usage amounts — similar to mobile data plans — so exceeding the limit shouldn’t come us a surprise. AT&T says it will “proactively notify customers when they exceed 65%, 90% and 100% of the monthly usage allowance.”

AT&T says the changes will affect only 2% of its DSL customers, the average of whom use about 18GB per month, according to Broadband Reports.

As more and more people turn to connected TV and Netflix streaming, broadband usage caps like these could raise interesting questions for consumers.

Are you an AT&T DSL or U-Verse customer? What do you think of the new terms?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, FotoAta

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Mashable teamed up with Facebook for live interviews during SXSW Interactive. Facebook's Randi Zuckerberg and Mashable‘s editors will be conducting live interviews today from the Mashable SXSWi House.

Sunday’s guests included celebrities such as actor Rainn Wilson, comedian Dane Cook and actress Ellen Page, as well as influencers in tech like Kevin Rose. Today will include actor Romany Malco, the cast and crew of Psych, Guy Kawasaki and Texas Senator Kirk Watson. Stay tuned from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET.

The guests will be taking questions throughout the interviews from people in the audience at the Mashable House and those of you watching here online or at Facebook Live.

Feel free to submit your questions in the comments below or in the live chat below. Stay tuned for interviews this afternoon.

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There's a classic children's book, Swimmy, where a school of little fish team up and swim as one big fish to avoid being eaten. I often read this story at bedtime to my children and when I do I often realize the story line is so close to my heart as I consider the challenges facing small businesses and startups today. Because frankly (and I don't mean to carry this metaphor too far … ), the small business is swimming in an ocean that's far more dangerous than ever before.

Accessing business capital and credit has been particularly difficult over the past years. Consumer and business purse strings have been tight. Now we're facing sky-rocketing fuel prices and worries over potential inflation. And large corporations grow larger and more powerful with every passing day (even “too big to fail” companies just seem to get bigger).

Now more than ever, small businesses need to band together in order to compete with their larger counterparts. It's only by joining forces that small businesses can achieve economies of scale and have a voice that can compete with larger corporations. There is power in the collective, and businesses can harness the power of community to move forward.

So what does this mean? If you're a small business, seek out symbiotic and collaborative relationships with other small businesses whenever possible. Whether formally or informally, build a collective co-op of like-minded businesses and individuals. Small businesses need to look at each other as partners, not competitors. Here are just a few tangible examples of how to join forces in the small business market.

1. Join a Local Meetup Group for Entrepreneurs

Whether the plumber recommends a carpenter or the web designer recommends a copywriter, business is driven by referrals and connections. Local groups — which may meet monthly in a café or hotel conference area — aim to tap into the power of collaboration, support, and most importantly, referrals. Use them to develop relationships and share advice with fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners. Check Meetup.com or your local chamber of commerce for a relevant group in your area.

If you've built a strong Twitter network, organize a Tweetup in order to parlay that network into an even more powerful experience through face-to-face networking. And if referrals are very important to your business, you can also consider the word of mouth referral group BNI. These groups are more structured (and have a modest fee) where local professionals meet (each chapter allows one person from each profession to join) for the sole purpose of sharing referrals, marketing tips and testimonials.

2. Join a Virtual Community for Startups

Maybe structured, in-person meetups aren't your thing. Or your business doesn't necessarily target local customers and clients. You can join a social network or virtual group for like-minded small business owners to exchange advice, get support, build partnerships, find help and more.

For example, Entrepreneur Connect (which is part of the Entrepreneur Network and Entrepreneur.com) bills itself as “a dynamic business-to-business marketplace that will help everyone grow.”

3. Join the Small Business Web

If you're a software company (and committed to open APIs), consider joining The Small Business Web. This alliance of software companies (most of them small- to mid-sized themselves) is working together to serve small businesses through affordably priced software and easier access and integration of multiple tools. And if you're a small business looking for an invoicing or e-mail marketing app, take a look at the SBWeb's directory of companies. They're all committed to helping the small business thrive.

4. Pay it Forward

Successful networkers understand that networking is a two-way street. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to help fellow small businesses. By consistently bringing value and opportunity to those in your network, you'll be attracting others to your network. In short, by giving business to others, you will get business in return.

5. Build Informal Alliances with Like-Minded Companies

There's a multitude of ways for you to reach out to other companies who share your views on customer service, business, product development, etc. This could be as simple as offering to swap guest posts for each company's blog or introducing a business owner to your own Twitter or Facebook communities. You should think of alliances that could bring value to your own customers, as well as an opportunity for you to expand your visibility to new audiences.

6. Adopt a “Support Small Business” Mindset at Your Own Company

Several coalitions and movements, such as the 3/50 project, encourage consumers to support their local economies by shopping at independently owned brick-and-mortar businesses. On an informal level, you can adopt a similar mindset at your own business. Analyze your current vendors and service providers for opportunities to “downsize.” Are there any places where you could be supporting a small business — virtual or physical — instead? If you're encouraging others to support small businesses, make sure you're also heeding your own words. After all, change does begin with you.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattnomad

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While many reacted to the disaster on Twitter, others took the conversation to Facebook. The social network counted 4.5 million status updates from 3.8 million users across the world on March 11 that mentioned “Japan,” “earthquake” or “tsunami.” The animated graphic above plots these status updates at 10 points in time.

To view the maps as a slideshow, click here

Most of these status updates shared news, reports and prayers. For some, Facebook provided a way to quickly get in touch with loved ones in devastated areas.

In the aftermath, the conversation continues as people post news and spread word about ways — including using Facebook — to aid the victims. A partnership between Zynga, Facebook and Save the Children allows users to donate money through the purchase of virtual goods in Zynga games. Users can also donate to either the American Red Cross or Save the Children‘s relief efforts using Facebook causes.

Here are seven simple ways to donate using your phone or computer.

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Wireline calls 60 minutes or shorter from the U.S. to Japan will be free between March 11 and March 31.

The company has also made TV Japan, which brings 24-hour news from Japan, free through March 17 to all U-verse subscribers.

Finally, AT&T points out that its wireless customers can text “redcross” to 90999 (at no cost) to donate $10 to the Red Cross and help its disaster relief efforts in the area.

We’ve seen similar moves from major IT companies in the days following the earthquake in Japan; Google quickly set up an online crisis center, Microsoft offered to donate up to $100,000 for earthquake victims provided users retweet its message about the disaster, and Apple set up a special donation page [iTunes link] where users can donate money to the Red Cross.

If you want to aid the disaster victims, check out our seven simple ways to help people affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Update 1: Verizon Wireless tweeted just before 11 a.m. ET that it would also be offering free calls to Japan from wireless and residential landlines, as well as free text messaging.

Update 2: Sprint has joined the mix, according to Mobile Beat. Sprint and Verizon will offer free calls and messaging to postpaid subscribers until April 10.

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The new service, which launches in beta Monday, will certainly make the site a competitor with the likes of Orbitz and Expedia, and it will likely also strengthen its operations as the company heads into its initial public offering.

The company reported in November 2010, when it filed with the SEC, that it had generated revenues of $128 million from January through September 2010 — a 48% year-over-year growth. During the same nine months, the site saw 69 million user searches for travel information, a 37% increase from the previous year.

In joining the hotel-booking arena, Kayak will partner with one of the bigger names in the industry. Travelocity will process the transactions and deal with customer service.

It’s the second major online brand that the travel-search site has partnered with recently. Kayak announced earlier this month a deal with Bing that will bring its flight search results to the search engine.

In its IPO filing, one of Kayak’s biggest critiques of the competition was that Google held an unfair advantage in travel search. Competition from general search engine companies, namely Google it said, could have an adverse effect on Kayak. The partnership with Bing could level the playing field.

The new hotel-booking option will reportedly be available to the public in the coming weeks on Kayak’s iPhone app and website.

[via All Things Digital]

Image courtesy of kevindooley via Flickr

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