Ursa Major Consulting, LLC

On May 11th, Becky Roberts and I will present "Tweet Jams:  Facilitated Social Media or Chaos?" at the International Association of Facilitators North America (IAFNA) Conference 2012, in Halifax, Nova Scotia!

We will explore how to apply the concepts of facilitation to Twitter, as we teach how to facilitate a Tweet Jam / Tweet Chat, from 9:00 to 10:30 Atlantic Time.

Join us using the hashtag #IAFNAjam, or join our non-conference facilitation discussions using #facilichat. We will be tweeting out more information shortly.

We are pleased to announce that we are assisting Virginia Industries for the Blind (VIB) with their strategic planning effort.

VIB is is a division of the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI), and provides employment opportuniities for Virginians who are blind or visually impaired in two manufacturing plants, eleven base supply stores, and six service locations. They have diverse contracts with federal agencies through the AbilityOne Program (e.g., contract management and closeout services for the U. S. Army), contracts through State Agency agreements such as  the Virginia Court Debt Collection Office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Virginia Employment Commission, and manufacture items as diverse as mattresses for the U. S. Navy and state colleges and universities and reflective vests for the Virginia Department of Trnsportation.

Given the improvements in assistive technology and more ambitious expectations of young people who are blind and people who lose their sight after gaining work experience, VIB is exploring ways to attract workers who are looking for more than traditional product manufacturing. In fact, some of VIB's experienced contract closeout employees have already been hired by the government, which is quite a successful outcome for those people.

We look forward to helping VIB plan the modernization of its business to meet the evolving needs of people who are blind or vision impaired.

Another app I love is Google Translate.  While I've used Google Translate from time to time on the web, it's even more useful on the phone since you probably already have it with you when you need it.

It's nicely integrated with speech and with texting. While it's not perfect, it's a great resource beyond pointing and gesturing. Just make sure it gets the speech to text right:  e.g., :"robotics trip" vs. "robotic strip". Common words and simple phrases come through OK if spoken carefully.

The selection of languages is also pretty amazing, and it works in both directions in a conversational mode. When I was at Goodwill South Florida, I showed them it could not only handle Spanish but also Hatian Creole.

So this is one more tool just to have for those times when you just can't find the word in Spanish or don't have a clue how to say it in Korean. And the price is right.

OK, you need a new website.

Websites are a commodity.  You can use a website building tool and do it yourself. Just about anybody can put up the content you provide, and the result might be great or not so great, depending upon their skills and the content you provide. It all comes back to the content, doesn't it?

All too often, what holds things up is someone not having the time to deal with getting the content together.