Five Basic Facebook Questions

September 5th, 2008 mlovings

In our first interview, Vicky Hennegan definitely provided food for thought as to why “blogging” and other new Web technologies are helping to form new bonds between parents and their children. Our first interview also included the “5 Steps Toward Technology and Social Media Use” which Vicky feels are an essential base for us to have as we build our technical knowledge and technology skills.

We have invited Vicky of Remarkable Parents back to discuss Facebook, one of the most popular social media services on the internet. It has recently been gaining exposure as a social tool useful to an extremely wide audience.

In this interview, we will begin by walking through Five Basic Facebook Questions, then we will look at some basic Facebook features including (Status Updates, News Feed, Facebook Chat (Instant Message client), My Blog, Blog Network, & Groups) and we will end with a few Facebook Tips & Tricks.

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MacKenzie: Can you give us a brief history describing the background of Facebook? How it got started, how people use it, and who the original creator was?

Vicky: Below I have answered 5 Basic Facebook Questions. This will give readers an idea of the original intention of the application as well as it’s evolution over the last few years.

5 Basic Facebook Questions

1. How did Facebook start?
   Facebook was begun by Mark Zuckerberg a Harvard University student. Initially Facebook was available to only Harvard University students. In a fairly short period of time, Facebook would go through four additional iterations, each time giving new audiences access to this web-based application.

   The second expansion made Facebook available to other Ivy League University students, while it’s third iteration allowed it to add further to this base age group by including all university students. The fourth iteration expanded the age group to include high school students and the final iteration made it available to anyone over the age of 13 years old. The final iteration was when Facebook began to really become a main stream social tool with the diversity to appeal to a wide audience.

2. Why was it named Facebook?
   It’s name refers to the printed, paper face books that are made available in some American colleges and prep schools. Leave it to some young whipper-snapper to go ‘old school’ on all of us parents and use a name that not only makes sense, but that has to do with such classic elements as print and paper.

   The original printed face books purpose was to provide incoming students, faculty, and staff with a way to get to know the other people on campus.

3. What is Facebook?
   
   Facebook is a social networking web site that was officially launched in February, 2004 and is privately owned by Facebook, Inc. A Facebook account is free and registration can be completed in less than five minutes!

   Within a Facebook account you have a basic profile of information, called your Profile. The following are some of the Profile fields: location, interests, relationship status, birthday, hometown, political views, religious views, activities you enjoy, your interests, favorite music, favorite tv shows, favorite movies, favorite books, favorite quotes, and your contact information. Note: You can leave any of these fields blank.

4. How many people are on Facebook?
   
   Facebook has more than 40 million users with 200,000 new user’s joining each day.

5. What are the basic features that come standard with Facebook?

   Photos: Gives you the ability to add/upload photos. Photos can also be added to Albums. Your Friends will then have access to these photos and/or albums.

   
   Video: Gives you the ability to add/upload Video to your Facebook profile.

   Groups: Gives you the ability to create a Group for your site or for various other reasons. (examples of Groups could be “American Cancer Society’, “Cub Scout Pack 1354”, “St. Mary’s Choir”). You also have the ability to join Groups. After you join a Group, they will be able to send you Events for that group.

   Events: An Event is a specific thing that occurs on a specific date at a specific time. (examples of Events could be “Heritage Family Tree Class”, “Amanda’s 16th Birthday Party”, “Lincoln School PTA Meeting”).
   

   
   After an Event has been created, an invitation can be sent for the Event to anyone on your Friends/that Groups list. The receiver of an Event invitation will be prompted to RSVP. Possible RSVP replies include Yes, No, or Maybe. Note: An RSVP response can be changed at a later date.

   Notes: Gives the author the ability to write free form text, which can be a note, a list, a letter, or anything else. Notes can be tagged, which means a tag can be created that could include the names of people referenced in the note or people referenced in a photo. You can add other elements to a note, including photos and URL link, such as Remarkable Parents. Notes can also receive comments.

MacKenzie: What is your favorite Facebook application and why?

Vicky: One of my favorite applications on Facebook are the Status Updates. A Status Update is a short update of about 30 words.

The Status Updates box (see Figure 2 – Step 2) will show me the Status Update information for two or three of my Friends, depending on the length of each update, which can include a url (example www.facebook.com).

You also have the ability to see All Friends –> Status Updates (see Figure 2 – Step 2, Step 3) which will show you how to access this screen.

The screen is what the All Friends –> Status Updates screen (see Figure 3) looks like.

MacKenzie: What are a few more of your favorite Facebook applications and why?

Vicky: I would have to say the News Feed and Facebook Chat are two features I find very useful.

The News Feed lists the new applications, photos, links, video, notes, and such that my Friends have been doing or participating in on Facebook.

A definite plus is the fact that I can usually read my entire News Feed in less than 4 minutes!

Another feature I really like is Facebook Chat, which is an instant message client.

If one of your Friends is using Facebook at the same time you are, you can chat using Facebook Chat.

To find out who is online, there is an indicator at the bottom of the Facebook screen. It will show you how many people currently have Facebook open, which is the Online Friends (7) below.
You can then double-click on the individuals name and a chat box will open. Note: They should have an ‘active’ (green circle) as their status.

MacKenzie: Is Remarkable Parents available on Facebook and can web sites be setup on Facebook?

Vicky: I have My Blog Remarkable Parents Blog as a Facebook Blog and then I have a Group Remarkable Parents Group. The Group will be for our readers to socialize with each other, while the Blog will have articles available from the web site.

There are advantages to setting up your Blog as My Blog, particularly if you want it to automatically add new articles from your web site to your Facebook Blog page.

If you want to add our Blog to your Blog Network you would go to Remarkable Parents Blog and choose “Join Blog Network”.

Then from any page in your Facebook, you will have access to the Blogs you have added through the Blog Networks icon (see Figure 5c – Blog Networks).

Once a blog has been added to your Blog Network, you can read articles from the blog, while your in Facebook. This is so convenient and also saves time.

You just to the application for the Blog Feed (see Figure 7 – Blog Feed) and then double-click the article that interests you.

Some of the blog articles for Remarkable Parents includes:

• Who Taught My Kid That Four Letter Word?
• How Using Social Media Has Helped Me Be A Better Dad
• Missing Children Alerts on Twitter – Twitter for a Social Cause
• Keeping Kids Safe – Part 1: Parental Control Software Explained

Facebook Tips & Tricks

Finding Friends/Contacts on Facebook

Facebook will try to help you look for your friends and loved ones. It will offer to import your contacts from your email application and use that information to find people that you know. When it has finished, it will tell you who it was able to find and not able to find.

You may not want to add all your email contacts to Facebook, you will have the ability to choose the people that you want to import and to have access to your Facebook information. I believe that they give you a list of your email contacts and you put a check in the check box to indicate the people that you want to import.

Remember however, that they have access to a lot of information about what you do, where you comment, and what Groups you join. Give yourself some time and start off slowly.

Add-On Applications for Facebook

There are thousands of add-on applications that can be added to Facebook. Some are very helpful, many however are not that great! Ask other people which ones they like or read articles on the ones your interested in installing before you take the plunge.

You can get yourself in a mess with too many add-on’s that aren’t worthwhile. They may not only become irritating to you, but also to your friends.

Interact and Have FunHave fun with it and remember social media is about interaction and strengthening relationships. Be a good friend and comment on other peoples photos, pictures, links, notes, and other communication. People are taking the time to add these photos, videos, ect.. so if you know them, leave them a short comment.

After you get to know peoples interests better, you may find yourself posting an article, not for yourself, but for a friend who has that interest.

Accepting or Denying a Friend RequestIf you don’t know someone and they send you a Friend Request, send them a response asking them how they know you. Most people won’t mind answering and letting you know. Don’t Friend people you don’t know unless you plan to be very open with the information you will be posting.

Have lots of fun!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Bridging the Communication Divide with Blogging, an interview with Vicky Hennegan of Remarkable Parents

July 25th, 2008 mlovings

It’s been a while since our last parent interview – so hello everyone! Hopefully everyone is enjoying the summer and finding some time (and extra gas change) to enjoy some time off with their families. Before you skip off to enjoy another weekend, I’m extremely pleased to introduce the following interview with Vicky Hennegan of Remarkable Parents.

Vicky definitely provides some food for thought as to why “blogging” and other new Web technologies are helping to form new bonds between parents and their children in a manner that touches people today and in the future. Even if you know a lot about technology, take a moment to read Vicky’s comments because there will be a parent out there you’ll want to share this with. Thank you, Vicky.

MacKenzie:  You say on your site that the internet is the great equalizer between generations. Can you expand on this and give an example where you’ve personally experienced this happening?

Vicky: My 18 year old daughter Kay will be heading off to college in the fall.  Like every parent my feelings are somewhat conflicted.  I want her to discover who she is as a young adult and to experience life on her own.  I am worried that now that she’s 18, she may feel that it’s a failure of her new found adulthood to come to me with her problems.

Keeping in touch with her while she’s hundreds of miles away is one of our family’s upcoming challenges.  I’m not a helicopter parent (one who hovers closely overhead), I don’t expect nor do I want to hamper her experience of being on her own person.  I just want to be in the loop, have an idea of what and how she is doing, and know that she’s safe.

A few friends who’ve children have gone off to college have prepared me that that college students don’t devote a lot of time to keeping in touch.  I know she has good intentions to  keep in touch, but realisticly I should be prepared to feel left out.  To bridge this communication divide we have been talking about ways we can keep in touch.  We don’t plan on using only the telephone, we also plan on using IM (instant messaging), Email, Twitter, Facebook, and Skype.   Kay already uses these technologies and so do I.  This will make keeping in touch so much easier. As you can see in the print screens below, you can send extremely short updates and messages, which is very convenient.  I have included some examples so you can see a little of what I mean and a short definition.

• IM – Instant Messaging   This is realtime text communication that takes place between two or more people through their computers over the internet.
• Email   The ability to send, receive, and store written messages in an electronic format within a software application.
• Twitter   A free social networking application that allows users to create updates that can be up to 140 characters and they are sent to the timeline of the friends that have ‘followed’.

• Facebook   A free social networking application that allows user to join networks based on interests, city or location, or other criteria where people socially interact with others.  They can also email and invite friends that will then have access to their profile, status updates, and whatever else that is public is on that individuals Facebook page.

• Skype   Software that allows ujsers to make free telephone calls over the internet between 2 Skype users on the computer.  Video telephone calls are also available if the participants have web cameras.

 
It’s really fairly simple and easy to get started with these web-based applications. One of the goals of Remarkable Parents is to introduce our readers to new technology and demonstrate how they can use this technology to effectively communicate, be more productive, and use their time more efficiently. 

People are already using these same technologies for communicating with their familys, in their career, and to stay in touch with friends & extended family.  The concept of using the same technology for multiple functions in our lives is one of the most effective uses of technology.  When you are already familiar with how to use the application it isn’t hard to apply small changes for different situations, this is the type of win-win-win scenario that we like to demonstrate to our readers!

MacKenzie:  What is the most incredible or satisfying aspect of writing or managing your own blog?

Vicky: The most satisfying aspect of the web site is having planned the overall vision of the site for so long and seeing that vision implemented.  When the first article Who Taught My Kid That Four Letter Word? was published, along with the web design which I really love, I felt  amazing, absolutely amazing and I really haven’t come down yet.

MacKenzie:   For any mom who is new to the blogosphere and social networking, can you offer a quick how to get started list to help ladies get engaged?

Vicky: I purposely put some links, print screens, and definitions in the first question, so the ladies can go to those sites to get more information on those technologies.

Steps torwards technology and social media use

1. Email  Sign up for an email account.  Most email accounts are free.  I suggest using Gmail.  Google’s Gmail has has one of the best spam blocking engines that will block most spam and make your experience much nicer (a second choice would be Yahoo).
2. Search Engines  Google is by far the most popular search engine and is also free. When you are searching you can use individual words for your search criteria or you can use phrases enclosed by quotes (a second choice would be DogPile).  This phrase will search for pages that Google has indexed that have these three words many times anywhere on the page.   

     

This phrase will search for pages that Google has indexed that have the phrase ’small breed’ (must be the entire phrase) and the other word anywhere on the page.



3. Social Network  Join a social network all the ones listed below are free, you can choose just one to start. (Twitter requires the least maintanance)
   • Linked-In   A professional, business orientated social networking site.  You can falso use Linked-In Answers which are where questions posed and users who are experts or have specific knowledge in an area answers.   That’s a really nice feature.
   • Facebook   There are a lot of little add ons available for Facebook.  This is more of a social site that offers you a lot of options for customizing it and the ability to add photos, video’s, hyperlinks, join networks or mini organizations, and people can leave you messages by writing on your wall.
   • Twitter   Twitter is a hard social networking site to describe.  You socialize by adding followers and then conversating with them.  If they also follow you, you will see their end of all their conversations, which lets you find others in the same industry, with similar interests, or others that just seem fun.  A tweet is a message under 140 characters long.

You can use a search engine to search for douments about these services.  You may want to use the word ‘beginner’ in your search criteria.

4. Bookmarking   Join a bookmarking service like del.iscio.us which is free.  You can find pages on web sites that you’d like to read or reference again later.  You save the bookmark that points to that web.  You can also assign tags to the bookmark which puts bookmarks of the same type of content  together.  Most web browsers have bookmarks, but they are associated with a particular computer.  Del.iscio.us bookmarks are on the web, you can access them where ever you have an internet connection. You also can look at other peoples bookmarks.  Many teachers and other professionals share bookmarks this way.  You can even save a bookmark for someone else.  Each bookmark.
5. Passwords   All these sites will require a login and password.  Many will have a little box that you can check that says ‘remember my password’.  If you check this box everytime your computers browser goes to that applications page, it will automatically login to your account.  If multiple people use the same computer, you may not want to have it automatically login to your account.  A good idea is to have about three different passwords you regularly use like ‘apple1′, ‘crazy8′, and ‘gr8est’  (try to put one number in your passwords, it’s more secure from hackers) and rotate between them.  This way if you forget which password is for which application, you only have 3 to try. 

MacKenzie: If moms could learn one technology this year, what would you say it should be?

Vicky: I would have to say that it would depend on the individual mom and their family’s needs. 

If you need to communicate with your kids while your at work and they’re at home, I would say get two webcams, headphones w/ mics and use Skype or you could use IM.

If you are lonely, want to crowd source advice, or make new friends I would say Twitter.

If you will be soon changing jobs, finishing school and want to either get a job or network with others in your same profession, I would say Linked-In.

If you do a lot of research and need to have quick access to the documents you are using or if you need to stay up-to-date on a specific topic (try to add people to your network that have the same interests, I would say del.iscio.us.

If you are willing to spend a little time, want to connect with old friends, join networks or organizations for a particular subject, I would say Facebook.

I also wanted to share that Remarkable Parents is beginning a 6 Part Series of Articles at the end of the month, sharing basic but more thorough information on 6 “must have” software applications.  I think this would be very good information for anyone starting out.  You can go to the website and sign up to receive the articles in your email box, it is located under the ‘About Vicky H’ box.

MacKenzie: Your site is asthetically pleasing want to offer kudos into anyone in particular?

Vicky: The web designer for Remarkable Parents is Randa Clay.  We worked remotely as I am in Wisconsin and she is in Texas.  The relationship did work well for us and it wasn’t a problem that she didn’t live in the same state.  I am amazed at how well she got the concepts and my vision for the site.   Randa has done a case study on many of the steps we took and tips  that clients can use to translate their vision to the designer.

Someone who also helped me considerably was Chris Garrett who was handled some of the more technical issues and helped me develop and organize my vision for the site.  Chris lives in the United Kingdom, so we used Skype for many of our sessions.

Posted in Blogger Interviews, Educating Our Kids, Moms and the Internet, Social Media Technology, Technology and Relationships | 9 Comments »

Adrienne Van Houten Wins the Suri Shoes Contest!

May 22nd, 2008 tthomas

Congratulations to Adrienne VanHouten who won The ParentPower Win Suri Cruise’s Ladybug Shoes Contest last week. She downloaded the ParentPower application on May 18th.

Adrienne writes the Adrienne’s House blog. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out. It’s informative and has lots of cool travel pix. You can also connect with Adrienne on twitter at Adriennevh.

Adrienne will receive her shoes from Skimbaco shortly. Much love to Skimbaco for donating these cute pairs of shoes for our contest.

Thank you to EVERYONE who downloaded the ParentPower Desktop Application. We welcome all new users!

Terence

Posted in Moms and the Internet, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Try Out the ParentPower Desktop Application and Win Suri Cruise’s Favorite Shoes

May 16th, 2008 mlovings

Famous babies have famous feet, and the shoes they wear don’t go unnoticed.

In the course of her business, mompreneurer Katja Skimbaco helped a family friend of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes to put together a gift basket. And when Oprah visited the Cruise/Holmes family home in Telluride, Colorado, the cute ladybug shoes from Skimbaco came into view of the camera. Oprah noticed and Tom Cruise said the magic words:

“Ladybugs are Suri’s favorites.”

Through a very generous donation, you can win a pair of the famous shoes for your own ladybug princess, or for a friend.

Katja has generously donated a pair to ParentPower and we will give them away to the 25th person who downloads the ParentPower application between now until 10 a.m. on Monday. NOTE: We have extended the deadline until 12 midnight ET on Monday to give everyone more time! See details below.

The application is designed by parents for parents and has lots of cool features, like quick links to Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and also to the ParentPower index and headlines – all in one place. Plus, it gives you the weather and other local information.

By the way, you can read all about the winner of last weekend’s content here.

Twice the Fun

We thought it would be fun to add another pair of shoes to the contest. Why? Because Suri’s favorite ladybug shoes are also our favorites. Here is how you can get another chance to win the shoes:

• When you download the ParentPower application, the 25^th person will win the shoes, but also, we will draw one more name from everyone else who downloaded.
• Get a second chance to win by writing about the ParentPower application and this contest on your blog, then leave a comment here, or send an e-mail to us at myvoice@parentpowerindex.com for another chance to win.

We will extend the deadline until 12 midnight ET on Monday to give you more time.

Have fun!

Photo of Suri by Hollywood Kids on Flickr

Posted in Intro to ParentPower, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Edu-Tainment

May 16th, 2008 tthomas

I have a daughter who is 4 years old, going on 5, and my wife and I are teaching her how to read.

So far, thanks to her Pre-K school and our commitment to this “labor of love”, she has mastered about 50-75 words that she has memorized. However, I’m feeling like she needs to know more…More…MORE! It’s the competitive dad coming out of me. I’m not over-bearing though. I understand she will expand her vocabulary as we continue to work with her and expose her to new words.

As part of my quest to make my child a better reader (or word memorizer, I’m not sure which one yet), I’ve taken 5 of her favorite bedtime books, made a list of words found in them – broken down by the number of letters each word has:

· one/two letter words,
· three letter words,
· four letter words,
· five letter words and
· six or more letter words

And I’ve put them on index cards. I then play a little game with her where I show her the index card and she has to tell me what the word is. It’s a simple game, like flash cards, but she actually likes it. She doesn’t even realizes she’s learning while playing this simple game.

Of course, while she has fun with it, and we play for treats or to read an extra bedtime book at night to keep it interesting, I am afraid that she’s going to get bored of this game before we get through all the index cards.

Any suggestion on how I can continue to work the Edu-Tainment angle with my daughter before she gets bored?

Does anyone out there have some other ideas for simple, educational games we can play together?

Post your comments to this blog entry, or email us at: myvoice@parentpowerindex.com

We’ll put together a summary of all the comments or emails sent in.

Thanks!
Terence
ParentPowerIndex.com

Posted in Educating Our Kids | 2 Comments »

“Isn’t Community the Real Reason We Do This Anyway?” Interview with Christina, A Mommy Story

May 15th, 2008 mlovings

As we continue to learn more about why moms are passionate about blogging and the legacy they hope to leave their children, today we share insights from Christina of A Mommy Story. Christina, a “mom to Cordy the Amazon Warrior Princess and infant Mira, and devoted wife to an actor/writer,” offers her thoughts on the following questions…

GEOFF: The parent blogosphere is extremely diverse. You recently wrote about the different levels of prosperity resulting from ads, etc in this corner of the blogosphere. How does this impact parent bloggers?

CHRISTINA: I think the new monetization of parent blogs has been both beneficial and harmful. Many parent bloggers are now turning their hobby into part-time businesses – or just coffee money – through ads and paid blogging jobs. It’s great that this is now a viable option for parents who stay home with their kids, allowing them to contribute to the family income and feel that what they are doing has some worth (as businesses would see it) outside of their own family. PR firms are also contacting parent bloggers to offer free products to review and trips, such as the recent Johnson & Johnson Camp Baby trip. The opinions of parent bloggers are now sought after by several corporations.

But at the same time, while there is money to be made, few will make a significant amount of money from blogging, and not everyone can go on the trips or get the cool products to review. This has resulted in both jealousy and a lot of newer bloggers wanting to immediately monetize their blogs in the hopes of being the next Dooce. There are a few people who have the uniqueness and/or luck to be a big hit right away, but for most, the path to successful monetization involves hard work, quality writing, and community building. And isn’t community the real reason we all do this, anyway?

GEOFF: Tell us about the parent blogger scene in Ohio? Is it unique, or just another part of the country?

CHRISTINA: At first glance, it may not look like there are a lot of parent bloggers in Ohio. It took me a little while to find any, but since then I’ve met several, some of whom are now good friends of mine. I don’t know if the Ohio bloggers are a quieter group than most or if many of them just haven’t been discovered by the general population yet, but there are some excellent writers here in Ohio. I predict you’ll be seeing a lot more from several of them in the coming year.

GEOFF: In your mind, how does A Mommy Story contribute to the conversation?

CHRISTINA: When I started blogging, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to add to the conversation. My daughter was a year old, and I was a new mom who desperately needed a community of other moms to tell me that the frustrations and joys I was experiencing were totally normal. I spent much of the first year trying to find my voice, a voice I’m still not completely sure of. At the moment, I consider myself one of the voices of reason, trying to tackle controversial topics without letting the passion of my opinion cloud my argument. My How To Be a Popular Mommyblogger post was written after I’d seen far too much complaining about how some people got all the trips and money and other bloggers got nothing. I felt that people needed to stop and think for a moment about why some were getting all of the “perks” and that maybe it was because they earned it.

A Mommy Story is where I can share whatever is on my mind, whether it be about my kids, parenting, or trying to keep my identity beyond that of “mommy”. I also blog about the struggles of raising a daughter with autism. It was a diagnosis that, in some ways, caught me by surprise last year, and since then I’ve answered questions for so many others who worry that their child might have a developmental delay of some kind. Knowing I can help others with my writing makes those more painful posts easier to write, and tells me that what I’m doing is worth every second I put into it.

GEOFF: What could you leave behind in the parent blogosphere?

CHRISTINA: I’m hoping that someday my daughters will read my writing and get a better sense of who their mom is. As a child, there’s so much we don’t understand about our parents. But having the chance to see what I struggled with, what made me happy, and how I felt about them when they were young will hopefully help them see me as a woman who has her own interests and dreams as well as their mom, who has shaped her life around them. I also hope others will find what I’ve written years from now and see it as one of many accounts of motherhood at the turn of the century. What we blog today will be the memoirs that historians look through someday.

GEOFF: What do you hope your children will get out of social media?

CHRISTINA: Well, they’re still a little young to even browse the internet, so it’ll still be a few years. I hope they’ll listen to me and learn how social media can be used to their advantage without falling prey to the dark side. (Geez, I sound like a Jedi Master.) I want them to find their communities, build relationships, educate themselves and have fun. But I also hope I can teach them to not over share information and make themselves too vulnerable to others.

A Mommy Story can be found at: http://amommystory.blogspot.com/

Posted in Blogger Interviews, Moms and the Internet | 2 Comments »

Dawn Chase Wins ParentPower SeaWorld Prize Pack!

May 14th, 2008 mlovings

Dawn Chase won our SeaWorld San Diego Prize Pack contest last week. She downloaded the ParentPower application at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday night.

Dawn writes the Coming to a Nursery Near You blog. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out. It’s got a great template, and is very pretty. You can also connect with Dawnie on twitter at Dawniemom.

Dawnie will receive her prize pack from SeaWorld Shortly. Thank you to SeaWorld for donating this great package for our contest.

Thank you to EVERYONE who downloaded the ParentPower Desktop Application. We welcome all new users!

Photo shows Sesame Street Bay of Play at SeaWorld, a whimsical play area opening Memorial Day weekend (May 24) at SeaWorld San Diego, will feature three family-friendly rides, including Elmo’s Flying Fish.

Posted in Moms and the Internet, Technology and Relationships, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

ParentPower Interview with Stefania Pomponi Butler of CityMama and Kimchi Mamas

May 13th, 2008 mlovings

Geoff had the pleasure of interviewing Stefania Pomponi Butler today – professional writer and blog editor/producer of CityMama AND Kimchi Mamas. Known for her “keen eye for observation and her sharp wit”, Stefania, proud mother to “Bunny” and “Wallie” and wife to “J.”, writes about style, food, pop culture, and parenting with her own unique twist.

GEOFF: The parent blogosphere is extremely diverse. You recently wrote that you are a 1.5 generation Korean American. Does your cultural heritage provide a different view of the parent blogosphere?

STEFANIA: I am actually a 5th generation Korean-American and a 2nd generation Italian-American. My family on my Korean side arrived in Hawaii (an American territory back then) in 1898, and my father is Italian—he lives in Rome. This means that I don’t speak Korean but I do speak Italian! My cultural heritage provides a different view of the parent blogosphere only in that there are certain cultural practices particular to Asians or Italians that I can instantly relate to when I read other Korean-American and/or Italian parenting blogs. Other than that, the fact that I am Korean-Italian doesn’t change my view. I still have the same breastfeeding, diaper-changing, potty-training, preschool search, what do I make for dinner, how do I stick to my budget, “my kids are driving me nuts!” issues that most other parents have.

GEOFF: On CityMama you write a lot about food and politics. Which do you prefer to write about and why?

STEFANIA: On CityMama, I prefer to write about food and how I, as a busy mom of two, strive everyday to create delicious and healthy meals for my family. Cooking is my “arts and crafts.” It’s what I live to do. I am trying to raise children who appreciate good food, but that doesn’t necessarily mean “gourmet.” I do love to cook and am constantly improving my skills and repetoire of recipes, but for me good food means locally grown or sourced products as much as possible, non-GMO ingredients, a respect for seasonal produce, knowing where our food comes from, and making vegetables appealing without resorting to culinary chicanery. That being said, sometimes Happy Meals make everything better. For parents, too.

I do touch on politics on CityMama, but prefer to blog about those issues on MOMocrats.com. I co-founded the blog with two other noted parent bloggers and now we’ve grown to 22 progressive Democrat mom bloggers who write about issues that affect our families—like education, healthcare, poverty, and war—which, when you think about it, are issues that affect everyone.

GEOFF: In your mind, how do CityMama and Kimchi Mamas contribute to the conversation respectively?

STEFANIA: CityMama is really the place for me to blog about my life, my beautiful family, and what we eat. Kimchi Mamas is a culture and identity blog where we strive to connect with like-minded individuals. I measure the success of Kimchi Mamas by every email or comment we receive that says, “Thank God I found you. You relate to me and my experience raising a family.”

GEOFF: What could you leave behind in the parent blogosphere?

STEFANIA: Do you mean what would I like to leave behind as my stamp on the blogosphere? I hope that my recipes and stories about cooking for my family inspire other parents to conquer their fear of the kitchen and to cook for their kids more. To me there is no higher compliment than my girls giving me a thumbs up after tasting their meal and saying, “Mmmmm! This is really good!”

And, I know it’s a cliché to say it, but I also hope that when my kids are old enough, they can read CityMama to know just how much I love them. It really is my tribute to them the best way I know how. And if it’s around 30 years from now, when they have their own children, I hope they can read CityMama to know that they are not alone in their frustrating and joyful parenting moments.

GEOFF: What do you hope your children will get out of social media?

STEFANIA: To tell you the truth, I haven’t really thought about this question much. Because my husband and I are both work in the tech field and are so connected to our laptops, we purposely strive to keep our kids away from the computer. They are 5 and 3 so there is time for that. Recently they both received Webkinz and we went onto the site to register their pets. Both of them were turned off immediately preferring to actually play with the pets rather than buy them food and furniture online. That’s age-appropriate, I think, and is totally fine with me. My five-year-old gets a big kick out of Twitter, though. She cracks up everytime she sees the “What Are You Doing?” at the top of the screen. It makes me wonder what she is thinking. She is also at the age where she can read everyone’s tweets so I have to be careful not to Twitter around her. Thanks to one of my tweets, she knows that “shit” is spelled S-H-I-T. Not one of my finer parenting moments.

CityMama can be found at: http://citymama.typepad.com/citymama/

Posted in Blogger Interviews, Moms and the Internet | 1 Comment »

Are we using technology or is technology using us?

May 12th, 2008 HACK

One of the parent bloggers we follow on the ParentPower twitter feed, Jane Porricelli, just posted a tweet about being featured in a recent CNN article entitled,“Get your BlackBerry out of our bed!”, which covers a growing problem among couples – the use of laptops and cell phones in the bedroom and other areas of the home.

In reading the article it reminded me of a story my wife once told me about one of her brothers (I won’t reveal his name, but everyone in the family will know exactly who I’m talking about) and his BlackBerry. One day when her brother was visiting, he asked her what games she played the most on her BlackBerry and her top scores. He was quite surprised that she did not play any of them.

Shocked, my wife’s brother inquired, “So, what do you when you’re in the bathroom?”

Well, apparently he was onto something, because according to the Solutions Research Group (referenced in the CNN article), more than 63 percent of BlackBerry users actually take them into the bathroom.

My wife? Well, she claims she uses her BlackBerry just for business (wink-wink) and not in the bathroom, but the truth is – when she travels, I get more information from her Facebook profile than our phone calls at the end of the day. In fact, she updates her profile sometimes as we drive in the car (don’t worry – I’m the one driving), go shopping or sit down at a restaurant to have dinner. That she has not become addicted to Twitter is a great mystery to me.

However, this comes to the points made in the CNN article and some of the comments I’ve seen posted around the Internet and in Twitter concerning relationships and the use of technology in spaces we traditionally thought of as being more intimate and interpersonal zones.

Sometimes we need to recognize that despite the improved productivity we gain from using technology, we can’t allow those tools to damage our relationships or breakdown the level of personal contact we have with other people – especially our significant others.

Let us know what you think and if there are any resources to helping families manage their technology addictions… er… habits… You can post comments to this blog posting, Tweet us at http://twitter.com/parentpower, or send us an email at: myvoice@parentpowerindex.com.

Posted in Technology and Relationships | No Comments »

Download ParentPower application for a chance to win $200 prize pack from SeaWorld

May 11th, 2008 HACK

SeaWorld San Diego has donated a $200 prize pack to the ParentPower Index. So we figured we’d give first shot to Index bloggers.

Here’s how:

We know most of you are familiar with the ParentPower Index, but have you seen the application yet? This is another great way that we are trying to bring readers to your site. Well, the 30th download this Mother’s Day weekend will get the prize pack. You can download the application here: http://parentpowerindex.com/download-parentpower.

This gift prize consists of SeaWorld San Diego memorabilia such as and Sesame Street-themed merchandise:

1 Shamu plush
1 Dolly Dolphin plush
1 Cookie Monster plush
1 Abby Cabby plush
2 Sesame Street beach towels
1 Sesame Street activity coloring book
1 Elmo wallet
1 Cookie Monster visor
1 Elmo visor
1 Sesame Street Magnetic Wipe-Off Board

This spring brand new Sesame Street-themed attractions opened at the park:
Sesame Street presents Lights, Camera, Imagination!* *in 4-D, a dazzling movie starting Elmo, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and other Sesame Street favorites, and Breakfast with Elmo and Friends, a dining opportunity where guests can mingle and pose for photos with Elmo and other Sesame Street characters. On Memorial Day weekend (May 24) the park’s signature Sesame Street-themed adventure arrives. Sesame Street Bay of Play at SeaWorld is a whimsical two-acre play area featuring three family-friendly rides, character meet-and-greets and boatloads of laughs and hugs.

Thanks for everyone who participates.

Email us with any questions at: myvoice@parentpowerindex.com

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »