The new Ashe County Chamber of Commerce website is built on a Joomla platform and has tons of goodies built into the site. Overall the design will reflect the season at hand and rotate throughout the year. Click here to visit the Ashe Chamber of Commerce.  Some of the major highlights of the site include:

• Ashe County Business Directory
• Calendar of Events
• Digital Visitor Guide
• Social Media
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Blog Updates – RSS
  • Embedded YoutTube Channel
• Visitor Info
• Relocation Guide
• Area Weather
• Chamber Information

According to a new study conducted by CPH Research on behalf of Continuum Crew, Baby Boomer-aged respondents’ anxiety has shifted from the collapse of the economy to the cost of health care. Most significant is the shift in the media consumption of this age group, as the only media activity to rise dramatically was time spent on the Internet.

This is one of several insights on the emergence of the new ‘social media maven’ among Baby Boomers, and indicates that social media has significantly carved out time generally reserved for traditional media.

Baby Boomers/Boomers are defined as the generation born between 1946 and 1964, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Generation Jones, coined by television director Jonathan Pontell, is commonly considered to be those born between 1954 and 1964, representing the younger segment of Boomers. Generation Ike (Ikes) are those born between 1934 and 1945.

Top Findings on anxiety and life events of Boomers are:

• Anxiety about the economy has decreased in the past year (46% indicated it as the issue they were ‘very nervous’ about in 2008); now the issue of most concern is cost of healthcare, as indicated by 49% in 2009.
• For older parents more adult children are moving back home than are leaving it. This is a previously unprecedented finding within this research series, and markedly shows that Boomers’ lives are in transition.
• Boomers are now re-framing the notion of frugal living into the idea of simplicity. Children moving back in with parents, or delaying leaving their parent’s home, is likely having an effect on the family dynamic and household, which may mean an inclination to the return of the extended family structure of the World War II era.

Top findings on media consumption are:

• Ikes and Boomers still use traditional media more than those of Generation Jones or Generation X, but not all Boomers consume media in the same way, the biggest gap being between older and younger Boomers. This is most striking within traditional print media, with high consumption by older Boomers of newspapers and magazines.
• Among all media services listed, Boomers were least willing to give up the Internet, versus the top response of the 2008 survey,their cell phone. The survey shows they now spend more time than ever online (a rapid increase in one year from 38% to 62% stating they now spend more time online).
• The majority of Ikes and Boomers have joined popular social networking site Facebook© within the last 6 months.
• Boomers are becoming more aware that national and local news, magazines, and to some extent television and movies, are available to them via the Internet, indicating an increasing preference to access content this way. These responses illustrate a seismic shift among older adults, says the report, experimenting in the social media arena.

In the course of the study, says the report, a significant segment emerged within the Boomer group, dubbed the new “Social Media Maven.” The profile of this group is one that is heavily connected, exploring and expanding their networks.

These Social Media Mavens have more frequent contact with individuals across all types of groups within their social network, not just family or neighbors, but issue-oriented groups and co-workers as well:

• 73% responded ‘People often come to me for advice’
• Not merely amassing ‘friends’ or ‘connections’ they are communicating regularly.
• They also have more face-to-face contact and use smart phones more than other Boomers or Generation Jones respondents (78% responded ‘New technology plays an important role in my life’)
• They are equally likely to be male as female, which defies the stereotypical female profile of the voracious social media consumer
• Of this Social Media Maven group the majority are still working, more likely than the other segments to own their own business, most likely to engage in volunteer activity and to have the highest household income
• Social Media Mavens are more likely to try new products, technologies and seek new experiences. They are recommenders who embrace the role of technology in their connected lives

Lori Bitter, President, Continuum Crew, concludes that  “With more time being spent online, and the emergence of the new Social Media Mavens among Boomers… for companies targeting the mature consumer… online media should be at the core of an integrated marketing campaign… ”

And, supporting the findings that Boomers lives are in transition, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center finds that 13% of parents with grown children say one of their adult sons or daughters has moved back home in the past year. Social scientists call them “boomerangers” — young adults who move in with parents after living away from home. This recession has produced a bumper crop.

One-in-ten adults ages 18 to 34 (10%) say the poor economy has forced them to move back in with Mom and Dad. An additional 12% say they acquired a roommate. Hard times are leading young adults to put their lives on hold in other ways as well. For example, some 15% of adults younger than 35 say they have postponed getting married because of the recession; an additional 14% say they have delayed having a baby.

According to the survey, nearly half of all adults (46%) have children ages 18 or older. Among these parents of adult children, some 13% say at least one of their grown sons or daughters had returned home in the past year for any reason. The proportion of “boomeranged parents” increases to 19% among those ages 45 to 54 and declines sharply in later age groups.

To say thanks for your support we wanted to send you some NEW music for the holidays.

We’ve included some details about the artist, Mickey Harte, and are excited about working with him in the new year.

Enjoy this awesome new song from Mickey:

Christmas Day by Mickey Harte

At the age of 15 Mickey Harte began his musical career entertaining audiences, singing and playing guitar in venues around the N.W. of Ireland. This quickly developed into a full time job when he and some musician friends formed the band “Kryptix” writing and recording his first original album at 17 with the band, while at the same time finishing 2nd level education at St.Columba’s Collage, in his native Co.Donegal. He completed 5 years and successfully passed the leaving cert exams.

From there Mickey moved straight into 3rd level education studying the “Rock school-Performance” course at Senior collage, Ballyfermot, Dublin, and was awarded a Merit grade from city of Dublin V.E.C.

Continuing to perform with his band for some years and gaining valuable experience on the road, eventually Mickey felt the need to go his own way and embarked on a solo career as a full time singer/songwriter, playing acoustic clubs and theatres and supporting many well known Irish and international artist during that period.

Mickey returned to collage to further study his music and completed a 2 year BTEC national

Diploma course in popular Music at N.W.I.F.H.E. Derry City. and received a distinction.

In 2002 Mickey reluctantly auditioned for a brand new T.V. talent show called “you’re a star” on R.T.E. the program took Ireland by storm and Mickey became a house-hold name after winning the competition out right. as part of the winning prize he represented Ireland in the 2003 Eurovision song competition in Riga, Latvia. signing a record deal with Sony records U.K. and recording the #1 album “sometimes right, sometimes wrong” with U.K. producer John Kelly (Paul mc cartney, Chris Rea, kate bush), and We’ve got the world” became the biggest and fastest selling single in Ireland that year.

In 2004 Mickey moved on from Sony to set up his own label “swerve music” and to date has released 1 full length “Live and Learn”, 2 ep’s and 6 singles on swerve. and is currently working on 2nd full length for release spring 2010.

recently Mickey signed a publishing deal with elevate music for the album “live and learn” and some of his past catalogue, www.elevatemusic.net and is currently working as a contributor and mentor on RTE’s “star search” for young peoples programming. www.rte.ie/ice click on(star search).

This has in turn led to a project called “Musicool Europe” established with friend and TV presenter Brian Ormond. Also a veteran songwriter and performer Francie Conway (song writing coach-the rock school, Dublin). The project is an educational and Music based program for young performers, musicians and bands. www.bebo.com/musicooleurope the last 12 months have been busy for Mickey with gigs both in Ireland and Europe(Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France) and other side projects including writing the theme music for TV’s celeb boxing program “lords of the ring” summer 09.

Various contributions and performances on the Ryan show (2fm), RTE’s late late show, and TV3′s Ireland AM, Expose, Irelands top 10′s.

All in One SEO Pack – Lets you customize the title, description and keywords for every page and post on your wordpress website or blog. An absolute must have!

Download Plugin

Google Analytics for WordPress – Google Analytics allows you to easily track your website visitors, keywords, top content, conversion rates, bounce rates, etc…

Download Plugin

Google XML Sitemaps – Creates a complete sitemap for the search engines.

Download Plugin

NextGEN Gallery – The easiest gallery plugin available to wordpress users. Accommodates slideshows and easy image manipulation.

Download Plugin

Page Links To – Lets you create a menu item and link it to an external URL.

Download Plugin

SexyBookmarks – Customizable pop-up bookmark links

Download Plugin

Twitter Friendly Links – Creates a Twitter link that is much more friendly than your traditional wordpress URL

Download Plugin

WP-Cumulus – Add a spinning flash tag and/or category widget to your sidebar

Download Plugin

WP-SpamFree – Keeps all the spam bots from posting junk comments

Download Plugin

WP Security Scan – Keep an eye on the server security and make sure your wordpress installation is running properly

Download Plugin

WP Super Cache – Creates an HTML page that is much more lightweight than the traditional PHP deliverable page

Download Plugin

Pictures from space for under $150.00

A group of MIT students wanted to see how cheaply they could launch a balloon into space to take pictures of our atmosphere. For under 150 bucks they turned a beer cooler, camera and prepaid cell phone with GPS into a mini Hubble telescope. Check out the full story Here and a list of what they used to do it Here.

Mecha from the garage

Carlos Owens is a 31 year old army mechanic that built an 18 foot tall mecha monster. It uses 27 hydraulic pistons to walk, bend, and move it’s arms and hands. Check out the full article Here.

Racing the sun

A  solar powered plane called “solar impulse” is set to circumvent the earth without using a single drop of oil. The plane will fly 45 miles per hour and take three weeks to complete one full circle around the planet. Check out the full story Here.

A two wheeled robot balanced drink

The final advancement for this article is a robot that has only two wheels. It uses gyroscopes similar to the Segway. The inventor is working on an automated version with proximity sensors and voice control so that it could take commands from a human from rooms away. Full article Here

Social Media (ie: Blogs, Facebook,You Tube, Twitter, Flikr, etc) are unique platforms to engage your target audience and create the kind of viral buzz that can make or break your business. These days, consumers want to do business with people they know and trust.  And we can effectively forge these relationships, without breaking the bank, using Social Media.

The “Talk of the Town” Workshop Series will delve extensively into each mode of social media, and include knowledgeable speakers as well as peer coaching.  We will come alongside you as you navigate the world of new media and customize it to suit your needs.

• Instead of talking into the sea of people and hoping one will hear, learn how to inspire others to talk about you in a positive way!
• Reach out and draw consumers to your message through “permission marketing.”
• Discover how to make Social Media work for you, with specifically tailored workshops and peer coaching, abandoning the “one size fits all” approach!
• Teaming with successful bloggers and social media users to promote your message.
• Overcome the publicity challenges unique to a small town!

Future “Talk of the Town” events will be held monthly, and may be purchased individually or as part of a package.  Prices start at $30 per session.

The Introductory Breakfast will be an overview of our “Talk of the Town” Series on using social media (Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, and more) to create buzz for your business. The minimal fee includes a deluxe continental breakfast and a private room facility at the Broyhill Inn.

Speakers/Coaches include:

Scott Dickson is the President of Dickson Interactive, LLC. Scott has been helping businesses and organizations define and reach their target audiences for nearly 15 years. A veteran of traditional media advertising, including broadcast, newspapers, and magazines, Scott embraced the digital world when he became the Director of Online Sales for Media General in the NC region and as a Director of Business Development for the real-estate portal, Listingbook.com. After meeting success in the digital world, Scott realized there was a dire need for businesses to optimize their online marketing strategies to take advantage of the culture shift to the digital world. For the past 3 years, Scott has acted as both a consultant and project manager to help lead customers through the digital maze, maximizing their online presence with organic search engine optimization, usability and functionality analysis, competitive intelligence, conversion metrics, analytics, content development, distribution and social media marketing. A graduate of Appalachian State with a BS in Communications, Scott is also a published author and accomplished musician.

Boomer Sassmann is the President and Digital Technology Director for Big Boom Design. For over a decade Boomer has been building progressive, straightforward, and striking websites that combine the perfect mixture of form and function. His fascination with the internet and website design began in the mid 90’s before the days of Google. At that time website design and search engine techniques were fairly simple compared to today’s standards. Boomer began teaching himself Flash Animation and started incorporating these animations into his website projects whenever possible. This interest in Flash (motion) based websites forced him to become an expert in search engine optimization. As the internet continued to evolve, so did Boomers’ interest. First it was the Open Source movement followed by Content Management based websites, also known as blogs. This “worldly” knowledge of the internet gives Boomer an uncanny ability to select the perfect platform to build any type of website, no matter how complex. Basic HTML, Animated Flash, Content Management, and of course Blog design are all offered by Boomer and his staff at Big Boom Design. A graduate from Appalachian State University with a degree in Industrial Design, Boomer also works on the side tinkering with electric cars and sustainable building designs.

Click here to read the full article

(L to R) Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and John Glenn in front of the lunar module device at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Photograph: Marcus Yam/AP

The heroes of America’s moon landing last night called for the US to launch a mission to Mars and beyond, in a rare joint appearance aimed at reigniting interest in costly and risky manned space flight.

Now in their late 70s, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and John Glenn recounted their exploits, describing the massive US effort to beat the Soviet Union in the space race that culminated 40 years ago today, when Armstrong and Aldrin stepped out of the Eagle moon lander on to the lunar surface.

Several of the men called on Barack Obama to lead the country on a second mission, this time to Mars. But the star of the evening, Armstrong, refused to be drawn into the debate, instead describing the Apollo mission that granted him worldwide fame as a “diversion” primarily useful as a peaceful outlet for cold war competition between the US and the Soviet Union.

“It did allow both sides to take the high road with the objectives of science and learning and exploration,” said Armstrong, the first human on the moon. But he noted the parallel development of the space programme and the intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of mass destruction.

Article continued

Launched alongside The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits to end-users. This device concept showcases some revolutionary leaps being explored by Nokia Research Center (NRC) in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre (United Kingdom) – nanoscale technologies that will potentially create a world of radically different devices that open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities.

Morph concept technologies might create fantastic opportunities for mobile devices:

• Newly-enabled flexible and transparent materials blend more seamlessly with the way we live
• Devices become self-cleaning and self-preserving
• Transparent electronics offering an entirely new aesthetic dimension
• Built-in solar absorption might charge a device, whilst batteries become smaller, longer lasting and faster to charge
• Integrated sensors might allow us to learn more about the environment around us, empowering us to make better choices

In addition to the advances above, the integrated electronics shown in the Morph concept could cost less and include more functionality in a much smaller space, even as interfaces are simplified and usability is enhanced. All of these new capabilities will unleash new applications and services that will allow us to communicate and interact in unprecedented ways.

I have written here, here and here about Apple’s inevitable assault on the Tablet market. What I hadn’t factored until recently is how symbiotic such a device would be for Baby Boomers.

Why Baby Boomers? Well, for the same two reasons that this demographic is unlikely to embrace the palm-sized iPhone en masse.

One, such a bookish-sized tablet device – I’ll call it the Boomer Tablet – would be tailor-made for home Wi-Fi setups, thereby obviating the mobile access costs associated with iPhone, a significant barrier for a generation that is programmed to keep mobile bills within a tight spending range.

Two, because a larger-form factor device would offer Boomers a bigger viewing screen and “lifestyle” settings, like fatter keys and a more forgiving keyboard to ease input, and wizard-like shortcuts to simplify recurring tasks.

This is key, because with the onset of age, Boomers’ motor skills have become less precise; their vision has become poorer; and their eyes get tired easier.

As such, the premise of them plugging away on tiny keys and peering into the tiny screen of a mobile device like iPhone/iPod touch is a non-starter.

By contrast, the Boomer Tablet offers a superior input, viewing and playback environment for accessing your iTunes library, personal media, syndicated content services, iPhone Apps and presumably, Mac Apps; something that the 70M+ Baby Boomers in the US who are aged 53-73 would likely find compelling.

Continue Reading here: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/apple-the-boomer-tablet-and-th.html