Norbert Haupt
Unfriend, Unfollow, Unlike – Oh No!
Has this ever happened to you? You proudly look at your Facebook friend count on your profile: 72 (I know I don’t have a lot of friends on Facebook, but that’s another subject altogether). Then, the next morning, you check and it’s 71. Somebody unfriended you! Your immediate reaction is to take it personally. Of [...]
Death of the Cold Call – or Warm Call
Sales gurus tell us that cold calls no longer work. Check out this article by Gitomer that has many great points about the subject, particularly if you are still making cold calls, or if you work for somebody who is making you. I was lucky that I have never been in a position where I [...]
Businesses Snooping in our Lives
An angry man waltzed into a Target store outside Minneapolis and waved a flyer in front of the manager: “My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?” The manager didn’t [...]
Is Head Start a Failure?
The American Thinker article of Feb 2, 2012, by Charles N.W. Keckler and Ryan L. Cole presents an interesting treatise of Head Start, the federal program designed some 50 years ago to mainly supply part-time care and education to three- to four-year-old children of impoverished parents. The article calls Head Start and experiment, conceived by [...]
Ohio Swipe Card System in the News
The childcare time and attendance system recently implemented in Ohio gets lots of news coverage. Here is an aricle in the Dayton Daily News. There are some comments included about the benefits of biometric authentication versus swipe cards: Ohio JFS directors prefer a system that would read a child and parent’s fingerprint or palm print [...]
Facebook Valuation
Facebook gets a lot of press right now about its expected $100 billion valuation. There are a reported 850 million users. 150 million of those are in the United States. The other 700 million are spread around the rest of the world. About half of all Facebook users log in daily. I am one of [...]
Childcare Subsidy with a Twist (Kansas and Utah)
Kansas and Utah handle subsidized childcare differently than all other states. Most states in the U.S. support families in need with childcare subsidy funds by determining the eligibility of the family based on family size, income and special needs, help parents find childcare providers, set up childcare schedules and pay for the services by making [...]
Oakland Mayor Shuts Down Facebook Page
An article in Governing Magazine reports that Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is taking down the Mayor’s facebook site. The world of social networks is so new that many individuals, companies and governments don’t yet know how to deal with it, particularly how to handle unexpected fallout. There are numerous benefits to public agencies using social [...]
ASU Study about Obese Kids and Subsidized Childcare
A recent study by Arizona State University’s Chris Herbst along with Erdal Tekin of Georgia State University, published in the Journal of Urban Economics, examines the link between childcare subsidies and childhood obesity. The study focuses on analyzing the impact of subsidized childcare on disadvantaged children’s weight outcomes. The authors claim they found the odds for a [...]
KLM’s Innovative Use of Social Media
Many companies are trying to figure out how to use social media in their business, and most are tapping in the dark. KLM, the Dutch airline, has found a very unique way of applying social media concepts to boost customer satisfaction. This looks very expensive to implement in general, and it would probably not scale. [...]
Articles and comments about the growing importance of technology in the human services sector.