Bøger af Marc Solomon

Our first section addresses search project management ("SPM"). SPM is based on the simple and often overlooked reality that being online costs a great deal; not in connect charges or even subscription fees but just by the shear amount of time we invest in searching, often with little to show for it.Regardless of leaps in processing power, portability, and media convergence, there will remain a single problem reducible to two perennial questions: (1) what kinds of information are out there; and (2) how can what I'm looking for explain or even shape the decisions and actions I'll be making or revising? SPM contains the discipline and focus that transcends technological change. In Unit One we apply SPM principles to recurring research assignments by setting out our information goals. To do this, we'll begin by defining what separates high from low quality information in pursuit of our project objectives. Then we'll decide on the appropriate research approach to our mission-specific projects. Finally, SPM gives us the focus to manage our search projects effectively so that the time and effort we invest is in line with the results we get online.

Unit Two is about tossing out the Driver's Ed instruction manual, getting in the car, and taking our established interests and new skills out for a test drive. Unit Two applies what we've learned about how search works to different engine and directory options. The goal is to conduct sophisticated, time-effective searches with a minimum of preparation and fees. Our priority is to focus on the best available tool and search strategy for the job at hand.

The crisis of 2008 ruined the savings of many Americans, postponing or degrading the quality of their retirement. After this latest betrayal, we are seemingly left with no safe options for growing what money we can save. On the flip side, after trillions of bank bailouts, individuals, small businesses, and professionals have difficulty getting loans. Fiscal education in our schools-and in the media-is poor and mostly wrong. The financial advice of what worked twenty years ago no longer works. Most of us cannot even imagine how to save money and have access to it when we need it. So we don't. We borrow from banks. We gamble our precious savings on Wall Street. We get trapped for years in student loans and credit card payments. We lose money every year from avoidable taxes, interest charges and fees. Our savings and peace of mind suffers. Our future suffers. There is a better way. It is called Privatized Banking. Yes, you've never heard of it. Privatized Banking is the traditional, American way of saving. Mostly forgotten during the booms (and busts) of the late 20th century, it has never failed in over one hundred years. Through good times and bad, it has always worked. Yes, you really can save with guaranteed growth, with no chance of loss, and have access to cash for all your personal purchases, business financing, and retirement income. It works whether you are starting out on your first job, a business owner, or someone just looking to secure your future. This is not a brand-new gimmick or a "get-rich-quick" scheme, just proven knowledge that the banks, Wall Street, and their friends would rather you not know. Stop Being Poor is a fun, fast read that doesn't require any special experience or education. It has no boring lectures, buzzwords, or sales hype-just a step by step explanation of what you need to know and how to get started.

We talk about opportunities when we use information. We think in terms of risk when others do so. Unit Five focuses not only on what we learn but how this works in relation to what others know and perceive. How can we as messengers assess the nerves we strike and the buttons we push in the research we're delivering? The first four units focus on how to gather information and act on it. Unit Five is about how others will act on the research we deliver through social media and more formal, offline channels: The reports and presentations to peers, clients, and groups (our "audience"). How will our findings be interpreted and acted on? How we deliver them is every bit as important as the research itself.Unit Five brings together the search project management steps, query formation, quality controls, source fluency and information conjugation methods to deliver your research to the clients, colleagues, and communities we're supporting. These message receivers will clearly see how your informed use of web research tools and practices is bringing value, economy, and even closure to complex and resource-hungry investigations. We will then turn our attention to the report itself, coming to grips with the news we're delivering, the explanatory power of our analysis, and the changes we're proposing.

Unit Four has two principle thrusts: (1) Approaching research social networks as a researcher; and (2), engaging them as a member, including how to screen, join, attract, and communicate through virtual communities. The slippery distinction between observer and participant is especially sensitive as we shift from the 'searching' to 'conversing'' phase of our research projects. This section focuses on ways to trail and gather background details on search targets that generate digital identities through their social media profiles, networks, and commentary. The model we use for reading networks and acting on them is called provider conjugation. Like verb conjugation, this tool helps to establish the flow and context of how information travels and the perceptions it carries with it. We also apply it to ourselves as information providers in determining the perceptions we want to form about us. This includes the types of contacts we want to attract and build into our own networks - especially in reaching out to search targets that prove to be social media party animals, digital hermits, or somewhere in-between.

Unit Three focuses on acquiring source fluency and learning how to leverage those sources to improve the quality of the information you source virtually. The Unit starts by confronting the essential form of how information is delivered to us and the questions it inspires: Where is it located? What is it called? When was it done? Who did it? Why do I care? How do I find it again?We can't possibly know everything and this is no less true for sourcing the world's knowledge. Committing an inventory of leading references and go-to experts on any subject is too daunting even for the reference librarians. Our goal is not to become librarians but to develop a skill called source fluency. Source fluency ensures that we're looking in the right place - even when we're a first-time visitor to unfamiliar topics. We'll set up a quality control process that not only reduces the search noise that clutters our screens. It also helps us to attract, analyze, and interpret the sources we need to fulfill our project objectives. We'll develop the quality of our findings on three levels: Search sets, websites, and individual pages (but only the ones worth opening)!

Includes the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that the Constitution guarantees the right to same-sex marriage. This book reveals the inner workings of the advocacy movement that has championed and protected advances won in legislative, court, and more.