Do you have what it takes to be an amazing developer? It’s time to find out.

Whether you’re already a programmer or want to become one, we’re in search of people passionate about solving challenging engineering problems. If you have the heart and mind we’ll teach you the skills and techniques.

In this unique program you’ll spend five months entrenched in the most intense, comprehensive, and challenging software devlopment training ever offered. You’ll spend one third of your time learning in a classroom environment, one third working on team projects, and one third giving back to the community through education and open source contributions. We believe that the only way to become a great developer is through practice, so you will be writing code all day, every day.

Read more at Living Social

The Hungry Academy is a unique and game changing five-month learning experience. It’s your opportunity to push yourself to the limits.

At Hungry Academy you’ll:

• Work with and be mentored by the industry’s best programmers.
• Learn how to build successful products using software development tools, like Ruby on Rails.
• Prepare yourself to join LivingSocial’s elite engineering team.
• Have a huge impact on the world of local commerce.

Sound like a crazy proposition? It’s the best kind of crazy.

• We’ll pay you to come learn the skills you need to become an excellent developer.
• You’ll be trained by Jeff Casimir and the team from JumpstartLab while being mentored by LivingSocial. engineers.
• If you survive the five-month program, you’ll be offered a position on LivingSocial’s elite engineering team (18-month commitment required).

This is the chance of a lifetime. Are you Hungry? Show us.

• Applications will be considered as they come in and must be submitted by January 9th, 2012
• Hungry Academy will be onsite at LivingSocial‘s DC office from March through July.

Learn more: The Hungry Academy

For the past five years, Socialmedia.biz has assembled a calendar of the best social media, technology, marketing and news media conferences for the upcoming year.

The list features a monthly breakdown of events across the country focused on those of interest to folks in the tech, marketing and media sectors AND great events for everyone to learn more and network.

They also offer a Calendar of 2012 nonprofit and social change conferences on their sister site, Socialbrite.

The FCC is launching the Small Biz Cyber Planner, an online resource to help small businesses create customized cybersecurity plans.

This is the result of an unprecedented public-private partnership between government experts and private IT and security companies, including DHS, NCSA, NIST, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Chertoff Group, Symantec, Sophos, Visa, Microsoft, HP, McAfee, The Identity Theft Council, ADP and others. The online tool is available at FCC.gov/cyberplanner.

By almost any measure small businesses have an outsized impact on our economy and it is critically important that small businesses, a vibrant engine for job and idea creation, are secure using the many broadband enabled tools they need to efficiently run their businesses. According to a survey released in October, 2011 by Symantec and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), two-thirds of U.S. small businesses rely on broadband Internet for their day-to-day operations.

However, the Symantec survey also found that 85 percent of small businesses think their companies are cyber-secure, but barely half of these businesses actually have a cybersecurity strategy or plan in place and nearly 80 percent say they lack a written Internet security policy. With larger companies increasing their online defenses, small businesses are now the low hanging fruit for cyber criminals and many may have a false sense of security.

The Small Biz Cyber Planner will be of particular value for businesses that lack the resources to hire a dedicated staff member to protect themselves from cyber-threats. Even a business with one computer or one credit card terminal can benefit from this important guidance.  The tool will walk users through a series of questions to determine what cybersecurity strategies should be included in the planning guide. Then a customized PDF is created that will serve as a cybersecurity strategy template for a small business.

Read More: FCC Launches the Small Biz Cyber Planner

For years, marketers have been told the same story: “This year is the year of mobile! The mobile age has arrived and is here to stay.” Mobile has arrived—now it’s on marketers to catch up.

Consumers are using the mobile channel to research products, share information with friends and family, shop, and browse the web. Online marketers who invest in mobile optimization now to reach, engage and convert visitors, will lead the way in their industries.

This mobile research bundle provides you with the necessary tools, best practices, trends and steps to help you charge into the mobile marketing space.

Marketers who download this bundle, will gain get best practices and tips from world-class marketers like NBC Universal who are using the Adobe Online Marketing Suite to deliver relevant, engaging optimized mobile experiences to their users.

This mobile research bundle includes:

• Forrester’s research on key mobile trends to watch
• Adobe research on consumer mobile usage
• How marketers are measuring mobile campaign ROI

Eighty-nine percent of organizations have a mobile strategy in place, yet 33% of businesses cannot measure the ROI of their mobile campaigns. If you want to excel in the mobile marketing space, you need to download this mobile marketing research bundle today to get access to tactics and research that will help you customize your strategy to ensure you are increasing your bottom line.

The results reported are based on a national telephone survey of 2,277 adults conducted April 26-May 22, 2011. The report notes that staying in touch with family members is a major factor across a range of social media users, but it’s especially important to women and Middle-aged and older adults place a relatively high value on social media as a tool to connect with others around a hobby and interest

Two-thirds of online adults (66%) use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn.¹ These internet users say that connections with family members and friends (both new and old) are a primary consideration in their adoption of social media tools. Roughly two thirds of social media users say that staying in touch with current friends and family members is a major reason they use these sites, while half say that connecting with old friends they’ve lost touch with is a major reason behind their use of these technologies.

Other factors play a much smaller role—14% of users say that connecting around a shared hobby or interest is a major reason they use social media, and 9% say that making new friends is equally important. Reading comments by public figures and finding potential romantic partners are cited as major factors by just 5% and 3% of social media users, respectively.

View the full report: Why Americans Use Social Media

3 Key Takeaways from An Event Apart:

1. Rethink Design: Make Your Site Accessible on Multiple Platforms
Small businesses need to pay close attention to hw their site displays across multiple platforms especially smartphones, iPads, and netbooks. Beautiful designs are still useful for an aesthetically pleasing web experience but they can’t be the main or only focus.  The use of CSS3 is making websites less graphics heavy and allowing users to access the content through their preferred viewing medium.

The increased use of mobile devices requires learning more about how they work. For example, there is no hovering on a touchscreen. Will your users be able to identify links and understand how to navigate your design? Can they clearly see what is a link and what is static text? The ease of using horizontal scrolling on mobile devices, the death of standard screen resolution sizes, and the need for liquid layouts are a few key elements to address as websites are being developed. Responsive Design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.

2. Create a Content Strategy
Content is key. Good examples are Druge Report and Craigslist, both popular sites that use content to encourage site visits over innovative design. Computers allow for more personal customization than ever before, which means that due to variances in screen resolution, technical platform, or web browser, what appears on a developers screen may not appear the same for a site visitor. Make the content easy to access and lay off linking to PDF documents.

Consider using a Content Strategist, someone who plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content. Evaluate your website tone. Are you using conversational language? Website visitors don’t have time to read (nor do they want to) read long passages of corporate fluff. Websites need short-form copy instead of the traditional long-form. Once a website is launched, businesses need to continue to edit content to ensure its relevance and to encourage site visitors to return.

3. Rethink How You Travel For Business
Another observation, perhaps based on the current economy, was the use of alternatives in travel arrangements. Several attendees from all across the country discussed their journey to Washington, D.C. and their travel strategy. Many used a site called AirBnb, an online service that matches people seeking short-term accommodations with those with rooms to rent, generally private parties that are not professional hotels. AirBnb has now booked more than 3 million nights on the service and lists property rentals in nearly 20,000 cities around the world.

I haven’t tried AirBnb but the majority of my clients are frugal business owners and this option worked out for several of the conference attendees from all ages. Another site that was mentioned several times was KAYAK,  which allows users to compare information from hundreds of other travel websites in one display when for flights, hotels, rental cars, vacations, and cruises.

BONUS: Kudos to Eric Meyer, who joined my table at lunch. He was an awesome person. I especially liked the fact that he didn’t just tell us the standard bio I could read on the back cover of his book, he talked about himself, his family, and his life. I gained so much respect for someone like him that could finish an awesome conference session on CSS3 then sit and chat about non-technical stuff over vegetarian lasagna.

Overall, I’d highly recommend this conference to anyone that deals with the web. Some sessions are a little more technical than others and there was hardly any mention to the use of social media but the information shared and the phenominal speakers made the cost of tickets worth every single penny.  The next An Event Apart DC will be August 6-8, 2012. I hope to see you there.

The five grand prize winners will receive $20,000 for their small business social media plans, a trip to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto for a two-day boot camp and a one-on-one consultation about their Facebook efforts.

Each winner will be tutored on how to maximize the power of Facebook to better market their businesses, products and services to their existing customer base, and target new customer segments. Each will get practical and personal training on best practices for using Facebook Pages, Ads and Social Plugins, and will also receive consultation about their current use of Facebook. All expenses will be covered.

From the more than 11,000 entrants, a panel of judges including Laura Fink of American Express, Adele Cooper of Facebook, Guy Kawasaki of Alltop and John Battelle of Federated Media chose ten finalists based on the following criteria: commitment to their business and growth; overall social media need where Facebook could improve their business; and energy and enthusiasm for small business. Fans of American Express OPEN’s Facebook page then voted for their five favorite small businesses based on videos of the business owners explaining why they deserved to win. All ten finalists won $2,500 in Facebook advertising to help them target and acquire new customers.

Watch the Winner’s Big Break videos:

Dawn S. Grosvenor , HOPELight Media, LLC in Plano, TX
Activity magazine for children with special needs

Darquia and Gordon Biffle, Big Daddy’s Bar-B-Que in Gary, IN
BBQ eatery services

Lisa & Bud Lefevre, Distinctive Gardens Inc. in Dixon, IL
Garden center

Mark A. Carson & Karen Carson, Fat Brain Toys in Elkhorn, NE
Toy retailer

Stephen D. Fraser & Gart Davis, Spoonflower in Durham, NC
Fabric design and printing service

You’ve probably seen it around, but if not check out an example over there on the right.

QR Codes have been used on resumes, business cards, brochures, the sides of vehicles, nametags, menus, and at retailers. It’s an interesting trend that’s here to stay.

I had the pleasure of meeting Adrienne from I Heart Social Media DC at Social Media Day DC 2011 and have been following her blog ever since.

Check out her recent post on QR Codes:  South Korean Grocery Chain Proves QR Codes Are Not Just A Trend.

Her post describes how Home Plus, a South Korean grocery store, used QR codes to boost sales by 130% and increase registered users by 76% and make sure you watch the video. Very cool.

Information Week launched a slideshow highlighting the  12 Worst Government Websites. Many governments and agencies have been striving to make their Websites more up-to-date and accessible, but some remain shocking examples of bad user experience.

Feds: Tell Us Which Government Websites To Close
The White House is seeking advice from the public on which websites it should shut down as part of a broad campaign by President Obama to eliminate unnecessary federal IT spending.

Last month the administration unveiled the Campaign to Cut Waste, which called for a freeze on the creation of new websites and the elimination or consolidation of 25% of the federal government’s nearly 2,000 websites over the next few months. The plan also calls for the feds to cut the number of standalone websites in half in the next year.

The team also will reexamine federal Web policies and best practices, which have been in existence since 2004 and need to be updated, Campbell said. “Obviously, a lot has changed,” she said.

The first step of the task force was to post a list of all the federal websites on the federal Data.gov online repository so people can submit their feedback on which ones should be cut, officials said.

There are 1,759 sites on the list, short of the 2,000 the feds estimated when Obama unveiled the Campaign to Cut Waste. But Kundra said Tuesday that if you take into account various subsites, there are more than 24,000 federal sites, and “having the American people navigate the jungle of these websites absolutely makes no sense.”

The task force plans to use Web analytics to track not only which sites people are using the most, but also which tasks they are seeking to do when they visit the .gov domain, officials said. By focusing on these tasks, agencies can better utilize the sites that offer these services and perhaps eliminate sites or subsites that people aren’t using.

Read More: Feds: Tell Us Which Government Websites To Close

Last week, White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and Director of the GSA’s Center for Excellence in Digital Government Sheila Campbell discuss ways to improve the online experience with Federal websites and the campaign to reduce the number of excess and duplicative government websites.

As entrepreneurs and small business owners work to attract more business, social networking sites have become an extremely popular tool for engaging existing customers and reaching out to new ones.

Here are the 8 social networking sites that you should check out:

1. LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site geared  towards companies and industry professionals looking to make new business contacts or keep in touch with revious co-workers, affiliates, and clients.

Read more » Ten Ways for Small Businesses to Use LinkedIn from Guy Kawasaki

2. Facebook Pages have become a way to connect businesses with their supporters and allows fans to show their support with friends. Facebook Pages build brand awareness, increase engagement, and helps generate new leads.

Read more » How to Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business

3. Twitter is the social networking site for sharing information, links, and engaging with clients in 140 characters or less. It’s faster paced than Facebook Pages and requires a bit more time.

Read more » Twitter Tutorial or watch the Twitter Tutorial via YouTube

4.Ning is an online platform for people to create their own social networking groups. Small businesses can use them to meet, network and engage with potential customers or simply to arrange events. See examples: Black Business Women Online and Barista Exchange

Read more »Using Ning To Create A World For Your SMB

5. Partner Up is an online networking community that entrepreneurs and small business owners use to find the expertise and resources they need to start and grow a business. Members can connect with potential partners, advisers, and business resources.

6. Yelp is a local business review and discussion networking site, featuring user reviews and recommendations, the ability to add friends, groups, events, talk in forums or message contacts.

Read more » Yelp’s Business Owner’s Guide

7. Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices. Users “check-in” at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.”

Read more » 7 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Take a Look at Foursquare

8. YouTube is most likely the site you watched that hilarious video shared by friends and family, but you can also use it to promote your business.

Read more » Top 10 YouTube Tips for Small Businesses