The Intern Suite

Lost? Follow the 'Google+ Local Road'

By Kelli Bennett, Editorial Intern

I experienced a surge of excitement and a wave of placidity as I read about the launch of Google+ Local.  Early yesterday morning, Wednesday May 30th, Google announced this setting that would merge Google+ Pages and Google+ Places.  According to Google’s Marissa Mayer, 80 million Google Place pages worldwide have been automatically converted into 80 million Google+ Local pages. 

Once again Google is making our lives easier.  Google+ Local will be available for both desktop and mobile use.  "This is an amazing local-mobile-social moment,” Mayer said on CBS This Morning.

As I continue to get acclimated to Atlanta and the copious amount of "peach" related streets and businesses, this new mobile luxury will eliminate much of my confusion in search of choice dinning, shopping and attractions. 

I can only predict that this Google advancement will have a large impact on local businesses.  Google+ Local will utilize Zagat, the restaurant guide service owned by Google, to assist users in decision making through customer ratings on food, décor, service and costs.  I strongly believe this will provide restaurants and business owners incentive to improve their businesses as a whole—after all, they are being rated by the entire city. 

You’ve Envisioned Your Dream Home, Now find the Most Affordable City

By Kelli Bennett, Editorial Intern

When small-talk about home owning and mortgage payments find its way into conversations, many seem to shy away from the subject, ignoring the approaching reality that one day several of us will have to make that crucial decision.  The home buying/owning decision will affect our future families for generations to come.  CNNMoney provides expert insight on the top 10 most affordable cities to buying a new home.  Some of the cities may surprise you, but it’s never too early to start your research.

 

1.   Indianapolis, IN

•  Median home price: $102,000
• Median income: $66,900
• Affordability score: 95.8%

Before clicking on the article’s link, I never thought Indianapolis; my hometown would be on the list of most affordable U.S. cities for home buying —let alone the first.  After reading the small explanation blurb, I mentally pictured the major transformation that Indianapolis has made in my short lifetime.  Just this past February I was astonished by the unfathomable festivities and displays that decorated the streets of downtown Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI.  CNN Money also pointed out Indy’s affordability relying greatly on the increase in the city’s tourism industry and the vast amount of land available for housing development. 

 

2.  Dayton, Ohio

• Median home price: $81,000
• Median income: $63,300
• Affordability score: 93.7%

 

3.  Lakeland, Florida 

• Median home price: $85,000
• Median income: $54,500
• Affordability score: 93.2%

 

4.  Modesto, California

• Median home price: $127,000
• Median income: $62,000
• Affordability score: 92.5%

 

5.  Grand Rapids, Michigan

• Median home price: $100,000
• Median income: $60,300
• Affordability score: 91.2%

 

6.  Buffalo, NY

• Median home price: $94,000
• Median income: $66,100
• Affordability score: 91.2%

 

7.  Ogden, Utah

• Median home price: $166,000
• Median income: $71,500
• Affordability score: 91.1%

 

8.  Syracuse, NY

• Median home price: $106,000
• Median income: $66,600
• Affordability score: 90.6%

9.  Akron, Ohio

• Median home price: $96,000
• Median income: $66,500
• Affordability score: 90.6%

10.   Cincinnati

• Median home price: $110,000
• Median income: $71,300
• Affordability score: 90.2%

Though the reasons for affordable housing varies, some include a vast area for growth, an improvement in employment rate, shrinking population and various cities being home to large universities or booming business headquarters. 

Ready for the Meeting? No Plan. No Way.

 

 

Don’t allow summer’s warm and enticing weather to make you forget the reason you’re enrolled in college or in the midsts of celebrating graduation.  As Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine presents it’s Get Down To Business Conference, today May  24th, I think it’s imperative that we brush up on our business meeting and conference etiquette and preparation. 

Preparing for a Business Meeting

• Set a goal and an agenda for the meeting.  Prepare a schedule if there will be multiple speakers or presenters.
• Send out time and location details to all participants.  Email conference call-in numbers and codes if you are arranging a phone meeting.
• Prepare for any needed equipment. Know how to hook your laptop up to the projector so that you don't have to waste valuable meeting time dealing with technical details.
• Take your presentation for a test drive before you do it in front of clients. Make sure your sales or investment pitch is professional, concise and interesting. Endless charts projected on a screen don't make for compelling meetings. Understand your audience, how you can meet their needs and what goals you want to reach.
• Remind participants 24 hours ahead, or on the morning of, the actual meeting. Aim to start the meeting promptly at the given time.

Provided by Amanda C. Kooser, Demand Media

Preparing for a Business Conference

In order to fully immersive yourself in a business conference, small business consultant  offers six key points of advice. (Via shetakesontheworld.com)

• Preplan your Day-Most conferences require a full day of your time.  It is important to look and feel your best; wear appropriate and professional attire and comfortable shoes.

• Pick your Sessions-If the conference agenda is available in advance, take time to map out a strategy to select sessions that are most beneficial to improve your skills.  At each session, actively participate by asking questions and taking notes.  Spend a few minutes after the presentation to introduce yourself to the presenter.

• Practice your Pitch-You will meet a lot of people and have the opportunity of introducing yourself and business.  Make sure your message is clear and concise.  Fine tune your elevator pitch to make the most of your meeting.   

• Prepare to Network-This is a great opportunity to network with people.  The key is to meet new business contacts.

• Bring Plenty of Marketing Material

• Follow Up-Within the next week, make sure you follow up with e-mails, phone calls or a simple letter.  The key is to connect with potential people that can be beneficial to your company.

Implementing your professionalism and following these skills will guarantee auspicious business encounters in the future. 

Are You Ready to Say “Goodbye” to the Computer Mouse?

By Kelli Bennett, Editorial Intern

Imagine that with just a flick of your finger, you are able to slide your computer cursor around freely without touching anything at all. Though this advancement may seem improbable, a company called Leap Motion is making this fantasy a reality.

The Leap about page encourages the site’s visitors to “Say goodbye to your mouse and keyboard.” Apparently, Leap is 200 times more accurate than anything else on the market, including Kinect and any gaming system.

Leap Motion is aware of the skepticism surrounding its latest device, but it is confident in its abilities: “It sounds too good to be true, we know. But, that’s what we specialize in around here.”

The Leap’s installation seems to be fairly easy, once installed in a computer’s USB port and software is installed, the flashdrive sized apparatus is ready for operation. From there, a Leap user will have a 3D interaction space of 8 cubic feet to precisely interact with and control software on their laptop or desktop computer.

The device can be pre-ordered for 69.99 at leapmotion.com.

I was hopeful that a technological invention of this magnitude would grace the computer world one day. The universal computer mouse has evolved from a bulky contraption with a chunky cord, to cordless and now, thanks to Leap, may be becoming obsolete.

I have a feeling that it won’t be long until computer keyboards are replaced with small voice boxes users can speak in and translate into a word document script (much like the evolving smart phones).

 

 

Facebook Finds Trouble with Nasdaq

By Kelli Bennett, Editorial Intern

Even though millions share status updates with dedicated Facebook friends and click to “like” a picture of a weekend celebration daily, many are questioning why the popular social media website’s shares did not sell higher on Nasdaq. Facebook announced it would be selling 421,233,615 shares during Nasdaq’s opening on Friday, May 18th. According to IPO Day Closing price predictions, a share of FB (abbreviated by investors) closed last Friday at 38.23. This was a mere +0.37 increase. This amount is impressive compared to Facebook shares falling as low as $33 early this week.

Causes of the decrease are still unknown. Though we are engulfed in our interactive Facebook timelines, investors don’t seem too interested as they search for reasons to invest in FB shares. Some speculate the share price decrease is due to the lack of professionalism displayed by Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Todd Schoenberger of the BlackBay Group told Yahoo Finances, "Facebook kind of has this reputation of just being this pre-teen site. It doesn't help that the CEO of the company is walking around wearing a hoodie."

Jeff Macke of Yahoo Finance believes another reason for FB’s share decrease is the lack of businesses and older users. Facebook reported that the growing tablet cell phone segment, which is comprised of younger users, is not generating enough revenue.

Part of me is surprised by Facebook’s current share price. With the site’s more than 800 million users making up 15 percent of the world population, and potential for ad revenue, you’d think investors would jump on the chance to earn more money.

Whether the reasoning for Facebook’s slow Nasdaq ride can be attributed to uncertainty about the founder’s professionalism, a growing tablet cell phone segment or a general disinterest in the social media site, it will be interesting to follow the decisions investors will make in the coming weeks.

Peer-to-Peer Lending

This post is a part of our Monetization of Academia informative web series, and is available online only. To read the full article "The Monetization of Academia" as it appears in this month's issue, visit Atlanta Tribune online for sales and subscription information.

By Jhanay Davis, Editorial Intern

As recent as 2008, an alternate way to fund the rising costs of tuition. Peer-to-peer lending, sometimes referred to as social lending, is aimed toward student loans. These sites allow students to borrow money from lenders that meet certain requirements. These programs eliminate the middle man and are designed to be more personal than a federal government  loan. Although students are encouraged to consider federal loans first, peer-to-peer lending offers relatively reasonable rates anywhere from 6% to 15% or higher.

There are three prominent organizations dominating this arena. They are: People Capital, GreenNote and TuitionU.

People Capital allows students to set up a profile that details the amount of money needed and which type of loan a student would like to take out. Potential borrowers then specify a maximum interest rate that they are willing to pay. In an auction style process, lenders negotiate what interest rate below the maximum they are willing to offer. Students select the loan at which rate they are willing to pay.

All loan choices require that a student pays on the interest monthly or a minimum of $50 while still in school. A credit check is required for People Capital loans. However factors such as a student’s major, GPA, standardized test scores and college are factored into the Human Capital Score which is basically an in-depth risk assessment. Lenders vary from banks, charitable organizations, individuals with a minimum $1 million net worth, or individuals with a salary of $200,000 or greater for the two previous years.

GreenNote and TuitionU are two very similar programs. Both require users to subscribe to a membership. They use social networking sites to aid members in educational fundraising efforts. The sites allowusers to access funds through their own contacts. Users are encouraged to begin with friends, family, friends of family, friends of friends and community leaders. The largest difference that exists between the two is that GreenNote requires that members set up a PayPal account so that funds can be directly accessed. Existing PayPal accounts can be used but if users do not have one, they will be prompted to create one during GreenNote registration.

 

What's Your Education Worth? Weigh in Here!

This post is a part of our Monetization of Academia informative web series, and is available online only. To read the full article "The Monetization of Academia" as it appears in this month's issue, visit Atlanta Tribune online for sales and subscription information.

By Courtney Boyd, Editorial Intern

In this month's article "The Monetization of Academia," writer Jacqueline Holness introduces to prospective (and current) college students the idea of entering human capital contracts to fund their education. With human capital contracts, companies and investor groups sponsor a student's education in exchange for a percentage of his/her income for a fixed period of time after graduation. Would you sign away a percentage of your post-graduation income for a degree?  

 

Online Surveys & Market Research

How Corporate-Sponsored Academia can Really Pay

This post is a part of our Monetization of Academia informative web series, and is available online only. To read the full article "The Monetization of Academia" as it appears in this month's issue, visit Atlanta Tribune online for sales and subscription information.

By Courtney Boyd, Editorial Intern
 
For decades, drug companies, car companies and other manufacturers have lent financial support to universities. Usually, the money is used to fund research which, more often than not, finds favorable results for the providing company. Recently, however, companies have sidestepped the middle men-research laboratories-and handed the figurative check directly to researchers, or university students.

In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that big-name businesses Levi Straus & Co., Mattel Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. “are sponsoring college classes and graduate-level research to get help with their online marketing from the young and hyperconnected.”

Sprint, in particular, stands out with its sponsorship of a social media class at Boston’s Emerson College. In exchange for free social networking, online marketing and search engine optimization, Sprint supplied 10 smartphones with unlimited wireless access to the class. Good deal, right?

However, students are not only given an escape from the run-of-the-mill, you-lecture-and-I-listen-style academic course, they are able to gain real work experience in the endeavor. They develop a real, working knowledge of how certain theoretic principles yield tangible results. By building a social media campaign and incorporating nearly every platform available, they added valuable skills to their résumés.

As corporate sponsorships expand to include academia (as well as athletics), students are in the front running for reaping benefits.

Good Debt vs. Bad Debt

This post is a part of our Monetization of Academia informative web series, and is available online only. In this article, intern Jhanay Davis shares her side of the debt debate, explaining the difference between what financial counselors call "good" debt and "bad" debt. To read the full article "The Monetization of Academia" as it appears in this month's issue, visit Atlanta Tribune online for sales and subscription information.

By Jhanay Davis, Editorial Intern

When I think of debt, even the word scares me. It sounds too close to dead, which translates into the death of a credit score that I don’t yet have. I’m not afraid to admit it; I was afraid of getting loans!  Then I was afraid that if I didn’t get a loan, I would be an adult without credit and that seemed like something I probably would want to have. I was at a crossroad. Fortunately, I figured out soon enough that a loan wouldn’t be so bad. It would help me to make an investment in my education while simultaneously building my credit. This sounded like a pretty good deal to me.

  It sounded like a pretty good deal because it was. Although I am purposely putting myself into debt, I have acquired what is known as good debt. Good debt was explained to me as debt that will eventually make me money. My student loan is the determining factor between my high school diploma and my bachelor’s degree. I have been told by countless teachers that college graduates make more money than high school graduates. Therefore, I can expect to have a salary that will allow me to repay my debts after college and live comfortably.

Like all things, this good debt could potentially turn into bad debt very quickly. I have been told that when applying for loans, it is wise to limit the total of monies borrowed by what your projected first year’s salary will be. Basically, if I can't expect to make $30,000 right out of college, my student loan debt should not exceed $30,000.

Many students make the mistake of over-borrowing in college to live lavishly. I’ve seen countless people take out loans to pay for off campus apartments, new cars or a new wardrobe. This is the catalyst for good debt becoming bad debt. As stated before, good debt is debt that can make you money. An apartment, new car and new clothes cannot make you any money. These things should not be funded with loan money – EVER! College is a temporary setting and it is important to know that things only get better after college if you are smart during your collegiate experience. That lavish lifestyle can come after your education is out the way but it will be temporary also if you can’t repay your debt. Uncle Sam and Sallie Mae give borrowers six months but after that, they will be present with their hands out. 

Good debt does exist and can be beneficial to borrowers. It is important to be wise about your finances so that mistakes don’t cost so much in the long run.

"A" is for Academia: Our Annual Scholarship, Internship and Fellowship Guide

By Courtney Boyd, Editorial Intern

Two years ago, President Obama said in a speech that the best economic policy is one that produces college graduates who are skilled in, well, success. In 2009 he launched a program, the American Graduation Initiative, with the goal of increasing community college graduation numbers by 5 million in 10 years. In his State of the Union address this year, President Obama declared the U.S. as a mecca for students seeking post-secondary degrees, "where more students come to study than any other place on Earth." Yet sentences later he stated that America is "ninth in the proportion of young people with a degree."

Critics of Obama's initiative argued that the problem is not one of quantity but rather of quality, and that, in his speech, the president failed to acknowledge the college debt crisis. In its series "Price of Admission," CNBC says college costs are rising at twice the rate of inflation, reporting the average student debt at $24,000. Jennifer Ogunsola, a media relations manager for Mayor Kasim Reed, has written President Obama every day since January 1, asking for some sort of relief from her overbearing amount of school-related debt. She tells The Sevan Blog, "I don't want him to [pay off my loans]. I just need some help. I feel like I'm being punished for going to college." Her sentiment is one that thousands of others echo. The unfortunate reality is that tuition can be as costly as a mortgage, and while education and home ownership are core American values, attainment of either is-for many-just a dream.

Because Atlanta Tribune recognizes both the need for education and its costliness, we have provided a means for minority students to earn college degrees practically cost-free. Throughout the month our interns will update the suite with comprehensive coverage about the monetization of academia as part of our total package for the August issue. Pick up a copy or subscribe online, and check out our intern sagas for the latest posts! Remember, in the business of academia, we want our readers to remain number one.