Bebo Me! – Are You Already in Bebo?

So What is Bebo?

Bebo is a popular social networking website which connects you to everyone and everything you care about. It prides itself with being your life online – a social experience that helps you discover what's going on with the world and helps the world discover what's going on with you. Bebo successfully blends together community, self-expression and entertainment, enabling you to consume, create, discover, curate and share digital content in entirely new ways.

Bebo was Founded in January 2005 by Michael Birch and his wife, Xochi, in San Francisco, California, Bebo is actually an acronym for Blog Early, Blog Often. It was acquired by AOL in 2008 for a whopping US$ 850 million. In April 2010, AOL announced it was planning to sell or shut down Bebo. By June of 2010, the deal was sealed and the company was sold to Criterion Capital Partners.

How does Bebo work?

Users receive a personal profile page where they can post blogs, polls, photographs, music and videos for other users enjoy. And to insert the social network aspect, users may add others as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

Bebo’s Latest Features

Social Inbox

Bebo's Social Inbox is the perfect way for you to organize all your messages in one easy-to-use inbox. The Social Inbox now features updates from Gmail, Yahoo! and AOL, and media recommendations that deliver you the most relevant online entertainment in one place.

Lifestream Platform

The Lifestream platform delivers real-time, chronological updates from all of your friends from various platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and others. Striking but easy-to-use, the timeline format updates instantly each time you add a post, from photos and videos to stories and events. What’s more, with Bebo accessible even through your mobile phone, you can stay connected even when on the move!

Bebo Music

Launched originally as Bebo Bands in 2006, Bebo Music allows bands or solo artists to create a profile to showcase their music. The band profiles include a band member list, a list of fans, an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo's media player. These songs can even be grouped into albums, along with each album’s cover-art.

Bebo Authors

Also known as Bebo Books, Bebo Authors was first launched in 2007. While currently there is no way to display books on a profile page like there is for Bebo Music, in this section, authors can upload chapters of their books, and also get them reviewed by the community of Bebo users.

Bebo Groups

The "Group" module was added to Bebo in 2007. This enabled people to form and join groups such as schools, organizations, advocacies, and the like, the pages of which are only viewable to the members of the group. While primarily educational, the Group pages also gave users the chance to join groups they found interesting, as well as to connect with others who shared the same interests.

So it sounds like Bebo has got the components to make the best social networking site, eh? Create your own Bebo account now! Register for free and start networking and sharing your thoughts through Bebo.

Hotbox Creations is a web development and design studio which helps individuals and businesses put their ideas online. Hotbox also provides clients with elegant and sensible solutions for branding, print, web and motion. Visit Hotbox Creations’ website at http://www.hotbox.ph/ and start your own personal or corporate website today.

By: Hotbox Creations

Source: Wikipedia

Creativity that Pays… and Pays Well

You're a creative person. Not exactly an artisan, but somehow an artist in your right. But then, the phrase “starving artist” comes to your mind. Bummer. Not to fret. These days, there are ways of being with the creative that earn you a living as well. Check out these jobs that let you delve in the creative world, but earn a pretty decent salary as well.


Creative Job #1

Marketing and Business

I know marketing and business doesn’t immediately ring a creative bell. But think about it. An artist can create the best masterpieces in the world, but without the right marketing, how would they sell anything? Someone who has the business and marketing senses can ensure that every artist finds an audience.

A bachelor's degree in business administration or marketing will prepare you for this job. And some on the job experience coupled with a master's degree could position yourself for career advancement. The average wage for marketing managers with experience is PhP 35,000. Remember though, that marketing salaries can vary greatly depending on responsibilities, experience, education, and other factors.


Creative Job #2

Education

Do you think you have what it takes to inspire the next Manansala or Cayabyab? As an art/music teacher or an education specialist for an arts organization, you'll be able to live your love for the arts, as well as spread that love to others.

To teach, you'll need a bachelor's degree in education or a specific subject area like science or music, plus a PRC license in education. This can also prepare you to be an educational specialist. The average wage for graphic arts, multimedia arts and interior design teachers ranges from PhP 800 to 2,500 per hour, depending on which universities and which modules they teach. Those who teach the latest design software can earn even more.


Creative Job #3

Web Design and Development

A well-designed website is an important tool these days for promotion in the arts. Whether you're keeping fans up to date, raising money, or selling your works online, the job of web designer is an indispensible component of many arts organizations. It takes a fair amount of creativity to build websites, too!

Get the skills you need to create and maintain websites with a bachelor's degree in information technology or graphic or web design. An average salary for an experienced web designer is PhP 25,000 per month. Or on a project basis, making PhP 60,000 per website is common.


Creative Job #4

Technology

Theaters, museums, art schools, concert venues, and camps all have technology infrastructure. And just like any other organization, they’ll need to maintain their networks, manage databases, and troubleshoot systems. You'll find that database administrators and technical support specialists are as much in the art world as anywhere else.

Some jobs are available with just an associate's degree, but most require a bachelor's degree in database technology, computer science, or information. An experienced database administrator earns an average salary of PhP 35,000 to 65,000 per month. Both local and International companies who outsource these types of jobs to Filipinos apply this industry rate.


Creative Job #5

Paralegal Studies

Yes, even the legal field offers opportunities to work with creative people as well! With music and media becoming more easily available online and new delivery systems like e-readers and mobile devices, the issues of copyrights and intellectual property rights are never far behind. As a paralegal, you could help lawyers as they protect artists and their works.

An associate's degree in paralegal studies or a paralegal certificate program will prepare you for this job. You'll need to look for opportunities with law firms or larger arts organizations focused on this type of work. The average monthly salary for paralegals who work in the industry, some of whom are even outsourced from international countries as legal transcriptionists, earn an average of up to PhP 22,000 per month.


Start your own online business now! Get on the web and sell your ideas to the whole world. Hotbox Creations is a web development and design studio which helps individuals and businesses get online. Either for personal or corporate design concepts and website development, Hotbox is one of the best and most highly-recommended companies in the creative design and web development industry. Visit our website at www.hotbox.ph.


By: Hotbox Creations
Source: Yahoo Education Articles

PLURK - A Social Journal For Your Life

verb. plurk (plüer-kh) - To chronicle the events of your always on, action-packed, storybook, semi-charmed kinda life.

noun. plurk (plüer-kh) - A free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length.

So what exactly is Plurk?

Put simply, Plurk is a really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that happen in your life, and follow the events of the people that matter to you, in deliciously digestible chunks, called plurks. If it were food, plurks would be guaranteed low in fat, 5 calories per serving, yet chock full of goodness.

When compared to other micro-blogging sites, the unique feature of Plurk is that updates are shown on the user's home page using a timeline, which lists all the updates received in chronological order. Users who have signed up to receive your plurks can then respond from their own timeline on Plurk.com by instant messaging, or by text messaging.

Plurk was developed and envisioned as a communication medium to balance between blogs and social networks, and between e-mail and instant messaging. Since Plurk was launched in May of 2008, it has become very popular in Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the United States.

How does Plurk work?

It's easy. First, you’ll need to sign up. It takes… oh, about 10 seconds. Then, you can begin posting your plurks to tell the world what you're doing, how you feel, what you're thinking or anything else for that matter. And instantly, it'll appear on your timeline. You can post updates through the Plurk website, through instant messaging like MSN or AIM, or even by text messaging.

Plurk's interface shows updates in a scrollable horizontal timeline form. There are also advanced features such as sending updates only to a subset of your friends, posting updates on events earlier in the day, having group conversations between friends, using of emoticons, and sharing images, videos, and other media. Plurks can also be "liked", as in other social networking sites.

Due to messages being sent between users almost in real-time, Plurk is now touted as the alternative to chat, as well as “the next Twitter”.

Don’t get left behind on the latest trend in social networking. Create your own Plurk account for free, and start creating the timeline of your life. And be sure to invite all your friends to Plurk along too, so it becomes that much more fun for you.

So what are you waiting for? Register now and start Plurking today!

Hotbox Creations is a web development and design studio which helps individuals and businesses put their ideas online. Hotbox also provides clients with elegant and sensible solutions for branding, print, web and motion. Visit Hotbox Creations’ website at www.hotbox.ph and start your own personal or corporate website today.

By: Hotbox Creations

Adapted From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurk / Plurk.com