Cynergise - Social Media Consultancy by Chandesh Parekh » General

ChandeshParekh.com

Chandesh Parekh — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:30:54 +0000

I recently launched my new site at www.ChandeshParekh.com – I felt the need to step away from the Cynergise name as I focussed primarily on Internet marketing on this site, however I wanted to be able to write about a lot of other topics.

This doesn’t mean cynergise.com will die a slow, lonely death however; I’ll probably still update with relevant content though if you really want to keep up with me come along to www.ChandeshParekh.com.

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Can Social Networking Bridge the ‘Digital Divide’?

Chandesh Parekh — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:01:06 +0000

Technology has always moved fast and the Internet has made the pace even quicker.

This has raised the question whether the digital divide is growing bigger as those who can afford to stay updated with the latest technological know-how and those who can’t are left ever behind.

However new research from an American university shows that exactly the opposite is happening. It shows social networking is popular for students from all backgrounds and not just those who are well-to-do. With access to the Internet becoming increasingly cheaper more and more students are able to ’socialize’ on the ‘net.
This means that students across the board are picking up key technological skills, those skills they’ll need to help them be successful today and tomorrow.

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The Field Guide to Firefox 3

Chandesh Parekh — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:25:47 +0000

As I mentioned in an earlier post Firefox 3 has been released with many an improvement.

With more than 15,000 (yes, you read that right!) improvements over the venerable Firefox v2, the good people at the Mozilla foundation have put together a field guide to bring us fans even more joy from using Firefox 3.

Check out the Field Guide to Firefox 3 here…

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Noticed the new Google icon?

Chandesh Parekh — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:16:56 +0000

Have you noticed the new Google favicon (the icon that appears in your web browser’s address bar e.g. the blue/green cube for Cynergise) when using Google web sites?

Well, in case you’re interested in what the back story to the change from a capital ‘G’ to the small ‘g’ is, follow this link to Google’s official blog post…

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DreamHost introduces Drupal as a one-click Install

Chandesh Parekh — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:55:20 +0000

This month DreamHost announced the addition of Drupal to their software suite of 1-click installs. Their one-click install system makes it as easy as is possible to add all kinds of web software to your web site like WordPress, Joomla, phpBB, Zen Cart and now Drupal.

Drupal is a PHP/MySQL based content management system, and arguably almost as popular as Joomla.

The architecture of Drupal is similar to that of Joomla in that additional functionality can be added to any site through the installation of modules. Being Open Source, modules are widely available to add all kinds of functionality to a Drupal site and if you’re comfortable with PHP programming you can create/build your own modules.

Check out DreamHost’s very reasonable web hosting pricing…

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Leveraging A Monthly Community Newsletter With The Power Of Blogs

Sol Shah — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:00:26 +0000

What can be leveraged from a simple and informative monthly community newsletter?

Currently, the National Council of Vanik Associations (NCVA) here in the UK produces a monthly newsletter called Vanik Voice which is available as a downloadable PDF file. This month the readership have been informed about it by email, and referred to a link where they can download the newsletter.

The newsletter itself is most certainly informative, awakening, and entertaining. See for yourself by downloading the Diwali 2007 issue at www.ncva.co.uk/newsletter/november2007.pdf

Although increasingly valuable to its readership, this approach to sharing information certainly has it’s limitations:

Newsletter content is only accessible by those who know how to get to the downloadable PDF.
Existing readers who remember an article from a previous newsletter would need to trawl through all the previous issues of the newsletter to find what they’re looking for.
There is currently no easy and direct way for the issues covered in the articles to be explored easily amongst like-minded (and even non-like-minded!) Vaniks around the world.

7 Easy Steps To Overcoming These Limitations By Setting Up A Simple Online Blog (Web Log) And Mailing List Solution:

Get hold of an easy to remember domain name such as www.ncvanews.org (cost $10 USD / £5 GBP per year)
Host the website on a web host such as Dreamhost that allows you to set the site up using Wordpress technology (cost $7.95 USD per month)
Ask your web designer to make the site attractive in it’s appearance, have them install the various Wordpress plugins that encourage visitors to make comments, and set up your very own branded email address such as news@ncvanews.org. (cost £200 GBP)
Invest in an online mailing list solution such as Professional Cart Solutions that allows readers to automatically register for / unregister from receiving regular news updates. (cost $29 USD per month)
Start posting up your news and articles to this new Wordpress driven site. (cost: your time)
Create and an email each month to be sent to your mailing list which highlights the best articles / news items, along with direct links to each of the pages where the articles are posted. (cost: your time)
Respond to the comments that appear for each article on the site to encourage further community involvement and therefore further awareness of Vaniks around the globe. (PRICELESS)

Here are some major benefits with this new approach:

News is added on the blog whenever something new arises – now no more waiting to put it into the next issue.
Blogs are set up with RSS feeds which are great for those who want to be kept posted on news as soon as you post it on the site.
Those outside the Vanik community can also benefit from the fresh content which helps raise global awareness of the Vaniks.
The editor now just needs to post articles and news on the blog, and then compile a simple monthly email with links to the most important / popular blog posts.
Appropriate pictures and relevant videos from sources such as YouTube can be displayed on the site.
Most importantly, comments on the blog by the readers and random visitors who are interested in the content, certainly help to enhance community involvement, and encourages dialogue with the international Vanik community and beyond.

So would the initial cost of setting this up and maintaining it yearly be worthwhile when it comes to the overall value received by the whole Vanik community and those beyond it?

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Planning your party using a social network? Watch Out!!

Chandesh Parekh — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:04:15 +0000

As the new university and college year has kicked off, many are kegging up for the ‘freshers’ parties. Planning parties using social networks like Facebook and MySpace is becoming popular due to the sheer ease with which it’s possible to get invites out. But there is a dark side to this…

Considering the ‘open-ness’ of such networks, gatecrashing with the motive to steal is becoming widespread. Laptops, mobiles, iPods, Blackberrys, PSPs and other popular electronic wares make for easy picking whilst the owner is busy looking down into a bottle or passed out on a sofa.

It’s reported that a party organised on MySpace earlier this year cost an extra $40,000 as various items went missing the morning after.

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Can Social Networking Bridge the ‘Digital Divide’?

How To Get More Life Out Of Your Laptop Battery

Sol Shah — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:00:19 +0000

Laptops are brilliant for portability, yet can be great betrayers. I’m out in Kenya for a month, and relying on my laptop battery more than ever – you just don’t know when you’ll next get reliable access to a mains supply for recharging the laptop!

As part of the natural ageing process or due to active use, batteries eventually get worn down – sometimes even when not in use. Do you use a laptop? Here’s how you can get more life out of your laptop battery:

Be Screen Smart: Lower the use of graphics by changing the screen resolution, shutting off fancy graphics drivers, and dimming your screen – this will all save battery juice.
Turn Off All Unused Devices: If you’re not using connected USB devices, WiFi, or Bluetooth, disconnect them or turn them off. Also, minimise CD/DVD use, because optical drives are one of the worst at consuming power – they spin, taking power, even when not actively being used.
Unplug When Charged: When the battery is fully charged, unplug it from the mains and let the laptop use it’s own battery, until all the juice runs out. The more you overcharge your battery, the smaller the amount of charge it will hold the next time.
Add More RAM: Having more RAM allows you to process more, whereas relying on virtual memory which means hard drive use – hard drives tend to use much more power than your RAM sticks.
Keep It Clean: Watch how your laptop operates more efficiently while it’s cooler! Your air vents can be cleaned out with a cloth or keyboard cleaner. Your battery’s metal contacts can be cleaned with a cloth moistened with alcohol – do this every few months and it’ll keep the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.
Focus On One Thing At A Time: All the programs that run on your computer concurrently will add to the central processing unit load, which cuts down battery life. Aim to do one thing at a time while you’re on battery, rather than working on a spreadsheet, listening to an online radio show and letting your email client run in the background. Adopt this for your work in general – you’ll quickly recognise the power of focus!
Defragment Regularly: Defragmenting takes all the various parts of a file on your computer and puts them next to each other, which means less work for your disk drive when locating files, and therefore less battery power used.
Go Into Hibernation: Rather than putting your computer in standby mode, hibernating a PC will actually save it’s state as it is, and complete shut itself down. When you want to continue working, simply turn your computer on, and you can continue working where you left off.

So there you go – the power of portability, blended with battery smarts!

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Handling Computer Accidents With Online Backup Tools

Deal Or No Deal website at dealornodeal.com

Chandesh Parekh — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:24:56 +0000

Deal Or No Deal is one of those games on TV that just gets viewers hooked. The game itself is simple enough but it’s the human drama that the chosen player goes through that makes for compelling viewing.

Now there’s another way to get hooked – www.dealornodeal.com, the official web site. It hosts the usual stuff; game downloads for the desktop and mobile phone, mobile phone ringtones, news about each show, the ‘Deal or No Deal’ hall of Fame, how to get tickets for the show, information about Noel Edmonds, a little quiz to see if you’ll get the Banker’s respect and a forum for fans to discuss anything and everything ‘Deal Or No Deal’ related.

Unfortunately, the site itself doesn’t seem to capture the poignancy experienced when watching on TV, which I believe is what really pulls viewers in to watch every day. The forum, where most die-hard fans are likely to spend the most time, hasn’t been designed, aesthetically, to match the rest of the site and so loses even more of the atmosphere the site needs to retain. As branding goes, not enough effort has been made on the forum.

Rather oddly, when on the forum page, the sub-menu doesn’t work, and so the only way to get away from the forum is to go to the Home page, via the ‘Home’ link, from where everything is once again available.

All in all, a bit of a rush job on this site.

Go to www.dealornodeal.com to check it out.

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Welcome to the new Cynergise.com site

Chandesh Parekh — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:18:54 +0000

Well, it’s happened! We finally got around to re-designing the cynergise.com web site.

Sol and I have long thought that we needed to re-do the site to serve our clients better. The old site really didn’t provide any value to our clientèle and we really wanted to extend our service past the actual project-work we did.

So, what’s this new site about? We hope to provide you with information on Internet marketing, branding e.t.c., really anything that will help you to take your site to the next level. Internet marketing is a vast subject, and particularly one that changes frequently to keep in step with the technology of the day, which as we know changes almost weekly!

So we hope this site will be your first stop to check out what new stuff you can implement on your sites. Be sure to subscribe to our email service, using the boxes on the right, as we’ll be sending out emails packed with tips once in a while. Don’t worry, we won’t be spamming you with emails every day – we respect our clients & readers so expect an email every few weeks.

Well, we hope you enjoy using this new site and do drop us your thoughts using the Comments box below. We’d love to hear from you.

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