Career at Home Seniors and Grandparents (CAHS/CAHG) – Where to Start?

Interacting with various grandparents of friends and family over the past few months, it’s become apparent that there aren’t many resources easily available to help Seniors/Grandparents successfully negotiate the twin challenges of mastering Internet tools while extending or beginning a new career cycle – working at home. I’ll call this demographic “Career at Home Seniors” (CAHS) or “Career at Home Grandparents” (CAHG). CAHS seems more inclusive, though doesn’t necessarily include topics, opportunities or the help that may come from your children.

Why is this important? Many reasons, ranging from the economy forcing Seniors to re-initialize careers and jobs, the incredible potential for at-home income-producing opportunities made possible via Internet tools and social media, and simply the desire of many Seniors to continue “giving back” or at least leveraging lifelong skills and experience for the good of their community, family and business networks. All the communications, education and community advantages the Internet provides Seniors aren’t a new concept – but the real need, and real opportunities, to forge a new or extended career at home by leveraging Internet new media capabilities is a relatively unexplored topic.

All over the Internet are loads of “opportunities”, scams and entreaties to engage Seniors in all kinds of “Work at Home” activities (i.e. WAHS; “Work at Home Seniors”)…but most are day-to-day jobs or taskings, with little equity-building potential (in terms of income or knowledge) and short shrift given to leveraging and creating value out of past career experience and long-term relationships. Typical Work at Home Senior opportunities do not yield lasting value for Seniors, or their partners and families.

To truly create or extend a real career at home, as someone who may have retired from the daily grind, and is looking for low-impact but highly intellectual pursuits, the first step is not an online job search, or even an online “Web 2.0″ training course. It’s really what we call a “knowledge management” exercise…Basically, if you were to categorize the kinds of subjects you know most about, the type of people and organizations with whom you’ve got relationships, and the specific skills you’re good at on the Internet, what would these be?

Read more about this Career at Home Senior topic, at Fulcrumpoint – Achieving Professional Balance for Men and Women.

Two Factor Authentication Identity Management – http://Anakam.com wins Government Security News Homeland Security Award http://bit.ly/28FKAJ

Two Factor Authentication Identity Management by Anakam wins Government Security News Homeland Security Awards

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – November 2, 2009 –Anakam TFA® Two Factor Authentication has been selected as the winner for “Best Authentication/Identification Product” at the GSN: Government Security News 1st Annual Homeland Security Awards competition. About 300 government officials and industry executives packed the grand ballroom of a Manhattan hotel on Oct. 27, 2009 to witness GSN announce the names of the winners in multiple security categories.

Read the full Two-Factor Authentication and Identity Management Anakam award press release…

Anakam is headquartered in San Diego, though with offices around the country, including a substantial presence here in Washington DC and Northern Virginia – where Anakam supports Multi-factor Identity Management, Authentication and Secure Collaboration system and product implementations for eGovernment clients, including National Defense, Homeland Security and Intelligence Government customers.

Wikipedia defines Two-Factor Authentication as follows: “An authentication factor is a piece of information and process used to authenticate or verify the identity of a person or other entity requesting access under security constraints. Two-factor authentication (T-FA) or (2FA) is a system wherein two different factors are used in conjunction to authenticate. Using two factors as opposed to one factor generally delivers a higher level of authentication assurance. Using more than one factor is sometimes called “strong authentication”, however, “strong authentication” and “multi-factor authentication” are fundamentally different processes. Soliciting multiple answers to challenge questions may be considered strong authentication but, unless the process also retrieves ’something you have’ or ’something you are’, it would not be considered multi-factor.”

Allan Camaisa, Anakam’s Founder and CEO, was on hand at the GSN ceremony to accept the Anakam “Best Authentication/Identification Product” award personally. “We are honored to be receiving this award for our efforts to deliver a truly unique technology which provides for the trusted identity management of citizens logging on to Government portals- thereby allowing agencies to provide more valuable online services at a greatly reduced cost.”

“Congratulations to Anakam, our winner in the “Best IT Authentication/Identification Product” category, whose innovative technology enables massive scale, cost-effective and secure two-factor authentication for eGov applications. Anakam’s system has enabled remote identity proofing and strong authentication for millions of citizens, while lowering costs of service delivery dramatically by shifting to Web-based applications,” said Adrian Courtenay, Chairman of GSN.

This technology is extremely important in enabling greater security and privacy protection with respect to the proliferation of eGovernment services expanding through leverage of online Portals, Internet-based Web 2.0 technologies and mashup widgets, and government-branded social media channels – accessed across an extremely wide variety of fixed and mobile devices. Check out in LinkedIn the “Anakam Trusted Identity” and “Homeland Security Information Sharing and Social Media” groups and topics for more related information.

Anakam’s winning entry, Anakam.TFA® Two Factor Authentication, provides enterprises with trusted access through two-factor authentication without the burden associated with issuing tokens or cards and by harnessing the ubiquity of common devices such as cell phones and pagers. Winners in each category were carefully reviewed by a panel of judges and chosen out of multiple entries.

About Anakam

Anakam enables strong identity authentication and identity management at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions, without encumbering customers, partners, and employees with cards, software downloads, tokens, or fobs. With tens of millions of end users, the Anakam Identity Suite® is unique in the industry, providing end-to-end multi-channel capabilities that allows enablement of secure, trusted eBusiness to very large user-communities in a single platform. The suite includes two-factor authentication, remote identity proofing and identity verification, professional credentialing, and secure collaboration and authentication. For more information, visit Anakam.com.

NOVA and Loudoun County Real Estate Notes – First Time Homeowners Credit Extended – FOX 5 News Report – http://ping.fm/CJD5M

Loudoun County Real Estate Notes – First Time Homeowners Tax Credit Extended

Following the Senate’s approval this week, the House overwhelmingly voted to extend the First Time Home Buyer’s credit program from November 30th 2009 until April 30, 2010, and include benefits for current homeowners as well.

From the FOX 5 WTTG news station, courtesy of Melanie Alnwick (FOX 5 Money Reporter), “There is now a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners. They must have lived in the home for five years of the last eight years, and purchases must be less than $800,000. Income limits were also increased. Now couples making up to $225,000 and individuals making up to $125,000 can qualify. The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales rose in September for a record eight straight months. Vice President of Research Paul Bishop says 1.8 million people have taken advantage of the stimulus already, and it would like to see the momentum continue.”

Ingrid Myers, Realtor in Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax and other Northern Virginia and Maryland locations, says “it’s a huge deal”, and many people waiting in the pipeline to buy homes will likely be motivated to buy now.

Find more about Loudoun County Real Estate and Leesburg Real Estate market values at this report, a Retweet of @novarealestate and @averyhess…

See Melanie Alnwick’s full report on the First Time Home Owner’s Credit Extension and its impact on Northern Virginia and Loudoun Real Estate

Washington DC Business Coaching; Control Your Personal Brand and Reputation, Even When You’re Not Around

In his October 2009 Newsletter, James Bowles, Washington DC’s leading Executive Business Coach and career transition consultant, outlines the facets of your personal “brand” and reputation – that stand to scrutiny when you’re not around. What do people say about you when you aren’t around? Or more importantly, what does your boss, current (or future) client, or other key stakeholders and partners say about you when you aren’t around? For example, in a compensation review meeting (when promotions to key positions are being discussed) or simply when your work and additional opportunities to hire (or fire) you are being considered?

The things that people say about you when you are not around is usually called your reputation. A better way to think about it is that it’s your personal “brand” – and this is one of the biggest factors in your ultimate success on the job, with clients and around your community. Here’s the good news: for the most part, YOU completely control it! Here’s the challenge – to control it appropriately, you may need some essential business coaching, to learn some essential facets of personal brand marketing, reputation management and talent management (a.k.a. “human resource management”).

Three things make up your brand – your skills (i.e. what you know), your experience (i.e. what you’ve done well), and your attitude (i.e. how you act). These are the things that others remember and discuss when the conversation becomes about you, without you. However, having a great brand may not be enough by itself – like any developing brand, marketing yourself is required. Key stakeholders need to know your skills, experiences, and attitudes…so check around. Who needs to know, who do you need to influence? It’s wise to make your brand known to everyone, but it’s crucial to know who will be making the decisions you care about. Also, it’s important to know who influences the decision makers.

Once you know them make a list – then determine the following:

• Have they heard of you?
• Do they know you?
• Have they seen your work?
• Have they been positively impacted by your work?
• Do they know what you want to do?

Work through this list, thinking of how you can have an impact on the decision makers. Turn the answer to these questions to “yes, absolutely!”. Find ways to work on projects that they care about, or be on teams that work on their projects. The key thing here is that the relationship needs to be give-and-take. Do something positive for them to establish your brand, and maybe they will respond by helping you down the road. Quite literally, the most powerful force for successful career change and accomplishment for executives and business leaders is active personal marketing and partnership with stakeholders to obtain feedback, reflect, and act upon it.

This sort of internal “reputation brand marketing and management” is essential in your career, especially if you’re seeking a career change or in fact re-entering the workforce from a layoff, as a Mom returning to work, or establishing new independent career goals. If in fact your career change results, like so many of these do actually do, in reliance on decision makers and stakeholders you don’t actually know (for example future clients or employers learning about you on the Internet), your personal brand and reputation management actions require a degree of Internet Information Marketing and Management skills. This is to ensure you come across the way you desire when people search for you, or your services, on the Internet, in social media channels, or through business and information directories.

For more information regarding DC Business Coaching, Executive Leadership Training, and HR Talent Management, contact James Bowles, Washington DC Executive Coach and HR Consulting. For more information regarding Personal Online Marketing and Reputation Management, contact KME Internet Marketing.

Continue reading about “The Word on the Street (About You)”…

Hey, @tweetbots – answer the customer service desk phone – or at least respond to your helpdesk forums!

Twitter Conference for Business | @GrandHyattDC – Washington | Oct 22 2009 – http://twtrcon.com/ @twtrcon #twtrcon

Bloggers for Good – http://www.bloggersforgood.org/ Wednesday, October 21 at Finnegan’s Irish Pub in Ashburn from 5-7; 30% to Cole’s Closet

NOVA Brewfest Fall 2009

NOVA Brewfest Fall 2009 World Beer Festival
http://www.twitter.com/novabrewfest http://www.novabrewfest.com/fall