New York SBDC Research Network

You may recall that I have mentioned the American Communities Survey (ACS) and other enhancements to the Census process, contingient on the budget process. Those improvements have been severely compromised recently this past week, when the House of Representatives shifted $50 million from the Census Bureau to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. From Census Briefs: Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) countered that the amendment would "devastate the census" and "impact fundamental missions of the Census Bureau." "The immediate ramifications are a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, irretrievable loss of testing opportunities to identify problems," the chairman warned, referring to efforts to improve coverage of historically hard-to-count populations in the census. Noting that the Census Bureau is "vulnerable" to cuts to fund other popular programs, Rep. Wolf said, "There is not a

An advisor recently called me on behalf of a client, who sought legal information relating to commercial leases. I'm very leery about passing as a legal research expert (that's a whole other world of librarianship, unknown to me). However, there does exist a site that attempts to provide insight into common legal issues (both individual- and business-related). It's called FindLaw.com , and its home page breaks down its contents into several recognizable broad categories (bankruptcy & debt, real estate, intellectual property, and so forth). By drilling down from there, you'll eventually encounter articles written in clear language that provide brief, introductory articles relating to a specific subject. The site is also useful for finding attorneys in the numerous specialties within the legal profession. FindLaw.com is similar in intent to the web site for Nolo Press . They're a publisher of self-help legal books, and have been mentioned in previous Research Net

By popular demand, a little bit about our summer interns: Chunhui Song is a graduate student in the Department of Information Studies at the University at Albany. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Information Management & Information System from University of Science & Technology of China in 2000. Following graduation, she served as a Computer Support Consultant in China Construction Bank, Fujian Branch, and was responsible for providing technical assistance, support, and advice to the branch until she came to the United States. Chunhui started attending the University at Albany in January 2005 and will receive her Master’s degree in August 2006. She has worked as a student assistant in the reference department in the Science Library at SUNY Albany for one year. She is also a member of American Library Association and Special Libraries Association. "I like traveling. I have been to many places in China and plans to travel around the US as much as possible. My other int

With broadband Internet access, comes the ability to do more, share more, in particular, the sharing of short clips, vlogs etc. Like when brief segments of video were circulated of the tsunami hitting a coastal hotel, or various humorous tidbits, stupid pet tricks, sports highlights and now more regularly, ads, and news stories. These video clips have for the most part been supplied by amateurs but I’m sure will become more popular in the business world. To help get businesses going, there is Coull , a British company, here to rescue those without video editing knowledge and get them playing too. They offer a software product called coullvlogger that allows the user to edit and upload video simply and quickly. Lycos offers JubiiBlog , a blogging service available in 7 European countries, is now using the coullvlogger tool to enable users to vlog for free. Another opportunity for business owners to get creative!

Each year Beloit College releases the “Mindset List,” a list meant to show the world view of incoming freshman. The list presents many of the things this class has not grown up with (like rotary telephones) and the things that have existed all their lives (MTV). There’s nothing too scientific here, but it is an interesting way to think about a group of people and to explore what seems normal to them and what doesn’t. While its target audience may be college professors, this type of information would be useful for anyone marketing to a younger generation. Check it our yourself: http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/ N.B. Okay, my class is still listed on the site, and I have to admit that it is not all correct. I do remember the Challenger blowing up, and just because I didn’t see the original “Mork and Mindy” doesn’t mean I didn’t catch it on Nick at Night…

From our intern, Chunhui Song: The World e-Book Fair , sponsored by Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library, will be offering up to 300,000 books online from July 4 to August 4, 2006. Fiction, nonfiction and reference books plus classical music scores and recordings will be available for free downloading.

From the Brand Identity Guru: Google the term "magic advertising words" and you'll instantly get over 8 million results. But caveat emptor -- don't buy into everything you read, because your prospective buyer certainly won't. From the time marketing began, there has never been a shortage of self-appointed experts who claim to have identified the words that will unlock your customer'swallets. In the Internet age their advice is even easier to come by. They promise that words such as "you," "guarantee," "easy," "limited-time," and the old standby, "free," will generate surefire results. If only it were that simple. As a smart businessperson, you probably know that there are no such things as magic words, particularly in a culture that has been saturated with advertising. But there's something else you should know: Not only do magic advertising words not exist, several of them actually work against you. And ch