21 Jun 2013

7 ways to create high sharing posts

Sharing is the best thing that can happen to a post. When a post is shared, it means it has a value for many people.







Create your posts to

  1. GIVE: Offers, discounts, deals or contests that everyone can benefit from.
  2. ADVISE: Tips, especially about problems that everyone face like how to find a job, guide to better living.
  3. WARN: Warn people of dangers that could affect anyone like weather, safety
  4. AMUSE: Fun pictures and quotes, (not offensive) targeting a large audience.
  5. INSPIRE: Inspirational quotes, articles,
  6. AMAZE: Amazing pictures , facts special occasions
  7. UNITE: A post that can bring crowds to act on something

13 Jun 2013

ISOC opposes US government move to collect user data

Today Internet Society (ISOC) released a statement on the importance of Open Global Dialogue regarding Online Privacy.

12 June 2013, 

[Washington, D.C. and Geneva, Switzerland]  

The Internet Society has noted recent revelations regarding the apparent scope of U.S. government efforts to gather large amounts of end user information from U.S. Internet and telecom service providers for intelligence purposes. We are deeply concerned that the unwarranted collection, storage and potential correlation of user data will undermine many of the key principles and relationships of trust upon which the global Internet has been built. The impact of this action is not limited to U.S. users or companies, but has implications for Internet users around the globe.

While government plays an important role in protecting its citizens and there is a need for better approaches to address online security, the Internet Society strongly believes that real security can only be realized within a broader context of trust and the respect of fundamental rights, such as privacy. The Internet Society, along with many other organizations and individuals around the world, expect governments to respect and protect the basic rights of their citizens – including the right to privacy both offline and online – as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The U.S. Government has previously taken an active role in championing these rights in the international sphere. For example, the U.S. played a leadership role in the adoption of the Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/RES/20/8, which re-affirmed that fundamental rights are applicable to individuals’ activities in the online environment as well, including privacy and freedom of expression. This means that restrictions of rights should be exceptional and conform to internationally accepted criteria such as: provision by law; pursuing a legitimate purpose; proven as necessary and the least restrictive means required to achieve the purported aim. Users naturally have higher expectations of governments who have adopted these international standards.

The Internet must be a channel for secure, reliable, private communication between entities and individuals. Consensus for internationally recognized data protection standards has been formed through agreements constituting key building blocks of online trust, including the OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data, the Council of EuropeConvention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, the EU Data Protection framework, and the APEC Privacy Framework and Cross Border Privacy Rules system.

Emerging revelations about alleged U.S. programs to gather information about Internet users raise clear questions about the extent to which individuals’ expectations of privacy have been compromised. This kind of collection of user information is at odds with the commitments governments around the world have made with respect to protection of personal data and other human rights. We would expect any government signing onto these principles to fully engage with its citizens in an open dialogue when seeking to achieve both the protection of individual rights and national security. We also need to challenge the view that there always has to be a trade-off between ensuring security and protecting users’ rights.

The Internet Society is also deeply concerned that alleged programs and similar efforts by other governments will have a chilling effect on the deployment and adoption of technical solutions for establishing trusted connections online. This kind of trust-enabled infrastructure is needed to maintain global interoperability and openness.  The Internet is global – the impact of programs like these is not limited to the specific country in question but rather reverberates across the globe to users everywhere.

The revelations of recent days underscore the importance of an open global dialogue regarding online privacy in the realm of national security and the need for all stakeholders to abide by the norms and principles outlined in international agreements on data protection and other fundamental rights. Trusted interactions in cyberspace are critical not only for the future of the Internet, but also for continued innovation, economic and political progress and a vibrant global community.  Users need clear and realistic expectations of online privacy that are respected by governments and enterprises alike, so that they can continue to use the Internet in ways that enhance all of society.

12 Jun 2013

Are these your 7 Ideas for Success?

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. Bruce Lee

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill 


Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein 



Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another. Napoleon Hill 


Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.
Confucius 

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
Bill Cosby 

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.
Swami Vivekananda 

Bonus 
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
Henry Ford 

ජනතා ප්‍රසාදයෙන් ශිල්ප සයුර දිනවන්න

2013 ISIF Asia Awards






2013 ISIF Asia Awards

ජනතා ප්‍රසාදයෙන් ශිල්ප සයුර දිනවමු!

තරඟ අංශ 4 කින් යුක්ත 2013 Information Society Innovation Fund සම්මාන සඳහා අධ්‍යාපනය නව්‍යකරණය සහ දේශීයකරණය (Innovation on learning and localization) අංශයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ශිල්ප සයුර
ඉ අධ්‍යන වැඩ සටහනද තේරී ඇත. 

ඔබේ අන්තර්ජාල චන්දය ශිල්ප සයුරට ලබාදී ශ්‍රි ලංකාවට ජාත්‍යන්තරයේ ගෞරවයක් ලබාදීමට ඔබටද හැකියාව ඇත.

ඔබ කළයුත්තේ http://isif.asia/ වෙත ගොස් ලියාපදිංචි වී ඔබගේ චන්දය පළකිරීමයි.

ඔබට ස්තූතියි
ශිල්ප සයුර ව්‍යාපෘති කණ්ඩායම

10 Jun 2013

How to build your emotional fitness today ?


Stress is a part of everyday life. Stress has many sources of stress. Romantic breakdowns, friends changing, loosing a job, parent’s pressure, failing an exam and extraordinary events like deaths, serious illnesses and natural disasters etc can occur without a warning. People easily become frustrated by the pressures created that transform into stress that make you wear out. Here are few tips to improve your emotional fitness.


1. Talk to someone
Communication with someone help you express your innermost feelings and relief the tension rather than keeping it inside. You have to be careful who you are talking to. It should only be someone who you trust and someone has a interest at heart for you. Start with small things that make your sad, end up laughing about difficult experiences. It will help you improve your relationships and to connect with people.

2. Improve your self-esteem
Your self-esteem is the way you feel about yourself. Many things can cause drop your self-esteem. Romantic break-ups, not getting something you wanted or failing in something. Nothing can make you less worth, although you may feel so.
One way to improve your self-esteem is to treat yourself as your best valued friend. Value yourself as your best friend; be honest and never let down your best friend. Think bright side of yours not negatives. What you can do other's can't is your value.

3. Manage your stress levels
You may have lots of stress in your lifestyle. Exams, Schools, Teachers, Parents, Friends and Society may put pressure on you. With a stressed state of mind, it makes it easier for you to overreact or feel negative compared to someone who is relaxed. Managing stress is a gradual process. First look at your lifestyle. Are you involved in lots of activities? Genuinely ask your parents, teachers, partners and friends to help you to reduce work load. Take relaxing activities like yoga, photography and listening to music. Change your working hours. Do regular exercises. Do Breathing exercises for stress.

4. Enjoy yourself
Enjoying yourself is important for emotional health. Watch sports and go picnics with friends. Having a cup of tea with a friend can improve your day. Do something you are good at, such as cooking, singing, dancing, making something or helping someone. Try to achieve something of what you do. It’s better to avoid things that make you feel worse afterwards, such as alcohol.

5. Choose a well-balanced diet
You need to make healthy choices about your diet that can make you feel emotionally stronger. Read about healthy eating.

6. Do exercise
Even little exercise releases chemicals in your brain that lift your mood. It can help you to sleep better, have more energy and keep your heart healthy. 

7. Get enough sleep
Make sure you sleep seven to eight hours in average to make your body and mind to rest fully. 

8. Develop good relationships
Think about each relationship you have with family, friends and your partner. Are you really happy when you are with them? Do they have best interests at heart about you? Do they enjoy their company? Are you happy with the way they act towards you? Start to think about how you can improve your relationships, and then make little changes. You could even drop relationships if it does not really works out.

9. Know the warning signs
Try to recognize when negative emotions start creeping in, whether it’s stress, anxiety or feeling sad. Don't let them take over your mind. Start doing things that help you overcome them. Take a day off, go somewhere, talk to someone or just relax and have a good sleep.

10. Plan your work
Lots of people work without a proper plan for life. Ask yourself; what you would be doing tomorrow, next week, next month, next three months, next year, next three years, next 10 years. What will help you achieve them? What will not? What will you need to be there? Be realistic and Practical try to achieve what you can. 

11. Keep your mind healthy
Negative thinking of your self as well as about others makes your mind ill. Do not plan to hurt someone. Don't think about things someone has done wrong to you. Anything you plan to hurt another person will come back to you as an echo. Avoid negative things, negative activities and negative people. They always bring trouble even they seem so close.

12. Help others in problems
Helping others in their problems will help you understand nature of problems they face. One day it could be yours. The most voluble help you can do is asking whether they need a help. Listening is a good help to anyone. Help disabled people, elders or anyone in trouble. But don't make the problem yours or act as it's yours.13. Connect With the nature
Plant a tree. Pour water to flowers. Take a walk in environment. Take a photograph of nature and post it online. Enjoy wind, breeze, rain and greenness by taking a trip.


Do you have the Resilient Attitude

Emotionally resilient people are more effective at managing stress as they have a specific set of attitudes concerning themselves and their role in the society. These attitudes help them to cope with issues and problems than their non-resilient peers.

The emotionally resilient people tend to:


  • Have realistic and attainable expectations and goals.
  • Show good judgment and problem-solving skills.
  • Be persistent and determined.
  • Be responsible and thoughtful rather than impulsive.
  • Be effective communicators with good people skills.
  • Learn from past experience so as to not repeat mistakes.
  • Be caring how others around them are feeling.
  • Caring about the welfare of others in society.
  • Feel good about themselves as a person.
  • Feel like they are in control of their lives.
  • Be optimistic rather than pessimistic.




7 Jun 2013

7 Tips for Blogging with keywords

If you plan to become a star blogger, always remember that great blogs have great content. Creating a unique blog is your best start. In the long run it may not only be enough. You need to develop a blogging strategy with targeted keywords that you plan to be a star in your community.




Your blogging strategy should focus on getting a higher ranking in Google and other search engines. In simple coming on 1st page when your targeted keywords are searched.
Why? Google is a good search engine, because it provides best ranked search results. Google engineers are smart. They wouldn't let their robots rank poor content over better content of other bloggers. Google does not disclose their ranking rules. According to a google "You have to have genuine  content on first page".











Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has grown as a industry. People create SEO companies. SEO experts help business around the world. The most traffic generated from organic search results generated by the matching of search terms instead of paid advertising is in demand. Non-organic search like  Pay Per Click (PPC) also can increase your traffic, however costs you much and it will lower your credit card balance.


Keywords are a vital in blog ranking strategy.
Strong and content relevant keywords will attract visitors to your blog. You can get other sites to link to your blog. Facebook users will like your pages and share with their friends. They will give a g+ and become a follower creating greater visibility for your blog in social networks. As a result your blog shall rank higher in search engines. Definitely increasing your revenue from advertisers who want to advertise in your page.














There are mainly two types of keywords as short tail and long tail. Short tail keywords have up to three keywords combined. They long tail keywords has four or more keywords. Long tail key words are more like parts of sentences or key phrases. They are more like sentence with adjectives. They are more likely to be found in user search.

Short tail keywords are considered the most competitive in search engines. Long tail keywords generate less traffic but they are more effective in conversion according to SEO experts. There is a better chance for a user to visit your blog seeing the long tail keyword link. My advice for you is to use them in mix to balance balance between competitiveness and conversion rate. Y

You may think putting lots of keywords will bring more results. It's wrong. Search engine robots are more intelligent to recognize keyword stuffing. Don't over include keywords to increase the density of keywords in your post. Trying to increase keywords shall lower your quality of content. Be honest and keep your style of writing with focus on post title. Optimize your post with learning and knowledge sharing. You need engage your reader in a thinking process. Ask questions, offer advice and don't try to sell. The relationship you build with your audience is a long term.



Your #7 Tips for Keywords
1. Use keywords in your blog post title.
2. Use relevant keywords throughout your blog content .
3. Use keywords in links in your blog post.
4. Focus on using just one or two keyword phrases.
5. Use keywords in Alt-tags of your images 
6. Name your images as your keywords.
7. Use keywords in sub headlines. Bold them.

After publishing your post. Use a SEO anlysis tool like
http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html
and improve your blog before publicizing.



9 reasons why your business need a blog to become #1

1. Definitely a blog increases your social capital, provide your business leads, sales and increases profit.  Most business pay large amounts of advertising their brands on paper. When paper is thrown the content is gone. A blog not like a website. It's posts keeps going into the market like a virus, infecting new and potential customers. Someone shall visit your blog rather than your web site as a blog is more personal, and also share it on their networks.



2. Web Traffic

A blog attracts more audience than your website throgh increased social network sharing. A blog is designed to share. If you maintain a good blog, it will bring traffic and make people coming back for content.












4. Exchange Information
With a blog you can inform your latest news to your audience and  save lots of money on press events. New press loves blogs for content. Your new and potential cutomers can research before they make a purchase. They shall virtually live in experiences of others and  be more confident.
With blogging, unlike websites your business can make information flow both ways.


5. Social Learning
You can learn from your audience about how they rate your products and get comments more personally. You can invite your customers to comment on your blog and publish their comments to outshine the rivals. The informed and educated customers become confident and loyal.   With a blog you can start speaking to your customers direct and gain insights of your customers' needs, challenges and preferences.  Running customer feedback and surveys on your blog gives you instant, spontaneous results  and insights for your product development.




6. Advertising & Sales
In most cases you are able to get initial visibility from your advertising and public relations. A blog is a long term strategy, that can hold prospective clients and win new customers.









7. Energizing the Society
In corporate webs, information stales after sometime. You need a big process to update it and everyone have a say. However the CEO's blog can be written daily or weekly. It can energize staff and your customers. It's because a blog is a personal expression.  Blogging is wonderful way to promote social services of your organisation. It will increase your corporate social responsibility score in society.

















8. Responding to Disasters
What would happens if a bad story about your business spread around social networks. Your blog can quickly respond to minimize the damage.
















9. Increasing Brand EquityYou can build trust and familiarity into your products and brands with blogging. You can easliy grow your brand to a community with Facebook likes and G+.

if you haven't created your corporate blog start it now.

Need help! Contact Me !

5 Jun 2013

Don't go to your beautician! Goto to Photoshop CS 6!




How do you do that folks?

 1.  Get rid of blemishes first to remove distracting parts.
Select Healing Brush, set brush size, click on a clean spot on the photo and click on imperfect spots and see the magic...


 2.
 Select unwanted yellow parts (Gums, Teeth etc) with lasso tool.   Use masking to erase unwanted parts.



 3.  The blur tool helps you to even out skin tones. Get rid of unnatural skin tones. Be careful not to blur hair and eyes.

 4. 
 Use selective color and play with red tones, hue saturation to give a natural skin color.Micheal Freeman has a great tutorial on color

 5.  Give the person more life by sharping hari, eyes, nose, lines etc.


 6. 
 Even out features using diffuse filter to give a softer look. Fading 40%-50% shall give the glamour look. 
http://pureromance88.ucoz.com/news/give_your_ordinary_portrait_photo_glamorous_effect_with_charming_make_up/2011-06-19-123





 7.  Duplicate and desturate layer. Set the blending option to 'overlay' and experiment with Gaussian blur effect to make the photo softer, while maintaining it's sharpness. 7.  Finally use the sharpen filter to improve dul areas.http://blog.video2brain.com/en/sharpening-with-photoshop-cs6-smart-filters-3538.htm




See You got the Look Now!

4 Jun 2013

What would you like to know ? Social Entrepreneurship #1

William Bill Drayton
is a social entrepreneur guru, named by US News & World Report as one of America's 25 Best Leaders.



 in 2005. He is responsible for the rise of the phrase "social entrepreneur". Bill Drayton is the founder and current Chair of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding and fostering social entrepreneurs worldwide. Drayton's philosophy of social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. To quote Drayton, "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry."

Following are his quotes from his speeches that will give you better understanding of Social Entrepreneurship and how you can change the world for better.

"Once a young person has had a dream, built a team, and changed his or her world, he or she has the power to express love and respect in action — the heart of what brings health, longevity and happiness."

"Now we must ensure that all of this generation of young people are changemakers before they turn 21. That means that they master the core changemaking skills—empathy, teamwork, new leadership, and changemaking."

"We need to reverse three centuries of walling the for-profit and non-profit sectors off from one another. When you think for-profit and non-profit, you most often think of entities with either zero social return or zero return on capital and zero social return."


"Social entrepreneurship:
It's not to give people fish
It's not to teach them how to fish
It's to build a new and better fishing industry"
~

Here’s my advice: The first step to becoming a changemaker (the only secure job going forward) is to give oneself permission, i.e. to ignore — politely, of course — all those who say “Don’t do it.”


"What is your personal definition of “good”?
A world in which everyone is universally empathetic and exercises love and respect with full change-making power."

"The core psychology of a social entrepreneur is someone who cannot come to rest, in a very deep sense, until he or she has changed the pattern in an area of social concern all across society. "


"What is the most powerful lever you can imagine? A big idea, but only if it’s in the hands of a truly outstanding social entrepreneur. It starts with the person and the idea, and then grows to the institution. All three are intertwined."

"Anyone who cannot see problems around him or herself is utterly blind. All the problems sitting there are an invitation for you to be creative, make use of your skills and resources and find a solution."

"What is the most powerful force in the world? And I think you would agree that is a big idea if it is in the hands of a socail entrepreneur who is actually going to make the idea not only happen, but spread all across society. "


"It's the combination: big idea with a good social entrepreneur: there's nothing more powerful. "

"Social entrepreneurs are married to a vision of, for example, a better way of helping young people grow up or of delivering global healthcare. They simply will not stop because they cannot be happy until their vision becomes the new pattern. "

"A social entrepreneur plows the field and it weakens the idea that change isn't possible. He seeds with some very user-friendly idea. The next social entrepreneur comes, and there's more plowing, more seeding. Then hundreds."

"Most people don't want to see problems ... Once you see a problem and you keep looking at it you'll find an answer."


"Good social entrepreneurs can manage, but no one but an entrepreneur can entrepreneur, let alone help build and lead the world's community of leading social entrepreneurs and their top business entrepreneur allies."

"How could any entrepreneur, confronted by such amazing opportunities to help transform the world and to do so with such extraordinary colleagues, be tempted to lose focus? Especially since the work involves such breadth that the boredom of routine or specialization does not exist."


"Entrepreneurs cannot be happy people until they have seen their visions become the new reality across all of society. "

"Whenever society is stuck or has an opportunity to seize a new opportunity, it needs an entrepreneur to see the opportunity and then to turn that vision into a realistic idea and then a reality and then, indeed, the new pattern all across society. "


Innovators in Action: Bill Drayton on Effecting Social Change

Got a BIG Idea for change ?

Apply for Ashoka Fellowship to get support for your idea.

Niranjan Meegammana
Ashoka Fellow

Your 7 Techs for becoming a pro blogger

CSS -  HTML - Apple  Java  - JavaScript  - PHP  - Web - Tools

  • Dojo Examples
    How to to use Dojo Ajax library.
  • Getting Started
    with Java Script
    Experimenting with JavaScript.
  • JavaScript: NameSpace How to use Javascript namespaces in an HTML.
  • JQuery: Add Attributes
    This example shows how to add an attribute to tag with JQuery.
  • JQuery: Click Event Example
    A simple example of how to handle a click with JQuery.
  • JQuery Form Examples
    A couple of simple form examples using JQuery.
  • JQuery: List Select/Deselect
    An example of how to select and deselect a list item using JQuery.
  • JQuery: Select ComboBox Example
    How to select combobox items using JQuery.
  • Dreams of young people : Bill Drayton

    Once a young person has had a dream, built a team, and changed his or her world, he or she has the power to express love and respect in action — the heart of what brings health, longevity and happiness.

    This is greatest speech from Ashoka's Bill Drayton at "Class of 2013"
    This address he gave at the Ashoka U Exchange at the University of San Diego in February 2013 discussing this very sentiment issues of society.

      The

    2 Jun 2013

    What is your 10 commands to write super blog headlines !


    Online or Print 8 out 10 people read headline. Only 2 out of 8 read the rest. With out a good head line you can miss a golden content marketing opportunity.  Without a good headline , you cant attract your target audience. It will make your valuable content go unread.
    Writing effective headlines can be challenging—but not impossible.

    1. Use Numbers
    Blog headlines containing numbers bring in more traffic.
     

    10 Tips to write blog headlines is better than Tips for blogging. The numbers give a sense of the content and what would the reader gain.


    2. Speak directly to the reader
    The word “your” helps to personalize the content to make reader think that it's written for him.


    3. Use strong adjectives
    Use stronger words for headline.  Super is better than better, Extraordinary is even better.




    4. Make a bold statement
    Your headline must get an attention, among other listing in a list or rss feed to create curiosity in the reader
    Dont' say what everyone has had before. Find something new.




    5. Appeal to the reader’s curiosity

    Make reader read on. Use pictures related to headline. Google finds them.6. Asking a questions help reader engagement. 


    Probably he shall +1 your article.









    7. Stress the “urgency factor”
    Words like “today,” “now,” “immediately,” and phrases like “right away” stress immediacy. 




    8. Appeal to deeply-felt sentiments: frustration, fear, desire
    Show your reader that you understand their hopes and fears. 

    9. Be specific of your headlines. It should be relevant to the content. Make reader appreciate.


    10. Don’t be too clever with language.
    Don’t forget search engines. Think what people would search.




    Now do you want to give a +1 
    Thanks...