MacRumors posted an email Thursday from Cook to employees that detailed the new policy:

Starting September 15, when you give money to a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, Apple will match your gift dollar-for-dollar, up to ,000 annually. This program will be for full-time employees in the US at first, and we’ll expand it to other parts of the world over time.

Many companies, particularly those of Apple’s size and influence, have donation matching for employees. So, free of context, this wouldn’t be news. But Apple’s commitment–or more specifically Jobs’–to public giving was questioned in a New York Times column  right after Jobs’ departure. It caused a bit of an uproar, and even brought U2 frontman Bono to Jobs’ defense. Bono (correctly) pointed out Apple’s long involvement in (Product) RED by producing a special version of the iPod.

Pointing out Cook’s new policy isn’t to say Jobs didn’t want or like donation matching. But Cook implementing a significant change like that so shortly into his tenure as CEO emphasizes it’s certainly a priority for him in a way it was not for the company before. It also makes us wonder what other things–however seemingly minor they may appear–does Cook have his eye on to tweak at  Apple.

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At oDesk, our in-house full-time employees work from home at least one day a week, and we’re regularly collaborating with a team of about 250 remote contractors who act as a crucial extension of our internal team. This has forced us to study how to make meetings work for all involved.

We’ve found there are three steps to a successful online meeting:

• Be sure you need a meeting to accomplish the desired result
• Establish topics and their time allocation, roles and processes (planning objectives, information sharing, problem solving, decision making, relationship building)
• Assess your meeting afterwards (results met, process adhered to, relationships strengthened)

We started by defining the roles involved in making a remote meeting work: the organizer, coordinator, presenter(s) and attendees. Each role has its responsibilities to the team, and by defining those roles, we’re able to ensure accountability for each meeting’s success and seek out ways to continually improve the remote meeting experience. Adopting these roles has allowed us to make sure members of a distributed team are as active, included, and productive during a meeting as those who are on-site.

Organizer: Setting the stage

Someone needs to make sure the meeting will accommodate all participants. The format of the meeting will largely depend on the needs of the group and the goals of the meeting. The meeting organizer works with the presenter to ensure that the right format is chosen and prepared ahead of time.

• Where will we hold the on-site meeting? Generally, this will be a conference room or office large enough to hold all the on-site attendees, with the technology necessary to accommodate remote attendees.
• What kind of access do remote attendees need? Is audio sufficient, or do they need video of the room? Do they need to be able to see slides or other materials?
• How will remote attendees “dial in”? This means choosing the platform of the meeting, which can include a bridge line, Skype, or a desktop sharing/presenting platform such as GoToMeeting.
• How will we communicate when and how to attend? Invitees need to know when, where and how to attend the meeting. If remote attendees need to have a login to register or to download and install a plugin, the organizer makes sure they are aware of this potential roadblock and are prepared in advance.
• Is everyone clear on the roles and their responsibilities? Make sure all attendees are aware of the presenters and meeting coordinator, and share the agenda and best practices with them.

Presenters: Adapting to the environment

Presenters must remember to take into account the remote participants. When you’re explaining concepts or an initiative to a distributed team, will there be visual aids? Do you intend to show something on a computer screen? Does it need to be seen live, as you manipulate it, or can you send a copy of the material, such as a PowerPoint presentation, to remote participants so they can follow along? Prior to the meeting, the presenter should work with the meeting organizer to make sure they—and the facility—are prepared technically to present via local projection and remote platforms.

During the meeting, presenters should:

• Log onto their presentation platform five minutes early to address any technical difficulties.
• Welcome everyone and ask remote attendees whether they can hear and see appropriately
• Make sure to verbalize throughout the meeting what attendees should be seeing (slide number, visual cues, etc.) to help flag sharing problems quickly.
• Ask whether the remote team has any questions. It can be hard for remote participants to interject or notify organizers of their desire to speak. Give them equal opportunity to contribute by offering them the floor at meeting/slide transitions.
• If a contributor is not near a microphone or speakerphone, repeat the statement or question yourself to ensure remote attendees can hear all conversations (since you’ll probably be best situated for microphone pickup).

Coordinators: Keeping everything on track

Identify a coordinator before the meeting. This person makes sure that the technical side runs smoothly and is prepared to respond to challenges as they arise. The meeting coordinator can also be the organizer, but should not be a presenter. If presentations are being made from more than one location, there should ideally be a coordinator in each place. Also, the coordinators should be members of the department presenting the meeting, to ensure that they’ll understand the material being presented, even if they’re distracted by the on-the-fly back-end management.

During the meeting, the coordinator:

• Facilitates an instant messaging group chat with remote team members, including updating the conversation regularly as problems are recognized and addressed. This IM session allows remote members to communicate technical difficulties or other distractions that need to be addressed without interrupting the meeting flow.
• Handles all troubleshooting requiring local action, such as adjusting microphones, encouraging speakers to talk louder, refreshing slide screens, etc.

Attendees: Ready to go

Attendees have a role to play in keeping the meeting running smoothly, as well. They’re responsible for:

• Logging onto the platform five minutes early to address any technical issues prior to the meeting.
• Communicating difficulties during the meeting to the coordinator via the chosen instant messaging channel.

A note on having a solid platform

Often a simple phone call and speakerphone is sufficient, but make sure any printed material, such as an agenda, is also shared with remote participants before the meeting. Depending on your presentation needs, more involved platform options include:

• Dial-in conference bridges or direct-dial phone calls
• Skype (video and voice chat)
• Shared documents (Google Docs)
• GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar
• WebEx

Whatever platform you choose, adapt your presentation to the platform’s strengths (don’t try to present a PowerPoint over a direct-dial phone call), and make sure that everyone is prepared. Check in with remote attendees afterward to make sure they had a positive experience, and work on ironing out wrinkles as they’re identified.

At oDesk, we’ve been refining our techniques for years, and we’re progressing toward meetings that are every bit as easy as having everyone under the same roof — sometimes even easier. More importantly, we’ve made sure that our remote workers are able to fully contribute to our success at least as well as if they were in our office. Which is the whole point of what we do, after all.

Gary Swart is CEO of oDesk. He has more than 17 years’ experience leading remote and local teams as an executive at Intellibank, IBM and Pure Software. 

Image courtesy of Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik

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So what exactly does an online marketing consultant do? To be honest, there is a assortment of services he or she will be able to offer that would have a direct link to the traffic that is certainly brought into your website. With cyberspace ever growing, more and more strategies and strategies are discovered to provide companies that edge above their competitors. Having the right online marketing consultant will help you reach your own targets, increase brand awareness in addition to convert this into profits later on. What you need to do is to get the right person.

An online marketing consultant who will be well versed in the art of online marketing will be able to optimize your site greater. How he will do this is through search engine optimisation. This is where the visibility of one’s web site or site will be increased via google search. In addition, he would consider affiliate marketing thereby increasing the leads that happen to be generated. Advertising in sites that cater to the same audience when would ensure that you make use of new markets. Ideally, these methods alone are thought to be the reason why most websites accomplish that well.

While all of your should be considered, an online marketing consultant will also ensure that your presence is known via social media marketing. This is where your internet site and what your brand is a symbol of is portrayed through numerous means on tools for example Facebook, twitter and YouTube in order to name a few. These methods alone are excellent when it comes to increasing awareness and hereafter profit margins. While all of this may seem rather straightforward, what you should also understand is the fact online marketing is a different technology and its strategies is not learnt through university.

The precise reason why believe need an online marketing consultant who will be street smart and well versed in online marketing. Enjoying a you can do would be to network and look directly into various portfolios. This would surely help you long term to figure out whether the internet marketing consultant you are eyeing has the suitable ammunition.

• Senior mobile editor – Full-time (salary or freelance), must be based in New York City (or nearby).
• HD / classic editor – Part or full-time (freelance), must be based in New York City (or nearby).
• Reviews editor (laptops, mobiles, etc.) – Full-time (freelance), must be based in New York City or the San Francisco area.
• European editor – Full-time (freelance), preferably based in London (or nearby).

Want to apply? Read on.

Continue reading Want to write for Engadget? We’re hiring mobile, classic, European and reviews editors!

Want to write for Engadget? We’re hiring mobile, classic, European and reviews editors! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One small checkbox for your mouse pointer, one giant leap for your Twitter account’s security. The microblogging site that every techie knows, loves, and occasionally loathes, has added a new option to allow users to go HTTPS full-time. For the unenlightened among you, that means all your communications with Twitter can now be done over an SSL-encrypted channel, which massively boosts their resilience to external attacks. That won’t protect you if you’re careless with your password or leave your account logged in on computers other than your own, but at least you can sleep a little more restfully knowing that nobody other than yourself will be embarrassing you on the Twittersphere.

Twitter adds ‘Always use HTTPS’ option, makes cyberterrorists FOF originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Be aware that you will most likely have to replace whatever model you choose in a relatively short period of time compared to other equipment you will buy for your office. However, you do want a model that will work over long hours, efficiently and dependably with use of E260 compatible toner. You want the best for the least investment, while still getting the features you need.

Consider the usage you expect. If you are going to just print pictures, a photo model will best meant you needs. A model for a large corporate office needs to be larger and able to handle a high work load. One for a smaller office or a home office needs to be smaller but still work like a larger model. For the home office, the all-in-one model that can also perform scanning and faxing tasks might be the best.

Other considers involve the speed of printing, meaning how many pages per minute it will produce, how expensive it will be to replace the ink cartridges, how noisy it will be, and how easy it is to use. Check the specs of the model you are considering to make sure it is compatible with you operating system, as well as if it will fit your computer’s available ports. Most now use a USB port, so make sure you have one that can be used full time for this purpose.

You also need to look at the types of media you will need to use. The possible types are, among others, card stock, envelopes, labels, transparencies, iron on sheets, and, of course, plain paper in varying sizes. Size of media is another thing to consider. Make sure the model you are looking at can handle all your needs, both now and in the future.

The footprint, or area it will cover, is another really important thing. If you are going to use it in a home office, you probably will want to use it on your desktop. This limits the size of the one you will want to get. Having it nearby on the desktop is very convenient for the home office. However, if you plan to use a table or stand, you can select one with a larger footprint.

One other thing that is important to consider is the amount of work that is recommended for a month’s output. The cost of replacement ink, as well as the dependability of the company that supplies your model, is of vital importance. You don’t want to run out of ink and not be able to readily replace it. You also want to consider a company that will provide help when needed. Too, you want to be sure they are an established company so they will be around if you might need replacement parts.

Conclusion: The Lexmark E260 printer, that uses Lexmark E260 toner cartridges, stacks up pretty nicely based on all these considerations. It is small, only 260 x 406 x 370 mm and uses E260 compatible toner. It recommends a maximum output of 50,000 copies per month. It is produced by Lexmark, a dependable company that has been around since the early 1990′s. It employs thousands of people, uses E260 toner cartridges, and has readily accessible online help. They also have drivers for all their models online if you ever need it.