Information about any online gaming branding study can be hard to ...

A few books about online gaming branding are planned to be written before the end of the year. Authors Brigida Naeher, Rumpca Auchmoody, and Trula Felton, all represented by the publishing firm The Ritterbush Wagoner Free Press, were present during the survey data gathering sessions to collect some anecdotal stories from the general public about their thoughts concerning online gaming branding. Said Trula Felton, ?I loved the opportunity to meet and greet the online gaming branding survey takers and speak to them one-on-one. I want to get the most accurate and colorful data possible for my work. Also, I want to get personal ideas and view points that will offer some important perspective about the level of online gaming branding integration in our society.? Yesterday, at the request of the Laronda Dobrinski INC firm, members of the public filed into the Thang Gate online gaming branding Research Institute to take part in a first-of-its-kind survey. Chief proctor Mcgalliard Ruis, who acted as the main organizer stated, ?We?re really excited with the turn out for this important online gaming branding data gathering study. With other 1000 participants, we will meet all quotas for a statistically significant sample, which will guarantee the legitimacy of our online gaming branding study data. This is absolutely key to Professors Pipho Simelton and Adrianna Brookshear, who will be collating the results.? Many members of the general public were happy to be taking part in the online gaming branding poll, which offered three forms of compensation for their participation. Gift coordinator Woods Spetter elaborated, ?For those surveyees that took part in all three of the online gaming branding survey sections, we offered three different forms of compensation - a cash gift of $50, gift certificate to a local restaurant, or a gift card for the upcoming holiday season at the local mall.? Without a doubt, as society becomes more technologically viable, knowing how online gaming branding impacts local and national trends is extremely important. Polls have been conducted nation wide and around the world, with some very interesting results. ?Overall,? said Orton Fusco, a visiting Professor from Werth Shoen College, ?we?ve seen some very interesting commonalities across cultures, ethnicities, and various different societies. Online gaming branding survey takers were very considerate in their answers, and this helped us greatly to further tune our hypotheses. In the end, we?ll have a great set of data to analyze and study for the future, as we continue to review how online gaming branding factors work in society.? COO of Brignac Rihanek INC, Crumby Piles, also decided to take part in the online gaming branding study, but as an analyzer of final data: ?Usually I just sign off on results and make sure they are published in a timely matter?but this time, I really wanted to get hands on with this online gaming branding subject matter, so I decided to aide my fellow employees with statistical measurements and data analysis. Personally, I?m very curious about local online gaming branding ideas and trends.? To accomodate today?s busy public, two distinct online gaming branding survey sessions were planned, one evening and one morning session. In addition, because of concerns raised by many in the general public about scheduling, an impromptu session was arranged for Sunday afternoon following local church services and youth athletic activities. Everyone was definitely interested in throwing in their 2 cents about online gaming branding ideas, but not at the expense of important weekend family time. All in all, online gaming branding survey takers were grateful for the complimentary gifts, and some even expressed interest in participating in future studies. ?This was fairly short and fun,? said Tracie Kamin, a local artist, ?and $50 cash is a nice gift. I also added my name to the online gaming branding study?s contact list for future surveys, interviews, and any public discussions. It?s a very interesting and important topic!? Some members of the public were a little concerned about the second part of the online gaming branding survey, in particular a question which asked for very personal data. Said Millicent Strasters, a local restaraunteer and member of the board of commerce, ?I chose not to answer that question because it had nothing to do with the study of online gaming branding and everything to do with my personal finances. As a result, I did not qualify for a compensatory gift, but that is fine - privacy is important, even if we?re collecting data for academic purposes.?

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Assertive Communication Skills | putnexusarticles.net

Author: Michael Logan

We talk a lot, and those conversations, if we use assertive communication skills, can make a big difference in how our relationships go. If I have anything to add to the assertive communication skills dialogue, it is an awareness of how rapidly we change internally based on our perception of and interpretation of nonverbal communications.

Mihalyi Csikzsentmihalyi in his book Flow (1993) estimated that we process seven bits of sensory data in parallel, and that the shortest amount of time between sets of seven bits is 1/18th second. Remember, it takes 1/10th second to blink your eyes.

Michael Merzenich,Ph.D., one of the world?s leading researchers on neuroplasticity, says that Senior drivers need to be prepared to process changes in driving conditions in 1/45th second.

Paul Ekman,Ph.D. says we respond to facial expressions in 1/25th second, and my stress response to a look of contempt from a boss, a mate, or a child, may happen faster than I can create words. I had better be on my assertive communication game plan if I am to sustain assertiveness.

Assertive communication skills begin in my head, with a thought or a commitment to use them.

My commitment revolves around ?I? statements, awareness of my feelings, heart beat by heart beat relaxation, playfulness, reflective listening, and the offering of choice.

In my domestic violence groups, I really use the reflective listening and the relaxation skills.

Every person who comes to my group has a story to tell, which will be told using their current level of assertiveness training.

More than likely, their story will be told using aggressive or passive-aggressive communication skills.

In those early moments of building our relationship, reflective listening will be a key part of helping my court ordered student to settle in.

So I will begin my comments with the phrase, ?Here is what I hear you saying?.? and repeat back to them a summary of the story.

In order to summarize the story, I need to listen closely, and I make an effort to repeat the client?s story verbatim in my head,which keeps me from preparing my ?very knowledgeable? retort.

My goal in using the reflective listening is to begin teaching by example what assertive communication skills are. I often ask clients how they feel when someone pays attention to them, and the usual reply is, ?good?.

In fact, when I use reflective listening skills, I can watch an agitated person calm down.

I may even begin to teach my clients at this point the HeartMath process, which always intrigues them, because I ask some provocative questions leading into it.

Then I may even hook them up, so they get a sense at this early part of the process that it is their thinking about the external world that brings on physical changes, and how fast that happens.

By the way HeartMath is a biofeedback tool that gives very accurate information to a client via a computer screen about the time between heart beats and how to make that time more consistent, which is called coherence, by breathing deeply and regularly, and managing thoughts. HeartMath is a feel good experience, and once learned, (took me six 1/2 hour practices), I can cue the physiology on demand by repeating a thought.

The heart has a very sophisticated nervous system, and sends a lot of data to the brain about emotions, much more than the brain sends to the heart. This brain in the heart is affiliative and cooperative, so cuing the HeartMath physiology has a huge impact on assertive communication skills.

I also like to teach the assertive communication skills that are part of the John Gottman,Ph.D., model called The Art and Science of Love, especially for my domesitic violence and anger management clients.

Gottman has studied couples for 30 years, and has teased out of his work the skills that the Masters of Marriage use.

Those skills apply to assertive communication skills. After discovering your partner?s Love Map, you begin to Turn Towards Each Other During Everyday Events by honoring what Gottman calls invitations to turn toward.

Those invitations can be very subtly communicated, so one has to pay attention and make quick decisions about how to respond.

Most of Our Communication is Nonverbal

I teach quite a bit about how we respond nonverbally to facial expressions, based on the work of Paul Ekman,Ph.D. Ekman says that we can respond to a subtle expression of contempt with anger in 1/25th second which is about 2.5 times as fast as I can blink my eyes.

So assertive communication skills have got to come online fast, along with my HeartMath skills to give me a chance to respond to contempt assertively rather than aggressively or passive-aggressively.

In any communication, I will respond to facial expressions and body posture before the words that are spoken.

If the speaker is not congruent in verbal and nonverbal communication, the listener may create an stress response faster than they can create reflective listening words.

Daniel Goleman calls that an amygdala high jack, and it floods us with stress hormones, making assertive communication very hard, if not impossible.

The Gottman?s address what they call ?flooding? in their work. They recommend for men that a minimum of 20 minutes be taken to calm down.

Next comes the use of ?repair phrases? that the Gottman?s supply examples of.

So as you can see, assertive communication skills are dynamic and must be applicable to a huge number of situations and responses.

They can be learned, and relationships built using them, and relationships can be repaired when there are breakdowns in communications.

The basic assertiveness training skills are remaining committed in my head to using assertive communication skills, no matter the response they get, using reflective listening, maintaining my heart intelligence, and offering choice, if I am communication with a peer. If I am communicating i a hierarchical relationship, then I need to either listen to feedback, or offer it, and be prepared to accept consequences for delivering a command, or accepting one.

In all cases, awareness of my physiology gives me choices.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/assertive-communication-skills-1127484.html

About the Author

Michael S. Logan is a brain fitness expert, a counselor, a student of Chi Gong, and licensed one on one HeartMath provider. I enjoy the spiritual, the mythological, and psychological, and I am a late life father to Shane, 10, and Hannah Marie, 4, whose brains are so amazing. http://www.askmikethecounselor2.com

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By The Numbers: Larry Page?s First Year as Google?s CEO

Google has historically been paranoid about any numbers it publicly releases. For years, the management triumvirate including Larry Page had to personally approve any numbers the company issued in public, a policy I believe still stands. So it's worth pointing out all the figures the company has decided to share in a letter to investors that caps off Page's first year at CEO:

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BlackBerry Party in London Turns Sour as a Guy Is Stabbed In the Neck [Rim]

It's been a rough old week for RIM, which has had to fight back against reports that it's hanging up its coat in the consumer-room and will only service the corporate types. Now, this: a 30-something man who was "glassed" at a party to celebrate the BBM service last night in London, where Jessie J performed only minutes earlier. More »

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Groupon restatement sparks more worries

NEW YORK (AP) ? Groupon's announcement that its revenue and earnings were lower than what it reported in February is sparking fresh worries about the young company's business model.

Trouble arose when the online deals company said late Friday that it had to revise its previously issued fourth-quarter results to increase the money it set aside for refunds to customers. A big reason: It is selling more expensive deals, such as vacation packages and Botox procedures, which have higher return rates.

Investors responded by selling Groupon's stock on Monday, and shares fell 17 percent. Some analysts are wondering if Groupon, which began trading publicly less than five months ago, will be able to leave behind its growing pains.

"We believe Groupon is now a 'show-me' story, where a company's ambitions are higher than the level of its internal planning and controls," Jordan Rohan, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said in a note to investors. He downgraded the company's stock to "Sell," from "Hold."

"The company claims that the returns do not threaten its expansion and growth," Rohan wrote. "We prefer to wait and see."

Internal controls are systems that companies have in place to make sure that their financial reporting is accurate and that they can meet business goals. Late Friday afternoon ? a popular time for companies to release bad news ? Groupon also disclosed that its auditors found a weakness in its internal controls, but insisted that its business is solid.

Founded in November 2008, Groupon pioneered the online daily deals market, which offers subscribers deep discounts on everything from restaurant meals to tech gadgets to weekend getaways if enough people buy in. It sparked many copycats, including LivingSocial, Google and Facebook, though the latter ended up abandoning the effort.

In terms of mere numbers, the financial restatement doesn't amount to much. The revision lowered the company's fourth-quarter revenue by about 3 percent, to $492 million. And it widened its net loss by 4 cents, to 12 cents per share. Groupon's chief financial officer, Jason Child, said the company remains confident in its business.

But Friday wasn't the first time that Groupon has had to change its accounting. Last year, the company got in trouble for including as revenue the share it had to turn over to merchants running the deal. After federal regulators questioned the fuzzy math, the company counted only the money it got to keep and reduced its reported revenue by roughly half. All that preceded its initial public offering in November.

The fact that Groupon has had to revise its numbers again raises questions about the company's ability to manage its financial reporting and give investors an accurate picture of how it is faring.

Groupon spokesman Paul Taaffe said Monday that the company understands that "there is a certain amount of skepticism in the market" given the company's history.

But he said the company's fundamental business is strong, and such accounting issues are just part of being a business that is growing very quickly. Groupon's revenue nearly tripled in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, and its active subscriber base grew fourfold to 33 million.

"Every three months, Groupon is a different company," he said.

Groupon has evolved quickly from its roots offering mostly restaurant and spa deals from local merchants. It now curates vacation packages to such places as Egypt and the Horseshoe Casino in Robinsonville, Miss., and it sells consumer products such as memory foam mattresses and noise-canceling headphones.

Its deals aren't really daily any more, either. Subscribers can sign up for several email lists from Groupon, receiving multiple deals a day. They often have several days to decide whether they want to buy them.

More recently, with products such as an online scheduling tool for local merchants, Groupon has also shown that it wants to be an e-commerce hub for small businesses.

Several analysts are giving Groupon the benefit of the doubt even as they note shareholder frustrations. Dough Anmuth of JPMorgan said he doesn't believe the restatement shows that Groupon's business model is weakening.

"Instead we believe they reflect Groupon's dynamic deal mix and the company's extremely rapid growth in a very short amount of time," he said.

Scott Devitt of Morgan Stanley, the main underwriter for Groupon's IPO, called the announcement a "mild hiccup in Groupon's compelling long-term story."

The Chicago-based company's stock fell $3.11, or 16.9 percent, to close Monday at $15.28. The stock price is 24 percent below its IPO pricing of $20 and has traded from $14.85 to $31.14.

Associated Press

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Mitt Romney to begin joint fundraising with RNC

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Facebook focus guides Google CEO's 1st year on job

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Google co-founder Larry Page has a Facebook fixation.

When he replaced his mentor Eric Schmidt as Google's CEO last April, Page insisted that the company had to be more aggressive about countering the threat posed by Facebook's ever-growing popularity.

Page responded with a social networking crusade that is still reshaping Google Inc. as he marks his one-year anniversary as chief executive on Wednesday.

The Facebook obsession has already led to Google's creation of its own social network, Google Plus, and inspired changes in Google's privacy practices and Internet search results. Those changes have raised questions about whether the Internet's most powerful company has forsaken its "Don't Be Evil" motto in its zeal to protect its online advertising empire.

"Facebook awoke Google to its shortcomings in the social aspect of the Internet. It wasn't something that could be ignored," said Steven Levy, whose book "In The Plex" provided an inside look at Google's origins and evolution over 14 years.

Fretting about Facebook may seem like overkill, given Google's dominance of the Internet's lucrative search and advertising market. Last year, Google's sold $36.5 billion in advertising ? 10 times more than Facebook's $3.2 billion.

But Page realized Facebook has been carving out a competitive advantage that could be leveraged to topple Google.

Since its 2004 inception, Facebook has been stockpiling valuable information about people's social circles and interests. The volume of insightful data pouring into Facebook has mushroomed along with its service's popularity. That has provided Facebook with the means to target ads more precisely and deliver content tied to a user's hobbies and tastes.

Google couldn't use most of that data to refine its search engine and other products, which is why it developed its own social network.

Since its debut nine months ago, Google Plus has attracted more than 100 million users. Although it lags Facebook's 845 million, the number is far greater than Facebook's tally at that stage in its history.

But Google Plus hasn't proven it can hold users' attention. Visitors have been spending an average of just a few minutes per month on Google Plus compared with six to seven hours on Facebook, according to the research firm comScore Inc.

Nevertheless, Google Plus and other social networking features introduced since Page took over allow the company to learn more about its users' lives, just as Facebook has done for years on its online hangout. Now, Google can try to use some of that knowledge to sell more ads, the source of virtually all its revenue.

Facebook's threat figures to become even greater after the company emerges from an initial public offering of stock, likely to be completed next month. The IPO is expected to raise $5 billion and generate free publicity that could attract even more traffic to Facebook. The IPO will likely eclipse Google's 2004 stock market debut as the biggest for a U.S. Internet company.

Google said Page was too busy for interviews about his past year as CEO, a role he reclaimed after surrendering the helm to Schmidt in 2001. Page had been CEO during the company's first three years, but early investors demanded a more experienced leader.

Schmidt, now Google's executive chairman, last year described his failure to mount a more serious challenge to Facebook as one of his biggest blunders.

When he took over as CEO, Page quickly made his top priority clear by moving Google's executive offices into the same building as the team working on Google Plus.

Page also tied a portion of employee bonuses to the success of Google Plus and eliminated what he considered to be unnecessary distractions by closing more than 20 of the company's less popular services, including an initiative to digitize health records.

"Larry is driven by his paranoia about Facebook. Clearly, these are two companies at war with each other," said Ken Auletta, who got to know Page while writing his book about the company, "Googled: The End of the World As We Know It."

Page already has plenty of other challenges to confront as he enters the second year of his reign.

Google is also grappling with broad regulatory investigations in the U.S. and Europe into its business and privacy practices. Its Android operating system for smartphones and tablet computers is clashing with Apple Inc. in the increasingly important mobile computing market. And it is close to completing its biggest acquisition ever ? a $12.5 billion purchase of cellphone and tablet computer maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., pending approval from the Chinese government after winning clearances elsewhere.

Page also is trying to win over Wall Street.

Although Google is more prosperous than ever, its stock price hasn't kept pace with the rest of the technology sector. Some investors have been turned off by Google's rising expenses under Page. Others were alarmed by a drop in the prices paid for Google's search-driven ads late last year. The company's stock price has climbed by 9 percent since Page became CEO, but that trailed a 12 percent gain in the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index. The broader S&P 500 index, which includes Google, has increased by 6 percent over the same period.

Some of Google's tactics to fend off Facebook have been interpreted as signs that Google is turning into a ruthless company willing to go to any length to protect its core business.

That's something Page and co-founder Sergey Brin vowed would never happen when Google filed its plans to go public in 2004. In a letter to investors, Page expounded on the reasons Google adopted "Don't Be Evil" as one its guiding principles. "We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served ... by a company that does good things for the world even if we forego some short-term gains," Page wrote.

The sincerity of those commitments is being questioned as Google digs deeper for personal data.

A recent change to Google's privacy policy has triggered the loudest outcry. About a month ago, Google unified 60 different privacy policies so it could stitch together all the personal information it gathers while users are logged into most of its services. Google explained the change as a simpler approach that would benefit its users, but the company also acknowledged that it would let it draw a more meaningful profile for advertisers looking to connect with prospective customers.

Another privacy backlash grew out of research a Stanford graduate student published in February. It showed that the company had been bypassing the security settings in Apple's Safari browser for iPhones and iPads to track Web surfers' online activities. Google called the intrusion an inadvertent offshoot of an effort to enable Safari users to press Google Plus's version of Facebook's "Like" button. Google disabled the tracking after it was revealed.

Google also tweaked its search results in January to give users the option to highlight results from Google Plus. Among other things, the search engine began to include suggestions on people to follow on Google Plus while excluding recommendations for Facebook and Twitter's messaging service, both of which are used more widely than Google Plus. Google says its search engine can't pull enough information from Facebook and Twitter to provide the same recommendations as it does for Google Plus.

Critics, though, scoff at that explanation and point to the bias as another example of how Google is abusing its dominance of Internet search to steer more traffic toward its own services. Those complaints are a central part of the regulatory investigations under way in the U.S. and Europe.

Both Auletta and Levy view what's been happening at Google as part of the inevitable maturation of the company and Page, who turned 39 last week.

"That idealistic flame still burns in Google," Auletta said. "But what happens, as time goes on, and you are no longer a young company, you have to make the compromises of adulthood...Facebook eventually is going to have to face a lot of the same questions."

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