• live from conference say hi #
• happy un-alpha-day qik, way to go guys! #
• happy un-birthday @Pistachio, happy b’day @jackiedanicki #
• @herbgardens flock streamlines Social Media workflow see http://tinyurl.com/6cy8j6 #
• eco2oh @ Qik
  http://qik.com/video/135707 #

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I just had the opportunity to present a workshop at the National and Trans-Tasman Horticultural Science Conference on eExtension i.e. the use of Social Media and Web2.0 in Sustainable Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, and the Environment. Check out a longer post on THINKeEXTENSION.com

• Can Seesmic save Agriculture? http://www.seesmic.com/#/video/peZcth0PDq/watch #
• @backlotops Re: Re: Can Seesmic save Agriculture? http://www.seesmic.com/#/video/GLS6D83wBd/watch #
• ok tweetverse, in 6 hrs will be teaching horticultural scientists how to use social media to grow sustainable agriculture. tell us your tip? #
• I could share your tweets (suggestions for sustainable agriculture powered by social media) via data projector at the conference #
• @herbgardens great question. how much SM is enough? zen answer, what is your social media goal/strategy? see @kanter for SM strategy tips #

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Seven leading lights in the battle against global warming who are also catalysing the transition to a greener and leaner global economy were recently acknowledged as the 2008 Champions of the Earth. Including Helen Clark Prime Minister of New Zealand

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Sustainable Agriculture is a carbon sink not a carbon source. A healthy prosperous future requires both a healthy environment and a vital food and fibre production. The challenge for designers is to create ecological systems which have a nett positive effect on soil, biodiversity, air and water as well as producing healthy food and fibre. The future farmer will be as revered for farming carbon as for farming delicious healthy food.

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• @jcolman anything online to read RE your Australia web marketing fellowship? #

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• Having a glass of red reflecting on a great day. Good meet w local member + look at restoration site #
• O’connell creek Bundaberg might have the most diverse patch of coastal rainforest on Aust East Coast #
• Gnocchi or Pizza hmmm what do you think? It’s real pizza @vivaitalia bundaberg hmmm #
• The gnocchi was an inspired choice @vivaitalia in bundaberg. #
• Is there any evidence of twitter real estate speculation? i.e. @Sex @freemp3 , etc #

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• Preparing for a big week for BCCA and eExtension. Lot’s of writing. #
• Dear friends showed up from Byron Bay last might with choc coated coffee beans. Holy smoker they do the job! #
• wow simple /brilliant Dan Roam …. again http://tinyurl.com/5htofo #

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Embedded Video

Animoto is a very cool presentation app, see my review here.

For more about BCCA and Better Burnett go here.

Tags: Animoto, BCCA, BetterBurnett, presentation

I had a call the other day from an old friend who has decided to make the move and leave a long time position with a State department for a new freelancing role. Basically he will contract the majority of his time to one organisation and pick up smaller contracts opportunistically, good move.

Anyway he rang for some advice on resources to help set up his business. After sending the email I decided I should share these resources here on the eco2oh blog for any extension people who might consider starting thier own consultancy or start doing some NRM freelancing. Good luck if you have decided to make the move.

Some Resources

Freelance Switch
A great source of strategy and tactic on becoming a freelancer often quite tech based but you can ignore those parts. Definitely on the coal face regarding new tools and applications
http://freelanceswitch.com/

Billing Manager

From the folks who make Quickbooks a free online invoicing system you can have the system email invoice or print them and post them yourself. They even have a fee for service option to allow you to accept credit card payments

http://billingmanager.intuit.com/billing/welcome.url

Skype

This will save you a bucket load on your most common phone calls especially when you get your colleagues on Skype too (that makes your calls free), you can purchase Skype credit to call landlines or mobiles (for STD telstra or a mobile cap can be competitive). You can get a Skype in number (a capital city number) for about $40 / year that allows people to call a brisbane number and you can take it on your laptop or computer wherever you are, you can also get an extension like hot recorder to record calls (it’s easier then taking notes). Skype is great for doing conference calls to a combo of skype users and landlines. Best of all Skype is free to downoad and free to call any other skype user.
www.skype.com

iGoogle

Google has a swag of free tools so get a gMail account (almost unlimited storage space) use your iGoogle page or google reader to subscribe to blog feeds like freelanceswitch.com and betterburnett.com, use google docs to share collaborative documents online, get a google calendar and keep it on your iGoogle page

Some Advice

• Do invoicing on time! So important putting this off for a couple of days can cost you big bucks
• BP Mastercard saves 10% on fuel get one before you resign
• Don’t print anything you can avoid printing it’s bloody expensive
• Do lot’s of research before buying a printer there are 3 variable (cost of the printer, cost of the cartridges, cost per copy) cost per copy is the one to focus on it is very easy to get lured into buying a cheap printer with very expensive cartridges or cartridges that only do a small number of copies
• Check out http://www.gettingthingsdone.com/ for incredibly simple but effective strategies for managing your time and info. Wish I knew about this 2,3,4,5 years ago I just got the book and audio book
• Think about an Apple computer if you don’t have a computer already they are designed with freelancers in mind
• Get yourself out there get a website (preferably a wordpress blog), a twitter account, a flickr account, a facebook profile, etc interlink them all and use them as your online portfolio
• Think like the boss and not the employee (I still find this tricky)