(Another) World’s Best Job: Tweet, Drink and Get Paid $10,000 a Month

So you didn’t wind up on the Final Short-List for the (First) Best Job in the World, sponsored by Tourism Queensland, which promises $100,000 for six months of blogging from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef?

No worries. Sonoma County’s Murphy-Goode Winery is offering an equally juicy job opportunity.

Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove says: Imagine moving to the heart of Sonoma County, where every day you’ll come home to more than 450 wineries along the beautiful northern coast of California. Picture living rent free, learning the intricacies of making the perfect wine, and capturing and sharing the entire experience for your network of Twitter followers. Now imagine getting paid $10,000 a month to do it.

Listening?

It’s all true, wine tweeps –Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County is offering a $10,000 per month for six months, rent-free job updating Twitter and Facebook with your passion-for-purple prose.

The job contest launches tomorrow via AReallyGoodeJob.com, when salivating job seekers can fill out an application and submit a one-minute video about their unique Social Media + Viticultural skills. Applications must be submitted before June 5, 2009.

The job description includes the following responsibilities, “Throughout the course of the job the successful applicant will learn about viticulture, winemaking, Sonoma County and Murphy-Goode wines. He or she will prepare and post dispatches on their experiences though social media tools such as Facebook, blogs, internet videos and Twitter as well as traditional media.”

Expect fierce competition. The Island Reef job (winner will be announced May 3) attracted thousands of video resumes, including one from ‘Osama’ that garnered nearly 154,000 views. He claimed a special talent for working in ’sandy areas.’

Guru’s Note: Island Reef rejects, don’t fret. While I adore Hayman Island (near Hamilton, where the Queensland job is based), the swarming wild cockatoos might make you a tad crazy.

Only 3 Months and $250 Away: The First Android Netbook

I learned my laptop lesson the hard way last week.

Rather than pack up my luscious lime MacBook and spend half my trip worrying about it,  I decided I was going to wing it for a couple of days on the road with only my Blackberry. I could subsist on email, text and random social media updates, right?

Wrongo.  What I hadn’t counted on was an avalanche of response from CNN Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen’smention of this blog in a (terrific) story about Facebook Addiction. Zillions of pingbacks, trackbacks, tweets, re-tweets, emails and posts later, my swollen Blackberried thumbs were ready for a spa weekend. I was relegated to the Fairmont Hotel business center, where I tried to catch up on a kludgey PC with no sound and dubious download times.

The upshot, my friends? I am soon to become a Netbook owner. After years of searching for smaller, sleeker, lighter, slimmer, there are now a range of practical options for those wishing to avoid Thumb Hell.

CNET reports that in just a year since their arrival, the tiny, inexpensive laptops known as netbooks have taken a 7% bite out of the global laptop market. To be sure, others have experimented with mini-laptops — I am the owner of two Sony VAIO Picturebooks plus a Sony VAIO lightweight 505.  I loved these juicy precursors to true pocket-sized PCs but ultimately they were a non-scalable deadend.  Over the past decade’s worth of tech-innovation Focus Groups, I’ve discovered multitudes of frustrated laptop users tired of lugging pricey machines through airports and commutes. This pent-up demand is evident in next year’s projections: Netbooks are expected to have a 12% share of the market.  Sales in Europe are skyrocketing — more than eight times higher than in the U.S.  If Apple enters the fray with a 10-inch touchscreen version – which Steve Jobs is supposedly working on during his medical leave– zowie.

Another big boost for Netbooks?  3G mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon are teaming up with netbook producers to offer them at huge discounts as long as buyers sign up for a two-year plan (much like the iPhone).

Today, these very basic netbooks — typically a keyboard, screen and a simple processor– generally cost somewhere in the $300-$600 range.  Used primarily to serve as a hub for online activity, most have a minimal amount of memory and little software beyond a basic typing program. But with so many new options for online storage, from Flickr to Facebook, who needs a fully-loaded machine?  As it is, on average, users seldom use even 50% of productivity software’s features and capabilities.

IOGEAR lists some worthy Netbook options:

• The Dell Inspiron Mini 9is one of the better known Netbooks with prices ranging from $249 for the entry level unit running Ubuntu Linux to well over $500 for a fully loaded unit with Windows XP.
• The Acer Aspire One, just over two pounds with a ten-inch screen, is one of the most customizable and feature rich laptops with enough options to make your head spin. Acer offers dozens of pre-configured models so it should be possible to fill your needs with just about anything they offer.
• If there was a grandfather to the Netbook revolution it would be the Asus Eee PC, offering cheap, small, feature rich Netbooks to the masses.

But the big news is the iminent arrival of the First Android Netbook.  The first Netbook running Google’s Android operating system is expected to be available in the next three months and cost about $250, according to a Computerworld report, says CNET’s Steve Musil.  The Alpha 680 is going through final testing at Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies.

Guru’s Note: Can my thumbs wait three long months till (the rumored) Android Netbooks from HP or Dell? Or shall I immediately get myself that Acer I’ve been visiting?

The Hatch Network Launch: The Hottest Invitation in Town

The R-word has Event Planners shaking in their Prada boots. Not only has attendance slumped but registration has turned into a logistical nightmare, as attendees wait until the last possible moment to sign up.

Unless you’re Hatch, that is.

The Hatch Network’s Launch event is coming up on May 5th — Cinco de Mayo — a day traditionally booked for Dos Equis and lime. And yet, weeks before the event, more than 150 women have already registered, eager to hear what Hatch Founders, Alison Covarrubias and Claire Fontana, have to say about their Business Education Network for Women Entrepreneurs.

So if you’re one of those event procrastinators, you’d better not chance it this time. Rumor has it that Claire is personally making each and every quesadilla. Who’d want to miss that?

Google’s New Green Gadget: The PowerMeter

Whenever eco-pundits gather, the conversation focuses on one question: “Who is going to be the green Google?”

Now it turns out that the green Google just might be . . . Google.

Enter Google’s newest techno-innovation: The PowerMeter.

Currently in development, Google’s PowerMeter tool will soon help consumers monitor their personal energy expenditures in real-time. Once launched, not only will the tool help reduce carbon emissions by showing people where they can cut down on their individual power usage, but according to studies, it will also ultimately help save between 5-15% on one’s monthly energy bill.

Google’s reasoning is “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”

So being the analytics kings that they are, Google’s new PowerMeter will help answer such pivotal questions as:

• How much does it cost to leave your TV on all day?
• What about turning your air conditioning 1 degree cooler?
• Which uses more power every month — your fridge or your dishwasher?
• Is your household more or less energy efficient than similar homes in your neighborhood?

Many thanks to TrendCentral.com.

“What Was I Thinking?” Watch the Video Version of New York Times ‘Modern Love’.

In January, the New York Times sagely published my friend Katherine Ruppe’s tragicomedy of Geek Love in its popular “Modern Love” section. The article was a royal hoot in print — but you gotta see the video version. Narrated by Katherine herself, whose deadpan voice is trippily highlighted by imaginative visuals, the video perfectly demonstrates why women the world over will nod right along with every cut.

The 2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies.

The research-based Ethisphere Institute is a leading international think-tank dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability. The Institute’s associated membership group, the Ethisphere Council, is a forum for business ethics that includes over 200 leading corporations, universities and institutions.

It’s not surprising then, that making it onto the World’s Most Ethical Companies list gets tougher every year.
This year Ethisphere received a record number of nominations from companies in over 100 countries and 35 industries. 99 companies made the cut. Twenty companies dropped off the list from last year, and 25 companies were newcomers. A remarkable 44 companies, says Ethisphere, are “three-peats”, making the list for the past three years.

One of my favorite companies is a well-deserving first-timer. Can you guess who it is? (Answer below)

2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies Check out the site for information on methodology, and other important details on the selection process.

• Honeywell International
  USA • Aerospace and Defense
• The Aerospace Corporation
  USA • Aerospace and Defense
• Nike
  USA • Apparel
• Patagonia
  USA • Apparel
• BMW
  Germany • Automotive
• Cummins
  USA • Automotive
• Johnson Controls
  USA • Automotive
• Toyota Motor
  Japan • Automotive
• HSBC
  UK • Banking
• Rabobank
  Netherlands • Banking
• Standard Chartered Bank
  UK • Banking
• Westpac Banking Corporation
  Australia • Banking
• Accenture
  Bermuda • Business Services
  BELA Member
• Pitney Bowes
  USA • Business services
• Dun & Bradstreet
  USA • Business Services
  BELA Member
• Ecolab
  USA • Chemicals
  BELA Member
• Dell
  USA • Computer Hardware
  BELA Member
• Hewlett-Packard
  USA • Computer Hardware
• Ricoh Company
  Japan • Computer Hardware
• Xerox
  USA • Computer Hardware
• Oracle Corporation
  USA • Computer Software
• salesforce.com
  USA • Computer Software
• Symantec
  USA • Computer Software
• Henkel
  Germany • Consumer Products
•  Kao
  Japan • Consumer Products
• Mattel
  USA • Consumer Products
• SC Johnson & Son
  USA • Consumer Products
• Unilever
  Netherlands/UK • Consumer Products
• General Electric
  USA • Diversified Industries
  BELA Member
• Freescale Semiconductor
  USA • Electronics & Semiconductors
• Intel
  USA • Electronics & Semiconductors
• Texas Instruments
  USA • Electronics & Semiconductors
• Duke Energy
  USA • Energy & Utilities
• FPL Group
  USA • Energy & Utilities
• Sempra Energy
  USA • Energy & Utilities
  BELA Member
• Statkraft
  Norway • Energy & Utilities
• Wisconsin Energy
  USA • Energy & Utilities
• CRH
  Ireland • Engineering & Construction
• Fluor
  USA • Engineering & Construction
  BELA Member
• CH2M Hill
  USA • Construction and Engineering
• Holcim
  Switzerland • Engineering & Construction
• Waste Management
  USA • Environmental Services & Equipment
• American Express
  USA • Financial services
  BELA Member
• The Hartford Financial Services
  USA • Financial services
  BELA Member
• The Principal Financial Group
  USA • Financial services
• Danone
  France • Food & Beverage
• General Mills
  USA • Food & Beverage
• Kellogg Company
  USA • Food & Beverage
• PepsiCo
  USA • Food & Beverage
  BELA Member
• Stonyfield Farm
  USA • Food & Beverage
• Sodexo
  France • Food Service
• Safeway
  USA • Food Stores
• Trader Joe’s
  USA • Food Stores
• International Paper
  USA • Forestry, Paper & Packaging
• Stora Enso
  Finland • Forestry, Paper & Packaging
• Svenska Cellulosa (SCA)
  Sweden • Forestry, Paper & Packaging
• Weyerhaeuser
  USA • Forestry, Paper & Packaging
• Target
  USA • General Retail
• Cleveland Clinic
  USA • Healthcare
• Johns Hopkins Hospital
  USA • Healthcare
• Premier
  USA • Healthcare
• Accor
  France • Hotels, Travel & Hospitality
• Marriott International
  USA • Hotels, Travel & Hospitality
• Caterpillar
  USA • Industrial Manufacturing
• Eaton Corporation
  USA • Industrial Manufacturing
  BELA Member
• John Deere
  USA • Industrial manufacturing
• Milliken
  USA • Industrial manufacturing EIC™ Certified
• Rockwell Automation
  USA • Industrial Manufacturing
• Aflac
  USA • Insurance
• Sompo
  Japan • Insurance
• Swiss Re
  Switzerland • Insurance
• Google
  USA • Internet
• Zappos.com
  USA • Internet
• Thomson Reuters
  USA/UK • Media, Publishing & Entertainment
• Time Warner
  USA • Media, Publishing & Entertainment
• Baxter International
  USA • Medical Devices
• Becton Dickinson
  USA • Medical Devices
• Royal Philips
  Netherlands • Medical Devices
• Flint Hills Resources
  USA • Oil & Gas
• Petro-Canada
  Canada • Oil & Gas
• AstraZeneca
  UK/Sweden • Pharma & Biotech
• Novartis
  Switzerland • Pharma & Biotech
• Novo Nordisk
  Denmark • Pharma & Biotech
• Novozymes
  Denmark • Pharma & Biotech
• Jones Lang LaSalle
  USA • Real estate
  BELA Member • EIC™ Certified
• McDonald’s
  USA • Restaurants & Cafes
  BELA Member • EIC™ Certified
• Starbucks
  USA • Restaurants & Cafes
• Best Buy
  USA • Specialty Retail
• Gap
  USA • Specialty Retail
• IKEA
  Sweden • Specialty Retail
• Marks & Spencer
  UK • Specialty Retail
• Ten Thousand Villages
  USA • Specialty Retail
• Avaya
  USA • Telecom Hardware BELA Member
• Cisco Systems
  USA • Telecom Hardware
  EIC™ Certified
• Harris Corporation
  USA • Telecom Hardware
• T-Mobile
  USA • Telecom Services
• Vodafone
  UK • Telecom Services
• Nippon Yusen Kaisha
  Japan • Transportation and logistics
  BELA Member
• United Parcel Service
  USA • Transportation and logistics

Guru’s Note: Of course I had to check out years 2007 and 2008 to see the drop-offs. One of the biggest surprises? Dole. I’ve long been a Dole fan, (see my post on Dole Organics) especially as they’re partially headquartered here on the Monterey Peninsula and I’m a sucker for my hometown. Another drop-off is Berkshire Hathaway. But a happy, and much-deserved, surprise is customer service stand-out, Zappos. Those 400+ staffers tweeting their hearts out add up to ethics galore.

Many thanks to the Hatch Network’s Claire Fontana for sharing her passion for business ethics.

Forget the Office Space — Just Rent A Desk.

With half the world busily participating in the new Gigocracy, working from home or even from the corner Starbucks can get old fast. This is why we should all immediately up and move to London, where they’ve come up with a smart solution called Desk Space Genie.

Desk Space Genie is a new website that advertises vacant desk space. The service helps businesses make a bit of money from their unused office space and enables bootstrapping small businesses or freelancers feel more established. It also sounds like it would be a great networking tool; ever so much more social than taking tea with your pup.

Desk Space Genie lets space-seeking ‘deskers’ search for a space by postal code or town, contacting the advertisers directly. The site lists vacancies in most major cities around the UK, covering ‘all inclusive’ desk packages with wifi and other utilities, or more basic ‘pay for what you use’ services. The site is free to use until 1 May 2009.

While co-working is an awesome concept, Desk Space Genie sounds even simpler. Wouldn’t it be great if someone got this idea going over here? (Or will I be *forced* to move to London?)

Many thanks, as always, to the trendspotters at Springwise.com

Meet The Wine Evangelist: Barbara Drady

When I first encountered Barbara Drady, I only knew she was gearing up for one of her phenomenally popular wine events, the 7th Annual Pinot Noir Summit, and she was looking for social media strategy and support. It didn’t take me long to realize that this firecracker of a female is a phenomenon herself. Known in the wine biz as The Wine Evangelist, Barbara’s passionate enthusiasm turbocharges her every move, from education to events to her swiftly growing social media presence.

Here’s the official bio, but do yourself a favor and tip a glass of California’s best with her at her next big event:

Barbara is the President and founder of Affairs of the Vine, a wine event and wine education company. She has always loved wine. Her many years in the wine industry, combined with her “thirst for knowledge” for wine have resulted in her extensive knowledge of wine, winemaking and wine growing practices.

Barbara is the creator of the innovative Aromatic Workshop, Wine Challenge Dinners and Wine Boot Camp® the most requested workshops at Affairs of the Vine. She has been recognized by Wine Business Monthly and Bay Area Business Woman as one of the leading women in the wine industry.

Follow Barbara on Twitter: @wineevangelist

Wine bloggers rave about the Pinot Noir Summit:

Shanaray

Mr. Grumpus AKA Tom Merle
Our tasting committee was there in force, bedazzled by the bodacious pinots. We selected 12 wines for the Bay Area Wine Society mini version of the Shootout to be held on Sat. April 25th, preceded by a tour of Yerba Buena art galleries. We’ve included a few of your top threes. We’ll see how they do with our gang.

Congratulations on another successful event, Barbara. If only David could have been there, but you allowed us to remember how wonderful a guy he was and you raised some moola for the ALS Foundation.

Meet Carri Bugbee, aka @PeggyOlson.

One of the many serendipities of social media is meeting up with like-minded tweeps you may never have encountered otherwise. This is the case of Carri Bugbee and me. Somehow, while tweeting, we discovered we were both journalism majors at the University of Oregon and that we’d been mentored by the same uber-motivating professor, Dr. Winter. (Funny. We’re both blonde, both wear trippy glasses. Hmm.) We’ve also had similar experiences in traditional ad agencies.

What I didn’t know until the night of the Twitter Shorty Awards was that @CarriBugbee is also@peggy olson. I’d been tweeting up a storm, voting in a frenzy, and even connecting with @peggyolson on Linkedin (we both went to Miss Deaver’s School), all without guessing that savvy Carri was masquerading as the Mad Men copywriter. Since then Carri has gone on to even more fame-and-fortune via this week’s Ad Age and BusinessWeek.com covers.

So Social Media Slowbees, if you’re looking for a compelling reason to jump on board, re-read the above. Meeting someone who knew Dr. Winter when has been a joy. Even better, my Tweeting buddy has turned out to be a true social media innovator and all-around kick-ass ad-babe.

Read Carri Bugbee’s bio here:

“I am the proprietor of Big Deal PR (www.bigdealpr.com), a virtual agency that provides marketing and PR on demand for innovative businesses and organizations. I have 20 years experience in traditional advertising and PR, but I’ve embraced online marketing with a vengeance, including social networking, social media, search marketing, and all things Web 2.0. I am marketing agnostic and only recommend what is right for my clients. I don’t use new whiz-bang technologies just because they are available, nor do I espouse the tried and true if that’s not the right approach. Regardless of the tools available, I believe that astute strategies and compelling messages are still the foundation for helping clients get noticed and for propelling their businesses forward. I’ve always worked with entrepreneurs and businesses in creative services and technology, but have experience in many other categories as well. ”

Follow this Portland luminary on Twitter: @carribugbee.

Guru’s Note: I just learned via her Ad Age video that I may also be inadvertently following Carri on her jazz ID as well. As many of you know, we’re a longtime Monterey Jazz Festival family and my daughter is part of the Vocal Jazz Collective at Berkeley — (next gig is at Anna’s Jazz Island on April 23rd.)  Definitely a smaller world these days!

Meet Lissa Rankin, M.D.

I first met Lissa Rankin on stage at the SF Design Center, after I’d just finished moderating the ‘Queens of the Web’ panel at a Bay area women’s group live event. She popped up to introduce herself as my neighbor on the Monterey Peninsula. I was delighted. Lissa’s energy is palpable. Since then, I’ve been intrigued, impressed and inspired by the many ways she puts her gifts to great use.

Here’s the official bio of the woman of many hats, Dr. Lissa Rankin:

Lissa Rankin is an OB/GYN physician, a nationally-represented professional artist, and an author, as well as the founder of Owning Pink which invites women to explore the healing power of art, writing, and femininity through workshops that facilitate health and wellness.

She practices integrative gynecology at Clear Center of Health in Mill Valley, California. Her nationally-recognized abstract encaustic paintings and sculptures are represented by galleries in San Francisco, Santa Fe, Boston, Atlanta, Laguna Beach, Houston, and Bethesda.

She is the author of the forthcoming Encaustic: A Guide to Creating Fine Art With Wax, which is based on her studio visits with artists around the world. She has also written a memoir, Delivering Doctor Rankin: Confessions of an OB/GYN. She currently lives in Northern California with her husband and fellow artist, Matt Klein, and their daughter, Siena.

Lissa explains her many roles:

“I am a doctor. I am a writer. I am an artist. I am a teacher.

I am also a mother, a dog walker, a reader, a yogi, a spiritual seeker, a wife, a chauffeur, a cook, and a music lover.

First and foremost, I am a woman and, like many women, I once thought I had to put myself in a box and choose who to be. But I now accept that, while I am all of these things, no single identity defines me. I am more than what I do.

As women, we all struggle with who we really are and whether our lives reflect our truest selves. I now strive to be authentic, in all aspects of my life, whether I’m healing or painting or writing or teaching.

And I encourage others to do the same.”

Check out Lissa’s new and ever-evolving site and blog: http://www.lissarankin.com/ On Twitter: @lissarankin