Thanks to Virgin Mobile and the #VirginMobile25 I got to go with Lady Gaga to the Monster Ball Tour! It’s a moment I will never forget.

Log on to Shaker — the grand prize winner from this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt “startup battlefield” — and you’ll find yourself in room full of Facebook members represented by avatars.

“In real life when you go out you see your friends, you see your friends of friends, and they introduce you to people. And this happens on Shaker,” co-founder Gad Maor said. “It’s like real life. It’s another way to do Facebook.”

When you log in to the service, users pick a room and can see if anyone in their Facebook network is there. You can buy people “virtual drinks” and start up chats with other people in the vicinity.

Users can see what they have in common they have with other people in the room. The virtual space includes a wall of “likes” featuring the different Facebook likes of the people currently hanging around. The site is now in closed beta.

But Shaker’s win was highly controversial. Skeptics dismissed it as a warmed-over Second Life, the much-buzzed-about virtual realm that never caught on beyond a small cult audience.

The founders insist their app is different. Featuring users as they are in the “real” world, according to their Facebook profiles, rather than through another identity built specifically for a virtual world is a major step forward in attracting players, they said.

Some judges agreed.

“It reminds me of a casual version of Second Life, except it solves two problems Second Life had. One is getting users,” said CBS Interactive president Jim Lanzone. “People go into Second Life for the first time and spend a half hour trying to figure it out.”

Ken Lam took this photo a couple years ago inside a small garden in the east village, NYC. The small park used to be an apartment complex that got burned down and the land became a neighborhood communal garden. I love it! There are greens, ferns, and even a pond. I used to live in the East Village in an apartment we used to call the youtube house because Brooke Alley Brodack, Caitlin Hill and I lived there.

I love gardening so much. When I interned for English as a second language at the San Pedro Elementary school, in San Rafael, California, I spent my free time constructing a garden. Since most of the students are low income latinos, there is little help with nutrition. This is because the school district applied and was granted subsidized lunches. The sad part is, the food is all microwave burritos, donuts, and hot dogs. There is little to no nutritional value for these growing children. I built a garden there and planted tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, relish, celery, and other nutritional garden plants. The 3rd grade class and I made a large salad party at the end of the year and the kids were able to learn about nutrition while building a garden.

The summer before building this garden at the children’s school, I spent the summer building a garden in Oaxaca Mexico with Amigos De Las Americas. This was to help fight infant mortality in Oaxaca. One out of three babies will die from malnutrition there this year. It’s because their mother’s don’t have the resources and education to integrate nutritional grains and vegetables into their traditional recipes. I worked on organizing cooking lessons as well as the construction of a large garden. We planted amaranth grains and other plants.

Being a freelance video editor, software and hardware improvements can make the difference of what I can and cannot produce via the computer. I love Apple software and also software for PC’s, however, I’m more of an Apple girl today with exactly five excellent Apple computers.

I’m a fan of saving paper. We are moving away from print and closer to using electronic data transfers for information exchange. Having lots of computers is not always necessary, unless you are transferring massive amounts of data. When uploading data to my server, I like to keep the computer running without having to multitask.

Ever since I was 12 years old my friends and family looked to me for support with their computers. Today, I study and investigate computer information for reporting on various new outlets. I’m an online video journalist. You can see my work regularly on Forbes.com and Pop17.com. In the past, I was the head of video- video editor for the west coast- for Gawker Media, including Gizmodo. My favorite video project was the iPhone launch.

Recently, IT has been more than study for me. I’ve been dabbling in tech design and development. I’m the lead designer for the video player and the Facebook application game. Development and design are key elements. I learned how important communication and management become when running projects that I do not fully understand. I know a little HTML and CSS and am learning HTML5. However, most of what the developers on building the facebook games I’m not an expert at. I do reading and research so that I can speak the language and communicate with them.

Design is one of the other elements that IT is about. Other than the software that designers use, there are more tools available for people who want to design from their browser, software, or application. There are logo generating sites and easy tools to crowd-source design communities. I’ve organized several design competitions with my audience before and generated great results.

Finally, I’m seriously in IT when it comes to networking. Isn’t IT all about social media these days? My social network communities on Pop17 are really powerful and influential online. I have worked very hard for over 5 years in Silicon Valley to gain access to certain individuals and build strong interpersonal relationships. I have about 1,000 strong tech contacts that I regularly communicate with and 500,000 monthly video views to Pop17 live seminars. On twitter we have 30,000 followers and I was even featured in Vanity Fair as one of America’s Tweethearts. Today, I think of IT leaning more towards social media than ever before. Social media is the biggest trend to look out for right now.

I speak at many conferences, seminars, webinars, universities and tweet-ups on the topic. I also get many requests from other companies seeking advice and, in the spirit of social media itself, we have been open to sharing. To that end, I put together a blogging code of ethics.

There’s a lot of controversy in the blogosphere about izea/pay-for-post and the general issue of companies paying bloggers to generate content about them. While some people feel it’s perfectly fine, as a more traditional journalist, I’m one of those who does not.

Here is my top 8 list for blogging ethics:

1. Fact Check: Don’t spread rumors. Double check your facts.

2. Update: If news changes or stories progress update old posts and text with current and relevant information. When you make a mistake or make incorrect statements reverse and update them. Don’t update and erase. Update with a line through or note.

3. Tell it how it is: If there are stories, images and/or videos being posted, mixed-mashed, photoshopped or damaged report those findings in ways that could have a false representation of the event that actually took place.

4. Disclosure: Avoid letting advertisers influence content. If a company is paying for posts that needs to be disclosed.

5. Ego: don’t ever begin to believe that you’re better, smarter or more priveledged than your audience. they will see it as arrogance and you will lose them, quickly. your fans are everything. without them, you’d be nothing.

6. Minimize harm: Don’t call names. Have integrity and credibility

7. Honest and Fair: Don’t plagiarize, link to where you get your ideas

8. Be accountable: Treat others how you wish to be treated, have a mission, admit to mistakes and typos, be wary of doing favors for advertisers so they don’t influence the content.

The best metaphor for a melting pot in the United States is the grocery store check out line. No matter who you are or where you live you shop for groceries. Well that’s not entirely true if you live in New York City. Actually, we leave the New York melting pot to the subway. Thus, I restate, the best metaphor for a melting pot in the United states is the grocery store and the subway.

(Caitlin Hill and I on the subway)
The check out line in a grocery store brings everyone together. Just like they say in Ready Set Bag, a documentary about grocery baggers, some people are dressed to the nines and others are showing up in their slippers. I’m working with the creators of this documentary to make a brand extension web show on blip.tv.

There are 8 million people in New York and most of them live in NYC. I lived in New York City for a few years and took the subway almost every day as my primary mode of transportation. There are thousands of languages spoken on the subway every day. No assumptions are made.

You never know what you are going to get with the variety of culture; however, certain elements remain for the same. For example, young and able people get up when a pregnant woman or elderly person enters the train cart and they give up their seats. People with strollers are assisted by other people when going up and down the stairs. People try to mind their own business and help out. There are hustlers and you must be on guard to watch your purse, and you will be tolerant and respectful of other cultures.

If the United States were like the New York subway or a grocery store in every small town, nook, and cranny we wouldn’t right and the wisdom of the crowds would prevail. St Jean Crevecoeur is an American farmer who wrote “What is an American” in the second half of the eighteenth century. The point of view in his letter is similar to my point of view because we both believe that tolerance is the key to world peace.

Today’s the Stanford Women in Business conference, I Don’t Know to CEO, hosted at Stanford University, California. The panel, moderated by Larry Chiang, was half about mentoring and half about branding, however, it was supposed to be mostly about branding.

I went because my sister, Rebekah Austin, wanted me to go there for her and report on the speech by activist Ruth DeGolia prior to the panel. The mentor discussion would have been great for Rebekah to have participated in.

Panelists: Poornima Vijayashanker, Cathy Brooks and Rob Britton.

Tips to finding your mentor:

Poornima:
-tweet them questions or follow up on twitter
-Use tools like LinkedIn and facebook to contact them
-Brevity is key
-Play into being a college student if you are a student
-always ask for someone else to talk to

Cathy:
-Make it organic. Asking for someone to be your mentor is like asking someone to be your friend.
-Use the subject line in an email and make bullet points in your email
-Ask for a skype call instead of coffee

Rob:

-always try to meet face to face
-be persistent
-make your contact initiative volume driven
-get out there and don’t be shy
-maximize contacts

Larry:

-social engineer your contacts by playing dumb:
-contact them several times pretending it’s the first time you contact them

I had a learning disability called dyslexia. For me, the words would move around the page and I couldn’t get them to stay still in a straight line with my eyes. In 2nd grade I started to attend special education classes outside of regular class. Thus, I was working twice as hard as my peers and constantly falling short in the classroom.  (Dyslexia is actually pretty common and many great minds have struggled with it like Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill, for example). It took a while for the school to figure out what was going on with me, but because of their fine resources and small teacher to student ratio I was able to get the help and assistance I needed early on. At the time the California school system had funding and dedicated those resources toward my education. Ironically, I wasn’t able to read until 4th grade, however, by 6th grade I graduated special ed and my teachers started to give me B’s and C’s for my work without additional help. I have my mother and the once funded California school system to thank.

In 9th grade I was recruited to apply for a leadership and mentorship program targeted at low income/high potential youth called Summer Search. I applied and was accepted for telling my story and being myself. It was pretty great! The founder, Linda Mornell, personally mentored me through high school. She gave me scholarships for summer learning programs, a college counselor, and after school tutoring for my college aptitude tests. Upon graduating high school I wrote my college essay about how Summer Search was like a family.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he_XR-DBTZ8

By the time I finished high school, much of which I spent home schooled, at Stanford University and a in the wilderness, I graduated with honors and was awarded seven scholarships to Ivy League’s and Colleges back east like Emerson College and Mount Holyoke. Linda Mornell and my college counselor, Sandy Pebbels, encouraged me to attend Mount Holyoke so I went!

Today I value my accomplishments in school. I have a 3.85 GPA as I’m currently getting my MBA in Business Management at Dominican Universities Pathway program for working professionals. Dominican has the most perfect program for me and is located close to my home town in Marin County, California. Ironically, it was my father’s suggestion to go back to school because, while I was away at college on the East Coast, he went to a similar program at Saint Mary’s College of California where he earned his BA in Business Management.

If it were not for the encouragement I received from my community in Marin County, my mentor Linda Mornell, and all of Summer Search I probably would not have had the opportunity to overcome my learning disability and go on to higher education. If I had stayed in Arkansas I would have found little motivation to learn because I wouldn’t have had the stimulation there. As I complete my MBA at night and on the weekends, I decided it would be a good time to take on anouther mentor. I’d like to proudly announce my new mentor, Larry Kramer.

Larry Kramer is local to Tiburon, California and a pioneer in digital media. He served as president of CBS Digital Media and prior to that founded MarketWatch. I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to work and learn with Larry.

Getting an education has no ending. It will go on as long as the mind wants to consume. Education is stepping into the light and learning about things we were ignorant about before. The “light,” according to Plato, is being educated. It is being able to see the sun and being in the right place to do so. Getting an education is similar to getting a degree because they will both bring you into the light and open opportunities. 

When I first became involved with technology I did not learn about it in school. I was 12 and did not have a computer so I used the computers at school at lunch break and after hours. As a teen, I learned about tech by going to meet-ups, informational conferences, and social gatherings around tech in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area. There was nothing that could get in my way because I was so passionate about the power of technology and the possibilities of social media. 

By the time I was 21, I attended 32 different conferences internationally and nationally, interviewed over 200 technology leaders, created over 300 videos about tech, and wrote 182 blog posts about tech. By the time I was 19, people started calling me a technology leader. This happened because I had an education, but not because I had a degree in technology. Getting a degree is similar to getting an education because they both will take you places. 

Steve Wozniak, who didn’t get a degree, ironically wrote my college letter of recommendation as he told me I didn’t need to get a degree. He said that with my experience and leadership I wouldn’t have a problem getting a job, however, the only reason I should get a degree is so I can tell my kids to get a degree. (So many hires want at least a Bachelors degree). I have always looked up to Woz as a leader in tech along with Jobs and Gates. Woz would agree that getting an education is just as good as getting a degree. 

Getting a degree is similar to getting an education because along the way to a degree one does become educated. You are forced to see the light. The difference from getting an education and getting a degree is when you get a degree you finish with an ending. You take required classes along the way and graducate with a single sheet of paper that says you did it. Getting a degree is important to many and unimportant to some. 

p.s. As many of you know, I’m a full time student with an end goal. I like the structure of school and the joy it brings every day. For part of my high school experience I was home schooled. I learned that I didn’t need anyone else to help me learn. That’s why I decided to take education into my own hands. Be it in school, the real world, or both, education will set you free!

I’m geeky and looking for ways to express myself in tech. Having sponsors to help is what makes what I do possible. Ford Motor Company, Watchitoo, Media Temple and T-mobile are doing their part to sponsor me and Pop17. If you or someone you know is interested in sponsoring then see the sponsor page for more information.

I want to enable people to come together for a common purpose to help humanity. I want the right parts of tech to come together . That’s why I’m doing my part to help humanity with SummerSearch mentorship programs.