Children can use online technology in amazing ways to do amazing things. Unfortunately, by doing so, they also put themselves at risk of victimization. This year on Safer Internet Day – Tuesday, 7 February, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection is partnering with the Canadian government and law enforcement to remind parents, educators and anyone else with children in their lives about the importance of having an ongoing dialogue with their children tied to online safety.

Safer Internet Day is held each year in February to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people. Parents and educators are encouraged to visit the Canadian Centre’s Internet safety website, The Door That’s Not Locked (thedoorthatsnotlocked.ca), for comprehensive Internet safety information and to download age-specific Safety and the Internet brochures.

“Safer Internet Day reminds us of the importance of being involved in our children’s Internet activities,” said Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews. “Internet crimes – especially those involving children are increasing at an alarming rate.”

“Our Government remains committed to protecting our children by taking tough action against Internet sexual predators,” said Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson. “No parent wants their child to fall prey to a predator. We all have a responsibility to teach and promote responsible use of online and mobile technology, so that we can help to prevent online luring and child sexual exploitation.”

“Based on an analysis of reports to Cybertip.ca, we know that youth continue to be lured online and are vulnerable to victimization,” said Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. “Based on their development, youth ranging in age from 12 to 15 are susceptible to being groomed and manipulated by offenders. As such, parents need to be particularly vigilant and engaged in their youth’s online activities.”

In the spring of 2012, Cybertip.ca – Canada’s tipline to report the online exploitation of children – will release a research report on the issue of luring. Preliminary results involving 300 reported cases reveal:

• 85% of identified luring victims were girls and 15% were boys;
• contact requests were made in 18% of cases;
• voyeuristic behaviour was seen in 31% of cases;
• reference to child pornography was seen in 50% of cases; and,
• threats were evident in 13% of cases.

“These innovative criminals are smart and engaging and know exactly what to say to capture a child’s attention. Manipulation is their tool and they know how to pick their targets,” said Det. Sgt. Kim Gross of the Toronto Police Service, Child Exploitation Section. “The lonely teenager, looking for contact with someone new and different is an easy mark. Before they know it, a meeting is set and things get much worse. Keeping good open lines of communication with your children is critical and education is and will always be the key to combating this criminal behaviour.”

The Door that’s Not Locked website was made possible through the support of the Government of Canada, TELUS, Bell, Shaw and Honeywell. In the coming weeks, with support from these partners, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection will be distributing more than half a million pieces of Internet and mobile safety information, educational activities and other resources to schools across Canada free-of-charge to coincide with Safer Internet Day.

These are intended for people who are getting started with social media, particularly in a professional capacity (i.e. business, non-profits, professionals, government). A full-day Kamloops workshop featuring 4 speakers will be held this Thursday, February 9th – 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m..

Social Media Camp has partnered with the Kamloops Daily News (where the workshop will be held) and Accent Inns.

The whole day event is regularly priced at $99 (+HST), however Social Media Camp are offering Peaks Media Inc. clients a discounted rate of 25% OFF.

Ready to learn or improve your social media skills? This workshop series is for you, featuring 6 hours of training, including:

• Social Media 101 by Paul Holmes - Learning the tools and strategies for success, and learn about what’s on the horizon and how this might affect your business. Topics include Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Foursquare and Google+.

• Social Media Strategy by Chris Burdge - You’ve heard from everyone that you should be on social media. What they don’t tell you is what comes next or why you should be there. In this session we’ll explore some potential social media strategies, help you create a strategy for your business including how to track and measure success as well as manage your time online.

• Maximizing Twitter by Kazia Mullin - Twitter is an excellent tool for expanding your network. Learn strategies to find and connect with people, and effectively promote your business.

• Maximizing Facebook by Chris Burdge - How to use Facebook to grow your business, including setting up an effective business page, custom tabs and how to run a successful Facebook contest.

• Conference Materials: you will receive copies of all the workshop materials along with step-by-step guidelines for using the techniques you just learned.

 Register Today to receive 25%

Enter PeaksMedia in the “Enter promotional code” section
to receive the discounted rate.

The Government of British Columbia encourages citizens, private organizations and public bodies to learn some simple tips on how to protect personal information online, and be privacy aware while using social media. Changing your privacy settings on social media sites is one of many ways you can take control over what information remains private and what is accessible to others.

Quick tips for using social media:

* Do not provide any more information than is necessary or asked for. When registering for a service, the necessary fields are often marked with an (*) asterisk. Only fill out these fields.

* Be aware of who is collecting, using or disclosing your information – just because you are on one site, doesn’t mean your personal information will be restricted to that site.

* Personal boundaries are just that – personal. Protect the personal privacy of others by not posting their information, including their name, address, photo, phone number or anything else about them.

* Think of your password-recovery questions. Information commonly used to recover a password should be kept private. This includes your mother’s maiden name, your pet’s name, your favourite books and movies or the street you grew up on.

* Personal details are not necessary to communicate personal experience. Be general when appropriate (in a forum) and detailed when necessary (in a private message).

* Carefully go through your privacy settings and adjust the settings to protect your personal information. Social media sites often update privacy settings so make it a habit to regularly review your profile.

British Columbia was the first province in Canada to introduce social media guidelines for public service employees. In addition to being a national leader among provincial governments, B.C. is also well ahead of much of the private sector, where many companies have yet to take this step.

Connect with the Province of B.C. at: www.gov.bc.ca/connect

Your e-mails aren’t coming through, so you go and check your website to see if it’s running. It’s down too, but the Internet works. So you figure it’s probably a web hosting issue. You call your host to find out everything is working on their end. What could it be?

This is usually around the time I get a frantic phone call from an upset client who needs their site back up and running and more often than not there’s not a lot I can do, apart from offer some advice on who to contact.

The problem? The domain name has expired, shutting down the website and e-mail. Why weren’t they notified about the upcoming expiry? The domain name registration was set-up with an ex-employee’s e-mail address that was no longer active so notifications were ending up in cyberspace.

Your domain name is the major controller of your website. It’s very important that you have full access to your own domain name. If a web company, employee or agency has purchased this name on your behalf, you should ensure you’re listed as a contact. It’s also a good idea to have a secondary contact person listed. If for some reason one e-mail address isn’t receiving notifications you have a backup e-mail address.

If you’re not listed as a contact with your domain name company (also known as domain registrars) you’ll have a very hard time trying to gain access to it. Often you’ll be required to prove you’re the owner of the domain (in the form of passport ID, driver’s license, company pay slips – a lot of information that you may not want to send via fax to who knows who).

As it’s becoming more and more difficult to obtain lost user names and passwords and secret questions from registrars, it’s crucial to store these details somewhere secure.

A few important things to note:

1. Domain names are often purchased for a duration of one year, after that time you’ll need to renew your domain.
2. You need access to your domain name if you want to:
   • Switch hosting companies or move your site to another web server.
   • Purchase a Security Certificate (SSL) for your domain (although you can purchase an SSL from a different registrar than your domain, it’s often easier to use the same company).
   • Forward your domain name to another web address.
   • Renew your domain.
   • Transfer your domain to another registrar.

How will domain name companies contact me?
Most domain registrars will only contact you by e-mail, however after recent dealings with a popular registrar, it seems they now won’t send password reset information to email addresses due to security issues. Which means you’re waiting on snail mail to receive your password information. If your mailing address doesn’t match the address on file, they won’t be able to send the documentation to you. Pretty backwards for a web based company!

Also be aware of companies contacting you by regular mail. The Domain Registry of Canada is one that prompts calls from clients stating, “I just received this registration information in the post, should I renew it?”

In the case of the majority of my clients, who are registered with DirectNic.com, these messages are solicitation; and the domain is due to expire for another 6 months.

How do I check that my domain registrar has my correct contact details?
Firstly make sure you know who your domain registrar company is; if you don’t know then start by running a Whois on your domain name: http://www.whois.net/

If you know your registrar, go to their website and log in. Don’t know your username and password? Now’s a good time to obtain that information. Ask whoever registered your domain if they still have the information. If they don’t, then you’ll need to request the password be reset.

Once you have access to your domain, check that that mailing address, associated e-mail addresses and people registered to act on behalf of your domain is correct.

What should you do if your domain name expires?
The answer to this question will relate to how long your domain name has been expired for and who your domain registrar is. Most registrars give you a grace period to renew your domain. If you don’t renew your name within that timeframe, the domain will go into redemption and you’ll be required to pay somewhere around $200 and file a bunch of paper work to get your domain name back.

Not a situation you want to be in, all the while your website and e-mail addresses will be inactive.

Make it a yearly practice to ensure your domain name information is up-to-date so you’re not frantically trying to get your website and e-mail back up and running again, especially on a busy day.

Peaks Media Inc. specializes in Web Design, Development and Hosting in Sun Peaks and Kamloops. We offer a full range of web solutions: Content Management Systems (CMS), eCommerce, Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Our sites are interconnected using a variety of Social Networking Platforms.

Foursquare is a check-in application where you let the world know where you are at any given time. The application tracks your location via GPS.

For businesses it’s not about checking into the service but letting foursquare users know your business exists.

An example: foursquare user HappyTraveller is on vacation at Sun Peaks Resort. Unsure of where to eat they pull out what I like to call the “Crystal Ball”—their iPhone. Using the foursquare app Happy Traveller is shown a list of businesses and locations within the area, according to their GPS location.

By creating your own business listing, you’re giving the user your business category (Restaurant, Retail, Coffee Shop etc.) and contact information (phone number, address, Twitter account, etc). Foursquare users can also leave tips for other users, such as: “Best cocktails on the mountain.” or “Friendly staff and great service.”

Claiming your business on foursquare allows you to offer specials, and deals to foursquare users. There are several ways you can offer specials. Some of the most popular are “Newbies” (first time check-ins), “Mayors” (most frequent visitor over the last 60 days), “Check-in Special” (You determine the check-in conditions).

Users of foursquare are usually connected to more than one social network, when they check into a location they can opt to have their check-in details sent to Facebook and Twitter. Images can also be attached to the check-in.

As with most social networks, foursquare is a free service, so claim your business today and start marketing to the crystal ball lovers.

Links
How to claim your business.
Types of specials you can offer.

Peaks Media Inc. specializes in Web Design, Development and Hosting in Sun Peaks and Kamloops. We offer a full range of web solutions:
Content Management Systems (CMS), eCommerce, Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Our sites are interconnected using a variety of Social Networking Platforms.

This year’s event is set to be even more exciting with Sun Peaks bringing in guest bloggers for the event. So if for some crazy reason you can’t make up to the mountains to catch all the live entertainment you can follow all the action via Twitter, Facebook, UStream, YouTube and Flickr photo uploads. Yes this #retrorockweekend is going to be a social media extravaganza!

The live music continues Saturday, August 13 at 12 p.m. with Blaze of Glory (Bon Jovi Tribute) followed by The Led Zeppelin Show (Led Zeppelin Tribute) starting at 2 p.m.

What’s so social about this event? During the shows @sunpeaksnews (The Twitter account for SPIN Newsmagazine) along with a group of guest bloggers will be  tweeting from the event. For those of you not familiar with the latest social networking craze, this means they’ll be sharing interesting and funny pieces of information in less than 140 characters. There’ll also be tweets with links to videos and photos.

If you’re planning on being in the Sun Peaks village square for this weekend’s festivities and you have a social networking account such as Twitter, Facebook or Google+ then you can participate too! Make sure to use the hashtag #retrorockweekend on Twitter.

Don’t have a Twitter account? Create one today, it’s not only free and a huge amount of fun, but you can also participate in the first #sunpeakstweetup. What’s a tweetup and what’s with the hashtag? A tweetup is an event where Twitter users get together to meet in person. The hashtag? When people tweet they often use a hashtag (the # symbol) in front of a word or group of words so other users can search for tweets using that tag.

The first #sunpeakstweetup will take place at Masa’s Bar & Grill at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 13. The first 30 people to join the tweetup will be rewarded a prize Tourism Sun Peaks. So get there early and be part of this fun new way to socialize. Check in on FourSquare and let others know you’re attending the #sunpeakstweetup!

The tweeting continues at 4:30 p.m. when Fandango ZZ (ZZ Top Tribute Band) takes the stage in the village square followed by Steel Wheels (Rolling Stones Tribute) at 7 p.m.

The finale of the #retrorockweekend starts at 11 a.m. with Hipeponymous, a tribute to Canada’s favourite rock band The Tragically Hip.

Join the entertainment, choose your favourite social network and tweet, post or simply lurk away!

Follow Sun Peaks News on Twitter: @sunpeaksnews

Follow the Twitter List: @sunpeaksresort/retrorockweekend

Like Sun Peaks News on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SPIN.NewsMag

Add Sun Peaks News to your circle on Google+: http://gplus.to/sunpeaksnews

Catch some of the live action on UStream: http://ustream.tv/channel/sunpeaksnews 

Check out the Photo Gallery Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunpeaksnews

View the Videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/sunpeaksnews

Checkin to the #sunpeakstweetup and friend Sun Peaks News on FourSquare:
https://foursquare.com/sunpeaksnews

#retrorockweekend Concert Lineup

 Friday – August 12
BC/DC (AC/DC Tribute)
6 p.m.

Saturday – August 13
Blaze of Glory (Bon Jovi Tribute)
12 p.m.

The Led Zepppelin Show (Led Zeppelin Tribute)
2 p.m.

Fandango ZZ (ZZ Top Tribute)
4:30 p.m.

Steel Wheels (The Rolling Stones Tribute)
7 p.m.

Sunday, August 14
Hipeponymous (The Tragically Hip Tribute)
11:00am to 1:00pm

Your website doesn’t have to have a shopping cart to make it an eCommerce site, the act of accepting credit cards online is a step towards having an eCommerce website.

If you want to simply accept credit number numbers online via an order form, you don’t need a shopping cart but you will need a secure website.

How do you make your site secure? Firstly, you need to add an SSL certificate to your website hosting package. Usually in the form of a lock symbol located on the browser, an SSL will show online customers that it’s safe to enter their credit card details into your website.

If your website features an online order form and you’d like the add a credit card option to the form, or you’ve been wondering how to upgrade your existing website into an eCommerce site contact Peaks Media Inc. and ask about our eCommerce solutions.

Below are some examples of secure order forms:

Sun Peaks News: Classified Order Form

Sun Peaks News: Subscription Order Form

Peaks Media Inc: Rack Space Order Form

View our eCommerce Web Hosting Packages.

Peaks Media Inc. specializes in Web Design, Development and Hosting in Sun Peaks and Kamloops. We offer a full range of web solutions: Content Management Systems (CMS), eCommerce, Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Our sites are interconnected using a variety of Social Networking Platforms.

We are currently experiencing problems with our mail server. E-mails are being bounced back from the server. We are looking into this issue and will notify you as soon as the issue is resolved.

As we’re constantly asked “How Do I?”, a FAQ section is one of our new additions to the website. This FAQ section currently covers topics related to Web Hosting, however we’ll be constantly updating this section with new FAQ’s for both Web Hosting and WordPress related questions.

To view our current list of Web Hosting FAQ’s click here.

If you think we should add a topic that would be helpful to you please contact cathy@peaksmedia.com

Exciting Announcements Coming Soon:
Peaks Media TV
Upgrades/New options added.
More details

Peaks Media Web Hosting
New packages offered soon.
More details

This outage will also affect clients using e-mail forwarding rules on their domain. No emails will be lost during this outage, senders trying to get mail through to your accounts may receive bounce notifications.

The scheduled outage is to fix an issue with repeating emails on POP3 accounts.

Please note: Clients POP3 e-mail accounts hosted with Google Apps or hosted on another server will not be affected by this outage. Websites won’t be affected by the outage.

If you have any questions/concerns relating to this outage please contact support@peaksmedia.com