Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat told us that her New Year’s Resolution is to spend less time in front of her laptop in order to spend more time with her family and friends. It is easy for a blogger who writes about his or her passion to be carried away. After all, it does not feel like work. It is probably why I feel that I succeeded in seamlessly integrating my work into my life.

Jill has a point. Being an editor of a blog could be very time consuming. Running a blog has always been a 24-hour job. It is part of the culture. I guessed it comes from the fact that blogs are about what is happening now. The real-time factor distinguished us from traditional media. But to enjoy a balanced life, we need to look at how we can avoid that. I already have a few ideas to maximize the impacts of my online actions. I will test them and will tell you about it if they make a difference.

With the projects I scheduled for 2010 for kimvallee.com, I also started exploring how to reorganize my work. Since I want a balanced lifestyle without diminishing my professional success, I need efficient tools to plan my work schedule and to delegate more. This is why I include “organized” in my New Year’s resolution.

What is your New Year’s resolution?

+ photo: kikki.k – an awesome stationery store in Australia (they shipped internationally but it is too expensive)

You might also like these posts

• Facebook as an Efficient Support Group
• Why I am going back to reading RSS
• Time is Money, even for Bloggers
• When Blogging Becomes a Job
• Food for Thought on Blog Content

The New Times published an article today about the fact that party hosts and some bars are starting to request no twittering, no blogging, and no photos. I agree with their concerns.

With the capability of uploading our pictures, updating our status and to publish all the time on social network sites, we need to use judgment about what is appropriate to put online or not. As adults, we must consider others’ view on privacy; not just our own.

I love and live in social media. But I also believe that we must keep a line between our private life and our public life. It is not just for you that you must censor what you put online; it is mostly for my friends and family. Not everyone wishes to participate in social networks.

Different Events, Different Venues, Different Rules

This is a lot to take into consideration. The proper code of etiquette is still in the making. Obeying a few basic rules keeps it simple.

Social media conferences encourage video recordings of the entire session, blogging and twittering. It is a given that you can publish your content without asking. But what about when you are in a restaurant, in a bar or when you are invited at a party at a friend’s house?

It is rare to get great shots in a dark bar with a phone camera. Asking your friends if they are OK with you posting the pictures with your phone in the middle of the party is not enough. Your friends may regret it the next morning. It may just be because they may not like the idea that we see them in a bar drinking and dancing. How many of you, have friends requesting that you untag them?

When you go to a party, upload the pictures the next day. You can better judge sitting at home than in the middle of a party. My rule of thumb is to take pictures at the start of the party. Then, forget about your camera.

Family affairs and parties at a friend’s house is generally off-limits. Even a quiet brunch party can be a problem. First, the host may not want to show off their house publicly. I always keep these pictures off the grid. The same is true for a wedding or a birthday celebration, even if they are happening on a public space.

As we continue to use social network sites, the etiquette will mature, will become more universal and will evolve with what we, as a society, feel comfortable with.

You might also like these posts

• US Women Are More Present in Social Networking Sites
• Social Media Changed Our Daily Life
• Blogger Guide to Using Facebook as a Promotion Tool
• Facebook as an Efficient Support Group
• Consumer Brands Need to Be on Twitter

To have been on both the Tech side and now running a women-focus blog, let me tell you that I am happier being a part of the women and moms community. Probably because I do and I write about what I am passionate about. In the past, I worked on things I was great at. My past career chose me and not the other way around.

I am thrilled that technology evolved to a point where the average (meaning non technical) woman can start a blog on the Web by herself. Blogging opens a lot of doors for women. Several of you started their small business, some got book deals and others simply enjoy being able to communicate with people that share similar interests. Notwithstanding the current economic situation, we are living in exciting time.

I am taking this opportunity to repost the key statistics of a post I first published Sept. 22, 2008 on At Home with Kim Vallee following my presentation at PodCamp Montreal.

Revealing Statistics

InsideFacebook: A survey published September 18th, 2008 shows that US women outnumber men on Facebook in every age group. Early december 2008, Oreilly’s Radar published the latest statistics.  It shows that the trend spread to all Facebook users. Females now outnumber Males on Facebook, 51% to 44%.

ComScore Media Metrix’s year-end report: Women’s community was the most visited and fastest growing Internet category, tied with politics. The number of unique visits to women’s community sites jumped 35% to almost 70 million from 52 million. This is quite an achievement considering the Presidential race.

A BlogHer survey conducted by Compass Partners : 36.2 million American female Internet users actively participate in blogs every week. You get 15.1 million women publishing at least one post a week and 21.1 million reading and commenting at least weekly.

eMarketer established that more than 8 out of 10 U.S. moms go online at least once a month.

2007 survey by Intelligence Group:

• 88% of mothers said the Internet has helped them stay connected to the world
• 85% believed technology has made their life as a mother easier
• 66% said they relied more on technology since they became a parent.

You might also like these posts

• Catch The Business of Online Communities for Women at podcamp Toronto
• My New Year’s Resolution: Balanced and Organized
• US Women Are More Present in Social Networking Sites
• Encouraging Women to Attend and Speak at Tech Conferences
• Defining Social Media Etiquette One Step at a Time