Squeak of the Week

What three independently owned businesses would you miss if they disappeared? If half of the employed population spent $50 a month at locally owned independent businesses, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue.

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The intent of the campaign, created internally by NYC & Company, is made clear by its theme: “NYC extreme local.” How extremely local are the promotions being advertised? They last 24 days; cover 15 neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan; involve two sponsors, American Express and AT&T; and include more than 650 stores, shops, restaurants, cultural attractions and other places where residents of and visitors to New York City can spend time — and money.

Ah, money. The campaign is another example of the efforts being made to persuade nervous consumers to open their wallets during the important holiday shopping period. http://bit.ly/2s5xeq

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CityBeat's Best of Cincinnati 2008 "Best Retail Promotion" is back. Shop local-only for one day, and help your economy, community, and neighbors.

Every dollar you spend at a locally-owned business generates approximately three times more economic activity than a dollar spent at the typical "big-box." By choosing to shop locally-owned for just one day, we can help to improve Cincinnati's economy. http://bit.ly/DRT22

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Vivek Kundra, the administration’s chief information officer, and Katie Stanton, the director of citizen organization, wrote in a post on the White House’s Open Government blog that they are open to the public’s ideas on improving Web 2.0 technologies. “The National Weather Service does a great job of taking complex satellite data and making it widely accessible to people via new and traditional channels,” they wrote. “When you wake up, you can reach for your i-Phone, radio or newspaper and know whether it’s going to rain. How can we do this with other important government information, such as Medicaid and Medicare benefits, the state of the power grid or the Federal budget?”
Anil Dash, the new leader of Washington, D.C., incubator called Expert Labs, hopes to get answers for these types of questions—ready for review by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy—by spring 2010.http://bit.ly/4fUENh

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AOL OWNED social notworking site Bebo will get a 'Report Abuse' button that will, it hopes, lose it the nickname 'Bullybo'. The new button will appear on every profile as an automatic setting.

Working with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, the bullied kids, or witnesses, can hit the button to report the abuse. There will be access to some support services and there will also be a dedicated site containing advice and help.

When will Facebook and MySpace do the same? http://bit.ly/3XDI6k

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