In conjunction with state law enforcement officials and other federal agencies, the Federal Trade Commission will hold a press conference on Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 11 a.m., to announce a law enforcement sweep cracking down on job and work-at-home scams fueled by the economic downturn.

Presenters at the conference will include the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Justice Department, Ohio Attorney General, and a job seeker how lost money to a phony job scam. Monster.com, Microsoft, and the Postal Service will also be in attendance.

Also being released tomorrow is a new consumer education video the FTC has prepared to show people how to avoid scams. It will include screen shots from some of the sites that were targeted in this recent work-at-home scam sweep. The video can be downloaded at http://aperturefilms.com/ftc/ once the press conference begins.

I hope they show the scammers being tarred and feathered!

Have you been a victim of a work-at-home scam? Feel free to vent your spleen here so that others can learn from your experience.

Okay, I’ll admit $50 to write four blog posts a month isn’t going to keep you in the lifestyle to which you’d like to become accustomed, but it might pay for a nice night out. BloggingTips.com is looking for writers to contribute articles on blogging, wordpress, and social media.

While the line “it will be great exposure,” usually isn’t worth the paper it’s not printed on, according to Compete.com, bloggingtips.com reaches 50,000 to 70,000 unique visitors a month and they allow a nice byline and links to your own site.

You can apply for this work at home writing job on their web site. I’d love to hear how you make out.

Since we’re always quick to tell people that grants to for-profit companies are rare as humble politicians, we’re delighted to have found one…a grant that is. One catch, you have to live in Alaska.

From now through March 1, 2010, the Rasmuson Foundation is inviting Alaska artists to apply for grants that support the experimentation, reflection and concentration necessary to nurture and foster their creative work. Application materials are available here on the Foundation’s website.

“A focus of our grantmaking is to invest in people,” said Diane Kaplan, Rasmuson Foundation president. “With Individual Artist Awards, we invest in those around us who express themselves creatively through words, images, materials, sounds and/or original performances. We believe that direct investment in artists themselves results in substantial contributions to the culture of Alaska that we all enjoy.”

Grants of up to $5,000, which are open to all artists, support short-term projects that have a clear benefit to the artist and the development of their work. Examples might include travel and fees associated with workshops and other advanced study opportunities; professional documentation of an artist’s work for submission to juried shows or galleries; and costs associated with the creation/installation of work that is scheduled for public viewing.

Fellowships, which are open only to mid-career and mature artists, are unrestricted $12,000 awards. In 2010, only artists working media, multidiscipline/new genre, music composition or visual arts are eligible to apply for a Fellowship. Fellowships support activities that contribute to an artist’s creative work such as workshops; residencies; training; projects; collaborations; experimentation in other arts fields; costs of equipment, materials, studio space; travel expenses; and retreats.

One Distinguished Artist is selected annually with a $25,000 unrestricted award in recognition of creative excellence and superior accomplishments in the arts. The grant recognizes the artist’s creative output and contributions to the state of Alaska. Only mature artists are eligible for the Distinguished Artist award, and artists in every discipline can apply or be nominated.

Last year’s awards totaled over $280,000.

Dickerson, Scott (www.scottdickerson.com) won a Visual Arts Grant for $5,000 to purchase a paramotor (essentially a powered paraglider) to allow him to increase his aerial photography opportunities

Photo by Scott Dickerson, Homer AK (http://www.scottdickerson.com/)

Aube, Anne (www.annieaube.com) won a Visual Arts Grant of $4,925 to support travel and living expenses in Tokyo, Japan to promote work

Putman, William E (www.trillmusic.net) won a $5,000 Music Composition Grant to record 10 original songs

Ehlers, Anna Brown (www.chilkatweaver.com) won a $12,000 Folk and Traditional Arts Artist Fellowship Grant to explore applications of metalwork and mixed media with artists Richard Beasley and Nick Galanin to create new original Chilkat work

Romano-Lax, Andromeda (www.romanolax.com) won a $12,000 Literary Arts Fellowship Grant to travel to Rome, Italy to do research for a novel in progress and study the culture of Northern Italy

Pollock, Erin B (www.erinpollock.30art.com) won a $5,000 Project Grant to support her time, studio rent, some materials, installation and documentation related expenses to create and install a new collaborative work at the MTS Gallery in Anchorage

Links to other artist grant recipients and other details are available on the Rasmuson web site.

Image via Wikipedia

Chinese General Sun Tzu, the ancient military strategist credited with authoring The Art of War, once said “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” Apparently Google took note. They’re inviting you to hack their system. That’s right, they’ll even pay you for your skulduggery. And yup, you can do it in your underwear!

All you have to do is find a security bug in Google Chromium (a.k.a. Google Chrome) and be the first to report it. An interesting vulnerability will earn you $500 and one that could be particularly embarrassing for them pays out $1,337.

It would seem that Sun Tzu has many modern followers. Consider this quote: “A military operation involves deception. Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent. Though effective, appear to be ineffective.” Maybe all that ineffective, incompetence we see around us is just a clever deception!

I just finished reading a telecommuting research report published by oneDrum.com, a U.K.-based company that’s working on making Word, Excel, and Powerpoint truly collaborative. In other words, you and your virtual colleagues could be simultaneously working on the same document!

Based on a November 2009 survey of over 1,200 U.K.-based employers and employees, oneDrum found that the inadequate technology, not worker mistrust, was the top reason for not offering home-based work.

You can download the full report of telecommuting and work at home trends on their website but here are some of the more interesting insights:

• 80% of employees feel they could be productive working from home, though their employers are not as optimistic (with only 45% seeing productivity as a driver for telecommuting)
• Three-quarters of employees say they could do some work from home and a third say they do all or most of their work as telecommuters, however the majority (39%) do so rarely or ever. Less than 6% work from home everyday. Those working most days or once a week total about 11% each. 10% do so once a month.
• Almost a quarter of employees worked at home more last year than they did the year before.
• The top reasons given for not allowing work at home were inadequate remote access to documents (cited by 32% of respondents) and insufficient technology (cited by 28%). Nearly a quarter of employers expressed a concern about remote employee productivity, and 19% felt it would impede team-based work and communications.
• The smallest employers (1-9 employees) were the most likely to allow full-time telecommuting (48%), while the largest companies (101-249 employees).
• The largest employers were the most likely to offer one-day-a-week telecommuting (55%), while smallest companies were the least likely (10%).
• The reason for supporting home-based work varied by company size. For companies with 1-9 employees, employee morale and motivation was the primary driver. For those with 10-49 employees, higher productivity led the charge. And for those with 50-100 employees, better work-life balance was the target.

The report included some very informative graphics that addressed the frequency of telecommuting, and the hold backs by industry.

BTW, while your at oneDrum’s web site, be sure to read this blog post entitled: Twitter is the Nose of the Dog. Here’s a free sniff.

Personally, I’d have moved Mainstream Media a good bit aft.