Pica Design will participate in a panel discussion at CMCA to demonstrate Websites (that work!) for Artists at the CMCA Event: Making Connections: Monthly Marketing Series for Artists this Thursday. Join us from 7:00 – 8:30 PM for Websites, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, e-marketing, organizational websites for artists, and more. Contact CMCA for registration or questions: 207-236-2875 x303.

TxtResponsibly.org (the idea and the website) was created by the staff at Pica Design. Hearing news stories about the dangers of texting while driving, the statistics started to sink in: a distracted driver is 23 times more likely to cause a car accident than an undistracted driver, according to the recent VirginiaTech Transportation Institute Study. To put this into a more familiar context, drunk drivers are 7 times more likely to cause a car accident than sober drivers. The mission of the organization is to raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving and to prevent harmful injury or death caused by the act of texting recklessly. Would you take the oath? Visit www.txtresponsibly.org.

Hey, my name is Zak and I’m a summer intern here at Pica Design. While reading a blog today, I saw a rumor that Google Voice is supposedly opening to the public soon, and I decided to write this blog post to elucidate this great service for our readers. While many of you may not know what Google Voice is, I urge everyone with a Google Account (and who doesn’t have one, these days) to pick up their own number.

Google Voice was originally called Grand Central, a company founded in 2005 which Google bought in 2007 for 97 million. Even years ago it was a promising business opportunity, and it remains a great service.

But what does Google Voice actually do? Well, it’s essentially a new phone number that allows a number of features that most phone services don’t offer.

The Google Voice Inbox (Credit: Google)

First, it offers a unified number that you’ll never lose when you move, get a new cell phone, or change phone service. This number can ring any other number of phones that you own, for example, when somebody calls my Google Voice number, both my cell phone and my home phone ring, which means I almost never miss a call.

Google Voice also features a robust voicemail system. When somebody leaves a voicemail on your Google Voice account, it notifies you via text message and even email, transcribing the voicemail into text and delivering it to your inbox.

Finally, there are a host of other features  Google Voice offers. You can send and receive text messages for free online, screen calls, set different voicemail greetings to different contacts and groups, and more.

Google Voice is free, and a great service. I have been using it since 2008 and its unification makes life easier, which everybody deserves. I urge everyone to pick up a number and at least try it out.

Here is a short clip from the question and answer session at our recent seminar at Unity Center for the Performing Arts.

We held a seminar for businesses last Thursday at Unity Centre for Performing Arts. Our attentive, inquisitive audience of business owners absorbed all sorts of information in a short 1.5-hour timeframe. It was a please-ask-questions-as-we-go format, and each of us (there were five Pica Design panelists) added in demonstrations and stories to activate the content with real-life examples of web stuff.

To begin, we covered how websites work (hosts, files, domain names, links, browsers), searching the web, and ways people use the web. We demonstrated the anatomy of a basic website, steps for building a website, and then delved into functionality and content management systems (CMS). We touched on elements of design, testing, maintenance, pre-launch marketing, and launch marketing. And, as we concluded, we talked about social networking. Once we started talking about Facebook and Twitter, we could have gone on and on…

With the support of UniTel and Unity College, we passed on some of the knowledge we have been gathering over the few years. We are already looking forward to our next seminar (we’re hoping to conduct one in the fall). If you think of topics that would appeal and enlighten either business owners or individuals, please comment here. And, as always, thank you for listening!

Matt O’Malia, principal of G•O Logic, LLC, has a fantastic editorial on Roll Call this week, in which he calls for a stronger energy standard in the upcoming American Clean Energy and Security Act.

“Buildings consume 40 percent of the energy produced in the United States, more energy than all of the cars on the roads today. And while automobile fuel efficiency is seriously debated as a path to save energy and money, building energy performance has not received as much scrutiny, even though we have the tools and technology to create super-efficient buildings today. A strong renewable electricity standard will mean these tools get used and these jobs created to make our buildings more efficient and begin to build the foundation of an American new energy economy.”

Read the whole editorial here: http://www.rollcall.com/news/36132-1.html

For more on Matt and G•O Logic’s houses, check out their website at www.gologichomes.com

Join us for a nuts-and-bolts presentation on the benefits of websites for businesses. This is a great opportunity to ask questions about websites, network with other business owners and learn more about putting the Web to work for your business.

Event Details:

Thursday, June 25th

4:00 – 5:30 PM

Unity College Center for the Performing Arts

42 Depot Street, Unity, Maine

For registration and event information, call Julie Downer at UniTel: 948-3959;

or email jdowner@uninets.net

Sponsored by Pica Design, LLC, UniTel and Unity College in Maine

Our eNEWS Starter Package is a great way to open the door to online marketing. We think this is great stuff, so we decided to launch a contest. The first 5 people to comment on this post (see the pink comments link below) will receive our $250 eNEWS Starter Package for FREE, and the next 10 people after that will get a 50% discount ($125 for the package). All you have to do is tell us your favorite piece of work in the Pica Portfolio, and why it’s your choice.

Don’t forget to leave us your (real) email address when you post your comment, so that we can get in touch and set up your first eNEWS letter. Thanks for listening!

Fine print: Contest entries accepted through May 31, 2009. Pica Design to set up an eNEWS account, set up one mailing list of email contacts, and design and develop an eNEWS template that the customer can edit and re-use indefinitely. Email contacts must be supplied by the customer in xls or csv (digital) format. Customer must have permission to use the email addresses on their contact list. Free eNEWS Starter Package winners pay the sending fee of $10 plus 1 cent for every email contact per campaign. Questions? Contact us!

Pica POINTS™ is our new email blast to promote special offers and events and share cost-saving tools and tips with our clients. To sign up for Pica POINTS™ today, click here. Look for Pica POINTS™ in your inbox soon!

WebSmart Seminar
Where: Unity College Center for Performing Arts
When: Thursday, June 25, 2009 from 4-5:30pm
Why: To learn what a website can do for your business
How: Registration & more info forthcoming