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Steve Woda
Arlington, VA
CEO & Co-founder of uKnow.com. Founder of buySAFE. Entrepreneur. eCommerce. Mobile & Internet Safety & Security. Economics. Surety Bonds. Wharton MBA.
Interests: entrepreneur, technology, travelers, ecommerce, cook, skier, wharton, golfer, florida southern college, surety bonds, aetna, usf&g, st. paul, buysafe, uknow.com, and family
Recent Activity
An American Football Coach in London!
Easily the funniest video of the week. Enjoy! Continue reading
Posted Aug 7, 2013 at Steve Woda's blog
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Stricter COPPA laws due in July to govern underage kids on Facebook, Tumblr
By July, Facebook, Google, Tumblr and others will likely be forced to remove photos, audio recordings or other personal identifiers of children -- or else face stiff fines, thanks to updates to a 15-year-old law.
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was enacted in 1998. In 2011, the FTC beefed up the measure, preventing sites from collecting personal information from kids such as name, location and date of birth without a parent's consent. Continue reading
Reblogged May 26, 2013 at Steve Woda's blog
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Pimps hit social networks to recruit underage sex workers
"I was just, 'oh, he's cute, I'll accept him,'" a 22-year-old called "Nina" recalls. She was 18 at the time, and didn't imagine that clicking "accept" would start her on a path to four years of prostitution across the country. "Nina" is a pseudonym; CNNMoney agreed to change the names of the victims in this article to protect their privacy. Upper middle-class and college-bound, Nina had her plans derailed in her senior year of high school after her mother was sentenced to two years in prison for financial crimes. Lonely and looking online for male attention, she started messaging back and forth with a man who said he was falling for her. They talked about trips they'd take together as a couple, and about marriage, maybe kids. "He sold me the biggest dream in the world," she says. "I thought he really did like me and we were going to... Continue reading
Reblogged May 26, 2013 at Steve Woda's blog
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Digital Parenting: Engage
Digital parenting is one of the hardest parts about being a modern day parent; the possible dangers that come with digital interaction, especially when unmonitored, are well known thanks to news articles and TV specials.
I believe that it is important for digital parents to avoid creating restriction upon restriction. According to Connectsafely.org, based on surveys of 25,142 families of 9-to-16-year-olds in 25 countries, researchers came to the conclusion that parents' active engagement with their kids' Internet activities works better than restricting them. Continue reading
Posted Nov 1, 2012 at Steve Woda's blog
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D.C.’s Newest Tech Accelerator “The Fort” Debuts Inaugural Batch | TechCrunch
Hot, new Washington D.C. tech accelerator known as The Fort is debuting its inaugural class of startups today. The organization grew out the efforts from early stage VC firm Fortify Ventures LLC, also known as Fortify.vc (that’s its URL, too), which had previously invested in nearly dozen D.C.-area tech companies. Over the past 9 months, The Fort’s co-founders, Jonathon Perrelli and Carla Valdes, have been busy trying to spark innovation in the nation’s capital. They set up the fund, invested in group of startups, created the accelerator, hosted a pitch competition called “Distilled Intelligence” which handed out $25K to winners, and selected a dozen more startups for The Fort’s first program. “D.C. is not a place where people are always working together,” says Perrelli of the group’s efforts, “but now there is this uprising. People are trying to build something here.” via techcrunch.com It is great to see the startup... Continue reading
Reblogged Mar 11, 2012 at Steve Woda's blog
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How to Throw a Paper Airplane 226 Feet
Check out this video of a guy throwing a paper airplane 226 feet 10 inches. He is using a plain piece of paper, but the airplane's design was quite sophisticated. Amazing stuff!! You can learn more about the designer's secrets in this article http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/diy-flying/the-secrets-of-the-world-record-setting-paper-plane-7013184?click=pm_latest Continue reading
Posted Mar 6, 2012 at Steve Woda's blog
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Sh*t Entrepreneurs Say... Very funny video
If you are an entrepreneur, you will find this video to be pretty funny. Have fun! Continue reading
Posted Mar 3, 2012 at Steve Woda's blog
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When we were kids, the bullying stopped when we left the playground. Today, bullying follows kids everywhere they go because they are connected 24/7. The average kid sends or receives almost 4,000 text messages per month, and they are online 1 in every 4 hours they are awake. 80% of kids say they sleep with their phones so that they won't miss any messages. The world has changed very quickly indeed.
I would highly recommend that parents check out parental intelligence tools such as uKnowKids (http://www.uknowkids.com).
Parental Intelligence tools are designed to help parents stay engaged in their kids' digital world so that they can help protect their kids from bad guys and bullies online and on the mobile phone. uKnowKids has a free version of the product, so it won't cost folks anything to try it out.
Full disclosure... I am the CEO of uKnow.com... the company behind uKnowKids.
I hope this is helpful to your readers.
Cyber-bullying Compared To Traditional Bullying
October 31, 2010, Toronto, Canada - In this How To Stop Bullying Blog, I found an interesting article on Wikipedia on how how cyber-bullying compares to traditional bullying. There are many similarities and also differences that make cyber-bullying a growing form of bullying. Especially since ...
Infographic: Cyber-Bullying by the Numbers by ZoneAlarm - PCMag.com
Reblogged Dec 9, 2011 at Steve Woda's blog
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'Cause we all just want to be big tech stars!
I love the technology world. There is so much creativity, and the following video is a great example of that. This music video is a parody of Nickelback's Rock Star music video. Check it out. There is more reality in this video than most of us would like to admit. :) I saw this video on Brad Feld's great blog, "Feld Thoughts", so special thanks to Brad for bringing it to our attention. Continue reading
Posted Jun 16, 2010 at Steve Woda's blog
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Steve Woda is now following The Typepad Team
Mar 15, 2010
Thanks for the comment LegatoSkyheart.
For me, they fixed the problem. My motherboard crashed, and the computer wouldn't even turn on. They took my laptop, and handed me a new laptop still in the box. The computer turned back on just fine. Problem fixed. :)
Poor customer service goes viral
It should be obvious in a day and age with the Internet, YouTube, HD and video cameras, that poor customer service can be very costly to a company. However, some of the old dinosaurs are a bit slow on the take. This entertaining music video, "United Breaks Guitars", was produced by a country s...
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you have a terrific holiday weekend.
Steve
http://www.stevewoda.com
From everyone at the buySAFE Team - have a Happy...
From everyone at the buySAFE Team - have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!!!
You are right Brendan. The assumptions may or may not be on target. It is good food for thought though.
It is hard to argue that it isn't terrible PR though, and as with most negative WOM, I am quite sure it is a net drain on financial resources. Would you agree?
Poor customer service goes viral
It should be obvious in a day and age with the Internet, YouTube, HD and video cameras, that poor customer service can be very costly to a company. However, some of the old dinosaurs are a bit slow on the take. This entertaining music video, "United Breaks Guitars", was produced by a country s...
Marjie, Mike, Clarissa, Alex and Koe,
Thank you so much for the nice comments! I sincerely appreciate it. I have also enjoyed working with all of you over the last few years, and of course, I hope to do so again at some point in the future.
I will certainly share my plans with you over the coming months. As always, your feedback will undoubtedly be valuable. :)
Keep in touch!
Steve
Thank you buySAFE!
Today, I am starting a new chapter in my entrepreneurial story. It is with both a bit of sadness and a lot of excitement that I share with you the news that I have left buySAFE to pursue other start-up and entrepreneurial interests. In addition, I have joined buySAFE’s Board of Advisors so tha...
Thanks Howard. I appreciate the nice words.
Ina - You are right. Empowerment is a lot more appealing to everyone, but especially to entrepreneurs.
Dancing with First Round Capital
First Round Capital's 2008 Holiday Card (video) proves once again why every early-stage entrepreneur wants to find a way to meet with this terrific investor group. Check it out! These guys are creative; they have been in the trenches themselves (multiple times!); they have been successful (...
Thanks Ryan! I hope all is well.
Shopping Advisor approved by Mozilla for Firefox
After two months of testing in Mozilla's developmental sandbox, Mozilla approved the buySAFE Shopping Advisor for public distribution via the Firefox Add-on site starting this week. If you aren't already using Shopping Advisor with your Firefox browser, you should install it as an add-on toda...
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