I've been thinking and talking about a project that hasn't started yet, but it's what I want to do, so I'll start it today.

First the idea. Last August 4th, I was wandering around town with my design book during Musikfest, glancing at Lehigh Valley Style and it's Top 100 Reasons to Love the Lehigh Valley. I was left wanting more. Here's what I wrote in my design book that night:

How do we best
    EXPRESS
WHY WE LOVE
  BETHLEHEM

it's a community of 
\ GRASSROOTS   \
  \ PARTICIPANTS \

Godfrey's / WDIY / Musikfest

Have all of us tell the
story of Bethlehem

COLLECTIVE STORIES
of PLACES,
        EVENTS,
             PEOPLE ...

an ongoing narrative,
a Community of Memories.

LIFE in our HOME.
   Neighbors
      sharing
          memories.

WHAT'S THE PHRASE?
   Grassroots,
      volunteers,
          do-it-yourself,

  neighbors,
        home,
           community.

Stories,
   memories,
       tales.

Organize it as a semantic map ....

         THINK MAP

       walk around town

        memory tour

            story tour

             story tree

      town stories

     campfire

        water cooler
 
       watering hole
    
          pub

    STORYMILL.

So I went home that night and bought storymill.com. Only now, after eleven months of talk, do we begin.

Today I presented the new & improved bethlehem website to the Bethlehem Marketing Council. The meeting was odd in that nearly everyone there was a current client (the Bethlehem Chamber, Historic Bethlehem Partnership, Musikfest was absent) or someone that we've given proposals to (Just Born, Moravian, City Hall).

What can I say? I love this town. Bethlehem is a story that needs a good solid sustained telling. I'm definitely up for it.

Software piracy is a very common practice, which most consider harmless. What many people don't know is that there's a genuine threat of getting caught, with very real penalties attached.

The BSA is a software piracy watchdog group. They regularly investigate businesses and organizations that pirate computer software.

For those that don't know, to be legal, you must purchase a separate license for each copy of each program on each computer you own. If you buy one copy of Office, then install it on five computers, that's four counts of software piracy.

Legally, you can be fined for all of the profit you make from the use of the pirated software (as much as $150,000 per pirated instance). You can also face criminal charges of up to $250,000 and as much as 5 years of jail time. This means that if your business makes as much as $600,000 from those four pirated copies of Office, the BSA could nail your business for $600,000 and you for $250,000 and five years in jail.

For more info:
http://www.bsa.org/usa/freetools/consumers/swandlaw_c.phtml

If you don't think this is a serious threat, read these accounts:
http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/antipiracy.phtml

These guys are definitely into making headlines. Here's a Slashdot discussion on what happens when a college or university gets targeted:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/26/1441217&mode=nested&tid=99

My advice, take this seriously if you run a business or organization. One disgruntled employee can easily blow the whistle and prompt an audit.