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Author, Columnist, Reporter, and Editor

Janine has more than 20 years experience as a journlist, author, and edtior. She's been published in a diverse collection of publications, including Shape Magazine, Layers Magazine, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Point Reyes Light Newspaper and The Miami Herald.

She's the author of more than a dozen books about the Internet, including Web Sites DIY For Dummies, Mobile Web Design For Dummies, iPhone & iPad Web Design For Dummies, and Dreamweaver For Dummies (every edition).

You'll find a collection of her web design tutorials and other musings at DigitalFamily.com, Janine's web design consulting and training website.

From 2002 and 2004 Janine wrote a newspaper colum forThe Miami Herald's Business Monday Magazine . Like most things about technology that are more than 5 years old, they're getting rather dated, but you can read some of her previously published columns on this page.

Spam-blockers often fight wrong messages

Your spam-blocker may be deleting more than junk mail. If you've e-mailed someone recently and not received a reply, don't take it personally. The latest casualties in the war on spam may be messages you want that are being misidentified and deleted by your server's spam-blocker. (continue...)

Online Networking Sites Compete to Build Personal and Professional Connections

Most people agree that online networking is a growing business. What they don't agree on is which new site offers the best way to build a network over the Internet.
Online networking sites -- which include LinkedIn, ZeroDegrees, Ryze, and Friendster -- represent one of the fastest growing categories of Web sites. And they are attracting millions of dollars in venture capital and millions of members eager to help each other find services, business partners, and jobs. (continue...)

Whyville.com teaches adults joys of learning online

When members of the online community at Whyville.net were challenged with reporting on Winter Solstice celebrations around the world, many quickly determined that the best strategy was to recruit an international team and compare notes.
That wasn't so hard in a virtual world where 50 percent of the members come from outside the United States. The real challenge came when they wanted to celebrate their success and discovered they'd first have to learn to negotiate different time zones. Most of them are only 12 or 13, and they still have early bedtimes. (continue...)

Cellphones shape social behavior among teens

Imagine how important your cellphone would be if using it were the only way to get together with your friends after school, compare notes about your classes, or keep in touch with your high-school sweetheart.
That's the reality for most of the young people in Japan today, arguably the most wired population in the world with 97 percent cellphone usage reported among Japanese college students and 79 percent among high school students. (continue...)

Looking for love in online places

You may not be able to buy or sell love, but you can make money selling personal ads online.
According to a study sponsored by the Online Publishers Association, personal ads on the Internet now account for the largest share of spending for online content. That means that people are paying more to use online matchmaking sites than they are to use any other sites on the Web. They spent more on personals than on business and investment sites, which came in second, and more than they spent on entertainment, which came in third. (continue...)

How much does spam really cost?

Supporters of spam will tell you that e-mail is the most cost-effective way to market any product or service.
Opponents will tell you that spam is only cost-effective for the sender and that receiving those unsolicited messages is costing billions of dollars each year in computer processing power, online service fees and technical support. (continue...)

Businesses need more Internet, less TV exposure

After all the layoffs and stock losses of the past year, it's easy to think that business is best done offline these days -- unless you stop looking at failed business plans and start paying attention to the sheer number of people using the Internet and the impact it is having on nearly every aspect of people's lives.
''Surveying the Digital Future,'' a study released this month by UCLA reports that more than 71 percent of Americans have gone online and people are spending more hours on the Internet every day. (continue...)

How do you look online?

You never know who might search for information about you on the Internet before your next business meeting, interview, or blind date. The question is what will they find?
If you're concerned about your profes sional or personal reputation, you should pay attention to your online appearance. You should also know that you can take steps to tell your own story and even correct things that might mislead people. (continue...)

Online lessons in salesmanship

This may seem an old story at first -- at least by Internet standards -- because it's about a guy who buys a car over the Internet, something people have been doing for years.
What caught my attention, however, was that even though Yanier González was the creative director of a website-design firm, he only turned to the Internet out of frustration.
What should catch your attention is that this story is full of lessons about how traditional businesses -- from car dealers in South Florida to national banks -- are still losing customers to the Internet. (continue...)

Online collaboration gets in the Groove

Today e-mail is the most popular way people share information over the Internet, but as spam clutters our inboxes and sorting through messages becomes more cumbersome, many people are looking for a better way to work together online, whether they're down the hall or across the globe.
Enter Groove software, an online collaboration program that is on the leading edge of a growing trend in virtual work environments. Groove provides the flexibility, security and integration with other software programs that have already earned it a spot in a wide variety of places, from small consulting firms to large pharmaceutical companies to government organizations. (continue...)

Music industry plans hundreds of lawsuits for music sharing

Emboldened by the recent growth of fee-based music services, such as iTunes and Listen.com, the Recording Industry Association of America has announced plans to file hundreds of lawsuits in the coming months against individuals who trade music through free file-sharing systems, such as Kazaa.
Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, launched earlier this year, quickly became a darling of the music industry when it reported more than five million songs were downloaded in its first eight weeks online. iTunes has deals with all five major record labels and charges 99 cents per song. (continue...)

More past columns...