That has been the big question since Apple announced plans to build the biggest data center in the world here in Catawba County.  Apple has stated that it will deliver iTunes out of the center but industry analysts say that Apple does not need that large of a facility to just deliver iTunes.

Well maybe they do if iTunes becomes more than the music market that has made it so successful.  Rumors have it that Apple wants to deliver your favorite TV shows through iTunes.  If so, Apple could change or let’s say, revolutionize how we purchase entertainment services.  The service, which is expected to be via a-la-carte, would allow subscribers to pick the programs they wanted to view and pay accordingly.  The price is expected to be about $30 per month and serve as many as 65 million users via iTunes.

Success of the project requires Apple to get buy in from broadcast and cable TV programmers.  Industry experts say that changing the model will be difficult but acknowledge that Apple changed the model with iTunes and made  that industry profitable. 

Getting the first network will be the toughest but Apple may have an advantage here.  Industry executives believe the first to sign with Apple will be Disney.  Not hard to imagine since Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest single shareholder.  Jobs received the stock when Disney acquired Pixar animation studio in 2006.

Apple is very secretive with their plans so the future of Apple’s data center is still to be revealed.  However, changing the way something is delivered, simplifying the experience, and marketing at a price point that is beneficial to both the customer and Apple is what makes the company strong.  Delivering TV over iTunes follows that pattern, so could that be the plans for the data center?  We will be eagerly watching as the center goes up.

For more information about Apple’s iTunes rumor check out these postings:

All things Digital and Fast Company:

 

Last week it was my pleasure to meet with a group of citizens at the Sherrills Ford-Terrell Fire Rescue base.  We were discussing 911 and emergency calls when one question came up.  “It is sort of hard to get to my house, could you find me?”  In today’s world of GPS’ and Google maps, that question sounds trivial.  However, if you look at the map of the Sherrills Ford area from Google, you can see all the little fingers of land and coves that attract people to live on the lake.  Finding some of these are difficult and add the fact that many GPS providers only update their map once every few years, the concern becomes very real.

So how do we find you?  Each EMS unit and Law Enforcement unit is equipped with GPS tracking and AVL (Automated Vehicle Location).  Just like the GPS in your car, the onboard GPS keeps constant track of the vehicle location.  Information from the unit, for example  location and speed, is sent back to a central data network.  How is this different from the GPS in your car?  Back at the central database, the GPS is integrated with the county’s GIS and complete up-to-date maps.  If a new road is added it will be available to our units in a few days.  New developments and new homes are added from the building services database.  Maps and data in the EMS and Law Enforcement units is constantly being updated.  At the same time, the location of each unit is being sent back to shift supervisors and to the 911 Center.

So how do we find you?  Let’s walk through the entire process.  You have just called 911 and stated that someone in your house is having chest pains.  Time is critical.  The 911 telecommunicator dispatches EMS to your location.  When you called, your phone number and address were displayed on the CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) screen.  The 911 telecommunicator will always verify with you that this is correct.  When the call is dispatched, the 911 telecommunicator will call the EMS unit by radio.  At the same time, the information is being sent to a computer in the EMS unit.  The computer in the EMS unit displays the address and the emergency details  for the responders.  It also displays a map with the location of the EMS unit and the location of the emergency.  The responding unit can then choose to map to the location and the best route will be displayed on the computer screen.  As the unit travels to the location of the emergency, icons on the screen track progress.  Once at the scene, if  transport to a hospital is necessary, the system will map the best route to the hospital.

So how do we find you?  Thanks to GPS and AVL integrated with GIS, our units have up-to-date maps and routing information to save precious seconds when responding to your emergency.  So whether you live on a beautiful hard to reach cove on Lake Norman or small farm down a country road, relax, we should be able to find you.

I think everyone in Catawba County is proud that Apple is coming or should I say that Apple is here.  Apple began breaking ground and working on their new data center almost immediately after the paperwork was completed and their project is moving forward at record speed.

As soon as the announcement was made and the size of the facility was publicized, technology blogs, Twitter, and news sites were a-buzz wondering what Apple is up to now.  Apple’s new data center will be one of the largest centers in the world and capable of delivering huge amounts of information.   Everyone is still wondering what Apple plans for the future but those of us in the tech world know how secretive Apple is when it comes to unveiling new products and services.

The big news now is the notoriety of having two of the most recognized names in technology ( Apple and Google)locate in our area .  The big question now is, “What does the area offer that Apple and Google were attracted to?”  We are in the spotlight and this is a prime time to attract other technology companies to area.

That is exactly what Scott Millar, president of  Catawba County’s Economic Development Corporation hoped would happen.  The EDC is working with other counties to attract more data centers to this area.  Building on the momentum of Apple and Google locating here, it is hoped that our region  will become a data center corridor.  More data centers would, of course, bring  more jobs to the area; and those jobs would  have a higher than average salary.

For more information about the data center corridor, check out yesterday’s article in the Hickory Daily Record at http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/content/2009/oct/28/5-counties-promote-data-center-corridor/news/ .

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In a meeting today, I was having a discussion with one of our young staff members.  The optimum word being young. Interpret - Gen Y.  We were discussing how to make a website easier for users to find and I told her type in “Search Engine Optimization” in Google.  The discussion them turned to Google and how easy it is to get answers.  She then made the statement, “I wonder what it would be like if we couldn’t get answers in 5 minutes?”

For those of us that remember, Before Google, this question is shocking but we know the answer to that question.  Before Google we spent hours, days, even months researching projects and trying to find answers to questions.  Often finding only one or two solutions because of limited books and resources at hand.  Sometimes we found all the information needed, sometimes we made decisions on the information we had only to find we didn’t have all the facts.  Doing research and getting answers to questions could be a painful process.

With Google and a host of other search engines, getting answers to questions is fast and easy.  Type in anything and you will get something back.  Find out about people, restaurants, building permits, definitions, maps that you can drive the route, anything you want to know.  And the 5 minutes in the question, if you have access to the information, you can get it from anywhere in the world in 8 seconds or less.

Those who hate change would say that this rapid access to information is bad.  Others would say that the information in cyberspace contains a lot of misinformation.  But to me the question represents an exciting time in our lives.

With the information available and the ease of access, people today have the tools to be more informed, the resources to make better decisions, and the power to challenge the status quo.  Research can be completed in a shorter period of time with more detail than we even thought to be possible Before Google.  Projects can be completed faster and one can build upon the knowledge gained from similar project information all over the world.  This feeds the change engine and leads to faster growth and innovation.

So “What would it be like if we couldn’t get answers in 5 minutes?”  I know the answer to that question, lived it, survived it but I wouldn’t want to go back.  I like having instant access to information and believe that it is making the world a more informed, better place to live.

So to my young colleague, take this powerful tool and change the world……

Do you turn your computer and peripherals off when you leave for the day?   If everyone would turn his or her computer and peripherals off when they leave, it could save a significant amount of money and, at the same time, help make this a greener world by reducing our carbon footprint.

Catawba County urges employees to shut their computer down when they leave for the day, unless the computer is tied to other crucial services or needs to stay on for maintenance purposes. This is an expectation of all employees.  We encourage you to adopt the same practice.

While our employees shut their computer down every day, Catawba County will be participating in the National Association of Counties, “Power IT Down Day” on August 27, 2009.  NACo, along with its partners, is asking that counties participate in this nationwide initiative.  More information is included below about the savings that could be realized when this is done on a nationwide basis.

So what do you need to do if you would like to participate?  If you shut your computer and peripherals down every day, you just need to sign up for the program at the Power IT Down Day  web site and continue shutting down as normal.  If you have not been shutting your computer down every day, please make this part of your daily routine and visit the Power IT Down Day web site to sign up to participate on August 27th.

Thank you for helping Catawba County save energy and the environment.

The National Association of Counties is sponsoring “Power IT Down Day” on August 27, 2009

On a single day this summer, county governments across the country could dramatically slash energy consumption costs with the flick of a switch.

On August 27, 2009, the most trusted names in green IT will join together for the second year to make a change for the better with “Power IT Down Day.” Citrix, along with Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Microsoft, has committed to switching off personal computers and peripherals when leaving the office for the evening on August 27 and have challenged all levels of government to do the same.

Last year, over 2,800 government and industry employees pledged to power down their computers, printers and monitors on Power IT Down Day - a one-day savings of over 37,000 kilowatt-hours.

If only one percent of county governments’ 2.9 million employees (source: 2007 Census) participated in Power IT Down Day, more than 380,000 kilowatt-hours could be saved. That comes to an energy cost-savings of more than $38,000 in a single night.

Power IT Down Day encourages government to embrace responsible energy usage at the individual level. And, inspired by the cost-savings generated by Power IT Down Day, Citrix and our green IT partners plan to donate more than $20,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project.

 As a practice and as part of our Green Initiatives, Catawba County recommends that all computers and peripherals that are not performing a function be shut down when the employee leaves for the day. We will use “Power IT Down Day” to remind our staff that their computers should be shut down every day when they leave work or are going to be away from their desk for an extended period of time.

 To sign up and learn more about green IT in government, staff will be encouraged to visit the Power IT Down Day Web site.

The State of North Carolina is in the process of writing a new 911 plan and we have been asked to participate.  In a recent meeting they asked, “What should a 911 Communications Center look like in 3 to 8 years?”   That’s a good question to which my staff has many good responses.  But what do you think it should look like?  What do you want out of a 911 Communications Center? 

I want your input as to what you expect from a 911 Communications Center.  Since this blog goes in many different directions, the easiest way to respond is to comment to the blog at http://tinyurl.com/mvgxmm .

For a little background, the Catawba County 911 Center is a state of the art facility that has the ability to take your call, track the location of the call, and dispatch help for the call.  The center has many tools including AVL(Automated Vehicle Locating) that tells the location of EMS and Law Enforcement units, in unit dispatch and mapping, and many other tools to assist you with an incident.

However, there are many new services that the 911 Center currently cannot offer.  For example, the 911 Center cannot receive text messages or automated messages from alarm companies and services like OnStar.  While the technology exists, standards have not been created for these type services.  That is part of what the state plan will be addressing.  With your input, that plan can be even stronger.

Many of you have seen the news about Lucille Pitts retiring.  For those of you who haven’t, Lucille retired a few weeks ago after serving Catawba County for 65 years.  Most of us can’t imagine working for one employer for that long and even more amazing, most of us were not even born when Lucille came to work in 1944.  That fact started me thinking about the technology and changes that Lucille had experienced during her employment with Catawba County.

 Lucille worked in the Register of Deeds office and you can look at records from 1944 that were recorded in Lucille’s very neat handwriting.  Through the years things progressed and records were scanned, digitized and everything transferred to electronic format.  From writing to complete records delivered online, from interoffice mail to email, from turning on the lights in the morning to booting up a dozen or so workstations and connecting them to the network, Lucille did it all.  Yes I hear she didn’t really like email to start with but she learned to use it and mastered what she needed to do her job.

So as Lucille worked away in the Register of Deeds office, how did the world change?  The list below contains some of the inventions and technologies that came about during Lucille’s time with us. Some reflect major inventions, some minor but life changing and some are just for amusement.  They are listed in chronological order and some are hyperlinked to give you more information.  Enjoy the changes that occurred while Lucille served Catawba County.  And for those folks that tell me the world is changing to fast and they can’t understand the new technology, trace the timeline, Lucille had already worked 50 years before she learned to use email.  Unless you can break that record, you are still young enough to learn so dig into the new technology…….

The Lucille Pitts Technology Timeline 1944 - 2009

The kidney dialysis machine, Atomic Bomb, microwave oven , Polaroid Camera, Mobile phones invented, transistor, Tupperware seal , electric Guitar, Frisbee, Velcro, Wurlitzer jukebox, Cake mix, credit cards, UNIVAC 1, Super glue, Power steering, video tape recorder (VTR), Mr Potato Head, bar codes, diet soft drink, hydrogen bomb, Heart-lung Machine, Radial tires invented, musical synthesizer, black box - flight recorder, Transistor radio, the pill, Teflon pans, solar cells, McDonalds, Nuclear Submarine, Optic fiber, computer hard disk, hovercraft,  Liquid Paper, Polio Vaccine, Fortran, Explorer I, computer modem, the laser, Hula Hoops,  integrated circuit, pacemaker,  Barbie Doll,  microchip, halogen lamp, Valium, nondairy creamer, audio cassette,  fiber-tip pen, Spacewar, silicone breast implants, video disk, Operating Systems, Acrylic paint, Permanent-press fabric,  BASIC,  Minicomputer, Astroturf, Soft contact lenses, NutraSweet,  compact disk,  Electronic Fuel, handheld calculator ,  Automatic Teller Machine, computer mouse,  first computer with integrated circuits, RAM (random access memory), Moon Landing, arpanet (first internet), artificial heart, bar-code scanner, Optical Fiber, daisy-wheel printer,  floppy disk, dot-matrix printer, food processor,  liquid-crystal display (LCD),  microprocessor, videocassette,  Pong,  word processor, Gene splicing,  ethernet, disposable lighter,  Barcode. post-it notes, liposuction,  Microsoft, laser printer, push-through tab on a drink can, Magnetic resonance imaging, VisiCalc, artificial heart Jarvik-7,  Gossamer Albatross, Cell phones, Cray supercomputer,  Walkman,  hepatitis-B vaccine, Space Shuttle, MS-DOS, IBM-PC, scanning tunneling microscope, Human growth hormone genetically engineered,  PC named Times Man of the Year, Soft bifocal contact lens, virtual reality, CD-ROM, super-conductor, Synthetic skin, disposable camera, 3-D video, Disposable contact lenses, Graphic User Interface, Digital cellular phones,  RU-486, Doppler radar,  Prozac, genetically engineered animals,  Indiglo nightlight, High-definition, Hubble Telescope, World Wide Web, Internet protocol, HTTP, WWW, HTML, digital answering,  smart pill,  Pentium processor, HIV protease, Java, DVD, Web TV,  fuel cell, Viagra, Tekno Bubbles, Segway,  Artificial liver, Self-cleaning windows iPod, Braille Glove, Wireless headsets, Mars Rover, virtual Keyboard, Breath strips, iTunes Music store, Digital guitar, hydrogen fuel-cell generator, camera phones, Prius, Infrared Fever Screening System,  Glowing fish,  Adidas 1, Translucent Concrete, Jawbone, GPS and more, YouTube, hypoallergenic cats, steam clothes dryers, Gorilla tape, iPhone, Ford/Microsoft Sync, Chevy Volt, $4 Gas, Camera pill, Blackberry Storm, Facebook, and Tweeting everywhere, not to mention the tanking economy, and last, a president holding press conferences on YouTube.

By the way, I’m not sure about Lucille and Twitter but rumor has it she was tweeting from the George Strait concert.

How do you reach the most people in today’s world?  There is no obvious answer.  Informing the public has to use a wide variety of resources.  Last year, Catawba County started using Facebook and Twitter to reach the audiences using these media.  In a recent presentation to the NC3C conference, our efforts were spotlighted.  The article below is by Jason King of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners.  My thanks to Jason for recognizing our efforts.

Tuned in to or turned off by SOCIAL MEDIA?

Counties could be missing an opportunity to engage citizens, particularly youth, via Web 2.0

By Jason King, Assistant Communications Director, North Carolina Association of County Commissioners

The world has embraced social media. Everyone from your kids to your hairdresser to the president seems to have hundreds of fans on Facebook or is sharing their thoughts with the world via Twitter. Well, everyone except your county government.

So just why are so many county governments passing on this golden opportunity to share information and services and communicate with citizens on these free and easy-to-use interactive Web sites? The North Carolina City & County Communicators (NC3C) organization recently explored this question during its spring conference, held April 1-3 in Catawba County.

According to Cord Silverstein, executive vice president of interactive communications for Capstrat, President Barack Obama set the new standard for government communications via Web 2.0. In a Web feature on www.whitehouse.gov, the president held a special online “town hall” meeting, taking questions and polling the public, then answering several of the more popular questions in a short video. The White House Web site incorporates a blog and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, and the president is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/barackobama and Twitter at twitter.com/BarackObama.

The biggest pushback from local governments and the corporate world, according to Silverstein, is due to a loss of control. Traditional Web sites allow the owner to completely control the message. They don’t allow the viewer to communicate and connect with the Web site owner and other users. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, LinkedIn, flickr and YouTube allow sharing of information.

 At least one North Carolina county government is embracing rather than running from Web 2.0. Catawba County has presences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and the county’s official Web site incorporates RSS feeds to allow users to subscribe and receive content via their preferred electronic media, such as e-mail or Twitter.

“The whole concept of Web 2.0 is sharing,” said Terry Bledsoe, chief information officer for Catawba County. “It’s not just pushing information.” Bledsoe said. Web site managers today must think short-term - audiences are looking for fresh content daily - and sites must be agile and able to be accessed on multiple browsers and devices, such as iPhones and Blackberries.

“If what you are sending out won’t reach that device,” he said, “you’re missing a lot of your potential audience.”

Social networking sites can also be used as a means of retaining young talent in a county. By opening county government to forms of communication most popular to youth, you are empowering those citizens through engagement, Bledsoe said.

When developing the county’s Facebook site, Bledsoe met with officers in the county’s Youth Council to gather input on how the county’s information technology department could meet the needs of everyone - including youth.

Bledsoe said such outreach efforts will help talented students, such as then- Youth Council President Gavin Gabriel, keep their connection with the county if they leave for higher education. The hope is that connection will lead them back to the county when they graduate.

“If we don’t reach the Gavins of the world, they’re going to leave and go someplace else,” he said.

In the county’s first seven months on Facebook, 453 users signed up as fans.

So how do Catawba County employees find the time to update Facebook and Twitter? They don’t have to. By using an RSS service, Feedburner, the county broadcasts updates to e-mail subscribers and its Facebook and Twitter pages every time it updates the county Web site.

The county also allows community agencies that receive county funding to get set up to have their event listings automatically post to Facebook.

Implementing an RSS feed on a Web site isn’t too difficult, Bledsoe said, but he recommended that a county work with its IT department to set it up.

For counties that want to get started with Web 2.0 but don’t know where to begin, Bledsoe recommended they “go down your hall and find your two youngest employees.”

Those who aren’t ready to embrace social media will likely see current and future generations leave them behind, he warned.

“In the next 10 years, you will experience more technological change than you experienced in the past 80 years.”

The April edition of CountyLines can be found at:

http://www.ncacc.org/documents/countylines/09_04.pdf

The Future Economy Council met Thursday morning and left invigorated, excited and challenged.  Rick Smyre, a futurist held an intriguing conversation with the council.  That conversation and the meeting was captured very elegantly by Thom Shell of the Hickory Hound.  My thanks to Thom for allowing me to share his post.  Thom’s blog is posted below and can be found at http://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2009/04/future-economy-council-meetinf-was.html.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Future Economy Council Meeting was awesome

James Thomas Shell

Here is my report on this morning’s Future Economy Council Meeting. Rick Smyre really got me to thinking about the possibilities for our community going forward into the future. We should be thankful that Danny Hearn has moved us in this direction.

Mr. Hearn made introductions of a few new members that will participate in our Future Economy Council: Mary Sizemore - Director, Hickory Public Libraries; Karen Foss - Director, Hickory Public Libraries; Patty Thompson, Mountain State University; Tom Alexander - Fire Chief, City of Hickory.

Mr. Hearn stressed the importance of utilizing library resources to get our message out. We have applied for a $10,000 grant from the Catawba Valley Community foundation. This money will go towards training 15 to 25 “Master Capacity Builders;” “Futures Institute Training at L-R, CVCC. and ASU;Improving the IT curriculum of Catawba County’s 3 school systems; Transformative Dialogue Groups - to involve and educate the citizenry; and for Incidentals. Mr. Hearn stated that even if we don’t get this grant, that there are other avenues available to raise the monies needed. We will know in 5 weeks whether we get this grant or not.

Mr. Hearn then introduced Rick Smyre. He was a CEO of a textile company in Gaston County and is a leading Future Development Specialist. He believes that we are in a period of Historical Transformation. He told us that he used to debate people, but now he has learned to listen and connect with what people are saying. He stated that everything he told us was an opinion and that he has no truth left in his body. One of the real challenges is to create a culture in communities where they can transform themselves.

His experiences led him to think structurally and linearly in the past. He used to debate upon what he heard. If he agreed with what a person thought, then he could carry on a discussion with the person. He said he really wasn’t listening to what people were saying.

We need to learn to not just reform, we need to learn how to transform. Transformation means something has not been around (existed) before. Reformation is just changing something that already exists. Transformation requires people to rethink what they have thought for years. These are fundamental issues.

Dialogue is communication in the form of questions and statements. Dialogue is not enough in the transformative times we are in. We have to find value (a connection) in what one another are saying. This can help us with our capacity to innovate. The skill to ask appropriate questions is going to be more important at times than to make a statement.

Traditional Leadership is project oriented and is focused on outcomes.Transformative Leadership requires that we use new ideas that create a futures context. New ideas do not have a model or template to go by. If we don’t open our minds to these new ideas, then we don’t have the capacity to make the changes necessary to transform our community. We must have a sense of what is emerging, instead of being fixated on the way that things have always been.

Work of the future will be mental. Biological Principle says that you do not have innovation, growth, or evolution unless you have diversity. Diversity alone is not enough, you must have processes that allow that diversity to take shape. Nobody changes unless we as individuals decide that we must change. This is the reason that Statements are no longer effective. We must build connections between individuals. Questions help us to evolve and develop ideas and processes.

We are seeing 3 different Economies emerge:
1) The Knowledge Economy - Thought to be taking place from 2000 to 2025. Creation of an environment in the culture that supports continuous innovation that is always open to new ideas.

2) Industrial Economy - The Industrial age. Peaked in the 1980s. This is still the focus of most leaders in our community.

3) Creative Molecular Economy (Open Source Economy) - When you cannot control where you want to go, because you don’t no where you are going, because things haven’t been invented yet, then you have to create productive capacities. Adaptive planning says that you must work and network together (as individuals) to respond and adapt to what is emerging. Connectivity (And/Both reasoning) is important in understanding context, structuring statements, and objectives. The two major components a) Technology and b) Organization of economy and society around individuals, global innovation networks, and small groups.

People resist change, because of comfort. That makes it hard to make positive transformations in society. If we want to have our economy be vital and sustainable, then we must be willing to take what are considered radical approaches in changing society. We must depend on one another to achieve higher objectives. This is a systemic issue and we must build parallel processes to achieve objectives in an exponentially changing world.

We need to build relationships with cutting edge individuals that can help our area. These people might come to this area, if we are supportive of a Creative Molecular Economy. We must learn to collaborate and cooperate. Leaders need to develop environments where others can come to their own conclusions. We should not limit ourselves, because we are not willing to listen to others who might have different ideas than our own. That expands the mind.

Marching Orders - Lead and talk to one another. Ask questions of one another. Design a 6 month strategy. Bring our own ideas to the table, so that community transformation can emerge over the next 5 to 10 years. Build connections with people that we know virtually or personally and collaborate with them so that they can see the value in what we are doing.

A recent story came out about a 13 year old California girl who sent 14,528 text messages in December.  That averages 484 text messages every day for an average of one messages every 2 minutes.  Thankfully the family had an unlimited texting plan.  For comparison, the average cell phone user in America sends 200 text messages per month.

I often have parents tell me that their child texts all the time and some text with their child.  However, the most common statement is, “Yes my kids text all the time but I can’t understand it.”  That usually leads to a discussion of these kids and the bad habits texting teaches.  But that’s another discussion that I am not getting into.  Texting is here, at least for a little while, and parents really need to know what their child is saying and who they are saying it to.

Texting is in reality another language that falls into several categories: lingo or slang, abbreviations, acronyms, and text shorthand. So let’s start out easy.

Most of you have probably seen LOL and know it means Laughing Out Loud. No it means Lots Of Love.  Actually it could mean both. Maybe you know AWHFY - Are We Having Fun Yet? Or L8R - Later?  There are hundreds of these that are fun and harmless.

But what happens when you child is trying to hide something and you don’t know what they are texting.  Here are a few that you should know.

9 - Parent is Watching

99 - Parent is No Longer Watching

420 - Marijuana

A/S/L/P -Age/Sex/Location/Picture

LMIRL -Let’s Meet in Real Life

KPC-Keeping Parents Clueless

LH6 -Let’s Have Sex

Now the discussion becomes more serious.  It is important that parents know who their child is texting and what they are texting.  There are several good sites on the web that can help parents understand texting and learn the language. Please, get involved with your child and help keep them safe by understanding their language. 

From Webopedia

Text Messaging Abbreviations
Part I: Guide to Understanding Online Chat Acronyms & Smiley Faces
Last updated: February 05, 2009  http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp 

From Netlingo

The NetLingo List of Acronyms & Text Message Shorthand http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php 

From Lingo2Word

Acronym, Emoticon Dictionary, Texting Thesaurus and Text Message Translator. Funny txt message collection ,colorful phrases. Popular Smiley,Chat words and text message lists http://www.lingo2word.com/index.php

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