Kevin Kwak's Blog

I been itching to write about Twitter, fast-growing microblogging website few months ago. Like many other social networking users (i.e. Facebook, Myspace, etc.), I did not know what the fuss was. Twitter did not have any unique feature that made me want to hop on its bandwagon. But months passed and after playing with Twitter.com, I realized why it has gained substantial “followings” and growth momentum early 2009.

Twitter.com founders did not define a single purpose on how to use Twitter and you’ll discover numerous ways to use Twitter. It is easy to get started: register your account by providing your name, username, password, and an e-mail address. Then go confirm the registration by clicking on the Twitter e-mail in your inbox. You are set to start tweeting which means to post new updates.

You can then search for your friends via the ‘Find People’ link on the top navigation. Four ways to find people you know: Find on Twitter (type in their name), Find on other networks (logon into Facebook and email accounts), Invite by email (type in friend’s email), and Suggested Users. All self explanatory.

Unlike Facebook where friendship is mutual, Twitter is one way. You actually follow the person and he/she may or may not follow you back. Celebrities and renowned authors tend to follow only their colleagues and not strangers. Most of the times, when you follow an individual, they will follow you back. It is up to you whether you want to follow that person because their tweets (updates) will now be visible in the twitter timeline. So it would not make sense if you follow someone that updates irrelevant posts that does not interest you. On the other hand, if you’re the one that wants to deliver your post (contents) to as much number possible, you want to follow as much twitters and hope they follow you back.

Twitter allows you to post a maximum 140 characters in your tweets. Therefore most tweeters shorten their web links (URL) to fit within the 140 character limit, and Twitter does it automatically for you if you decide to post the URL directly. One major downside to shorten URL is that the end user who clicks on the URL does not know where they are being redirected to because the shortened URL link does not reveal the destination. In the past and even in the month of April, people with bad intentions abuse twitter by sending the twitter user to a malicious virus-infested website, or send self-replicating computer program to deliver spams to twitter accounts. Twitter has been on alert mode looking for worms and other illegal activities.

Desktop programs like Tweetdeck is an alternative to using Twitter on your desktop and not on the website. Tweetdeck is free to download, available for both PC and MAC, and has lot of cool features.
* Tweet directly from TweetDeck
* Stay up to date – view all new tweets in real-time
* Use columns to create your personal dashboard
* Create Groups to easily follow friends, colleagues or other interest groups
* Update Facebook and follow your Facebook friends
* Follow topics in real-time with saved searches
* View @replies and direct messages and manage your conversations
* Never miss an important tweet with notifications
* Share your photos and videos with Twitpic and 12seconds
* And many more Twitter favourites including Stocktwits, Twitscoop and all the most popular URL shortening services

The other popular way to use Twitter is via your mobile device. You can tweet directly from your cell phone by sending in a text message to 40404. You need to configure the mobile setting in your Twitter account to use this. There are over dozen other free programs to tweet on your cellphone (google “Twitter mobile”). For those that have a Facebook account and currently use T-Mobile wireless service, you probably know that you CAN NOT configure Facebook Mobile because T-Mobile is not one of the service providers. I found out that Facebook has a Twitter application where you can connect the two so that Twitter mobile updates will also appear as a Facebook status update. This can be quite useful for T-Mobile users.

EDIT: If you know where I can watch the past episodes of “Idea How Much,” please send me a message. Thank you in advance!

A late night television show I watch is a Korean “pitch your entrepreneurial idea to the CEO” show on a Directv channel. For those that have the Korean channel package, the show is broadcast by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and is on channel 2081 Thursday at around 10:20pm PST.

An inventor is invited to the show “Idea How Much” with their new invention and the goal is to pitch their idea at the highest market price to a group of corporate Chief Executive Officers (CEO). There are exactly 20 CEO sitting on the assigned section awaiting for the live auction. Did you just say auction? The inventor briefly introduces and demonstrates their invention, and the auction begins with the help of a female auctioneer. The CEOs decide beforehand whether they want to participate in the bidding and will compete with each other to claim the rights to the acquired idea. Eventually two CEO are engaged in a bidding war.

Three hours prior to the auction broadcast, the group of CEO gets a chance to listen and watch a demonstration by the inventor. Questions are asked as well as feedback provided to the inventor, and then the CEOs decide whether they will bid on the idea and what their maximum bid amount would be. The last point is crucial because when you are in one of the 20 hot seats engaged on a bidding war, they can get carried away. But I doubt that would ever happen.

Qualifications
In popular Korean shows, the program director (PD) carefully selects the participants to come to their show to increase the show ratings by making it more enjoyable to watch. But in “Idea How Much,” there are three product analysts that calculates the estimated market value of the given invention and determine if there is a potential market to sell the product(s) to. Meeting this few requirement would qualify the inventor into the show. Surely there will be hundreds of applications to get on the show but only the selected few with excellent ideas will get accepted. And many of these ideas fetch into the six to seven digits category because of the potential marketability of the idea. We’re talking worldwide sales and not only in South Korea.

In a recent episode I watched, an inventor introduced a bed pillow that produced relaxing music to help the user get a better sleep. The pillow was unique as only the user themselves can hear the sound and the person next to it won’t hear a thing. A small controller was attached to the pillow so that the user can control the volume and change the music being played. An experiment took place using the invention with six subjects that had difficulty sleeping either from a nightmare, insomnia, or other sleeping disorder. Four of the subjects went into a deep sleep, one had a good light sleep, and only one could not get a good sleep. The fascinating part of the experiment is that the pillow actually helped young students improve their memorization skill after getting a quick nap using the pillow. There are scientific studies that daytime nap do improve mental sharpness and this pillow is like the ultimate tool to restore it. The results impressed several of the CEO.

I returned from the Overseas Korean Traders Association’s (OKTA) two-nights three-days trade workshop and the program was well planned and executed despite it being only in its fifth year. Former OKTAJR’s graduates, staffs, and the directors worked long hours six months ahead of the program for the trade shows’ preparation. The guest speakers, import/export trade workshops, business plan case studies, and activities were well incorporated into the program layout. I greatly appreciate the founders, directors, staffs, sponsors, and all the contributors that have made this program a success for the Korean-American entrepreneurs.

The trade workshop took place in the Wilshire Plaza Hotel (Koreatown’s central business district) as mentioned in the previous OKTASC entry. Each year, OKTAJR accepts a maximum of 50 participants to the program. OKTA could invite more participants but then there would be issues with overcrowding and lessening the effectiveness of networking and the workshops. Perhaps OKTA’s annual budget could not accommodate additional participants.

Speaking of budget, OKTA fortunately attracts successful businesses for the program’s sponsorship. Without their sponsorships and support, OKTA would face many challenges coming up with the funds necessary for the program’s expenses; hotel accommodations, meals, program materials, great speakers, field trips, and lot more. To show my appreciation for the numerous sponsors, here is the list of OKTAJR’s sponsors:

GOLD Sponsors
Royal Imex Inc., Everest (Bags), Wilshire State Bank, Dura Coat Products Inc., Group Win (Golf)

SILVER Sponsors
Center Bank, KNA Memorial Hall, ENS Tradings Inc., Hite Jinro, Wilshire Plaza Hotel Los Angeles, Lotte Hotel LA Office

BRONZE Sponsors
Hanmi Bank, Nara Bank, Flexfit LLC, Asiana Airline, KCC Transport Systems Inc., J 2 Group Inc., Commonwealth Bank, eWaste Center Inc., Sunrise Distribution USA Inc., Mantis Technologies, Contempo Inc., Ameriko Inc., Da Se In America Inc., UPS, Woo Ri Sool, Khan Soju, Boo Chang Do Tofu House, Best Western Palm Resort, DreamLife, SinJin America, Kyungmin Trading Corp., Damo Clothing Inc., DNH Management Co., Aries Trading, S&S Inc., Has Been Limited, Summit Wholesale, Leeway Global, WooJin Trading Inc., Elite Golf, Hannam Market, Nanowell, Uniti Bank, TaeYang Airline

OKTA 2007 Trade Workshop DVD Part 1/2

OKTA 2007 Trade Workshop DVD Part 2/2

Networking
OKTAJR emphasized heavily on networking, and after all this was a business workshop where communications between a buyer and a seller (importer/exporter, company/end-user, etc.) is the principle of trading. Since this was run by the Overseas Korean Traders Association of ‘Southern California’ (OKTASC), the majority of the participants worked and lived in the Los Angeles County and a very few were from a different county and state. Like all other networking events I attended, I was very impressed at the different backgrounds of the participants. Within my own team were outstanding people with interesting backgrounds from different walks of life. Through this trade workshop, I had the privilege to work with them for three days.

The age range was wider than I expected. The youngest member was 18 years old (sophomore in college) and the oldest member may have been in her/his late 30s. Overseas Korean Traders Association Junior (OKTAJR) of course do not discriminate against age; accepting applicants both young and mature, the age differences only encouraged a diverse networking opportunity combining fresh ideas from all participants.

The diversity was present not only in the age range but also in cultural views. The English language was not as prominent as I thought it would be. For instance, my group used Korean most of the times and though I am fluent in Korean conversations, my Korean vocabularies were limited compared to my team mates. One of the member lived and worked in South Korea most of his life but immigrated to the United States for his Masters of Business Administration studies at UCLA. He is in consulting and by listening in to his conversations, you knew he was an expert in his field. A young man learning about the Korean-American lifestyles and cultural point of views had many inputs and opinions on the cultural differences. I was fortunate enough to pick his brain and learn more about the Korean business culture. Did I mention that I really want to improve on my Korean?

Field Trips
Our class got a chance to see a full-scale apparel manufacturing company in Los Angeles (South Gate). Koos Manufacturing, Inc. is a successful jean manufacturer that employs around 700 employees as of year 2007. Koos not only manufactures high-end denim jeans, the company also has the entire business operation working under one roof: fashion designing, payroll, marketing and sales, and distributions. Excellent operation management if you ask me because not many apparel manufacturers have the entire operations working under one location. After the assembly line tour, we asked lot of questions on its success. For your information, competition is very fierce in Los Angeles and the profit margin is very thin in the textile industry but Koos Manufacturing, Inc. continues to thrive and do very well annually.

Koos Manufacturing, Inc.
2741 Seminole Ave.,South Gate, CA 90280
323-564-2100
www.koos.com

The next tour site was the Korean National Association Memorial Hall located near the University of Southern California (USC) campus. I encourage all Korean-Americans to visit the KNA Memorial Hall and spend a good hour or two reading the articles and exhibits beautifully displayed, and also check out their website to learn about the non-profit organization in details. Admission is free. Operating hours are Monday through Saturday 10AM to 4PM and Sunday is closed.

Korean National Association Memorial Hall
1368 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007
323-733-7350
www.knahall.org

I highly recommend this trade workshop. Visit OKTAJr’s website for more information.

For those that are residing in Southern California and desires to gain valuable experience learning international trading in the commerce industry, don’t miss out the 2008 Overseas Korean Traders Association (OKTA) Trade Workshop. It is a three day trade workshop that is being held in Koreatown Los Angeles and the fee is only $80 which includes hotel accommodation, meals, and many programs scheduled for the event.

There are certain criteria to be admitted to the workshop and I believe you must be a Korean-American with a permanent residence or a US citizen (no F1 student visa), proficient in English (maybe Korean too?), last but not least have a true desire to succeed and work diligently as a Korean trader.

The World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Association was established on April 1981. OKTA’s initial goal was to promote mutual prosperity between Korean traders in the U.S. and Japan with Korea and its trading partners as well as to enhance Korea’s economic profile.
Since its establishment, OKTA has expanded exchanges from Korean traders within the US and Japan to Korean traders globally. In addition, OKTA has expanded its concentration on trade of commodities to the trade of information and services. OKTA has been working across the globe, obtaining trade orders and holding consultations among its participants. Through international commerce, OKTA has and continues to contribute to the economic development and prosperity of Korea, Japan, and the U.S., as well as countless other global economies.
http ://www.oktajr.com/socal/home/

Date: 2008, July 24 (Thu) – July 26 (Sat)
Place: Wilshire Plaza Hotel (3515 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010)
Fees: $80/person
Tel: 323.939.6582
Fax: 323.939.6583
Application Deadline: July 4, 2008
More Information: www.OKTAjr.com & info@OKTAjr.com

When a person is in dire need of professional advice to get out of legal troubles, they would expect to receive quality services in return especially if they hire an attorney in law. A member of the State Bar of California went through a rigorous education, passed a difficult bar exam, and pledged to follow the Rules of Professional Conduct at all times. But like in any industries, there are professionals that could not overcome the temptation of easy money and thus crosses the line jeopardizing their entire career. In news, you read about these professionals that rely on their licenses and degrees to work in a competitive field but due to their greed, their reputation and the career goes down the drain because of a bad move in their part. An easy route to make quick money does not exists unless you factor in illegal and fraudulent activities unless you invest lot of your own capital and loan to start/operate a business that sells a hot commodity.

So going back to the blog title, the State Bar of California introduces proposals and amendments to the practices of law. One recent proposal that came to my interest is titled Online Publication of Notice of Disciplinary Charges (NDC). In the State Bar website, the public general has access to view the license status and disciplinary charges (if any) of a member of a State Bar but an important information is missing.

Unfortunately, although the records and hearings relating to the disciplinary proceeding pending against an attorney in the State Bar Court are public, members of the public currently have extremely limited access to them.

The issue or a lack of information with the Attorney Search feature is that the public general do not have updated information on whether the attorney has a disciplinary proceedings pending against them. Everyone will at least once seek an attorney for legal counsel and when the time comes, you would want to hire the best attorney that your money can buy. No one wants to seek an attorney that have violated the attorney-client relationship. Imagine your privacy and confidential information being misused for unlawful purposes. There was a recent news article in the Korea Times where a group of Korean-American attorneys that practices law in Los Angeles County took advantage of a senior woman by transferring her real property deeds/ownership (located in South Korea) to a newly formed limited liability company (LLC) formed by the attorneys. There will be justice!

The due date to voice your comment is June 30, 2008 and send your e-mail to:
Itzel D. Berrio
The State Bar of California
Office of the Chief Trial Counsel
180 Howard St.
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-538-2541
415-538-2214 Fax

EDIT: Here is the e-mail response from Itzel Berrio.