Do you live in a city of bookworms? Amazon released its annual list of the most well-read cities in the United States.Housing two internationally-renowned universities– Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology– it should come as no surprise that Cambridge, Massachusetts topped the list. Where did your municipality pan out?

A new social networking site is allowing people to be better neighbors. The founder of OpenTable has launched a new social networking site, OhSoWe, to make it easier for members of a community to share items — like lawn mowers — and also engage in local discussions.

What makes a good advertisement? Taking risks and doing something the industry has not seen before will make an impact according to MP Mueller, the founder of a boutique advertising firm who posted a commentary piece in The New York Times. She looks back at a campaign with the Humane Society which had a positive message that went against all prior “doom and gloom” advertising. In another example of taking a risk, Dairy Queen recently launched a campaign aimed to humor their target Generation X audience.  Do you think your advertising takes enough calculated risks?

How smart is your pen? Although pen and paper may seem “old school” in an age of tablet devices and smartphones, a new line of pens is as high-tech as the latest 21^st Century meeting staples. Livescribe, makers of smartpens that record digital notes and audio, has announced a new service that allows digital calligraphers to upload these notes onto Google Docs or Evernote, or to send via email.  This is no regular ball-point.

Yahoo! and Google both announced enhancements to their email platforms this past week. Yahoo! introduced features that will enable “updates to Facebook and Twitter accounts to be posted from within Yahoo’s email boxes.” For its part, Google rolled out a people widget, a “quasi-social networking profile,” which will highlight past conversations with contacts and upcoming appointments scheduled on the site’s calendar, among other things. The battle of free email accounts continues…

Finally, is it time to do some spring cleaning and scrub your social network walls?  A new study found that nearly half of all Facebook profiles reviewed had profanity on their walls. Like a poorly kept home, a sloppy or offensive social media site reflects very poorly on the owner.  Be sure your social media site represents you in a way that will not undermine you later.