North Bay Business Journal

SAN RAFAEL — Design, engineering and entertainment software developer Autodesk Inc., (Nasdaq: ADSK) today said it signed a deal to purchase Socialcam, a year-old creator of a video capture, editing and sharing mobile app and cloud sharing service, for about $60 million.

Smartphones and social media are being employed in new ways as many wineries increase their use of the latest technology to reach consumers and maintain control of branding — all across the U.S. To add your experience, comment on this story.

NORTH BAY — Most companies today feel like they just have to have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn group and any other of the latest social networking sites out there.

A new survey by Robert Half Technology in Menlo Park said that employees who want to share news via social networking sites will need to be careful about violating company policies.

SAN RAFAEL — The San Rafael Chamber of Commerce is expanding its Leadership Institute to include optional opportunities for international travel and business meetings with chambers and industry leaders abroad offered to SRLI alumni and guests.

NAPA – Online social network Cork’d and winery search engine VinoVisit.com have partnered to offer expanded services to users.

SONOMA — While the tourism and hospitality industry in Sonoma took a sharp hit in 2009 amid steep economic decline, the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau announced at its annual meeting last week that the year was salvaged. It compared relatively well against some of its main competitors, and 2010 looks to be a much better year.

SANTA ROSA — Schools serving students from kindergarten to college are making use of the constant forward movement of technology to better instruct students both inside and out of the classroom.

NORTH BAY — Clover Stornetta Farms and Straus Family Creamery, which have nearly 2,000 and 1,000 Facebook page fans, respectively, were surprised to hear early last week of a recent change in the giant Internet social network’s promotions policy banning dairy products.

UPDATE, Dec. 22, 2009: Facebook revised its promotions policy to remove the ban on mentioning dairy but still prohibits the offering of dairy products as prizes.

NORTH BAY — In addition to lost productivity, employers can add legal risk to the list of annoyances related to employee use of social networking at work, according to North Bay legal experts who sounded off on trends for 2010.

Realtors have long searched out new ways of marketing themselves and the homes they sell. And it is particularly important in this harsh economic climate to be innovative about how clients are searched for and kept around.