NEWS: Productivity software should learn from game design

Shouldn’t productivity software make us want to work?

Three things productivity software can learn from game designers
1. Help me make decisions
2. Keep my interest
3. Make it pleasurable

---

  Great metaphor.

Blogging and social networks are already games. There are goals (i.e. Michael Arrington wants coronation. I’m an old Dan Farber fan), resources (i.e. I call them conversations), competition (i.e. Techcrunch versus CNet versus SAI), and information (i.e. GA, Alexa, compete). I’ve used the metaphor, Reality Journalism - where journalists compete in real time for the attention of fans. True competitors are obsessed with winning, just like my gaming teens.

Search and SEM are games - millions try to spam their rankings through natural and paid search. Can and should productivity tools become games? I don’t think the enterprises would find this amusing, but keep in mind that blogging has already displaced word processors.

It would be interesting to have a centralized scoreboard that tracks competition among bloggers and social networkers.

iMags^tm 'instance Magazine'^tm

NEWS: adNets Go Vertical, Gamed, Localized, Targeted

Ed: vertical, gaming, localized, targeted - lots of motion in advertising networks.

Networks Poised To Take A Larger Share Of Online Ad 

Washington Post - United States

argues Lehman Brothers analyst Doug Anmuth in his Internet Inside Weekly report (pdf only, not online)...as online ad budgets rise and more brand-oriented campaigns migrate to the web, the need for higher-value, premium ad inventory, particularly for traditional brands which have greater sensitivity about the placement and context in which their ads appear, is likely to grow. So far, Anmuth points out, in terms of billings, verticals started to grow again last year, climbing to a 39 percent share from 37 percent in 2007; but still below the 47 percent share the category had in 2004. In comparison, search's share of billings last year was 31 percent, followed by portals with 19 percent, and general ad nets with 11 percent. Anmuth expects verticals to continue their upward swing.

Much of the suspicion around ad networks tends to stem from confusion "run of site networks" that sell remnant ("unsold") ad inventory, which is mostly ...

TV Networks Seek Formula for Online Ads

The Associated Press - 

ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Co., expects to explore the effectiveness of localized advertising in test markets in the next several months, ...

Just how targeted can that targeted ad be? Ad networks set new ...

CNET News.com - San Francisco,CA,USA

Social media and Web-surfing habits have made it possible for advertisers to target their campaigns at the narrowest of niche audiences. But what happens when targeting goes beyond relevance and into insensitivity? That's something that a big digital-ad trade group has addressed in a new set of guidelines that effectively ban behavioral targeting pertaining to certain medical and psychological conditions.

The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), which encompasses ad networks like AOL's Advertising.com and Tacoda, Yahoo's BlueLithium, and Google's DoubleClick, published the draft of its "Self-Regulatory Code of Conduct for Online Behavioral Advertising" guidelines on Thursday. The document was passed in response to principles proposed by the Federal Trade Commission last year...

SpotXchange Signs Casual Gaming Sites

techrockies.com - Salt Lake City,UT,USA
Online video advertising network SpotXchange revealed Thursday that it has added a number of casual gaming sites as customers of the firm's video ...

Study: Advertisers To Spend 75% of Budget on Ad Networks

By Kathleen 
ADOTAS – Online advertising network Collective Media recently released its 2008 Ad Network Study found that advertisers are planning to allocated more of their budget to ad networks this year. Agencies and advertisers will spend 75% or ...

NEWS: L'affaire Yahoo is tres banale to Madison Ave.

Posted by Stefanie Olsen

Advertising executives on Madison Avenue, who have always liked to watch a good fight, are more bemused by the Yahoo-Microsoft action than concerned by which company wins.

Ad firms have a big influence on the future of Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and News Corp. by deciding on behalf of clients how much of their budgets to spend with each company, if at all. While the players are important, advertisers don't really seem to care which teams are aligned, as long as they can provide the audience, the ad space, and the return on investment for clients.

The dominant response from members of the advertising community interviewed by CNET News.com is that a new marriage wouldn't change anyone's ad budget.

"The way people like us look at it is as interested but detached observers," said Tim Hanlon, executive vice president of Denuo, the media futures practice of advertising agency Publicis Group.

"If you chart it all out and take those five companies, they all have strengths and weaknesses," he said. "Not one of any of those potential partnerships would solve all the problems. There will still be no one-stop shop for advertising online."...

Ed: Keep it simple.

NEWS: Microsoft Bidding for Yahoo-The Soap Opera

Ed: AOL, Google, Fox have joined the band of hunters circling Yahoo's dead meat. Discussions center on my value - not integration plans to better serve users. Sad.

Microsoft/News Corp. Deal In The Works "For Days"

from Silicon Alley Insider by Peter Kafka

We hear that the Microsoft/News Corp. negotiations, firstreported by the New York Times tonight, aren't the result of today's Google/Yahoo news -- a source tells us Rupert Murdoch and Steve Ballmer's teams have "been on it for days, working hard", and that Yahoo is understandably "pissed" about the attempted union.

Do the MSFT/NWS talks predate the GOOG/YHOO talks or the YHOO/TWX talks? We don't know...

And Rupert's interest in a NWS/MSFT/YHOO deal makes as much sense as his interest in a NWS/YHOO deal did earlier this year. Rupe has spent around $1.5 billion building up Fox Interactive Media (MySpace, IGN, Photobucket and some odds and ends) and by all accounts it's been a heady investment. Even if FIM can't meet the $1 billion sales goal he laid out for it last summer, it's still likely to generate $800 - $850 million.

But if he can take FIM , plus some cash (he's got about $3.5 billion on hand) and turn it into a 10% - 15% stake of a Yahoo/MSN/FIM combo, why wouldn't he? Getting it done is a different matter. A source tells the NYT negotiations are "sensitive" and we imagine Rupe's facing the same hurdles he did the last time around: Trying to convince a partner (in this case, Microsoft), that FIM is worth $6- $7 billion. But if he can get anything close, he should jump on it.

See Also: Jerry Strikes Back: Yahoo/AOL Deal May Be Announced Next Week

MySpace Yahoo Deal: Don't Count On It

Google Calls Quattrone For Yahoo/Microsoft Advicefrom TechCrunch by Jason Kincaid

Google has hired boutique investment bank Qatalyst Group to provide advice on the ongoing battle between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Qatalyst Group is headed by colorful Silicon Valley investment banker Frank Quattrone, who as we noted in March has returned to the Valley after spending years in the wilderness fighting obstruction of justice charges...

News Corp., AOL Pursue Yahoo Deals

Murdoch, Microsoft 
Consider Joint Bid; 
Google Ad Pact

By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG, KEVIN J. DELANEY and MERISSA MARR

Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations, a move aimed at thwarting MicrosoftCorp.'s effort to acquire Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday...

Under the terms being discussed between Yahoo and Time Warner, the latter would fold its AOL unit into Yahoo and make a cash investment in return for about 20% of the combined entity, people familiar with the situation said. The deal, which wouldn't include AOL's dial-up access business, would value AOL at about $10 billion. As part of the deal, Yahoo would use the Time Warner cash and additional funds to buy back several billion dollars worth of its own stock at a price somewhere in the middle of the range between $30 and $40 a share, the people said.

MICROSOFT BIDS FOR YAHOO

 

• Deal Journal: A Messy, Mother of All Traffic Jams?

• Yahoo Rebuffs Microsoft Again 
4/8/08

• Microsoft Pressures Yahoo Board 
4/7/08

• Interactive Graphic: How the Tech Titans Compare

See complete coverage of Microsoft's bid for Yahoo, including recent blog posts on the deal and an interactive stock timeline.

Yahoo is also talking to Google about outsourcing search ad sales. On Wednesday, the two companies announced a test deal around search advertising.

Microsoft kicked off the battle for Yahoo nine weeks ago with a cash-and-stock offer then valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 a share. As of Wednesday, the deal is worth $29.24 a share because Microsoft's share price has declined. Yahoo shares closed at $27.77, up seven cents, or 0.25%, in 4 p.m. trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Wednesday.

---

A visual guide to the Yahoo mating dance

Posted by Dan Farber
Our CNET News team put together a visual guide to the Yahoo mating dance. It might come in handy when the Yahoo board of directors meets tomorrow to consider the various options. Most bets are still on Microsoft upping its bid to capture Yahoo.

NEWS: Microsoft Wants Yahoo

See AdEcon scorecard.

NEWS: Why Firefox Is Shrinking: Mobile Browser Market To Explode

Why Firefox Is Shrinking: Mobile Browser Market To Explode

from Silicon Alley Insider by Dan Frommer

Firefox parent Mozilla is hard at work shrinking its Web browser software to work on mobile phones. So far, it's available in a very early edition for some Nokia (NOK) gadgets, with the first "alpha" release scheduled for August, DailyTech reports.

Why bother? Because the high end of the mobile browser market, where Mozilla will operate, is poised to explode in the next six years, according to a report published today by ABI Research.

ABI sees "open-Internet" browsers, like Firefox and Opera, soaring to 700 million units delivered worldwide in 2013, 820% more than the 76 million delivered last year. (These "open-Internet" browsers support more sophisticated Web technologies like AJAX, CSS, etc., unlike the crappy browsers available on most mobile phones.)...

What's driving growth? Cool smartphones like Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, which have demonstrated to consumers that they can get a decent Web experience on a small screen if they have a powerful Web browser. The proof: Almost 85% of iPhone owners browse the Web on their phones, versus 13.1% of the overall U.S. mobile market, according to research firm M:Metrics....

Apple's 'Virtual' Mobile Network Idea: Neat, But Tricky

from Silicon Alley Insider by Dan Frommer

"Virtual" mobile carriers, which buy wholesale airtime in bulk and re-sell it under their own brands, have been dropping like flies. (And many of the ones that still existaren't doing so well.) But a recently published patent filing shows that at least Apple (AAPL) is looking for new ways to make the idea work.

Instead of buying airtime in bulk from one carrier, which most "virtual" carriers do, Apple's model would let a phone connect to multiple networks, according to a summary posted by AppleInsider.

Those carriers could compete, auction-style, on the wholesale pricing they'd offer to Apple. Your phone would stay in touch with a central server somewhere, which would tell it which mobile network to connect to. Subscribers could also be able to pick which carrier they'd use, based on location and pricing...

Ed: An exchange for un-used wireless minutes similar to unused VoIP broadband.

NEWS: Video IChannels

Ed: Keeping branded partners has been the scalability challenge at SuperSite and through out the history of media.

Ustream.TV Takes $11.1 Million Series A

by Duncan Riley

Ustream.TV has taken $11.1 million Series A in a round that included Doll Capital Management and existing investor The Band of Angels.

Ustream.TV was in the first wave of live broadcast sites that launched in 2007 along with Justin.TV,BlogTV and Mogulus. Ustream.TV took $2 million in angel funding in December and appointed General Wesley Clark to the board. Rumors surface in January that the company was in takeover talks with Microsoft with a $50 million price tag.

Ustream.TV has grown from its original launch to become a broadcast hub for Presidential hopefuls, popular entertainers and musicians, technology industry gurus and business executives. The live broadcasting service has been complemented with a depth of tools that allows people like Chris Pirillo to build a video empire. Ustream.TV offers video conversion and download in .FLV, .WMV, .MP4 and .MOV, and users can syndicate videos created from live shows on video sites such as Blip.tv. According to Ustream.TV, their traffic has grown 325% over the last 6 months...

WorldTV partners with Qik for live video

by Mike Butcher

WorldTV, an online TV startup which lets users mix clips from video sharing sites and their webcam, is adding interoperability with mobile video broadcast service Qik, which itself just raiseda $3 million Series B round. Qik users will be able to stream live video to WorldTV channels and WorldTV users can now broadcast live video from their mobile phones simultaneously on Qik and their WorldTV channel. A longer review is on TechCrunch UK. Suffice it to say live video is clearly a hot sector right now.

With “under $1M” in private funding, WorldTV ’s Flash-based interface allows users add clips from YouTube, Metacafe, Yahoo, Google Video, Blip.tv and others. It then puts these into a playlist which plays them automatically, effectively creating a full-screen TV channel. You can also watch channels created by other people. A number of other sites allow users to create personalised internet video channels including Vpod.tv, Cozmo, Kyte, me.tv, Mogulus, Magnify and SplashCast, but WorldTV has a simple, consumer-friendly feel to it.

The revenue model is based on a subscription-based prosumer version for additional scheduling features and an enterprise version for broadcasters with logo overlays.

Badly Kept Secret: Veronica Belmont To Host Tekzilla

by Duncan Riley

Geek chick celebrity Veronic Belmont has signed to co-host Revision3’s Tekzilla show.

Belmont resigned from the Mahalo Daily podcast last week after only 5 months, with a relatively cool send off from Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis.

Prior to working for Calacanis, Belmont worked for CNET.com, where she produced and co-hosted shows including Buzz Out Loud, MP3 Insider and Crave. She also regularly appears on programs on DL.TV, MSNBC, CNBC, the G4 Network, PC Gamer, and This Week in Tech...

CBS Insists It Has Not Yet Decided To Fire Katie Couric

by Henry Blodget

The Los Angeles Times reports:

CBS News (CBS) shot down a report Wednesday that implied that anchor Katie Couric was preparing to leave the network and her post on its flagship evening newscast as soon as next January, saying no such decision had been made.

MySpace TV Going Global

by Sarah Perez

Just because MySpace's web show "Quarterlife" was a big flop on NBC here in the U.S., that doesn't mean that MySpace is going to stop shopping their web shows for TV syndication. While the U.S. market for web-to-TV programming may be dead, the worldwide market awaits, and, overseas, web shows might have a better chance.

This morning Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Rupert Murdoch's MySpace will be using daughter Elizabeth Murdoch's production company, Shine Group, to try to get web shows like "Quarterlife" and "Roommates" licensed abroad. Additionally, potential deals could involve making localized versions of the programs instead. The Shine Group is known for making similar deals for network television shows, most notably, they brought the British show "The Office" to American TV...

NEWS: A Guide to Business Development 2.0

A Guide to Business Development 2.0

by Alex Iskold

At least once each day I get a call from someone trying to sell me outsourced development services. It's difficult to not be frustrated with these calls and it is increasingly hard to be polite, because they come so frequently. Yet, more than frustrated, I am just puzzled. Does this tactic still work? Who in this day and age would give business based on a cold call? These companies could definitely use a dose of business development 2.0.

Cold Calling is Dead

Warm Calling via LinkedIn

Creative Calling via Social Media

Transaction 2.0

Door Knocking 2.0: Web Services and APIs

NEWS: OpenX Beta Testing Programme

OpenX Beta Testing Programme

OpenX 2.5 beta is out and the march towards the next stable release has begun. We need your help testing this new version to ensure that no bugs remain undiscovered.

What's new in OpenX 2.5 beta?

• New developer API 
  Do you want to write applications which interact with OpenX? Using the new OpenX API, developers can write third party applications which create campaigns, retrieve statistics and control your ad server.
• Faster ad tag 
  If you serve more than one ad per webpage you should try our new ad tag. The "single page call" ad tag only makes one request to the ad server for each webpage, even when there is more than one ad to display. The result is faster, more efficient ad serving and more delivered inventory.
• New targeting options 
  We've added new features to help you target ads more effectively. It's now easier topass custom data to the ad server and to use them for targeting based on string ornumeric comparison. As a result, it is even easier to pass custom data for demographic and behavioural targeting.
• Under the hood 
  You will notice other changes as part of our work to make integration and customization of OpenX easier. You will quickly see the changes to the user interface including theme enhancements and a new dashboard tab but the ad management workflow remains consistent. We have also introduced a sophisticated user permission system allows individual user accounts and an audit trail of user activity.

Want more detail? We've created a full list including all the features, great and small, which we've included in this beta.

AdBrite Opens Platform, So You Can Play with Targeting Ads

While most ad networks offer one way or another to target ads across websites, what would you think about having several methods available within a single ad network? AdBrite is becoming that single ad network, with the revelation of itsOpen Targeting Exchange (OTX).

AdBrite Launches Open Targeting Exchange

Written by Allen Stern - April 10, 2008

Online advertising network AdBrite (our coverage) is announcing the launch of the Open Targeting Exchange or OTX today. I have to say that it took me a bit of time to understand what this OTX does and I've bought hundreds of millions in media over my career.

Here is how the Open Targeting Exchange works. Basically if you imagine that there three parts of the ad transaction: the ad, the network serving the ad and the page view displaying the ad. Normally the middle piece of serving the ad is through some proprietary matching process by the ad network. AdBrite has ripped open that piece of the transaction and is allowing other companies to plug their matching process algorithms into the ad serving portion.

AdBrite claims publishers will benefit from improving revenue yield, and advertisers will generate better results. OTX launches with two initial partners, Lucid Media (formerly Entrieva) and Personifi, who provide contextual matching algorithms for text ads. 

The Web page explaining how the OTX works only has one large graphic that really doesn't explain much about the service. If the average media buyer is going to get excited about this launch, there will need to be more text and more pictures - maybe even a video.

NEWS: AOL Tech Network of Engadget, Switched, TUAW...

AOL CEO Randy Falco (TWX) sets employees at ease about that distracting AOL-Microsoft-Yahoo-News Corp chatter. (YHOO) (MSFT). No comment yet on how many thousands of AOLers will be fired if the Yahoo merger goes through.

In publishing - which includes Programming, Products and Platforms - our focus has been on growing audience size and engagement. The results have been very encouraging. In February, AOL had its fifth consecutive month of growth, with page views up 16% over the same period in 2007. Thirteen of AOL's content sites - such as Music, Television, News, Money & Finance and Celebrity - rank in the top 5 in their respective areas. ...

In advertising, we're focused on building the most effective and efficient marketplace for buying and selling digital advertising. Platform-A combines some of the strongest assets...

In the social media area, we're focused on empowering a truly social Web with programming and tools that help connect people, cultures and lifestyles around the world. Bebo, together with AIM and ICQ, will create a social media network reaching 80 million people worldwide. ...

Engadget gets a new look and adds Switched to the family!

by Ryan Block, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 2:11AM

It's been well over a year since our last big redesign, which in gadget time means our last design was unveiled circa original Walkman. So we're freshening up the whole joint -- all seven sites -- with a brand new design. Oh, and we're also adding an eighth site to the Engadget network: Switched!

Our latest addition, Switched will be dishing out features for those with a more casual interest in tech, as well as highlighting fresh, hand-picked tech news from our network of sister sites. So expect to see hot stories from Engadget classic, Mobile, HD, TUAW, and Download Squad running over there, as well as news from other geeky Weblogs, Inc. sites like Joystiq, Xbox 360 Fanboy, and Wii Fanboy...

AOL Regroups Blogs, Launches AOL Tech Network

AOL launched what they’re calling the AOL Tech Network this evening. It’s a grouping of existing blogs - the Engadget sites, Switched, TUAW and Download Squad, under a new tech content group.

Unike AOL Games, AOL Entertainment and other sub brands, AOL Tech is being branded without “AOL.” A new link on the AOL home page links to Switched, which will now syndicate in content from the other blogs in the network.

This is partly a streamlining of the organization, but it’s also a way for AOL’s sales team to pitch a tech brand to advertisers that has a big footprint. The combined blogs bring in nearly 5 million combined monthly visitors, making it about twice the size of Wired and in the same ballpark as Yahoo Tech....

Sharpen the Blog Focus of the New Economics of Advertising

After 60 days, 200 pages, and thousands of clips, it's time to sharpen the focus of this blog.

Quantity and Shifts of Internet Demand

• Shift of mindshare from email, news, and possibly search to social networks and possibly social media - this is worth watching. Is lean forward viewing being displaced by lean back participation?
• A measure of the global growth. Google reports 31% USA search growth. This is usage growth; not user growth. What about emerging countries like China and India where Google is blind with their minority share? Alexa levers savvy users - thus, understates growth in developing nations. comScore and Neilsen don't have visibility on emerging markets.
• The Apple iPhone kills WAP and brings the billion cell phone users to the full page web. That's the promise. How do we get there?

Quantity and Shifts in Internet Supply via IChannels

• Open platforms from Facebook, Google, Apple, Salesforce.com, and dozens of iMedia giants spawn a new renaissance of creativity. Millions of active bloggers, video producers, and photographers; 100+ million who have tried; hundreds of millions of daily social network users - are these numbers just the beginning of growth to hundreds of millions of active participants? Can millions of developers provide the glue and implicit web to enable more innovation. 
• Legacy CMS systems for building the 60 million web and commerce sites have been displaced. Why bother when modern tools are better, easier, and often free?

Supply and Demand for Online Advertising

• Will the adNet market fragment or consolidate? CPC and CPM may consolidate to one market, but will legacy media cooperate?
• Is there any difference between an exchange and marketplace? Why do the adNets like to argue?
• What are the real trends for advertising?

Conclusion

We must support Long Tail economics to sustain the renaissance. eCPMs are too low. If web 2.0 is to avoid the web 1.0 bubble, online participants (and investors) need to be rewarded for their creativity and hard work. How?

NEWS: Mixed Outlook for Advertising, Silicon Valley

Web Advertising Spending Has Weakened--RBC

RBC analyst Ross Sandler hosted an investor dinner last night featuring a dozen ad executives. Ross's summary suggests that the current consensus--overall advertising spending is weakening but online remains strong--is wrong.

Key points:
Ad agencies are seeing pockets of weakness across some specific advertiser categories (finance and domestic auto), but the weakness is isolated and not broad-based. [so far]

Search: Google's recent algorithm changes may actually improve revenue growth, but the current environment is showing some signs of demand-related softness.

Display: Some ad networks are seeing flat y/y growth in the US [awful], while international territories are much stronger. Domestic growth is incrementally worse than expected and international incrementally better.

TV: Cautious optimism remains for strong upfront buying in network TV.

Print: The environment remains very challenging.

Ad Networks/Ad Exchanges: Advertisers/publishers are starting to question the value of ad networks as they weigh the benefits of brand value versus sheer reach. [About time. Glam Media investors, are you listening? Still comfortable with that $500 million valuation?] Ad exchanges should facilitate more transparency and efficiency in the buying and selling of display ads, and potentially disrupt the legacy blind ad-network business model.

Social Media Monetization: The monetization of social media is difficult (a structural issue), and will remain challenging in the near future. 

Economy Has Become a Drag on Silicon Valley

SAN FRANCISCO — Housing prices in Silicon Valley remain defiantly high. New BMWs and Saabs cruise Highway 101. But for the first time there are signs that the current economic downturn is taking its toll on the country’s cradle of technology and innovation.

The New York Times

Multimedia

Graphic

Hard Times for Technology Stocks

Job growth has slowed, start-up companies are hiring and spending more cautiously, and early-stage investors who nurture the start-ups with money and expertise are growing more frugal.

NEWS: Brands Moving to Social Networks

Can Dove Promote a Cause and Sell Soap?

BY SUZANNE VRANICA Word Count: 864  |  Companies Featured in This Article: Unilever, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft

Women turn to all sorts of places for advice and stimulating conversation, from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to their next-door neighbors. But are they ready to take their life cues from a soap company?

Dove is betting several million dollars that the answer is yes. The hair- and skin-products maker owned by Unilever is trying to create a new online community for women that offers entertainment, blogs, advice and advertising.

In 2004, Dove made headlines when it took a stand against the convention among beauty companies of relying on over-the-top-beautiful and thin models in their advertising. Instead, Dove decided to ...

Duo to Launch Agency With a Twist

BY EMILY STEEL Word Count: 1,129  |  Companies Featured in This Article: Microsoft, Omnicom Group
Digital advertising veterans P.J. Pereira and Andrew O'Dell caused a stir in the industry earlier this year when they left their senior posts at AKQA, then and still one of the hotter interactive ad agencies. Wednesday, they will announce plans to launch a new full-service agency.

Messrs. Pereira, 34 years old, and O'Dell, 38, say the problem with most existing ad agencies is that they either have a traditional focus or a digital orientation -- and either way, marketers aren't as well-served as they could be. Digital shops, because of their Internet worldview, tend to build Web sites and online ...

Managing Dove's Public Forums Inge Selawry ( OgilvyOne worldwide - Copenhagen )  Dove's global "Campaign for Real Beauty" set out to raise consciousness of the issues surrounding beauty and to challenge long-held stereotypes. campaignforrealbeauty.com sought to provoke debate by allowing consumers to choose between two possible verdicts, one in tune with current stereotypes, the other challenging them.

"I just wanted to tell you how much I admire you for making your scar a proud part of yourself, and not needing to have it removed. "I have a birthmark on my shoulder - it's huge - and for the longest time I wanted it removed. I tried and it didn't work. But now when I look at it, I've realized I wouldn't want it removed even if I could. It is a part of me that I was born with. It kinda makes me me, and while it took a long time for me to get over it, I have. "What changed? The best people in my life made me see what the most important things in life are. Being beautiful and strong on the inside is something no amount of plastic surgery can match."

HOW THE FORUMS WORK

On the campaignforrealbeauty.com website, visitors are invited to participate in discussion in one of three forums, hosted by Liveworld. The forums are: Body Image, Older Women and Unconventional Looks. Women are invited to post their views or experiences in any of these categories for comment and reflection by others.

More than 30 moderators were employed to oversee the message board activity as the campaign was launched in 27 country/language combinations. All moderators were trained on what to look for and highlight, what to allow or reject. Few postings were deleted - a respectful discourse generally prevailed. An attitude of seriousness about the topic was matched with a feeling of intimacy and safety. The fact that users can participate in their own language made conversation easier while also underscoring the global nature of the discussion as a whole.

Ed: West coast conversations control eyeballs. East coast blogs complain jealously of the free flow of VC funds. Their newspapers report daily self destructions. 

In the meantime, Madison Avenue continues to flow with multi-million projects. Ironically, they need the expertise of West coast entrepreneurs for the latest projects. Great examples below.

The New Robert Scobles: Seven Leading Corporate Social Media Evangelists Today

from ReadWriteWeb by Marshall Kirkpatrick