We’ve had lots of emails from MySpace employees with their response to our most recent post about the crumbling mid level management structure. “If you’re a MySpace employee and feel differently, please contact us anonymously,” we said. And they did contact us. But they don’t feel differently. There was also a great discussion in the comments section to that post where a few MySpace employees chimed in both pro and against the company.

But the emails were most telling. One wasn’t anonymous and the writer asked to keep it off record, and we’ll respect that. But he wrote at length about high level execs “chewing out” the lower ranks, in public. And lots of exec level nepotism hires.

This is a theme brought up by another employee, writing anonymously. He or she confirmed that too many mid level managers are leaving the company, and talks about more yelling at employees in public (“Maple” refers to 407 North Maple Drive, the address of MySpace HQ, “Jason” refers to Co-president Jason “Hell Yeah” Hirschhorn):

Dear TechCrunch-

I always enjoy your article on the drama at my company – MySpace but I’ve never felt the urge to write until now. I guess I’m writing you because your article was ABSOLUTELY dead on. Because of that, my morale isn’t really high and I really don’t give much of a shit anymore.

Well, the hole goes deeper than that. Many departments are losing much of the middle layer of actual star performers, but people who can’t get anything done due to the crazy BS in Maple. For example, 2 directors in Jason’s product org are gone recently: (Director of Analytics – Joe Schantz who went to Yahoo), Director of Product Mahesh Angadi. Other senior middle managers like Sr Product Manager Charles Pham, who went to CitySearch and Sr. Online Marketing Manager, Laura Coltrin left and is now at EventBrite. What do these particular people have in common? Besides being huge losses for MySpace, they were all re-orged under his royal heighn-ass, Jason. People don’t want to work for that moron – he’s just consolidating power.

Today, Jeff Webber – Director of Engineering in Seattle – gave notice (no idea where he’s going.)

Oh, and Jason really doesn’t get along with Mike. Jason was witnessed ripping one of his VPs a new one when the VP was trying to explain why he was doing something that Mike requested (in front of 6 other people.) It’s a mess – but it should be fun watching one run the other out of town.

A bunch of other people have their foot out the door – spend some time around Maple, SF or Seattle near the front entrance and watch people disappear for hours at a time or for “long lunches”. Its almost comical. You see a lot of people going into empty conference room and talking on their cell phones or people “going to grab coffee” by themselves and chatting on the phone walking down the street. And yeah, I’m one of those people.

Anyway, this isn’t just due to the fact these idiots are running the company into the ground. The reason why people are leaving now is that MySpace gave out these big secret retention bonuses that had a 2 tier payout. Overall, the ENTIRE bonus was for anywhere from 20% to 100+% of a person’s base. The key is that they pay out in two segments – you had to be working in December so that you get 25% of the bonus amount). If you’re employed here until June, you get the remaining 75% of their bonus. As you can imagine, this is a LOT of money – especially at a place that gave tiny annual raises last year (<5% was the average), where we cancelled profit sharing last fiscal year (not sure you knew about that) and with no stock incentive.

It’s a huge sign of how bad things are that they are leaving 75% of the bonus on the table. However, since we all know that the ship is sinking, taking 25% in December was good enough. I don’t blame them. I’m out of here as soon as I get a new gig. I earned that bonus money but I’m sick of this place.

Oh – and the guy who thought of this bonus plan? Mike. These were given out after the review cycle (August.)

So yeah, you want to write about more defections? Wait until June and then everyone will get paid and bounce. I and others are counting the days. Its kinda funny – it was supposed to be a total secret from everyone in the ranks (yes, some people didn’t get bonuses, but those people kinda suck so who cares right?) but now everyone is joking about it privately.

-Disgruntled

And one last employee says it’s ok to paraphrase and quote parts of his/her email. This one still has some fight left in ‘em. Here are some of the better parts:

Until a recent reorg of the engineering group (did you cover it? I don’t recall seeing it.), the whole company was segmented into horizontal layers so there was an operations group, a database group, an api group, a front-end group, a search group, a datawarehouse group, etc. Anything but the most minor feature required an obnoxious amount of cross-group interaction and took huge effort just to get everyone on board and the work scheduled. Some of that layering is being done away with, at least that is the stated goal.

In addition to the extreme layering there was a group of people who sat in the middle of the process, able to accept or reject any project; people who didn’t have the business sense to be in bizdev or be product managers and didn’t have the technical ability to be developers. When they accepted a project for development they would (randomly?) select some developers to build it. There were no clear lines of responsibility, no reason for anyone to really care about what they were working on, no reward for success and no punishment for failure (except for layoffs which seem to happen more or less randomly so they don’t fall on either the reward or punishment side). This structure was called ‘the matrix’ and thankfully was a casualty of the reorg. Plus in the big layoffs last spring (before my time) the hardest hit groups were front-line employees, the developers and testers who do the actual work; you had these big design committees arguing back and forth for weeks or months about how and what to do and no one to do it at the end of the day.

A lot of the people who are leaving and have left recently were in charge of this dysfunctional process and are unable or unwilling or just plain sick of trying. Yes a lot of good (better anyway) technical people are leaving or have left and yes there is a lot of detailed knowledge about keeping the current code running going with them.

…

There are other problems besides all of that, God I’m getting sick of writing about this. The technology platform (.net) and development methodology (scrum) and general caliber of developer (although there are exceptions) is more reminiscent of a poorly run enterprise development shop than an Internet company, certainly far far far from what you would find at a startup or Facebook or even Microsoft.

…

Will Mike & Jason succeed at creating something functional out of this godawful mess? Too soon to tell, I think. The first all-hands meeting a couple of days after they took over felt like an old fashioned tent revival or something, I almost expected Zig Ziggler to show up. But I will say that there has been more communication from them in a few weeks than from Owen in several months and they are reaching out to meet with developers working on interesting or important new projects, in short they seem engaged in a way that Owen never did. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

CrunchBase InformationMySpaceInformation provided by CrunchBase

A look at the sometimes turbulent but successful career of David Beckham, after injury all but ruled him out of this summer's World Cup.

Auteur : itnnews
Tags : David Beckham Fabio Capello Major League Soccer Manchester United Real Madrid football La Liga Sir Alex Ferguson Victoria Old Trafford manager Posh Spice England LA Galaxy injury Premier League careers AC Milan
Envoyé : 16 mars 2010
Note :0.0
Votes :0

Na'Vi's manager, ZeroGravity, spoke to WESgg.com about their extraordinary IEM season 4 victory, the state of Eastern European esports and other subjects.

Looking for some nifty homebrew app for your PSP's? Well check out Total_Noob's XMB Icon Manager, a handy homebrew plugin that allows you to rename existing icons and replace other functions without touching the flash0.     Download:

An easy to use and efficient download manager (read more)

Tina Kandelaki (Photo by Anton Nossik)

When famous celebrities use the blogosphere and make headlines because of it, it’s difficult to decide if it’s just another self-promotion or there are pure intentions involved... or maybe it’s both.

This is the case of what happened in Russia last week when a famous TV host Tina Kandelaki [ENG]  published a blog post [RUS] titled “Don’t ask who is guilty, but ask what to do” where she expressed an idea of an innovative online project that would empower the young generation of talented Russians thus strengthening the country.

This Internet-born initiative was eventually supported by the Russian Minister of Education Andrey Fursenko. It was also positively covered by many Russian traditional media.  At the same time, the debates around initiative and the nature of Kandelaki’s intents spread all over the Russian blogosphere.

Kandelaki is well known in Russia as a controversial performer. She appeared on the cover of Russia's Playboy and her name was involved in scandal that was linked to a famous Russian oligarch. Kandelaki  is also a successful TV persona who regularly hosts a popular teenager show “The most clever,” which provided a TV platform for talented children from Russian regions.

Recently Kandelaki became a member of a Civic Chamber of Russian Federation [ENG] and stated [RUS] that her goals was to improve an education system and make the chamber more interactive via online technologies. Kandelaki is also very active in the field of new media. She is not only a blogger but also one of the most active Russian Twitter users.

In her blog,  Kandelaki wrote [RUS] that Russia had a lot of young talented children and teenagers but no one knew about them. She argued that information technology should help in personal development of these children and, at the same time, facilitate technological development of Russia.

Kandelaki suggested that Russian “economic miracle” can be created thorough launching an Internet-based platform that would expose young Russian talents:

Ðужно Ñобрать воедино тех, у кого еÑÑ‚ÑŒ Ð²Ð¾Ð»Ñ Ð¼ÐµÐ½ÑÑ‚ÑŒ жизнь к лучшему. Тех, кто уÑтал говорить о переменах, тех, кто хочет Ñти перемены Ñовершать. Рхотим мы вÑе одного и того же – великих руÑÑких открытий, первых меÑÑ‚ на Олимпиаде, ÑкономичеÑкого чуда в РоÑÑии по примеру американÑкого, поÑлевоенного западногерманÑкого или азиатÑкого. Ðо Ñтого не будет, еÑли мы Ñ Ð²Ð°Ð¼Ð¸ вмеÑте не Ñделаем общее дело под названием «Ñ€ÑƒÑÑкое ÑкономичеÑкое чудо». У Ð½Ð°Ñ Ñƒ вÑех очень много идей, предложений и Ñил Ð´Ð»Ñ Ñ€ÐµÐ°Ð»Ð¸Ð·Ð°Ñ†Ð¸Ð¸ Ñтого чуда. Ðам только нужно найти друг друга.

We need to gather those who has a will to change life for the better. Those who are tired of talking about changes, those who want to make those changes. And we all want the same thing: great Russian discoveries, first places at the Olympics, economic miracle in Russia following the example of America, post-war West Germany or Asia. But it won't happen if we don't perform a common task known as “Russian economic miracle.”

Я предлагаю Ñоздать площадку в Интернете, где каждый мог бы раÑÑказать о Ñвоих ÑпоÑобноÑÑ‚ÑÑ…, уÑпехах и доÑтижениÑÑ…, а также о Ñвоих знакомых и друзьÑÑ…, которые заÑлуживают Ð²Ð½Ð¸Ð¼Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ Ð¾Ð±Ñ‰ÐµÑтва. Ð’ дополнение к площадке необходимо Ñоздать ÑиÑтему Ñкаутов, которые будут иÑкать таланты по вÑей Ñтране. Ð’Ñем Ñтим людÑм нужно дать возможноÑти Ð´Ð»Ñ Ñ€Ð°Ð·Ð²Ð¸Ñ‚Ð¸Ñ Ð¸ познакомить их друг Ñ Ð´Ñ€ÑƒÐ³Ð¾Ð¼.

I suggest creating a platform on the Internet where everyone would be able to tell about their talents, successes and achievements, about their acquaintances and friends who deserve the attention of society. As an addition to the platform, we need to create the system of scouts who would be looking for talents all across Russia. We need to give all those people an opportunity to develop and get to know each other.

According to Kandelaki, the new platform will expose new talents as it has been done by YouTube. However, it won’t work without a special institute of mediators who will develop the links between young talents and leading teachers . Kandelaki concludes:

Ð‘Ð»Ð°Ð³Ð¾Ð´Ð°Ñ€Ñ Ð¿Ñ€Ð¾ÐµÐºÑ‚Ñƒ, направленному на развитие талантов, в РоÑÑии поÑвитÑÑ Ð±Ð¾Ð»ÑŒÑˆÐµ героев. Это будущие победители Олимпиад, чемпионатов мира, выдающиеÑÑ Ð¼Ð°Ñ‚ÐµÐ¼Ð°Ñ‚Ð¸ÐºÐ¸, гениальные менеджеры, авторы открытий, менÑющих мир и жизнь каждого из наÑ. Мы Ñами будем их находить и продвигать. Мы будем гордитьÑÑ Ð¸Ð¼Ð¸. Ррезультаты их труда Ñделают жизнь каждого из Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð»ÑƒÑ‡ÑˆÐµ, комфортнее и удобнее. Это Ñила, о которой мы так много говорим и которой, на Ñамом деле, ÑвлÑемÑÑ Ð¼Ñ‹ Ñами!

Thanks to the project targeted at developing the talents, Russia will have more heroes. Those are the future winners of the Olympics, world championships, outstanding mathematicians, general managers, authors of discoveries changing the world and life of everyone of us. We will find and promote them ourselves. We will be proud of them. And the results of their work will make the life of everyone of us better, more comfortable and more convenient. This is the force that we talk a lot about but, in truth, we are this force.

The blog post caused a significant resonance and was covered by most of major traditional media outlets in Russia. Hundreds of Internet users sent letters with suggestions to a special e-mail that Kandelaki left at the end of her blog. More than 700 people left comments to blog post itself.

Many of them were very excited about Kandelaki’s initiative and fully supported it. LJ user Sasadziro wrote [RUS]:

Ð Ñ Ñчитаю Ð¸Ð´ÐµÑ Ñ‡Ñ‚Ð¾ надо!!!
По Ñути - Ñто виртуальный молодежный технопарк :) Проблема в другом. У Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð² РоÑÑии ÑформировалÑÑ Ð“Ð˜Ð“ÐÐТСКОГО размера Ñтереотип, что ТÐÐœ (за рубежом) лучше чем в ЗДЕСЬ. Вот что нужно ломать в головах людей!!! Это блеф поддерживаемый вÑеми кто ТÐÐœ не был… У Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð»ÑŽÐ´Ð¸ Ñ Ð¸Ð´ÐµÐµÐ¹ боÑÑ‚ÑÑ Ð¸Ð´Ñ‚Ð¸ к людÑм Ñ Ð´ÐµÐ½ÑŒÐ³Ð°Ð¼Ð¸, потому что Ñчитают что те их кинут.

I think it is a good idea! In a nutshell, it is a virtual youth techno park. :-) But the problem is in another thing. A gigantic stereotype has been formed in Russia that THERE (abroad) is better than HERE. That is what needs to be broken in the hands of people!!! This is the bluff supported by all who have not been THERE… Our people with an idea are afraid to go to the people with money because they believe that those would cheat them.

Some of the users, like crystal_style, wrote [RUS] that they were ready to volunteer for the project:

готова быть волонтером) нужна какаÑ-либо помощь, Ñ Ð·Ð´ÐµÑÑŒ. Ñама учуÑÑŒ в РЭРим.Плеханова и думаю, еÑли вообще будет нужна помощь Ñтудентов, объединимÑÑ Ð¸ Ñделаем))

I am ready to be a volunteer. I am here if you need any help. I study at the Russian Economic Academy named after Plekhanov and I think we can unite and help if you need the assistance from students.

Some media claimed that the project might turn to be a national HR-based, which would shape the future of Russian governance and business.  This idea was supported by an oligarch Aleksandr Lebedev who said that he would follow the Web site and make an effort to engage young talents in his business. Moreover, the initiative was endorsed by the Russian Minister of Education Andrey Fursenko. He said [RUS]:

Это полноÑтью  впиÑываетÑÑ Ð² нашу программу. Я  могу Ñказать, что мы однозначно Ñту  инициативу поддержим, и в принципе у Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð¿Ð¾ÑвилиÑÑŒ определенные возможноÑти поддержать ее не только морально, но и материально. Это точно  будет развиватьÑÑ. Я Ñчитаю, что Ñто вещь однозначно полезнаÑ.

This fully goes in accord with our program. I can say that we will definitely support the initiative and, in principle, we have some abilities to support it not only in morally, but also financially.

However, some bloggers were not sure that Kandelaki’s project addressed the right problem. LJ(...)

Royal Philips Electronics expects its 2010 LED business sales value in the Taiwan market to be four times the amount for 2009, according to Philips Taiwan general manager Edward Po.

Apart from jumping aboard the Windows Phone 7 Series platform, Samsung also has its eyes set on the slate bandwagon, with Emmanuele Silanesu, national product and marketing manager for Samsung Australia’s IT division, letting it out that Samsung would release its slate “in the second half of the year”, where the device will squarely take aim at the consumer market. We can only keep our fingers crossed in anticipation that Samsung's slate device will prove to be a worthy competitor to the scene.

Permalink: Samsung on track with slate device from Ubergizmo | RSS Sponsor: Win a Fellowes Microshred Paper Shredder!

On the heels of my wish for a C++ version of printer-applet, Dantti announced just such a project. He invited me to contribute, so I did.

Since print-manager is a from-scratch project, it needed a tray icon daemon. Well, it sorta had a stub based on KPackageKit’s tray icon daemon, but nothing really functional. A few weeks ago I ported the stub to KStatusNotifierItem and left it in an uninstallable, never-tested state. (This was because at the time I was not hacking in a place where I could print things) Today I fiddled around with library names and .desktop files until the KDED module loaded. The result? Every 5 seconds I’d get a new printer icon!

So today I cleaned up the code. I got it to the point where it pretty much has feature parity with the applet included in KDE 4.4. In fact, it’s a bit more, nifty, even; it now tells you the name of the printer currently printing as well as the name of the document it is printing.

Neat!

Things work mostly as before. As long as your jobs are consolidated to a single printer, clicking the icon will load up the queue for that printer. But since print-manager currently can only show the queue for one printer at a time, if the active jobs are spread across multiple printers, clicking the tray icon will make a context menu with all the printers pop up, and clicking these menu entries will open up the print queue for that printer. I should note that I’ve not actually tested this, for the lack of two printers.

I am wondering, though; is the amount of documents in queue important enough to include in a third line in the tooltip? I could see how it might, and it should be easy enough to do so.

The last thing on the todo list is to fix a pretty nasty bug. Since this tray icon is spawned by the KDE Daemon (KDED), the “quit” action automagically added to the icon’s context menu will quit the whole of KDED, bringing down services such as PowerDevil, KHotkeys and so forth. I’m at a loss on how to get around this. Setting a custom context menu won’t work, as the setContextMenu() function of KStatusNotifierItem just adds your custom Menu to the preexisting menu that comes by default. Any bright ideas would be welcome here.

So, perhaps not the most exciting blog post on Earth, seeing as I’m just replacing already-existing functionality, but hopefully a few of the new features are a bit interesting. It’s certainly been quite interesting to code.

Ford reveals its all-new, purpose-built Police Interceptor, engineered to exceed durability, safety and performance of today’s leading police car – the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor
New Ford Police Interceptor sedan will offer two fuel-efficient powertrain options – including EcoBoost with all wheel-drive – along with an array of safety technologies; interior has been designed to meet unique law enforcement needs
Ford’s new Police Interceptor will be offered without interruption when production of the Ford Crown Victoria ends in late 2011
Ford confirms production of an additional Police Interceptor, a utility vehicle that will be pursuit-rated to complement the sedan; vehicle to be revealed later this year.


Las Vegas, March 12, 2010 – Ford reveals its all-new, purpose-built Police Interceptor sedan today, showcasing a car for law enforcement officials that will exceed the durability, safety, performance and fuel economy of the industry’s leading police car – the Ford Crown Victoria – while also confirming production of a Police Interceptor utility vehicle.

Ford, the police vehicle market leader for 15 years, specifically designed and engineered an all-new Police Interceptor to handle the rigors of police work, including industry-leading powertrain, safety and technology innovations.

Ford will also add a second Police Interceptor to the lineup, a utility vehicle to provide customers a choice of the best vehicle to suit their needs. More details will be released in the third quarter of this year.

”Police nationwide asked for a new kind of weapon in the battle for public safety, and Ford is answering the call with a purpose-built vehicle – engineered and built in America – that’s as dynamic as it is durable,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas.

To develop the all-new Police Interceptor, Ford engineers worked hand-in-hand with Ford’s Police Advisory Board of law enforcement professionals, which provided input on key vehicle attributes such as safety, performance, durability, driver comfort and functionality.

”Their feedback mattered to us,” said Scott Tobin, Ford vehicle line director for cars and crossovers. ”Safety and durability were at the top of their list. So safety and durability were at the top of ours.”

A focus on safety
Continuing Ford’s safety leadership includes engineering the Police Interceptor to pass 75-mph rear-end crash testing. Currently, the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is the only pursuit sedan to meet this test.

The new Police Interceptor also features Ford’s exclusive Safety CanopyÂÂ@ side-curtain air bag rollover protection system to help protect front and rear outboard passengers in both rollover and side-impact crashes. The multiple side-curtain air bags use Ford’s unique Roll Fold technology to help them slip between the occupant and the side window.

Increased power, enhanced sophistication
Ford’s Police Interceptor engine strategy will provide a V-6 lineup that performs equal to or better than V-8 engines. The lineup comes with two powertrain options, allowing police to choose the powerhouse that best meets their patrol requirements.

A highly efficient 3.5-liter V-6 engine delivering at least 263 horsepower and E85 compatibility is 25 percent more efficient than the 4.6-liter Single Overhead Cam (SOHC) V-8 offered in the current Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.

Plus, an all-new 3.5-liter EcoBoost™ V-6 twin-turbocharged, direct-injection engine will deliver at least 365 horsepower and 350 ft.-lb. of torque across a broad rpm range.

”We have an extremely powerful standard engine, and to top that off, we also offer our exclusive EcoBoost technology,” said Tobin. ”Both are designed for the severe-duty cycle that police engage in on a daily basis.”

EcoBoost brings municipalities and police fleet administrators the first ultra high-performance, yet environmentally friendly, police pursuit vehicle. Offering performance that bests normally aspirated V-8 powered police cruisers and comparable fuel economy and CO2 emissions to the standard V-6, EcoBoost represents a triple-win for police departments, the tax-paying constituents they serve and the environment they help collectively to preserve.

A high-capacity six-speed SelectShift Automatic™ transmission delivers the power of EcoBoost to the road via the sophisticated torque-sensing all-wheel-drive system.

”Ford remains committed to leading the police vehicle market, and our new Police Interceptor demonstrates how much engineering and innovation we’re willing to invest to address the unique needs of those who protect and serve communities throughout America,” Fields said.

Rigidly tested, police-tuned
Throughout its development, Ford’s new Police Interceptor has been put through the paces, undergoing a battery of torture tests to ensure its individual components can hold up to the rigorous driving styles of police professionals.

Certification testing designed by the Michigan State Police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department evaluates the durability and capability of the vehicle through a variety of tests where the car’s systems are pushed to the limits for nearly an hour and a half – far exceeding the demands most patrol cars ever experience.

To meet the rigors of the durability testing, the brakes have been increased in size and performance. The cooling package is purpose-built as well, featuring a heavy-duty alternator and larger radiator. Its honeycomb grille is designed to work in harmony with the interior components, offering more air flow throughout the vehicle. Plus, the standard 18-inch steel wheels are vented, designed to work in concert with the enhanced brake system.

”This vehicle is pursuit-ready,” said Carl Widmann, vehicle engineering manager. ”It’s no nonsense, through and through.”

Functional, inside and out
Special features continue inside, too. ”Working with our police partners, we’ve considered every detail,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of Marketing, Sales and Service. ”Approximately 90 percent of the interior has been redesigned to meet the needs of our special police customers.”

Front seats have been specially designed, with a lower bolster removed to better accommodate officers’ utility belts. Inserted into the seatback are anti-stab plates, designed to protect front-seat occupants.

The Police Interceptor second row also has been optimized to address police-specific needs.
The vinyl seats are specially sculpted and set back to improve second-row space and maximize legroom. The back door hinges are modified to open up another 10 degrees versus traditional rear doors.

The Ford Police Interceptor also is equipped with a column shift specifically designed so the console area is free for the ever-increasing amounts of aftermarket police equipment necessary for officers to do their jobs.

The new vehicle also features:
BLISÂÂ@ (Blind Spot Information System): The system uses two radar sensors located in the rear quarter panels to detect vehicles in the surrounding lanes. If a vehicle enters the driver’s blind-spot zones, the system alerts the driver with a warning light in the side-view mirror.
Cross Traffic Alert: This system uses the existing BLIS radar modules to sense oncoming traffic when slowly backing out of a parking spot. This industry-exclusive system functions only while the vehicle is in reverse and warns when cross-traffic appears within three car-widths.
Rear View Camera System: When the vehicle is in rear camera mode, a color image with guidance markers on the rear view mirror will assist the driver in backing up.
Reverse Sensing System: An audible tone will alert the driver to certain objects up to 6 feet behind the vehicle.
Standard AdvanceTracÂÂ@ ESC (electronic stability control): This helps maintain the intended path by measuring side-to-side yaw, or skidding, by the vehicle’s speed, throttle position and steering wheel angle. When wheel slip is sensed, AdvanceTrac reduces engine torque and applies selected brakes.
Ford SYNCÂÂ@: The Ford-exclusive, hands-free information system has the potential to be customized and remapped to work specifically with police aftermarket equipment such as lights and sirens, allowing officers to focus on the task at hand.

As many of you will know, I manage the Ubuntu Community team at Canonical where Daniel Holbach, Jorge Castro and David Planella work. Together we strive to make the Ubuntu community a fun, productive and engaging environment. This work involves a tremendous range of diverse disciplines and projects.

One thing that we have been really keen to facilitate in Ubuntu is an ethos of just do it. I really believe our community should feel engaged to be creative in their ideas and be able to get out there and do it, with plenty of support resources so others can help them achieve their goals. I am keen that we don’t have a bottleneck where creativity is limited. Of course, this happens from time to time, but we are always keen to resolve it where possible.

While Ubuntu has a great many projects going on at any one time, some of these projects I explicitly put on my radar so I can help contribute to make them successful, and some of these are projects that I have been happy for me and my team to commit their time to. Each of these projects is scoped for a six month cycle, and when we get a little closer to the 10.10 cycle we will start thinking of where we will focus our time in that cycle too.

In the Lucid cycle I was keen to track work on this set of projects in a more effective way. To do this the process worked a little like this:

• We first had a series of discussions at both UDS and online in which we discuss each project, what is involved and what targets and goals are in scope for the Lucid cycle. Targets beyond the Lucid cycle were explicitly deferred until the 10.10 cycle.
• The conclusions generated from these discussions were first documented as a Roadmap on the Ubuntu wiki. This provides a high-level set of goals that the project is striving for.
• We then produced a Blueprint for each project and a set of actions that are assigned to people. The blueprint is what we use to track progress on the project. The actions are stored in the whiteboard on the blueprint (which anyone can edit) and anyone can subscribe to the blueprint, which makes it great for keeping on track projects even if you are not involved in them.

The actions in the blueprint are stored in a set format, like this:

[jonobacon] An example action: TODO

In the above example, it clearly states who the action is assigned to (jonobacon on Launchpad), what it is (an example action) and it’s status (TODO). When an action is completed it is set to DONE and if we decide we want to bump it to next cycle, it is marked as POSTPONED.

This process in itself offers some key benefits:

• Commitments to a given project are clearly scoped to a cycle.
• Work is assigned to people: this is a great way of getting things done. Project Management theory has long taught that publicly assigning work to people improves it’s chances of getting done.
• Transparent: anyone can subscribe to a blueprint. As an example, even though I am not managing the Desktop Experience team or contributing to their projects, I am interested in their work, so I subscribe to a number of their blueprints. Each time the state of an action changes, I then get an automated email with the update. This is great for keeping up to date with their work.

With a bunch of blueprints that follow this format, I then approve a number of them as projects that my team will help have oversight on and help them to succeed. Some of these projects are driven by my team and I, but many of them are entirely community driven projects that I assign my team to have oversight over.

The legendary Martin Pitt then wrote a script to take this range of blueprints and actions and generate a burndown chart. Here is my team’s as of today:

It works like this: the Y axis is the number of actions in the blueprints I have approved for my team, and the X axis is the time until the end of the cycle (it is a little shorter as the graph was regenerated). The thick line through the middle of the chart is the trend line. My responsibility as a manager is to help keep the number of completed actions (shown as green) under the trend line: this ensures that we are on track for completing the committed actions throughout the cycle.

This was a pretty new concept for our community and of course the community is not expected to follow this way of working, but I have been stunned at how everyone has worked hard to stick to the actions they committed to and see the work through. As such this has felt like a really great cycle with some stunning work going on. Thanks everyone for your contributions!

According to a regulatory filing, LA-based Magento Commerce, which develops an open source e-commerce software suite, has recently received a $22.5 million capital injection in an equity funding round.

Magento was originally a product developed and marketed by Varien, a 9-year old company that also delivers e-commerce business consulting and other services, but has now effectively been incorporated as a stand-alone venture. It’s unclear whether the financing of Magento comes from Varien, or if the latter company’s existing and / or other investors have stepped in to provide funding. Either way, the company says it concerns ‘fresh’ cash.

If I were to venture a guess, I would say PayPal plays a part in this story – from what I can gather the least you can say is that the digital payment company has a deep partnership with Magento that spans both co-marketing of their respective services as well as a collaboration on a product development level.

I had a brief chat with Tim Schulz, the former MySpace product manager who recently became Magento’s Senior Product Manager, who told me they’re positioning the Magento Commerce solution right in the center of various growth areas in electronic commerce and that its goal is to become the provider of the single largest e-commerce platform in the world. Bonus points for showcasing some ambition.

Magento currently has over 60,000 merchants using its software, which was downloaded about 1.5 million times as of January 2010. The company also says they’ve registered over $15 billion in transactions to date. The roadmap for the future is apparently paved with additional products, with a number of “Mobile Commerce, Saas offering and other products/services” coming later this year.

Here’s a video of Varien / Magento CEO Roy Rubin outlining his vision on open source e-commerce:

CrunchBase InformationMagentoInformation provided by CrunchBase

Le groupe des télécommunications Deutsche Telekom réagit par une double offensive à la crise : le géant de Bonn présentera demain devant les investisseurs sa « stratégie 2.0 », qui doit mettre l'accent sur les services sur Internet. Et il a annoncé hier un changement radical dans son management, en...

· Club have failed since I left, says Inter coach
· Return to Premier League remains an ambition

José Mourinho breezed back into Stamford Bridge last night to declare he was "home" and should still be Chelsea's manager. The Internazionale coach pointed out that while he has continued to accumulate silverware in Italy his former club have one FA Cup to show for the three years since his departure.

The Portuguese veered from an initially diplomatic script, marked by an admission that he would tone down his celebrations should the Italian champions eliminate their hosts from the Champions League this evening, to suggest some level of regret at the fracture of his relationship with Roman Abramovich after his glittering three-year spell in charge at the London club.

"I feel sorry but I look forward," said Mourinho. "I feel sorry because when I look at the big four teams from when I was in England, the managers are all still there: Sir Alex [Ferguson] is there. [Arsène] Wenger is there. [Rafael] Benítez is there. I did more than enough to be here. But the decision was made. Chelsea looked forward. I look forward. They move on. I move on. I keep winning important things. They keep winning ... something. They won an FA Cup.

"I have nothing to prove to Chelsea: to Chelsea's players, to Chelsea's fans, to Chelsea's board. The relations are great. When it's possible, happiness for me and happiness for them is the perfect situation. I don't believe I will be booed. I believe I will be clapped. But, for me, this game is just about getting to the quarter-finals. It doesn't mean anything else to me at all."

His only regret concerned the timing of his eventual departure, with Mourinho conceding he should have left Stamford Bridge on his own terms immediately after claiming the FA Cup in 2007. By then his relationship with Abramovich had fractured beyond repair, though the Portuguese was persuaded to remain at the club, only to be forced out in September of that year after a sluggish start to the following season.

Asked if there was one thing he could change from his time at Chelsea, he said: "I would have left the day after the FA Cup final at the end of that third season. The timing was wrong [when I eventually did leave]. I waited until September and I didn't enjoy my time after I left until I went to Inter. Being away from football was too painful. If I'd left in May I would have started the next season at a new club."

Inter – with whom he claimed the domestic title last season – may top Serie A again, albeit by a solitary point, but the 47-year-old is enduring a relatively torrid time in Italy at present. Defeat at lowly Catania last Friday has allowed Milan to gain ground in the championship race, while Mourinho and his Italian striker Mario Balotelli were reportedly embroiled in a spat at training in Milan today which has resulted in the forward being omitted from the squad for disciplinary reasons. Carlo Ancelotti has since suggested he might seek to work with Balotelli at Chelsea.

In the circumstances, and with his relations with the Italian press clearly strained, Mourinho appeared to relish a return to London and familiar haunts. "I feel at home," he said.

"I opened the door, went up to the second floor where there are people I know; to the third floor where there are people I know. The players didn't come to see me but they are working, or at the team hotel. Before the game I know everybody and I love them, and after the game the same, but, for 90 minutes on Tuesday night, I'll know nobody.

"I'll be restrained if we win, yes. Because it's Chelsea. Because it's the team where I worked for three and a half years, the same players, the same supporters who made me feel incredible every time we played in this stadium. But don't confuse this emotional control with a lack of professionalism or of me not having a desire to win. I watched the first leg seven times on DVD, stopping and going back over and over again. Chelsea is different and I have to be different but I gave everything to prepare for this game. So don't confuse my feelings for my ex-players and my ex-club with any lack of desire or motivation to win this game."

The Inter manager was confident enough to name seven of his starting line-up for this evening's collision with Ancelotti – with whom he endured a troubled relationship last season when they were on opposite sides of Milan – and said that his former club were in safe hands under their current manager. Mourinho said: "They have a good chef, yes, a chef with experience and with knowledge of the ingredients that football needs. They are in good hands."

Yet Mourinho still has designs to return to the Premier League in the future. "I have three things still to do in my career," the Portuguese said. "One thing is to come back to English football. Another is to win the Spanish championship, because no one has won Italian, English and Spanish titles.

"And another, when I'm old, is to coach my national team. But, for now, I would like to keep winning with Inter.

"I will still be the Special One whatever happens. How old is Giovanni Trapattoni? Seventy? I want to coach as long as him but, even at that age, I will still have things to prove. That's my motivation. So, after this game, I will still be the Special One. Win or lose."

• Champions League
• Chelsea
• Internazionale

Dominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Zune -- along with Expression Blend, Silverlight, Visual Studio and XNA -- may yet save Windows Phone 7 Series. During the kick-off MIX10 keynote earlier today, Microsoft product managers showcased features, development scenarios and, most importantly, user experiences derived from Zune HD. Perhaps Windows Phone 7 Series isn't a hopelessly lost cause after all. Microsoft's competitive postion would actually look good, if phones were shipping now and not in six to eight months.

In September, I asserted that Zune HD should have been the Microsoft phone. The user interface and user experience (some of that derived from Zune 4.0 software) is exceptionally good -- particularly coming from Microsoft. Finally, Microsoft is carrying forward and extending a great user interface motif. Better: Windows Phone 7 Series is inheriting and extending the social sharing concepts imbued into Zune 1.0.

Microsoft launched Zune 1.0 in November 2006 with marketing tagline "Welcome to my social." Zune distinguished from iPod by making music a more social and sharing experience. It was a visionary approach for the time -- sadly held back by Microsoft's limited commitment (Zune distribution in United States only) and iPod's huge market share lead.

But social as executed by Microsoft was truly visionary in 2006. Many of the most popular social media/networking tools taken for granted today originated in 2006 or later. YouTube officially opened in November 2005. Facebook opened to the public in 2006 and Twitter a few months later. Most of the most popular or growing popular tools for community and self expression launched within the last three years: Disqus, FriendFeed, tumblr, Twine, Qik and USTREAM, among many, many others.

Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President, Windows Phone Program Management

What differentiates Windows Phone 7 Series from iPhone is the same thing that made Zune so different from iPod: Social sharing. Sure, there are other mobile phone social sharing alternatives available, like Motorola's MotoBlur user interface for Android phones.

Windows Phone 7 Series as social hub

But Microsoft is making social a platform that runs deep into Windows Phone 7 Series. I've repeatedly asserted that the smartphone will replace the PC as primary computing device. As the social hub for all communications, the smartphone already has replaced the PC for many people.

Shazam detects music and provides tools for social sharing

That's communications within limitations. It's one thing to use Facebook on a mobile phone. It's a whole other order of experience interacting around disparate content repositories, which is the differentiating direction Microsoft is taking Windows Phone 7 Series -- and it's a path Apple has failed to follow with iPhone.

Netflix app streams movies to Windows Phone 7 Series

Social is Apple's achilles heal, because it's not in the company's corporate DNA. Apple has historically only allowed social sharing where it has some control. The company has a deserved reputation for deleting negative forum threads, going back years. Try to comment on Apple's YouTube channel. Comments are disabled.

Every aspect of the Windows Phone 7 Series UI reminds of Zune HD

Then there are iPhone limitations to consider, such as truncated multitasking and (related) the fixed battery and battery life. Apple's idea of social interaction is the push notification. It's a weak compromise that Microsoft seems ready enough to exploit (granted, Windows Phone 7 Series has push notifications, too).

Comics in this app can be dynamically and quickly resized

By comparison, "Welcome to my social" is a platform on Windows Phone 7 Series. Social sharing and interaction are seemingly available from pretty much anywhere, including third-party applications.

This Associated Press app packs real-time social sharing features

I'm still not overly optimistic about Windows Phone 7 Series because Microsoft is restarting so late and from so far behind. That said, there's hope if Microsoft is willing to commit as much marketing -- and really loads more -- as Bing. What I saw today is encouraging. Finally.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

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Samsung today said it would return to tablets in earnest by the second half of the year. Australian IT marketing manager Emmanuele Silanesu didn't provide many details of the device but said it would focus much more on the home than the Q1 series, which was ostensibly targeted at business. He admitted to APC that the Q1 was a failure for the public, as it was targeted for workers and too limited and expensive, but stressed that a home Samsung tablet could be a main device in place of a notebook if had enough functionality....

We are just starting to announce the first speakers at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City on May 24 – 26.

TechCrunch Disrupt is a three-day, single-track conference and startup competition to immerse you in the debate about what’s changing in media and technology right now, what’s causing it and what we need to do about it to survive and thrive in real time. Join 2,000 or so of your closest friends to talk about what’s most important in the collision of technology and media.

Half of the event is a March Madness style startup competition. We’re sorting through hundreds of applications to find the most interesting startups launching this Spring. You’ll see live on stage demos, rapid fire Q&A sessions with expert judges from a variety of backgrounds (product, finance, team building, leadership and more) and highlights from behind the scenes mentoring sessions.

The other half of the event will put leading experts from around the world on stage to talk about the stuff that matters most in technology and media. A few of the speakers and experts are listed below. Keep an eye on the Disrupt Blog and Speaker list for more updates.

Get your ticket here.

Ron Conway
Angel Investor, SV Angel
Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. Ron was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top “deal-makers” in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ron is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation.

Jack Dorsey
Co-founder and CEO, Square
Software engineer Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder of Twitter, and was the CEO until October 2008. Dorsey had the original idea for Twitter while still at Odeo, a podcasting startup which was a project of Obvious Corp. He is now the chairman of Twitter. In May 2009, Dorsey announced his latest startup, Square. Square, originally code-named Squirrel, is a mobile payment startup with both an app and a piece of hardware that allows the iPhone to accept credit card payments.

Brad Garlinghouse
President, Internet and Mobile Communications, AOL
Brad Garlinghouse is President, Internet and Mobile Communications at AOL since September 2009. Until 2008 Brad served as SVP of Communications & Communities at Yahoo, which includes the world’s most popular webmail product, Yahoo Mail, Messenger and Groups. During his tenure, Brad has also overseen the primary starting points to the Yahoo network, including Yahoo.com and My Yahoo. Prior to joining Yahoo, Brad served as CEO of Dialpad Communications. Earlier in his career, Brad led VC investments in communications and Internet businesses at @Ventures. He also spent time in leadership roles at @Home Network and SBC Communications.

Katie Geminder
User Experience and Design Expert
Katie started her career in Seattle, working to produce and publish print and web content for clients including Microsoft, Intel, and Expedia. She joined Amazon as the managing editor of the e-Cards business and led large cross-functional and customer experience initiatives including the Amazon.com Kitchen Store, re-launch of Tab Navigation, Target.com, and the Amazon Services e-Commerce platform. In 2005 Katie moved to work on the Apple Online Store team as a Sr. Manager focused on content and customer experience, collaborating with engineering, marketing, and design teams to improve online shopping for Macs and iPods. Katie joined Facebook in early 2006 and led the product management, design and user experience teams. She played an integral part in launching the News Feed and Mini Feed products, making Facebook available to all users (beyond college and high school), opening up the Facebook Platform to application developers, and the Facebook redesign. In August of 2008 she set out on building a design and consulting business with her co-founder, designer, and husband. She then rejoined Owen Van Natta at Myspace in July of 2009, a job she would leave in February 2010 after Van Natta’s departure.

Charlie Rose
Host, Charlie Rose Show
Charlie Rose is an American television interviewer and journalist. He entered television journalism full-time in 1974, when he became the managing editor of the PBS series Bill Moyers’ International Report. He currently hosts the Charlie Rose Show, where he has developed a reputation as a skilled interviewer.

Brian Sugar, CEO & Publisher, Sugar Inc.
Brian Sugar is the CEO and Publisher of Sugar Inc., the company behind PopSugar. As CEO & Publisher, Brian Sugar sets the overall direction for Sugar Inc. Prior to founding Sugar Inc., Brian served first as Vice President of Marketing then as Vice President & General Manager of 2Wire, Inc.’s media business unit. Before joining 2Wire, Brian was founder and CEO of Sugar Media, a digital media software company, which was acquired by 2Wire in October 2003. Brian was Chief Web Officer at Kmart’s BlueLight.com, Vice President of eCommerce at J.Crew, and a founder of Neptune Interactive, a Washington, DC-based ISP.

Michael Wolf, Board of Directors for Entercom Communications and iAmplify
Michael Wolf currently serves on the boards of Entercom Communications Corporation (NYSE: ETM), the fourth-largest broadcasting company in the United States, and iAmplify.com, a Web-based content publisher and syndication network and the world’s largest selection of expert video and audio downloads. He was formerly the president and former COO of MTV Networks. Michael was a Director of McKinsey & Company and head of its Global Media and Entertainment Practice. Before joining McKinsey in 2001, Wolf was a senior partner with Booz & Company, where he spearheaded its media and entertainment group. Wolf is the author of publications on the subjects of entertainment, economics, non-fiction, e-business strategies and the development of global media. His bestselling book on entertainment economics, The Entertainment Economy: How Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives was published in the U.S. in 1999 and then globally. He is frequent contributor and op-ed columnist for newspapers, journals and business publications.

I recently tried setting up a Dell Laptop with a Broadcom wireless driver. It was the only thing that wasn't auto detected and setup correctly. Which got me a bit worried.

drubin@ubuntu:~$ lspci | grep -i net 0e:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

One of the first hits in Google was from Dimitar while this blog post has nice detailed instructions. It seems to miss points that make Linux so amazing the first being package management and on this point being able to upgrade your kernel. I found that blog post to be very informative and detailed but the part that made me question things was Then click on the “Status” button and select “Installed”. Then search for “linux-”. Select all packages that start with “linux-” and then Package -> Lock Version.

What so I wouldn't be able to do kernel updates? That wasn't going to do at all. So I did what any good Floss user would do and read the read me from the BroadCom driver page

PRECOMPILED DRIVER ------------------- Some distros (Ubuntu and Fedora at the least) already have a version of this driver in their repositories precompiled, tested and ready to go. You just use the package manager to install the proper package. If its available for your distro, this is usually an easier solution. See the end of this document for further discussion.

This is something I haven't seen that often official drivers pointing you to the Distro maintained versions. Linux has come along way in recent years. Any how for all those that happen to stumble here from Google and other places. I just want to mention the easier way to get the drivers working is written in the readme. :) Ubuntu: ------ Go to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers Choose the Broadcom STA wireless driver Activate Sometimes the driver does not show up in the Hardware Drivers choices. In this case, try reintalling the driver from the GUI or shell like this: From the GUI: Package Manager (System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager). Click the Reload button in the upper left corner of Synaptic to refresh your index then search for and reinstall the package named bcmwl-kernel-source. From the shell: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source In either GUI or text case, after reinstalling, reboot your machine. Now go back to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers and you should see the driver enabled and working.

I really hope this helps some one from compiling their own driver and having to maintain it between kernel upgrades. Btw I have upgraded my Karmic kernel to the latest 2.6.31.20.33 with it still working.

ALTEN

Apple recently nabbed a former Google product manager for a secretive "pretty neat role" with the company, while a new Google employee has shared harsh words about Apple's "Disney-fied" approach to the mobile Internet.

Hugh Pickens writes "At the peak of a magnetic storm, the number of highly energetic 'killer electrons' strong enough to damage electronics and human tissue can increase by a factor of more than ten times, posing a danger to spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts. Killer electrons can penetrate satellite shielding, so if electrical discharges take place in vital components, a satellite can be damaged or even rendered inoperable. For many years, the mechanism by which killer electrons are produced has remained poorly understood, in spite of physicists' attempts at solving this puzzle. Now the ESA reports that data shows the increase in the creation of a substantial number of killer electrons is due to a two-step process. First, the initial acceleration is due to the strong shock-related magnetic field compression. Immediately after the impact of the interplanetary shock wave, Earth's magnetic field lines began wobbling at ultra low frequencies. In turn, these ULF waves effectively accelerate the seed electrons (provided by the first step) to become killer electrons. 'These new findings help us to improve the models predicting the radiation environment in which satellites and astronauts operate. With solar activity now ramping up, we expect more of these shocks to impact our magnetosphere over the months and years to come,' says Philippe Escoubet, ESA's Cluster mission manager."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hugh Pickens writes "At the peak of a magnetic storm, the number of highly energetic 'killer electrons' strong enough to damage electronics and human tissue can increase by a factor of more than ten times, posing a danger to spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts. Killer electrons can penetrate satellite shielding, so if electrical discharges take place in vital components, a satellite can be damaged or even rendered inoperable. For many years, the mechanism by which killer electrons are produced has remained poorly understood, in spite of physicists' attempts at solving this puzzle. Now the ESA reports that data shows the increase in the creation of a substantial number of killer electrons is due to a two-step process. First, the initial acceleration is due to the strong shock-related magnetic field compression. Immediately after the impact of the interplanetary shock wave, Earth's magnetic field lines began wobbling at ultra low frequencies. In turn, these ULF waves effectively accelerate the seed electrons (provided by the first step) to become killer electrons. 'These new findings help us to improve the models predicting the radiation environment in which satellites and astronauts operate. With solar activity now ramping up, we expect more of these shocks to impact our magnetosphere over the months and years to come,' says Philippe Escoubet, ESA's Cluster mission manager."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Samsung today said it would return to tablets in earnest by the second half of the year. Australian IT marketing manager Emmanuele Silanesu didn't provide many details of the device but said it would focus much more on the home than the Q1 series, which was ostensibly targeted at business. He admitted to APC that the Q1 was a failure for the public, as it was targeted for workers and too limited and expensive, but stressed that a home Samsung tablet could be a main device in place of a notebook if had enough functionality....

Women’s lifestyle vertical publisher Glam Media has launched its site in France, following last week’s Paris Fashion Week - despite two warnings from a French company that it owns the “Glam” trademark in the country.

The French launch is the latest international expansion for Glam, which has launched in Japan, the UK and Germany, and counts MSN.fr founder Jean-Pierre Levieux as its general manager.

Women’s lifestyle vertical publisher Glam Media has launched its site in France, following last week’s Paris Fashion Week - despite two warnings from a French company that it owns the “Glam” trademark in the country.

The French launch is the latest international expansion for Glam, which has launched in Japan, the UK and Germany, and counts MSN.fr founder Jean-Pierre Levieux as its general manager.

Michael Arrington's recent TechCrunch post about old media "guys" who don't get it made me realize how far things have come -- and how much better they've gotten -- in the world of journalism.

I worked for more than 15 years in what's now called "legacy media" as a reporter, news editor and business person. All along, there were a bunch of things that made me scratch my head.

The Way Things Were (Wrong)

Why, for example, could we could lift from other sources without offering attribution? I remember when a librarian at ABC News taught us how to use news databases to find stories from local media that could serve as grist for our mill. On another occasion, I pretty much re-reported a Japanese magazine's story for Newsweek. The Japanese magazine's editor called me out privately, but I never paid any further price.

I marveled at how expensive databases with reams of news and information benefited us at big media companies, but weren't readily available to the public. One of the reasons I worked for large media companies (such as ABC, Newsweek and AP) was because of the information access they afforded.

I saw how my colleagues and I could resist calls for transparency in disclosing sources or methods because it was very hard for people to vet what we did and then share their concerns widely.

Meanwhile, the viewer or reader or listener pretty much had to take whatever we thought they should be given. At top-flight news organizations, we seldom talked about what the consumer might want. I would get sometimes looked at cross-eyed if I brought the topic up.

I remember the frustration I felt at always having to repeat the nut graf and essential information in a story, just in case someone reading it might not know the basics of what had already happened. I remember the Newsweek bureau chief in Tokyo telling me he was annoyed at being assigned a story that would cover the same ground as one done well by another news outlet.

As both a news professional and a news consumer, there was a constant feeling that I was missing something.

The Equation Is Changed

Digital media -- can we please stop calling them "new"? -- have changed it all.

I was exhilarated in my early years at ABCNews.com, where I was its founding international producer, when I got a Serb from Belgrade within the NATO bombing zone to email me missives, which I posted on the site. Sure, they were biased and sometimes myopic, but it was great to have someone who had bombs falling all around him making observations from his window, sending images, showing his feelings.

I remember, too, the enjoyment I felt getting screamed at from China for allowing what I believe was the first real-time chat between people in China and a major news website. In both instances, the experience was raw, unfiltered and direct from the source -- without any correspondent to tell us what was being said. The unlimited space, flexibility of time, and ability to bring others into the conversation broke down the barriers that the journalist can place, even inadvertently, between those involved in the news and those interested in it. (These were adjuncts, not the main story, and I don't believe we can or should do without journalists, editing and packaging. But I do think coverage is greatly enhanced by direct access to those involved.)

While watching the Paley Center's recent session, Education of the Entrepreneurial Journalist, I was glad to see Geneva Overholser, director of the School of Journalism at USC's Annenberg School for Communication, promise that, "We will have journalists who need to care about where audiences are and how they are going to reach those audiences."

But I was almost shocked that it had to be stated. Isn't it a given that journalists have to care about the audience? Are we still in an era when they don't?

Change for the Good

Access to information has, obviously, improved as well. Search engines such as Google and myriad other information sources, from Twitter and Facebook to Digg and Delicious, have made it easier to be sure we don't miss what's relevant. They can also enable us to find serendipitous links that take us on new journeys. Sure, there's still proprietary information locked up in Factiva, Nexis and Bloomberg terminals, but you'd be hard-pressed to convince me we have less access to good information today than we did before the web.

Journalists are also now held to a higher standard, and have to be more transparent. As everyone from Dan Rather to The New York Times and Reuters and many solo bloggers have found, any mistakes or distortions will be called out and publicized. You'll be hounded until you make a prominent correction. You may even have to find another line of work. No longer is it simply enough to say, "Trust us and our integrity. We have the brand and the access and the information."

The ability to link and refer to source documents has helped, too. I remember how I had to convince a boss in those early days of ABCNews.com to let a link or two replace a few paragraphs of background in order to save us space and effort, while also sparing readers the annoyance of repetition. Today, the link and search are our friends, and can give us not just the background, but also the source documents, raw interviews, and much more. Done right, journalism has new authenticity and credibility.

Accountable advertising

Democratization has also come to the business side. I used to wonder how it was that advertisers could place their ads without ever knowing much about the effect of their placement. Of course, we all knew that even though a placement in the front of a publication was deemed a choice spot, readers might pick up Newsweek just for the arts section and never get to the "front of the book." In the Washington Post, they might not go beyond the Style section, so a chunk of subscribers weren't being reached by ads in the front section.

Today, in digital media, advertisers can at least tell if their ads have been served to (and presumably seen by) a viewer. Yes, it's imperfect, but you can't convince me that digital media is less accountable than print or broadcast.

While I feel the pain of those who've lost their jobs -- I've both laid off people and been laid off myself -- there are now business models for news that work on the web, even if the traditionalists don't like it. Just ask Gawker Media, Gothamist, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos or Drudge Report, all of which are said to be profitable. I know it's still fashionable in some circles to curl your lip when referring to "bloggers," or to lament the mediocrity of so much web journalism. But there is real, strong journalism taking place, too.

I'm not saying today's media have made things all sweetness and light, that digital is saving us and everyone is holding hands and dancing together in sun-filled meadows. But we're getting some clarity about information sharing and attribution, fraud is being detected, fairness and even-handedness are being demanded, the megaphone is being shared, and advertisers are able to demand evidence that their ads are actually being seen.

Meanwhile, there is huge disruption. This is not a time for the faint of heart or those unwilling to learn and change. But, for so many reasons and in so many ways, things are better than they used to be.

Dorian Benkoil is consulting sales manager, and has devised marketing strategy for MediaShift. He is SVP at Teeming Media, a strategic media consultancy focused on helping digital media content identify and meet business objectives. He has devised strategies, business models and training programs for websites, social media, blog networks, events companies, startups, publications and TV shows. He Tweets at @dbenk.

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We’re here at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas where Twitter co-founder Evan Williams doing a keynote Q&A with Umair Haque. Williams may use the time to talk a bit about Twitter’s upcoming ad platform. Update: It’s actually an “At Platform” called At Anywhere — more here.

Interestingly enough, Twitter saw its first burst of popularity three years ago at this very conference.

Below find my live notes (paraphrased):

UH: Ev you have something pretty interesting you want to say today?

EW: Yeah, we want to announce something. We wanted to announce our new “At Platform” (undoubtedly to be spelled an @ Platform) – a way to integrate Twitter into any website. “At Anywhere” – basically this allows you to place the Twitter hovercards on any site. We have 13 sites we’re launching with including Amazon, ebay, Yahoo, Digg, Bing, Meebo, Salesforce.

UH: So what can you do with this?

EW: You can easily tweet from any page that is using this. Also, maybe you want talk to authors of posts without going to Twitter itself, you can just hover over their name and tweet them. Twitter is a very easy way to keep in touch.

UH: So this helps you contextualize information. But why would sites use this?

EW: A connection to users you didn’t have before – and it keeps people coming back. And it will result in more followers for a site. Also, hopefully more people who are your fans using twitter to talk about you or your content. And you can bring in users’ tweets talking about your site.

UH: So it’s a platform to juice up site’s networks and virility. But it’s an “At Platform” not an “Ad Platform”.

EW: Yeah, it’s about lowering the barrier for information.

UH: What makes 21st century businesses different? Like Twitter? The first principle to me is experimentation. Why are you willing to explore different possibilities?

EW: Experimentation lets you create value. “Whatever you assume when you start out, you’re wrong.” Most of the great businesses of our time have experimented. Like Google.

UH: So it’s about creating value, then figuring it out?

EW: Yes, it’s about creating experience for users and businesses. There is a ton of business use on Twitter today — it’s one of the biggest uses. We want to make that better, easier, faster.

UH: What is Twitter evolving to?

EW: What is Twitter has always been a tough question to answer. We think of it as an information network — different from a social network. It’s about getting info and also sharing. You can take advantage of Twitter without sharing anything about your life. We need to increase the signal-to-noise ratio.

UH: So better information, better connections, better choices.

EW: Yes.

UH: Experimentation is about iteration. So how does that happen at Twitter?

EW: We have a bunch of awesome people in the company now. We’ve grown very quickly over the past year. Our employee growth curve is almost like our user growth curve now. We have people on focused teams, like mobile, or internationalization. We’re worried about central thinking and slow processes. So we tell our teams to “go for it.”

UH: So what’s your role?

EW: I don’t get into the nuts and bolts of code, cause things would be a big mess. I spend most of my time thinking about the high level issues. And I think a lot about the company – how do we scale the company, about our culture, etc. How do we define the characteristics we want. I think there is a parallel between the service and the company — openness is huge, transparency.

UH: So openness is very important. Help us trace the arc of openness at Twitter.

EW: Yeah, it means a lot of things. We debated if openness or transparency. “A window is transparent, but a door is open.” The users have taken Twitter and morphed it into what they want it to be. Now developers are doing the same thing. Openness is really a survival technique.

I sit down with new employees when they start and go over 9 assumptions you should have about working at Twitter. One key one is assume there are more smart people outside the company than insides.

UH: What about giving the golden goose away? Why be so open?

EW: That was a big question for us – the deals with Bing and Google. These were the first guys we shared our full stream with. There’s a lot of debate about that. Because we don’t have a business model yet, so why give it away? But we went back to the principle of giving users the most value.

There are 50 million tweets a day, how do we show you the best ones for you? Right now, we don’t do a good enough job of that. But with these partnerships, we have more chances to do that.

UH: Was there a lot of internal debate about this?

EW: Yeah, there was a ton. But we decided it was good. And now we’ve expanded the deals – like with Yahoo. And a few weeks ago we talked about giving this data to thousands of others.

Now third party developers are building a lot of value. Like adding pictures to Twitter.

CoTweet and HootSuite are really interesting too. Twitter.com isn’t a good interface for doing customer support, but those guys are. CoTweet just got acquired by a company that wants to focus on that more.

We’d love to see much more focus on creating these deep experiences that create value.

UH: So experimentation and openness. Other companies want control, like Apple. How open are you guys?

EW: We’re pretty open – there is some control we need to employ because if we were infinitely open we’d be doing a disservice to users. Openness can work against you still. It has to be managed a lot. Having an open API makes it easier to make apps that will spam users. We send cease and desists everyday to companies making spam tools. We have to exert some control.

UH: I think shepherding is a good way to put it. So you had some interesting use recently – such as the earthquake in Chile.

EW: I got an email recently about the earthquake, thanking us for helping with the situation. This is very gratifying for us because we’ve always held it important for Twitter to reach the weakest signals in the world. We started out with a big focus on SMS – and it’s still really important to us. Because it reaches so many people. We have deals with 65 carriers around the world to send these SMS tweets.

We’re at the beginning. We’re seeing really strong growth in India where SMS is huge. And in the Middle East.

UH: I think this changing the world stuff is the future for entrepreneurs. It gets to the heart of the point about inclusiveness. So – what is an “active user”?

EW: To me it comes back to – is someone getting value out of Twitter? If they don’t have an account it’s hard to know, like people who search Google for tweets. In the beginning we put a lot of focus on telling the world or your friends and family what you’re doing. But now there is something interesting on Twitter for everyone – like the Flaming Lips being on Twitter, you can get updates on the band.

And as more people start getting information on Twitter, they’re more likely to get involved.

UH: Someone has started using Twitter inside the White House, right?

EW: Yeah, it’s really interesting that it’s from in the White House. It’s an official channel, but they’re using it a different type of way. It’s about reducing the walls between people with a lot of influence, and those who they influence. And that’s the most profound promise of the Internet. This is the wave I started on 10 years ago with blogging. It’s about the democracy of information. Anyone can put information on the web — that’s huge.

UH: Tweet Minister in the UK aggregates the tweets from members of parliament. This is re-wiring society in some ways. But we also have a counter-force – like state control of information.

EW: In some regions, yes, this is bad and hurting the web. But the Internet is a tidal wave that you will not be able to keep out. Like in China, who knows how long those firewalls will hold up – but not forever.

UH: Yes, there are many ways to get through the firewalls already. There’s a lot of pressure on them.

Let’s talk about “betterness.” I booked a trip to his five star resort in an exotic land. When I got there, it was a shack. The manager couldn’t do anything — so I put it on Twitter. Within 15 minutes the booking company called me, and in 20 minutes I got a new hotel. In a half an hour my vacation was fixed.

EW: That’s great. Our hope is that this is the norm, not a fluke. We have a bit of a dichotomy, because there is more everyday you want to search for. We don’t just want to maximize that, we hope to make Twitter more useful to you. We want to decrease time you spend on Twitter, not increase it.

Recently we went through a process to define our operating principles. The number one principle is “be a force for good.” Another principle is “pay attention.”

CrunchBase InformationTwitterInformation provided by CrunchBase

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Cramer-Krasselt has promoted Karen Seamen, general manager of the growing independent network's flagship Chicago office, to the new, network-wide post of chief operating officer.

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