Mediaboss Marketing

By Eric Engleman - Mon Mar 12 18:05:10 GMT 2012

The organization that manages the Internets address system should strengthen conflict-of-interest rules for its board of directors, the groups chief executive officer said.

It is time to further tighten up the rules that have allowed perceived conflicts to exist within our board, Rod Beckstrom, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said at a meeting of the group in Costa Rica today.

This is necessary not just to be responsive to the growing chorus of criticism about Icanns ethics environment but to ensure that absolute dedication to the public good supersedes all other priorities, Beckstrom said, according to excerpts of the speech provided by Icann.

Icann, which manages the Internets domain-name system under a U.S. Commerce Department contract, approved a plan in June to consider hundreds more domains such as .apple and .nyc in a move to spur online innovation. The group began accepting applications for new Web suffixes in January for a three-month window ending April 12.

Public-interest organizations, a national advertisers group and a U.S. senator criticized Icann after its previous chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush, joined a company that plans to invest in new domains less than a month after the board approved the expansion in June.

General Electric Co. (GE), Coca-Cola Co. (KO) and more than 50 other U.S. companies oppose the proposed domain expansion, saying it will increase their costs, confuse customers and fuel Internet fraud.

To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Engleman in Washington at eengleman1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernie Kohn at Bkohn2@bloomberg.net.

View original post here:
Internet Overseer Icann Needs to Tighten Board Conflict Rules, CEO Says

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A new women-only Internet cafe in Afghanistan's capital is the first of its kind in this country.

Staffed entirely by women, it's a place for women to connect to the world in a country where they don't often enjoy the freedom to do what they please online away from the watchful eyes of their fathers, husbands or brothers.

[More from Mashable: In the Middle East International Womens Day Is Documented on Social Media]

The Young Afghan Women for Change -- a local group of women activists -- inaugurated the Sarah Gul Internet Cafe last week. The group wants the cafe to become a place for women in Kabul to use the Internet, away from the prying eyes of others -- especially from men.

Based on a survey we did in Kabul, we found out that women were harassed in regular cafs and were uncomfortable sitting beside men for an hour-long (Internet browsing session), says Zafar Salehi, a YAWC member.

[More from Mashable: International Womens Day 2012 Tweets Flood the Twitterverse]

The caf is named after Sahar Gul, who was kept in solitary confinement and tortured by her husband for months. Her tragic case drew a great deal of international attention.

Afghans living in the country joined expatriates in Europe and the U.S. in raising money to help the Sahar Gul Internet Caf open its doors. Additionally, a private company donated 15 laptops, and a telecommunications firm is providing the caf with a free year-long Internet connection.

The YAWC will continue to ask women around Afghanistan about their Internet privacy concerns. If they find another area that might be in need of a women-only Internet cafe, they'll build another just like the Sahar Gul shop.

"In every province where women use the Internet, they have the same problem," says Salehi. "We can hopefully expand this initiative to other places."

Visit link:
Afghanistan's First Women-Only Internet Cafe Opens [PHOTOS]

There seems to be a school of thought that Google Webmaster Tool data is useless and inaccurate. General bugginess, delayed reports, showing average position in search results, and rounding numbers has led to many disregarding the search query report in frustration.

When John Mueller was asked during a Webmaster Hangout why rounding clicks was necessary, if there could ever be an advanced option showing actual numbers, and how many people would have to sign a petition for them to reconsider, he disappointingly said they just thought itd be better if the numbers were bucketed.

While we can see how they might need to round impressions to help compensate for automated queries, clicks seem to be correlated enough with visits to make a conservative estimate of (not provided) data. This is my hypothesis. I need help experimenting, but here is my methodology.

The key is understanding how Google decided to round, or bucket clicks. After consolidating data across several sites this list was generated, showing how Google decided to bucket search query clicks.

In essence, Visits from a custom Google Analytics report need to be inserted into the downloadable Google Webmaster Tool search query report. Begin by creating two reports in your browser.

The GA Custom Report contains:

Google Webmaster Tools search query report contains:

See original here:
Recovering (Not Provided) Keyword Data

11-03-2012 15:41 Mixtape "Well Connected" Get it Free Scroll down Click Free Download : fiberupload.com

Read more from the original source:
BkBuD #RNS Real Nigga Shit - Video

As state librarian, Norma Blake has helped libraries around New Jersey shift their primary function from lending books to aiding in the economic recovery whether its teaching job seekers basic computer skills or serving as reference centers for research.

"Many years ago, people said, Oh, libraries will never last with the Internet, but that has proved to be the exact opposite," she said. "People are pouring into libraries."

Blake, 63, has announced she plans to retire at the end of June, after 11 years on the job. Thomas Edison State College, which oversees the state library, has begun a search for her replacement. Blake, who is paid a $155,300 annual salary, is charged with advocating and sharing information about libraries to the general public, organizations and government.

Two years ago, she helped secure more than $7 million in stimulus funds and grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to supply computer security, hardware and broadband to the states libraries. The New Jersey Knowledge Initiative, a project to make available specialized databases to small businesses and entrepreneurs, won the Innovation Award from the National Council of State Governments, but was largely discontinued due to state budget cuts.

"Librarians are fighting very hard to maintain their support from towns and municipalities in the state that are being fiscally stressed. People underestimate the importance of them," said George Pruitt, president of Thomas Edison State College. "More people visit libraries in New Jersey than all the casinos in Atlantic City and the sports complex in the Meadowlands combined."

To help libraries stay relevant, the state library is starting up a "mobile tech to go" project to lend libraries hand-held gadgets, such as the Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle e-readers, for two-month periods. The librarians can then show their patrons how to use them. Blake said she is also looking into a pilot program to bring iPad dispensing machines to local libraries.

But some of Blakes decisions have been criticized. Some librarians were upset that she ended the regional library cooperative system, which was in place for 25 years, and cut funding for the statewide "QandANJ" virtual reference project, which for a decade provided 24-7 access to librarians online.

Peter Bromberg, assistant director at Princeton Public Library, who helped create and manage QandNJ, said he thought Blake was a wonderful state librarian for many years, but he and others found it troubling that there was "very little input from the library community and a real lack of transparency around those decisions."

Two years ago, Blake said the state library lost 43 percent of its state funding for libraries, and in the past two years it has lost 14 percent of its federal money for libraries.

"These were purely business decisions that had to be made in tough times," Blake said.

More:
Retiring N.J. state librarian stresses libraries' continued relevance in digital age