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Oracle announced an agreement to acquire cloud-based social marketing platform Virtue.

Virtue is designed to let marketers manages social marketing campaigns across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ from one place.

Oracle wrote in a blog post:

The proliferation of social media has changed the way that organizations and consumers interact. Vitrues social marketing platform helps organizations enhance their social marketing efforts to the next level of social engagement by giving brands the ability to scale across multiple social networks, target messages from global to local, create unique and consistent brand experiences, and publish content that engages fans and drives leads.

Together, Oracle and Vitrue plan to enable a unified social experience across customer interactions, resulting in meaningful customer engagements with consistent brand experiences across all channels and media; improved return on investment for social sales and marketing campaigns across paid, owned and social media; and enhanced customer service through real-time responsiveness and high touch engagement.

The worlds greatest brands have been built by creating meaningful relationships between organizations and their customers, said Virtue CEO Reggie Bradford. As a part of Oracle, we can help our customers ensure that consistent high-touch social engagement is delivered across marketing, sales and service interactions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though TechCrunch indicates the price is $300 million. The deal is expected to close this summer. In the meantime, the two companies will continue to operate independently.

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Oracle Acquires Virtue, A Social Marketing Platform

Atthe 65th Cannes Festival, Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi was, once again, the centre of attention, this time for his next film project. The European Commission has selected Farhadis next movie for its 60,000 euro Prix MEDIA award. The film is due to be set in Paris with European casting. Earlier this year,Farhadis Separation won twoOscar nominationsandtook the award for Best Foreign Language film, the first Iranian movie to win the honour. In an interview with euronews in Cannes, Asghar Farhadi talks about his next project, the reaction in Iran, his cinematic style and thecurrent restraintson Iranian film-makers. euronews: Youve just won the Prix MEDIA a European award whichrecognises cultural diversity, what does this award mean for you as an Iranian Film maker? Asghar Farhadi: The meaning it has for me is the same as all the encouragement I have received through these years. The other meaning is thatIm a writer who has always composed in the Persian language andwhose dialogues have always been in thePersian language. Now some of the cast will be speaking another language. Finally, it means that those who have read the script for my next film have been able to connect with it and did not find it an unfamiliar storydespite not knowing Persian, and that means a lot to me. euronews: You won many international awards for your last movie A Separation amongst them an Oscar for best foreign language movie but apparently when you returned to Iran, the official welcome dinner organised by the State of Iran was cancelled; what happened? Asghar Farhadi: My cinema friends and colleagues were going to hold a ceremony, a very sincere and simple ceremony. Well, they faced problems and they could not hold it properly and they were still trying to hold the ceremony one way or another. I did not want them to have more problems and I asked them not to continue. The ceremony was not going to be held by the House of Cinema, (House of Cinema isIrans biggest syndicate for cinema actors/actresses/film-makers butwas closed earlier this year by the authorities), but by friends who were mostly members of the House of Cinema. What they were doing meant a lot to me although they could not do it the way they wanted to. I could never find out why the ceremony was cancelled. However,despite everything,it was very valuable for me. All this time, I have got so much support from the people of my country and I have been blessed with their kindness and this support is a great asset for me and very valuable.

euronews: In your movies you have a certain style which reminds me of Chekhov, Ibsen and Kieslowski certainly in your last movie A Separation you have a style I would call neo-realistic; what for you is the task of this realistic style? Asghar Farhadi: It might have been the books I read when I was a teenager. The stories I read at that time were very close to reality; not just a mere portrayal of reality but a selection of a layer of reality which, within itself, contained much more complicated layers of reality. Reading those stories as a younger adult has unconsciously created a certain taste which showed itself when I started writing movie scripts and plays.

euronews: An artist-and I consider you as a filmmaker and screenwriter as an artist -you must have a certain freedom of artistic expression. Where is the borderline for you between artistic expression and freedom, and state censorship? Asghar Farhadi: For someone like me andof my generation whowas born and has grown upwith these restrictions be they at home, at school, on the street, or at university; sometimes this borderline between being restricted and not being restricted is blurred. Not in the same sense that I sometimes hear: Restrictions lead to creativity. This is wrong to say. Perhaps in the short run, restrictions can bring about creativity but, in the long term, it destroys it. Therefore, if there were no restrictions for Iranian film-makers, we would have seen more creativity from them. euronews: There are a lot of Iranian film directors who cannot work the way they wish in Iran. Some Western journalists call this a problem of censorship. How would you explain the problem? Asghar Farhadi: The problem is not a very clear and transparent problem that I can define for you. Perhaps if we summarise it in one word, it is the same as you say, censorship and restriction. This is not just from the system, not just from the authority and the ruling system. Some of this censorship is within the artist or the film-maker without them being aware of it, and this is more dangerous, because if there are restrictions on the outside, you can see them, you can get it, you can recognise it, experience it and find a way for going through it. But when it is within your ownmind, you will not be able to find it. It is like someone who is ill but does not know about his illness and feels that he is healthy. This is dangerous. euronews: The House of Cinema, an important body supporting artists and filmmakers in Iran was closed a few month ago it shocked a lot of filmmakers, actors and actresses how do you feel about this? Asghar Farhadi: Ihavesome good news. I learnt that through their efforts, all those who were active in and all the members of House of Cinema, havemanaged to getit re-opened soon. I am not sure yet, I have heard this as news. My feeling when the House of Cinema was closed was a very bad feeling. Neither I nor any other of my colleagues could find out why such an establishment should be shut. Reasons were given but none of them were acceptable to me. I thought those were not the real reasons and something else has made them close the House of Cinema. But I am happy that finally, due to the efforts of the cinema people, this incident was not forgotten, unlike many other events that are forgotten in the course of time.

Copyright 2012 euronews

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Farhadi - self-censorship 'real danger' for Iranian filmmakers

Thursday, May 24, 2012

A disturbing pattern continues to emerge across the country involving breast-cancer support bracelets worn by public school students. Students wear them, administrators overreact and censor them, and some students file lawsuits in federal court asserting their First Amendment rights.

The bracelets, sponsored by the Keep A Breast Foundation, are designed to increase awareness of breast cancer. Some public school students wear them to honor a family member or friend who has battled the disease.

The Fort Wayne, Ind., Journal Gazette reports on the latest of these controversies. An unidentified high school sophomore in Fort Wayne sued after her principal forbade her from wearing the bracelet. It had been given to her by her mother, Julie Andrzejewski, a breast-cancer survivor.

One federal court decision in Pennsylvania already has established that two middle school students had a First Amendment right to wear the bracelets. In H. v. Easton Area School District, a federal district judge ruled in April 2011 in the students favor. The judge found that the bracelets caused no substantial disruption of school activities and were not vulgar or lewd.

These bracelets are protected speech. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) that public school students had the right to wear black peace armbands to public school even though the Vietnam War was the most controversial of topics.

The I Love Boobies bracelets should be treated the same way as the black peace armbands in Tinker as protected speech. The First Amendment requires as much.

Tags: censorship, public school, student expression, student speech

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Censorship of ‘boobies bracelets’ continues

23-05-2012 17:50 Soon on Ring Mode Records , stay tuned! Lyrics: Social network media control Label it promote yourself Post it on your wall Check your like and subscribe Dont forget to pay your bribe Social network media control You belong to Facebook Let us of the hook You are owned by social media privatized marketing mass bulimia You are owned by social media More info:

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2Drops - Freedom Of Speech (Progressive House 2012 - 2013) - Video

With presidential elections less than six weeks away, Mexicans protest media coverage of the campaign.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: To read more about Mexico's vote on CNNMexico.com click here.

(CNN) -- The demonstrators have no clear leader. Many say Twitter posts and Facebook groups brought them to the streets of Mexico's capital and cities around the country.

With presidential elections less than six weeks away, they are protesting media coverage of the campaign and criticizing the candidate widely seen as the front-runner.

Local media reports have described it as "the Mexican Spring," drawing a comparison with massive protests pushing for political change in the Middle East.

The surge of student activism has drawn attention at a key time during campaigning in the politically polarized country, where security concerns and economic problems have been top issues for candidates vying for the presidency.

"It was about time that Mexico woke up, that it stopped watching television," said Leonardo Mata, a student at Mexico City's Metropolitan Autonomous University who joined thousands marching in the capital on Wednesday.

TV coverage of the campaign has drawn sharp criticism from some protesters, who argue that national broadcaster Televisa has provided more favorable coverage to Enrique Pena Nieto, the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate who leads in polls.

Televisa's president appeared to acknowledge the protests in a Twitter post this week.

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Social media fuel Mexican youth protests