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What's the one thing all organizations have in common? They must identify new ways to grow revenue and expand their business to stay competitive.

Increasingly, organizations are using cloud computing and social networking to help them embrace new market opportunities.

Over the past several years cloud computing has matured to a point where it's considered a mainstream technology service. The benefits can seem endless. It helps to reduce IT costs, it's easy to set up, scales to your business' storage needs seamlessly, provides customers, partners and employees with remote access from anywhere at anytime, it's secure and security-rich. Expected to grow to more than $214 billion by 2020, cloud computing has become a catalyst for capturing new business value.

Similarly, social networking for business has exploded over the past several years. Forrester Research reports that the market opportunity for social enterprise apps is expected to grow at a rate of 61 percent through 2016, reaching $6.4 billion. Once viewed as a tool for students and teens to connect with one another, businesses are now adopting similar concepts to better connect their employees, partners and clients and to transform globally. These organizations are transforming into social business as every department, from HR to marketing to product development to customer service to sales, are using social networking the way they use any other tool and channel to do their job.

They're integrating social networking tools into traditional business processes to fundamentally impact how work gets done and to create business value. They're deepening customer relationships, generating new ideas faster, identifying expertise, enabling a more effective workforce and ultimately driving their bottom line.

Imagine what could happen if you were to marry cloud computing and social networking.

Many organizations, of all shapes, sizes and industry, are already doing so and creating significant business value.

For example, within the RICOH Company, Ltd., an international supplier of office and industrial equipment, the Business Development Center is collaborating in the cloud creating products faster with an expected improvement in cycle time for new product introduction of 20 percent. Chefs at Newly Weds Foods, a world leader in food ingredient technology, have reduced department travel and meeting costs by 10 percent. Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), an international strategy consulting firm, has also achieved more than 60 percent cost reduction in their Asia Pacific e-mail system costs, all thanks to using cloud services.

Colleagues in Care' Global Healthcare Network (CIC) is using social networking tools in the cloud to virtually connect medical workers and volunteers from around the globe. Using this technology, the volunteers and those on the front lines taking care of patients are armed with an online medical knowledge system that includes treatment options, clinical pathways, and best practices specific to the situation in Haiti. For example, doctors on the ground in Haiti now have immediate access to information. Previously, a healthcare worker typically had no access to a specialist to consult about a specific medical condition. They can now immediately determine how to best care for a patient directly in front of them, at the same time collaborating with colleagues to determine more population-based strategies of effective care.

Colleagues In Care is using IBM cloud-based social analytics and collaboration services to provide their global network of healthcare volunteers with immediate access to critical data and information for the current healthcare needs of the Haitian citizens.

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Bethann Cregg: Imagine the Marriage of Social Networking and Cloud

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Posted 26 June 2012 18:25pm by Patricio Robles with 0 comments

Social networking's impact on the consumer internet is well-established and one need look no further than Facebook's current valuation to see that, despite healthy skepticism, social networking will continue to play a large role on the web.

But what about enterprise social networking?

While not talked about nearly as much, social has become a key focus for big tech companies like IBM, which are seeking ways to capitalize on bringing employees together.

Yesterday, after more than a week of rumors, Microsoft made its biggest move to date in the enterprise social networking space by purchasing Yammer for $1.2bn in cash.

Yammer, which launched as a Twitter-like service for company employees, is a full-fledged social networking platform that is used by 5m corporate users. A basic service is offered free of charge; companies pay to add additional features, such as more sophisticated administrative tools.

In shelling out more than a billion dollars for Yammer, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer clearly believes that the company, which is just four years old, can help Microsoft stay relevant in the social age. "The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love. Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsofts growing portfolio of complementary cloud services," he stated.

While Microsoft says it intends to keep operating Yammer as a standalone entity with current Yammer CEO David Sacks at the helm, the Redmond software giant not surprisingly hinted at integrations with other Microsoft products, including SharePoint, Office 365, Dynamics and Skype.

Those make sense given that many of Yammer's existing users are employees of firms likely to be using Microsoft products. Indeed, according to Microsoft, employees at 85% of Fortune 500 companies are on Yammer.

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Microsoft buys Yammer, bets $1.2bn on enterprise social networking

California has inched forward in its efforts to protect your passwords for Facebook and other social networking sites from prying colleges and companies.

One of a pair of bills making their way through committees in the state Legislature was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee.Senate Bill 1349 seeks to prohibit the practice at public and private California colleges and universities.

It reads: "A public or private postsecondary educational institution shall not require, or formally request in writing, a student or prospective student to disclose the user name or account password for a personal social media account or to otherwise provide the institution with access to any content of that account."

The bill, which has already been approved by the full Senate, moves on to the Assembly Higher Education Committee next week for consideration.

According to a Senate committee analysis, the state's public universities do not currently ask students for access to their social media accounts, though some private colleges request the information from student athletes to ensure they comply with National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules.

Its companion bill, Assembly Bill 1844, covers the provisions for businesses and will be heard Wednesday in the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.

"I am pleased by todays overwhelming vote to end this unacceptable invasion of personal privacy," the Senate bill's author, Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), said in a statement on Tuesday. "The practice of employers or colleges demanding social media passwords is entirely unnecessary and completely unrelated to someones performance or abilities."

Neither bill would would prevent colleges or prospective employers from checking social networking websites for information that's publicly available. Employers often use social media to screen applicants. To avoid exposing themselves to liability, the employers typically stop short of asking for private information, employment lawyers have said.

At the federal level, a congressional committee is considering the Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOPA), which would forbid employers from requiring job seekers or workers to hand over their social networking passwords as a condition of employment.

Public and governmental outrage and concern were stirred up earlier this year after the Associated Press published a report about isolated instances of job applicants and student athletes being pressed by employers and coaches, respectively, for their access information as a condition for consideration and participation.

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California bill on social media privacy moves forward

On Tuesday, Rielle Hunter announced that she and John Edwards were no longer a couple. This determination apparently came after publication of her book, which chewed over intimate details of their relationship.

When asked about the breakup, Hunter replied, I think thats private. Her answer came during a TV interview to plug the 247-page book, titled What Really Happened, which is all about their romance.

She did say that media scrutiny had been difficult for the couple. She made this admission during a publicity blitz for the book that included appearances on ABCs 20/20, Good Morning America, The View and Nightline.

So many problems in Hunters life have been caused by the press. First, there were those pesky reporters from the National Enquirer eager to chat with her about getting pregnant by a presidential candidate.

Then there was the time she posed for GQ magazine wearing a beautiful blouse. That was it no pants.

She later said the published photos were a shock because she thought they were only going to photograph her from the waist up.

She reiterated the point in her book. She says when Edwards was going to his arraignment on federal campaign spending charges, she forgot to tell him how to pose.

Had I even thought for a second that he would be having a mug shot taken, I would have said, And dont forget, no matter what they say to you, the media will get a hold of your mug shot, so dont smile in it, because they dont know yet that you arent guilty. The same way he should have said to me, given the interview was in GQ, No matter what they say to you, how covered you actually are, make sure you wear pants.

Anyway, thats good advice. Nowadays, I always wear trousers to photo shoots with GQ, and you should, too.

This isnt the first time Hunter and Edwards have arrived at Splitsville. In her book, she says he called once and told her it was over.

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With luck, the mistress has had the last word

Waiting for the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally on Capitol Hill to begin on Friday, David Bereit, founder of the anti-abortion group 40 Days for Life, explained to me, with the patience of a dedicated crusader accustomed to repeating talking points, why he is proud to be standing with the coalition of groups who are protesting, relentlessly, that the contraception coverage requirement under the Affordable Care Act infringes on their religious freedom. But while Bereit, who is not Catholic, said he is opposed to the government mandating contraception coverage, he would not give me a straight answer on whether he is opposed to contraception.

As the religious freedom wars have heated up over the United States Department of Health and Human Servicess contraception mandate, and as non-Catholic groups have taken up the mantle of the Catholic Churchs opposition to abortion, there has been a blurring of lines between activists whose primary objection is to end abortion and those who are also opposed to contraception. Under the religious freedom banner, and in particular the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rallies, are a wide array of organizations that include those once considered fringe, such as Bereits former employer, the anti-contraception American Life League, and Operation Rescue.

Before Lila Rose started making her deceptive guerrilla videos at Planned Parenthood clinics, before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops started investigating the Girl Scouts, before it became essential for any God- (and base-) fearing Republican to call for defunding Planned Parenthood, David Bereit was at the forefront of the spiritual and political warfare against what he has called Planned Parenthoods abortion empire. His 40 Days for Life organization organizes local activists to protest outside of Planned Parenthood and other medical clinics. In talking with me, he accused Planned Parenthood of systematically destroying innocent lives through abortion and through many of its other projects and programs, of devaluing human life, and of leading people into lifestyles where they will later feel the need for abortion.

Bereit cut his teeth as an anti-abortion activist in Brazos County, Texas, a state that has become, particularly under Gov. Rick Perry, a hotbed for spiritual warriors who believe they are carrying out Gods calling to fell the mighty Planned Parenthood. A federal courts injunction of the states latest effort to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federally subsidized funding under the states Womens Health Program is currently on appeal.

In 2002, as head of the Brazos County Coalition for Life, Bereit, a former pharmaceutical salesman, developed a list of local companies targeted for a boycott over their donations of goods and services to a fundraiser for the local Planned Parenthood. The clinic was the communitys only abortion provider and one of only a few facilities where low-income women could obtain healthcare. Local business owners called the boycott a threat and blackmail. In Houston, activists made similar efforts to boycott local contractors who worked on a new facility that opened in 2010, which has been continually protested by anti-abortion forces as the largest abortion facility in the Western hemisphere.

Following his successes with the Coalition for Life in Brazos County, in 2004 Bereit launched the first local 40 Days for Life campaign 40 days being a biblical number of prayer and fasting outside medical clinics, or abortion mills as activists call them.

A year after launching 40 Days for Life, Bereit joined the American Life League, long considered one of the fringe players in the anti-abortion movement, serving as national director of its project STOPP, or Stop Planned Parenthood.

Shortly after joining STOPP, Bereit blamed the Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which ruled state bans on contraception unconstitutional, for a tragic moral breakdown in our culture, adding, It is time for Americans to take a long, hard look at the real legacy of theGriswolddecision. Although we cant undo the consequences overnight, we can begin to take back our society one step at a time. The first step is to put an end to the destructive influence of Planned Parenthood, the organization that forced this tragedy upon our nation 40 years ago.

At the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally, Bereit told me he opposed the legal precedent that Griswold set, as it laid the groundwork for Roe v. Wade. But when I pressed him about whether he agreed with ALLs opposition to contraception generally, he paused and said, I still agree with the position that anything that directly causes the destruction of human life, and there is evidence suggesting that certain birth control devices can have an abortifacient property. I do have opposition to those things, which he said included birth control pills. He, like other speakers at the rally, repeated the false charge that the emergency contraceptives ella and Plan B, which are covered by the HHS rule, are abortifacients.

In an online discussion titled Ending Abortion, Bereit interviewed Jim Sedlak, his former colleague and the current executive director of STOPP, calling him the most credible expert I have ever heard on the topic of Planned Parenthood. STOPPs petition web page to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood charges, among other things, that Planned Parenthoods top goal for the next 14 years is to push its agenda of promiscuous sex everywhere in our society, and that it pushes pornography to children, covers up for rapists and child predators, and is openly hostile to Christianity.

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V-word vs. P-word