Mediaboss Marketing

20-06-2012 22:01 (3BL Media) June 15, 2012 - Michelle Sullivan, Senior Director, Corporate and External Relations of The Boston Beer Company sat down for an interview at the 2012 Cause Marketing Forum Conference, which took place May 30th and 31st in Chicago, IL. The annual Cause Marketing Forum is the must-attend conference of the year focusing solely on this increasingly important marketing approach and subset of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. Appropriate for both novice and seasoned cause marketers, the annual Cause Marketing Forum covers a wide range of topics featuring expert cause marketing speakers and discussion group leaders. More than 500 attendees gained insight from marketing and corporate social responsibility professionals from Zynga, Procter & Gamble, Campbell's Soup Company, Whirlpool, ANN Inc., Yum! Brands, The Coca-Cola Company, AOL/Huffington Post Media Group and other companies. Nonprofit speakers included representatives from US Fund for UNICEF, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, KaBOOM!, ACCION, World Wildlife Fund, DoSomething.org, March of Dimes, Adopt a Clasroom and others. Cause Marketing Forum, Inc., producer of the Cause Marketing Forum conference and Cause Marketing Halo Awards, helps business and nonprofit executives succeed together by providing access to practical information and inspiration, opportunities to build valuable relationships and recognition for outstanding work. A wealth of information on cause marketing and CMF's offerings can be ...

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2012 Cause Marketing Forum Conference - An Interview with Michelle Sullivan, Senior Director - Video

Could be GI Green there on the other side of the planet

There's plenty of it in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave as well

For Westerners who enjoy living in democracies, its easy to answer the question of whether or not censorship is desirable. It is not. But in China, which doesnt respect free speech, thats not an especially useful question. A more uncomfortable question would be: Just how different is Chinas censorship from ours?

New data released by Google as part of its Transparency Report shows that government agencies in many Western democracies have asked the company to remove political content that users had posted to its services. Its alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect Western democracies not typically associated with censorship, wrote Google policy analyst Dorothy Chou in a blog post yesterday.

In the second half of last year, for example, US agencies asked Google to remove 6,192 individual pieces of content from its search results, blog posts, or archives of online videos a 718 percent increase from the first half of the year. During the same time period, US law enforcement agencies lodged 187 take-down requests, including one related to a blog post that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity.

Google received numerous similar requests from Spain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Poland, Canada, and others. It did not comply with most of them, but the company did act in response to 42 percent of removal requests from the US in the second half of 2011.

Google was also at the center of the highest-profile censorship debate related to China. In 2010, much was made of the companys partial withdrawal from the country in response to what it said was a sophisticated cyber attack that targeted the Gmail accounts of dozens of China-connected human rights activists. No sane person would contend that such hacking was justified. But few could feign surprise. Government surveillance of its citizens is an unfortunate fact of life not just in China, but also in other, supposedly free countries. The Bush Administrations warrantless wiretapping program, a huge breach of privacy and human rights conducted with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies, is the most obvious example of that.

Supporters of that wiretapping program, carried out as part of that embarrassment to freedom known as the Patriot Act, might protest that it was conducted in the name of stamping out terrorism, and that casting such a wide net monitoring thousands of innocent Americans was justified for the good of the country. The CCP would argue, too, that their surveillance is also for the good of the country. That is particularly true when it comes to the sensitive topic of spreading online rumors.

Just last weekend, it demonstrated how seriously it takes that by arresting two people for spreading rumors that a cloud of pollution over the city of Wuhan was caused by an explosion at a chemical plant that leaked toxic gases. Spreading rumors falls into one of the nine categories of information that the government deems harmful and therefore bans. As we all know, it also has no qualms about blocking specific news sites and thwarting searches for key terms (three of which begin with the letter T).

Originally posted here:
Internet Censorship Isn't Just for China

CAIRO Egypt's media are demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood as the state's worst enemy, claiming the fundamentalist group plans to plunge the country into chaos if its candidate does not emerge as the winner from the presidential runoff.

Results of the weekend election were set to be announced Thursday, but officials postponed the declaration, setting off a wave of charges of manipulation aimed at all sides, including the ruling military.

The Brotherhood escalated its fight with the military, calling for a mass protest Friday to denounce what it called a power grab by the generals. Three major Islamist groups said Thursday they would join the protest in Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak out of office last year.

Thousands of protesters, mostly Islamists, gathered in Tahrir Thursday for the third successive day.

Protesters demanded the reinstatement of the Islamist-dominated parliament dissolved by a court ruling last week. They also called on the military to rescind a "constitutional declaration" granting the generals sweeping powers and stripping the next president of much of his authority.

International condemnation of the generals who took over from Mubarak also intensified. Human Rights Watch complained that recent moves by the military suggested that there would not be a "meaningful" handover of power to civilian rule by July 1 as promised and created conditions "ripe" for more human rights abuses.

The statement echoed criticism by former President Jimmy Carter, a frequent visitor to Egypt who repeatedly met with its ruling generals, and Amnesty International.

The military has over the past week given itself the role of legislator, the right to arrest civilians and control over drafting a new constitution. It has also taken several steps to shield the military from civilian oversight.

The sense of political uncertainty engulfing the country following last weekend's presidential runoff is heightened by the failure of Egypt's election commission to announce a winner. Both candidates Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, and Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood have claimed victory.

"I have faith in the judges of Egypt, but too much delay will raise question marks," Saad el-Katatni, a senior Brotherhood leader and speaker of the dissolved legislature, told Al-Jazeera in an interview. "The result is already known and it is Mohammed Morsi."

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Media demonize Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood as presidential election hangs in balance

PCWorld Rating

Pros

Cons

Bottom Line

This comprehensive multimedia playback suite comes with full 3D capabilities but suffers from some small oversights.

Images (click to enlarge)

CyberLink Media Suite 10 Ultra is the latest flagship version of CyberLink's all-in-one multimedia editing, playback, and file-conversion suite. The components consist of the biggest names in the company's rather impressive portfolio: PowerDVD 12, a software multimedia player; PowerDirector 10, a video editing and production application; MediaShow 6, a photo organizer, editor, and social media interface; PowerBackup 2.6 for safeguarding your important files; and MediaEspresso 6.5 for transcoding video, photos, and audio. The suite ($130 for new users and a $70 upgrade for previous users, prices as of June 21, 2012) also includes PowerProducer 5.5 for outputting video to disc, as well as a competent wave editor and several modules for handling mundane optical-disc chores.

Media Suite 10's new central launch application is far slicker than those of previous versions. The look is reminiscent of Microsoft's Metro interface, which suggests that CyberLink will be all over Windows 8. You can access Media Suite 10's modules via a list of the tasks they perform, or by their names if you prefer. In general, the suite's modules are easy to use, though not so easy to learn. CyberLink loves tiny icons, and curious interface choices appear throughout; however, compared with its two main competitors in the suite game--Nero and Roxio--Media Suite 10 is a breeze to navigate.

Although Media Suite 10 has many new features, the most salient is its suitewide support for 3D video and photos. If youve been keeping track of the component programs, though, that probably isnt news to you; PowerDVD 12, for instance, acquired 3D capabilities a while ago.

We've reviewed PowerDVD 12 and PowerDirector 10 individually, so be sure to see those reviews for a more detailed look. In short, PowerDVD 12 plays back every major type of video and video disc, up to and including 3D Blu-ray, and it has a ton of advanced playback enhancements. It's also a competent photo and music organizer. PowerDirector 10 is an excellent consumer-level video editor with multiple video tracks, effects, automatic formatting, full hardware-acceleration support, and lots of editing tools. PowerProducer 5.5, the companion program to PowerDirector, serves to burn PowerDirector 10's output to disc. Both programs fully support AVCHD, Blu-ray, and 3D.

Excerpt from:
CyberLink Media Suite 10 Ultra Review: Efficient Design, Complete Multimedia Editing

70 megawatts dropped through load control

TORONTO, June 22, 2012 /CNW/ - Electricity loads in Toronto were steadily climbing on Tuesday, until Toronto Hydro activated approximately 67,000 residential air conditioner control switches, and industrial/commercial buildings participating in the "DR 3" program began to curtail electricity consumption. At 2:00 PM on Tuesday, June 19th, the city's electricity usage peaked at 4,602 megawatts (MW). At that point, as directed by the IESO, Toronto Hydro triggered its peaksaver and DR3 programs, dropping the peak by more than 70 MW through the remainder of the afternoon. Toronto Hydro estimates that at least 50 MW of the drop was related to the "cycling" of residential air conditioners in neighbourhoods across Toronto.

The 70 MW total is the equivalent of taking approximately 21,000 homes off the grid, or the cities of Kenora and Orillia combined. One megawatt is equal to one million watts.

Currently, there are about 67,000 customers who have signed on for peaksaver. These 'peaksavers' generally don't notice and often forget that they're part of this city-wide effort to curtail usage in high demand times. It works remotely - Toronto Hydro sends a signal to the switch installed adjacent to a central air conditioner, slowing down the cycle. Because the fan continues to run, most don't notice a difference in temperature inside the home. But the results speak for themselves.

Businesses stepped up too. The DR3 (DEMAND RESPONSE CONTRACTUAL DR3) program is a "saveONenergy program" designed to offset electricity usage or shed electricity load when needed. Generally, customers signed up for the program help by turning off lights or motors, shifting production to other periods, ordrawing electricity supply from an onsite generator.

Toronto Hydro is still encouraging customers to conserve where they can, especially during peak times (11 am to 5pm).

FACTS

About Toronto Hydro The principal business of the Corporation and its subsidiaries is the distribution of electricity by Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited. Toronto Hydro-Electric System owns and operates an electricity distribution system, which delivers electricity to approximately 709,000 customers located in the City of Toronto. It is the largest municipal electricity distribution company in Canada and distributes approximately 18% of the electricity consumed in the Province of Ontario.

The information in these materials is based on information currently available to Toronto Hydro Corporation and its affiliates (together hereinafter referred to as "Toronto Hydro"), and is provided for information purposes only.

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Electricity peak demand control program results in significant load reduction in Toronto