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Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/phsmall.asp?phid=48451
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Sunday, August 4, 2013
Twitter boycott is my small symbolic gesture against online misogyny | Suzanne Moore
The Twitter boycott, as protests go, is about as easy as it gets. Photograph: M4OS Photos/Alamy
To be frank I don't know how Twitter is going to cope without me. People will just have to pull through somehow without me tweeting a picture of a baby hedgehog or linking to some Funkadelic. Never mind all the important "research" I do on Twitter. None the less, everyone will have to manage as I am making the weeniest symbolic gesture of boycotting Twitter on Sunday.
A conversation has begun that is a long way from over. Women ? the majority of social media users ? should not be subject to rape and death threats. And yes thanks, I know the difference between disagreement and a description of dismemberment. We want the company hosting these threats to be less lackadaisical and able to respond faster. We provide the content and can it take it elsewhere. There are other platforms out there and Twitter has felt past its peak for a while anyway.
The perception that this is merely the concern of some self-important newspaper columnists who will collectively flounce depriving everyone else of their wit and wisdom is one I understand. Simply though, this idea wouldn't have any legs if all kinds of people were not disgusted when online misogyny is made visible.
Plus, as protests go it's about as easy as it gets. You have to NOT do something instead of doing it! If you don't want to be silent then tweet Simone De Beauvoir all day and shout back at the abusers (troll is not the right word). All is fine.
There have been previous discussions about misogyny online but this has hit a nerve. We watched a week of Twitter dithering and the police making the right noises but unable to achieve much.
What has been eye-opening is the outpouring of hostility to the very notion of a boycott. The ongoing discussions about the technical difficulties abound and the essential complicated ones about free speech will continue. But what remains is the simple and essential fact: right now it possible to threaten rape and kill women online without any consequences. Behaviour can and does change. When Lord McAlpine successfully sued prominent tweeters for libel, Twitter woke up a bit.
The past week has opened a can of worms. Some of the worms get off on each other. This strange goon squad of sub-Clarksons, bedroom anarchists, useful idiots and hardcore woman haters gives most of us the creeps and they will be slithering about on Sunday.
In cyberspace, as in the real world, they will not prevail. Join us or don't. The boycott has already worked. Because Twitter, the company, is nervy and watching its back. Hello? That's how it feels when strangers abuse you en masse. Personal apologies to high-profile women feel nothing but patronising. A 24-hour boycott has made us talk much more openly about what could happen, what is happening. That's all. Funny chaps us women? Because once we start talking, we won't stop.
? This article was amended on 4 August. The original included a reference to Travis Bickle. This has now been deleted.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/04/twitter-boycott-gesture-online-misogyny
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John F. Russell: Baseball finding its place in Ski Town USA
John Russell
John Russell's sports column appears Sundays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 871-4209 or email jrussell@SteamboatToday.com.
Find more columns by John here.
Steamboat Springs ? Sure, we live in a ski town, but this summer has proven there is room for other sports in the shadows of Howelsen Hill.
Steamboat Springs long has been known as a baseball town ? at least for many teams from across the country that travel here to play in the Triple Crown baseball tournament every summer. But baseball is one of those sports that has always struggled to find its place in the mountains of Northwest Colorado.
But things seem to be changing.
In late July, Dave Roy and the American Legion Post 44 baseball team from Steamboat Springs collected the Legion B state championship. The win marked the end of a 27-5 season that the coach is hoping will carry over to the high school season in the spring.
Last week, a 13-and-younger baseball team from Steamboat Springs played in the Triple Crown World Series. Things started off slow for the hometown team, but after watching the team play a couple of games, I couldn?t help but feel the players were on the verge of a big win. It came Friday afternoon when the local team came out on top of a 17-11 score beating another Colorado team.
It might be just one game, but teams from Steamboat rarely have success in the tournament that draws top players from across the country. There were no expectations, at least outside the team?s dugout, when the all-star team took the field Wednesday.
The idea that Steamboat could throw a team together in a few weeks and pull out a win in this tournament was a long shot. I think the Colorado Rockies would have a better chance of sweeping the Atlanta Braves in every series for an entire season.
I?m not saying it was impossible, but after 20 years of covering Triple Crown tournaments, I would say a Steamboat team winning is unlikely.
Let's face the facts: Playing baseball in Ski Town USA is an uphill battle. It?s like riding your mountain bike to the top of Storm Peak in the highest gear with two flat tires. It?s like attempting to ski down the Why Not ski run on Alpine skis the first week of August.
In places like Denver, Houston or Danville, Calif., the baseball season consumes most of the year. The players on those teams were hand picked, and their parents already are busy planning the children?s high school and college baseball careers.
In Northwest Colorado, we have players committed to the game and players willing to train in gyms or travel for the chance to play in the spring. We have coaches like Roy who see a future for baseball in the shadows of Howelsen Hill.
This summer, the American Legion Post 44 team won a state title, and last week, the young players from Steamboat Springs proved with their play that they can hold their own in any tournament ? even one that takes place in their own backyard.
To reach John F. Russell, call 970-871-4209 or email jrussell@SteamboatToday.com
Source: http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2013/aug/04/john-f-russell-winning-isnt-always-reflected-score/
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Asked About Privacy In A Post-PRISM World, Ad ... - Business Insider
Greg Sterling / Facebook
Greg Sterling
The PRISM scandal ? in which the NSA has been accused of accessing data on people from Facebook, Google and other online service providers ? has got the adtech business worried.By focusing the nation's attention on the ease with which private data can be collected online, might this provoke a backlash against online advertisers?
After all, they've been doing this for years, in various ways. Not for national security, but for their own lists and databases. And, of course, the extent of the government's data collection from Google, Facebook et al. has turned out to be much smaller and more focused than initially feared.
Might PRISM get people thinking about how much of their private information they're giving for free to online advertisers?
AdExchanger asked that question of several adtech execs recently, and we were most struck by the answer of Greg Sterling, the founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, a local search? marketing consultancy. He noted that anyone who wants to control their privacy online is in for a shock. The only way to guard your data is to opt out of internet life almost entirely.
No Facebook. No Google.
And most people just aren't going to do that.
He said:
"These are services that they use everyday like Google, Facebook, etc. and there?s really no alternative. Realistically there?s no choice in the matter for many people unless they were to completely stop using these tools and technologies that have become so ingrained in our lives."
Read his full quote here, in which he gives a bit more context. Broadly, he believes consumers feel powerless because they don't know what to do to guard their privacy.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/greg-sterling-says-google-and-facebook-offer-no-choice-2013-6
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
'Most Wanted' US Fugitive Arrested in Mexico
A former U.S. college professor who was recently placed on the FBI's notorious list of most wanted criminals has been arrested in Mexico.
Authorities say Walter Lee Williams was captured late Tuesday in the southern resort city of Playa del Carmen, just one day after he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The 64-year-old is facing four charges related to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
Williams is alleged to have traveled to the Philippines in 2011 to engage in sexual acts with two 14-year-old boys he met online the year before. He is also accused of taking sexually explicit photos of one of the boys.
Until 2011, Williams was an anthropology professor at the University of Southern California, where his field of study was gender development.
Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/most-wanted-us-fugitive-arrested-in-mexico/1684629.html
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Why Gaming Is Still A Great Bet For Investors | TechCrunch
Kristian has been at the forefront of the rapidly transforming game industry since 2001.?After serving as Electronic Arts? executive vice president of digital, he left three months ago to focus on startups. Today, he leads seed-stage investments with Initial Capital and serves on the board of Supercell, the #1 iOS grossing game company in the world. Before that, he co-founded, ran and then sold social gaming pioneer Playfish to?Electronic Arts for $400M in 2009. He was also?a co-founder of mobile gaming pioneer Macrospace ? today Glu Mobile (Nasdaq: GLUU) in 2001 through the successful IPO in 2007.
TechCrunch writer Kim-Mai Cutler and Benchmark Capital general partner Mitch Lasky recently wrote two insightful pieces on venture investment in games (here?and?here) ? both expressing some degree of skepticism of venture capital models for funding game startups. I agree venture funding is not for every game startup, and certainly not every game startup makes for a great venture investment. However, I would argue the case for venture funding for games is today stronger than ever.
Here is why:
Why game startups are better off with venture investment than publisher funding
There are broadly speaking three models available for a game startup today: bootstrapping (including crowd-funding), publisher financing and venture financing. For those who can afford the risk and have cash readily available, bootstrapping always trumps the other two. It comes with maximum freedom, control and upside in a success case.
But the risks are very real and significant.?Those unable to bootstrap because of the risks or ambitions of the project should in my view consider venture investment over publisher financing models.
Publishing as an idea for digital pure plays is simply turning out not to work very well. Many have tried it with very little to show for it. This is because the typical publisher value-add of financing, marketing, technology and distribution through retail channels doesn?t translate well to the digital world. It says something that not a single game in?today?s iOS top-25 grossing?has been ?published? by a third party as far as I can tell.
While developers continue to need financing, the rest of the ?publishing services? have become obsolete in four key ways:
- Publishers can?t compete with atomized marketing services by specialists:?As the digital market has matured, player acquisition, telemetry, cross-promotion and other marketing services have become widely available as independent specialist services that compete on price and quality of the service. Companies like?Swrve?(one of our portfolio companies at Initial Capital),?Chartboost,?HasOffers,?Nanigans,?Flurry?and a host of competitors are evolving their services at a blistering speed, requiring only a small set of increasingly available talent at the developer end. Doing it directly is not just cheaper and more flexible as the world changes, it also forces a more profound understanding of player flows and distribution challenges, which ultimately helps uncover product design insights.
- Publisher channel access may accelerate your success, but will not define it: Much has been made out of the advantage that big game publishers have in?terms of access to Apple or Google in terms of promotions. Clearly, being featured helps generate initial downloads. However that success is short-lived if?you are unable to retain your audience and acquire users independently at a profitable cost?of acquisition. Plus, you won?t be re-featured unless you generate the numbers.?A game investor worth their salt will be able to make the right introductions here?anyway. The incremental publisher value here is small.
- Holding on to rights to extend IP has become critical to value creation:?As Lasky emphasizes in his post, gaming even in the games-as-a-service world is inherently hits driven. For a game startup to become valuable over time, it needs to find ways of anchoring its success around building franchises. Ownership of intellectual property (IP) and all extension rights becomes important. Angry Birds-maker Rovio and Moshi Monsters-maker Mind Candy have shown that game originated IP is an increasingly viable base to build out a broader IP following with over 40 percent or revenue from each being attributed to non-game products. At the same time, the halo marketing effect from these non-gaming products can still contribute value to the core gaming product. Publishing deals are typically structured for the publisher to get hold of this.
- Long term margins help you hold onto key talent:?Perhaps most importantly, success in games has always been about key?creative talent. The more cash a game startup is able to create, the more it can?afford to invest in everything from the office to culture to individual, innovative?compensation models for rockstar talent. Signing away a revenue share limits?these options and ultimately is likely to encourage the best talent to leave.
Venture financing from a specialist fund that understands games should therefore be seen as a compelling alternative for game startups. It provides the financing value add, typically at far more flexible terms, without any of the restrictions to value creation that lower margins or complicated IP terms can create. And you could even get good folks around the table for advice how best to build for long term success and shareholder value. It should be no surprise that today?s most promising game companies including?Supercell,?King,?Kabam,?Rovio?and?Kixeye?are all venture-funded.
What about the case for investors ? does it still make sense to invest in games?
The digital pure play market growth has recently been characterized by the rapid?rise and occasionally fall of new entrants. Zynga is cited as the key example by both?Cutler and Lasky. A thoughtful?article by Tadgh Kelly about ?Peak Mobile??further?highlights the cycles any individual platform tends to go through. In a world of few?game acquirers and a troubled IPO market, does the venture model therefore need a?re-think?
In my view and that of Initial Capital, which is an?investor in?Supercell,?Brainbow,?Supersolid,?Space Ape Games?and others, the case for continued investment is strong.
Even though some VCs are shying away from games, here are five reasons why I and Initial Capital are doubling down on games:
- A continued virtually unopposed growth opportunity in digital:?The next generation consoles are doing a wonderful job at distracting the big publishers away from the fastest growing parts of the game industry. That clears the water for pure digital plays to gradually build up dominance with new IP on new hardware platforms. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick?s?recent dismissive remarks about mobile, and EA?s strategy of ANDs: consoles and?PC and mobile and online (which dilutes their excellent talent across too many opportunities) are cases in point.?The innovators? dilemma confronting the big guys is creating continuing unopposed growth opportunity for new and established digital pure plays alike. That is giving new players time to build up the brand and marketing advantages that big publishers have held for years on what are rapidly becoming legacy platforms.
- There are plenty of ?blue water? opportunities on new platforms:?Very few game play styles or categories on personal screens, like four- to seven-inch screens across mobile phones and tablets, feel mature at this point. Clash of Clans? take on the tower defense genre, Candy Crush Saga?s interpretation of Match Three games and Hay Day?s way of approaching farm games are possibly the most mature examples out there. But who is making the category-defining racing game, the best first person shooter, sports game, real-time strategy, monster breeding or puzzle adventure game on these platforms? The console guys are hamstrung by their lack of focus.The starlets who already dominate one or two categories will have similar focus?challenges due to successes to date. Seldom have there been such clearly profitable, well-defined opportunities for new startups to re-imagine these experiences for personal touch screens.
- The opportunity has gone global:?The traditional gaming ?Galapagos Islands? of Japan, Korea and China have been overrun by the great global equalizers of Android and iOS. This creates unprecedented opportunities to go global. Supercell?s Clash of Clans is currently the #1 game on iPad in China and #11 in Japan. For Candy Crush, the same positions are #64 in China and #4 in Japan. This is not to belittle the differences in local tastes, marketing channels and in some cases app stores or distribution mechanisms. But the opportunity to reach the other half of the game industry that these countries represent has never been more tangible.
- Unprecedented margins:?Because of the margin structure and low headcount requirements of the industry, companies can become very profitable very quickly. Recent lessons from other companies that have grown too quickly are causing newer companies like Supercell to be more thoughtful. They are banking their profits, stabilizing their mid-double-digit operating margins and re-investing carefully into nurturing and expanding their talent base. This is also great news for top talent as it gets to increasingly share in the financial success both through company perks, private and public share sales and also dividends.
- The M&A and IPO markets will be back. And there?s nothing wrong with dividends either:?It will just take time. Large M&A deals in games are unlikely to be on the horizon. The traditional console folks are too busy fighting each other and do not have the resources to acquire an increasingly confident set of digital pure plays. The leading pure plays on the other hand are mostly focused on ensuring their own model scales before embarking on aggressive M&A. M&A is particularly hard an industry in the middle of a disruption where talent and inspiration are more important than scale. While Zynga?s troubles may have damaged the IPO prospects for the next 18 months or so, if the new generation of companies can show sustained profitability, they will be in an incredibly strong position to consider listing later. Some will undoubtedly choose to stay private and pay out dividends in the medium-run, which is fine from a venture investors perspective. But the option will be there.
The next few years for games will be choppy. But the fundamentals for gaming investments are stronger than ever. As Lasky says, you have to be building a game company and not just a game for venture funding to make sense. And for a venture fund to consider gaming investments, you need to understand the sector.
But neither of those mean that venture investments in games aren?t alive an well. In fact, the team at Initial Capital remain as bullish on the sector as we led the seed round into Supercell. We continue to seek out the very best, most inspired design and coding teams who want to define where games will go next and help them get started with capital, advice and structure.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/17/gaming-venture-capital/
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