Latest news people: Justin Timberlake to revive MySpace!!!

JT has announced his big plans to revitalize the social networking site Myspace.com by turning it into an interactive TV service. The pop star also MySpace co-owner, since he bought a huge share of the site, on the stage at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show announced a new service that will make TV a whole lot more social.

Available on the next generation of Panasonic VIERA ConnectT-enabled HDTVs, an app called MySpace TV will allow viewers to see what their MySpace friends are watching, and enable them to make comments through the TV set and via smartphone and tablet devices.

Timberlake told fans he would be taking time off from performing to come up with ideas to boost the site’s popularity and return it to its former glory. Now Timberlake revealed he is working with his fellow Myspace.com shareholders to make the website a must-visit destination for television fans, focusing on the social side of television and trying to struggle less to maintain as many users as its major rival, Facebook.

In a statement, he says: “We’re ready to take television and entertainment to the next step by upgrading it to the social networking experience. Why text or email your friends to talk about your favorite programs after they’ve aired when you could be sharing the experience with real-time interactivity from anywhere across the globe.”

…He continues: “As the plot of your favorite drama unfolds, the joke of your favorite SNL (Saturday Night Live) character plays, or even the last-second shot of your favorite team swishes the net, we’re giving you the opportunity to connect your friends to your moments as they’re actually occurring.This is the evolution of one of our greatest inventions, the television. And, we no longer have to crowd around the same one to experience it together.”

An app called MySpace TV will allow viewers to see what their MySpace friends are watching, and enable them to make comments through the TV set and via smartphone and tablet devices.

Marcus Liassides, executive VP of MySpace, also said: “We plan to integrate the service with other social networks such as Facebook  in the future too. But we aren’t trying to reinvent TV. We’re just evolving it and make it a shared experience even when you’re not in the same living room.”

Although the company hasn’t revealed when MySpace TV will become available, it’s expected to roll out in the first half of 2012, Liassides noted that it’s also working with other TV manufacturers to offer the app on other devices.

Even though I admire Justin’s reboot plan and I’m sure we can expect very creative initiatives from this eclectic and versatile artist at the same time I do think that maybe playing the character of Sean Parker (Napster’s creator) in the successful movie”The Social Netwok” gave him too much enthusiasm… in my opinion it is just not enough to bring people back to Myspace!

Will you use MySpace TV? Could this be the resurgence of MySpace? Can Timberlake bring it back?

we’ll see…

and for now.. I don’t know if JT can revive MySpace but surely as a fan I say that it’s shame that we won’t get to see anytime soon more Sexyback on tour!

source: Mashable

images: Google

I’m bringing MySpace back! is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

Making money without working! is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

The Egyptians are still celebrating after the fall of the Mubarak regime, the country is full of enthusiasm and celebrations for its new found “freedom“!

But I just found out about a very surprising way of an Egyptian family to express their joy. The family original of the Ibrahimya region, have named their first daughter with a very special name: Facebook ! Specifically Facebook Jamal Ibrahim, as published by the prestigious Egyptian magazine “Al-Ahram”.

Many believe that without this network the Egyptian revolution would never have come this far. Groups as  ”We Are Khaled Said” or “Tahrir Square” were of vital importance to the organization and dissemination of the protests and to outwit the media censorship on communication , post videos and photos about what was happening in the streets. So much that, the regime of Mubarak came to completely block Internet communications and mobile telephony.

Although the girl might have been called Google, Twitter or YouTube… Facebook seems to have become  the paradigmatic symbol of how social networks have influenced the spread of the message opponents of the regime. There are five million Facebook’s users in Egypt, more than any other country in the Middle East and North Africa and has been detected an increase in users over the past month, also are been counted 32,000 groups and 14,000 pages created in the two weeks after 25 January.

But success also has been seen on the street of Cairo where plenty of graffitis are the proves, and during  demonstrations in the mythical Tahrir Square protesters could be seen carrying signs saying “ Thanks Facebook.”  Even  Wael Ghonim, a Google’s director, arrested during the riots, thanked Mark Zuckerberg in an interview with CNN expressing all his gratitude for the existence of the social network.

What happened in Egypt has been called The Egyptian Revolution,  The eRevolution , iRevolution or Revolution 2.0. In any case, we have witnessed a revolution that was not only written in Egyptian history, but world history. It will be a case study that will be soon taught in many political science and business schools. On Jan 25^th, 2011, the world for the first time has witnessed a revolution that brilliantly leveraged the power of social networking tools to overthrow a corrupt regime. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Blogs were all used to mobilize people all over Egypt. The 30-year dictatorship regime of  Mubarak was overthrown in 18 days of demonstrations.

Despite the Internet blackout, landline communication was never blocked; Egyptians found another way to access the Internet through old school landlines dial-up Internet services and fax services. Egyptians living outside Egypt would receive faxes through regular landline phones, use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies to convert the fax image into text contents, and post the contents, news and updates into Facebook, Twitter and different blogs. In the meantime Google launched a new service called “speak2tweet”, which allowed Egyptians to call a regular landline number in Cairo and speak their tweet to a Voice recognition system. The speak2tweet system would then convert the caller voice message into a text tweet.

Egypt has spoken: no more tyranny, no more autocracy, no more injustice and no more oppression. The history has been written not only in Egypt, but in the world of social networking as well. The first revolution sparked, managed and orchestrated by social networking; for the first time in history the eRevolution was born, and for the first time in history the eRevolution became a reality.

A question could come naturally though… “Could social networking become a two-edge sword?”, I don’t think so…. It could only become an eRevolution tool in mobilizing people!

The ability of people to communicate/protest and rise up over oppression is truly one of the hallmarks of the positive effects and uses of social media. It is a positive proof that people have a voice and that voice will be heard. Anyways, let us all remember that the real power resides in people, and it is up to us to use tools in the appropriate ways, for good.

And about this new baby girl called “Facebook” that just came into this World… Let’s hope for her that this is just the beginning of a new Era of freedom and democracy ( maybe an iEra..) and that she won’t be forever teased by her friends because of her name …

Source: http://www.famousbloggers.net

Pics:  Google

Hi, my name is Facebook and I’m the symbol of the eRevolution! is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

La Ley Sinde es el nombre informal con el cual se conoce a un apartado particular de la Ley de Economía Sostenible, en que el Gobierno de Zapatero intenta enfrentar la crisis que atraviesa España actualmente. Fue propuesta en mayo de 2009.

Dicha Disposición consiste en una serie de cambios que afectan a:

• La Ley de Servicios de la Sociedad de la Información (más conocida como LSSI).
• La Ley de Propiedad Intelectual.
• Ley Reguladora de la Jurisdicción Contencioso-Administrativa, (que se centra en la protección de la propiedad intelectual en el ámbito de la sociedad de la información y de comercio electrónico).

El objetivo de modificar estas leyes es permitir que un grupo de personas dependientes del Ministerio de Cultura (una comisión cultural o comisión de propiedad intelectual), tengan la potestad de cerrar páginas web que, de acuerdo a su propio criterio, vulnere los derechos propiedad intelectual previa autorización de los Juzgados Centrales de lo Contencioso Administrativo

Los cambios, como es de suponerse, vienen propuestos por la Ministra de Cultura, Ángeles Gonzales-Sinde, motivo por el cual se ganó el nombre de Ley Sinde.

Con las modificaciones hechas para lograr el acuerdo pactado entre los partidos PP, PSOE y CIU para hacer pasar la ley, la Ley Sinde es y funcionan de la siguiente manera:

Para que la Comisión de Propiedad Intelectual actue, debe recibir una denuncia (puede ser de particulares, cantantes, bandas, directores, como de una discográfica, estudio de cine, televisión, o sus respectivos representantes) ellos tendrán la potestad de determinar si hay falta o no.

Los problemas de la Ley Sinde

1)    Vulnera un derecho y libertad fundamental en España: la libertad de expresión. Que un organismo administrativo designado por un Ministerio (en este caso, el de Cultura) formado por personas que no conocemos, con facultades que desconocemos, se les otorgue tal poder y tal responsabilidad no solo es una falta de respeto a la ciudadanía, es darle una bofetada al sistema jurídico español.

2)    La actuación del juez en todo el proceso se limita al derecho de autorizar o no aquello que la comisión determinó. El juez no se ve involucrado ni tiene voz durante el desarrollo del proceso mismo. Por definición, la ausencia judicial en el proceso no garantiza que las decisiones de la comisión sean justas.

3)    Otro gran problema de la Ley Sinde es su origen. En diciembre se reveló por medio de las filtraciones de Wikileaks que la Disposición se gestó y redactó a partir de fuertes presiones de lobbys estadounidenses representantes de las industrias audiovisuales (es decir, los estudios y las discográficas). Toda la ley está “manchada” de las intervenciones de estas grandes empresas, al defender a toda costa sus intereses y arrastrar los derechos fundamentales de los ciudadanos españoles.

4)     la Ley Sinde en su tremenda falta de claridad con respecto a sus límites. Gran parte de la discusión (para bien y para mal) se ha centrado en la necesidad de regulaciones que impidan que, por medio del internet, algunas personas se lucren con el trabajo ajeno. El problema es que no es claro qué se penalizará y qué no. Aún más grave es que no necesariamente se tiene que probar el daño, sino que hay una posibilidad de causar daño (la existencia de enlaces a contenido con Copyright, por ejemplo).

5)    La existencia de un blacklist o una lista negra controlada por la Comisión de la Propiedad Intelectual. En caso que los contenidos “infractores” no se encuentren dentro de España (ya sea que la empresa de hosting sea extranjera, o los servidores están en otro país o la persona en cuestión no viva en España) entonces podrán pedir que el IP o el dominio en cuestión sea bloqueado.

No creo que sea necesario explicar los peligros que la lista negra de sitios y direcciones IP que no pueden ser accedidos mientras estás dentro de España esté en control de unas cuantas personas. Esto es una muralla digital China en potencia.

Al conocerse la existencia de la Disposición y sus intenciones por parte del Ministerio de Cultura y su ministra Ángeles González-Sinde, ha empezado el CAOS!

A partir de esa fecha y hasta el día de hoy se ha mantenido una larguísima discusión de todo tipo de temas relacionados con la propiedad intelectual, con las medidas que se deben tomar o no. La ley Sinde ha recibido numerosas críticas de colectivos y personas individuales. Desde el típico internauta que sólo se preocupa de poder compartir sin problemas archivos de cualquier tipo a través de la red hasta personas que van más allá de la cuestión de la descarga.

La ley Sinde no es más que el principio de una coartada para cortar los derechos de los usuarios de internet, recortar la libertad de expresión y opinión y el derecho de los ciudadanos a la participación ciudadana.

La Ley, rechazada por el congreso el pasado mes de diciembre, volverá a votarse el próximo martes en el congreso pese a la oposición de un nutrido número de actores, cantantes, internautas, webmasters y colectivos.

Internet, como muy bien saben los redactores de esta ley, es el arma del cambio que las nuevas generaciones estamos reclamando. Es el arma que impulsó las revoluciones en Egipto, Túnez, Argelia, Grecia y Francia. Un arma que quieren arrebatarnos por miedo a que la élite neoliberal pierda sus privilegios.

Otro punto muy bajo a sido tocado esta mañana cuando el video del discurso tenido durante la Gala de los Goya 2011 de parte del saliente Presidente de la Academia de Cine, Alex de la Iglesia, ha sido bloqueado en YouTube!

Aquí una parte muy inspiradora:

“Intenet no es el futuro, como algunos creen. Internet es el presente. Internet es la manera de comunicarse, de compartir información, entretenimiento y cultura que utilizan cientos de millones de personas. Internet es parte de nuestras vidas y la nueva ventana que nos abre la mente al mundo. A los internautas no les gusta que les llamen así. Ellos son CIUDADANOS, son sencillamente gente, son nuestro PUBLICO.

Ese público que hemos perdido, no va al cine porque está delante de una pantalla de ordenador. Quiero decir claramente que NO TENEMOS MIEDO a internet, porque internet es, precisamente, la SALVACION de nuestro cine.

Sólo ganaremos al futuro SI SOMOS NOSOTROS LOS QUE CAMBIAMOS, los que innovamos, adelantándonos con propuestas imaginativas, creativas, aportando un NUEVO MODELO DE MERCADO que tenga en cuenta a TODOS los implicados: Autores, productores, distribuidores, exhibidores, páginas web, servidores, y usuarios. Se necesita una crisis, un cambio, para poder avanzar hacia un nueva manera de entender el negocio del cine.

Tenemos una RESPONSABILIDAD MORAL para con el público. No se nos puede olvidar algo esencial: hacemos cine porque los ciudadanos NOS PERMITEN hacerlo, y les debemos respeto, y agradecimiento.”

Magnífico discurso que plasma lo que es una realidad…

Con la votación inminente varias campañas han empezado en las principales redes sociales con la finalidad que los políticos comprendan que si siguen adelante con la ley de la censura, en internet se podría generar una ola que les podría llevar a perder miles de votos.

A ver…

… pienso en China, Egipto … y pienso que me fui de Italia justamente porque no podía vivir en un país bajo “régimen” sin libertad de expresión ….

Que decepción España…

Source: http://alt1040.com/

Picture: Google

No hablo, no veo, no escucho – La Ley Sinde is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

I want to close this year with this post about a very nice and promising story, that might also sounds familiar….

Barcelona 2010,

everything starts during a usual family lunch. The conversation turns around the knitwear that Mum makes. Of course there’re lots of praises and compliments until someone comes up with the idea: “they should be branded and sold to the world!”

… until now I bet that the story rings a bell to many of you… but, the main part of the story won’t sound so typical.

No sooner said than done, the seeking for a brand name for the loving crafted knitwear started!

Antonia Cabrera (this is the name of the artist) brand is now born and it’s named –  ” Grandma Republic“.

And it’s exactly at this point that starts the part that intrigued me the most! The range is launched on Facebook with a promotion that claims this : ” If you become a fan we’ll send you a free pair of knitted earrings”. Four shops in Barcelona fall totally in love with Antonia Cabrera’s soft toys, hats, scarves and accessories  and call her to stock her exclusive pieces (apparently there are no two alike. That’s the rule!).

Nobody can say how this story will end… Grandma Republic had just opened a shop on Facebook. “We want to take the store to people instead of asking them to go somewhere. We decided to back the social networks as an outlet for our goods, rather than creating a website.” – says Oliver Henares, Antonia’s son.

Only five months have passed since the “providential” lunch and Grandma Republic has already become a case of study of a brand that was born on Facebook and has managed to seamlessly combine the most traditional of crafts with the very latest uses of technology.

For me this is the first case of a brand and an online shop operating all around a social network (in this case Facebook). It will be very interesting to see how the business goes and even more interesting to see until what level a social network will let a business grow starting from the very beginning!

Good luck Antonia! I wish you and Grandma Republic a very happy and profitable 2011!

www.grandmarepublic.com

http://www.facebook.com/grandmarepublic

sources: Mar Abad

“Mum just started her own business on Facebook” is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

Be brief, please!

Apparently on the Web showed up the synthesis’ activists. They refer to themselves or better saying they baptized themselves as the “Three sentences” movement  http:// three.sentenc.es
They fight against  email’s overload : digressions, unsolicited explanations, greetings too long, endless signatures, and so on… Their ideal is a communication style inspired to Sms, with a limit of text set in the email that forces the writer to cut unnecessary details. The enemy? The flow generated by the nearly 3 billion email addresses asset around the world.
Every day, according to the Email Statistics Report 2010, the average employee of a big company writes 36 emails and has to read at least 61 (spam excluded). To dispose of all that digital correspondence it takes at least 13 hours each week, that means around one hour for about 7 emails. A waste of time that we can fight with the method of three sentences, which would reduce only to two hours per week the time to read and write everything down.
To do propaganda, every three sentences’ email has a lime postscript: “Do you know why I was so short?” with a link
that connects directly to their website and spreads the message!

A new original form of GTD (Getting Things Done) to optimize  your working time!

You’ve got (a brief) m@il! is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

Recently we’re hearing more often (at least here in Europe) talking about a new figure in web marketing and the web 2.0 world : the Community Manager (CM).

A CM is the public profile of a company on the web! The CM proposes his company to the online world, he/she creates the company’s voice on the internet.
Community Managers are the face of a company. They are the public go-to across social media and other channels. They are a combination customer service rep/social media marketer/director of customer engagement/promoter/PR rep and communicator. Their goal is to bring in new members/customers and actively promote the product, site or service to expand its reach online. It’s about getting people engaged, and keeping them engaged. It’s not a role that necessarily applies to all products, services, or offerings in the same capacity.
Of course we’re talking mainly about the  online world but the job is not limited only to this, offline relationships are still important… personal networking, infact, still remains a key factor!

CM’s first skill is to “connect” two different worlds: user/client, emotional and demanding, and the brand.

So it’s also about knowing new trends or even create them, being always at the forefront; having a deep knowledge of your own product and being aware of its potential!

Basically get to know your clients constantly, learn from them and of course use and abuse of social networks!

Well to me this position sounds great, right on time (when properly done) and a useful “tool” of online marketing and branding.

But, as always, there’s a “dark side” so I’ll leave you with two statements of two great men and I’ll wait for your opinions!

Henry Ford ( founder of Ford Motor Company) said: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have answered a faster horse” … recently  Steve Jobs ( Apple’s CEO) stated that “the customer does not know what he wants until you show him.”

So… are we so sure that consumers should always be actively involved in production and co-creation of marketing plans?

Community Managers vs Steve Jobs is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

After being the soundtrack for the World Cup in South Africa, the trumpet “effect swarm of flies” (but seems to be a B-flat) will not be forgotten!

Plenty of songs inspired by the curious rhythm are already drawing the crowds on Youtube. And one of the most important German orchestras, the Berlin Konzerthausorchester , formed a duo that played Brahams and Ravel. But pop music has done so too, it seems that in the last album of eclectic singer Bjork we may recognize the sound in some tracks.
An Austrian jeweler, instead, focusing on the physical value of the object, realized the world’s most expensive Vuvuzela with gold and diamonds: formed value 17.000 euros, also already purchased by a Russian millionaire o_O!

At CapeTown  the world’s largest Vuvuzela, it’s been built by Hyundai, 35 meters and sound proportionately. And do not miss the iPhone’s  application…among the most downloaded!

Meanwhile, the producer who holds the patent gloats …the forecasts talk about profits for 4 million only during the
Worldcup!

Power of the music (if we can call it that)? Or just an incredible and unexpected example of VIRAL MARKETING!?! WOW!

What will remain of Vuvuzelas? is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

Is it worth using the face of sports Champions to endorse a product?
We should ask that after the poor results of South Africa 2010. And it doesn’t matter if the image of defeat is the captain Cannavaro trying to cheer up his tearful buddies. But when we look at the French players who refuse to train for the game  that they also lost, there is nothing less to save!

The cases of Luciano Pavarotti, who files his earnings in a tax heaven instead of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena which he was
testimonial of or Tiger Woods, taken as a symbol of far-sighted strategies and then stumbles into fleeting adventures or the latest Cristiano Ronaldo beautiful, rich and ready to use a womb for rent to procreate ( news to be confirmed..)… had already shown the risks of taking as a testimonial an individual.

Choosing the national team, Credit Agricole believed to be safe: the boys in blue shirt shaking hands with their idols, models of loyalty, selflessness and team spirit, would have according to the transitive property transport us to the image of solidarity and paternal French savings bank.

But after South Africa 2010 the results of those commercials was a disaster!
Using sports champions as testimonials there is a specific risk: arises from contradiction between pleasure and passion of the fans, and large economic interests required to supply them. But said that, to be ambiguous is the idea of using the recommendation of famous people to sell. Isn’t more convincing to advertise based on quality product or service?

p.s. some women will admit though that the kiss of Iker Casillas (goalkeeper “campeon” of the Spanish team) to his beautiful journalist girlfriend after the worldcup final…throws it all away .. ;-)

Image:  C.Monet – Waterloo’s bridge – 1900

The Waterloo of commercials is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi

Sometimes life can be really hard and sometimes can puts you in front of difficult choices.. but that’s the way it is!

Life is punctuated by constant choices, right or wrong it doesn’t matter, it always comes a time to choose!
But the point is: how to determine if your choice (unless is “forced”) is the right one?

How to determine whether it is primarily worth making a specific choice perhaps sacrificing important “side” aspects???

This is what I asked myself in the last few days analyzing the life of a friend and analyzing in particular what you are willing to sacrifice for  your professional success.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I think that personal realization is essential in life but…

“Do we need to sacrifice aspects of ourself even parts of our life in order to see something done, to launch a project, for a new job or just for the right business relationship?”

In a video of Elizabeth Gilbert presenting at the TED conference in February of 2009.  She spoke about how for the last 500 years creativity and suffering have been linked - which means that developing a new idea, a new project, etc… has been linked with sacrificing an aspect of one’s self or all of one’s self - and why this has come about.

So it came easily to me thinking if leaders suffer from their success and end up sacrificing parts of themselves (their health, values, ethics, commitments, their own passions) and their lives (their relationships, their dreams) in the process .

So I want to ask you people why? Or better.. is it worth it?

Are people, leaders, high flyers realizing that they’re maybe unwittingly sacrificing along the way in their careers in order to earn worthiness for the success of their projects and businesses?

Don’t think so…

Anyways I do believe that  businesses, programs, products, services and initiatives could be successful on the merit of the vision, strategies, hard work, perseverance, teamwork and dedication that went into them, just as I believe writers know their books can be inspiring and artists know their paintings can move people.  But of course you want to earn the right to be worthy of your successes - and subconsciously think that sacrificing part of yourself is the way to do this.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!!! There is no way to earn worthiness for your creations via sacrificing aspects of yourself, no matter how seemingly small.  All you get is depleted.

Do you subconsciously doubt your own worthiness of success and of the value of what you create as a leader?

If so, are you sacrificing aspects of yourself because of this?

If the answer is NO.. you should start thinking about..

If the answer is MAYBE.. the same…

If the answer is YES.. you should start change things…

Is your sacrifice really worth? is a post from: Alessandra Ajraldi