Microsoft Names Longtime Entertainment Executive Nancy Tellem Entertainment & Digital Media President

Press release:

Microsoft Names Longtime Entertainment Executive Nancy Tellem Entertainment & Digital Media President

Sept. 18, 2012

Former president of CBS Television Entertainment Group to lead new Los Angeles-based production studio and serve as a key liaison for Microsoft entertainment initiatives.

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Nancy Tellem

September 18, 2012

Nancy Tellem, former president of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, has joined Microsoft as Entertainment & Digital Media president.

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REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 18, 2012 —Microsoft Corp. today announced that Nancy Tellem, former president of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, has joined Microsoft as Entertainment & Digital Media president.

In her role reporting to Phil Spencer, corporate vice president, Microsoft Studios, Tellem will oversee the launch of a newly created production studio in Los Angeles that will develop interactive and linear content for Xbox and other devices. In addition to running the production studio, she will help spearhead the company’s efforts to turn Xbox into a destination where consumers can enjoy all their entertainment in one place.

Tellem and her group will collaborate with the creative community to develop unique, compelling storytelling experiences for the Xbox brand. More than just a gaming console, Xbox has evolved into a consumer destination for the world’s most popular TV, movies, music and sports content. With a roster of more than 65 entertainment apps, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO GO, MLB.TV, ESPN, YouTube and VEVO,global video consumption on Xbox LIVE has increased 140 percent during the past year. In addition, this September, Microsoft will introduce 2-way TV experiences from renowned entertainment partners Sesame Workshop and National Geographic that will further expand the Xbox platform beyond games, offering entertainment options for everyone in the family.

“I am excited to be a part of the continued evolution of Xbox from a gaming console to the hub of every household’s entertainment experience,” Tellem said. “The Xbox is already a consumer favorite, and we now have a tremendous opportunity to transform it into the center of all things entertainment — from games, music and fitness to news, sports, live events, television series and movies — so consumers have one destination for all their entertainment needs. I look forward to building a studio team that embraces the challenges of creating true interactive content that the Xbox platform supports and to work with talent to create content that will change the way entertainment content is experienced and delivered.”

“Whether you are voting for your favorite contestant on a TV show or playing a game, entertainment is becoming more personalized and social, driven by the Internet and new tools to interact with content,” Spencer said. “We are embarking on a new chapter with the creation of a studio dedicated to making original interactive and linear content, and I’m excited to have Nancy leading this effort.”

“With her impressive background in entertainment innovation, I am thrilled to have Nancy join our team,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business Group at Microsoft. “Under her direction, we look forward to building and extending our creative offerings from the living room to all your devices.”

Tellem has been a CBS executive since 1997, most recently as senior adviser to CEO Leslie Moonves, where she explored business and strategic opportunities — domestic and international — involving content partnerships, new production models, emerging media and technologies. As president of the CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, Tellem supervised programming, development, production, business affairs and operations. She oversaw the network’s prime-time, daytime, late-night and Saturday morning lineups (with shows like “CSI,” “Survivor,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The King of Queens”). Before joining CBS, Tellem was executive vice president of Business and Financial Affairs for Warner Bros. Television and was part of the team that launched the landmark programs “Friends” and “ER.”

In 2006, Tellem was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame for her contributions to the electronic arts. In 2008, Forbes ranked her 32nd on its list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” and Entertainment Weekly named her the third-smartest person in TV for quickly restoring CBS’s entire primetime lineup after the 100-day writers’ strike. That same year, the National Association of Television Program Executives awarded Tellem a Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award in recognition of her “extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in the process of creating TV programming.”

About Xbox

Xbox is Microsoft’s premier entertainment service for the TV, phone, PC and tablet. It’s home to the best and broadest games, as well as one of the world’s largest libraries of music, movies, TV and sports. With Kinect, Xbox 360 transformed gaming and entertainment in the living room with a whole new way to play games and find entertainment — no controller required. More information about Xbox can be found online at http://www.xbox.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Press release:

Consumers Defer Back to School Shopping in Favor of Purchases for the Home, IBM Reports

Social Channel Sales Up Nearly 70 Percent for Students Seeking Early Back to School Deals; Mobile Commerce Rises Again

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Armonk, N.Y. - 18 Sep 2012: While U.S. consumers shopped this July and August, they were not buying clothes and notebooks for their children but rather items for the home. According to findings from IBM (NYSE: IBM), the biggest retail gains this back to school shopping season came from home goods purchases which increased 30 percent in July and more than 25 percent in August over their respective months in 2012.

While experts speculate that consumers were holding off on back to school purchases to eye the choices of their peers, social networks appeared to drive purchases with social sales increasing 69.7 percent. The social influence was especially apparent when it came to apparel, where shoppers referred to online stores through social networks generated a 2.2 percent of all sales in August, an increase of more than 113 percent over 2011. 

Mobile commerce also continued to grow with sales increasing 15.7 percent in July and 15.4 percent in August. For home goods mobile sales reached a high of 20.1 percent. 

The growing influence of both mobile and social media further validates the need for a Smarter Commerce approach that helps retailers attain, understand, and act – in real-time – on deep insights about their customers in order to meet the unique needs of each. 

“Back-to-school season is proving to be a trigger event that spans across categories beyond just notebooks and backpacks. Retailers that are cashing in are those who understand how this trigger drives sales for home furnishings, as well as for apparel, and can target their inventory levels and promotions accordingly,” said Jill Puleri, Global Retail Leader, IBM. “This year's winners were the companies that successfully connected consumers with the right products, at the right price, and through the right medium–whether in a store, a mobile device or through popular social media channels." 

"When I speak to executives at the leading companies, one of the discussions that continues to come up most frequently is around harnessing big data and their efforts to try and understand how to take all the noise and word of mouth that is being generated and make sense of it," added W. "RP" Raghupathi, Professor of Information Systems, School of Business, at Fordham University. "Today, with so many consumers shopping and sharing their opinions online, we are seeing more and more retailers tap into the power of sophisticated analytics technology to help them react faster to evolving trends and customer needs." 

Part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the IBM Benchmark is the only analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. 

The IBM benchmark reveals the following back to school trends that are critical to chief marketing officers (CMO), e-commerce leaders and customer service professionals: 

·   July and August Online Sales: Overall sales for July increased more than 11 percent over July 2011 while August slowed with sales up 3.9 percent compared to last year.

·   Social commerce: In July, shopper referrals to retailer sites from social networks generated 1.6 percent of all sales, an increase of 25.1 percent over last year. This trend continued in August reaching 1.8 percent, an increase of 69.7 percent over the previous year.

·   Mobile commerce: Mobile commerce remains strong with sales from mobile devices reaching 15.7 percent in July and 15.4 percent over the month of August. 

As for vertical industries the following categories experienced success over this timeframe: 

·   Home goods: In July online sales grew by just over 30 percent and 25.5 percent in August with consumers shifting some back to school purchases toward the home. Over this period mobile sales also thrived, reaching 19.1 percent in July and topping out at 20.1 percent in August.

·   Department stores: Online sales grew 22.1 percent in July and 28.7 percent in August. Over this period mobile sales were strong, hitting 19.2 percent in July and 18.9 percent in August.

·   Apparel stores: Online sales were up 9.2 percent in July and 9.8 percent in August. Over this period mobile sales reached 15.1 percent and 16.4 percent in August. Apparel stores also experienced strong social commerce with shoppers referred to their sites from social networks generating 1.4 percent of all sales in July and 2.2 percent in August, up more than 113 percent over 2011, more than any other industry.

·   Office Supplies/Electronics: Online sales grew by 6.3 percent in July while dropping by .92 percent in August. Mobile sales reached 5.7 percent in July remained steady in August a 5.9 percent. 

Part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the IBM Benchmark provides intelligence on how consumers are responding to the products and services being offered to them. With these insights CMOs and teams gain deeper insight into each customer which they can use to present personalized recommendations, promotions and other sales incentives across the wide variety of channels—including social networks and mobile devices. 

More information on Smarter Commerce can be found atwww.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_commerce/overview/. 

Viacom International Media Networks Accelerates Distribution of Multimedia Content with EMC Isilon

EMC Press Release

Viacom International Media Networks Accelerates Distribution of Multimedia Content with EMC Isilon

European TV Channel Operator Leverages EMC Isilon to Increase Performance and Reliability of Content Delivery for MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central

IBC 2012, AMSTERDAM - September 6, 2012

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) today announced that Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has standardized on EMC® Isilon® scale-out storage for all of its media content in Europe.

VIMN is comprised of many of the world's most popular multimedia entertainment brands, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount Channel, VH1, VIVA, COLORS, Game One and Tr3's MTV, Música y Más, which are seen globally in more than 600 million households in 170 territories and 37 languages via more than 200 locally programmed and operated TV channels. With more than two petabytes of Isilon storage, VIMN has improved the speed and delivery of its multimedia content across Europe.

Customer Benefits:

• Streamlined Content Publishing—With Isilon, VIMN accelerated content publishing 150 percent by streamlining end-to-end content development, access, distribution and transmission.
• Improved Efficiency—VIMN's integration between Isilon, media asset management and playout systems automates flow of content to program schedules, reducing the number of operators per 25 channels from five to just one.
• Increased Performance—Isilon delivers 8,000 gigabytes of content per day to 100 playout servers in each media center simultaneously, ensuring that content is consistently available for daily program schedules.
• Enhanced Agility—Isilon enables VIMN to supply its creative teams with new storage resources in hours instead of weeks.

Customer Challenges and Solution:

VIMN's prior distributed storage environment was difficult to scale and limited in performance, affecting its ability to reliably deliver media content to the broadcast channels. With media content growing by 600 terabytes annually, VIMN needed a centrally managed storage infrastructure integrated with its media asset management system to streamline and simplify content access, publishing and transmission.

After evaluating solutions from multiple storage vendors, VIMN chose EMC Isilon scale-out storage for its excellent scalability, performance and reliability. VIMN deployed Isilon NL-Series systems to consolidate media content from multiple sites across Europe to two primary media centers in London and Amsterdam, providing nearline storage for a global, file-based content delivery system. An additional Isilon system is deployed in VIMN's London content production environment, which also enables content delivery to locations outside of Europe, including Australia.

Isilon InsightIQ™ analytics enables VIMN to optimize performance and workflows, and forecast future storage needs. With Isilon's OneFS file system, VIMN maintains one global source of content for use with multiple reference language tracks across all multimedia channels. For disaster recovery and content sharing, VIMN is implementing Isilon SyncIQ® software to automatically replicate content between its two media centers.

VIMN's Evertz Mediator media asset management, Grass Valley® K2 Edge™ integrated automated playout system and MediaGenex channel management systems are integrated with the Isilon infrastructure.

Customer Quotes:

Tim Bertioli, Senior Director, Media & Technology Infrastructure, Viacom International Media Networks

"Our international content workflow is now almost completely file-based — access to content is streamlined for editing, compliance and desktop viewing. As a result, we've accelerated time-to-publication of new international content by 150 percent. By giving the channel teams more control over media content, Isilon has enabled us to execute on a completely new content publishing model in the broadcast industry."

"It's absolutely critical to our business to deliver complied, quality checked content to the networks in as short a time as possible. With Isilon, we no longer worry about being able to access the content for transmission in time. Isilon has given us real peace of mind."

"Our annual EMA event, as an example, is distributed to a potential global audience of over 600 million homes. It's vital that we are able to create and distribute multiple versions of the show for linear, mobile and on-demand viewing quickly — centralizing our storage for the different stages of our file-based workflow makes this possible."

"For our content production system in London, we can handle administration with one less full-time engineer because of Isilon's streamlined manageability and reliability. Overall, one engineer spends about an hour per week managing Isilon and we're saving a substantial sum per year in support costs. We pretty much just leave Isilon alone."

Roderick Aal, VP Technology, North and UK, Viacom International Media Networks

"Adopting the Isilon OneFS storage solution enables VIMN to store more content in more formats and make it instantly accessible simultaneously to more people at a lower cost than done before on linear tape-open digital file based tape storage."

"The Isilon OneFS storage solution has not just reduced costs, but has allowed us to make video content, such as video on demand, instantly accessible to more people at a lower cost. We've also been able to allow disparate applications and clients to share a single pool of storage that all users can access instantly and accelerate ROI on storage. Ultimately, VIMN has adopted a storage solution optimized specifically for the unique requirements of digital content, enabling us to store more content in more formats."

"In general, Isilon OneFS has enabled our businesses to use a common storage solution across multiple applications in the digital content lifecycle including production, archiving and delivery."

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about EMC Isilon
• Connect with EMC via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and ECN

About EMC

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.

Reddit Thrives Under Hands-Off Policy of Advance Publications

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, September 03, 2012

Reddit Thrives Under Hands-Off Policy of Advance Publications

By DAVID CARR

There are many ways to measure the traction of a social media platform: time spent, page views or unique users. But it might be useful to add one more metric: if the leader of the free world stops by to answer questions from your users, you’re probably doing O.K.

On Thursday, President Obama signed up for an “Ask Me Anything” (A.M.A. in geekspeak) session at Reddit, a vast social site that is a staple of digital life for the young and connected, but less well known among grown-ups.

The president answered a few benign questions — Michael Jordan is his favorite basketball player! — along with a few tough ones, including a request to explain his administration’s approach to Internet regulation. He even posted a picture to prove he was the one at the keyboard when he typed, “Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything.”

While the Republicans were celebrating the potential and might of American business at their convention in Tampa, Mr. Obama was validating one example of business success on an entirely different platform. Reddit, which was founded by two fresh graduates of the University of Virginia in 2005, has just 20 employees, but serves up more than three billion page views a month.

With its basic graphics, endless links and discussions, Reddit can seem like peering into a bowl of spaghetti, but it has surpassed better-known aggregating sites like Digg to become a force on the Web. Occasionally, as in the instance of the Colorado shootings, it takes control of a news story early. Built on open-source software and guided by the ethos of its community, estimated by Quantcast to be 20 million users a month, it is a classic Web start-up in which opportunity seems mixed with barely controlled anarchy.

So who are the silky venture capitalists or young lions of Valley technology who own this vast unruly kingdom? That would be Advance Publications, the home of Condé Nast, the magazine company that bought Reddit back in 2006 for a reported $20 million. That kind of deal is usually a signal that a ritual sacrifice was about to begin in which a clueless old media company snaps up a hot Web property and proceeds to squeeze the life out of what it just bought.

But that is not what happened. Steve Newhouse, the chairman of Advance.net, decided very early on that his company would not be the blob that ate Reddit, and for the most part, left well enough alone.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Press release from NetApp:

NetApp Expands Technology Partner Ecosystem to Bring Big Data Solutions to Big Media Challenges

NetApp Furthers Leadership in Media and Entertainment Solutions with New Partners for Implementing Efficient Digital Production Workflows

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 30, 2012 — Every frame of the latest Hollywood blockbuster or hit TV program has to be ingested, edited, transcoded, and delivered, creating complicated workflows as content is shared across teams and across locations. Streamlining these processes requires greater integration between the front-end software tools used at each step with networks of back-end hardware. Storage is a critical part of this back-end infrastructure, and when integrated with front-end applications, it delivers the capacity, bandwidth, and performance that power broadcast production and content delivery.

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), a leader in storage and data management, today announced the significant expansion of its media and entertainment technology alliance ecosystem to include new partners Actus Digital,Digital Rapids, Marquis Broadcast, MXFserver, Rorke Data (an Avnet Company), Signiant. Vidispine, and Vizrt.These partners join long-standing technology Alliance members ATTO Technology, Dalet, and Quantum in demonstrating interoperability with NetApp® storage solutions to solve the next generation of content production, management, and delivery challenges. Solutions from the NetApp Technology Alliance Program are on display next week (September 7–11) at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam.

"NetApp continues to foster and forge strong alliances with technology innovators who share our vision and passion for helping customers simplify workflows and unleash creativity," said Brendon Howe, vice president, Product and Solutions Marketing, NetApp. "An example of the success we are delivering with partners is the petabytes of storage we’ve deployed through our media and content management solution, which is the storage foundation for several world-class postproduction and broadcast media operations."

NetApp media and entertainment storage platforms include:

• Media content management solution for high-bandwidth workflows
• Fabric-attached storage (FAS) for shared application media workflows, media transactions, and analytics
• NetApp StorageGRID® for cloud or on-premises distributed content repositories

NetApp works with its alliance technology partners to test and integrate these technologies with partner applications. Together, the NetApp ecosystem provides the first compelling combination of enterprise-class IT resiliency and media-class bandwidth, capacity, and cost-effectiveness for media and entertainment workflows. These tested workflows include content ingest, media asset management, edit, transcode, file-based quality control (QC), file delivery, and archive solutions.

MXFserver and NetApp Enable Collaborative Editing Environments 
FilmPartners, creator of postproduction management software MXFserver, and NetApp are building out collaborative editing environments with cost-effective enterprise-class open storage. MXFserver works with the top three broadcast editing platforms to consolidate their operations onto efficient and cost-effective scalable NetApp storage. Due to MXFserver’s open structure, all media can be easily accessed, transferred, managed, and exchanged without the use of additional software, improving project manageability, while supporting all the project sharing and bin locking edit workgroups are used to.

Signiant and NetApp Speed File Movement
The growing size of media files and the explosion of media delivery platforms are driving the need for highly efficient, file-based content delivery workflows. And the advent of global media companies with reservoirs of content on multiple continents is causing a rethinking of how the storage layer itself should manage the millions, and now billions, of video clips being stored and accessed.

NetApp and Signiant test and confirm tight interoperability between the intelligent file transfer layer and the storage layer. Media organizations have a business-critical need to move and store digital media as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, while applying enterprise-level security and maintaining complete control over the exchanges. By extending the Signiant file movement workflow to NetApp storage systems, this joint solution helps media companies meet these stringent requirements.

Dalet Collaborates with NetApp on Full-Resolution Workflow Infrastructure
Long-standing NetApp Alliance Partner Dalet recently collaborated with NetApp to install the infrastructure for an end-to-end production workflow with both proxy and high-resolution video into one of the largest national broadcast operations in Europe. The flexible broadcast workflow, built on the NetApp E-Series platform, supports high-bandwidth production groups needing 10,000MB per second.

Additional Resources

• Become a NetApp Alliance Partner: solutionconnection.netapp.com/solution-listing.aspx
• Learn more about NetApp media and entertainment solutions:www.netapp.com/us/solutions/industry/media-entertainment
• Join the NetApp Media and Entertainment Community: www.netapp.com/media
• Follow NetApp on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NetApp
• Get the latest on NetApp culture: www.facebook.com/NetAppCulture
• Join NetApp on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NetApp
• View NetApp videos on YouTube: www.youtube.com/NetAppTV
• Connect with NetApp on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=111681

About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Our commitment to living our core values and consistently being recognized as a great place to work around the world are fundamental to our long-term growth and success, as well as the success of our pathway partners and customers. Use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership between NetApp and any other company. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

Press release:

IBM and USTA Serve an Interactive Experience to US Open Tennis Fans

Mobile Apps Bring Fans to Center Court
Analytics Technology to Determine Fans' Social Media Champion

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FLUSHING, N.Y. - 29 Aug 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) today introduced new technologies that will immerse fans in the action at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament. During the two-week event, IBM will apply its predictive analytics, cloud computing and mobile technology expertise to connect tennis fans -- no matter where they are -- to what's happening on the courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.

IBM has created a unique digital environment that provides US Open spectators, athletes and media uninterrupted access to data, facts, stats and content via their tablets, smartphones, PCs and other devices. This enhanced, interactive fan experience uses new technologies that thousands of businesses worldwide are embracing to up their game by uncovering insightsfrom Big Data. 

New for this year's tournament is an iPad app that serves accurate streams of match data, access to live video, highlights and in-depth statistical information. Enhanced social media features enable fans to communicate with other fans around the world. The app also delivers an insider's view of who's gaining the edge on the court and most likely to win -- well before the final score tells the story. It complements iPhone and Android apps that mobile fans can access to connect to US Open action in real-time from around the world.

Off the court, IBM's analysis of the US Open action will extend to the social media arena by determining the Twitterverse's favorite male and female players. IBM is applying advanced analytics software to millions of public tweets generated throughout the tournament to assess which players are the social fans' favorites. The IBM Social Sentiment Index will analyze buzz around the US Open, providing a better understanding of fan sentiment. The analysis will also illustrate how analytics technology can identify important, and otherwise non-obvious trends, to help businesses make better decisions about how to connect with customers.

On site at the Tennis Center, IBM has built the IBM Game Changer Interactive Wall, which extends many of the USOpen.org and mobile app features, providing greater insight into the US Open, both on- and off-court using the power of analytics. Fans can interact with the wall to access live scores, match analysis and data visualizations from the IBM Social Sentiment Index analysis, as well as information about local weather and its effect on player nutrition and hydration, and more.

“We continue to look for new ways to  innovate and strengthen our leadership position in the sports industry, and one of the ways we will do this is by delivering content and information about the US Open to fans in the way that they want to consume it, no matter where they are,” said Phil Green, Senior Director of Advanced Media, USTA. “Working with IBM is a winning partnership because it allows us to create a unique digital environment that delivers stats, video and information to our fans whenever they want it on all devices.”

Delivering insights into what's happening on the courts at the US Open requires an ability to capture and analyze each serve, volley and point. The same kind of analytics technologies that IBM is using to deliver insights to tennis fans, players, coaches, media and sports event organizers are being used to monitor babies in prenatal wards, help police departments prevent crime and enable financial services firms to improve customer service.    

“Big Data is impacting so many aspects of sporting events, that it's no longer a stretch to say that it is changing the way fans watch and enjoy sports,” said Rick Singer, vice president, Sports Sponsorship Marketing for IBM.  “Whether  on the court or in the board room, Big Data is being leveraged to achieve similar goals, such as keeping operations up and running seamlessly, having accurate data readily available for quick decision making, and improving productivity.”

Analytics and Cloud Computing Power USOpen.org

IBM, in its 22nd year of partnering with the USTA, is enhancing the digital capabilities ofUSOpen.org to give users a front-row access to the action on the court.

One of the most insightful features of USOpen.org is IBM's SlamTracker. Based on predictive analytics technology, it leverages historical and real-time match data to deliver a better understanding of what's going on during a match. SlamTracker's 'Momentum' feature maps player momentum throughout a match in real-time, visualizing key turning points such as aces and winning shots, allowing fans to interact with the data to learn more about why a player is winning. In addition, SlamTracker's 'Keys to the Match'  feature analyzes seven years of  historical Grand Slam data to determine the top three things a player must do in order to perform well in a specific match. 

During the two-week tournament, USOpen.org transforms into a massive, data hungry environment that demands unhindered access to accurate and reliable content to serve the demands of millions of tennis fans. Each year, IBM helps the USTA expand its infrastructure to meet these demands and then scale back to support regular operations following the tournament. This elasticity is made possible by the IBM SmartCloud, which enables the rapid creation and dynamic allocation of resources while offering transparent and real-time access by a multitude of devices, such as smartphones, tablets and televisions.  This cloud environment -- powered by IBM servers and storage in three geographically dispersed locations virtualized as one --  ensures continuous availability and scalability required to support such a high profile event. The benefits include reduced costs and reliable operations. 

For more information about how IBM is helping the US Open tap into Big Data to transform the fan experience, visit www.ibm.com/sports

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Cutting the Digital Lifeline and Finding Serenity

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Sunday, August 26, 2012

Cutting the Digital Lifeline and Finding Serenity

By JENNA WORTHAM

ONE recent sweltering afternoon, a friend and I trekked to a new public pool, armed with books, sunglasses and icy drinks, planning to beat the heat with a swim. But upon our arrival, we had an unwelcome surprise: no cellphones were allowed in the pool area.

The ban threw me into a tailspin. I lingered by the locker where I had stashed my phone, wondering what messages, photos and updates I might already be missing.

After walking to the side of the pool and reluctantly stretching out on a towel by the water, my hands ached for my phone. I longed to upload details and pictures of my leisurely afternoon, and to skim through my various social networks to see how other friends were spending the weekend. Mostly, however, I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t some barbecue or summer music festival that we should be heading to instead.

Eventually, the anxiety passed. I started to see my lack of a digital connection as a reprieve. Lounging in the sun and chatting with a friend without the intrusion of texts and alerts into our lives felt positively luxurious. That night, I even switched off my phone while mingling at a house party, content to be in one place for the evening and not distracted by any indecision about whether another party posted online looked better.

My revelation — relearning the beauty of living in the moment, devoid of any digital link — may seem silly to people who are less attached to their devices. But for many people, smartphones and social networks have become lifelines — appendages that they are rarely without. As such, they can sway our moods, decisions and feelings.

One side effect of living an always-on digital life is the tension, along with the thrill, that can arise from being able to peep into people’s worlds at any moment and comparing their lives with yours. This tension may be inevitable at times, but it’s not inescapable. It’s possible to move beyond the angst that social media can provoke — and to be glad that we’ve done so.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Internet Analysts Question India’s Efforts to Stem Panic

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Internet Analysts Question India’s Efforts to Stem Panic

By VIKAS BAJAJ

MUMBAI, India — The Indian government’s efforts to stem a weeklong panic among some ethnic minorities has again put it at odds with Internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Officials in New Delhi, who have had disagreements with the companies over restrictions on free speech, say the sites are not responding quickly enough to their requests to delete and trace the origins of doctored photos and incendiary posts aimed at people from northeastern India. After receiving threats online and on their phones, tens of thousands of students and migrants from the northeast have left cities like Bangalore, Pune and Chennai in the last week.

The government has blocked 245 Web pages since Friday, but still many sites are said to contain fabricated images of violence against Muslims in the northeast and in neighboring Myanmar meant to incite Muslims in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai to attack people from the northeast. India also restricted cellphone users to five text messages a day each for 15 days in an effort to limit the spread of rumors.

Officials from Google and industry associations said they were cooperating fully with the authorities. Some industry executives and analysts added that some requests had not been heeded because they were overly broad or violated internal policies and the rights of users.

The government, used to exerting significant control over media like newspapers, films and television, has in recent months been frustrated in its effort to extend similar and greater regulations to Web sites, most of which are based in the United States. Late last year, an Indian minister tried to get social media sites to prescreen content created by their users before it was posted. The companies refused and the attempt failed under withering public criticism.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

How ‘Call Me Maybe’ and Social Media Are Upending Music

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Added on Wednesday, August 22, 2012

How ‘Call Me Maybe’ and Social Media Are Upending Music

By BEN SISARIO For decades, the song of the summer would emerge each year following a pattern as predictable as the beach tides.

Pop radio would get it rolling before school let out, and soon the song — inevitably one with a big, playful beat and an irresistible hook — would blare from car stereos everywhere. Then came prom singalongs as the song finally became ubiquitous around the Fourth of July. In 1987, it was Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” In 2003, Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love.”

But the success of this summer’s hit, Carly Rae Jepsen’s cheerfully flirty “Call Me Maybe,” shows how much the hitmaking machine, as well as the music industry itself, has been upended by social media.

Only a year ago, the charts were dominated by stars who had come out of the old machine of radio and major-label promotion: Katy Perry, Rihanna, Adele, Maroon 5. This year’s biggest hits — “Call Me Maybe,” Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” and Fun.’s “We Are Young” — started in left field and were helped along by YouTube and Twitter before coming to the mainstream media.

For “Call Me Maybe,” which was No. 1 for nine weeks, the longest run of the year, the critical piece was YouTube. After Justin Bieber and friends posted a video of themselves lip-syncing to it in February, hundreds of fan tributes followed. Alongside Ms. Jepsen’s own video, which has been watched 212 million times, versions by Katy Perry, the Cookie Monster (“Share It Maybe”) and the United States Olympic swim team turned it into a yearlong audiovisual meme.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Sites Like Groupon and Facebook Disappoint Investors

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Saturday, August 18, 2012

Sites Like Groupon and Facebook Disappoint Investors

By JAMES B. STEWART

With battered Facebook shares closing Friday at just over half their offering price in May, no one’s talking anymore about a social media “bubble.”

Just a year ago, social media seemed the next big thing. With dizzying user growth at Twitter, Zynga and especially Facebook, investors were euphoric about Internet sites that connected people with shared interests and experiences, seemingly the perfect media for targeted advertising.

The professional networking and job search site LinkedIn was first to test the public’s appetite when it went public in May 2011. Its shares more than doubled to close at $94.25 after trading as high as $122.70 that first day.

Early investors were understandably giddy, but others, like the former Treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, sounded a cautionary note. “Who could have imagined that the concern with respect to any American financial asset, just two years after the crisis, would be a bubble?” Mr. Summers asked at the time. Over the last year, Internet companies like Groupon, Zynga and Yelp made their public debuts. Facebook followed in May at $38 a share, instantly giving the newly minted public company a valuation of nearly $105 billion. Since then, euphoria has given way to mounting anxiety.

Facebook hasn’t closed above $38 since. The initial offering was widely deemed a debacle both for trading glitches and for the need for underwriters to prop up the stock.

The shares’ subsequent decline accelerated after the company’s first earnings report as a public company late last month dashed investors’ hopes for torrid growth.

This week was the end of the lockup period, which barred insiders from immediately selling their shares, and Facebook shares hit a new low, slumping to $19.05.

Other Internet companies have fared even worse.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com

AT&T Adworks and Turn Announce Secure, Private Cloud-based Audience Management Platform

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AT&T Adworks and Turn Announce Secure, Private Cloud-based Audience Management Platform

Platform is first of its kind in the advertising industry

New York, New York, March 29, 2012

AT&T AdWorks and Turn today announced a new audience management platform that will use Turn’s leading targeting and cross-channel media technology to help AT&T AdWorks’ clients better reach their audiences. The jointly developed platform stores anonymous AT&T data within a private cloud, which protects consumer privacy by encrypting all data that leaves the private cloud.

The platform employs Turn’s campaign management, ad serving and data management capabilities. As a top five* ad network, AT&T AdWorks has access to 450 billion** available monthly impressions - reaching approximately 84% of worldwide online audience. Overlaying our demographic, contextual, behavioral and search audience targeting, AT&T AdWorks helps advertisers effectively reach their target audiences.

“AT&T AdWorks’ main goal is to help our clients effectively connect with their target audience,” said Joshua Koran, VP Digital Product Management, Research and Data, AT&T AdWorks.  “This new platform will strengthen our audience targeting capabilities, providing even greater value to our clients. None of the data we store on the Turn systems is personally-identifiable, and as an extra measure of protection we encrypt it before it leaves the AT&T firewall.”

“We are pleased to work with AT&T AdWorks and contribute our experience in building Internet-scale advertising solutions to this important project,” said Bill Demas, president and chief executive officer, Turn. “Built on our leading privacy compliant, brand-safety controls, this platform expands our ability to help agencies and advertisers ensure consumer privacy as they execute cross-channel campaigns.”

*comScore Media Metrix Core Reports^TM - January 2012

**Owned and operated + 3rd party ad inventory

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse^® and AT&T |DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available athttp://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at@ATT.

About Turn

Turn delivers real-time insights that transform the way leading advertising agencies and marketers make decisions. Our cloud applications and Internet-scale architecture work together to provide a complete picture of customers, execute cross-channel campaigns, and connect with a worldwide ecosystem of over 100 partners.  Turn is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Amsterdam, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, and San Francisco. Company revenue has more than doubled every year of Turn’s existence. For more information, visit turn.com or follow @turnplatform.

About AT&T AdWorks

AT&T AdWorks is a digital media group within AT&T.  Utilizing the inherent strengths of the world's largest telecommunications company and its superior data advantage, AT&T AdWorks connects advertisers with their audiences across online, mobile and TV platforms. Our proprietary, aggregate data and ad offering give us the ability to help advertisers effectively tap into billions of available ad impressions and use advanced optimization technology to increase ad effectiveness.  For more information, please visit adworks.att.com.

Nuance Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search Apps Now Available in Saudi Arabia

Dragon Apps Make Debut in the Middle East, Providing Saudi Consumers wtih a Faster and Easier Way to Send Text Messages and Emails, Update Twitter and Facebook, Search for Web Content and More Just by Speaking

Burlington, Mass. and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – March 28, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that its Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search applications for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad are now available for free in Saudi Arabia in the Apple App Store, supporting the Standard Arabic language. Already downloaded by tens of millions worldwide, Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search allow people to quickly and easily dictate SMS text messages, emails, social media updates, mobile Web searches and more, up to five times faster than typing.

The launch of Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search in Saudi Arabia marks the first deployment of Standard Arabic Dragon voice recognition for iOS applications, and the debut of the Dragon Apps in the Middle East. According to a recent Arab Advisors survey of mobile phone users in Saudi Arabia, 47 percent of respondents who use applications prefer to use them in the Arabic language, and that iPhones have a 40 percent share of all smartphones operating systems in Saudi Arabia.

“We are very excited to bring the power of voice to Saudi Arabia via Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search, marking our debut in the Middle East as part of a response to global demand for voice interfaces and applications,” said Anil Kumar, Regional Director, Nuance Middle East and Balkans. “With availability in 29 countries, Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search make it incredibly easy for mobile consumers all over the world to bring their ideas to life by just speaking.”

Dragon Dictation is iOS-5 compatible and features a pop-up toolbar with app icons that enable users to easily send their dictated text to email, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, or the clipboard. Dragon Dictation also includes a convenient Auto Save function that retains dictated text when the user is interrupted by an incoming phone call.

Dragon Search is now also available on the Saudi Arabia App Store, allowing users to simply speak any search query in Standard Arabic to quickly and easily find information and answers on the mobile Web. Dragon Search is the only app to feature Nuance’s unique and innovative Dragon Search Carousel, which delivers faster, smarter search results within seconds across multiple channels all at once including Google, Yahoo!, Twitter, iTunes, Wikipedia and YouTube.

Both Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search are available for free from the Saudi Arabia App Store.

Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search are also available in the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Australia, Denmark, Brazil, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland App Stores. In addition to Standard Arabic, the Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search support U.S, UK and Australian English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwan Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Bahasa Indonesia, Hungarian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, European and Canadian French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, European and Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, European and Americas Spanish, and Swedish. And with multilingual capabilities, all Dragon app users are able to easily switch between supported languages as they come available.

To learn more, visit www.NuanceMobileLife.com. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter @NuanceMobile, and become a Fan of Dragon Mobile Apps on Facebook.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world.  Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications.  For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.