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< richmedium > | social innovation in the global marketplace explores the business, cultural, and technological forces that are reshaping the process of creating value in global markets, and giving rise to a new strategic framework for designing and scaling media and marketing organizations, nonprofits, and social enterprises.

media file 12.1.08 | Digital entrepreneurs should “work on stuff that matters”

Tech guru Tim O’Reilly to next generation: Get serious

The LA Times profiles digital pioneer Tim O’Reilly and his critique of the current crop of digital enterprises. Today’s digital entrepreneurs have cocooned in a “reality bubble” insulated from poverty, disease, global warming, and other problems that are gripping the planet, he argues. They should follow the model of some of the world’s most successful technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, which sprang from their founders’ efforts to “work on stuff that matters.”

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media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on Delicious, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global business culture. You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on Delicious.

more media file links for December 1, 2008:

The bottom billion: A difficult market or a source of innovation?

On the Harvard Business site, Forrester VP Navi Radjou discusses how leading global firms--Microsoft, most notably among them--are treating the world’s most underdeveloped markets as breakthrough business opportunities rather than as occasions to demonstrate corporate social responsibility.

Media zone to open in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi newspaper The National reports that the government has launched a new media innovation zone in partnership with the BBC, CNN, Reuters, and a number of other leading global media brands. The zone is scheduled to launch in 2009.

National Geographic teams with Abu Dhabi to make movies

The Washington Post reports that the Abu Dhabi government has struck a $100 million deal with the National Geographic Society to create a revolving fund to develop and produce 10 to 15 films over a five-year period. According to Tim Kelly, president of the National Geographic’s global media division, the goal of the pact is to “put money on the screen,” funneling funds to filmmakers all over the world.

NBC relaunches local TV sites as web destinations

MediaPost reports on NBC’s plan to transform its local TV station web sites into broader online communities offering news, information, entertainment, and social media tools. Its new, “Locals Only” sites will feature content from print and online publications, bloggers, and NBC’s local TV stations. The initiative rolls out with revamped sites for Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.

Mainstream news outlets start linking to other sites

ONTD! The New York Times reports that mainstream media outlets have recently ramped up the number of links they post to content on other sites. They even have a new name for it: “link journalism.” The idea is to produce a new generation of online news media, supported by local, paid product/service directories.

Five web 2.0 businesses for a down economy

Mashable looks at a seriously disrupted, cash starved digital market and asks, “What new opportunities exist here”? Keywords: Coworking spaces, bootstrapping, collaborative tools, idea marketplaces, workforce marketplaces.

Open source is not a business model

ReadWriteWeb reports on a study by The 451 Group showing that most open source vendors make ends meet via proprietary software and services. In this study of 114 vendors, open source is more of a business tactic than a business model.

media file 10.22.08 | "Social innovation": doing business with the “bottom billion”

Social innovation: Creating products for those at the bottom of the pyramid

INSEAD Knowledge reprises its executive roundtable on the challenges global corporations face in designing and executing “social innovation” strategies--business initiatives targeting the four billion or so people living on less than one dollar per day in developing countries. More than price, executives reported that access to highly segmented, low income markets has proven to be the greatest barrier to product distribution and sales. Partnership with government agencies and nonprofit organizations is key to overcoming this problem, executives said. Another insight: Philanthropic models, in which products or services are donated to needy communities, turn out to be far less successful in delivering sustained social impact than market-based models, in which corporations set up locally run businesses.

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media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on Delicious, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global communications and business culture. You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on Delicious. We publish media file links as we discover them.

Please suggest links to include in the database, and please also send your comments on how to make this resource more useful for you.

more media file links for October 22, 2008:

Strong partnership key to success in social innovation

INSEAD Knowledge explores the reasons why global corporations find it so difficult to successfully execute “social innovation” strategies targeting the “bottom of the pyramid”: the four billion people living on less than one dollar per day. The primary reason: Global corporations have become “disembedded” from local economies, especially poor ones, and therefore they have insufficient knowledge of the specialized needs of these market segments. Another reason: Global corporations may harbor expectations about short-term profitability that run counter to the substantial time and effort required to launch and scale projects that deliver mutual benefit to both the corporation and the poor. Corporations can improve their chances through strong collaboration with governments, NGOs, and social entrepreneurs.

Social media in Africa, part I: The market

ReadWriteWeb posts the first in a three-part series on the growth of social media in Africa. The continent is the fastest growing mobile market in the world, with 280 million subscribers and a 30.4 percent penetration rate. The social media sector is currently dominated by independent and nonprofit media operations.

Social media in Africa, part II: Mobile innovations

ReadWriteWeb continues its three-part series on the growth of social media in Africa with a review of how the continent’s technical infrastructure is determining the shape of digital innovation. Due to a history of unstable governance and civil unrest in the 20th century, the continent largely bypassed the era of community infrastructure building that characterized most of Western society during that period. As a result, there is no entrenched land-based communications establishment; the vast majority of Africans tap into the global communications grid via mobile phone and satellite. This situation has spawned a rush to fill satellite demand, plus an explosion in innovative mobile applications such as micropayments, mobile news, and GPS-based theft-deterrent systems for automobiles.

Social media in Africa, part III: Democracy

ReadWriteWeb concludes its three-part series on the growth of social media in Africa with a brief survey of web and mobile applications that are undermining the grip of totalitarian regimes on the flow of information within their societies. The most exciting aspect of these innovative applications is their source: local social entrepreneurs, not foreign aid groups, governments, or corporations. For the continent, this explosion in indigenous social media offers the opportunity to start fresh: new ideas, and a billion people to use them.

Mobile subscribers increase worldwide

ClickZ summarizes a report by the International Telecommunications Union on the worldwide explosion in mobile communications technology usage. By the end of 2008, subscriptions to mobile service providers will top 4 billion, for a global market penetration rate of 61 percent. Subscriptions have been growing at an average of 24 percent annually since 2000.

Meredith expands reach of magazines overseas

The Des Moines Register reports on the expansion of Meredith Corporation’s magazine business into developing countries. Publisher of women’s titles such as Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, and Family Circle, Meredith licenses its content to over 25 partners in 40 countries, with most new deals closing in the developing world. According to the World Bank, more than 56 percent of the global middle class resides in developing countries; by 2030, that number will rise to 93 percent. Meredith officials believe they are properly positioned to help those upwardly mobile populations satisfy curiosity about Western life.

HipChicas.com targets tween latinas with eco-friendly virtual world

MediaPost profiles HipChicas.com, a virtual world targeting socially conscious pre-teen and teenage Hispanic-American girls. Says the site’s founder, Lazaro Fuentes: “It’s as if somewhere along the line, someone decided that being hip meant that girls had to dress or act inappropriately, or had to fit into a specific mold, and that their only interests are picking hair colors or shopping for clothes. They are far more than that. These are kids that want to save the world, be in a band, and start a blog all in one day.”

media file 10.6.08: Philips reinvents itself as a design-driven social enterprise

Philips: Philanthropy by design

Businessweek reports on Amsterdam-based Royal Philips Electronics’ efforts to transform itself from from a high-volume electronics maker into a design-led health, lifestyle, and technology company. Its core strategy: “social innovation”--developing culturally relevant solutions to critical social and environmental problems in emerging markets, in partnership with local nongovernmental organizations that can help facilitate their adoption. Among its first efforts in this space: A clean indoor wood-burning stove that reduces smoke inhalation and is easier to maintain than its traditional predecessor.

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media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on Delicious, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global communications and business culture. You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on Delicious. We publish media file links as we discover them.

Please suggest links to include in the database, and please also send your comments on how to make this resource more useful for you.

more media file links for October 6, 2008:

The real value of intangibles

On the strategy+business site, business guru Denise Caruso questions why the contemporary corporation’s greatest source of value--its intellectual property, software investments, staff and managerial expertise, market research, advertising, business processes, organizational structures, and the like--show up on its books, not as real assets, but as potential liabilities and risk factors. The solution to this problem, Caruso writes, is to revise FASB rules to reflect the fact that intangible assets now account for up to 90 percent of a 21st century corporation’s market worth.

The faith-based corporation

Google employees joke that the search giant is a “faith-based initiative,” but they mean it. Google is at the head of a trend called “organizational sacralization,” described in a new research paper on the topic reviewed on the Knowledge@W.P. Carey site. The term refers to the adoption of social-purpose business strategies that galvanize an organization’s stakeholders around the idea that the enterprise is working for a greater good. These strategies can confer significant competitive advantage, the paper asserts, but they also run the risk of serious backlash if stakeholders determine that the organization has committed “sacrilege” by violating its own espoused ideals.

Want to be the next Google? Create enduring values

VentureBeat columnist Bernard Moon compares Google’s founding principles to those of Sony, launched almost fifty years earlier. According to Moon, both companies grounded themselves in a set of core social values that, through strong leadership, translated into tangible behavior and results.

Seventh Generation launches open media marketing campaign

ClickZ reports that green home products marketer Seventh Generation has launched an open media marketing campaign designed to reach parents concerned about product safety and the environment. The campaign is built around a microsite that provides information about Seventh Generation product ingredients and offers users a downloadable desktop and mobile widget that they can employ while shopping to look up health and environmental impact information about ingredients found commonly on consumer product labels. Third parties can add content to the widget’s database.

Agenda for a green recovery

The Center for American Progress announces a report with the Political Economy Research Institute, an economic think tank, entitled “Green Recovery.” In it, the authors advocate a $100 billion, two-year investment program in green technologies, generating 2 million private-sector jobs.

Money to grow on

What is an “investment”? For private foundations and nonprofit social enterprises, that question can get tricky. On Stanford Social Innovation Review, Bridgespan Group partner William Foster says that the nonprofit sector could benefit by adopting the for-profit sector’s attitude toward outside money--whatever its source--viewing it as “growth capital” that strengthens the enterprise’s capacity to sustainably increase impact.

Understanding social entrepreneurs

On the Skoll Foundation’s Social Edge site, author Paul Light posts several excerpts from his new book, “The Search for Social Entrepreneurship,” and related research. Light asks: Do social entrepreneurs really think differently from other high achievers? Are their ideas always radical? Can they create opportunities for change where none exist? Do their organizations have to be new?

media file 8.13.08: Don’t calculate; innovate!

None of Your Business Model

On MediaShift Idea Lab, MIT Media Lab researcher Christopher Csikszentmihalyi posits that the current rush to find a business model to support professional journalism may be missing the point. The most disruptive trend in the recent history of information technology--the free software movement--succeeded largely in the absence of anything resembling a conventional business model. Instead, it began by reformulating the basic notion of how software development is done, and the business models that subsequently emerged inherited the transformative efficiencies that came with free software’s movement-based approach. Media could evolve in much the same way.

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media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on Delicious, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global communications and business culture. You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on Delicious. We publish media file links as we discover them.

Please suggest links to include in the database, and please also send your comments on how to make this resource more useful for you.

more media file links for August 13, 2008:

The innovation imperative

KMWorld interviews innovation guru John Kao on the moral imperative to introduce the concept of innovation to all aspects of the US economy. Why? A focus on innovation puts all stakeholders on an equal footing--and thereby advances a more just, equitable, competitive, and prosperous society.

Managing Corporate Social Networks

Here’s the news you don’t want to hear, courtesy of Harvard Business Review: When left unmanaged, corporate social networks inhibit innovation, rather than enable it. Company executives shouldn’t expect informal, interdivisional networks to spontaneously produce innovations; they must consciously manage the structure of these networks to promote innovation at all its various stages.

Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?

Why has the mobile web taken off like wildfire in Japan, while in the US it’s still mostly found in Powerpoint presentations? Techcrunch identifies the key conditions that have resulted in 70 percent penetration in that market: Superior mobile web technology; great content; and a tech-savvy, demanding consumer base.

CondeNet Positions to Better Compete With Ad Networks

Feeling the hot breath of niche advertising networks like Glam Media close behind it, Conde Nast is unifying its CondeNet web holdings under a set of content-specific buys, according to Advertising Age.

Censorship: Yahoo, Microsoft, Google Agree on Code of Conduct

In the aftermath of civil liberties scandals that have tarnished their reputations in the global marketplace, ReadWriteWeb reports that the world’s three largest Internet content providers have agreed on a global code of conduct that focuses on three core components: adherence to the principles of freedom of expression and privacy; a set of common implementation guidelines; and a shared governance and accountability framework.

Green business: Scandinavia’s lateral thinkers

The Guardian dissects Sweden’s knockout success in creating a green economy with a double-digit growth rate. The keys: a consensus society that includes all stakeholders; and a commitment to profit.

media file 7.7.08: Social nets spawning a new era of global social enterprise

A Manifesto for the Next Industrial Revolution

Havas Director Umair Haque writes in his Edge Economy blog that the next wave of business innovation will come from tapping the power of social networks to organize the world's main social and economic functions and thereby produce global social change.

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media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on del.icio.us, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global communications and business culture. You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on del.icio.us. We publish media file links as we discover them.

Please suggest links to include in the database, and please also send your comments on how to make this resource more useful for you.

more media file links for July 7, 2008::

The next step in open innovation

The McKinsey Quarterly discusses "distributed co-creation": a development paradigm in which partners, suppliers, and customers are directly involved in creating new products and services, and share in the rewards of those efforts.

Collaborative Filtering: Lifeblood of The Social Web

ReadWriteWeb looks at how a philosophy pioneered by Amazon.com is shaping the social web. The "Wisdom of the Crowds" and the "Law of Large Numbers" are two core memes that make the social web decisively superior to any expert-driven media environment.

Creative Commons Launches Global Case Studies Project

Creative Commons announces the launch of the Case Studies Project, a global community wiki showcasing successful implementations of the organization's intellectual property licensing system by CC copyright holders worldwide.

Three Obstacles to a Truly Global Conversation

In MediaShift Idea Lab, Global Voices' David Sasaki reports on the Global Voices Summit, where over 200 media activists discussed the primary barriers to creating truly global online community. Top barrier: censorship.

Another "Chinese YouTube" Raises Monster Cash

Silicon Alley Insider reports on youku.com, a Chinese video sharing site that has raised more than $80 million in venture funds, mostly from US firms, and has somehow avoided the censorship death grip stifling other similar Chinese sites, such as 56.com.

In Iran, blogging web could get you killed

iafrica.com reports that a bill has been introduced into the Iranian parliament that extends the death penalty to the crime of "establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy," as reportedly stated in the bill's text.

Bored With Web 2.0? Demand Change

ReadWriteWeb says that the developer community can beat "web 2.0 ennui" by building applications that harness the power of the social web to bring about social change.

media file 6.23.08: Software firm teams with micro lender on breakthrough social marketing scheme

Software Company Ditches AdWords for... Kiva?

ReadWriteWeb reports that business software firm Jama Software has ditched its Google AdWords marketing plan in favor of a social marketing strategy that funnels cash to microenterprise lender kiva.org whenever someone downloads its product on a trial basis. Because kiva.org loans enjoy close to a 100% repayment rate, the campaign could reduce the firm's marketing expense to zero.

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media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on del.icio.us, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global communications and business culture. You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on del.icio.us. We publish media file links daily as we discover them.

Please suggest links to include in the database, and please also send your comments on how to make this resource more useful for you.

more media file links for June 23, 2008:

The Real Danger for AP

MediaFlect looks at the AP's defensive efforts to restrict fair use of its stories, and notes that the wire's real problem is that it hasn't leveraged its deep archive and content tagging methodologies into a dominant position on the social web.

Huffington Post To Take on Local Newspapers

ReadWriteWeb reports that Arianna Huffington says she is planning to launch a network of Huffington Post-branded local news aggregation sites for selected US metro areas, starting with Chicago.

Making Print Pubs a Vital Part of Web 2.0

MediaShift Idea Lab author Dan Pacheco discusses his experience at the Bakersfield Californian newspaper, which has developed a strategy to build niche social networks in combination with user-generated print publications.

Friendster’s growth in Asia could make it the top social network in the world, once again

VentureBeat reports that, while analysts have been focussed on the Facebook/MySpace battle for global market share, much-maligned Friendster has captured a global ethnic Asian audience that is large and growing larger every day.

Beijing Continues Search for Balance on Olympic Beam

The Wall Street Journal reports that international media outlets are locked in a stalemate with Chinese authorities over the extent of their ability to cover news within that country outside of the bounds of the summer Olympic games.

IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for Q1 2008

The IAB/PwC advertising report records $5.8 billion in ad spending in Q1 2008, an 18.2% increase over Q1 2007, but a slight decrease over the Q4 2007.

live blogging at NetSquared, Day 1

I am live blogging this week at the NetSquared conference in Santa Clara, May 27-28. NetSquared's tag line is "remixing the web for social change," and its mission is "to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations."

This year's conference is being attended by about 400 technologists and changemakers within nonprofit organizations and social enterprises. So far it has featured some amazing presentations, including one by Cesar Castro, research director for the Institute for the Future, entitled "Open Innovation in Civil Society." I will blog more about this in a few days.

A key aspect of this conference is something called the "NetSquared Mashup Challenge," where nonprofits compete with each other to create the most socially impactful aggregations. This year, 21 mashups have been selected for peer review at the event. According to the smart money, this year's mashup-to-beat is something called Social Actions, an aggregation of over 29 peer-to-peer social-change campaigns.

If you are living in Silicon Valley, and you are looking for a good cause to support, then check out NetSquared.

media file: may 27, 2008

media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on del.icio.us, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global communications and business culture.

You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on del.icio.us. We publish media file links daily as we discover them, and once per week in digest format.

Please suggest links to include in the database, and please also send your comments on how to make this resource more useful for you.

media file links for may 27, 2008:

It's Time To Rethink Copyright Law

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch reflects on the complicated issues behind the YouTube-Viacom copyright infringement lawsuit. YouTube--owned by Google--is clearly applying the Google success model to video, a strategy that could damage the market, but...

Internet Businesses Adopt Social Sigma

Analyst Mary E. Shacklett blogs on Internet Evolution about "Social Sigma"--an online quality assurance strategy pioneered by Forrester and others that methodically employs user feedback to shape product development and customer service.

Mass Mag Exodus Continues as Brands Follow Men Online

Advertising Age Digital reports that, as young men continue to abandon special-interest magazines in favor of online entertainment sites like Heavy, marketers are shifting their budgets forcefully into digital media.

Everywhere, JPG - magazines for the future

SF Gate reports on 8020 Publishing, a startup funded by CNET's Halsey Minor that marries traditional print publishing with user-generated content and online community--presenting a new business model for special-interest media.

New York Times API Coming

ReadWriteWeb reports that the NY Times is planning to open up its archive to third-party developers via an API that it plans to release this fall.

CNN, Newsweek editor starting international show

The AP reports that Fareed Zakaria is launching a weekly international news program on CNN that is geared toward a US audience, and designed to fill a "huge gaping hole in American television, which is 95 percent of the rest of the world," Zakaria says.

Facebook To Open Source Facebook Platform

TechCrunch reports that Facebook is planning to turn its developer platform into an open-source project, a "nearly inevitable response" to OpenSocial, an open-source platform backed by Google, MySpace, and Yahoo.

Chinese local review site Dianping: A lot more than a "Yelp for China"

VentureBeat reports on Dianping, a review site in China that offers features not found on Yelp or other US-based review sites. Dianping also takes advantage of the ability to buy top rank in organic search results from search engine Baidu.

Social Networks' Sway May Be Underestimated

The Washington Post reports on new research in medical sociology showing that traditional social networks--families, friends, co-workers--can have a profound impact on individuals' behavior, extending as far out as three degrees of separation.

media file: may 18-25, 2008

media file is a repository of links to articles and research reports that shed light on the intersection between open media and global tribes, two phenomena that together are giving birth to a new kind of business: "social enterprise 2.0."

Hosted on del.icio.us, this repository is meant to be a resource for media professionals, marketers, and others interested in the impact of open media and social networks on global communications and business culture.

You can search the media file database from this blog or directly on del.icio.us. We publish media file links daily as we discover them, and once per week in digest format.

Please suggest links to include in the database, and please also send your comments on how to make this resource more useful for you.

media file links for the week of may 18-25, 2008:

The Importance Of A Competitive Search Market

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch warns that long-term domination of the search engine market by Google would likely put the health of the entire Internet ecosystem at risk.

Electronic Arts buys Hands-On Mobile Korea

VentureBeat reports that Electronic Arts has purchased mobile gaming company Hands-On Korea for an undisclosed sum, furthering its global push into the mobile gaming market.

Online video co. Brightcove expands into Japanese market

VentureBeat reports that the online video platform company Brightcove has launched a Japanese subsidiary.

What Does Popular Culture Have to Do With Civic Media?

Henry Jenkins, the author of Convergence Culture, reflects on the differences and similarities between ideologically motivated online communities and those brought together through a shared interest in some aspect of popular culture.

Greendex: Survey of Sustainable Consumption

National Geographic announces the results of its global tracking study of sustainable consumer behavior among 14,000 individuals in 14 countries in both the developing and developed worlds. US consumers ranked last in the study.

Consumers Want Brands To Solve Climate Crisis

LOHAS Weekly reports on a Havas Media study that shows consumers expect global brands to take responsibility for solving the climate crisis, and by a large margin would rather buy from companies that are taking credible action in this area.

Flock More Than Doubles Its Funding

TechCrunch reports that Flock, the so-called "social browser" based on the Mozilla open-source platform, has raised $15 million in venture funding, bringing its total institutional investment to about $28 million.

VC investment in China increases by 46 percent

VentureBeat analyzes a Dow Jones VentureSource report on the growth in VC investment in China in Q1 2008. Growth is being led by deals in the media and advertising space.

News unfiltered: YouTube embraces citizen journalism

Ars Technica reports that Google property YouTube has launched Citizen News, a channel devoted to video content from citizen journalists from around the world.

Statistics on Google's OpenSocial platform end users and Facebook users

Results of a recent Rapleaf study that shows that Facebook and other social networks are used disproportionately by women vs. men.

The Social Media Gender Gap

Rapleaf CEO Auren Hoffman analyzes the results of a study his firm conducted that shows that Facebook and other social networks are used disproportionately by women vs. men.

Current TV: Ad Revenue Drops At Al Gore's Network; Losses Widen En Route To IPO

PaidContent reports that Current TV suffered a decline in ad revenues in Q1 2008 over the prior-year quarter, and more than doubled its operating loss.

YouTube Launches Site for India

PC World reports on Google's launch of a localized version of YouTube in India.

Sulekha merges Facebook and Craigslist in India

VentureBeat reports on a social network that reaches 6 million people of Indian descent around the globe, making it India's largest social web play.

Facebook's New Friends Abroad

BusinessWeek reports on Facebook's international expansion. The social network is foregoing a conventional localization strategy in favor of an approach that globalizes the site in multiple languages.

When Tech Innovation Has a Social Mission

John Markoff of the NY Times covers the phenomenon that < rm > calls "social enterprise 2.0": a new kind of organization that merges the social purpose of a traditional non-profit with the business model of a for-profit web enterprise.

A digital dodge for piracy

Variety reports on a speech given by News Corporation president Peter Chernin. He emphasized that media companies should be spending their time developing new business models, rather than protecting the old.

Local News Site Outside.in Gets $3 Million, New CEO

Silicon Alley Insider reports that hyperlocal news site, aka "place-based blogging site," outside.in has raised a new venture round and is launching a new set of tools and features geared toward local bloggers and publishers.

Blogs: Raking In Ad Dollars. Sort Of, Maybe, We Think

Silicon Alley Insider analyzes a recent eMarketer forecast that blog advertising will grow by 30% next year to $531 million.

New News Corp ad network to court financial sites

Reuters reports that News Corporation plans to launch an international online advertising network serving about 30 online financial publishers.

Why old media is running scared of Google

CNET quotes Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster saying that Google has forced traditional media companies to realize that they must act immediately or lose relevance on the Internet.

Why Facebook Is Even Bigger than You Think

Fast Company interviews Stanford professor BJ Fogg on his theory that Facebook is ushering in a new era of "mass interpersonal persuasion," which will rewrite the rules of marketing as we currently know them.

Google's Search Share Rises To 67.9% In April

InformationWeek reports that Google earned 67.9% of the US search engine market in April 2008--an increase over both the prior month and prior year--while competitors Yahoo and Microsoft experienced declines to 20.3% and 6.3%, respectively.

AOL seeks growth in shift from mass site to niches

The AP reports that AOL is shifting its programming strategy away from a few broad, mass-reach offerings to multiple niche content sites. So far, the strategy is paying off in growth in page views and unique visitors, but not in ad dollars.

Hit Pause On The Evil Button: Google Assists In Arrest Of Indian Man

TechCrunch reports that a 22-year-old Indian professional was arrested for making a post on Google-owned Orkut that allegedly disparaged politician Sonia Gandhi. Google assisted Indian authorities in tracing the post to him.