TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Facebook Facts from Facebook.com as of August 2011:

These are Facebook facts as described by the company in August of 2011 – if you read this post later than that it’s likely most of these numbers have *increased*.       Very notable in my view is the huge number of “active users”, the huge collective time they spend online, and the fact that mobile users are twice as active as non-mobile, though this last point does not necessarily mean that use will increase as far more people flow into mobile use – rather it may simply indicate that early adopters in mobile are more active users and thus mobile use will trend along the lines of regular use as more mainstreamers start accessing Facebook on mobile devices.

Facebook  Facts:

More than 750 million active users

50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

Average user has 130 friends

People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Social Media Activity on Facebook

There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month

More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.

Facebook’s Global Reach
More than 70 translations available on the site
About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application

Facebook’s Social Media Platform
Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites

Facebook’s Mobile Exposure
There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

Data from Wikipedia’s entry on “Domain Name Speculation”

* The number of registrations of .com domain names grew from 23,662,001  in  January 2003 to 80,759,835  in January 2009.

Wiki goes on to note that a quirk in the registration rules led to a surge in the practice of “Domaintasting” where a huge bulk order of domain names would be registered for a short time.   Only the names that created click revenue from pay per click ads would be kept.    This led to new domain hosting companies set up simply to filter for marginally valuable names that could be set up to get click revenue, and then to a new rule in June 2008 from ICANN, the body that oversees domain registrations.  ICANN started to limit the number of domains that a registrar could delete in the ICANN “grace period” where no fees were charged.   These grace period deletions fell by 99.7% the following year as the practice of “domain tasting” became less profitable.

Verisign Domain Brief in June 2009 identified  92 million COM and NET domain names, 24 percent with one page websites, 64% have multipage websites and 12% have no associated websites.

These last numbers suggest to me that the speculation is not as rampant as most seem to think – ie most sites are multiple page implying content and not speculation.    Of course systems like the one I’m testing now at Godaddy that auto-generate several pages of content make it even harder to distinguish between  sites that are driven speculatively vs those that are driven more by a passion to communicate or quality initiatives.       As the quality, sharable content online increases and systems become smarter I think we may see that it will be impossible to distinguish between sites created by humans and those made automatically.

Reuters is referencing a new report suggesting that social media surfing is costing UK business billions in wasted productivity as workers play on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites rather than … get work done.

Although the initial reaction will likely be to crack down on office time surfing, this may represent an opportunity for clever brands to create considerable buzz if they could channel worker activity a bit more constructively.     For example Google’s ranking algorithms now appear to factor in social media elements such as blogs and Twitter, which often offer the freshest and highly relevant content for a given search query.    If hundreds of workers are tweeting on behalf of a brand – even if much of that also involved aimless socializing – the synergistic effects on ranking and “buzz” could be considerable.

Although we’re obviously not suggesting this is a viable strategy for most businesses, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to keep workers away from time wasting surfing as social media becomes pretty much ubiquitous – accessible via mobile, office computer, and other devices as well as integrated as a key part of most people’s lives.

Below is a quick summary of the most recent update from Yahoo regarding the Bing (Microsoft Search) / Yahoo advertising alliance, an attempt by both companies to stem the tide of Google’s search dominance.   Yahoo’s history of bad search decisions makes me a bit worried that they may try to compromise Bing’s (pretty good) search quality in favor of paid listings, further eroding the credibility gap between Google and Yahoo/Bing search.

Ironically Google search is probably more vulnerable than ever to the advent of a new, great search engine  thanks to Google’s current tendency to   1.  Elevate old and well SEOd (Search Optimized) websites above newer, better ones   2. Avoid proper policing big players like Ebay / Amazon who often appear high in paid and sometimes even organic rankings despite no/thin content about the query.  3. Maintain unreasonably high per click charges on many terms, effectively favoring the big money / big box  advertisers over small businesses.   4.  Not use enough social media feedback to help rank sites (they use some and I’d guess are slowly integrating this, but nobody has made the breakthrough that will come from clever “crowdsourcing” about websites.        5. THROUGH 10.      LACK OF TRANSPARENCY!       Google remains very opaque when it comes to website rankings, and Yahoo in their infinite lack of cleverness 3 years back missed a golden opportunity to come to the rescue of advertisers, webmasters, and most importantly users by creating a more level field with a lot more information about how rankings work combined with public identification of site owners, webmasters, and spammers/ abusers.    Creating this type of transparency would solve many of the problems that currently plague the search game, most importantly the problems that come from webmasters trying to please Google rather than create new, innovative sites.    Best single example is the fiasco of Google’s insistence on “Nofollow” links, which have seriously distorted the entire search landscape to favor cleverly optimized / costly sites over new mom and pop operations.

You see this often  in the travel space where large, thin sites outrank rich, local sites that are newer and don’t have the link base of the older sites.     With Google as pretty much the only search in town, new links will flow mostly as a function of  the rank of the website, so we have a circular system where the “rich get richer”.     [for the record this aspect of the algorith benefits me in the case of some of my very old websites, so this is not a "sour grapes" rant as much as a critique of the approach].

However I’m not holding my breath on Bing Yahoo taking up much of Google’s market share.    As we’ve noted before Google remains an excellent tool, and it took hold of people’s search consciousness at the time they were developing their online habits, so even a superior search would have trouble hurting Google’s dominance, and to Google’s credit I think they continue to approach things more from a quality side than a revenue one.

From Yahoo:

Assuming our testing continues to yield high quality results, we anticipate that our organic search results will be powered by Bing beginning in the August/September [2010] timeframe.

This appears to be a good sign that they will not compromise organic quality in favor of elevating paid listings, a move that would probably lead to significant loss of their current (low) market share.

From Yahoo:

Compare your organic search rankings on Yahoo! Search and Bing for the keywords that drive your business, to help determine any potential impact to your traffic and sales.
	Decide if you’d like to modify your paid search campaigns to compensate for any changes in organic referrals that you anticipate
•	Review the Bing webmaster tools and optimize your website for the Bing crawler, as Bing results will be displayed for approximately 30%* of overall search query market share after this change

This on the other hand seems a little more alarming, suggesting that people may want to pony up to maintain their ranks after the Bing transition.      Over the coming weeks there will be a lot of Bing quality testing by other SEO centric websites and we’ll try to summarize that in a later post.      We’ll also be blogging the upcoming SES San Francisco (Formerly SES San Jose) search conference – the most influential search gathering  in the world, and have more on the Bing Yahoo changes.

———–  Full Text of Yahoo’s Note ———-

Dear Advertiser,

As we continue to work closely with Microsoft to implement our search alliance, we wanted to provide you with an update on our progress, as well as call out some important, upcoming milestones to help ensure you are prepared for the changes to come.

Transition with Quality
Our goal remains providing a quality transition experience for advertisers in the U.S. and Canada in 2010, while protecting the holiday season. We’ve continued to make good progress against this goal, and we regularly evaluate our progress. However, please remember that, as we continue to go through our series of checkpoints, if we conclude that it would improve the overall experience, we may choose to defer the transition to 2011.

Organic Search Transition
To date, we’ve focused most of our communications to you on the paid search transition to adCenter. However, another key aspect of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is the transition of Yahoo! organic search results (those found on the main body of the page). Assuming our testing continues to yield high quality results, we anticipate that our organic search results will be powered by Bing beginning in the August/September timeframe.

If organic search results are an important source of referrals to your website, you’ll want to make sure that you’re prepared for this change:

•	Compare your organic search rankings on Yahoo! Search and Bing for the keywords that drive your business, to help determine any potential impact to your traffic and sales
•	Decide if you’d like to modify your paid search campaigns to compensate for any changes in organic referrals that you anticipate
•	Review the Bing webmaster tools and optimize your website for the Bing crawler, as Bing results will be displayed for approximately 30%* of overall search query market share after this change

For more specifics on the organic search transition, please refer to the Self-service Advertiser FAQs on the Yahoo! Transition Center.

Organic and Paid Search Testing
To help us deliver on our goal of transition with quality, we are conducting the necessary tests to ensure that all of the many complex, logistical pieces are in place. While there’s nothing you need to do to prepare for testing, please keep in mind the following:

•	Though much of our testing is already happening offline, this month we’ll also test the delivery of organic and paid search results provided by Microsoft on live Yahoo! traffic
•	Testing volumes will fluctuate during this period, with paid search volume in particular kept low enough to help minimize any potential impact to your account

Editorial Guidelines
Yahoo! and Microsoft have created joint editorial guidelines that will begin taking effect for both Yahoo! and Microsoft paid search advertisers in early August. We encourage you to review these now, so that you understand any potential impact to your ads or keywords. Notable changes include new guidelines for gambling and contests, and disallowed content. For a detailed overview of the editorial policy changes that will soon take effect, please read the New Editorial Guidelines article.

We are committed to making this transition as seamless and beneficial for you as possible. We appreciate your business, and look forward to bringing you the benefits of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance.

Sincerely,
Your Partners at Yahoo!

Disclaimer:   Joe has Yahoo Stock.   Not that he’s happy about that fact.  Nope, not happy at all.

Wired has an interesting  article noting how Microsoft “crowdsourced” some of the development of Office 2010.     Although I’m a user of Google Documents and not a fan of the MS Office Suites, feeling they are too big, clunky and overengineered for 99% of the tasks most people need, clearly I’m in the minority because, as Wired notes in the article, only 4% of online users “regularly use” Google Docs where 67% say they use MS Office products.     I think familiarity is a key issue here, and it will take more than a decade for the MS dominance to give way to the online suite tools that probably need another few generations of improvements and visibility to come into widespread use.

Of the 2 million Send a Smile comments, 81,000 included the senders’ e-mail addresses so the engineers working to improve Office could follow up with them.

To their credit Microsoft created a way for beta testers to give feedback and follow up, and hopefully this innovation will result in a product that is superior.    In my view Crowdsourcing is arguably the most powerful aspect of social media, but the science of using it effectively is still in its infancy and we’ll need very clever routines to make sense of human input – much of which is counterproductive, nonsensical, or simply worthless.     For the Office Suite project Microsoft developed relevancy algorithms to process the millions of comments, and it would be interesting to hear more about the approaches that went into the evolution of that  process.
Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/microsoft-office-2010/#ixzz0sMYfsPaw

(Thanks to Ken Kaplan at Intel for noting this WIRED story)

Google labs is testing a very interesting new feature within the Google search results which lists and ranks content from people that have connections to your own social networks, websites, blogs, etc.   It’s called Google Social Circle and I think this approach has a lot of potential.

Google labs writes:

We’ve taken steps to improve the relevance of our search results with personalization, but today’s launch takes that one step further. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results. When I do a simple query for [new york], Google Social Search includes my friend’s blog on the results page …

Filtering the massive oceans of content is what Google has been doing so effectively for some time, but the social media explosion has created a new kind of relevance Google’s basic ranking system has not been taking into account.    The content of trusted friends and associates is often going to be more relevant to us than that of, say, internet marketeers in a foreign country.     If, for example, my pal has travelled to Morrocco I’m going to trust his stuff – and probably be more interested in it – than information from strangers.    Google Social Circle will incorporate that relevance into the search results, and I think by doing this they may succeed where Facebook and Twitter have pretty dramatically failed.    Facebook’s search system and layout – in my experience – makes it very hard to search for information.  It can even be difficult to find a person you know, let alone find content they have created that is relevant to your search.    Twitter lists are something of a step in the right direction of targeting for relevant information, but Twitter search is severely lacking and I don’t even know if they they are particularly interested in providing the kind of contextual content mapping Google is testing with Social Circle.

Another interesting – some would say sinister – aspect of this approach by Google is to create internet environments filled with “trusted online information sources” that have been endorsed by different networks of friends.    Clever use of the data flowing in will allow Google to better screen sites based on human input, which is much harder to spoof than manipulations commonly done as part of aggressive “Search Engine Optimization” tactics.

The Social Circle reminds me of an advanced version of “del.icio.us”, a tagging and bookmarking service aquired (and largely abandoned?) by Yahoo a few years ago.  Delicious allowed users to tag and label sites and content, creating link lists of things relevant to them and giving them the ability to share these links with others.    By automating that process and using their brilliant search algorithm to slice and dice individual information, Google has pushed us one step closer to the holy grail of search – a system that shows us exactly what we want/need to see even if we cannot clearly state exactly what we want or need.

The DARPA Red Balloon project launched 10 weather balloons across the USA this morning in a well publicized effort to gauge the power of social media in completing the task of finding all balloons and reporting their lat and long coordinates back to DARPA.   The first person or team to do that wins  $40,000

Many teams have sprung up across the country and are acting competitively – I think probably because of the large payout – making the project very different from a simple test of crowdsourcing where the social media “universe” might work together for the fun of the game, reporting the coordinates publicly.     As of 2:40 PM EST we have no winner and I can’t even find a single online reference to a lat long location of a balloon.

Secretiveness appears to be trumping the social media crowdsourcing here, so I’m not sure DARPA is measuring things as advertised – though maybe they also wanted to look at the deception / competition angle.

More from my post at JoeDuck.com:

DARPA – the advanced technology research wing of the US Military – is always coming up with the most fun research and today’s Red Balloon social media experiment is no exception to that rule.

Ten huge red weather balloons were launched this morning at 10am EST and DARPA will pay 40,000 to the first team or person that can identify all the balloons by number and latitude / longitude.

Now, in my view as a social media expert (aka a web surfer), DARPA’s payout of 40,000 is distorting the experiment in a confusing way, encouraging secretiveness and deception rather than cooperation.    That may be intentional, but I think they wanted people to “really try” and wrongly felt this was the best way to do it.    All of the serious efforts I’ve seen so far are actually  *discouraging* people from using the power of social media to find the balloons, instead asking them to email or phone in sightings and then in some cases share in the proceeds, in other cases promising to give them to charity.

DARPA should consider repeating this experiment as a TWITTER crowdsource where there is NO money offered and each report is posted at Twitter where the crowd can sort the fakes from the real data.    I think that task would likely only take minutes rather than the hours the current project appears to need to get a complete result from the secretive teams.

Here are more stories  about the DARPA Red Balloons:

Wall Street Journal: Spot 10 Balloons, Win $40,000

Gizmodo:  DARPA’s Giant Red Balloons Officially at Large

Technology headlines from Reuters:

There’s something in the air: augmented reality

Comcast lands NBC in deal that reshapes media

Teen Internet addicts more likely to self harm: study

GM sees the driving future: it’s a video game

Friendster to be sold by month’s end: source

Yahoo sees exponential growth in mobile ads

University turns iPhones into musical instruments

Google CEO says not to blame for news media woes

Nokia says halving smartphone offering

Google sees growth in online video ads

Click here for Technology Headlines from TechMeme

Social Media Balloon Experiment! From the defense Department !?

Note: Technology Report’s daily Pre-CES coverage will begin next week !   We’ll also have our “First Timer’s Guide to CES” online soon.

The Digital Hollywood sessions at CES 2010 showcase experts and issues at the intersection of technology, entertainment, and advertising. Here, from the Digital Hollywood website, are session summaries for these CES 2010 Digital Hollywood events:

Wednesday, January 6th
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Track I – RA1 – Reinventing Advertising
Hypertargeting: Ad Networks, Ad Serving and Ad Targeting
Heather Hopkins, SVP and General Manager, MTVN Tribes
Bruce Falck, Head of Google Content Network, Google
Colleen Quinn, Global Program Director, Interactive Advertising and Media & Entertainment, Industry Solutions, Teradata
Scott Ferris, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Emerging Media, Microsoft Advertiser & Publisher Solutions
Jeffrey Hochberg, Vice President of Sales, AOL’s Audience Targeting, AOL
Rick Bolander, Managing Partner, Gabriel Venture Partners, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – GP1 – Game Power
Innovation in Games, Game Networks and Social Gaming – Massive User Communities and Commerce
Don L. Daglow, President and CEO, Stormfront Studios Inc.
Ian Ali, National Sales Director, Microsoft Gaming and Advertising
Jordan Weisman, CEO and co-founder, Smith & Tinker
Jason Cieslak, Managing Director, Interactive Media, Siegel+Gale
Matt Story, Director, Play, a division of Denuo
Monty Sharma, VP Product Development and co-founder, Vivox
Rajat Paharia, Founder and Chief Product Officer, Bunchball
Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME1 – Mobile Entertainment
The Smartphone Platform: Establishing the Personalized Video, Music, and Communications Experience
Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora
Alex Bloom, CEO, Handango
Alex Barkaloff, Executive Producer, Digital Media, LIONSGATE
Stephen White, Vice President, Product and Content Management, Gracenote
Motorola, speaker to be announced
Steve Bradbury, VP, Content Strategy & Business Affairs, GoTV Networks, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Track I – RA2 – Reinventing Advertising
Advertising NEXT: Social Networks, TV & Video, Broadband, Mobile and Game
James Cooper, Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi NY
Tim Harris, Senior Vice President, Play, a Denuo Group Company
Anthony Di Biase, Executive Creative Director, Wunderman Southern California
Louisa Shipnuck, Global Business Development Executive, IBM Media and Entertainment
Greg Coleman, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Huffington Post
Simon Kelly, Chief Operating Officer, Story Worldwide
Tim Chang, Principal, Norwest Venture Partners, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II- GP2 – Game Power
Game Power: Entertainment and Branding as Franchise – As Games Integrate into the Movie, Music, TV, Mobile, Advertainment & Custom Branded Experience
Tony Calandra, Chief Marketing Officer, MTV Games
Chad Stoller, EVP Digital Strategy, BBDO North America
Lars Buttler, founder & CEO, Trion World Network, Inc.
Matthew Ringel, SVP, Strategic Alliances, Live Nation, Moderator
Speakers to be announced
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME2 – Mobile Entertainment
The Smartphone – Platform Strategies: Apps – Entertainment, News, Music, Games, Location-Based, Communication and Community
Ravi Belwal, Senior Project Consultant, Forum Nokia
Steve Ronson, EVP, Enterprises, International, Digital Media, Consumer Products, AETN
Jeffrey Litvack, GM of Mobile and Emerging Products, Associated Press
Chris Tolles, CEO, Topix
Brandon Lucas, Vice-President and General Manager, Mobile, Black Entertainment Television
Adil Lalani, Co-Founder & CTO, TwitVid.com
Jim Black, Technical Consultant, Maendeleo Ventures, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Track I- RA3 – Reinventing Advertising
Advertising Accountability: Metrics and Analytics around Video, Social Media, P2P and User Generated Media
Susan Chiu, Director, Business Intelligence Center, Ingram Micro
Bill Stephenson, VP Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen Online
Greg Kahn, SVP, Director of Strategic Resources, Optimedia
Chance Parker, Vice President and General Manager, J.D. Power and Associates
Aseem Chandra, Senior VP of Product Marketing, Omniture
Tania Yuki, Director, Product Management, comScore, Inc.
John Hoctor, VP Business Development, Navic Networks
Mark Ghuneim, CEO, Wiredset, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II- GP3 – Game Power
Virtual Worlds, Virtual Economies, Virtual Goods and Services and Virtual Gaming
Andrew Schneider, Co-Founder & President, Live Gamer
David Laux, Global Executive, Games & Interactive Entertainment, IBM
Cary Rosenzweig, president and CEO, IMVU
Michael Pole, co-Founder and CEO, Trilogy Studios,
Mark Hansen, Director of Business Development, LEGO Group & Project Lead, LEGO Universe
Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online
Cindy Cook, former Chief Marketing Officer Vivendi Games, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME3 – Mobile Entertainment
Mobile & Broadband Music: New Platforms + New Technology + More Music + Dynamic Marketplace
Brad Duea, President, Napster
Rob Lewis, CEO, Omnifone
Kevin Arnold, Founder, IODA
Michael Dougherty, CEO, Jelli
Daniel Harris, Chairman & CEO, MediaPass, Moderator
Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic llc, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Track I- RA4 – Reinventing Advertising
Contextual Media & Advertising: Transforming and Redefining the Relationship Between the Consumer, Advertising and Media Platforms
Jay L. Sampson, Vice President, Global Sales, Microsoft Corporation
Richard de Silva, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners
Carolyn Everson, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, MTV Networks
Jessica Schell, SVP, Digital Strategy and Business Development, NBC Universal
Leo Burnett, speaker to be announced
Doug Scott, President, OgilvyEntertainment, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II- GP4 – Game Power
Mobile Gaming Experience – the Next Generation in Games, Devices and the Coming High Speed Delivery of Content
Randy Stude, President, PC Gaming Alliance, Director, Gaming Program Office, Intel Corp.
Sean Alexander, Director of Silverlight Media, Microsoft
Jason Oberfest, Senior Vice President of Social Applications, ngmoco
Keith Lee, CEO & Co-Founder, Booyah
Hany Nada, Managing partner, GGV Capital
Russell G. Weiss, Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME4 – Mobile Entertainment
Video on the Smartphone – Entertainment & Information Programming Jumpstarts the Revolution
Doug Craig, Senior Vice President, Digital and Home Entertainment, Discovery Communications
Yacine Mahfoufi, Multimedia Strategic Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent
Madeline Herdrich, Vice President of Mobile, North America, Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment Group
Anthony Bontrager, President, 1Cast
L.M. Kit Carson, Filmmaker/Journalist, AFRICA DIARY
Frank Chindamo, President & Chief Creative Officer, Fun Little Movies, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Track I – RA5 – Reinventing Advertising
Advertising Strategy, Expenditure and Analysis: Broadcast and Cable vs. the New Platforms: Broadband, Social Networks, Mobile, VOD & PVR
Warren Schlichting, SVP, Corporate Development Canoe Ventures
Tara Maitra, VP & GM of Content Services & Ad Sales, TiVo Inc.
Eric Bader, Managing Partner, BrandinHand, Inc.
Brandon G Berger, Vice President, Digital Innovation, MDC Partners
Barry Frey, SVP, Advanced Platforms, Cablevision
Terry S. Bienstock, CEO, Mobilactive Media, LLC., former EVP & General Counsel, Comcast Cable, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – GP5 – Game Power
Casual Gaming – The Next Great Platform in Gaming – Console, Broadband and Mobile
Liz Huszarik, SVP, Warner Bros. Media Research, Warner Bros.
Stephen Baer, Managing Partner, The Game Agency
Gui Karyo, EVP of Operations, Majesco
David McCaman, Senior Director of Marketing, Hands-On Mobile
Alok Kerjewal, founder and CEO, Games2Win
Brian Balfour, Founder and VP Product Marketing, Viximo
Sangita Verma, CEO, TAG Networks
David Getson, ceo, g-NET, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME5 – Mobile Entertainment
iPhone Apps – Change Agents – App Breakthroughs, Video, Games, Mobile Engagement and Advertising
John Zehr, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ESPN Mobile
Ian Lynch Smith, president and co-founder, Freeverse
Walker Fenton, GM, Media & Consumer division, NewsGator
Steve Polsky, President & COO, Flixster
Darren Cross, Director of Business Development, Fandango
Craig Wigginton, Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Thursday, January 7th
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Track I – RA6 – Reinventing Advertising
Video Advertising: How New Consumer Habits Are Driving the Advertising Community to Innovate, and the Challenges with Scale
Debbie Solomon, Managing Director, Business Planning, Mindshare
Marc Ruxin, Executive VP, Chief Innovation Officer, McCann Worldgroup
Tim Hanlon, Managing Director, Riverview Lane Associates
Jason Witt, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Digital Fusion, MTV Networks
Mark Marvel, Sr. Director, Video Monetization, msnbc.com
Tod M. Sacerdoti, CEO & Founder, BrightRoll, Inc.
Rovi, speaker to be announced
Steve Robinson, President & Founder, Panache, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH1 – Digital Hollywood and CC1 – The Cable Conference at CES
The Television Ecosystem: Programming, Pay-Services, Advertising and Multi-Platform Distribution – Revenue and Strategies
Tracey Scheppach, Senior Vice President/Video Innovation Director, Starcom USA
Roy Bank, President, Television, Merv Griffin Entertainment
Bryan Perez, General Manager and Senior Vice President, NBA Digital
Bruce Eisen, Vice President, Online Content Development & Strategy, DISH Network
Scott Brown, SVP Media Strategy & Digital Platforms, The Nielsen Company
Shahid Khan, Senior Partner, Interactive Broadband Consulting, LLC, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME6 – Mobile Entertainment Track
Inventing the Smartphone Culture – Mobile Device and Mobile Network – Integrating the Full PC Experience into a Personal Communications Device
Anthony Borquez, Senior Vice President for Online and Mobile Business Development, Konami Digital Entertainment
Courtney Jane Acuff, Vice President, Director, denuo (a Publicis Groupe Company)
Nash Parker, Director, Emerging Technology & Media, Alcatel-Lucent
Albert B. Chu, Vice President, Marketing & Alliances, ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc.
Cameron Friedlander, VP, Director of Creative technology, Designkitchen
Dr. Andrew Hsu, Technology Strategist, Synaptics
Phil Asmundson, Vice Chairman and U.S. TMT Leader, Deloitte LLP, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Noon – 1:00 PM
Track I – RA7 – Reinventing Advertising
Advertising Strategies in the Diversified Digital Culture: Broadband, Cable, Satellite, Games, Mobile and Social Networks
Rhys McLachlan, Head of Broadcast Implementation, TV, MediaCom
Mark J. Penn, President of Penn, Schoen and Berland and Worldwide President & CEO, Burson-Marsteller
Michael McLaren, President, McCann Erickson
Eric Hirshberg, President, Chief Creative Officer, Deutsch Los Angeles
Elizabeth Blair, CEO, Brand.Net
Randy Wooton, General Manager, Microsoft Advertising
Michael Kassan, Chairman & CEO, Media Link LLC, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH2 – Digital Hollywood and CC2 – The Cable Conference at CES
Video Anytime Anywhere: Video Across Platforms – Television, Internet and Mobile – Understanding the Value Proposition
John Watson, Executive Director of Business Development, AT&T Digital Media Solutions
Roger Keating, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, Hearst Television Inc.
Michael Alexander, Strategy & Growth Initiatives, IBM Global Telecommunications Industry
Josette Bonte, Chief Digital Media Strategist, Cisco IBSG
Rebecca Glashow, Senior Vice President, Digital Distribution, Discovery Communications
Adam Powers, Chair of Ecosystem Committee DLNA and Director of Standards and Emerging Technology, Rovi Corporation
Harshul Sanghi, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME7 – Mobile Entertainment Track
Social Apps and Mini-Apps as the Next Platform: Advertising and Commerce in Mobile, Social Media & Broadband
John Shapiro, Product Manager, Adobe Wave
RO CHOY, Chief Revenue Officer, RockYou
Jennifer Cooper, Founder and Principle, Rocketfuel Media
Guy Vidra, Head of Business Development & Emerging, Washington Post Media
Shaukat Shamim, CEO & Co-Founder, Permuto
Sun Jen Yung, Managing Director, Nightwood Capital, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Track I – RA8 – Reinventing Advertising
The Future of Enhanced Advertising: Addressing Brands, Message, Technology, Media and Entertainment
Ari Bluman, President, North American Sales and Oerations, Real Media
Matti Leshem, CEO, Protagonist
Mike Siegenthaler, Director, Branded Entertainment, Microsoft Advertising
Davang Shah, Head of Marketing – Automotive, Finance, Entertainment, and Travel, Google
Jason Forbes, Senior Vice President, Strategy, New Products & Marketing, Time Warner Cable Media Sales
Gary McGuire, Chief Executive Officer, RMG Networks
Xavier Kochhar, Managing Partner, Media Link, LLC, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH3 – Digital Hollywood and CC3 – The Cable Conference at CES
Hollywood and the Digital Consumer: How Technology, Content and Services Establish the Next Level of Consumer Entertainment Experience
John Honeycutt, Chief Media Technology Officer, Discovery Communications
Ryan O’Hara, President of TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com
Lewis Henderson, CEO, Davie Brown Entertainment
Richard Cooperstein, Head, International Business Development & Strategy, Facebook
Gabriel Marano, Vice President, Programming, Fox Television Studios (15 Gigs)
Ira Rubenstein, Executive Vice President, Global Digital Media Group, Marvel Entertainment, Inc., Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME8 – Mobile Entertainment Track
Mobile as Lifestyle: The Communicator, the Entertainer, the Social Experiential Network and Device
Kai Buehler, General Manager, MindMatics
Brandon Starkoff, Senior Vice President/Director, Starcom Worldwide
Cheryl Lucanegro, Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales, Pandora
Paolo Pastorino, Business Development and Marketing Manager, Loquendo
Vladimir Edelman, Chief Marketing Officer, iconmobile
Lucy Hood, Executive Director, Institute for Communications, Technology Management, USC Marshall School of Business, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Track I – RA9 – Reinventing Advertising
HyperTargeting & HyperSelecting: Advertising, Search, Content and Aggregation
Kelly Dempski, Director of Research, Accenture Technology Labs
Jen Soch, Vice President, Activation Director Advanced TV, MediaVest
Benjamin Chen, Chairman/CEO, Mochila
Richard Jalichandra, CEO, Technorati
Mike Baker, CEO/president, DataXu
Andrew Cherwenka, Vice President, Business Development, Trapeze
James Colborn, Director, Microsoft Advertising
Peg Jackson, Managing Director, NeoCarta, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH4 – Digital Hollywood and CC4
The Flat Panel-Television Platform: HD, Downloads, Interactivity, Widgets – New Relationships, New Technology
Nick Colsey, Product Planning & New Business Development, Sony Electronics Inc.
OpenTV, speaker to be announced
Jeff Allen, Founder and CEO, RallyPoint, Moderator
Additional speakers to be announced
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track III – ME9 – Mobile Entertainment Track
Mobile Commerce and Content – The Mobile Web, Texting, Search and Advertising Options
Ali Rana, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Dynamic Logic
Jamie Wells, Director, Global Trade Marketing, Microsoft Mobile Advertising
David Vigil, Senior Vice President, Firethorn, a Qualcomm Company
Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Americas and Asia Pacific, mBlox
Bruce Stewart, CEO, Digital and Mobile Services, kgb
Pooj Preena, CEO, Groupe Hi-Media USA
David Berkowitz, Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation for 360i, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Friday, January 8th
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Track I – DH5 and CC5
The NexGen Entertainment Home Experience – From the Smart & Connected TV to the PVR, Set-Top & PC Experience
Timothy D. Twerdahl, Vice President, Consumer Products, Roku, Inc.
Mark Kroese, General Manager, Marketing and Advertising Strategy, Microsoft
Stephen Palm, DLNA Board of Directors and Technical Director, Broadcom Corporation
Rovi, speaker to be announced
Motorola, speaker to be announced
OpenTV, speaker to be announced
Rick Doherty, co-founder and Director, The Envisioneering Group, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH6
Venture Funding, Investment & Mergers – Leadership in the Entertainment & Technology Space: Broadband, Social Networks, Mobile and Games
Todd Chaffee, General Partner of Institutional Venture partners (IVP)
Ross Levinsohn, Founding Partner, Fuse Capital
Len Rand, Managing Director, Granite Ventures
David Siemer, founder, Siemer & Associates, Inc.
Mark Jensen, Managing Partner, National Venture Capital Services, Group, Deloitte Services LP
John Balen, General Partner, Canaan Partners
Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Noon – 1:00 PM
Track I – DH7 and CC6
Television and Video as an Interactive Content Experience – New Technologies, New Advertising – As Broadband, PVR and ITV Evolve
Sean Bunner, Operating Vice President, Advanced Services, HSN
Lisa Hsia, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, Bravo
Edgar Villalpando, SVP Marketing, ActiveVideo
Jaspal Bhasin, Chief Operating Officer, itaas, Inc.
Eric Gould Bear, Inventor of Telescopic Video & CEO, MONKEYmedia, Inc.
Cisco, speaker to be announced
Jeffrey Binder, General Partner, Genovation Capital, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH8 and CC7
Ubiquitous Video to the Consumer: The Technology & Content Enablers – Broadband, IPTV, Mobile & TV
Katrice N. Jones, Vice President, Digital Media and Creative Services, TV One
Derek Kuhn, Vice President, Emerging Technology and Media, Alcatel-Lucent
Shalini Govil-Pai, Lead Product Manager, Youtube/Google
Cisco, speaker to be announced
Jonathan Barzilay, Senior Vice President, Programming & Advertising, FLO TV
Stephen Condon, Director Market Development, Digital Media Solutions, AT&T
Nicholas Butterworth, CEO, HD Cloud
Arlene Zeichner, Principal, Selavy Associates, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Track I – DH9 and CC8
Bridging TV and Broadband: Strategic Relationships – Advertising, Technology & Content
Mitch Berman, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, ZillionTV
Mark McKinnon, Co-Chair, Arts+Labs
Damon Phillips, Vice President, ESPN360.com, ESPN
Alex Limberis, Chief Operating Officer, Syabas Technology
Bryan Biniak, CEO, Jacked
Rick Song, Senior Director, Eastern US Sales, Microsoft Advertising
Ben Mendelson, co-founder and president, Interactive Television Alliance, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH10
Hollywood and Media Reinvented – Traditional Media Transformed! HD Video, Internet Video, Broadband, Mobile & Games
Tom Meyer, President, Davie Brown Entertainment
Richard Sussman, Director, Media & Entertainment, Nielsen Online
Jason Rubinstein, GM/VP Digital Media, redbox
Scott Bushman, Vice President, Content & Business Development, Metacafe
Perry Wu, CEO & Founder, BitGravity
Yahav Isak, Director of Interactive Production, JWT
Larry Gerbrandt, Principal, Media Valuation Partners, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Track I – DH11 and CC9
The Broadband Economy: Video, Communications, Personalization, Social Media, Content, Lifestyle and Advertising Ecosystem
Shoshana Loeb, PhD, Executive Director and Chief Scientist, Telcordia Technologies
Dean Carignan, Director, Advertising Business Strategy, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation
Steve West, Emerging Tehnology & Media, Alcatel-Lucent
Mark Yesayian, Managing Director, Digital West, MEC Interaction
Shawn Gold, CEO, Cocodot, former CMO, MySpace, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH12
Delivering Video Programming – Streaming and Live Broadband and Mobile: The Next Consumer Entertainment and Information Experience
Justin Kan, founder and President, Justin.tv
Dina Kaplan, co-founder, blip.tv
Marc Scarpa, CEO, SimplyNew
Vic Odryna, Co-Founder and CEO, ZeeVee
Rony Zarom, founder and CEO, Watchitoo
Uri Shinar, CEO, Aniboom
Mariana Danilovic, Managing Director, Hollywood Portfolio, LLC
Lauren Cole, President, Cole Media, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Saturday, January 9th
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Track I – DH13
Internet Video, Advertising & Marketing: The Next Generation of Consumer Reach
Chris Allen, Vice President/Director of Video Innovation, Starcom USA
Avi Savar, CEO, Big Fuel
Krish Menon, CTO, the newsmarket
Diaz Nesamoney, CEO, Jivox
David Burch, Director of Marketing, TubeMogul
Adam Boyden, President, Conduit
Heather Way, Research Analyst, Parks Associates, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH14
Content Rights and Technology Solutions in Media and Entertainment: From Standardization to Implementation of New Technology Strategies
Josh Kline, President & CEO of Secure Path
Steve Oetegenn, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Verimatrix
Rajan Samtani, Director, Business Development, Digimarc Corporation
Anthony Bay, CEO of MOD Systems
Show Rights, speaker to be announced
James M. Burger, Attorney at Law, Dow Lohnes, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Noon – 1:00 PM
Track I – DH15
Monetizing Digital Content – Innovative Ideas as Media, Entertainment and Technology Transform the Economy
Marty Roberts, Vice President of Marketing, thePlatform™
Stuart Rosove, Vice President, Media & Entertainment, Digimarc Corporation
Brian Lakamp, EVP Digital Media, Premiere Radio Networks
Jim Benz, Executive Director, CSG Systems
Matt Knopf, Vice President, Business Development, PLYmedia
David E. Leibowitz, Managing Partner, CH Potomac, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH16
Branded Media Marketing – Across Platforms – TV, Film, Broadband, Mobile, Virtual Worlds, Music and Games – Reinventing the Commerce & Media Model
Anne White, Vice President, Content Strategy & Development, Premier Retail Networks (PRN)
Lisa Marino, Vice President, Sales, RockYou
Darren Hardy, Publisher and Editorial Director, Success Magazine
Michael Moroney, Senior VP of Digital Media, TBA Global
Robert E. Quicksilver, Chief Content Officer, Tidal TV
Charlie Tercek, Creative Director, Serial, Ascent Media Group
Andy Meyers, President, M3 Television
Allison Dollar, CEO, ITV Alliance, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Track I – DH17
Inventing TV 2.0 – Broadband Enriches Channelized Content – Defining the Set Top Box, Streaming Media Adapter, Downloadable Consumer Experience
Ramon Cazares, VP Business Development, Cresta Technology
David Henry, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Consumer and Home Products, NETGEAR
Leslie Chard, President of WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) LLC
Peter Low, President and COO, Ensequence
Dan Marotta, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Broadband, Communications Group, Broadcom
Michele McGarry, Vice President of Business Development, ThinkAnalytics
BigBand Networks, Speaker to be announced
Jonathan Hurd, Director, Altman Vilandrie & Company, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH18
Content Delivery, Rich Media, IPTV and Internet TV Connectivity – Enabling the Connected Broadband and TV Universe
Rajan Raghavan, CEO & Co-founder, Vice President, Business Development, Ankeena Networks
John Bishop, SVP Business Development/Strategy, Inlet Technologies
Doug Junkins, Vice President of IP Development, Global IP Network, NTT America
Daniel S. Simpkins, Chairman and CEO, Hillcrest Labs
Katherine L. Parker, Internet, Media & Entertainment Industry Sales Global Business Development Manager, former, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Track I – DH19
Advertising Analytics and Social Media, Search, Video Search and HyperTargeting
Ian Swanson, co-founder and CEO, Sometrics
Ben Straley, CEO, Meteor Solutions
Jennifer Black, Vice President, Marketing, Local.com
Zvika Netter, CEO & co-founder, Innovid
Craig Danuloff, President & Founder, ClickEquations
Wes Nichols, Co-Founder and CEO, MarketShare Partners
Rob Crumpler, President and CEO BuzzLogic
Donald A. Jasko, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Economics, Moderator
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here

Track II – DH20
Next Generation P2P Music and Film – DRM, Paid for Pass-Along and Other Legal Distributed Computing Models and the Entertainment Industries
Michael Papish, CEO and Co-founder, MediaUnbound
Marty Lafferty, CEO, Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), Moderator
Additional speakers to be announced
For Session Description & Speaker Bios Click Here