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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/02/28/crosstown-high-innovative-memphis-school-in-a-vertical-urban-village/
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Crosstown High: Innovative Memphis School In A Vertical Urban Village
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Crosstown High: Innovative Memphis School In A Vertical Urban Village
Game design in a Crosstown High sociology class. Tom Vander Ark
One of the most innovative schools in the country is located in one of the most innovative buildings in the country. Students at Crosstown High spend most of their school day on the fourth and fifth floor of Crosstown Concourse, a million-square-foot renovated Sears office and distribution center opened in 2017 just east of downtown Memphis (see feature).
The idea for the high school sprang to life when Ginger Spickler saw a billboard advertising big grants for innovative new high schools. She knew the Concourse with numerous business, retail, health, and art tenants would be a great place to learn, but early plans to include a high school had stalled out. She pulled together a team, created a proposal for Crosstown High and applied for a grant. In 2017, her team was awarded a $2.5 million XQ grant and the following year the diverse-by-design project-based school opened.
Students frequently engage in community-connected projects. The ninth grade team developed a place-based English and AP Geography unit called Project 901 (the local area code) that asked: “What challenges exist in Memphis neighborhoods and how can we design or adapt solutions to address them?” Students toured under-resourced neighborhoods and identified problems. Each student selected a challenge and used design thinking to identify potential solutions. They researched and wrote up proposals. Ryan Dixon, English teacher and director of project-based learning (below), provided individual feedback at project checkpoints.
Ryan Dixon, English teacher and director of project-based learning, offers feedback to a student. Tom Vander Ark
Braxton, who went to a traditional private school last year, likes access to real world skills and strong art, theater and sports options at Crosstown. His 901 investigation was downtown homelessness.
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In tenth grade sociology class (featured image), teacher Lauren Mueller used game development to simulate civic and social situations where race, class and gender influence outcomes. Students explored hiring, judicial sentencing, and economic mobility. The other tenth grade cohort developed documentary films to explore similar issues.
In Algebra 2, teacher Shelley Cox created teams that tackled problems of exponential growth. Like her colleagues, Cox was also encouraging collaboration in teams, one of 12 competencies (pictured below) that Crosstown students develop and demonstrate across their studies.
Braxton explained that each class focuses on three competencies and students strive to move up one or two of four levels on each competency.
Juan, a tenth grader, likes the Socratic seminars on literature. “It makes it obvious if you read the book.”
The Crosstown team is working on a better competency tracking solution than the Canvas gradebook, and is testing Portfolium (acquired by Instructure last year) for artifact capture to help learners tell their stories.
The 12 Crosstown High Competencies Tom Vander Ark
Crosstown High (@CrosstownHigh) serves about 280 students in ninth and tenth grade. It will grow to about 550 students at full enrollment. Each grade level has two cohorts of students. Each cohort has a team of five teachers who share a ‘Basecamp’ of connected classrooms and plan and often teach together.
Each Crosstown cohort shares a Basecamp of connected classrooms. Tom Vander Ark
In its location, outreach, enrollment, culture and structure, Crosstown is diverse by design—an important development in Memphis where neighborhoods and schools are often segregated. The concourse and school demographics are representative of Memphis as a whole, making it an integrated microcosm abundant in opportunity for students and community partners to collaborate and ideate the future of Memphis.
The Crosstown High community is focused on community contribution. The purpose is: “To prepare students to understand and pursue solutions to the challenges faced by our city and world, and to give students the confidence to be agents of positive change now and in the future.”
Being located in Crosstown Concourse creates numerous service and work-based learning and performing arts opportunities. Students can visit great restaurants and work out at a huge YMCA on the second floor. Valuable for imagining possible futures, Crosstown students spend time with an amazing variety of adults all day long.
The Crosstown team is designing the future of learning—a combination of project- and problem-based learning connected to opportunities in the Concourse and community and personalized and competency-based learning of critical success skills, all in a diverse community that reflects the future of Memphis.
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c1dd01502b01001be842a56ecee4f421
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/03/04/where-high-school-starts-with-leadership-and-design-thinking/
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Where High School Starts With Leadership And Design Thinking
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Where High School Starts With Leadership And Design Thinking
Park Hill Superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd visits LEAD Innovation Studio Tom Vander Ark
Where High School Starts with Leadership and Design Thinking
Imagine a high school that started with design thinking and leadership training. Imagine having the opportunity to prototype a solution to a community problem and earn a provisional patent.
Student Maliyah Wampler enrolled in LEAD Innovation Studio, a new high school program, “to get ahead.” She liked the focus on leadership and service. She looked forward to developing her coding and engineering skills. As the oldest of seven children, she wanted to get a head start on college.
In her freshman design thinking class, Wampler was challenged to create a product that solved a real-world problem. Worried about the walking safety of her siblings, she designed a wireless device that triggers an alarm and sends the location to emergency services. She presented it to local police and received positive feedback, which ignited additional work. She applied for and received a provisional patent for the device. As a sophomore, she has met with manufacturers and continues to work on a prototype.
Jackson (below) is a freshman prototyping a rechargeable backpack that will power his devices.
Jackson, a freshman at IDEA, prototyped a backpack with chargers for his devices Tom Vander Ark
LEAD Backstory
When you land in Kansas City, you’re in the Park Hill School District, a growing suburb on the Missouri side of the river.
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As the district grew toward 4,000 high school students, Superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd knew she’d need more capacity. She led community conversations comparing the merits of three options: ‘supersizing’ the two existing high schools, moving to split-shift high school schedules, or opening a program in a different facility. The community preferred option three, but without much time or $100 million in the capital account, Dr. Cowherd decided to rent an office building and open the program one grade-level cohort at a time, starting with incoming ninth grade students.
She gave Dr. Jaime Dial, Director of Secondary Education, room to innovate but with two provisions: the school had to continue Park Hill’s top academic performance and it needed to be open to all students in Park Hill.
Dial and the rest of the design team went on visits to next generation schools including Iowa BIG, New Tech Network, and Summit Public Schools. They selected the Summit Learning platform to support personalized learning, and using principles learned while visiting Iowa BIG and New Tech Network schools, are adding larger, integrated, community-connected projects.
In 2017, LEAD (@ParkHillLEAD) enrolled 150 freshmen. In 2018, they added another 150 freshman students to expand the program to ninth and tenth grade students. They have added juniors this year to expand to a ninth through 11th grade program; next year, in their new facility, LEAD will serve 625 students in grades nine through 12.
In addition to design thinking, freshmen take a class on leadership. They develop personal leadership skills and learn impact strategies. They study how nonprofit organizations support the community. Some students volunteer, while others launch awareness campaigns.
Starting with leadership builds self-knowledge, agency, and project management skills. Beginning with design thinking gives LEAD students the confidence to step into complex problems and know where to start. Teacher Nicki Scott said, “Most kids are never asked what they really care about.”
LEAD students spend 60 minutes per day with their mentors in small advisory groups of 15 to 18 students. They plan and set goals and work on success skills. The goal is to help students graduate with curiosity, self-direction, and purpose.
A mastery-based approach means students demonstrate important skills before moving on, ensuring a strong academic foundation for advanced studies.
Sydney Hamilton is a junior at LEAD and serves on the school’s Executive Council. Her experience has helped her decide to become a pilot. Through the Professional Studies program, she’s doing an internship at the airport this year.
This fall, LEAD will move out of their incubation space in a rented office building into a new facility with lots of flexibility, including room for individual work, small groups, and large groups.
The development of LEAD is a good example of a district carefully monitoring population growth, holding proactive community conversations, using enrollment growth to launch a new school in a flexible commercial office setting, and using the opportunity to pilot and demonstrate a new learning model.
The combination of personalized and project-based learning is compelling, but the most important innovation at LEAD is the foundation of leadership and design thinking skills that freshmen receive—it sets them up for success and creates an opportunity-focused culture.
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b0388cd768aafc06fccbb8e9887d3d8e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/04/02/remote-learning-could-be-a-good-time-for-a-capstone-project/
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Remote Learning Could Be A Good Time For A Capstone Project
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Remote Learning Could Be A Good Time For A Capstone Project
Albemarle High School, MESA Academy Tom Vander Ark
School buildings around the country are closed but juniors and seniors are still eager to progress to graduation. Many districts have figured out a continuity plan. But where schools are struggling to meet learner needs or where students are finding remote learning unfulfilling, a capstone project could be part of the answer.
A capstone project is typically a culminating activity that synthesizes work in several domains and adds a real work perspective. It’s a big interdisciplinary project of student interest— potentially related to their postsecondary plans.
Because it looks like most states are encouraging high schools to do what they can to keep students on track to graduate and offering flexibility, a capstone project could be just the ticket.
A capstone project could be used to fulfill English, social studies, math, and/or science credits. If a student is investigating the data behind a big social challenge, the capstone project could count for social studies and statistics credits, add a report, a bibliography and a virtual presentation and you’ve got an English credit.
OK, the time is short, your district doesn’t require a capstone, your school doesn’t have a history of team taught units and project-based learning—there are lots of reasons this won’t work. But there are thousands of disconnected juniors and seniors out there struggling with worksheets and online quizzes or just not attending online— learners that might need a different and better option.
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Maybe a few of them could do a big integrated project in the next five weeks that would allow them an interesting, valuable, authentic learning experience and a chance to earn a couple credits and finish the year with a product they’ll remember twenty years from now. Make an opt-in option and commit to supporting the learners willing and interested in a capstone project.
Community Connected Project
Crisis or not, every high school student should have at least a couple of deep dive opportunities to take on an issue important to them and their community
Big integrated projects build agency—the knowledge and confidence that you can contribute. It teaches project management, research, problem solving, writing, and presentation skills. Team projects develop collaboration skills and learners will have the opportunity to gain experience in remote working and the use of modern tools.
The Global Goals offer a great framing of project topics. They include ending poverty, decent work, reducing inequality, clean water, and clean energy—all timely topics.
Valuable Capstones
Building on work by Hanover Research and guidelines for High Quality Project-Based Learning (developed with PBLWorks with support from PMIEF), the attributes of good capstone projects include:
Engaging students as active participants in an authentic learning experience; Intellectual challenge that promotes higher-order thinking and problem-solving; Emphasizes making connections across disciplines and steps in project management; Involves teachers as advisors, community members as mentors; and may involved other students as teammates; and Involves a public product and final presentation before a panel that evaluates the project.
Roaring Fork Schools in Western Colorado (and many in the EL Education network) have a great tradition of capstone projects. They define it as a “culminating academic and intellectual experience that: encourages students to think critically, solve challenging problems, and develop skills such as communication, public speaking, research, media, teamwork, planning, self-sufficiency, or goal setting; helps prepare students for college, modern careers, and adult life; and develops character and life skills.”
To help teachers develop a picture of what good project work looks like, Ron Berger, Chief Academic Officer at EL Education, worked with Steve Seidel at Harvard to develop Models of Excellence. It’s a collection of quality project artifacts and includes hundreds of exemplary works.
A few examples of California schools with great capstone project traditions include
Senior engineering projects at Design Tech High School, Redwood City. Senior Legacy Experience projects at Minarets High School, north of Fresno. All learners in iLEAD Schools, north of Santa Clarita, have a culminating capstone experience that concludes each year in the form of a Showcase Of Learning.
If it feels too late to get learners started on big integrated projects this year, add them to the agenda for next year. After months of remote learning with lots of voice and choice, students will be ready for authentic community connected learning—and they are the most valuable experiences we can help them create.
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d29ad617053b6be96ab938d0cc14b232
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/04/14/the-opposite-of-gentrification-8-community-development-lessons-from-lawndale/
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The Opposite Of Gentrification: 8 Community Development Lessons From Lawndale
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The Opposite Of Gentrification: 8 Community Development Lessons From Lawndale
Wayne "Coach" Gordon Tom Vander Ark
It’s been called the Lawndale Miracle. But it’s really the patient and persistent commitment to responsive community development by a church and its real estate development affiliate. The co-construction of a new future together stands in contrast to other neighborhoods where new development displaced residents.
After college more than 40 years ago, Wayne Gordon moved into North Lawndale, a low income predominantly African American neighborhood west of downtown Chicago. He served as a basketball coach at the local high school and started what became the Lawndale Church.
By “loving in a holistic way” and seeking to meet local needs, the church prioritized its place-based ministry and formed a real estate development affiliate. Over the last few decades, Lawndale Christian Community Development has supported the development of a youth center, learning center, pizza parlor, urgent care clinic, health center, eye clinic, recovery center, senior daycare center, social services, cafe, and fitness center and more. LCDC and the impact organizations they incubated employ more than 700 people.
Over 30 years ago, Gordon met John Perkins, a Baptist minister from Mississippi. They formed the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) to share the Lawndale success and spark transformation in communities across the country.
Gordon and Perkins wrote Making Neighborhoods Whole: A Handbook for Christian Community Development. It lays out the eight guiding principles of CCDA including reconciliation, redistribution, listening to the community, leadership development, and a holistic approach.
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In March, we visited North Lawndale with a group of Kansas City civic and faith leaders called the Education Fellows, a program sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation with a goal of cultivating community leaders who are advocates for education.
Together we observed eight important lessons for inclusive community development—the responsive co-construction of a new future together in contrast to other Chicago neighborhoods where new development displaced residents.
1. Start with asset mapping. Forty-four years ago Gordon started by mapping deficits. His work in Lawndale and then nationally, taught him to start with assets, “When you don’t have money get creative, you use whatever assets you have.”
2. Values-based leadership. Loving in a holistic way, explains Gordon, means listening to the community and responding to real needs. “Better together is one of our core values.”
Gordon acknowledges that we still live in a racist society and that he, after four decades in a black neighborhood struggled with his own white privilege. As an example of the continued need to fight systemic racism, Gordon noted that the day we visited there were six-hour-long poll lines that were denying African Americans the right to vote.
3. Empowerment. LCDA has incubated many businesses and community services and in each case, they put a business model behind it. At the health clinic, they charge for services on a sliding scale. It’s about impact sustainability but it’s also about cultivating human dignity rather than dependency.
4. Ownership. The old proverb is that you can give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. John Perkins pointed out that it matters who owns the pond. In communities where there has been little asset accumulation for generations, spurring ownership is important.
To date, LCDC has re-invested more than $82 million worth of commercial and residential development within the North Lawndale neighborhood, adding more than 360 units of both rental and home-ownership affordable housing to the neighborhood.
5. Leadership. Lawndale Church, LCDC, and all their affiliates that have empowered hundreds of youth and adults to take on leadership roles in North Lawndale and beyond.
Their national partner CCDA offers a Leadership Cohort that develops a web of support and shares best practices.
6. Leverage. LCDC is an adept fundraiser. Their health clinic was “shovel ready” when the Great Recession stimulus flowed. They received $10 million for the health center (below) and $5 million for apartments. About private and philanthropic funding, Gordon tells visitors, “Don’t let grants dictate your vision.”
Green Tomato Cafe - Lawndale Tom Vander Ark
7. Strategic. Gordon and his team are strategic about allocating resources for greatest impact—and that includes where he spends his time. The ministry team has a commitment to visit every member of the congregation in the hospital every day. That may not be Gordon, but if someone from the community is in court, he’s likely to be there—in suit and tie—to advocate for them. “I’ve learned to use my white privilege to the community’s advantage,” said Gordon.
8. Persistent. Gordon’s ministry of community development is well into its fourth decade. His calling and identity are rooted in North Lawndale. Through years of gun violence where Gordon said he cried every day, he and his teams have persisted to “be salt and light” where it’s most needed.
In response to COVID-19, Gordon and his colleagues are busier than ever. Lawndale Christian Health Center is on the front lines and is working with the City of Chicago officials in an effort to help the homeless. “That includes putting the COVID-19-positive people up in a hotel where our doctors are giving them quality health care,” said Gordon.
Visit North Lawndale and you’ll see evidence of creative and collaborative development that empowers a community. Instead of gentrification, you’ll see people serving each other with love and a sense of abundance. You’ll see a community working together to build a better place to live and work.
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4c45a66808205af238ae56203de77275
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/06/16/students-earn-aa-degrees-and-job-offers-as-grads-from-ibm-supported-high-schools/
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Students Earn AA Degrees And Job Offers As Grads From IBM Supported High Schools
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Students Earn AA Degrees And Job Offers As Grads From IBM Supported High Schools
IBM Chicago Tom Vander Ark
In 1974, LaGuardia Community College opened the first Middle College Program. Students took a combination of high school and college courses. The mature setting of a college campus and opportunity to earn college credit while in high school became a successful alternative model that spread to dozens of locations around the country.
Building on Middle College success and leadership from Bard High School Early College, the Gates Foundation, Dell Foundation and Carnegie Corporation launched the Early College High School initiative in 2002. Eight partners supported by JFF set out to create 280 high schools where students could earn up to two years of college credit. A decade after foundation funding ended, the initiative has doubled in size, proved successful, and seems poised for growth.
In 2011 IBM infused work experiences and employment opportunities into the model and supported the development of Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH). With founding principal Rashid Ferrod DavisIn and in partnership with CUNY and City Tech, New York City Department of Education opened the first P-TECH school in Brooklyn. Six more P-TECH schools were opened in New York between 2013 and 2015. There are now 41 P-TECH across the state.
In the last nine years, the P-TECH initiative has grown to more than 110 schools in eight states and supported by over 500 business partners. They all focus on STEM fields and combine technology work experiences with the opportunity to earn an associates degree in high school.
With sixty-three P-TECH, (and about 200 Early Colleges), Texas has by far the most opportunities for high school students to earn college degrees. There are eighteen P-TECH in Dallas supported by 75 business partners. With seven more early colleges, the accelerated pathways are available as a school-within-a-school option in every attendance area.
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MDRC recently released an evaluation of New York City P-TECH schools that showed that most students begin college coursework in tenth grade and that students accumulate more credits than students in other schools. They also take and pass New York state tests earlier and at higher rates than other students.
The evaluation also found that all of the P-TECH schools focus on workplace skills such as good work habits and interpersonal skills.
“It was gratifying to see that students were accumulating core and career and technical education credits more rapidly,” said Grace Suh, VP of Education at IBM. “It was great to hear that [P-TECH students] were scoring higher on the English Language Arts Regents tests.”
The schools are popular, they are all oversubscribed,” added Suh. “And students are earning degrees that matters.”
IBM has hired 35 of the early P-TECH graduates as designers and developers right out of the 9-14 program. “Many graduates want to go on to college,” said Suh. “We’re glad some of them have come back [to IBM] as well.”
The P-TECH website, supported by IBM, features tools and resources and highlights case studies from schools worldwide.
IBM, ISTE and other partners launched Open P-TECH, free digital content on tech and professional skills including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, data science, cybersecurity and design thinking. Engaging videos and gamified assessments maintain learner interest. Digital badges provide a free way to demonstrate knowledge and skills as learners apply for employment or higher education.
P-TECH is the promise of high tech work experiences while gaining accelerated and affordable access to college. It’s an innovation that should be available to every high school student.
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f028290e1f9911cbb52c960d25ac50bf
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/08/04/microschools-meet-the-moment/
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Microschools Meet The Moment
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Microschools Meet The Moment
Students in classroom at Prenda Schools Courtesy Prenda Schools
After tutoring kids in a Phoenix library for a few years, Kelly Smith and seven neighborhood kids started the first Prenda microschool. Two years later there were 200 tiny Prenda schools meeting in living rooms and community spaces.
Given the choice of sending children back to school or enrolling them in a questionable online program, many parents are considering alternatives including starting or joining a microschool.
Prenda was among the first grantees of the VELA Education Fund, a new nonprofit fund that supports pioneering entrepreneurs building and leading innovative, out-of-system education models. VELA launched with seed funding from the Walton Family Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute and is expected to grow to include additional donors over time.
This week, the VELA board announced a $1 million Meet the Moment grant program to new microschool opportunities. VELA “will fund efforts that yield something new or transform existing models, so long as they provide responsive and authentic learning experiences for young people.”
“Parents, educators and entrepreneurs are reinventing when, where and how learning happens,” said Marc Sternberg, K-12 Education Program director at the Walton Family Foundation.
VELA directors plan to build a portfolio of out-of-system models and programs that represent geographic, socioeconomic, and racial diversity. In addition to low-cost microschools, they are open to supporting homeschool cooperatives, youth-led programming and learning, and online content.
“VELA is committed to increasing the availability of access to new student-centric education models and experiences,” said board member Meredith Olson.
Students in a classroom. Tom Vander ark
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A Tiny Revolution
Tiny schools from the sprawling cities of Africa to the suburbs of Austin are reshaping the education landscape. Some of these microschools operate outside formal systems, some operate in networks that are spreading around the world, and some operate outside the current conception of education altogether.
The ability to open schools quickly in nontraditional spaces is a benefit of microschools. Some are in homes while some leverage community assets like parks, museums, zoos, and business partners. Microschools can quickly address underserved student populations and demonstrate innovative new practices and staffing strategies.
Microschools can be opened quickly, connected to community learning options, address specific needs, and leverage parent commitment and/or teacher leadership (i.e., they are so small they don’t have a separate administrator). Microschools can stay small, span a network or become a big school with demonstrated success.
Microschools, often developed in networks like Edvisions and Acton Academy, have historically served 15 to 150 students but with the pandemic, we’re seeing new interest in tiny schools of 5-10 (sometimes call nanoschools) like the Prenda network.
Parent cooperatives, groups of families enrolled in the same online school and sharing custodial care and extracurricular activities, have grown quietly and steadily over the last 15 years. By next month there may be thousands of these co-ops around the country.
For the last 10 years, 4.0 Schools has been the leading advocate of small experiments and small community connected schools. The New Orleans nonprofit will support the Meet the Moment program by distributing resources to its alumni network of more than 1,000 leaders who are reimagining learning through innovative microschools, youth development programs and new tools.
VELA extends the Walton Family Foundation’s commitment to new models of learning, including their Innovative Schools Program, which has supported 14 new models in the last three years. VELA will also benefit from the Koch Foundation’s commitment to customized education for every child and their strength in policy and advocacy.
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c323b5bb4e6134bdf352ba6a03c7e1c0
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/11/02/we-build-boring-schools-then-we-put-them-online--science-has-the-fix/
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We Build Boring Schools, Then We Put Them Online--Science Has The Fix
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We Build Boring Schools, Then We Put Them Online--Science Has The Fix
Bulldog Tech, Evergreen School District Tom Vander Ark
We created boring schools and then put them online. Our focus on testing made learning small and easy to grade rather than valuable. We pretend there is an average kid who is supposed to be at this thing called grade level. We organize secondary schools in ways that prevents us from understanding learners, building sustained relationships, or doing interesting community-connected work. We don’t focus on or provide any feedback on the most important skills.
Teachers aren’t to blame—it’s the system we inherited. As Tony Wagner has been saying for two decades, “No shame, no blame, no excuses.” Schools are obsolete and must be reinvented.
Ever since the Committee of 10 (old white guys) chopped up the day into uniform courses in 1892, the decentralized political system evolved uninformed by developmental and learning science. But 130 years later, we know enough about learning sciences to get busy. As Wagner said, “No excuses.”
The pandemic laid bare the inequity and inadequacy of the patchwork American system of education. It made clear that learner experience (LX) is an invention opporunity. LX is not just the topics and tasks of the curriculum, it’s the supports, the culture, and how learners interact with their learning environment.
To address the LX opportunity, the Science of Learning and Developement Alliance was formed in 2016 bringing together learning science superstars Linda Darling Hammond, Pam Cantor, Karen Pittman, Todd Rose, and David Osher to compile insights and solutions to the persistent inequity and underperformance in our education system.
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In the first of a trilogy of papers, SoLD outlined how How Children Learn and Develop in Context. The dense paper put to rest the nature versus nurture debate (it’s a collaborative coordination) and outlined the interconnectedness of multiple contexts and the integration of cognitive, social, emotional, and affective processes in development and learning.
The LX opportunity is complicated and multifaceted but 12 strategies stand out:
1. Recognize Individuality: There are multiple pathways to healthy development, learning, academic success, and resilience. Individuals vary in how they learn, behave, and develop. LX design should respect each person’s autonomy and individuality.
2. Anticipate Malleability: Human brains have the remarkable ability to change from experience—it’s the biological opportunity for growth no matter what the developmental beginnings. “None of us can know what a child can become unless we design the environments/context to reveal it,” said Dr. Cantor.
3. Understand Context: Develop a deeper understanding of the whole child in context. Distinguish motivational issues from learning strategy problems and identify their causal factor.
4. Build Relationships: Strong attachments and positive, long-term relationships are key to learning and development. They occur in safe learning communities where students feel they belong and are known.
5. Set Priorities: Focus on foundational skills and belonging, self-efficacy, and growth mindset.
6. Build on Prior Learning: Students are not “blank slates”—they are active agents who bring to school prior knowledge and experiences. Learning starts by meeting students where they are.
7. Engaging Tasks: Learning should foster active student engagement. Well-designed, interdisciplinary projects can balance what students already know with what they need and want to know. They can combat the pedagogy of poverty and support rigorous academic work.
8. Quality Feedback: instructional design should seek to provide the right amount of challenge, rigor, support, feedback, and formative assessment to drive and accelerate the developmental range and performance of individual students. Self-regulation and academic growth is developed with quality feedback.
9. Risk Factors: All children are vulnerable. Adversity, through the biological process of stress, exerts profound effects on development, behavior, learning, and health. Adult buffering of risk factors and assets from relationships and a sense of belonging foster resilience and accelerates healthy development and learning.
10. Explore Motivation: A complex mix of beliefs, values, interests, goals, drives, needs, reinforcements, and identities influences choices, persistence and effort. The perceived utility of a task and the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are unique for each learner.
11. Metacognition: Becoming awareness of one’s own thinking and learning depends on foundational self-regulation and executive function skills. Metacognition skills help learners evaluate their own learning and engage in self-direction.
12. Unique Pathways: There are no ideal developmental pathway. There are multiple pathways to healthy development, learning, academic success, and resilience. A “constructive web” of supports can engage learners as active agent in his/her own learning to set scaffolding, sequencing, and pacing.
If that all sounds complicated, it is—learning and development is highly individual. These 12 factors suggest supportive learning environments and sustained relationships. The opportunity is not about working harder, it’s creating smarter systems. The last three factors suggest that learners can and should take on an increasingly active role in co-constructing learning pathways themselves as well as providing peer support and mentoring younger learners.
Better Tasks and Tools
Four examples of well developed LX systems supported by innovative tools include:
The 200 New Tech Network schools support team-taught integrated projects with authoring tools and a library of tasks that can be adopted or adapted. Purdue Polytechnic High in Indianapolis combines individual skill sprints with community-connected projects. One Stone in Boise combines purposeful explorations, with design labs, and community-connected projects. The 200 global Acton Academy affiliates create environments where learners become self-directed aided by peer support and mentoring.
Each of these systems, as SoLD suggests, combines affective, cognitive, social, and emotional processes with curricular content to promote academic growth. Each of the extended challenges seeks “the right amount of challenge, rigor, support, feedback, and formative assessment to drive and accelerate the developmental range and performance of individual students.”
The Learner Variability Navigator system from Digital Promise helps curriculum designers and edtech vendors design tasks and tools to reach each learner. It’s a whole child research framework for practitioners and edtech product developers. Vendors can earn certification as a research-based product.
The LX opportunity is as big as a whole new learning system and as small and focused as a project next week crafted with purpose and connected to place.
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98b2c4eb8f5eafdfe705d2d3933599f1
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2021/01/28/equipping-youth-to-change-the-world/?sh=66280b4d3fc8
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Equipping Youth To Change The World
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Equipping Youth To Change The World
Ananya Chadha, TKS Alumni The Knowledge Society
Alishba Imran, a 16-year-old, built a prosthetic hand that uses artificial intelligence to perform human-like tasks. Through her model and use of 3D printing, the entire hand cost $50, compared to market rates of over $1,000.
Adeola Ojuade is a 16-year-old programmer. She created a Haptic Guide to aid blind and visually impaired people — she used an ultrasonic sensor that recognizes the distance of an object and created a haptic device that vibrates according to that recognized distance. She even presented her haptic guide at the MLK Tech Summit at Zappos!
Okezue Bell is a 14-year-old podcast host and app designer. He assisted in the development of two novel systems: Respiray/Dignosys, which can detect respiratory diseases through x-ray image detection, and Dignosys V2, an app which he and his fellow TKS teammates manage to determine cardiovascular disease based on patient data and offer decentralized doctor-patient communication.
All three were inspired and supported in their contributions by The Knowledge Society (TKS), a five-year-old Canadian youth accelerator for learners 11-17. The afterschool program that seeks to “help kids shape the future” was operating pre-pandemic in seven cities across North America. TKS is now available for students all over the world to apply to its virtual, global program and scholarships are available.
The difference-making engine was created by brothers Nadeem and Navid Nathoo, sons of Ugandan and Tanzanian immigrants. The wicked smart, driven brothers have a history in finance, consulting and tech. Navid sold his cloud tech company to Box while Nadeem was working on education centers around the world, fighting poverty and working at McKinsey & Company — together, they decided to create the future of education.
MORE FOR YOUPandemic Toll: More Than Half Of College Faculty Have Considered A Career Change Or Early RetirementSmith College Staffer Who Quit Over What She Says Was Racial Hostility To White People Collects $240,000 From SupportersJoe Biden Made One Campaign Promise That Really Mattered To Teachers. He Just Broke It.
With a focus on unlocking human potential, Navid Nathoo said, “What’s most important is to learn how to figure things out [...] that takes grit and resilience.”
Through self-directed learning and impact projects, participants build stronger mindsets, develop real-world skills, learn coding, and expand their social capital. TKS’ teachers hail from leading companies in every sector.
The TKS team works with big companies to see what problems they are facing. This creates a bank of problems students can choose to work on. “[TKS] is as much about problem finding as it is about problem-solving,” says Navid.
Of the current 800 participants, three quarters identify as visible minorities and almost half identify as female.
Christine Jean-Julien is a 16-year-old podcast host and neuroscience student. With other students at TKS, she recently developed the Protector System to monitor the location of trees being logged using a series of CNNs and overlaying images to determine any change in tree population over specified regions with the goal of tracking illegal logging and ending deforestation.
TKS students have gone on to work for Microsoft at age 17, speak at WebSummit for 30,000 people, start their own VC-backed startup and work on fighting COVID-19.
Navid and Nadeem realize the benefit of making TKS a community of passionate innovators. They believe in the adage “your network is your net worth,” and hope to spread and help to create social capital for young people all over the world.
While not trained as educators, Nadeem and Navid Nathoo have created a vivid picture of next-generation learning, one that combines personalized learning sprints with impact projects. It’s a glimpse of what high school and college of the future should be.
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5d96926e4256b31c13ab18ae0b78e350
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2021/02/03/the-two-most-important-things-we-dont-teach/?sh=29b8e22d45f5
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The Two Most Important Things We Don’t Teach
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The Two Most Important Things We Don’t Teach
Energy Lab at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy Tom Vander Ark
While last year was a global human tragedy, it is not likely that pandemic will be the change force that most shapes the lives and livelihoods of young people, it’s the climate crisis and artificial intelligence (AI). Unfortunately, it’s easy to leave high school and college without having considered either.
Both factors will influence where and how people live, how they earn a living and the politics of the common good. Both have built-in accelerators that will expand inequality and negatively impact those least advantaged.
Young people deserve a chance to learn about climate change and AI and develop an informed opinion about the path forward and where they can make a difference.
On Climate
The Anthropocene, the geological epoch spanning significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, is currently expressed as a climate crisis and mass extinction event.
Temperatures have risen about 1.1°C and are heading rapidly toward 1.5°C where things get really ugly for the least advantaged on earth—more storms and floods, more fires and famine, more mass dislocation and immigration. “It is worse, much worse than you think,” said David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth, about life on Earth after warming.
The only answer is a full-court press on mitigation and adaptation—that’s playing offense and defense simultaneously—on a global scale. The massive impacts of climate change and efforts to fight it should have big implications for the science and civics curriculum as well as career advisement.
MORE FOR YOUPandemic Toll: More Than Half Of College Faculty Have Considered A Career Change Or Early RetirementSmith College Staffer Who Quit Over What She Says Was Racial Hostility To White People Collects $240,000 From SupportersJoe Biden Made One Campaign Promise That Really Mattered To Teachers. He Just Broke It.
For a current and comprehensive discussion of solutions, check out Bill Gates's new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need. Listen to the new Gimlet podcast How to Save a Planet. And check out World Economic Forum (WEF) environment resources.
Proactive educators around the world are busy incorporating the climate crisis into the curriculum. Five examples include:
1. Host an environmental studies book club like Dr. Greg Smith.
2. Add a K-12 climate literacy curriculum like Portland Public Schools.
3. Incorporate student voices and perspectives are part of the solution for a sustainable future like members of Green Schools National Network.
4. Engage learners in the sustainability innovation agenda like Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy and their Energy Lab while embracing a culture of Mālama Kaiāulu—care for the community of spirit, land, and people.
5. Create a fully sustainable education program like the Green School in Bali.
Where to start? A middle school Earth Science class is a great place to unveil the expanding problem. High school leaders should create room in the busy master schedule for studying climate—the science behind the changes we are all experiencing, the economics of how it will impact the least advantaged, and the politics of carbon and consumption, and the ethics of our responsibility to this and future generations.
In addition to the science and social studies of climate, students need active opportunities to use design thinking and data science to begin taking on local versions of the global challenge.
High school and college leaders have the opportunity to lead community conversations about climate action. They can create forums where teachers and young people can move climate action into the center of the curriculum and the heart of the community.
On Exponential Tech
Like climate change, artificial intelligence has crept into our existence quietly and steadily—with the exception of occasional storms (like the storming of the capital by social media enraged conspiracy mob). Machine learning tools (a subset of AI) now influences who gets a job, who goes to jail, who gets a loan, and what you see on nearly every screen you view.
While smart tools speed drug discovery (like MRNA vaccines), promote clean energy development and distribution, and reduce drudgery through automation, they create structural unemployment, speed income inequality, extend human biases to machine decisions, and create new threats including autonomous weapons and excessive surveillance.
While there has been a steady growth in teaching computer coding in K-12, the rise of AI means not only understanding the practicalities of Python but the ethics and economics of a world full of smart machines.
A few recent books discuss the economics of the AI-powered industrial revolution
In Reprogramming the American Dream, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott describes the landscape of AI and how it can be realistically used to promote equitable growth. In Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines, Lumina President Jamie Merisotis makes the case for developing compassion, empathy, and ethics as well as problem-solving, and integrative skills. In Human Algorithm, Flynn Coleman discusses the need for a broader web of social bridge economic disruption and public policies that discourage AI bias and excessive surveillance.
The WEF has great explainers on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and, more recently, on The Great Reset after COVID.
Proactive educators are beginning to introduce artificial intelligence in thoughtful ways in and out of school:
1. AI4K12 is an initiative of leading computer scientists that have identified five big ideas that K-12 student should know about AI.
2. Teaching AI ethics in Montour Middle School (Pittsburgh), using curriculum from MIT Media Lab
3. AI4All is an Oakland nonprofit sponsoring summer school programs in partnership with 16 leading universities.
4. Renton Prep introduces all students, 6th grade and up, to computer science including AI. Their approach is described in Teaching AI, by the head of school Michelle Zimmerman.
The climate crisis and the rise of artificial intelligence will be the dominant issue in the lives of young people for the next 20 years – and that’s about all the time we have to learn to live together on a hot planet with smart machines.
Every young person deserves at least a couple of opportunities in high and college for deep dives into climate change and exponential technology; they deserve the opportunity to audition possible futures and create informed postsecondary plans while making a difference today.
If we get moving and mobilize a billion young people passionate about saving the planet and equipped to use big data and smart tools to put up a good fight, they have a shot at leaving a sustainable planet to their kids.
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62865c58c60b8227bcd5162fb192057f
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2010/10/18/cablevision-and-fox-showcase-future-trend/
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Cablevision and Fox Showcase Future Trend
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Cablevision and Fox Showcase Future Trend
Image via Wikipedia
Across Long Island Sunday, many of the three million homes that make up a big chunk of the New York television market turned on Channel 5, their local Fox affiliate, hoping to see the NFL Giants take on the Detroit Lions. Instead, they got an ongoing public relations message from Cablevision, blaming Fox parent News Corp. for a fee-splitting dispute that's resulted in the channel being pulled from Cablevision homes. Fans scrambled for their radios or to friends' houses serviced by Cablevision's local competitor, Verizon.
Welcome to the new world of TV, where over-the-air networks are looking for fees from cable and satellite providers the same way that cable networks are. "Par for the course," says industry consultant Lee Berke. "The interesting thing going forward will be where broadcasters go from here. Will they just abandon spectrum altogether?" Given the seamless fusion of cable, satellite, and over-the-air TV in recent years, it seems inevitable that subscription-based services, with content providers and distribution providers splitting the revenue, is the future trend.
With the dispute between News Corp. and Cablevision moving into its third day, local viewers are missing the National League Championship Series between the Giants and Phillies, not to mention popular shows like House and Family Guy. Luckily, there's no local issue with the Yankees-Rangers AL Championship Series, which is being carried on TBS. But the World Series, to be aired on Fox, is right around the corner. Should the Yankees make it, a full blown PR disaster looms if the two sides haven't settled. Perhaps that's just what News Corp. is counting on - a reluctance on Cablevision's part to strip a Yankee World Series away from three million New Yorkers.
"The rule of thumb is to do this when you have the most leverage," says Burke. With the fall lineup and NFL season now in full bloom, and the World Series pending, that's now.
Cablevision is doing its darndest to villify New Corp. with a relentless PR campaign. The company's latest email message to subscribers: “News Corp, in an act of corporate greed, has pulled Fox 5 and My9 from your Cablevision channel lineup. This is an unfortunate attempt to extort unreasonable and unfair fee increases from Cablevision and our customers.”
Reality, of course, is that News. Corp. isn't being any more greedy that Cablevision is. Two companies - one the owner of the content, the other the owner of the distribution pipes - have simply yet to agree on the value of the station to viewers. Cablevision harps on its willingness to accept binding arbitration, but News Corp. isn't buying it."It's hypocritical," says News. Corp. spokesman Scott Grogin, pointing out that Cablevsion has indeed kept some stations that it owns, like MSG Network, out of competitors' pipes.
Berke thinks the dispute will be settled sooner rather than later, especially since politicians love to get involved and exert pressure on such issues, all in the name of serving the public. But expect many more similar battles to pop up around the country, with disruptions in service as the new norm.
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e71f9dfc2fcd8829665466f6e3e41588
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2011/02/28/the-most-miserable-sports-cities/
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The Most Miserable Sports Cities
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The Most Miserable Sports Cities
Since big-time pro sports came to Seattle in 1967, the opportunities for championships have been fairly plentiful. The NBA Sonics made the playoffs 22 times before leaving town in 2008, a run that included six trips to the Western Conference finals and three to the NBA finals. Football's Seahawks have made it to the postseason 11 times since their 1976 birth, reaching the conference championship game twice and the Super Bowl in 2006. And the Mariners, an American League expansion team in 1977, managed to reach the American League Championship Series three times between 1995 and 2001.
But through a cumulative 111 seasons and 37 playoff appearances, Seattle boasts only one champion: the 1979 Sonics of Gus Williams, Jack Sikma and Dennis Johnson. The list of playoff busts includes some real gut-wrenchers: The 1978 Sonics blew a championship by dropping a Game 7 at home to Washington in the finals, while the top-seeded 1994 club lost a first-round series to the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets. And the 2001 Mariners went down in the playoffs to the Yankees after posting a 116-46 record during the regular season. Add it all up, and Seattle's history lands it at the top of our list of the Most Miserable Sports Cities.
In Pictures: The Most Miserable Sports Cities
We're not defining sports misery as sheer futility. The Chicago Cubs going over a century without a championship; the Los Angeles Clippers turning in two winning seasons since 1985--everyone knows about that stuff. We're going for something else. Sports lore is filled with tales of the near-miss: the Brooklyn Dodgers reaching the World Series six times between 1947 and 1956 only to lose to the Yankees in five of them; the Buffalo Bills losing four straight Super Bowls in the '90s; the New York Rangers and Atlanta Braves coming close countless times before falling short of a championship. We decided to add it all up and create a sports heartbreak index to identify where fans have been exposed to teams good enough to get their hopes up, only to let them down in the end.
We scored each city on the number of times one of its teams has lost in the postseason, adjusting the misery points to give the most weight to losing in the final round (World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Final, Stanley Cup Final) and doling out progressively fewer points for losing earlier playoff rounds. We also factored in the number of years since each city's last title (31 for Seattle), and the ratio of each city's cumulative seasons to championships won (Atlanta, for instance, has compiled 153 MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL seasons while winning one championship, the 1995 Braves). And to keep the playing field even, we limited the contenders to cities with at least 75 cumulative seasons in the four major sports leagues.
We also tacked on a bonus point whenever a city loses a team to greener pastures. The loss of its NBA club was just enough to nudge Seattle past Atlanta, a city with one sports title in 153 cumulative seasons, to the top of the misery list. Atlanta's postseason misery is legendary, led by the Braves' failure to take home a world championship in 13 of 14 playoff appearances from 1991 to 2004. Throw in a Falcons loss in their lone Super Bowl appearance (1999) and a pair of losses by the NBA Hawks in the Eastern Conference finals, and Atlanta rides neck-and-neck with Seattle on the disappointment meter.
Rounding out the top five on the sports misery list: Phoenix, where the 2001 Diamondbacks took the city's only championship in 92 cumulative seasons; Buffalo, where the NFL Bills lost four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s and the NHL Sabres are still looking for their first Stanley Cup; and San Diego, home to teams that have lost six of seven championship round matchups over the years, the Chargers American Football League crown in 1963 standing as the city's only championship.
In Pictures: The Most Miserable Sports Cities
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68fe801b0a8e57b397b8a2c14b9ce10d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2011/07/29/would-the-islanders-really-leave/
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Would the Islanders Really Leave?
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Would the Islanders Really Leave?
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Prevailing wisdom holds that the future of the New York Islanders is likely on the line this Monday, August 1. That's when voters in Nassau County, N.Y. on Long Island, go to the polls to vote on a $400 million bond the county is prepared to float for a development project that would include a new hockey arena and an adjacent minor league baseball stadium. Under the announced terms, the country would receive 11.5% of the arena’s annual revenue, from Islander games and other events.
But is it necessarily a case of build it or they will leave? Despite owner Charles Wang's insistence that his outdated Nassau Coliseum isn't a viable option going forward, what else does he do? Everyone talks about the Kansas City Sprint Center, which is dying for a full time sports tenant, but sports business experts doubt that the Islanders could duplicate their $15 million in annual cable money in that market, despite their second class standing in New York. Canada could be a possibility - fans of the old Quebec Nordiques have been rallying for an NHL return- but any arena plan there is still a long way off.
“There just aren’t many markets that covet the NHL right now,” says Robert Boland, who teaches sports business at the Tisch Center at New York University.
Wang has been in full court press mode (or should we chuck the basketball analogy and say power play mode?), making the local media rounds to push for a "yes" vote on the referendum. The mid-summer date essentially guarantees low turnout, rigging the vote in his favor. The Islanders just announced a dinner reception for the media the night of Aug. 1, which suggests they're confident. Should it pass, the plan is still subject to approval by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), a state agency that has asserted control over the county's finances after the state determined that the county's budget gap was too wide.
If Nassau taxpayers call Wang’s bluff and vote the project down, he’s left with an outdated building and few moving options. His best choice might be to fund a new arena himself. Imagine that – local fans getting to keep the team without having the financial risks hoisted upon them. Boland thinks such an outcome is possible, but he cautions that private lending terms for big projects are still tough. Another possibility is moving within the market, perhaps further east on cheaper real estate.
Of course, the Barclays Center, future home of the New Jersey Nets, is rising just 22 miles to the west in Brooklyn. The building’s design is basketball-only, but that can always change. Mikhail Prokhorov would welcome an NHL tenant, wouldn’t he?
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accc8daf109ada13db844bee22723516
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2011/12/06/tecate-gladly-fills-boxings-sponsorship-void/
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Tecate Gladly Fills Boxing's Sponsorship Void
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Tecate Gladly Fills Boxing's Sponsorship Void
Miguel Cotto Getty Images via @daylife
Five and a half hours before Miguel Cotto would square off with Antonio Margarito at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Felix Palau was already
holding court two blocks away. At The Parlour, a popular pre-game (or pre-fight) watering hole, the Vice President of Marketing for Tecate beer was in his element, schmoozing with staffers, vendors and, what the heck, a couple of reporters. When there’s a big fight - New York , L.A. or Vegas – Tecate is sure to be there.
“Our quality perception has gone up, when we get involved with a fight we typically see 15% to 20% spike in sales,” he says.
As other sponsors shy away from what’s increasingly seen as a dying sport, the Mexican brewer not only embraces boxing – still hugely popular in the Hispanic market - it barely does anything else. The company has sponsored 95 fight cards in 2011, reaching 4.1 million pay-per-view buyers on Showtime and HBO. Traditionally targeting the Mexican immigrant population in the U.S., Tecate displays arena signage, hosts pre-fight concerts, runs cross-promotions with Tequila and dresses up beer cans with discount offers on Pay-Per-View purchases. A lot of it is done in big Mexican supermarkets and restaurants in California, notes San Diego-based beverage industry consultant Jorge Olson.
“You can’t compete on the broad scale of Miller or Budweiser, so you compete on the store level, where purchase decisions are made,” he says.
Palau, clad in blue jeans, white shirt and blue blazer, sipping a Tecate, says he doesn’t see Corona and other Mexican imports as his chief competition. He sees himself going up against Budweiser and other mid-market domestics, primarily in the southwest. His target is Mexican-Americans, yes, but there’s also a broader growth strategy. With the both the Mexican and broader Hispanic population growing in the U.S., Tecate has a chance to grow with them. They certainly had the right venue for that in New York, where Tecate’s distribution is small – a raucous, sold out Garden filled with a predominantly Puerto Rican crowd that was firmly in Cotto’s corner. He returned their support with a decisive 10-round TKO to retain his WBA Super Welterweight crown.
The difficulty maintaining brand loyalty among Hispanics: many immigrants switch to longtime American brands like Bud once they’re in the country for a number of years. So Palau’s targets aren’t just immigrants arriving from Mexico, they’re Hispanic households – Mexican or otherwise - that have been in the U.S. for ten years or more.
“We want to appeal to those that still have those Hispanic values,” he says. “Work ethic, family , friendship and sports.” Boxing, which Tecate got into in 2007, has thus far been little more for the brand than a vehicle for keeping its head above water in the U.S. Even with the spike that accompanies each big fight, overall sales are down about 2% over the past four years, in line with the flat industry trend.
And the company is still clinging to the inherent risk of clinging to a fading sport as its main lifeline. The key, according to branding expert Robert Passikoff, is getting enough spillover from the big fights that draw casual fans - Palau is salivating over a possible Manny Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather matchup – to find a wider audience. “You’re counting on a halo effect,” says Passikoff.
Can Palau envision Tecate one day advertising on baseball games on Fox or ESPN? “Maybe in ten years,” he says. That may well be the U.S. yardstick to determine whether the brand has made it or not.
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8a95943002001e63307136ea99c50fd2
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2011/12/21/the-nbas-most-disliked-players/
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The NBA's Most Disliked Players
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The NBA's Most Disliked Players
Gallery: Most Disliked NBA Players 11 images View gallery
Kris Humphries of the New Jersey Nets seemed to be living life a bit over his head. Young, handsome and married to Kim Kardashian, Humphries’ mug was all over magazine covers and entertainment television. It’s a role usually reserved for an L.A. or New York star, not a New Jersey role player.
Then recently, Humphries’ marriage to Kardashian was over - 72 days after it started. Then came the speculation: Was the marriage fake all along? Was Kim really caught in a nude Yoga session with a male instructor in their home? It’s all created enough tabloid fatigue for the public, when asked which player in the NBA they most dislike, now choose Humphries’ name before any other.
“He’s been on five magazine covers, all in a negative light,” says Stephen Master, VP at Nielsen Sports, which helped run the survey. “It’s all so recent, he’s gotten all this publicity for something other than basketball talent.”
Testing the public view toward the least liked players in the NBA, scores are compiled from the latest surveys done by Nielsen and E-Poll Market Research, an Encino, Calf.-based firm that tracks perceptions of athletes and other celebrities. Sticking with NBA players who register at least 10% awareness levels with the public, the list is comprised of those players garnering the most votes from people claiming a view of them as “dislike,” dislike somewhat,” or “dislike a lot.”
In Pictures: The NBA's Most Disliked Players
Humphries’ tabloid fodder proved to be relatively good news for LeBron James, who avoids the top spot after the negative reviews he got during the summer of 2010 for his drawn out “Decision” to leave Cleveland for Miami. Though James is obviously not the first player to ditch his original team as a free agent, the public was clearly put off by what was perceived to be a self indulgent ESPN special as a venue for the announcement. While few outside Cleveland were actually burning his jersey, James’s failure to extend the courtesy of a heads up to the Cavaliers beforehand didn’t endear him to the broader public.
Also hurting James: the natural hankering fans have to root against super teams formed by aligning superstars. LeBron’s two high-priced running mates, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, also make the list, even though neither has ever been previously regarded as controversial. Fair or not, by hooking up together, the Miami trio stepped into the villain’s role.
“It’s just such a polarizing team,” says Master.
Because the survey focused on the broad population, not just NBA fans, players who remain popular with basketball junkies can be tripped up when their names show up in gossip pages and other non-basketball news. In addition to Humphries, San Antonio’s Tony Parker breaks onto the list thanks to his messy divorce from Eva Longoria. And Lamar Odom, just traded to Dallas from the Lakers, caps off the list at No. 10. Free of controversy since a substance abuse suspension ten years ago, people nonetheless associate Odom with the tabloid culture. The only conceivable reason: He’s married to Kim Kardashian’s sister, Khloe.
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6c7d8ec5da776892659c20911eda905e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2012/01/25/the-show-must-go-on/
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NBA: Why The Warriors Are The Best Deal In Basketball
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NBA: Why The Warriors Are The Best Deal In Basketball
Owers Joe Lacob (left) and Peter Guber are shaking up the Golden State Warriors Getty Images
Courtside before tip-off against the Orlando Magic, Golden State Warriors’ co-owner Peter Guber has his eye on the ball. Not one on the court, but rather the sphere fans are passing around in the dank upper reaches of Oracle Arena. A fast-moving spotlight struggles to follow along as it’s flicked around the stands, finally landing in a referee’s hands to start the game.
“You can’t see where it is, can you?” Guber squawks with delight, thrilled by the latest gimmick he’s brought to Bay Area basketball. Sure it’s corny. But it’s working. The house is rocking, even as it falls a bit short of its sixth sellout in the first seven home games. The Warriors will lose tonight, but Guber, the longtime entertainment impresario who has done everything from movies to minor league baseball ownership, still puts on a pretty good show.
It’s been 14 months since Guber and his partner, venture capitalist Joe Lacob, led an investment group that bought the long-wounded Warriors from cable television magnate Chris Cohan for $450 million, a record purchase price for an NBA franchise that doesn’t own an arena. The duo prevailed only after a bidding war with Oracle Chief Larry Ellison; that the world’s fifth-richest man and a devoted Warriors fan wouldn’t go even one tick higher was a sign to many that Guber and Lacob severely overpaid for a team of midtier revenue.
But Guber and Lacob will laugh last. They’ve followed a classic real estate maxim—buying the worst property in the best neighborhood. “You’re in a hot market with a lot of money and a lot of tech companies,” says Lacob. “People realize this team has been an underperforming asset. If it improves on the court it will be worth a lot more.” The numbers back him up: Despite comic ineptitude—the team has logged only two winning seasons and one playoff appearance in the past 17 years—the Warriors’ $450 million valuation places them eighth on FORBES’ franchise rankings, up four spots from last year. Some think they could jump even higher. “This could be one of the most valuable teams in the NBA,” says consultant Marc Ganis of SportsCorp. “It’s a great sponsor and TV market.”
The odd-couple partnership understands those businesses. Lacob is a product of the Valley, an earnest 25-year veteran of Kleiner Perkins who knows the value of brands and partnership. A Stanford basketball season-ticket holder for 30 years and a former minority owner of the Boston Celtics, he also gets hoops, sitting courtside for every Warriors game. “David Lee is being aggressive!” he bellows in mock disbelief during the first quarter as the Warrior forward pours in ten points to help the team to an early lead.
While Lacob loves a game, Guber, who makes it up from L.A. only periodically, loves a show. The flamboyant onetime head of Sony Pictures is the creative mind behind turning the Warriors into an entertainment product, especially for the fair-weather fan and especially as the losses pile up yet again (they were 5-9 during this year’s early going). A very young 69, he owns or operates five minor league baseball teams through his company Mandalay Entertainment. To him the people streaming through the turnstiles aren’t fans, customers or guests. They’re the audience. “The experience starts in the parking lot,” he says of the club’s beefed-up customer service operation, the 191 Wi-Fi spots scattered through the arena and a plan for cashless concession stands. “There’s uncertainty in winning,” he says in a Boston accent, still thick almost 50 years after his departure from his hometown, “but there’s no uncertainty in the experience.”
There’s also no uncertainty in their timing, which was impeccable. The Warriors’ costs are poised to come down, courtesy of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement. The club has already trimmed payroll by about $8 million from last season. Meanwhile, Lacob quickly jacked the revenues, renegotiating a local cable deal with Comcast SportsNet. That agreement paid the Warriors approximately $50 million up front—enough to take the sting off the purchase price—and roughly tripled the annual rights fee to over $25 million from $9 million. The agreement is for 18 years, with provisions to periodically renegotiate along the way.
Why the sudden cable bonanza for a team that’s been lousy since Bill Clinton’s first term? First, thank TiVo. As one of the few television options almost always viewed live—i.e., no commercial skipping—sports programming has commanded huge fee increases. Second, leverage. From Los Angeles to New York to Boston, sports teams have banded together to create incredibly profitable regional sports networks.
Rather than build his own, Lacob decided to hold up Comcast, which, with only one other winter sports team in the area, grabbed a chance to lock in the Warriors long term.
The next bonanza on the horizon: the arena. The Warriors have historically drawn well despite their outdated building, but they count on cheap tickets to do it. Last year, according to industry publication Team Marketing Report, prices were ninth lowest in the league, although the market is the NBA’s wealthiest and sixth largest. A 1997 renovation did little to transform Oracle Arena, a 1960s public venue in a dumpy section of Oakland. Because the Warriors don’t own it, their revenue cut from concerts and other nonbasketball events is limited to pieces of parking fees and suites. The team shares more than a third of its naming-rights fees from Oracle, valued at up to $30 million over ten years, with the city and county.
Big sports venue projects aren’t easy in California, where public dollars are tight and politicians are sympathetic to neighborhood objections. While the state does boast a few modern sports venues—San Francisco’s AT&T Park, San Diego’s Petco Park and Los Angeles’ Staples Center—it’s still home to seven teams playing in half-century-old facilities (the San Francisco 49ers are moving closer to a new stadium in Santa Clara, having just secured financing).
As he talks to the mayors of both San Francisco and Oakland in search of the best deal, Lacob acknowledges that California “is probably the hardest place in the country to build. The state has a lot of problems.” He gives San Francisco the early edge, citing AT&T Park and the surrounding area, which has been growing—firms like Salesforce.com and Twitter are nearby—thanks to the legwork the Giants have already done since 2000. But he knows he’s on his own. “It would be dishonest of me to sit here and tell you I expect to get a lot of public money,” he says. The other problem: San Francisco is expensive real estate, where a state-of-the-art venue could easily cost $1 billion. A lower-cost option: staying in the current Oakland site, where the rough surroundings are somewhat mitigated by freeway and train access.
Until then Lacob and Guber settle for smaller initiatives. They’ve bought some early goodwill with a more fan-friendly operation than the one run by Cohan, who hid out from the press and public for the 16 years he ran the place. During the recent lockout Lacob and Guber enticed season ticket buyers by promising 5% interest on deposits if the lockout wiped out the season and a guaranteed renewal for next season at no increase if the team failed to make the playoffs. Result: They bumped season-ticket sales by 1,000 over last year, to 10,500.
The partners also shook up club management, bringing in Hall of Fame player Jerry West, who as an executive built the Los Angeles Lakers into a juggernaut, as a special advisor; former NBA chief marketing officer and Phoenix Suns CEO Rick Welts as team president; and hard-nosed NBA point guard Mark Jackson as head coach.
But there’s still the matter of just two winning seasons in the past 17 years. Built mainly around scorers Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry, the Warriors’ roster lacks a quintessential franchise player. The club’s roughly $60 million payroll, ranking in the middle of the league, has its share of waste. Lee, a solid player but not a great one, has five years and about $70 million left on his deal. Latvian center Andris Biedrins, drafted in 2004, has underachieved since signing a six-year, $62 million extension in 2008.
As he watches Orlando superstar Dwight Howard ultimately lead the Magic to a comeback win by torching the Warriors for 45 points and 23 rebounds—tying an NBA record of 39 free throw attempts in the process—Lacob could only dream of luring the dominant big man to the Bay Area. Tampering rules prohibit him from commenting on the NBA rumor mill that includes Golden State as a possible landing spot for Howard, who’s contemplating his exit strategy to a bigger market. Whether the future franchise player is Howard or someone else, Guber and Lacob figure their job is to make the team a true destination. “This market should be elite, a place that players want to come to,” Guber says. Now, that would be something to see.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2012/03/30/best-buy-struggles-but-other-chains-have-it-far-worse/
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Best Buy Struggles, But Other Chains Have It Far Worse
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Best Buy Struggles, But Other Chains Have It Far Worse
Gallery: Where You Might Not Shop In 2012 11 images View gallery
Best Buy, the electronics retailer flying high not very long ago, recently announced it's closing 50 U.S. big box stores. Why? Customers are buying fewer plasma TV sets and more tablets and phones, requiring less space for a retailer.
The 50 stores represent only about 3% of the company's domestic total. Maye the modest downsizing will work, or maybe, as some think, it's nothing more than a small first step in an all-out downward spiral. Either way, it’s a reminder that even with the improved retail landscape of the past year or so, overcapacity remains. To put in the simplest terms: there are still just too many square feet of space out there dedicated to selling things to people.
Best Buy is getting all the attention right now. But as retail struggles go, it’s not even close to being the biggest. In December, we took a look at the chains in line for the toughest times this year (Where You Might Not Shop in 2012). Some, like specialty stores Anchor blue and AJ Wright, have shut their doors altogether. Bigger brands like Gap, Talbots and Blockbuster are closing between 12% and 23% of their stores.
Will Best Buy make the “Where You Might Not Shop in 2013” list? Unlikely. Beyond 2013? Stay tuned.
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6a982e98d425bcb9894d81396989d50c
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2012/04/30/americas-favorite-sports-mascots/
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America's Favorite Sports Mascots
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America's Favorite Sports Mascots
Gallery: Most Popular Sports Mascots 12 images View gallery
Things are looking up for the New York Mets. The Bernie Madoff case is settled (though the related debt will linger awhile), and the team is finishing up a winning April. Topping off the good news: the club’s longest serving member, Mr. Met, stands as America’s favorite sports mascot in 2012.
The simple, perpetually grinning veteran with the giant baseball head nosed out the Phillie Phanatic in the latest fan survey done by The Marketing Arm’s Davie Brown Index, which measures people’s perceptions of celebrities and their influence on brands. Measurements used by the DBI for sports mascots: awareness, likeability and breakthrough, the last of which refers to the degree consumers take notice of the mascot when he appears at the stadium and on television, plus the degree to which people are able to match a mascot to his team (a mascot named Mr. Met would seem to have little trouble there, while the San Antonio Spurs’ Coyote might have his work cut out for him).
Mr. Met goes all the way back to the franchise’s early Polo Ground years, when his image appeared on scorecards and yearbooks. The live character debuted in 1964, the year the Mets moved into Shea Stadium. As a National League expansion franchise whose original core audience was comprised of recently abandoned fans of the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, the Mets set out to distinguish themselves as a fun, family-oriented alternative to the corporate, buttoned down Yankees. A simple, kid-friendly mascot set that tone.
The Mets have mostly kept the character low key over the years -even shutting him down altogether for awhile. You’ve never seen Mr. Met ride around the field on an all-terrain vehicle or bait umpires. But his duties have increased during the club’s struggles at the gate in recent years. Mr. Met has become more active on television, starring in a series of ads in which, for example, he appears at the windowed door of an office conference room and distracts a couple of young corporate staffers from a boring meeting with a “Let’s Go Mets” clap.
Mascots have become a big part of business in recent years - a key piece of brand identitythat attracts kids (first fans) and scores points at hospitals, schools, business openings and other local community events.
While Mr. Met is a favorite for his light-hearted humor, the more zany and aggressive mascots still carry plenty of influence. The Phillie Phanatic, who has won this poll in the past, places a solid second this year. And the Phanatic’s “mentor,” the San Diego Chicken, puts forth another strong showing at No. 4. Even though the Chicken now freelances, having cut formal ties with the Padres years ago, he remains one of the most recognizable and appealing mascots out there.
Other baseball mascots making the cut: Miami’s Billy the Marlin and Boston’s Wally the Green Monster, along with the popular themed racers, Milwaukee’s sausages and Washington D.C.’s presidents.
The rest hail from the NBA, the other sports league where lots of intermittent breaks in the action lend themselves to mascot routines. While baseball mascots tend to be Muppet-like and light hearted, their basketball counterparts are athletic and daring. The Phoenix Suns’ Gorilla, who first popularized the trampoline-bouncing, slam dunking pro hoops mascot, continues going strong as a fan favorite. Joining him are Chicago’s Benny the Bull, San Antonio’s Coyote and Denver’s Rocky, an entertaining mountain lion.
Full List: America's Favorite Sports Mascots
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2012/10/23/the-nfls-most-and-least-liked-players/
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The NFL's Most (And Least) Liked Players
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The NFL's Most (And Least) Liked Players
Everyone loves the NFL. The individual players? That’s a different story. As with any sports league, fans choose their heroes and villains.
Gallery: NFL's Most (And Least) Liked Players 22 images View gallery
The biggest takeaway from our annual look at player popularity in the NFL: fans like quarterbacks, low-key pass catchers and Green Bay Packers. Who they don’t like: quarterbacks, cocky pass catchers and Dallas Cowboys.
Nielsen recently collaborated on a survey with E-Poll Market Research aimed at finding out which NFL players resonated with fans as appealing, and which didn’t. Players’ appeal numbers were scored based on the percentage of those whose response was to “like” the player or “like him a lot.”
First, a quick look at the top of each list. The most-liked player in the NFL is Troy Polumalu, the crazy-haired, high-energy defensive back from the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose appeal rating registers at 63%. Not much surprise there -- talent, all-out effort and a roster spot on a nationally popular team go a long way with fans. The league’s least-liked player: Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, the second overall pick in 2010 whose early popularity slipped into reverse as he developed a reputation for dirty play. Suh, whose appeal registers at just 19%, was suspended by the league last season for stomping on a Green Bay Packers lineman in front of a national TV audience on Thanksgiving Day.
As for pass catchers: fans take a liking to workmanlike receivers Rob Gronkowski (58%) and Donald Driver (57%), but not to perceived divas Randy Moss (24%) and Santonio Homes (28%).
Overall, though, no one dominates NFL fan passion like a quarterback. Five of the 1- most-liked and seven of the 10 least-liked players in the league, the poll shows, are QBs. On the thumbs-up list: Drew Brees (62% appeal), Peyton Manning (59%), Aaron Rodgers (58%), Robert Griffin III (57%) and Matthew Stafford (56%). The overriding theme: success, broken down one of two ways. Brees, Manning, Rodgers are Super Bowl winners, while Griffin and Stafford are young talents who seem to be living up to the draft hype. Griffin, in particular, has quickly broken through with a lot of attention and endorsement spots since joining the Washington Redskins, according to Nielsen’s Senior Vice President for Sports, Stephen Master.
“He plays on a high-profile team, with a lot of good, high-profile rivalries,” Master says of Washington’s perch in the NFC East, from which they play two annual games against the Cowboys, Giants and Eagles (Master notes, incidentally, that Giants' QB Eli Manning and his favorite target, receiver Victor Cruz, are very popular players who just missed the top 10 cutoff).
Then there are the quarterbacks who are not in the fans’ best graces: Jay Cutler (21% appeal), Michael Vick (23%), Matt Leinart (26%), Kyle Orton (27%), Tony Romo (27%), Mark Sanchez (31%) and Brady Quinn (31%). Call that list fans at their most demanding: Romo, Cutler, Vick, and Sanchez have all enjoyed degrees of success but haven’t joined Brees, Manning, and Rodgers in winning the big one (Vick also has his past legal issues of course). Meantime, Leinart and Quinn, both heralded college quarterbacks from major schools, haven’t joined Stafford or Griffin in living up to the hype.
Finally, there’s the team factor. Three Green Bay Packers -- Rodgers, Driver and defensive back Charles Woodson -- are among the 10 most liked players in the league. The most blatant contrast: not one but two Dallas Cowboys’ quarterbacks, Tony Romo and Kyle Orton, are among the least-liked.
Clearly, the NFL isn’t Major League Baseball, where long-term powerhouses are limited to big markets. Despite the Packers’ success -- 14 playoff seasons in 19 years, including a Super Bowl title and a 15-1 season in the past two -- their small-market status and vintage stadium keep them popular with fans. “They aren’t polarizing like the Yankees are in baseball,” says Master. “It’s the Cowboys that are football’s version of the Yankees.”
Romo, a good quarterback who by all accounts has never hurt anyone, and Orton, whose biggest sin was once getting caught on video drinking too much during his Denver days four years ago, can probably attest to that.
In Pictures: The NFL's Most (And Least) Liked Players
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2012/11/29/in-game-seat-upgrades-the-next-tech-wave-for-sports-tickets/?sh=65035d3439e6
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In-Game Seat Upgrades - The Next Tech Wave For Sports Tickets?
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In-Game Seat Upgrades - The Next Tech Wave For Sports Tickets?
(Getty Images via @daylife) If you’re like most NBA fans, you may have experienced this a few times:
Having shunned the arena’s higher prices near the floor, you and your buddy are settling into your cheap seats upstairs. The anticipated excitement of being at the game washes away just a bit as you look down at players the size of action figure dolls. You hadn't pictured the view being quite so high.
Then as you look around, you see a number of better seats below you that aren’t taken. Late arriving fans, perhaps. You wait a bit, maybe through the first quarter, and they’re still empty. Hmm, should we try to sneak down? How tough are the ushers here? Maybe slipping him a twenty would do it?
If Evan Owens, Co-Founder of tech startup Pogoseat, has his way, the age old practice of sneaking around or bribing ushers is about to come to a close. In the constantly evolving ticket business, his company has developed an application that lets fans use their smart phones to upgrade their seats right in the middle of the game. Check what’s available, press a button, buy your new seats, and head downstairs. You’re charged the price difference between the two locations, with Pogoseat taking a cut.
Backed by $500,000 in startup financing, with another round expected shortly, Pogoseat has unveiled the app with the NBA’s Silicon Valley team, the Golden State Warriors. Following test runs for team employees only at Stanford University football games and Warriors preseason games, the app went public when the Warriors kicked off their regular season home schedule on Nov.2. Owens sees the demand as yet another fan-enhancing experience that’s needed to drag people away from their HD screens at home.
“You need to keep giving fans a reason to come to the game,” he says.
Early adaption has been slow, with only 30 or so fans buying in-game upgrades through the club’s first six home games. Still, the service is brand new. It’s common at most NBA arenas (and other sports venues) to see a percentage of season ticket holders fail to show for any given game. If Golden State management can incentivize plan holders to notify them whenever they can’t make it (exactly how remains to be seen), the club can load those tickets into the system for the fans upstairs shopping for upgrades.
“It’s convenient, and it’s mutually beneficial,” “says Warriors Vice President of Ticket Sales Brandon Schneider. “How often do you go to your seat and find that it’s not as good as you thought?”
It’s also a great way for pro sports teams to monetize yet another piece of the aftermarket. Just as Major League Baseball clubs signed on with StubHub as a way take a piece of the scalping market for themselves, the Warriors now see an opportunity to profit from fans going for in-game upgrades that they’ve traditionally chased on the sly.
Golden State is certainly the obvious test lab for Pogoseat. Given their location, the Warriors generally cater to the NBA’s most tech-savvy crowd. Will the app catch on? Owens says he’s in talks with five other NBA teams, and, if the hockey lockout ever ends, hopes to be up with some NHL clubs as well.
For now, he seems to have a happy client. “I think in the future every sports team will be doing this,” says Schneider. He’s probably right. It does seem inevitable, as technology continues its march. The only unhappy campers will be the ushers.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2012/12/09/l-a-s-spending-spree-rolls-on-greinke-dons-dodger-blue/
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L.A.'s Spending Spree Rolls On: Greinke Dons Dodger Blue
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L.A.'s Spending Spree Rolls On: Greinke Dons Dodger Blue
(Getty Images via @daylife)
The New York Yankees are no longer baseball’s spending kings. The Los Angeles Dodgers are. A six-year, $145 million deal with pitcher Zack Greinke, the latest in a series of spending splurges, all but assures that L.A.’s payroll will top $200 million in 2013.
Just as Yankee owner Hal Steinbrenner is fixating on cutting back and avoiding luxury taxes, Dodger brass – Mark Walter, Stan Kasten, Ned Colletti – are channeling Steinbrenner’s dad George. Damn the consequences, full speed ahead.
In one respect, you can understand the Dodgers’ thinking. Doing business in Hollywood isn’t cheap. The weather is great, and entertainment choices are everywhere. The sports industry needs to load up on its share of glitz to draw fans. And within the sports industry, franchises battle for the limelight and customer dollars.
The battle is getting fierce in L.A. The Angels landed Albert Pujols and brought up Mike Trout. The Lakers paraded in Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to join Kobe Bryant. Even the traditionally hapless Clippers are staking their claim with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. A handful of people even cared when the Kings took the 2012 Stanley Cup, though that mojo stopped rising when the NHL decided to shut down shortly afterward.
So if you just laid out $2 billion to buy the town’s most iconic franchise, complete with local sports legend Magic Johnson as front man, you’re not going to do things small. You’re going to rattle the cage and spend some dough, especially with that expected cable bounty from Fox on the way.
All that said, the Dodgers’ spree is still tough to figure. Unlike an NBA team, where a couple of All-Stars can dominate the ball, a baseball team doesn’t build its fan base with individual drawing cards. It draws fans by winning. David Wright and R.A. Dickey didn’t bring in many extra fans to New York’s Citi Field during the Mets’ 74-88 season.
From a baseball perspective, the Dodgers’ spending orgy is puzzling. It began last summer with the acquisition of Hanley Ramirez from the Miami Marlins, and continued with the big trade that landed Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett from the Red Sox. Now it’s Greinke, poached from down the freeway in Anaheim.
The Dodgers will pay those five players $96.75 million in 2013. A good investment? Hardly. Based on last year’s production, the five combined for only 8.7 wins above replacement (WAR) in 2012. It works out to a whopping $11.1 million per WAR point, nearly three times the average cost on the free agent market, according to various baseball blogs dedicated to advanced metrics (even the player who yields the most value of the bunch, Gonzalez, runs $6.6 million per WAR, well above market).
And the $96.75 million doesn’t include the big haul the Dodgers gave to retain two of their own players, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. The two outfielders will cost the club another $33.5 million next season. Those signings made more sense than the acquisitions did on a bang-for-buck basis, according to the numbers, though Kemp is still pricey at $20 million a year.
Certainly, the numbers will look better for the Dodgers if Greinke, Crawford, Gonzalez, Beckett and Ramirez return to vintage form in 2013 and beyond. But the odds of that happening aren’t very good. All five are currently between 29 and 33 years old, just at or beyond the peak for most players (a typical baseball player enjoys his best years between 26 and 29, according to data from economist J. C. Bradbury, who writes for Baseball Prospectus).
Crawford, 31, peaked during 2009 and 2010, before injury and ineffectiveness took hold during the past two years. Ramirez’s two best seasons were 2008 and 2009 - he enters 2013 on a two-year decline at age 29.
As for Greinke, whose enormous talent has been challenged by social anxiety disorder for most of his career, the Dodgers’ will be his fourth team in nine Major League seasons. The stuff he showed during his stellar Cy Young Award season with the Royals in 2009 has only been flashed periodically since. Of the 29.5 WAR points Greinke has accumulated in his career, 10.1 of them came that year.
Greinke can chalk up his bounty not to any real analytical take on his value, but to the timing of his free agency - he was lucky enough to be the best pitcher on the market this year. And he can chalk it up to a swashbuckling front office trying to do things big in Hollywood.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2013/02/18/lakers-owner-jerry-buss-dies/
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Lakers Owner Jerry Buss Dies
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Lakers Owner Jerry Buss Dies
Jerry Buss playing at the World Series of Poker (Wikipedia)
Lakers' owner Jerry Buss, a leading architect of the modern entertainment-fused NBA, died today in Los Angeles at age 80.
Buss,who earned a PhD in chemistry before making his fortune in real estate, bought the Lakers, the NHL's L.A. Kings and the Forum for $67.5 million from Jack Kent Cooke back in 1979. At the time of his death, the Lakers were valued by Forbes at $1 billion. Buss sold off the Kings in 1987.
Along the way, Buss became one of the first major sports owners to sell naming rights to his arena, re-naming the Forum as the Great Western Forum after a Savings & Loan in 1988. The team, which won 10 NBA titles on Buss's watch, moved into the more lucrative Staples Center in 1999.
His most compelling contribution: putting together the "Showtime" Lakers clubs of the 1980s which, along with the Boston Celtics, moved the NBA into arguably its most glorious era. His very first draft pick, Magic Johnson, took the league by storm and led L.A. to the 1979-80 title, kicking off a decade of memorable battles with Larry Bird and the Celtics (the two teams combined for eight of nine NBA championships from 1980 through 1988).
Just as importantly, Buss identified Johnson as a guy he could build a glamorous, entertaining team around, one that fit the town and drew tons of Hollywood A-listers into courtside seats. In one of Johnson's early pre-season games as rookie, Buss had a sudden mid-game idea to instruct the Forum's public address announcer to identify not only the scorer after a basket but to call out "assist by Magic" anytime Johnson fed the player who scored. A small gesture by today's standards, but a subtle sign of the sports and entertainment fusion that was to come.
NBA commissioner David Stern is widely credited with resurrecting the NBA by convincing owners to market primarily through the league's star players - Bird, Magic, Michael Jordan, etc., after taking the office in 1984. And deservedly so. But in some ways, Stern was simply following the lead of Jerry Buss, who had already been on that track for five years.
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23b5e9d55171bb3ee9962a2f222c5554
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2014/03/18/march-is-for-corporate-madness-too/
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March Is For Corporate Madness, Too
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March Is For Corporate Madness, Too
For corporate execs looking to parlay entertainment spending into revenue, it doesn’t get any better than March Madness.
The one comparable event, the Super Bowl, boasts the single biggest day of the year. More than half the tickets sold to the Super Bowl, and some 80% of suite sales, comes from corporate check books. But the NCAA Tournament is a three-week event, with 67 games spread all over the country.
Like the Super Bowl, more than 50% of the ticket, suite and hospitality revenue comes from corporate business. The percentage jumps to 65% for the Final Four, which will be held at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas this year.
“Companies are footing the bill because they want to align their brands with emotions of tribal fans, the face painters,” says Tony Knopp, CEO of SpotlightTMS , a ticket management company that distributes tickets between sports teams (or schools) and their corporate clients.
March Madness kicks off this week (SneakinDeacon)
While the Super Bowl is for premium clients, March Madness extends to a bigger portfolio and then builds to the top clients for the Final Four. Lower level clients can be entertained for as little as $75 a game during the early rounds. According to TMS Data, the cost for each ticket translates into roughly $100,000 in sales revenue for the company. Prices jump to as much as $1,000 for the Final Four, an investment that brings $2.4 million, on average (not that you’re turning that kind of profit with every client – no doubt a few big deals skew these averages. But it certainly shows that entertaining at big sporting events generally pays).
A big company that entertains at the Final Four will generally buy up a couple of hundred tickets, according to Knopp.
Also like the Super Bowl - and unlike the NBA Finals or World Series - knowing months in advance where the event is to be held makes planning that much easier. AT&T is a big annual spender on the tournament, part of a big three with Coca-Cola and Capital One, according to Knopp. “(The tournament) is as good as the Super Bowl because it’s a longer event where you can activate around different regions and build up to the Final Four,” Knopp says. “A lot of flexibility, where you can stretch your dollar.”
There’s another built-in asset. NCAA events are typically alcohol-free - except in the suites. Those 35-to-55-year-old professionals you’re coveting are going to have a bit of extra motivation to escape the masses at the standard concession line.
And while America loves a Cinderella, the corporate entertainers don’t. The numbers show that as big name programs – Duke, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, et al advance, prices that clients are willing to pay for tickets and suites go up. Premium business brands love premium sports brands.
While an underdog making a run makes for a more compelling tournament, Knopp says, “You don’t want them in the Final Four.”
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2014/04/16/the-best-cities-for-raising-a-family-2/
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The Best Cities For Raising A Family
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The Best Cities For Raising A Family
Gallery: America's Best Cities for Raising a Family 10 images View gallery
Raleigh, N.C., has built a solid economy around financial services, software and energy, a major retail shipping operation and its renowned Research Triangle.
The metro area is also blessed with quality schools, low crime, lots of oak trees and a low cost of living relative to its residents' rising level of income. About two-thirds of locals own their own homes. Among America’s major population centers, is there a better place to raise a family? We don’t think so. Raleigh gets the nod in 2014, edging out Grand Rapids, Mich., Ogden, Utah, and Omaha, Neb.
Grand Rapids, our winner in 2012, boasts the highest percentage of homeowners in the country (77%), with minimal commute times and low crime. Both Ogden and Omaha, much like Raleigh, offer relatively low costs of living even with household incomes that beat the average of large U.S. metro areas.
Taste in cities is always subjective, of course. There’s nothing wrong with raising children in New York or Chicago, and if the bright lights and energy of those towns are what suits you then you probably wouldn’t be very happy in Raleigh, Grand Rapids or Omaha.
But individual tastes aside, we believe there’s a logical, objective set of criteria with which to measure family friendliness. We ranked America’s 100 largest metro areas on median household income (data from Census Bureau), Cost of Living Index (Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness), housing affordability (the percentage of homes in the area affordable to those making the local median income – NAHB/ Wells Fargo ), the percentage of residents who own their homes (Census Bureau) average commuting delays (Texas Transportation Institute), crime rate rankings (FBI via CQ Press) and local school quality (greatschools.org).
You’ve probably noticed that Raleigh has appeared on a few of these “Best” lists in recent years, in Forbes and other publications. And for good reason: it’s managed to grow into a major metro area (its population has expanded about 50% since 2000) with a minimum of the hassles that invariably come along with it, like rising prices and congestion. A beltway loop built around the city has helped ease local traffic. Median household income ($58,000) ranks in the top 30 among the nation’s 100 largest metros, while the local cost of living still ranks in the bottom 30. Commuting delays, always a factor in missing quality family time, are eighth-lowest in the country, according to the Texas Transportation Institute.
The one area where costs are creeping higher: housing. Just under 72% of Raleigh-area homes are deemed affordable at the median income level, according to the latest joint study from from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo. That’s not bad, but it’s the one category where Raleigh falls a bit below the national major metro average. It could be a sign that growth beyond the family comfort zone is slowly creeping in. But for now, Raleigh sits in the sweet spot of big city and small town life rolled together.
Full List: The Best Cities For Raising A Family
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2014/09/26/derek-jeters-money-making-career-has-just-begun/
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Derek Jeter's Money-Making Career Has Just Begun
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Derek Jeter's Money-Making Career Has Just Begun
The six-month retirement party is nearly over.After his ninth inning heroics in his final home game, Derek Jeter wraps things up this weekend at, of all places, Boston's Fenway Park.
The symmetry actually makes sense: A Yankee great who battled the Red Sox in so many big games over the years now finds both his own skills and the storied rivalry fading at the same time. At 40, Jeter goes out with a final day in the sun at Fenway while the American League East’s new kings, the Baltimore Orioles, prepare for the playoffs. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry can always rekindle, but the laws of nature dictate that Jeter's athleticism won't. Nonetheless, Fenway may well prove to be the site not of a true retirement, but merely final pit of a career transition. For all millions Jeter has pocketed as a player, the real money is still ahead of him, ready for the taking.
Statistically, Jeter is a borderline top 100 all-time player, plenty good enough to qualify for the Hall of Fame. His standing with the press and the public, though, reaches well beyond that. The reasons are easy enough to grasp: big market, iconic team, five rings, no PEDs, years of consistency, and, by all appearances, a modest, team-oriented player. A throwback in the age of the gyrating, “look at me” athlete.
It all plays well for life after baseball. Jeter certainly has a shot at being that rare breed of ex-athlete who continues to flourish with endorsements and other business opportunities long after his playing days stop. Think Michael Jordan on a lower scale.
Whether it’s straight endorsements or equity-based deals, “He’ll have offers thrown at him by companies that want to use his name,” says Ryan Schinman, CEO of Platinum Rye Entertainment, a company that brokers deals between celebrities and corporations. “Jeter could make hundreds of millions post-career.”
The biggest reason: Jeter is a crossover star who is recognized by large swaths of the public who aren’t necessarily big baseball fans. To appeal to those who are hardcore fans, especially in New York, Jeter is sitting in the perfect spot: he’s a true Yankee icon who is still a relatively young man. Unlike Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, he’ll be alive and kicking for years to come, Schinman points out.
Derek Jeter: set to a call it a career (Wikipedia)
The ongoing celebration of Jeter’s career in 2014 brought some mixed feelings. Some found it perfectly appropriate, others thought it to be a bit crass and over commercialized. Regardless, the season-long Jeter commercial we’ve all been witness to generally bolsters the Yankee shortstop’s profile and brand as he heads into the next money-making phase of his life. And one thing he’ll have now is time.
“Derek has turned down dozens of deals over the years, not because he didn’t want to do them, but because of a lack of time during the season,” says Schinman. “Now he can make more money because companies can have what they haven’t been able to get.”
Jeter has said he doesn’t yet know exactly how he plans to spend his upcoming days, though he’s already got his hand in a publishing business and he’s indicated an interest in being part of a baseball ownership group. At the same time, there’s no reason to think that Nike, Ford and other big brands won’t continue to do business with him.
Fenway is where Jeter will cap a playing career that’s earned him $265 million, or over $300 million with endorsements. But Fenway isn’t the end for Jeter, it’s a springboard to even more money.
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e41e1b9050409caa77ab53f8c4bf023f
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2015/11/13/jose-reyes-could-have-been-better-than-derek-jeter/
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Jose Reyes Could Have Been Better Than Derek Jeter
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Jose Reyes Could Have Been Better Than Derek Jeter
Jose Reyes turns two against the Giants on the final day of the 2015 regular season. (Photo by Brian... [+] Bahr/Getty Images)
The recent arrest of Colorado Rockies’ shortstop Jose Reyes on suspected domestic violence charges seems surprising - Reyes has always come across as a happy, jovial sort with no known history of this type of thing. Yet in a twisted sort of way, it doesn’t seem all that surprising that his puzzling, underachieving, regressing career would hit bottom in some strange fashion.
Since news broke of Reyes’ October 31 arrest for allegedly pushing his wife into a sliding glass door in a Hawaii hotel room, we’ve naturally been inundated with the predictable “Rob Manfred can send a strong message with a long suspension” stories from across the media spectrum. And those stories could all turn out to be right if Reyes did in fact assault his wife in such a way. It would probably be a good idea, though, to see exactly what facts come out as the case moves ahead.
But regardless of how Reyes’ legal case turns out, the incident puts an exclamation point on the downward path of his career, one that’s been brewing for some time after such a promising start. Acting impulsively before he thinks has been a Reyes trademark on the field for a long time.
What a star Reyes figured to be. As a New York Met back in 2006, the season he turned 23, Reyes hit .300 with a .354 on-base percentage, led the league with 17 triples and 64 stolen bases, popped 19 homers, and drove in 81 runs from the leadoff spot (and that’s the leadoff spot in a National League lineup, where the pitcher hits right in front of you). And he played a great shortstop – quick, agile, with a bazooka for a right arm. He did it all with boundless energy and a constant smile on his face. Reyes had all the tools. He was electric, with a seemingly limitless future. He had enough raw talent to surpass Derek Jeter as the best shortstop to ever play in New York.
But of course Reyes’ career doesn’t compare to Jeter’s. Maximizing one’s potential takes more than talent. It takes brains, baseball savvy and fundamentals. Jeter always had those things, Reyes didn’t, and still doesn’t. He continued to produce close to his 2006 level for another couple of years, but eventually the lack of sense took its toll. The boneheaded plays piled up – forcing throws in the field, getting picked off, over-sliding bases, and getting caught trying to stretch doubles into triples with no outs. Before Yoenis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig, Reyes was baseball’s poster boy for style undermining substance, where showing off your skills seems to take precedence over making the right play.
Reyes has been on a steady, downhill slide since 2008, with the brief exception of his bounce back 2011 season in which he led the N.L in hitting in his contract year. The Mets were clearly right to let him walk that year - t
he Rockies are his fourth team in four years. And now - if the facts bear it out - he seems to have made the biggest bone headed play of all. Sad, but really not all that surprising.
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ac71338ac65741bba3226b6f2045bae2
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2016/08/17/how-j-k-rowling-rose-to-success-and-how-you-can-too/
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How J.K. Rowling Rose To Success And How You Can Too
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How J.K. Rowling Rose To Success And How You Can Too
(Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
Rowling’s new book, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, sold more than 3.3 million copies in the U.S. and Canada, publisher Scholastic announced last week. It is currently ranked No. 1 among all books on Amazon.
The Harry Potter franchise has been extremely lucrative for Rowling. According to Forbes, she has earned approximately $1 billion over her career, making her the world’s richest author.
Gallery: First Look: 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' 11 images View gallery
But things haven’t always worked out so well for her. Before publishing her first book, Rowling was living a small apartment in the U.K. with her daughter, unemployed and broke. She had to rely on state benefits just to keep food on the table.
How did she rise from such humble beginnings to become one of the most successful authors of all time? What can we learn from her career?
1. Have A Vision: Rowling always knew she was going to be a writer. According to her website, "As soon as I knew what writers were, I wanted to be one.” But it took more than wishful thinking. She started writing the Harry Potter series during a delayed train ride from Manchester to London. Rowling envisioned all of the characters and the story started to take shape. She spent the next five years outlining the plots for each book and wrote down the names and magical powers of every single character. It’s that attention to detail that make the stories so great.
2. Accept Setbacks: Soon after she started writing, she was hit with the devastating loss of her mother and sank into a deep, dark depression and stopped writing. She then took a job teaching English in Portugal where she met her future husband. Her goal was to have the book completed by the time she got back to England. Not only did she not finish the book but her marriage failed and she had to go back to England with a newborn baby and no job.
3. Be Persistent: While on welfare and taking care of a small child, she would spend every free moment writing, often in coffee shops with her baby napping beside her. Still, it took her five long years to finish the book. Finally having completed the book, she now needed to get it published. The first 12 publishers that read it turned her down. Finally, Bloomsbury Publishing agreed to buy the rights to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for $4,000.
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The book became an instant hit and soon caught the attention of U.S. publishers. A bidding war broke out, with Scholastic Publishing eventually purchasing the story for over $100,000, the largest sum they had ever paid an author. It’s been almost 20 years since Harry Potter made his debut and he still hasn’t lost that magic touch.
J.K. Rowling went from being an unemployed single mother, living on welfare, to become one of the best selling authors of all time. She was plagued by self-doubt and rejected countless times along the way but kept pushing on because she believed in herself. Not all of us will become famous authors but we can become the greatest version of ourselves by having a vision, accepting setbacks, being persistent and making a little magic along the way.
Watch on Forbes:
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45ad4b15087e66c516b6de20cccc02cb
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2017/03/10/stop-trying-to-make-mcns-happen-it-aint-working/
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Stop Trying To Make MCNs Happen (It Ain't Working)
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Stop Trying To Make MCNs Happen (It Ain't Working)
Guests attend the JustFab + StyleHaul Screening: 'Relationship Status' on April 28, 2016 in Los... [+] Angeles, California. (Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for JustFab)
Remember 2013? It was the year of the man bun, EDM, and people saying, "I know right?" after just about every sentence. MCNs (multi-channel networks) were all the rage and they were selling for big money.
Awesomeness TV started it off when they were acquired by Dreamworks for about $120 million. In early 2014 Maker Studios was sold to Disney for approx. $500 million. Fullscreen was sold to Otter Media for about $200 million and StyleHaul to RTL for approx. $150 million.
Fast forward to last week when Maker Studios, once the premier MCN, announced massive layoffs and cut ties to the majority of their online talent.
So how did we end up here and what does the future hold for MCNs?
Stephanie Horbaczewski, Founder and CEO of StyleHaul, said, "Three years ago there was a great need for companies like StyleHaul because advertisers weren't getting what they paid for. They were just spending money because they needed to be in the influencer space. You'd see a lot of content that was generating hundreds of thousands of views but only getting 12 comments. There was no engagement."
After jumping into the business, the MCNs quickly realized that the traditional ad driven business model didn't work. After splitting the revenue with YouTube and the creator, there wasn't a large amount left over. Plus, if a creator didn't have a massive following, they weren't generating the necessary revenue to keep creating good content.
The MCNs had to come up with a new revenue stream and the smart ones embraced long form content. AwesomnessTV was an early adopter of this and they have produced many successful branded content series, such as Royal Crush. They have sold shows to Netflix and are getting into the movie business, with their first release, Before I Fall, coming to theaters this month
You can't call them MCNs anymore. They do so much more.
Originally MCNs were created as a way to help YouTube content creators with programming, cross-promotion, monetization, and audience development in exchange for a percentage of the ad revenue from the channel.
Stephanie Horbaczewski says, "We were never an MCN. We create large-scale multi-platform marketing programs with a data-driven management system that identifies consumers with the highest affinity for the brand. Our capacity to analyze trends across their influencer base in real-time to identify the ideal influencers and content strategies for increased engagement and ultimately customer conversion is what has allowed us to take our business to the next level in the digital space."
Fullscreen is another example of an MCN that has evolved over the years. They produce live events, own their own production company, and are in the streaming business.
All these new ventures have their own challenges though. It is extremely expensive producing high quality long form content. Plus there is intense competition for top Hollywood producers.
Some talent are starting to question whether they even need MCNs. The old days of big guaranteed money (sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars) are gone. It's getting harder for them to justify signing with an MCN. The ones that do sign with them do so in order to get brand partnerships and help with creating content.
So what does the future hold for the MCNs?
They are getting back to basics: Working with less creators, instead focusing on the ones that have the biggest followings that align with the brands that they represent. They will continue to evolve and create new ways to add value to both their advertisers and their talent.
As people spend more time on digital every day, they will continue to drive innovation and content.
Call them a multi-platform entertainment company, an influencer marketing platform, or an MPN: Just don't call them an MCN.
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4cdb3cd33d7f4a7b327eacccff80f3d1
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2017/05/09/nuggs-and-sass-inside-wendys-social-media-secret-sauce/
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Nuggs And Sass: Inside Wendy's Social Media Secret Sauce
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Nuggs And Sass: Inside Wendy's Social Media Secret Sauce
Carter Wilkerson has broken the world record for the most retweets, in a crusade to win a year's... [+] supply of his favorite food: chicken nuggets. On May 9, 2017, his message had been retweeted more than 3.4 million times, beating the record that Degeneres racked up at the 2014 Oscars, when she posted a selfie with a gaggle of film stars that included Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Brad Pitt. (AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON)
Even if you haven't had a Wendy's burger or Frosty in years, you've probably heard about their social media this year.
It started with their hilarious clapbacks where they called out everyone from McDonalds to trolls.
Then it was the #NuggsForCarter tweet that went viral. On April 5, 2017, Carter Wilkerson tweeted at Wendy's asking, “How many retweets for a year of free nuggets?"
Wendy's quickly replied, “18 million."
He soon gained a following and just set a new record for the most retweeted post of all time; beating Ellen DeGeneres’s Oscar selfie, which had 3.2 million retweets.
So how did Wendy's blow up on social? What can we learn?
I had a chance to hear Brandon Rhoten, Head of Media, Advertising and Digital/Social for Wendy's, at the WOMMA Summit in NYC where he had some great insights into their success:
• Hire Good People: Rhoten explained, “Don't just hire someone because they're young and have a SnapChat account. Follow their social accounts. Make sure they understand the platforms."
• Let Them Do Their Job: “When one of my team saw Carter’s tweet, asking for a lifetime supply of nuggets, they messaged me to ask if we could engage with him and possibly give away free nuggets for life. I told them, "Yes," and they ran with it. Hire good people, give them direction and a framework, and let them do their job,” said Rhoten.
• Clear Voice Direction: Most brands have several people handling the day-to-day posts, so without a clear direction your brand will never develop a distinct voice. Rhoten said, “Our voice is Chris Pratt's in Guardians Of The Galaxy. We don't have any superpowers and we're not superhuman. We're just a regular guy who happens to be funny and a little sarcastic."
• Know How You're Going To Engage: Rhoten said, “Everyone needs to know how we're going to engage, how far we'll take it, etc. We've got to constantly ask ourselves, ‘Can we improve the conversation?'"
• Take Risks: “Everything interesting in marketing has an inherent risk in it," stated Rhoten. It's better to take a take a chance and risk alienating some people then to play it safe. If you're like everyone else then no one will care and you'll never command an audience.
• Be Unique: Rhoten said, “Most brands suck at social. There are maybe 20-25 brands that are interesting. Wendy's stands out because we're different…Think about what makes you interesting. Focus on that. You have to find that thing and leverage it across all platforms.”
Whether you love the way they interact on social or hate it, you’ve got to admit that you know exactly who Wendy’s is now. You couldn’t say that ten years ago.
So, whether you have a boring B2B company or a hot consumer brand, you can have fun on social. Go ahead, take a chance and be different! Remember, if you try to appeal to everyone then you end up appealing to no one.
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a7850bbb776296c5abb19f7f44027dca
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2017/06/06/kate-hudson-from-almost-famous-to-fabletics-greatness/
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Kate Hudson: From 'Almost Famous' To Fabletics Greatness
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Kate Hudson: From 'Almost Famous' To Fabletics Greatness
Kate Hudson Hosts The Launch Of The Demi Lovato For Fabletics Collection Fabletics
It’s a beautiful afternoon at the Beverly Hills Hotel and Kate Hudson is walking the red carpet. There are the usual celebs, hangers on, and paparazzi that you’d expect to find at any Hollywood event, but this party is a little different. Instead of promoting a movie or TV show, everyone is there to celebrate the launch of Fabletics’ first ever collaboration, with pop superstar Demi Lovato.
Watch on Forbes:
“I love Fabletics. The clothes are so cute, but most importantly I love what they stand for,” said Demi Lovato. “The company is all about inspiring women and empowering them to be the best version of themselves, to be strong, and it doesn’t matter what shape, or size, or age. It’s just about empowering women and I love that.”
Since their founding in 2013, Fabletics has been just that: A fashion-forward athleisure brand, designed to be inclusive and empowering. In just three and a half short years, Kate and her team have grown their little startup into a $250 million company.
Not bad for an actress with no business background.
In 2013, the founders of the TechStyle Fashion Group, Don Ressler and Adam Goldenberg, had an idea about starting an athleisure brand. At the time there wasn’t a stylish, reasonably priced, quality athleisure brand out there. It was a sea of black and grey overpriced workout gear for women.
They wanted to change that but they needed a partner.
Kate Hudson was the first person that they thought of. “Kate truly represented what they wanted Fabletics to be. She’s approachable, doesn’t take herself too seriously, and has a very active lifestyle,” said Fabletics president Gregg Throgmartin.
Kate was heavily involved from day one: Whether it was reviewing budgets or picking a social media strategy, Kate was hands-on. She continues to be extremely involved in the design process and works closely with the team to ensure that the styles stay fresh. She looks at the sales numbers every week and knows exactly which clothes are selling and which aren’t.
While it’s hard to imagine many celebrities actually using the products they endorse (I doubt LeBron James actually drives a Kia), it’s not hard to picture Kate running around with her kids or going to the gym in her Fabletics gear.
Throgmartin said, “If there’s one thing that I learned about Kate, it’s that she will not do it if it’s not authentic to her. I think that’s why she’s had such longevity. If she doesn’t believe it in her core, she’s not doing it.”
Although they had a good idea, experienced investors and a celebrity founder, success didn’t come quickly or easily. The company experienced several hurdles early on.
“Our goal was to have the best product in the industry for about half the price," Throgmartin said. "It didn’t start out so great. Our first order was for $300k in inventory, which we had to trash because of poor quality. We had to delay our launch six months in order to make a better quality product. But it was worth it. We’re fanatical about quality.”
Kate also faced negative press, from celebrities like Cher and others on social media, who felt that the Fabletics membership model was a scam. There were also concerns that their most popular items often were sold out.
Hudson spearheaded an effort to make clear communication a priority. Fabletics upgraded their customer service department and implemented a new data system to ensure they’d have the proper inventory levels. In 18 months, Fabletics had a top rating from the Better Business Bureau and a much-improved customer satisfaction score.
Because of this commitment to quality and customer service, Fabletics grew quickly: In 2014 they experienced triple-digit growth. From 2015 to 2016, they grew 43%. In 2017 they’re projected to reach $250 million in sales. They have 1.2 million members and while a lot of businesses are getting out of retail, Fabletics saw a retail growth of 644% last year.
Their partnership with their parent company, TechStyle Fashion Group, has helped to fuel this growth. Rather than go at it alone, Kate hooked up with a company that had funding, experience in the online fashion world and most importantly resources. Instead of having to hire their own Facebook expert, design staff, marketing team, etc. they can share these resources with their parent company. Seventy percent of Fabletics is now a shared service.
Another reason for their rapid growth is their data-driven approach to business. Throgmartin said, “Data runs our business. It tells us what customers are responding to on social, the quantity of product we need to make, and the type of inventory that we're going to design. We're using technology that allows us to collect data at multiple points and send it upstream.”
This data allows Fabletics to serve the customer by matching them with the perfect outfit, remembering their personalized information at the retail store level, and producing clothing that they’ll like. It also allows the company to better streamline their production schedule. The predictive data synchs perfectly with Fabletics’ back-end integration, which allows them to go from design to production in only eight weeks.
Despite the crowded marketplace and industry experts who are calling the athleisure fad dead, the future looks bright for Fabletics. The company, which has 22 retail stores currently, plans on opening a dozen more in 2017 and growing rapidly in the next three years. Along with their growing membership base, their data-driven approach to manufacturing and their successful partnerships with celebs like Demi Lovato, the business is poised to grow rapidly over the next several years.
Even with all this success, don’t expect Hudson to quit her day job just yet. When I asked her if she wanted to be remembered as a businesswoman or an actor, she laughed and replied, “I'm an actor through and through. I'm really proud of the things that I'm doing in business, which we’ll continue and expand, but being an artist is where my heart is at."
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dd13a357e82fc51fc7bd93d28b3674a7
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2017/12/01/the-influencer-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2018/
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The Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2018
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The Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2018
(Photo by Jules Ameel/Getty Images for NYX Professional Makeup )
With the rise of ad blockers and decline in radio and TV viewership, influencer marketing has proven to be the most effective form of advertising. It was on every trend list in 2017 and will continue to be a focus of smart marketers in 2018.
I asked the top influencers, the marketing thought leaders, and the industry insiders where they thought influencer marketing was headed in 2018 and beyond.
Here’s what they had to say:
Influencers:
Rachel Levin- Social media star with 20 million followers on social: For 2018, I don't believe that there is any specific set influencer marketing trend that will appear, aside from: There will more influencers used in every company’s basic marketing strategy. More and more people are learning the power that influencers have. I believe that it will be rare for any brand to launch a campaign that doesn't involve at lease one social media influencer. The trajectory is going to grow steeper and steeper as more and more small companies are starting to do things in this new way; which is social media.
Lauren Riihimaki, known as LaurDIY- Social media star with 15 million followers on social: Influencer marketing has evolved a lot this year. Some of my favorite brands are only now getting into it and it’s been amazing to work with them and see them find major success. I’ve also been lucky enough to find some amazing longer-term partnerships, like Mudd and Fanta, where I’m able to become an ambassador for the brand and help them build a relationship with my audience. Instead of working on a bunch of smaller campaigns, with a lot of influencers, brands are starting to see the value in aligning with a few really great creators that they can trust and that reflect their views. I’m really looking forward to being able to announce some of the projects I’m about to start working on with some incredible brands!
Wengie- YouTuber with over 12 million followers on social: The trend I see is influencers trying new things! They are using their audience to develop their passions, whether it’s acting, singing or writing. I’m seeing influencers do really well in a new space which is interesting because many are going solo, not needing the distribution machine that talent has needed in the past, like record labels or publishing houses.
DeStorm Power- YouTuber with over 12 million followers on social: I see influencers showing their star power by competing with the traditional media by doing even bigger campaigns. From commercials to billboards they’ll show they can go just as big.
Charlie Xavier (aka WOLFIE)- YouTube comedian with over 8 million followers on social: Big brands continued to dabble in the space with micro-budgets in 2017; testing influencer marketing for the first time. We're finally in a place where major brands have now completed their "proof of concept" campaigns and will be shifting a massive piece of their budgets from mainstream marketing over to influencers. Next year is going to be our year, as creators. I'm excited to see what comes and to see how the brands who really "get it" will execute breakthrough ideas that continue to push the boundaries of advertising and marketing.
Karina Garcia- YouTuber with over 7 million followers on social: From where I'm situated, I've noticed an increase in brands looking to produce family-friendly branded content. My connection with my fans is extremely personal. In order to provide an authentic experience for the fans, as well as provide a return on investment for the brand, I believe we'll see more and more brands establishing long-term relationships with individual creators instead of enlisting a large number of talent to create one-off pieces of content. My area of focus, DIY and crafting, is a perfect bridge between the digital and real world because it allows my fans to use their hands to replicate the different projects. This high level of interactivity provides the fans with a less passive experience than typical video content and the brand with a longer and more meaningful impression on their target audience.
Erika Costell- Social media star with over 6 million followers on social: The quality and production value of integrated content will be enhanced in 2018. Now that there are more and more mediums for content every day, our viewers are expecting a higher production value; some sort of juxtaposition of normal everyday or bedroom vlogs, mixed with Hollywood sets, where there is still room for a personal element in the content.
Nikki Phillippi- YouTuber with over 2 million followers on social: Digital marketing has changed so much since I started working with brands 6 years ago. The biggest change I’ve seen is that they understand that the space is actually valuable and important to be in now! Because of that, there is so much more opportunity for influencers to make a living by connecting with incredible brands. It has been interesting to watch the digital landscape change and evolve throughout the years and now see companies really start to “get it." In the coming months/year, I think that brands are not only going to continue working with influencers, but I think they’re going to start doing it in a bigger way and collaborate on larger more long- term deals.
Marketing Thought Leaders:
Murray Newlands- Entrepreneur, investor, business advisor and marketing guru: As more advertising dollars move to influencer marketing, 2018 will be the year where brands truly start to look beyond likes and follower counts and begin to focus on engagement…On the consumer side we are seeing consumers start to look for greater authenticity from influencers and to try and look beyond the post to what the influencer actually likes and what their day is like…This will provide an opportunity for brands to find even more novels ways to feature products in the lives and routines of influencers and drive customer engagement.
Cynthia Johnson- Entrepreneur, marketing professional, author, and keynote speaker: It won’t enough to just pay someone to post anymore; Brand ambassadors will be necessary. The rise in personnel branding will also continue to be more important. The use of micro-influencers will continue to rise. Finally, I see live video, or real experiences, being the ideal way to consume content and work with brands.
John Rampton- Entrepreneur, connector, influencer: With influencer marketing likes, clicks, engagement and comments mean nothing if it’s not generating revenue. Focus your efforts on driving likes, clicks, comments and different types of engagement that actually drives top line revenue to your business. If you’re not driving dollars, eventually you’ll run out of it.
Jeff Haden- Ghostwriter, speaker, LinkedIn influencer, contributing editor Inc: I see influencer marketing as less of a one-off tactic and part of a longer-term strategy. One tweet, one share, one testimonial, event-driven tactics naturally provide short-term and therefore limited results. Shifting to a longer-term approach that builds a relationship with an influencer - and therefore with customers - is much more effective. Take Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett. He’s used Ernie Ball guitar strings for over 30 years. He’s done videos for Ernie Ball: Not just short promotion-heavy shots, but longer-form content with genuine emotional depth and connection. He’s done “stunt” videos that went viral in the music community. Why? He loves the strings and appreciates the company. So if I’m a Metallica fan, if I’m a Kirk fan, and I enjoy playing guitar…which strings will I buy? Ernie Ball. Using influencer marketing — and genuine influences — as part of a long-term strategy will create long-term results. And isn’t that what you’re really want when you’re trying to build an authentic brand?
Industry People:
Agnes Kozera-Founder of FameBit: As YouTube creator collaborations continue to prove more effective at driving results, brands will look to do more with organic branded video beyond distributing content to creator owned channels. Whether it be remarketing to creators' audiences or repurposing creator produced cut-downs for TrueView, 2018 will be about combining the best of influencer marketing and media, and further shortening the path to purchase. As part of Google and YouTube, FameBit is focused on making it easier than ever for brands to get smarter about using real time data on creator's already engaged audiences and content, helping to reach the brand's target market in a way that is truly native to the YouTube platform.
Stephanie Horbaczewski-CEO/Founder of StyleHaul: One industry trend is that the space is evolving to require more accountability in regard to measurable results driven for all influencer marketing spend. As a result, in our own business at StyleHaul, we increasingly use data and technology to monitor how an audience responds to a branded content post in order to measure impact, and also to create more meaningful and effective campaigns. A second trend is that we're seeing greater dispersion of influence both across platforms, and in reach of audience. Influencers are no longer just YouTube megastars, but can be micro-influencers on smaller platforms like Musical.ly. As a result, in our own business, we've expanded our pool of creators, and now operate on many different platforms.
Sam Shahidi- Co-Founder Shots Studios: We are seeing more Fortune 500 companies committing to more long-term campaigns with creators, as they are the future of brand awareness and user acquisition.
Zach Blume- Managing Partner Portal A: As audiences become inundated with influencer marketing, brand campaigns will have to get louder and bolder to differentiate themselves. The brands that succeed in 2018 will figure out how to break through the noise by: Delivering production value without losing authenticity, stripping out the traditional gatekeepers by partnering directly with a new generation of influencer talent, or by working with modern creative partners who are fluent in the language of these communities.
Kimberly Perplies- Senior Director of US Digital Talent at James Grant Management: In 2018, we’ll see a split where brands will go one of two ways: Either they’ll go with micro-influencers - smaller numbers, lower fees, but high engagement and great conversion - or aligning with huge superstar influencers. In 2017, we’ve seen the trend of brands taking influencers on high-brow, luxury trips. In 2018 we will see more brand-influencer ambassadorships in the form of licensing deals. Basically, more YouTubers will be coming to a store near you! 2018 will be the year of the daily vlogger. Consumers have more choices for digital content than ever. The creators that can get viewers tuning in every single day will be the ones to lock down for strategic brand partnerships.
Scott Fisher- Founder of Select Management Group: In 2018, brands will continue to look beyond integrated social content posts and partner with creators, or influencers, in more meaningful ways as long-term spokespeople and licensing partners. We also see a trend of influencers moving toward building their own consumer brands; whether it be in licensing, merchandising, or talent investing in new tech and media businesses.
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dd5d56814620753c804e2a5de3568286
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2018/05/31/how-to-build-your-personal-brand-online/?sh=7e9c91c766ef
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How To Build Your Personal Brand Online
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How To Build Your Personal Brand Online
(Photo by Wodicka/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Everything affects your personal brand: What you wear, how you speak, even how you compose an email.
The same applies online. A profile pic says volumes about a person. So do their posts on social media, or what comes up when you Google their name.
You’re a brand, whether you like it or not, so you’d better put on your marketing hat and get to work cultivating yours. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Assess Your Current Brand: Before you can start building your brand, you have to take an honest assessment of what it currently looks like. How do people view you? Google yourself. What comes up? Ask your friends to complete an anonymous survey. Ask them questions like, “What five words would you use to describe me?” Another great one to try is, “If you didn’t know what I did for a living, what would you guess that I did?”
Look For Inspiration: Who are the top five people in your field? What do they have in common? Do they all write for major publications? Do they sell courses? Do they appear on podcasts? Try to find a common thread.
Determine Your Audience: If you’re just starting out, you probably don’t have an audience yet; so make one up! If you could speak to any audience, who would it be? I used to be a radio DJ and my boss told me to imagine that I was talking to one person in their car. Who are you talking to? Are they old or young, male or female, etc.?
Be Niche: If you try to appeal to everyone, then you end up appealing to no one. Figure out who your target audience is and serve them.
Find Your Voice: Who are you? Are you funny? Maybe you are sarcastic. Whatever your voice is, it needs to be consistent online. You can’t be clapping back on Twitter and then trying to inspire people on Instagram. Be yourself, but amplify it. Turn it up a notch in order to get heard.
Have A Social Media Game Plan: Don’t try to master all social media channels. Pick one or two to focus on. And be consistent. Make sure you’re using the same voice across your channels.
Clean Up Your Profiles: Use a professional picture. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t take a selfie in the bathroom or cut an ex-girlfriend out of a photo that you looked good in. Also, make sure your banner is the correct size and that it is on brand. It might be time to ditch that Kansas City Chiefs header on your Twitter profile.
Create Content: The 90-9-1 rule states that 90% of people view content without contributing, 9% edit or modify the content, and only 1% of people create content. Be the 1%. It will separate you from your peers.
Start A Website: Where is all of that content going to live? YouTube, Instagram, Medium? Having a website of your own allows you to share all of your content in one place. It’s your online home.
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0286ae282cf839c4052e080f0d7c37a0
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2018/06/08/how-much-social-media-is-too-much/
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How Much Social Media Is Too Much?
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How Much Social Media Is Too Much?
(Photo Illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)
I noticed that I had sore thumbs, I was constantly refreshing my feeds and my wife actually grabbed my phone at breakfast and yelled at me for being on Twitter.
Am I addicted to social media or just bored?
According to Statista, daily social media usage of global Internet users amounted to 135 minutes in 2017 , up from 126 daily minutes in the previous year.
Are we all addicted to social media?
Research isn’t conclusive as to whether social media addiction is even real.
A 2012 study from the University Of Singapore found that the transition from normal to problematic social media usage occurs when it’s used to relieve stress, loneliness and depression. For those users, social media provides continuous rewards (likes, shares, retweets, comments, etc.) that cause the user to engage more and more, eventually leading to many problems, including: depression, work issues, and personal conflicts.
Last year another study dismissed reports that digital technologies are harmful and found that, “The evidence indicated that moderate use of digital technology is not intrinsically harmful and may be advantageous in a connected world.”
So how do we know when it's too much?
The current version of the DSM-5 (the manual that physicians use to diagnose mental disorders) does not recognize social media addiction, so without a formal set of criteria we’re left with quizzes.
Here are some behaviors to determine whether you have a problem:
The first thing you do in the morning is check your social media. You take down a post if it hasn't reached a certain amount of likes. You feel angry when nobody comments on your posts. You overanalyze images of yourself to post. You can't go to the bathroom without your phone. You find yourself refreshing your feed every few minutes. You obsess over getting verified.
I am guilty of every one of these, so I decided to dig deeper; I’d monitor my activity to see how much time I actually spent on social media.
There are a ton of trackers out there, but the one I really liked was the In Moment app. It tracks your daily social media usage by platform. It will also let you set a limit on your social media usage, and block you if you go over it.
If you think you’re logging too much time on social media, here are some other things you can try:
Remove Apps: I had a Facebook app on my phone and would check it all the time. But I hate Facebook. I deleted the app and now only check it on my laptop once a week. Turn Off Notifications: If you have a decent social media following, you will literally have new notifications every five minutes. Turn them off and you will check your phone less. Place Your Phone Out Of Reach: It sounds silly, but try keeping your phone in your glove compartment when you’re driving. Or put it in another room when you’re watching TV. Set Limits: This is almost impossible without an app. You can limit yourself an hour a day, but are you really going to time yourself every time you open Instagram? Try out one of the many social media trackers and set some time limits for yourself. Prioritize: I find that I check my phone a lot when I’m procrastinating. Focus on what you’re trying to do, and reward yourself with a social media break, when you’re done.
After using the tracker for a week, I found out that I averaged about 90 minutes a day on social media, well below the average. So, I'm going to keep checking my phone in the morning and taking it with me to the bathroom. I swear I don't have a problem.
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85405fb689813214450659faa20a731a
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2018/10/16/how-to-build-an-online-community/
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How To Build An Online Community
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How To Build An Online Community
The key to becoming an influencer is building an online community. I can tell you that my interviews that get the most views, are with the influencers with the most engaged community; not the biggest follower count.
So how you do you build these engaged communities?
Figure Out What They Want: You need to know what your audience wants first, before you can deliver appealing content . Twitter or Instagram surveys are a great way to poll your audience. If you’re a blogger, send your email subscribers a survey to find out what content they like best. If video is your thing, post a short clip asking your viewers what they want to see.
Solve Their Problems: This can vary, depending on your niche. But ask yourself, “Why do people follow me?” There’s no right answer. It could be to get social media tips, to be entertained, or to learn more about entrepreneurship. But whatever it is, it should be your core focus. One of the common mistakes I see is that people try to do everything on social media. They want to be funny, entertaining, informative, and share their personal life. It’s too cloudy a message for your potential followers. Stick with one thing and do it well.
Create Content That They Want: People can only communicate three ways online: Audio, video, or written. Most people are only good at one of these. Experiment with all mediums, but analyze the data to figure out what is the most successful. Data is the key. Look at your demographics, average view time, social shares, engagement, etc. to figure out what’s working, and create more content like that.
Engage, Engage, Engage: Don’t be too cool for school. Don’t strive to build a social media account where you only follow 100 people but have millions following you. You’re not Kim Kardashian. You need to reply to every comment, follow people back, answer people’s questions, share their content, etc.
Reward People For Following You: Offer a free consulting phone call, an assessment of their business, etc. Giveaways are an excellent way to do this. Most people look at giveaways the wrong way, though. They do it to gain more followers or add email subscribers. But what they don’t realize is that they are only attract people who are interested in the free prize; they don’t care about you. Instead, use a giveaway as a way to reward your fan base.
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9a34f47a8a2dc576a177803f234e788c
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2018/12/18/the-influencer-marketing-trends-that-will-explode-in-2019/
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The Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Explode In 2019
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The Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Explode In 2019
Influencer marketing has come a long way in the last several years. According to a study conducted by Linqia, 39% of marketers plan on increasing their influencer marketing budget. The study also showed that a majority of marketers will spend anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 on influencer marketing.
One of the influencer marketing trends that I see coming in 2019 is that companies will take more risks when selecting the influencers that they partner with. Instead of always choosing the “safe” option, brands will partner with more controversial influencers, who often have the highest engagement rates.
I also see the definition of “influencer” changing. What used to be a name for creators that started in their bedrooms, with zero followers, will now also include mainstream celebrities, like Will Smith, who are creating content for Instagram, YouTube and other social media channels.
Finally, I think that more influencers will diversify and focus on growing their own brands, instead of relying solely on brand deals to support themselves.
I wanted to see what others thought about the future of influencer marketing, so I reached out to the top influencers, managers and industry insiders to see what trends they saw coming in 2019. Here’s what they had to say:
Sssniperwolf: Creator with 21 million followers on social media- I think for 2019 we will see brands start to look more towards longer term partnerships with influencers, as opposed to just one offs, as they start to see the long-term value of being able to tell an authentic and consistent story to an influencers’ audience over time. Also, brands are finding it is more effective to promote over social media than traditional media.
Wengie: Creator with 15 million followers on social media- Brand are now more open to creative collaboration with influencers and it’s a nice change. The one trend I’ve been seeing is brands have been including social media integration as part of an overall bigger campaign launch, whereas last year they were more likely to be working on social media in a silo. I love the direction this is heading!
Tess Finkle: Entrepreneur and CEO of Metro PR-The word "influencer" is no longer automatically connected to a personality that went from "relatively unknown" to "highly visible" by posting signature content to a specific social media platform. 2018 leveled the playing field for all persons with a large, highly engaged audience across any medium to identify as an "influencer.” Artists from the music industry, sports, comedy, film and TV are either receiving outside investment to grow their social presence or finally seeing the value of self-funding, and are now ultimately positioned as influencers in conversations amongst brands looking at their digital spends. 2019 will continue to lean into this shift.
Tana Mongeau: Creator with 8 million followers on social media- It has been a very interesting year for me, brand-wise. I expected my wild, controversial image in the media to be off putting to big names but it was the exact opposite. Bigger corporations, like MTV, Billboard, even Poshmark, wanting to work with me initially came as a giant shock because I’m not traditionally what you would call “brand-safe.” However, seeing them branch out from traditional choices was incredible to me. Seeing bigger brands working with edgier choices like Shane Dawson, Bhad Bhabie, Emma Chamberlain or Bella Thorne is a big statement for the industry. For these bigger companies to realize that they’re giving the consumer a more authentic, raw opinion is commendable in my eyes. I’m excited to see how the space continues to evolve in 2019. I personally can’t wait to see Shane Dawson’s face on a Hidden Valley Ranch bottle!
Anwar Jiwabi: Creator with 10 million followers on social media- Anytime I have the opportunity to create a brand deal video, I want to make sure that the content is enjoyable, while also presenting a product that I believe in. If the content isn’t funny, or if it feels like a 100% scripted ad, then viewers aren’t going to pick that up. I did a video with Steph Curry, for Brita, and it was very organic and fun. In my mind, I’m creating a regular video with a product instead of creating an ad.
Nikki Bella: WWE superstar, star of Total Bellas, and cofounder of Birdie Bee and Belle Radici- I love the creative avenue that brands are giving me when I construct a post. I tend to be more of a lifestyle influencer, so I’m thinking about the outfit that I’m wearing and the setting, along with whether the product needs to be paired with a glass of wine or a coffee. It makes the brand authentic to me in my life. I have always been drawn to ambience and environment. Having that creativity allows me to connect with so many followers from different cultures. And it’s helped my companies, like Birdiebee, and Belle Radici, become successful. I think that’s what we all crave most online; it’s all about connection. And it’s that authentic connection that is so important when you are selling directly to your customer.
Lisa Filipelli: Partner Select Management Group- In 2019, we will start to see an even deeper convergence of talent across all platforms. The digital space changes rapidly and, in 2018, we saw the winding down of the MCN and the rise of talent-owned businesses. Talent, who own their audiences, will be at the forefront of the coming year. Talent will also start to expand their reach across all platforms, which will be especially noteworthy as more linear companies refine the way they work with that talent. This, along with the continued investment from brands, will make the intersection of digital and traditional stronger and more seamless than ever.
Ryan Wyatt: Global Head Of Gaming At YouTube- YouTube has a passionate community of gamers and creators who’ve turned YouTube into the gaming platform it is today. YouTube just had its biggest year ever in gaming, with over 50 billion hours of gaming content watched and 200 million logged in users watching gaming content every single day on YouTube. From creators like elrubiusOMG hitting live gaming records, to Ninja ushering in the era of Fortnite, we’ve seen gaming creators engage with audiences and brands, while remaining authentic to their own voice in all new ways. We believe our creators should have more ways and more opportunities to make money while on YouTube, that's why we're investing in new features like Super Chat, Channel Memberships and Merchandising. We’re looking forward to seeing the gaming community on YouTube continue to strengthen in 2019.
Evan Asano: CEO and Founder of MediaKix - In terms of shifts in the industry, we're still seeing strong growth in the space. With the growth of Instagram Stories, we're seeing a lot of brand interest in Instagram because of the variety of sponsorship options: micro-influencers, in feed posts, Instagram video and Instagram Stories. The industry has really matured over the last couple of years. One important need in the industry is standardization for terminology, contracts, etc.
John Shahidi: Creative Director At Shots Studios- More companies, especially major ones, want to team up with top creators because it’s the best way to reach a wide and specific audience. There’s an amazing trust, especially with long-term partnerships, where brands are allowing creators to tell their own story, while showcasing the product in a fun and authentic way.
Romeo Lacoste: Celebrity tattoo artist, YouTuber and entrepreneur with over 4 million followers on social media- The trick is to be ahead of the trends. I’ve always been a trendsetter. I was the first tattoo artist to really be a personality on Instagram. Then, after others followed, I moved to YouTube. The key is to not be late and behind everyone else. There are no benefits to catching the tail end. The brands that are the most successful are the ones being innovative and leading the way. You have to be the first to do it, or else you’re last.
Jordan Worona: CEO of We Are Verified- Influencers will continue building their own consumer brands and flexing their reach. Advertisers will enhance their understanding of what makes a successful campaign and, more importantly, which influencers make for a successful campaign. The gap in power between big and small influencers will grow.
Mickey Taylor: Cofounder of Adweak Studio- I think influencers aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon. In fact, they’ve been around for a very long time only we used to call them “celebrity endorsers.” If the influencer is believable, has a real audience and talks about things that are relevant to who they are, then people will buy it. I’ll listen to LeBron James if he’s talking about athletic apparel, nutrition, fitness, etc. I’m not going to listen to him if he’s talking about Brawny paper towels in an Instagram post.
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25920ff4ea5b8fe575301ed6abebd281
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2021/01/23/alex-warren-went-from-sleeping-in-a-car-to-owning-a-mansion/
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Alex Warren Went From Sleeping In A Car To Owning A Mansion
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Alex Warren Went From Sleeping In A Car To Owning A Mansion
Alex Warren about to shoot a vlog. Alex Warren
Alex Warren is a TikTok star, with over 14 million followers on the platform. He's also a co-founder of the premier TikTok house, The Hype House. He drives a McLaren. He's rich and famous. It's pretty good being Alex Warren.
But two years ago, he was sleeping in his friends' cars.
Warren's childhood wasn't easy. After his father passed away, when Alex was nine, he was raised by an alcoholic mother with behavioral problems. She eventually threw him out of the house when he was seventeen.
He was homeless and sleeping in his friends’cars. He didn't even have his own car to sleep in.
Warren said, “A lot of my friends' parents didn't like me because, instead of working or going to college, they'd hang out with me and shoot vlogs. They wouldn't let me stay in their house, so I'd sleep in my friends’ cars. And the next day, I'd shoot with them. And the next night, I'd go to someone else's house and do the same thing."
Despite his living situation, he had no doubt that he'd become a successful YouTuber.
He said, "I was driving with Kouvr (his girlfriend Kouvr Annon) and she asked, ‘Why don't you have a plan B? What if this doesn't work out?' And I said, ‘It will. I literally cannot see myself doing anything else. This is the only thing that I genuinely love doing and makes me happy and I fiend to do it every day.'"
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Warren continued, “I don't do drugs. I don't drink alcohol. My absolute high is when posting. Once I have a video go up, it's literally the best feeling in the world. And it's like that every single time that I upload."
Warren has grown from 1 million followers to 14 million in the last year. It's easy to look at that massive growth and label him as an overnight sensation.
But his road to success is much longer than a TikTok star who “blows up” after posting one viral video.
Warren said, "I've been at this for 11 years. It was never immediate for me. But I knew that eventually it would pay off. I think that if you truly want it, the numbers will come. It's easy for me to say this because I'm in the position where I'm making money at this now. But even when I wasn't, I just loved it. So, as long you're having fun, who gives a s—-? The return will eventually come."
Despite his wealth and success, he remains relatable. He said, “I think the reason that I remain relatable is because I don't buy nice clothes; I shop at Target. Also, I don't talk a lot about the things that I own. I just find that it's so cheesy when influencers are like, ‘Hey, look at my house! Hey, look at the car I bought. Hey, look at this thing that I just bought.' The fact that we're in a pandemic and a lot of people are going through really hard times, it makes zero sense to me to be like, 'Look at all this s—- I bought because you watch my videos.'"
It's that unpretentious attitude about money and fame that keeps people coming back.
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0f86c224101e612dcce146ea5d0a1542
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2012/03/23/obamas-surprising-world-bank-choice-health-care-as-a-human-right/
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Obama's Surprising World Bank Choice: Health Care as a Human Right
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Obama's Surprising World Bank Choice: Health Care as a Human Right
Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
President Obama is set to nominate Dartmouth College president Dr. Jim Yong Kim to a five-year term as head of the World Bank this morning in a move that has the potential to radically change how the 187-nation Bank operates. Kim breaks the mold of prominent bankers, lawyers, and political officials who have headed the international development and financial assistance institution since it was founded in 1944 to begin reconstruction after the Second World War.
As Fred Hiatt notes at the Washington Post this morning, "Kim will be the first bank leader who has dedicated most of his professional life to working with and for the world’s poor." I'd add that Kim's appointment signals a stronger commitment from the Obama Administration to international development as a tool for world health, and recognizes the central role of improved healthcare in stability and economic growth.
Kim's resume is impressive. He's the 17th president of Dartmouth, appointed in 2009. A physician and expert in tuberculosis, he served as Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
But it's his stature as the co-founder of Partners In Health (along with Dr. Paul Farmer) that stands out. Partners in Health was founded 25 years ago and revolutionized the development world's view of health initiatives in poor communities, stressing both respect for the poor and the need for strong preventive care. Known for its work in Haiti, Partners in Health pioneered its community-based health model in Russia, Rwanda, Peru, Lesotho, Burundi and other countries. It also works with poor HIV-AIDS patients in the Boston area.
And here's another interesting aspect of Kim's appointment, considering the challenge that President Obama's signature health care reform initiative is likely to face in the 2012 election: Kim's co-founder at Partners in Health, Paul Farmer, is justly famous for saying "I believe health care is a human right." That emphasis on free high-quality healthcare for those who can't afford to pay is the hallmark of the movement led by Farmer and Kim and others. Last fall, before a Republican debate at Dartmouth, Kim asked moderator Charlie Rose to talk with the then-large panel of candidates about affordable healthcare; he has questioned the affordability of 'Obamacare.' It turned in an angry back-and-forth between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry about the relationship between 'Obamacare' and 'Romneycare' - clearly not what the Dartmouth President had in mind. Kim told Forbes last fall that his affordable healthcare initiative at Dartmouth could be a model for keeping costs under control nationally as well, one that focused on market-driven affordability.
"We're trying to create a field here--it's not a single discipline--where heads of hospitals, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, engineers and business specialists are all talking together about how to do health care better."
Kim's nomination is also closely tied to the work of former President Bill Clinton, who told the Associated Press he was thrilled with Kim's appointment: "Jim Kim is an inspired and outstanding choice to lead the World Bank based on his years of commitment and leadership to development and particularly health care and AIDS treatment across the world." President Clinton, who has hosted Kim as a speaker at his Clinton Global Initiative, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were said to have pushed for Kim's appointment.
Kim's appointment is also a win for development sector activists who wanted one of their own for the top World Bank spot, though many supported Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs for the role - and Sachs mounted a very public campaign of his own for the gig. In announcing his candidacy last month, Sachs asked President Obama "to side with the poor and hungry, not with a corporate balance sheet or a government" - he may have gotten his wish, but he didn't get the call.
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72e317ec6b4d3b42464807e5b11d9b6d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2012/04/21/occupy-wall-street-new-yorks-hottest-tourist-destination/
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#Occupy Wall Street: New York's Hottest Tourist Destination?
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#Occupy Wall Street: New York's Hottest Tourist Destination?
Here's a wild idea for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Police Department:
Instead of trying to corral, pen, contain, chase, disenfranchise, muzzle, occasionally batter, and otherwise discourage the class war contagion that is Occupy Wall Street - a task akin to squeezing a hand full of dry sand in the afternoon sun on Jones Beach - why not simply walk away? And by walk away, I mean passively encourage the Occupiers as a small but interesting economic pilot program in New York's tiny but growing protest tourism industry.
Surely this idea should appeal to Gotham's Type A uber-capitalist and his harried police commissioner. After all, their strategy thus far has been roughly as effective as throwing up a few well-placed power plants in the path of Godzilla. Occupy seems here to stay, like so many variations on Ray's Famous Pizza .... or the Jets. The early spring weather has been great for the march. May Day is fast-approaching. It's a national election year. Economic inequality is very much on the agenda - heck, the Republicans are going ahead with their plan to nominate a guy who parked much of his Bain Capital fortune offshore in the Caymans. The slogans write themselves in the Year of Romney. And the Mayor's in the last half of his last term and looking toward the LaGuardiaesque "legacy" question on the streets of New York.
Further, Occupy's tactics have evolved - even as the movement remains stubbornly leaderless and vague in its messaging. Its Zuccotti Park period appears, in retrospect, to have served as one those entrepreneurial "incubator" programs we read so much about in the business pages - all seed capital, trying new models, angel investors, learning from failure and hot-housing ideas on the whiteboard of 24/7 occupation and NYPD over-reaction (if you'll forgive a metaphor stretched from roughly Peck Slip to Greenwich Place). The big May 1 rally - dubbed "Day Without the 99%" - will feature massive union involvement, call activists from the around the leftward side of the spectrum, and unveil a cool new feature set (as the geeks like to say): legality.
As The Journal's Jessica Firger reports: "In a nod toward the needs of its more mainstream allies, especially labor unions, Occupy organizers agreed to obtain a city permit for the march from Union Square to Battery Park. The permit was secured by Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents city subway and bus workers."
The tactic is not without its inherent tension: Occupy has clearly gotten the attention of organized labor, which provided most of the turnout for two big marches last fall. Speaking at a forum Friday hosted by the Murphy Institute of CUNY and the Sidney Hillman Foundation (disclosure: I work with Hillman), Julie Greene, the deputy political director of the AFL-CIO, peppered her remarks with references to Occupy and talked about labor's traditional role in representing the 99 percent. She also signalled a shift in her union's strategy from supporting individual Democratic candidate to encouraging voter registration and ballot access. Yet the relationship between Occupy and organized labor remains somewhat arm's length - some Occupiers are calling for a classic "general strike," but labor leaders aren't going along, understanding that they'd probably lose the city's public (trying to get to work etc) in the process, in addition to violating laws against strikes that affect public services.
And Occupy is also resisting attempts by mainstream progressive leaders to try and unify a left-leaning base in support of direct action. The 99 Percent Spring is a coalition of progressive groups that includes MoveOn.org, Greenpeace, the Working Families Party, 350.org, and Campaign for America's Future, led by liberal notables like Rebuild the Dream founder Van Jones. Yet as The Nation's Allison Kilkenny reported earlier this month, many Occupiers are openly skeptical of the effort, seeing it as an extension of mainstream Democratic politics. "Occupy is a movement that tends to view both the Democrats and Republicans as being culpable for growing class inequality and the corporate takeover of America," wrote Kilkenny, who is one of a handful of must-read Occupy journalists
Nonetheless, the May 1 march promises to be large, based on the noise of level of Twitter-based planners and the word from union organizers. So here's what Mayor Bloomberg should do (I charge nothing for this golden advice, mind you).
1. Proclaim May 1 Occupy Wall Street Day in New York City.
2. Erect a viewing platform for the march in City Hall Park and hang there all afternoon, like a secular New York Archbishop on Lefty St. Patrick's Day. Extra credit for all the great hand-shaking photos with labor leaders. (Note to Speaker Christine Quinn: you'll want to get in on this action).
3. Assign the NYPD to secure the route, and flood the zone with community affairs officers and EMTs bearing free water bottles and energy bars for marchers.
4. Expand on the city's current lower Manhattan First Amendment Rights Area - seen here in this handy map - to comprise, well, all of lower Manhattan and rest of the five glorious boroughs as well.
5. Announce another one of those fabulous NYC BigApps contests for mobile apps developers, this time focused on helping Occupiers find food, shelter, medication, transportation and yeah, public justice when needed. Free pro tip No. 1: make sure the winners integrate well with Twitter and LiveStream. Free pro tip No. 2: get the folks from NY Tech Meetup involved.
As someone who looks at social enterprise and media startups as an obsessive hobby-like avocation, it seems to me that the spring Occupy season in New York has everything a crowd-sourcing digital social venture could possibly need. The crowd? Check. A cause that stalks activists in their very dreams and won't let go? Check. A cohort of brilliant digital scientists (credentialed or not) who have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in changing the national discourse through social distribution? Check.
Oh, and a strong-willed Mayor with the vision to welcome crowds in the tens of thousands to support a network of free speech activists who rightly choose New York as the center of their movement not just because it's the home of finance, but because it's also the home of ideas? Ch....well, let's wait and see.
If the leader of New York was a capitalist, he might see the opportunity zone in lower Manhattan - and the chance to put away the barricades, riot gear, Tasers, truncheons and plastic cuffs in favor of growth in social capital. Oh, and a legacy to rival LaGuardia's.
******
Please send ideas and non-violent screeds to Tom Watson via [email protected]. Follow Tom's occasionally fascinating musings of 140 characters or less on Twitter here. Subscribe to this RSS feed for updates to Tom's Social Ventures blog.
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aa07362c343ec28e06ba86ab4d3e4915
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2012/11/07/obamas-not-so-secret-weapon-will-he-use-it-to-help-power-his-new-mandate/
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Obama's Not-So-Secret Weapon: Will He Use It to Help Power His New Mandate?
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Obama's Not-So-Secret Weapon: Will He Use It to Help Power His New Mandate?
On Monday I made a few calls for Organizing for America and spoke to voters in Ohio ahead of President Obama's convincing reelection victory. One call stood out. The man spoke in heavily accented English and told me that this would be his first Presidential election as a U.S. citizen. He lived outside Columbus, and that after gaining his citizenship, he registered this year to vote. You're supposed to run through through the script that the nifty web-based program OFA provides you for phone-banking, but I couldn't resist a little chat. And I came away moved by the man's commitment to vote - indeed, his obvious pride in doing something that many native U.S. citizens either take for granted or skip altogether. His enthusiasm was infectious.
I also came away thinking about the network that the Obama campaign has now successfully assembled twice - a network built through digital technology and sophisticated database management … and a network that has only ever been asked to accomplish one thing: get people to vote for Barack Obama. And amidst the usual day-after blather about gridlock in Washington, systemic partisanship, and our "broken government" I started thinking about how that network (and its supporting technology) could be used to break that logjam in ways both authentic and effective.
Consider immigration reform - which was top of my mind after that interesting phone call, and after Mitt Romney's disastrous anti-immigrant policy stance and hateful "illegals" rhetoric led to a Latino landslide for the Democrats (the biggest demographic story of the election). And think of this scenario:
On the first day of the new Congress, Democrats propose a sweeping immigrant reform package to solve the problem of millions of undocumented new arrivals who are firmly embedded in the workforce and U.S. communities. The GOP, despite its obvious need to make amends with the growing Latino electorate, drags its heels and begins to settle in for a long fight.
President Obama and his political team fire up the OFA network. Overnight, millions of calls are made to the districts of Republican legislators - and not the ones in safe seats either. No, these calls go to constituents in districts that President Obama carried but still have a Republican member of Congress. A few days later, the network expands to calling districts where Republican Congressional representative won their seats by less than five points. A running tally is kept - publicly, loudly, transparently.
And the ask is simple: contact your Congressperson and demand support for immigrant reform. The software guides the next step: here's the phone number, let's call now. Here's the email address. Here's the Facebook page. Here's the Twitter handle. We'll send you the links right now. Send the message. Oh, and there's a rally at the Congressman's office on Thursday. Free food and hot coffee. Can we count on you? Move on to the next call. [OFA did use its network during the health care reform debate, but it was not well coordinated with actual policy and focused more on softer, more general support for reform - what veteran observer Nancy Scola called "busy work."]
Telephone calls to drive actions other calls, online actions, and in-person activity - all fed through the OFA database. Then comes the vast email outreach - multilingual of course. Targeted and personalized. "Hola" from Michelle Obama. Notes from Joe Biden, Bill Clinton - oh, and the former Secretary of State who is the frontrunner for 2016. Celebrities and athletes. And the President himself, putting his full public persona on the line through multiple channels.
That really is organizing the Presidency itself, and not just the campaign. After Obama's historic 2008 campaign, OFA was allowed to lie mostly fallow for a couple of years. The political and policy operations in the Obama White House would have been easily recognizable to administrations from previous decades - OFA wasn't used to push policy directly with the public.
The campaign re-charged the engine earlier this year, and the machine roared to life - helping the campaign across the finish line with all the sophistication (if not the wild enthusiasm) of the first campaign and then some. Indeed, this year's operation was far more sophisticated, and benefited from a greater integration with mobile technology not available back in '08. "The calls that you make, the door-to-door contacts that you make are immediately synched with the voter file, and all that data is aggregated across the various platforms that you're using to access Dashboard," University of North Carolina journalism professor Daniel Kreiss told TechPresident. "In 2012 once you had that integration, you could actually have your online people making calls to those people who are a high priority, and that is a huge deal, and makes a huge difference."
The Republicans, for some unknown reason, decided to pass on fully emulating that system year. "It is astonishing to this observer," wrote veteran organizer and journalist Al Giordano, "that the Romney campaign, with the unlimited resources of a billionaire candidate and that of other Forbes list Goliaths unleashed by the US Supreme Court's 'Citizens United' decision, did not construct its own field organization and instead left Get Out The Vote efforts to the Republican National Committee. One would think Romney would have at least tried to mimic the advances in micro-targeting and intensive training of field organizers that were key to Obama's 2008 victory."
And when you apply that mechanism to real policy campaigns and public opinion, you start to get some very exciting possibilities. Think about the uses on climate change immigration, election reform, or the President's next tax proposals.
Personal Democracy Media's Micah Sifry thought he detected a hint about the Obama network's future in the President's victory speech last night:
Most critically, after the standard call for both parties to come together to work on the challenges the country faces, Obama added, "But that doesn't mean your work is done. The role of citizens in our democracy does not end with your vote. America's never been about what can be done for us; it's about what can be done by us together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government."
The sophistication of the canvassing and turnout platform this year showed that it's possible to engage millions away from debates and big ad buys. Come January, and a second term, it may be time to see what it can do about citizen-powered movement through Washington's thick primordial swamp.
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3f17c63ebeb23b29ca4199bd44610a52
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2012/12/07/the-night-the-who-saved-new-york/
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The Night The Who Saved New York
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The Night The Who Saved New York
On Wednesday evening at the spiffy newly-renovated Madison Square Garden, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey led a small ensemble of professional musicians through a tight, powerful performance in full of The Who's last great recording, the 1973 mods and rockers double album tale, Quadrophenia. The performance was remarkable for the serious attention to the material, its explicit ties to departed bandmates Keith Moon and John Entwistle, and for the spectacle of a rock opera that actually rocks. That and Townshend's screaming guitar sent power pop played by an older generation into the hearts of the younger members of the crowd. My kids dug it.
Townshend spoke of next week's planned 12.12.12 concert to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy in the metro area, a big fundraising all star show featuring Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and The Who. It's a social venture designed to both raise attention for a cause (the plight of those still suffering from the storm) and to raise money. But Townshend's appeal reminded me that music can sometimes literally merge people with the cause they support, that is has the force to do so, from the Concert for Bangladesh to the present day - and that one night in my concert-going life was the pinnacle of that experience.
It was another night in the same big room 11 years ago - an evening I still think of as the night The Who saved New York.
The Concert for New York unfolded (and that's the right word because it was massive, went way past curfew, and melded all sorts of voices and talents together) on Oct 20, 2001. The ruins at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan still smoldered ominously. The days of false alarms and panicked evacuations from New York towers were not yet over. And neither were the funerals. The concert was organized in part by Paul McCartney, whose father had been a volunteer fireman in Liverpool and the event was centered around the city's beleaguered, exhausted and deeply bereaved uniformed first responder services. The most devastated service was of course the Fire Department, which lost 343 people in the collapse of the World Trade Center, a death toll exacerbated by the firefighters' deeply held instinct to run toward trouble, toward danger, toward risk. As workers fled on September 11, many firefighters lost their lives climbing the stairs in the two towers.
The FDNY filled the Garden that night, but somehow thousands of cops and emergency services workers managed to get in as well. I had a ticket. They didn't need one. The uniform was the ticket. To say that occupancy laws were stretched that night is to undersell the size of the place. Picture a Knicks game, then double the crowd. From the start, the building ran on a river of emotion and beer, which, if you wore a uniform - or your late loved one's cap - was free. The thousands of cops in attendance studiously ignored thousands of other cops and firefighters lighting up a little reefer. Large bottles of high proof spirits were produced. The Garden was the biggest Irish wake in history.
David Bowie opened with a pitch perfect solo version of Paul Simon's America. Jay-Z blasted H to the Izzo, which was well-received by what can only be described as a largely white ethnic crowd. Billy Joel did New York State of Mind, and Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy ran through a taught Hoochie Coochie Man. The Backstreet Boys were booed (as were perceived anti-war liberals Susan Sarandon, Richard Gere, and Senator Hillary Clinton). Destiny's Child was politely ignored. Movie stars made speeches, and short films were screened. Will Ferrell cavorted as George W. Bush. The concert was entering the familiar territory of long all star fundraising festivals.
Then actor John Cusack and a group of first responders introduced the next band. "A band who loves New York and is loved by New York. From England, The Who!"
Townshend, Daltrey and Entwistle (in his last U.S. Who performance) launched into Who Are You. Two minutes into the song, after a solo, Townshend whipped into his trademark windwill on his Stratocaster. The crowd lost it. Completely broke down. The lights flashed. The Union Jack behind the band was joined by the Stars and Stripes. From there, things got really hairy. The band's two biggest anthems both feature classic moments of visceral tension and release, using neutral repeated synthesizer riffs to build toward the massive intervention of guitar, bass and drums. Baba O'Riley brings that at the beginning.
And it's a song that stuck a spike straight into the cultural vein of the crowd - cops, firefighters, EMS workers, their husbands, wives, kids, brothers. It tapped directly into long summer rides to Jones Beach with the dash-mounted eight-track blasting, to boom boxes in the Rockaways and Beach Haven, and turntables in back bedrooms of ethnic neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and the burbs.
This was adolescence, the sudden instinctive remembrance of what's been lost that is the purest expression of grief, the music of an earlier trip to Madison Square Garden, the sound of the parking lot at West End Two.
And man, it was catharsis. We were halfway back on the first set of risers above the floor. Everyone was crying, drinking, screaming. The refrain, "We're all wasted!" was never more enthusiastically endorsed by law enforcement (if anyone asks you, the legalization movement took wing here). And it built from there into what became the unofficial anthem of the night, the signature song of Townshend's career.
Won't Get Fooled Again is so familiar a cultural document that it can fade into the background. Yet it never had such expression in a single instance since its release in 1971. This was the moment for that song. By that point the crowd was so loud, that Townshend had to cup his hands around the microphone and shout. "We. Are Honored. To Be Here." Then he windmilled into the first power chord, Entwistle's bass slugged the crowd with a roundhouse, and the familiar synthesizer lines began. And the uniformed crowd poured itself into the maelstrom, throwing themselves bodily into a song of personal revolt. Build and release. Three chords centering the entire thing. Tension and then power. The synthesizer to the bottom, the Daltrey scream and big Townshend power chords to the finish. It all said: "We're still here."
And then they were off, with Roger Daltrey's final words to the crowd: "We could never follow what you did."
I've never seen a band become as unified with an audience, and I've seen a lot of shows. Keep in mind, The Who were already late in their career and their performance was treated as something of a comeback. Rolling Stone called it "one of the 50 moments that changed rock and roll." It was ranked the fourth greatest event in Madison Square Garden history. And when Townshend and Daltrey accepted Kennedy Center honors seven years later, they were surprised with a chorus made up of New York City uniformed services singing their tribute.
The Concert for New York raised $30 million for the families of those lost, but for those who were there it created something of a legacy. It felt for one long, loud bit of time like fear and sadness and life had been synthesized into a single massive group experience. It felt like The Who saved New York.
The show fit the long tradition of the Jerry Lewis Telethons, George Harrison's epic Concert for Bangladesh (which made fundraising for developing nations a key charity icon in Baby Boomer sensibility), LiveAid, FarmAid, and No Nukes. Next week's all star concert for Sandy victims will follow in its footsteps, and doubtlessly raise many more millions. But it will have huge shoes to fill.
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9f8380eab0763907128e95462895e1ce
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2013/03/13/googles-strange-attack-on-bloggers-and-the-public-internet-the-massive-reaction-to-reader-shutdown/
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Google's Strange Attack On Bloggers And The Public Internet: The Massive Reaction To Reader Shutdown
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Google's Strange Attack On Bloggers And The Public Internet: The Massive Reaction To Reader Shutdown
Does Google understand the concept of corporate social responsibility? That seems to be the basic question around the company's strange decision to shut down a tiny service that serves as a major audience conduit for many thousands of bloggers, citizen journalists, and self publishers.
Google's announcement today that it is destroying Google Reader, the most popular RSS syndication tool was a massive blow to the blogging community - and to most of those speaking out tonight via social media, an entirely unnecessary attack on an important corner of the public Internet by a company with more than $50 billion in revenue and a newly-won reputation as a tech giant on the move.
"That giant "NOOOOOOOO" sound is the Internet's reaction to Google's most unpopular decision in — well, as far back as I can remember," wrote Pete Cashmore at Mashable, in a post emblematic of the flood of negative reaction to Google's strange decision. "Like a Dagger to Bloggers' Hearts, Google Just Killed Google Reader" read The Atlantic's headline. And NBC's Ann Curry tweeted this:
Wonder if #Google Reader be saved if we mass tweet @google with messages to CEO Larry Page? — Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) March 14, 2013
While some may argue that RSS feeds (for Real Simple Syndication) have fallen from common usage in the social media era, how would Google explain the huge, instantaneous response on Twitter from Google Reader users? "Google Reader" trended almost immediately and instantly replace Google Glass as the most talked about Google product on Twitter. Here's one of the calmer, more considered tweets:
Google is murdering Google Reader. It is committing appicide. Hate crime. NO GR, NO PEACE — Jim Aley (@jimaley) March 14, 2013
Even hard-core Google fans (and this writer is an Android user who runs his consulting practice on Google's platform for files, email, and calendar) were aghast at the lack of self awareness the company seemed to exhibit in its curt notice that it's axing Google Reader in July. Here's a typical reaction:
You know how bad the Google Reader outrage is? Even the Google apologists on G+ are pissed. I’ve only seen a handful of Google defenders — Christina Warren (@film_girl) March 14, 2013
Oddly, the company didn't seem aware of the firestorm its announcement would create. On the official Google Reader Blog, engineer Alan Green wrote: "We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too."
Outrage is more like it. Green wrote that usage had "declined" but any entrepreneur with the kind of loyalty demonstrated in the wake of Reader's announced shutdown would instantly be financed by a horde of venture capitalists. In short, Google Reader is used and loved by a very loud - and as some would no doubt say, very influential - core user group. Any app builder would kill for this following - any social entrepreneur would walk a thousand miles for this crowd.
And make no mistake, Google Reader is something of an important public accommodation, a real point of differentiation for a company whose motto is "don't be evil." Google was doing a public service for the news and blogger community by keeping Reader going. Understandably, the Reader shutdown was received not just as the end of an era but almost as an attack on those who count on it for traffic and attention. Over at Techcrunch, Sarah Perez had this reaction: "Don’t be evil? If that’s the unofficial Google motto, then the company has failed to deliver today. Among the products Google just announced it plans to sunset (read: kill off), beloved feed-reading service Google Reader is now on the chopping block."
Longtime bloggers like Lance Mannion (a friend and colleague) were melancholy. "I'm not sure but I think it's going to cost me about 200 readers," Lance tweeted at me. Bloggers like Mannion don't enjoy hordes of readers because they're independents. They prefer a loyal core readership and the communities they've built, and managed to keep despite the challenge of Facebook and Twitter.
Google's strangely tone deaf move could mean huge upside for others, however - if RSS survives the hit. Here's what Josh Levy (and many others) wrote about that opportunity.
The loss of Google Reader is a big opportunity - and reminder - to step away from Google and support more indie developers like @feedly — Joshua Levy (@levjoy) March 14, 2013
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a6f9996a5f37053ec86cc51d5b3b5c60
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2013/07/31/traitor-or-hero-asking-the-wrong-questions-about-manning-and-snowden/
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'Traitor Or Hero?' Asking The Wrong Questions About Manning And Snowden
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'Traitor Or Hero?' Asking The Wrong Questions About Manning And Snowden
(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
When I was a young reporter covering the political alleyways of the Bronx, I met with whistleblowers and leakers all the time. Sometimes they came to the newspaper office, other times we met at diners, bars, even a kosher deli. They always brought paper, usually wrapped in manila. In every instance that I can recall, they were insiders with an axe to grind. Sometimes that blade included a concern for the safety and well-being of the public, but it was often overwhelmed - or downright rooted - in the politics of the moment: personal, factional, sometimes angry.
In working on the stories those sources generated, it was always vital to include the leaker's motivation in the formula for how to handle follow-up reporting and writing. The politics almost always mattered; we didn't go the good guy-bad guy route. They were all shades of gray and the allegiance of the reporters and editors I worked with was to the impact and accuracy of the story. If we chose sides it was manifest in what we decided to report on - which stories we deemed important and spent out time on - and not in how we wrote them.
I was thinking about those days in the context of the often cartoonish coverage of mega-leakers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. So much of the question about them boils down to a lame cultural A/B test. Each man is either a hero or a traitor. There's no in between - which runs counter to every experience I ever had as a reporter with a source who handed me documents that I wasn't supposed to have. Bradley Manning: Traitor or Hero, asks the Daily Beast. And the usually canny pollsters at Quinnipiac actually commissioned a poll that demanded a choice on Snowden - whistle-blower or traitor - because, well, that's the attention span and depth most people give the story. Whistle-blower, hero, traitor - all loaded words.
So let's try on another: how about "pioneers?"
I'm not sure that heroism - or, if it's more your speed, the dastardly perfidy - of Manning and Snowden really matters in the end. What does matter is that there are other Bradley Mannings and Edward Snowdens out there right now, with their fingers on keyboards connected to vast databases that remain - only in theory, as it turns out - secret. What matters is that digital security in our still young, newly-networked age is losing almost as quickly as privacy - and privacy has lost, almost completely.
Stepping back for a moment from the drama of each man's case - Manning, convicted of all but the most serious charge of aiding the enemy in turning over hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and other files to Wikileaks, and Snowden seeking sanctuary in Russia after leaking details of the NSA's digital surveillance program - there's a trend on the social commons that has relevance not just for government, but for every organized activity and entity collecting and using digital data.
And that trend relates to the ease with which vast quantities of data can be transferred - the very aspect of technology that makes our digital lives possible. There is, quite frankly, no way to reconcile hundreds of thousands of security clearances for government workers and contractors - given access to data in the name of public safety and national defense - with the ability of any of those individuals (with a political axe to grind or not) from making the information public.
We tend to treat the Snowden and Manning cases as endpoints, and focus on their individual stories or the aspects of U.S. policy they've exposed - but what if they're merely harbingers? What some decry as the "unprecedented" pursuit of whistle-blowers and leakers by the Obama Justice Department may also be just the tip of what's to come.
Gathering information is easy, and getting easier - as millions of consumers voluntarily put their personal data on public or corporate networks. Keeping that information secret is clearly much more difficult, and may be getting harder. That's why Snowden and Manning - whether traitors or heroes or neither - should be rightly be regarded as the first arrivals of the wave still to come.
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d8defa9c5dfb91bc812bda373c7a6896
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2013/11/20/full-equality-for-women-hillary-clintons-crusade-continues/
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Full Equality For Women: Hillary Clinton's Crusade Continues
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Full Equality For Women: Hillary Clinton's Crusade Continues
Is equality for women the largest global civil rights struggle of the next century? If the most prominent woman in American public life has her way, it might become just that.
Amidst the near-constant speculation about her political future, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embarking on a large-scale project to measure women's progress in the world and create a roadmap to a future of full and equal participation, both in the U.S. and around the world. Three weeks ago in Philadelphia, Clinton announced the formation of No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, the newest project of the Clinton Foundation, where she now hangs her much-traveled hat.
During her four years at State, Clinton made the advancement of women and girls a crucial focus for Obama Administration policy. Occasionally derided as a "small bore" initiative by commentators who tend to favor power politics and manly photo opps, Clinton's push for women's participation was in fact a signature accomplishment of her tenure - and it continued the work she began in the 90s when she first arrived in Washington. The new initiative "will continue that work for women and girls at the Clinton Foundation, both a look back and a look forward," said Jennifer Klein, senior advisor to Secretary Clinton, in an interview.
"The great unfinished business of the 21st century is helping women and girls break through these ceilings and participate fully in every aspect of life once and for all," Clinton said in announcing the project.
No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project has two distinct goals.
First, the project will examine the progress over the last two decades and identify where gaps remain, around the and in the U.S. Secondly, it will look to create a vision for the 21st century, starting with the next two decades.
The Foundation team will research and release an as-yet-unnamed progress report that both aggregates and curates data on the inclusion of women in public life, commerce, and society. It will examine political participation, economic growth and development and will include both hard data and qualitative numbers. "It will look at what exists and communicate that in really accessible ways," said Klein. The target audience for the report is wide-ranging - grassroots activists, feminist organizers, public officials, business leaders, and the general public. Klein said that data visualization will be an important part of the presentation.
In parallel, No Ceilings will begin to draft a look ahead at key issues affecting the full participation of women around the world. On the table: economics, building leadership, and the use of technology.
There are a couple of key organizing principles around the work, said Klein. The Clinton Foundation sees the project not just as a report and set of documents but as a strategic investment, one that will encourage the "next generation of women leaders." Most of the work around No Ceilings - and clearly, the name is a big tip-off here - will aim to push the key policy ideas and choices that that generation will face, in the hope that those young leaders can embrace that vision for change in the near term in order to create long-term impact.
The project will also include strong input from the private sector, said Klein, complementing the work of the Clinton Global Initiative. "This is not simple about CSR on the side, we think it's about the bottom line," she said.
Secretary Clinton is also committed to making sure "women's stories are a big part of this," said Klein. "We want to talk about how women's lives have changed, as well as to verify the facts on the ground. It will be a look at how data is born out of people's lives."
The process is aimed at the 20th anniversary of the Beijing meeting in which the then First Lady famously declared that women's rights are human rights - September, 2015 - and Clinton will take part in a series of public convenings and speeches around the topic as work continues. The Foundation will partner with other institutions on data, including foundations, civil society organizations, and governments. There will also be a major U.S. component on the lives of women here - and key domestic issues - as well as international data. These include child care, paid leave, equal pay for women, and raising the minimum wage, said Klein.
Of course, the Clinton Foundation team is aware of the parallel politic process leading to the election of 2016 - and how Secretary Clinton's public words will undoubtedly be dissected syllable by syllable for the next two years. But they also see this as a serious piece of research and public advocacy that can place a huge stake in the ground on women's rights, however the prospective Presidential race develops.
The project's DNA is strongly linked to the kind of rhetoric Clinton has used since her days as First Lady. Clinton talked recently about "women as agents of change" and added that "all we need is sighting chance to show what we can do in every walk of life."
She said that too many societies hold back women's ambitions and aspirations. "It's law, it's customs, it's all kinds of attitudes that limit access to markets and to justice and to security," she said. "I am more convinced than ever we are right on the cusp … We have our work cut out for us. No ceilings can deny the God-given potential of half the world's population."
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4d224c962f0cbdaf18c0caf10fb8bb32
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2014/02/21/amidst-unrest-and-violence-ukraines-social-entrepreneurs-chart-a-better-world/
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Amidst Unrest And Violence, Ukraine's Social Entrepreneurs Chart A Better World
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Amidst Unrest And Violence, Ukraine's Social Entrepreneurs Chart A Better World
The app tells a different story than the scenes of bloodshed in Kiev's Independence Square.
Created by indie developers Mikhail Stepanskiy and Ruslan Kosarevych, Son of the Sun and Wizard Lizard is an interactive story that teaches children that people can change, and that compassion and forgiveness can help make the world a better place. The app is available on iTunes for $4.99 and it's aimed at the peaceful world of early childhood and mobile games.
For the coders, the contrast between the world they portray in their app and their lives amidst political upheaval in Ukraine couldn't be more stark. Each day in Kiev, the social entrepreneurs must walk through streets of violence to work on code they believe will teach young children to make ethical decisions about their lives. Each day, they see a society strained at its seams, with the forces of embattled President Viktor Yanukovych shooting protestors in the country's most symbolic public space. Yet each day, they work to create a virtual world of peace for young children.
"The main theme of our book is forgiveness," says Stepanskiy, creative director and co-founder with Kosarevych of KidAppers, their app development startup in Kiev. "We started to create our book 10 months ago and couldn’t even imagine that this situation could be possible. But when the protest started, and you see reports about kidnapped, tortured and murdered people, and see the government’s lies, it’s really hard to keep our hearts from hate."
The story in the app teaches both reading and a moral approach to the world: "When the dastardly Wizard Lizard captures the Son of the Sun, the hero looks doomed. But instead of fighting, Son of the Sun uses his powers, and the story takes a surprising turn!" Son of the Sun is designed to help children with reading fluency and diction by allowing them to follow along with the narrator or read on their own. Kids can also explore the interactive landscapes throughout the story and create music, hear animal sounds and have the on-screen characters engage each other.
Mikhail Stepanski and Ruslan Kosarevych hold screenshots of "Son of the Sun," in Kiev, Ukraine.
The developers are well aware of the contrast between the virtual world they've created and the scenes on their doorstep. And they see change in the air, once the bloodshed has ended. "We want people to keep their hearts clean after the victory," says Stepanskiy. "We don’t need bloody revenge. We must learn to forgive, especially if it’s hard to do. It must be different between the people of Ukraine and the pack of corrupt people. And we'll try to teach those lessons to the kids because they are asking about what is happening. My son doesn’t like Yanukovich, but I don’t want him to be filled with hate. I want him to understand the power of forgiveness."
Their startup is part of a small but burgeoning tech community in Ukraine, one that ironically started the career of WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum, a native Ukrainian whose company was just purchased by Facebook for $19 billion in cash and stock. Stepanskiy says that mobile technology is playing a major role in the uprising and stand-off with the government; some programmers set up an "IT tent" in Maidan to keep the opposition online. And the protestors are clearly connected via mobile social apps. "We don’t think that people have strategized to use one thing in particular, but Facebook is the most popular instrument," said Stepanskiy. "Twitter, too, of course. Also, we know about activists that are using the Zello app to coordinate immediate actions."
But the KidAppers team isn't focused too much on the political struggle. Like the characters in their interactive story, they're looking beyond the violent struggle to era of reconciliation.
"Our greatest sorrow about this situation is murders," said Stepanskiy. "We aren't afraid of the division of Ukraine. We're afraid of more deaths on either side. Hopefully talking to people about it can push things forward and draw the attention of international authorities to take Yanukovich away as soon as possible."
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ef96dcaac1008fd651f00b5d40ca5a7c
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2014/06/22/where-do-the-most-generous-online-donors-live-charting-u-s-digital-giving/
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Where Do The Most Generous Online Donors Live? Charting U.S. Digital Giving
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Where Do The Most Generous Online Donors Live? Charting U.S. Digital Giving
Last year, online giving to charity rose 13.5%, outpacing more modest growth across the philanthropic sector for traditional donations. While that doesn't mean the overall pie is growing for charitable support - philanthropy as a percentage of U.S. GDP has been relatively steady for more than 40 years, at around 2% - it does mean that habits are changing, and that perhaps, the growth in digital giving means that nonprofits, social entrepreneurs and causes of all shapes and sizes need to pay close attention to the "how" part of the donation process.
But what about the "where?"
A new report by Blackbaud, the largest technology provider to nonprofits, charts actual donations and reveals the cities where online giving is the hottest. Most generous wired metropolis? Seattle - a result that will stun exactly no one who knows both its highly wired workforce and stronger-than-average organized voluntary sector.
The Blackbaud report ranks the 265 American cities with total populations of more than 100,000 based on per capita online giving and total amount donated online through the company's suite of online giving tools. More than $822 million from 8.3 million donations was given online by donors in those cities.
"I believe the highest ranked cities have more to do with being in the sweet spot for online donor demographics," Steve MacLaughlin, director of product management for Blackbaud. "These cities tend to have younger, wealthier, and tech savvier donors. There’s also a unique mix of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and education institutions in these cities."
I asked Steve whether he thought that stronger regional #GivingTuesday or local "giving days" (which tend to urge online donations via social media in many cases) might be responsible for stronger performance by city, but he didn't think so. "No, I don’t see any correlation between the two, at least when it comes to the top 10 or so cities," he said. He argued that demographics - wealth, age, strong tech sectors, education - are more likely to drive online gifts. And certain metro centers have been near the top of the list for most of the six years Blackbaud has conducted the survey - places like Seattle, Alexandria, Washington DC, Ann Arbor, and Arlington.
A new report by Blackbaud, the largest technology provider to nonprofits, showed Seattle was the... [+] most generous metropolis in the United States.
Based on per capita online giving for 2013 in U.S. cities of 100,00 or more residents, here's your top ten list for wired charity:
Seattle, WA Alexandria, VA Atlanta, GA Washington, DC Cambridge, MA Ann Arbor, MI Arlington, VA Cincinnati, OH Bellevue, WA San Francisco, CA
And the regional perspective is also interesting. According to Blackbaud, "based on the U.S. Census grouping of states, the top 25 large cities rank accordingly: the West achieves the number one spot (eight cities), followed by the South (seven cities), the Midwest (seven cities) and lastly the Northeast (three cities)." The Northeast is of course the bastion of traditional U.S. fundraising, but the innovation in happening elsewhere.
Seattle donations were $53,542 per 1,000 residents - or about $53 per person. Contrast that performance to the lowest-ranking city on the list: Miami Gardens, FL where online donations were only $554 per 1,000 residents - or a bit more than half a buck. Of course, per capita income in Miami Gardens (a small suburban city that is home to the Miami Dolphins) is only $16,600 and 21% of the city's residents live below the poverty line. In Seattle, per capita income is more than $42,000 and the poverty rate is five points lower. Indeed, the bottom 20 or so cities in terms of online donations are recognizable for their urban challenges and poverty - places like Detroit, Flint, Brownsville, and Newark.
You can download the full report here.
Gallery: The 25 Americans Who Gave Away The Most Money In 2013 25 images View gallery
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e0db6db1f9720867eaf70109150a6567
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2014/06/30/what-makes-people-generous-charity-empathy-and-story-telling/
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What Makes People Generous: Charity, Empathy, And Storytelling
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What Makes People Generous: Charity, Empathy, And Storytelling
Two weeks ago, the annual Giving USA report showed that American philanthropy continues to climb out of the trough of the Great Recession, one of the real lagging indicators of the economy. And while U.S. philanthropy has been roughly static at two percent of GDP for a couple of generations now, overall capacity of donors remains high, even through downturns.
The challenge for causes, fundraisers, nonprofit executives, social entrepreneurs and concerned board members everywhere remains "how?" - how best to tap that steady vein of generosity in this society which, even if fairly flat, remains constant and deep.
A couple of reports that crossed my desk over the past few weeks provide some new insight, and should be of interesting to folks in the philanthropic sector.
One is called I’m Moral, But I Won’t Help You: The Distinct Roles of Empathy and Justice in Donations, and it focuses on the results of an academic study of 600 people run through four different charitable scenarios. In one, for example, participants were asked to choose "between donating to medical patients described alternately as having a low level of responsibility for their situations and those having a high level of responsibility." Recipients of donations in the group were described either as unable to pay for medical treatment because of “low-wage jobs with poor benefits due to economic conditions” or unable to pay for treatment because of inability “to hold a steady job due to their drug and alcohol abuse or gambling addiction” - in shorter terms, not their fault and their fault.
The results are striking: the "worthiness" of the recipients of charity seems to matter. "The positive effect of moral identity on charitable giving is conditioned on recipient responsibility due to greater focus on justice concerns," says the report.
The findings indicate that charitable organizations marketing their causes "need to be cautious when describing the beneficiaries that they support, particularly if the recipient could be perceived as responsible for their plight and, by extension, undeserving." Pretty harsh, perhaps. But the team of researchers - Saerom Lee, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at San Antonio; Karen Page Winterich, associate professor of marketing at the Pennsylvania State University; and William T. Ross Jr., ING Global Chair and professor of marketing, University of Connecticut, School of Business - see a challenge for nonprofit storytelling.
Said Ross: “It’s not only the characteristics of the giver that determine their likelihood of donating, but characteristics they perceive in the recipient.”
So it's a tough crowd out there on the receiving end of countless emails, direct mail pieces, Facebook appeals, tweets, telephone calls during dinner (I'm looking at you over there - cut that out!), street teams, major gift letters, door to door messages, and planned giving mailers. Not every cause is empathetic and sometimes, potential donors take a (perhaps unfairly) tough-minded view toward those nonprofits and social entrepreneurs seek to help.
So how to counter that? Well, to employ what some already consider a cliche in the nonprofit world - storytelling.
In my view, strong and accurate stories from the field always bring supporters closer to a cause. It's what I do at my day job as a consultant. I've seen the results of connecting the cause to donors with great writing, strong materials, excellent videos, and robust networks.
And now a report released a few weeks ago by the Rockefeller Foundation backs that assertion up, and adds some practical advice and resources to the mix - and perhaps a new tool for nonprofits somewhere down the line. More on that in a moment, but first the results of the Rockefeller study, which interviewed social impact funders, nonprofit leaders, technology experts and journalists. Here's the meat of Digital Storytelling for Social Impact:
We found that a great deal of work has been done to capture best practices and create how-to guides for telling stories, and for using existing technological tools. How- ever, we identified consistent gaps in how organizations create, promote and sustain storytelling cultures. First, there are “supply-side” issues in digital storytelling: a need for comprehensive strategic and tactical guidance on how to tell, store, share and curate compelling and motivating stories on a consistent basis.There are also “demand-side” issues in digital storytelling: a need for incentives and requirements that foundations, businesses and the nonprofit community could embrace to ensure that social impact organizations are truly becoming storytelling organizations. All social impact organizations—philanthropy, business, nonprofit and others—have the ability to shift the dynamics in the social impact sector by bringing the right people and resources together to improve both the supply side and the demand side of the storytelling marketplace.The advancements in digital technologies have provided an opportunity to reach many more people; now it’s time to give social impact organizations the tools and connections they need to tell more and better stories — paired with specific asks that convert audiences up a ladder of engagement.
The study explores answers to critical questions in five key areas: strategy, capacity, content, platforms and evaluation. It suggests tools and resources needed to help organizations elevate the practice and impact of digital storytelling.
Some of the quotes in the report are striking. “The closer to the ground you get, the better," said one funder. "It’s not to say that the community tells the story best, but I believe strongly that the stories should be coming from as close as possible to the people who are being impacted by your programs.” Exactly - the work in the field matters. Said a nonprofit leader: “Co-creation is key. People on the ground should be in charge of developing the stories themselves so that they can decide what parts of their story get told. The end result is a much richer perspective.”
Rockefeller intends to pursue the goals outlined in the study with new technology. Said Jay Geneske, director of the Rockefeller Foundation's digital strategy: "Our next step is to workshop the report recommendations with selected cross-sector leaders to produce a game-changing platform, one that exists in multiple places or formats, that easily builds capacity and demand, that is measurable and flexible, that fosters leadership and community, and that ultimately advances humanity."
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c7bc61111de885877dcbb6fa4919bdc8
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2015/01/30/the-social-sectors-glass-ceiling-why-women-in-leadership-jobs-matter/
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The Social Sector's Glass Ceiling: Why Women In Leadership Jobs Matter
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The Social Sector's Glass Ceiling: Why Women In Leadership Jobs Matter
Two weeks ago, the Pew Research Center released the results of a national survey on women and leadership - results that still show major challenges in public life and the corporate C-suite for women in the U.S.
We all know the big scores: 44-0 for the U.S. Presidency and the noted dearth (just 4.6% of the S&P 500) of women in the CEO role of major companies. There are 104 female member of the U.S. Congress - the most ever - but it's somehow seen as a victory that a shade over 19 percent of elected representatives in our national legislature are now women.
The Pew study showed that attitudes are slowly changing - but that hurdles to parity (and fairness) still exist. According to the survey, women are far more likely than men to see gender discrimination in today’s society, and that "women and men are seen as equally good business leaders, but gender stereotypes persist."
Reports Pew: "...the public does not see major differences between men and women on key business leadership qualities. Where they do see gaps, women have a clear advantage over men on honesty and ethics, providing fair pay and benefits, and offering mentorship to young employees. Men have an edge when it comes to being willing to take risks and negotiating profitable deals."
That got me thinking about my own sector: nonprofits, philanthropists, social ventures. Where I go to work every day, the gender gaps tends to run in the opposite direction - and yet even here, the glass ceiling remains stubborn.
Go to a philanthropy conference or a fundraising convention or a summit on social entrepreneurship or a roundtable on corporate social responsibility. Women predominate. The programs I've taught in here in New York - first at NYU and now at Columbia - are filled with ambitious and talented women seeking masters degrees to help them attain senior executive ranks in the social sector. In my own consulting practice over the last decade, working for nonprofits and foundations large and small, the person I report to (usually the executive director or development chief) has been about two times more likely to be a woman than a man. And I daresay, there's at least parity among the strongest social sector writers, analysts and public intellectuals.
According to a 2013 survey by the White House Project, fully 73 percent of employees in the nonprofit sector are women. Yet, by all accounts, women have not yet reached parity in terms of leadership positions or pay.
"The social sector has a long way to go to meet gender equity in executive compensation," said Guidestar research chief Chuck McLean last fall, when the organization released its annual report on nonprofit compensation. Guidestar found that women who are nonprofit chief executives made 11 percent less on average at organizations with budgets of $250,000 and 23 percent less at organizations with budgets between $25 million and $50 million. Further, the raw numbers are also troubling: when budgets are small, women make up the majority of executive directors and CEOs. As the budgets increase, the number of women in charge decreases; just 17 percent of nonprofits with budgets of more than $50 million had female leaders.
It's hard to explain why this glass ceiling still exists in a sector so dominated - and frankly, made possible - by the work of women. Last year, the Chronicle of Philanthropy teamed with NYU to survey female nonprofit executives about their careers. The research found that 44 percent of female nonprofit workers "think their organization favors men over equally qualified women for chief leadership positions." The survey found that big organizations also don't take women donors as seriously as they do wealthy men - clearly a mistake in the changing world of U.S. philanthropy, where some are starting to urge a specific gender lens be applied to giving.
In its annual report on the state of governance of nonprofit boards of directors, the organization Boardsource cited a continued gender gap in leadership - with smaller organizations often led by women, but organizations of medium size (over $1 million) or large (over $10 million) employ female chief executives at a rate of just 37 percent. More encouraging was the data on women and board participation and leadership: the survey showed that women trailed men only by 52-48 in board membership, and by 54-46 in chairing nonprofit boards. This mirrors my own experience in the sector, and I think it's encouraging.
I do believe that attitudes are changing, particularly among younger people. While parity in national politics and in the big companies is still far away, it's a lot closer farther down the power pyramid. In this shift - which is happening now - the social sector can proudly claim its own leadership, and take pride in leading society forward.
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e5f2d1c4aad97872fda38f25246af7df
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2015/03/09/women-on-the-rise-and-women-denied-no-ceilings-big-data-illustrates-progress-and-gaps/
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Women On The Rise - And Women Denied: No Ceilings Big Data Illustrates Progress And Gaps
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Women On The Rise - And Women Denied: No Ceilings Big Data Illustrates Progress And Gaps
For social sector geeks who care about equal opportunity for women around the world - perhaps the great global civil rights cause of our time - today was Christmas morning.
With its big data newly unwrapped, and sortable in all sorts of interesting new ways, the much-heralded No Ceilings report reveals both encouraging progress and stunning gaps in crucial policy areas over the last two decades since the historic Beijing conference in women in 1995.
Of course, it was at that gathering 20 years ago that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton famously declared that “women’s rights are human rights” - the same Hillary Clinton who took the stage today with Melinda Gates and her daughter Chelsea on the cusp of her potentially historic presidential campaign whose symbolic ambition (in part) gives the No Ceilings projects its name.
No Ceilings is the unquestionably ambitious project of the Gates and Clinton Foundations, with support from the Economist Intelligence Unit and the WORLD Policy Analysis Center at UCLA. It parses nearly a million data points to derive a complex and nuanced view of women’s rights and economic development now, and over the past two decades.
Putting the U.S. politics aside - including legitimate questions about email and foundation donations, as well as obviously scripted GOP attack lines designed to make Clinton’s leadership in the cause of women’s rights over the last two decades into a liability - the No Ceilings project is a vital addition to the growing investment among civil society organizations in studying “big data” trends in order to change policy.
And on the whole, it asks a simple question: Is the world a better place for women and girls than it was in 1995?
The answer is a qualified yes.
But that judgment comes with a lot of bad news as well - data points that the authors of the report clearly hope will be addressed by civil society and the UN’s next set of major development goals.
I’ll get to the good and the bad in a moment, but I think it’s important to point out here that the No Ceilings report - which comes with a handsome set of interactive graphics and a cool world map that allows for almost infinite manipulation of the data - is the work of organizations and individuals who believe strongly in the collective impact of civil society itself.
No Ceilings is an explicit argument for big picture, top-down political, civil society, and social sector leadership - married to civil rights and citizens’ movements that take on different local, regional and cultural flavors. It endorses the kind of coalition-based data monitoring that spurred the now-expiring United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and argues that those big picture outcomes represent valid successes or failures in development. As Melinda Gates put it at today’s No Ceilings event in Manhattan: “the data that it contains gives us more power.”
Moreover, No Ceilings seeks to establish the civil, social and economic rights for girls and women as the top of the global development agenda - and to argue that those rights represent the biggest global cause of the post-MDG era. Disclosure: I agree.
At the kick-off today, which highlighted the stories of organizations working for women’s empowerment around the world, Hillary Clinton declared, “there has never been a better time in history to be born female.”
And at least in part, that’s true. The advances highlighted in the No Ceilings report are impressive: "We have seen significant gains since 1995. Advances have been made in legal rights — through international agreements, groundbreaking UN resolutions, and constitutional and legislative change. Health and education for women and girls have improved significantly. The rate of maternal mortality has nearly halved. The global gender gap in primary school enrollment has virtually closed. These achievements prove that progress is possible."
Most of the big trend lines in the report run in the right direction. Yet, the numbers that argue for change - that demand participation in the global movement for women's civil rights - are still sobering. Here are a few that jumped off the page for me:
Nine countries legally restrict women’s freedom of movement, and 27 percent treat women’s ability to pass citizenship to a child or spouse differently from men’s. Only one-third of national constitutions protect women from workplace discrimination or guarantee equal pay for equal work. Fewer than three out of 10 countries have legal protections against gender discrimination in both hiring and pay. Although new HIV infections are declining, females aged 15 to 24 have infection rates twice as high as young men, and now comprise the majority of youth living with HIV. About 800 women die every day from largely preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 99 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries.42 In 2013, ten countries accounted for approximately 60 percent of maternal deaths, including China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria Pakistan, Tanzania, and Uganda. While maternal mortality is comparatively low in the developed world, rates in the United States have actually worsened since 1995, with an increase from 11 deaths per 100,000 births to 28 deaths per 100,000 in 2013. Education for girls is one of the big development success stories over the past two decades, but the report describes an inherent weakness: Twenty years after Beijing, less than one in three girls in Sub-Saharan Africa and fewer than half in South Asia are enrolled in secondary school. Because of sex selection, by the year 2020 China will have 30 to 40 million more males than females under age 20. Experts predict that unless current trends change, approximately 140 million girls worldwide will become child brides between 2011 and 2020 — nearly 50 million younger than age of 15.
Throughout the report, the thread of violence against women and girls runs like an angry threat against progress, liberty and real development. While No Ceilings devotes an entire section to security, reading the report you feel that threat and its impact on other areas - like political participation, access to education, economic rights, and labor participation.
Violence against women is the great global shadow over the No Ceilings dataset, in my view, and it ranges from domestic and sexual violence in all societies - developed and otherwise - to harmful cultural and religious norms, to the use of rape as an instrument of war. "An estimated one in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence," says the report, "the vast majority at the hands of her husband or partner."
It is no accident that No Ceilings proclaims that "violence against women is a global epidemic." That may be the strongest statement in a very strong report, and if I had one criticism of No Ceilings, it would be the clear need to call this vital point out further - perhaps in a conference of its own sponsored by Clinton and Gates, perhaps in a special report that adds greater depth, perhaps in a movement that unites some of the same civil society players who took part in the launch of today's report - and asks for participation from women around the world.
A word about the data and its visualization in No Ceilings. While the launch program in Manhattan was impressive and at times quite moving (I love to hear the personal stories), the project is primarily designed as a data collection and presentation effort. In this, it shines - the map is pretty nifty - but it also works as a simple repository for data that others can download and use. In background conversations with the staff before launch, it was clear that the big foundation funders would love nothing better than to see a million Powerpoints bloom from the data they've collected - as students, academics, writers, analysts, consultants, nonprofit leaders, organizers, activists, politicians and all sorts of trouble-makers and do-gooders sift and sort the numbers to make their case for empowerment, not just globally but in specific countries and regions.
One final point. To me, this report is less about the last 20 years - though I certainly get the symbolism - as it is about (as Melinda Gates said) a blueprint for the future, a guide for what matters. As former Secretary Clinton said, it presents "a universal story about the kind of world we want for our children and grandchildren."
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fc1b575f77bf626bf023af8b0976da09
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2018/08/29/which-social-media-site-is-tops-among-teens-not-facebook/
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Which Social Media Site Is Tops Among Teens? Not Facebook
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Which Social Media Site Is Tops Among Teens? Not Facebook
(Photo by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Want a great illustration of the generation gap? It used to be you'd look at what TV shows people watched.
Now you look at what social media networks they favor.
New research from eMarketer, a data and research company, finds that Facebook is the No. 1 social media channel among every demographic save one: Teens.
Among kids 12-17, Facebook usage has actually been on the decline since at least February. This group favors another social channel above all others — Snapchat.
Now, it's certainly not uncommon for kids and their parents and grandparents to have different tastes in media. After all, you see big gaps in demographic preferences for not just TV but also movies, magazines and radio (including differences in how those media are accessed in this digital age).
What's perhaps more interesting is that for many years, all the age groups' social media habits dovetailed to the point that Facebook ranked first among all of them.
But that changed with the advent of Snapchat, which allows kids the creativity to add filters to their photos — and, critical to a group that values its privacy from mom and dad, those snaps quickly disappear.
This year, eMarketer says, 16.4 million teens will use Snapchat, compared to 11.5 million for Facebook, 600,000 fewer than last year. In fact, Facebook has fallen behind Instagram, at 12.8 million.
"Stories is a growth driver for both platforms, yet it’s not helping Facebook retain younger users," notes Christopher Bendtsen, forecasting analyst at eMarketer. "Teens continue to abandon or never even sign up for Facebook, and Instagram’s gains don’t completely make up for Facebook’s losses for this age group.”
There may be something inherently uncool about hanging out on a platform where your mom, dad and grandpa have accounts (ironic, considering Facebook started exclusively for students).
According to eMarketer, teen Facebook users will drop to just 9.3 million by 2022.
By contrast, Facebook remains popular with older demos. It's still growing among Millennials, though usage has largely flattened among Generation X and Baby Boomers; it ranks as the top social network among all three. That's despite all the controversy over Cambridge Analytica and recent allegations of attempted election influencing on the platform.
Gen X has 45.1 million users, nearly double the number who use Instagram, the demo's No. 2 network. Some 58.5 million Millennials are Facebook users and 31.9 million Boomers.
Also hot among Boomers? Pinterest, which Bendtsen notes they employ to find home improvement ideas. It's the No. 2 social network in the demo.
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ad74c8c3118ec041149f8179a63423b3
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2019/04/27/3-reasons-people-cancel-streaming-services-and-3-reasons-they-dont/
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3 Reasons People Cancel Streaming Services And 3 Reasons They Don't
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3 Reasons People Cancel Streaming Services And 3 Reasons They Don't
Almost half of 18- to 29-year-olds say they subscribe to premium video channels to watch a show only... [+] available on that service, then cancel when they are done watching the program. Getty
Have you ever subscribed to a streaming service just to watch one show? Maybe you were a massively devoted fan of Arrested Development when it aired on Fox, and you nabbed a Netflix subscription solely to watch season four when it dropped six years ago.
Did you cancel the subscription after you finished watching? If so, you are not alone.
A new report from PwC explores the reasoning behind consumer decisions related to streaming services. It examines how content and user experience both influence subscription decisions, and it finds some interesting answers.
“Consumers told us a robust content library is essential,” says Mark McCaffrey, US Technology, Media and Telecommunications Leader, PwC US. “They want the option to browse seemingly unlimited content. They also want an easy-to-use interface so they can find what they’re looking for quickly and conveniently.
“That balance of content and user experience represents the value they demand from a streaming service. If they don’t get it from one service, they’ll try another. At price points as low as $4.99/month, consumers are willing to shop around.”
Extrapolating from the conclusions reached in the report, here are three reasons why people cancel a streaming service.
They Subscribe To Watch One Show, And It’s Done
Thirty-six percent of respondents reported nixing a service after they’d watched a show that was only available on that particular service. This was more prevalent among younger viewers—46 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds did it.
Low Quality Of Content
PwC found that the amount of shows and quality of them were two main factors that influence people’s decisions to keep a service. If quality is low (or selections are limited), they are more likely to cancel.
Difficulty Of Use
This is another user experience-related issue. If navigation of a streaming service is not intuitive, then people are less likely to stick with it.
Here are three reasons why people stick with a streaming service.
The Content Is Better Than What Is Available For Free
You could spend a million hours watching videos on YouTube for free—but would that content live up to your expectation levels? Probably not.
“Free content is no longer the draw it used to be precisely because there’s so much of it online, in varying degrees of quality,” McCaffrey says. “Here's what consumers told us: They would rather pay a nominal fee for their favorite content than watch mediocre content for free.
They Have Few Or No Ads
Fifty-five percent of respondents cited this as part of a good user experience. Netflix and Amazon are ad-free; Hulu’s least-expensive platform does carry ad pods.
Picking Up A Show Where You Left Off Is Easy
In this era of binging, people want their user experience to reflect the way they view shows. More than half said they appreciate a system that allows them to hop right in where they were when viewing a show.
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2118bd9fe41d194b44c3654975b8a7c1
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2019/11/27/why-black-friday-tv-ad-spending-is-way-up-this-year/
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Why Black Friday TV Ad Spending Is Way Up This Year
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Why Black Friday TV Ad Spending Is Way Up This Year
Shoppers browse the aisles during a 2018 Black Friday sale at a Target store. ASSOCIATED PRESS
It remains to be seen if Black Friday consumer spending will be up this year amidst growing economic uncertainty. It appears retailers are worried about turnout. They’re desperate to get the word out about Black Friday deals.
Retailers bumped up their TV ad spending leading up to Friday’s annual event, a sign that they may be concerned about lower turnout on what’s annually one of the biggest days for consumer spending.
New data from Media Radar, a platform that tracks ad spending to help salespeople hone their pitches, finds that during the first two weeks of November, retailers spent more than $400 million on TV advertising, up 5% over last year, which saw brisk sales on Black Friday.
“Our deep dive discovered that spending for 2019’s Black Friday TV advertising has been highly concentrated,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and cofounder of MediaRadar. “In fact, of the nearly 300 retail companies that ran ads on national TV in the first half of November, 77% of those dollars came from the top 20 spenders.”
That means the biggest companies are also spending the most money. This could be taken as a concern about low turnout, or it could be that retailers see potential for bigger spending this year and want people to bring their money to their stores.
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Amazon was the top advertiser, with spending up 7% over last year. Walmart ranked No. 2, though it was actually down 1% versus 2018. Last year Walmart was the No. 1 spender, followed by Amazon.
“Amazon’s rise up the rankings is largely due to its purchasing of premium ad slots, with just over one fifth of its TV commercials occurring during prime time hours,” said Krizelman, “But because of the higher cost of these slots, this is accounting for 55% of the dollars they have spent so far.”
Target, also down 1%, was the third-largest advertiser, followed by Macy’s (up 2%) and Kay Jewelers (down 1%).
Best Buy tumbled to No. 8 this year, with spending down 5% compared to 2018.
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8b9f5042d2e9459ad9540125c869ce7b
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2019/12/03/which-streaming-service-will-stay-on-top-maybe-not-netflix/
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Which Streaming Service Will Stay On Top? Maybe Not Netflix.
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Which Streaming Service Will Stay On Top? Maybe Not Netflix.
A new forecast says dominant streaming services Netflix and YouTube will see their crowns challenged ... [+] with new additions to the field. © 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP
Mention digital video, and Netflix is the first brand that pops to mind, and little wonder. Last year, the streaming service surpassed YouTube as the most-watched video service.
But that reign may not last long. A parcel of new video streaming services are biting at Netflix’s heels, and a new report suggests they may succeed in stealing away some of its hard-won market share.
That’s according to a forecast from eMarketer, the digital research firm, which predicts new competition in the digital video sector will encroach on longtime leaders Netflix and YouTube’s share of viewing, even as those services continue to see time spent watching them increase.
In 2018, Netflix moved ahead of YouTube with 23.2 average minutes per day of viewing, or 25.7% of all digital video viewing, vs. 22.3 minutes for YouTube (24.7 percent). But eMarketer predicts that in 2020, while Netflix’s daily average minutes spent will climb to 29, it will see its daily share of video viewing fall by 6.1% versus the previous year.
What does that mean? Overall time spent with digital video will rise over the next few years. But popular services will see their dominance erode in the face of so many new choices, including recently launched Disney+ and Apple TV+.
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“Even though Americans are spending more time watching Netflix, people's attention will become more divided as new streamers emerge,” eMarketer analyst Ross Benes says. “The video streaming landscape will get crowded, which will drive down the share of time that people devote to Netflix.”
Netflix’s share of daily video time will peak this year at 27%, then drop to 25.7% within two years. It will remain ahead of YouTube, which will see a striking drop in share from 2017 (26.6%) to 2021 (21.7%).
With high-profile new services such as WarnerMedia’s HBO Max also slated to launch in 2020, Netflix will face greater competition. It’s losing some high-profile content (HBO Max is getting Netflix crown jewel Friends), too, which hurts.
As so many new services join the field, digital viewing will become more fragmented in the same way that TV viewing fractured when more people subscribed to cable television.
The other interesting part of the eMarketer forecast is just how much time people spend with digital video. This year for the first time, digital video will account for more than a quarter of all daily digital time, at 25.4%.
“Video streaming is a mainstream, daily routine for most U.S. adults, occurring on all devices and increasingly when viewers are on the go,” eMarketer senior forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco says.
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63dbb1c0afc6e2e88aad33bd5ec4b4bd
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2020/02/18/for-black-history-month-film-highlights-newly-restored-mandela-trial-audio/
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For Black History Month, Film Highlights Newly Restored Mandela Trial Audio
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For Black History Month, Film Highlights Newly Restored Mandela Trial Audio
"The State Against Mandela & The Others" includes newly restored audio from an early 1960s court ... [+] case involving Nelson Mandela and others, including Andrew Mlangeni, above, who protested apartheid. Artification
Two years ago, when Ezra Ezzard was just starting his new media company, he was on a trip to Berlin where he met filmmakers Nicolas Champeaux and Gilles Port. They told him about a project they were working on, a documentary focused on the 1963-’64 trial of South African leader Nelson Mandela that included newly restored audio from the courtroom.
Ezzard thought the film sounded perfect for his new venture, Artification.
“As one of the only African-American men and one of the only people of color in distribution of films globally, I felt like I needed a space for our stories in the distribution pipeline. I knew this was the type of film I wanted to represent the company,” says Ezzard.
Artification acquired the film. The State Against Mandela & The Others opens a one-week run at the IFC Center in New York City on Wednesday.
It’s no coincidence that the bow coincides with Black History Month and the 30th anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison, which was celebrated earlier this month.
Champeaux and Port revisit the so-called Rivonia Trial that included Mandela and more than half a dozen other co-defendants, members of the African National Congress. They faced the death penalty for charges of sabotage against the apartheid government.
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Mandela delivered a moving three-hour opening, and his closing remarks have long been revered for their power and simplicity. It was a grueling nine-month trial. Ezzard notes Mandela’s mentor spent 48 hours on the stand.
For the film, which flips between the past and present day, the filmmakers played restored audio from the trial for several of the surviving codefendants, lawyers and loved ones of those on trial, including the late Winnie Mandela, the ANC leader’s ex-wife.
“Watching her was probably one of the more impactful moments of the film,” says Ezzard. “I could see the smile on Winnie Mandela’s face hearing Nelson’s voice. It really does something to you. It’s inspiring, I would say.” It was Winnie Mandela’s final film appearance before her death in 2018.
State, an official selection of the Festival de Cannes, is the second film distributed by Artification. System K, released last year, was a New York Times Critic’s Pick profiling the world of performance art in Democratic Republic of the Congo's capital city, Kinshasa.
Ezzard became interested in starting a distribution company in 2015, when the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was born. “I always said that was the wrong conversation to have. The conversation I said we should be having was that the distributors were so white,” Ezzard says.
He notes that though State depicts events from more than half a century ago, its release feels timely.
“Especially after what’s happened in Ferguson, in South Carolina, around the world where we’re having black and brown bodies attacked by policemen just for being black and brown—this film allows us to look at the world through a different lens and find inspiration in how they came together in South Africa,” Ezzard says. “All the defendants weren’t South African or black or African. They unified to bring about change.”
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ae2603211ddf813e8e455cb609c05393
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2020/04/28/for-the-first-time-in-almost-10-years-time-watching-tv-is-up/?sh=2c599eac20a8
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For The First Time In Almost 10 Years, Time Watching TV Is Up
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For The First Time In Almost 10 Years, Time Watching TV Is Up
TV watching will grow this year for the first time since 2011, a new study finds. Getty
According to a new study, TV viewing is going to rise for the first time since 2011. And you can probably guess why that is.
Yes, it’s all the time in our houses due to the coronavirus pandemic. With COVID-19 forcing a mandatory quarantine in many places across the country, people are flocking to TV for entertainment.
The report, from eMarketer, finds that traditional TV will jump by a considerable 8.3 million U.S. viewers this year, ending a nine-year dip.
That will bring the total to 287.3 million, the study says. However, that boost will not last. The return of TV is evidently an event-based occurrence, not a long-term trend.
“Consumers will undoubtedly be fixated on their TVs more in 2020 due to stay-at-home orders, continued interest in up-to-date news on the pandemic and increasingly, more leisure time due to increasing unemployment rates,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco.
Viewership will be up across demographics this year.
The biggest jump is among adults 65 and older, the group most at risk during the pandemic, so it makes sense they’d be staying in. Viewership in the demo will grow by 4.9%.
But other demos will see big gains, too. Adults 25-34, who saw a 3.2 percent drop in TV viewing in 2019, will be up 4.3 percent this year.
Adults 45-54, who dipped the most last year at 4.4%, will rebound by 2% this year.
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But that boost will not sustain. Declines will start again in 2021, eMarketer projects.
It’s a temporary gain for a medium that had been projected to decline this year, had there been no pandemic. Viewing time will grow by 19 minutes this year. Next year, eMarketer says, it will fall by eight minutes.
It’s the first time since 2012 that time spent watching TV is up.
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4498fbc95dc69ef117667c23ada69e4a
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2021/01/25/wrestling-with-rising-streaming-competition-peacock-turns-to-wwe/
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Wrestling With Rising Streaming Competition, Peacock Turns To WWE
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Wrestling With Rising Streaming Competition, Peacock Turns To WWE
Peacock has reached a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment as the exclusive streaming home of WWE ... [+] content. AFP via Getty Images
With the rapid expansion of the streaming ecosystem, everyone’s looking for a gimmick to get people to watch or subscribe to their service.
Netflix NFLX , Amazon AMZN and Hulu have the advantage, as they’re well established and air shows that have been drawing viewers for years.
The newbies, though, are fighting to stand out. For HBO Max, the strategy seems to be embracing legacy content for reboots (hello, new Sex and the City). For Disney+, it’s building on proven franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel. And for Peacock, the answer may be delivering a different type of smackdown.
NBCUniversal, which owns Peacock, said Monday that it has reached an exclusive rights deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE WWE ). WWE Network, a streaming service, will shut down in March, and Wrestlemania and other WWE properties will then move to Peacock.
SmackDown will continue to air on Fox FOXA and NXT and Raw will remain on USA, but repeats will migrate to Peacock. It’s not hard to imagine Peacock pursuing exclusive rights to those programs in the future if it sees returns on this deal.
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WWE Network’s closure reflects the issues Peacock faces in trying to reach long-term sustainability. The wrestling channel drew just over a million subscribers, who will be given subscriptions to Peacock Premium (Peacock has both a free and paid service).
The question has long been whether niche streaming networks might fare better, because they can draw on loyal fans who won’t find their content anywhere else, or if a more generalized approach is smarter, because services will have a broader base of potential subscribers to draw from.
Adding live streaming content is certainly one way for Peacock to set itself apart. Amazon and Hulu have both experimented with airing live sports—Hulu has run advertising campaigns around it—but sports still remain a largely analog draw.
With the deal, Peacock gains access to more than 17,000 hours of library and fresh programming.
Peacock has 26 million total subscribers since debuting in July. It has launched some fresh content, including a rebooted Saved by the Bell that was recently renewed for season two. But the streamer has yet to program a signature new show. Reruns of The Office are its best-known and most popular offering.
The deal makes sense from another perspective, too. NBCUniversal has a long relationship with WWE, including the current USA deal and dating back more than a decade, including as when SmackDown aired on Syfy.
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46ab20ef46de327ac044506753753344
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2021/01/26/for-pbss-frontline-delivering-the-news-in-an-accessible-way/
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For PBS’s ‘Frontline,’ Delivering The News In An Accessible Way
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For PBS’s ‘Frontline,’ Delivering The News In An Accessible Way
'Trump's American Carnage' airs tonight on PBS's 'Frontline.' NurPhoto via Getty Images
It’s been more than five years since that much-heralded study declared that more Millennials got their news from then-Daily Show host Jon Stewart than any other source. Since then, news sourcing has only become more splintered.
The “voice of God” days of the network anchors spouting the same stories are long since passed. With even cable news network viewership fragmenting beyond party lines to right/far right and left/far left, presenting a source of reliable news that younger audiences also find digestible is the challenge facing journalists today.
A platform that may address those many issues is documentary. Docs feel accessible since they marry narrative film style with news delivery. Aiming for the sweet spot between the two is a goal for Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer of PBS's FRONTLINE, an investigative journalism series.
“Documentaries are built for this era,” Aronson-Rath says. “The biggest goal I have for this year is to reach new audiences. We’ve been contemporizing filmmaking with short-form films, and we want to meet that audience where they are, so they don’t have to change what they’re doing.”
That means finding the right platform for delivery to connect with younger people. Since adding FRONTLINE’s docs to YouTube, streams of full episodes have quadrupled, and the number of channel subscribers has more than doubled. Forty-one percent of the YouTube audience is under age 34, which contrasts to the older audience
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The most popular docs on YouTube include Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos with 9.1 million streams and America's Great Divide, Parts 1 and 2 with 5.9 million combined streams.
Of course, timeliness is critical to remaining relevant in an era of instant news alerts on your phone. Less than a week after President Donald Trump left office, and a day after the House of Representatives delivered articles of impeachment against the former president (again), FRONTLINE already has a take.
Trump’s American Carnage bows tonight at 10 p.m. The documentary, focusing on the division stoked by Trump’s White House, invokes a phrase Trump used during his inauguration address that quickly set the tone for a combative tenure.
It’s reflective of recent FRONTLINE content. In the past year, the show has produced more than half a dozen films about COVID-19, including next week’s China’s COVID Secrets, which focuses on the pandemic outbreak in China.
The stripped-down style of documentaries often allows people to come to their own conclusions—certainly valuable in a world where so much news is delivered and consumed by quote-tweet.
“Young people really do not trust too much production. That does not resonate with them,” Aronson-Rath says. “And I don’t think documentaries are the only answer. I think everything starts with being extremely diligent on facts, taking seriously the mandate as journalists to be fair and factual. We use an extreme vetting process that includes checking all the edits.
“When someone’s telling a lie, we’re not afraid to say they’re lying. We’re not afraid to be anti-racist. Some things are not negotiable.”
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e900a74064fee4965a2122d2d73cbbfb
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2018/11/28/josh-donaldson-bets-on-himself/
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Josh Donaldson Bets On Himself
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Josh Donaldson Bets On Himself
Cleveland Indians' Josh Donaldson (27) celebrates his grand slam with teammates Michael Brantley,... [+] left, and Jose Ramirez during the seventh inning of a baseball game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, Sept. 28, 2018. Kansas City Royals catcher Cam Gallagher, right, waits for the next batter. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Earlier this week Josh Donaldson became the first "big" free agent of the 2018-19 offseason to find a new home, signing a one-year, $23 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. It's an interesting signing on a lot of levels; the length, the term, and the Braves as a destination all are thought-provoking. The one thing that is clear is that Donaldson has no fear; his decision to accept the same annual salary he earned in 2018 with the Blue Jays and re-enter the free agent fray next fall stands to place him in the same free agent class as younger third basemen like Nolan Arenado and Anthony Rendon. That's confidence.
Donaldson didn't take the typical fast track to major league stardom traveled by most future MVPs. Though a high draftee, a sandwich round selection of the Cubs in 2007, taken 48th overall, he required two changes of scenery, to Oakland and then Toronto, and one position change, from catcher to third base, before really taking off. Each year I produce a ranked list of minor league position players based on production and age relative to minor league level. Donaldson only qualified for this list once, at #79 in 2008. He logged more than 1000 Triple-A at bats before crashing the A's lineup for good at age 26 in 2012.
The A's interest in Donaldson wasn't particularly surprising; he was the prototypical Moneyball prospect, essentially a tooled-up version of the original, Jeremy Brown. He didn't truly take his game to the next level until he temporarily set on-base percentage aside and began attacking the ball in the strike zone, making some of the most authoritative contact in the American League. After a couple seasons of doing just that, the OBP came back, as pitchers had to begin to approach him more carefully. Following the 2014 season, after he became a Blue Jay, I projected him as my 2015 AL MVP, citing a combination of factors including his extreme batted-ball authority to all fields, a move from a pitcher-friendly park in Oakland to a hitter-friendly park in Toronto, and success despite a very low line drive rate that had nowhere to go but up.
If only all of my predictions worked out as well as that one. He won that 2015 AL MVP Award with a dominant all-around season, and followed it up with a similar 2016 campaign that earned him a 4th place finish in that year's MVP voting. His offensive recipe for those seasons? A K rate in the league average range, a BB rate over two standard deviations above league average, and fairly extreme contact authority figures. His overall BIP authority regularly clocks in over one STD above league average, largely driven by fly ball velocity at one to two STD above and liner velocity over one STD above league average. His average grounder velocity tends to be at to slightly above league average, and until 2017, he had avoided an extreme pull tendency on the ground, keeping infield overshifts and the downward pressure they create on one's batting average at bay.
That was peak Donaldson, however. What version of him are the Braves buying? Though limited to 219 at-bats last season due to shoulder and calf injuries, it should be noted that neither malady was of the major, structural variety. He is still a reasonable, slightly lesser facsimile of his 2015-16 self. His average fly ball velocity dropped to 94.5 MPH in 2018, down from the 96+ MPH level the two previous seasons. Still well above average, just no longer in the stratosphere. His 96.2 MPH average liner velocity was exactly the same as in 2017, and his average grounder velocity of 85.3 MPH was down fractionally (by 0.1 MPH) over the same span.
It also should be noted that in his admittedly small 2018 sample, he sprayed the ball around on the ground more so than in 2017, to the point that a club would overshift him at its own risk. Donaldson is no longer an MVP candidate, but if healthy, he should put up a line somewhere in the .270-.360-.480 range, with solid defense, making him well worth his salary.
Back to that contract. One has to think that if Donaldson played the market and tried to extract every last cent, he would have garnered a total guarantee well over $23M, albeit at a lower per year salary. Generally, players are, shall we say, "encouraged" by the players' union to do just that, for the good of all of its members. He decided to go his own way, join a contending club that is heavily reliant on young, ascending talent. for a single year, and then go after a bigger payday in a year. I say good for him.
And from a team perspective, this is a no-brainer for the Braves. No, $23M isn't chump change, but the Braves can afford it. They're still benefiting from the windfall of playing in a relatively new stadium, and the aforementioned young talent they employ is largely still in the 0-3 year experience category, and very inexpensive. They're in a sweet spot; contending on the backs of low-wage stars. This gives them the flexibility to extend short-term, big-dollar contracts to players still in their prime. Players like Josh Donaldson.
Incumbent third baseman Johan Camargo is a fine young player, and in minor leaguer Austin Riley, Donaldson's heir apparent will be a short drive away at Triple-A Gwinnett. Camargo is athletic and adept defensively; perhaps he can become a multipositional near everyday player, a la the Dodgers' Enrique Hernandez or Chris Taylor, the roster spot-saving type of player teams that play deep into October tend to employ. The type of team that the Braves are trying to become.
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abfc8e984ca7008652110fb9432062c7
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2018/12/14/a-dozen-starting-pitchers-who-are-better-than-you-think/
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Nick Pivetta And The 12 Starters Who Are Better Than You Think -- And Are Set For A Big 2019
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Nick Pivetta And The 12 Starters Who Are Better Than You Think -- And Are Set For A Big 2019
Philadelphia Phillies' Nick Pivetta pitches during the third inning of the first game of a baseball... [+] doubleheader against the Washington Nationals, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The year is coming to an end, the Winter Meetings are over, and it won't be long before we start counting the days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training. As the time comes to take a breath and hopefully spend some quiet time at home, let's look at some starting pitchers who were better than their raw, mainstream numbers in 2018, and are likely to thrive in 2019.
How are we going to do this? Well, if you have read some of my pieces here, you might be familiar with my "Tru" ERA- stat. If you're not, well, here you go. "Tru" ERA- measures a pitcher's talent by measuring how he "should have" performed based on the exit speed/launch angle mix on all batted balls allowed, along with, of course, the Ks and BBs he accumulated.
The pitchers listed here had "Tru" ERA- figures below both their ERA- and FIP- for the season. (100 is league average, the lower the better.) ERA represents, well, you know, ERA. FIP, for the statistically uninclined, is Fielding Independent Pitching, a proxy for ERA which heavily weights the pitcher's K and BB abilities, making some basic assumptions re: batted balls allowed (i.e, ground balls good, fly balls bad).
This is not meant to be a list of minor league pitchers on the verge of stardom, or even young pitchers ready to take the next step. There are old and young, blue chippers and under the radar types, hard throwers and craftsmen. The common thread? They are better than you think. Oh, and my corresponding list at the end of 2017 included Jacob deGrom, Aaron Nola, Trevor Bauer, Tyler Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Anibal Sanchez. The order is roughly based upon the disparity between how good they appeared to be and how good they actually were last season.
1. RHP Nick Pivetta (Phillies) - 119 ERA-, 92 FIP-, 78 "Tru" ERA-
The first of three Phillies on this list, thanks in large part to their horrific 2018 team defense, which made many of their hurlers appear much worse than they actually were. Pivetta's 188/51 K/BB in only 164 innings is certainly eye-catching, but he is a much better contact manager than his defense allowed him to be. On both fly balls (162 Unadjusted vs. 100 Adjusted Contact Score) and grounders (165 vs. 102), he allowed much more damage than he should have based on his exit speed/launch angle mix. Overall, his 125 Unadjusted Contact Score (based on actual results) drops sharply to a 94 Adjusted Contact Score. I don't see much additional upside above a 78 "Tru" ERA-, but he's at least a solid #3 starter.
2. RHP Ross Stripling (Dodgers) - 79 ERA-, 85 FIP-, 67 "Tru" ERA-
He's good by an measure, but great according to "Tru" ERA-. Find me an unluckier guy on fly balls than the Dodger swingman. 44.3% of all fly balls hit between 100-105 MPH were home runs last season; Stripling allowed 12 such flies - and 10 of them (83.3%) left the yard. Not his fault. Adjusted for exit speed/launch angle, his Unadjusted Fly Ball Contact Score of 149 plunges to 69, and his overall Unadjusted mark of 126 falls to 87. Toss in a 136/22 K/BB in 122 IP, and you have a hidden gem. He's a hot name in the winter trade market, and should succeed wherever he winds up.
3. LHP Steven Matz (Mets) - 105 ERA-, 116 FIP-, 86 "Tru" ERA-
Honestly am thrown by Matz' exceedingly high FIP-. His biggest problem was the outsized amount of damage he allowed on line drives. Hitters batted .726 AVG-1.110 SLG on liners against him (142 Unadjusted Liner Contact Score) but should have hit .668 AVG-.900 SLG (107) based on his BIP mix. His solid 152/58 K/BB ratio in 154 innings and 90 Adjusted Contact Score (101 Unadjusted) mark him as a well above average starting pitcher.
4. RHP Anthony DeSclafani (Reds) - 120 ERA-, 116 FIP-, 94 "Tru" ERA-
The oft-injured Reds' righty posted solid peripherals (108/30 K/BB in 115 IP) but his mainstream numbers were hurt by his allowance of more damage than he "should have" on all BIP types. 117, 106, 140 Unadjusted vs. 96, 95, 106 Adjusted Fly Ball, Line Drive and Ground Ball Contact Scores, respectively. The Reds are on the hunt for experienced starting pitching upgrades, but if they keep this guy around, they're likely to be rewarded.
5. RHP Dylan Bundy (Orioles) - 127 ERA-, 118 FIP-, 99 "Tru" ERA-
Let's just forget the 2018 Orioles even existed, OK? Bundy sure would like to. His Unadjusted Contact Score was an unfathomable 149 (adjusted down to 114 based on exit speed/launch angle), thanks in part to poor O's team defense. Like DeSclafani, his Unadjusted Contact Scores all exceeded his Adjusted marks (166, 118, 124 vs. 115, 106, 95) on all BIP types. The new management team in Baltimore likely can't wait to get to work on unlocking this guy's potential.
6. LHP Tyler Anderson (Rockies) - 98 ERA-, 106 FIP-, 92 "Tru" ERA-
His second straight year on this list. Anderson was one of only 5 (out of 28) NL ERA qualifiers to post better than average Adjusted Contact Scores on all BIP types - 88 on fly balls, 97 on liners and 96 on grounders. A strong 164/59 K/BB ratio in 176 IP plus an overall 97 Adjusted Contact Score (with more upside) marks Anderson as a potential #3 starter.
7. LHP Brett Anderson (Athletics) - 107 ERA-, 101 FIP-, 94 "Tru" ERA-
This oft-injured lefty returned to where he began his MLB career almost a decade ago and was quite effective on a per-inning basis. As always, he was a ground ball machine, and he coupled that with an ability to mute fly ball contact authority (83 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score). Anderson's strikethrowing prowess plus his overall 88 Adjusted Contact Score make him a solid bet quality-wise, though he can't be relied upon for innings bulk.
8. LHP Jason Vargas (Mets) - 153 ERA-. 126 FIP-, 99 "Tru" ERA-
OK, give me some slack on this one. His raw numbers were flat out brutal. Over a not-insignificant sample of 92 IP, Vargas posted a career high K rate and utterly throttled grounder authority with his changeup (74 Adjusted Grounder Contact Score). His overall Adjusted Contact Score was just fair at 103, but it wasn't bad for a fly ball pitcher. If the K rate increase is real, he can help someone.
9. LHP Wei-Yin Chen (Marlins) - 126 ERA-, 112 FIP-, 91 "Tru" ERA-
No doubt about it, the 5-year, $80M deal the Marlins gave Chen prior to the 2016 season was a bad one. That said, he showed signs of life last season. He's a pop up machine, and did a very good job of controlling fly ball authority (74 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score). He was also very unlucky on liners (123 Unadjusted vs. 99 Adjusted Contact Score). A subpar K/BB ratio combined with a strong overall 87 Adjusted Contact Score mark him as a little better than league average starter when healthy.
10. RHP Vince Velasquez (Phillies) - 121 ERA-, 91 FIP-, 86 "Tru" ERA-
This guy has come a long way from raw thrower to more accomplished pitcher. Now if he could only stay healthy. Velasquez muted fly ball authority (73 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score) and was very unlucky on liners (144 Unadjusted vs. 101 Adjusted Contact Score). A 161/59 K/BB in 146 2/3 IP plus slightly above average contact management ability (95 Adjusted Contact Score) mark him as an above average starter.
11. RHP Zach Eflin (Phillies) - 109 ERA-, 92 FIP-, 89 "Tru" ERA-
Eflin has always been a decent contact manager, but he finally started to miss more bats in 2018, a tough trick to pull off at the MLB level. He threw his sinker much less, his slider much more, and staked a claim to a rotation spot. His BIP profile resembles that of teammate Velasquez - a strong 75 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score, and rough luck on liners (120 Unadjusted vs. 99 Adjusted Contact Score). With better team defense behind them, the Phils' rotation is poised to shine in 2019.
12. RHP Jon Gray (Rockies) - 110 ERA-, 94 FIP-, 93 "Tru" ERA-
A victim of Coors Field, he allowed hitters to bat .402 AVG-1.087 SLG (165 Unadjusted Fly Ball Contact Score), though they should have hit only .329 AVG-.905 SLG (113) based on the exit speed/launch angle mix allowed. Gray will not be be a good contact manager unless he develops a viable changeup - his poor 124 Adjusted Grounder Contact Score helped drive his overall 107 mark.
JUST MISSED: LHP Eric Lauer (Padres), RHP Tyler Mahle (Reds)
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4317ba2d46dba389026311f4d29fa234
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2019/05/17/miguel-cabrera-limping-toward-the-finish-line/
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Miguel Cabrera, Limping Toward The Finish Line
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Miguel Cabrera, Limping Toward The Finish Line
Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera tosses a ball in the dugout before the first inning of a... [+] baseball game, Saturday, May 4, 2019, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) ASSOCIATED PRESS
A wave of contract extension fever swept through the baseball industry these past few months, with owners committing (literally) billions of dollars to the game's current greats, from Bryce Harper to Manny Machado to Nolan Arenado to players with little to no MLB experience like Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies and Eloy Jimenez. Some of these contracts will work out famously, others, not so much. This might be a convenient time to look backward at a mega-deal given not so long ago to one of the game's aging greats.
The Detroit Tigers certainly could not complain about their first first major investment in the services of Miguel Cabrera, an eight-year, $152.3M deal that spanned the 2008-15 seasons. Depending on the resource you prefer, it either netted them 46.6 (Baseball Reference) or 46.2 (Fangraphs) WAR for Cabrera's age 25 through 32 campaigns.
The Tigers could not leave well enough alone, however, and then guaranteed Cabrera $248M over the next eight years, covering his age 33-40 seasons. This has not gone so well, to say the least, as he has registered a total of 4.5 (Baseball Reference) or 5.3 (Fangraphs) in the first three-plus years of that deal. He has been essentially a replacement level player from 2017 forward. Not good.
Obviously, injuries have had a lot to do with Cabrera's decline. He was limited to 38 games played in 2018 due to a ruptured biceps, not exactly the ideal injury for a hitter to suffer. That's just part of the equation, however.
At his apex, Cabrera was something to behold. In some of my other articles here I have discussed the concept of the K/BB Multiplier. This Multiplier, when combined with a player's Adjusted Contact Score (measure of contact quality incorporating exit speed and launch angle) closely approximates wRC+. As recently as 2015, Cabrera's K rate was over a half standard deviation better than league average, while his BB rates was over two full standard deviations better than league average, giving him a Multiplier of 1.27. This meant that Cabrera needed only a 79 Adjusted Contact Score to be a league average hitter - and he was way, way better than an average hitter.
At his peak, Cabrera did it all with the bat. He maximized all of the positive behaviors; going back to 2008, his liner rate has never been below the 64th percentile, and five times since then his liner percentile rank has been in the 90s. Contact authority of all types was routinely harder than average. Great hitters get noticed for driving the ball in the air, but the purest among them crush the ball on the line and on the ground as well. Cabrera met that standard.
He also minimized negative outcomes. Since 2011, Cabrera's pop up rate percentile rank has only exceeded 30 once; in every other season it was in the teens or lower. When you don't strike out much, walk a lot, never pop up, hit tons of liners and hit every batted-ball type materially harder than league average, you win hardware and set yourself up for eventual Hall of Fame enshrinement.
That's where Cabrera was. Where is he now? Let's start with the foundation, the K/BB Multiplier. His K and BB rates are now both in the league average range, giving him a 0.99 Multiplier. He's only as good as his batted-ball quality now; the safety net is gone.
In every single frequency and authority measure, Cabrera has declined, significantly in some areas. The pop up rate (2.7% through Wednesday night's games) is still good, but is high for Cabrera. Likewise, his 22.7% liner rate is good for most mortals, but represents a decline for this guy. The grounder rate (46.4%) is up, the fly ball rate (28.2%) is down.
His average fly ball (89.7 MPH) exit speed is way down, into the league average range, and his average liner (95.3 MPH) exit speed is still above average but down quite a bit from previous norms. Only the average grounder exit speed (92.3 MPH) remains Cabrera-like, but given his utter lack of speed, it doesn't garner him much production.
In addition, Cabrera has begun to drift toward extreme pulling on the ground in recent seasons, inviting overshifts. Some good news on this front, as he's sprayed the ball around a bit more on the ground this season.
Batted-ball metrics tend to be kind, obviously, to players who hit the ball hard. Older, slower players like Cabrera, Albert Pujols and Joey Votto, to name three, have significantly underperformed their batted-ball metrics, largely due to their utter lack of speed. Hard-hit grounders that are singles for faster players, and fly ball/line drive/ground balls that are doubles/triples for others are singles/doubles for Cabrera and friends. Cabrera's sprint speed is in the 6th percentile among major leaguers; Pujols' is in the 2nd, Votto's the 19th.
Cabrera is batting .282-.349-.342; his batted ball metrics suggest he "should be" hitting .265-.331-.422. That's with a perfectly representative liner rate, and a 150 Adjusted Grounder Score that likely overstates his production within that batted-ball type. The only hope? His Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score of 80 could move upward assuming his biceps isn't quite 100% yet.
Still, are you excited about a league average-ish slash line for your $30M investment? There are no complementary skills here. No speed, and he's basically a full-time DH at this point. It takes three hits to score him, basically, as he's scored all of 12 runs in his first 57 times reaching base this season.
Pujols might see his numbers bounce up a bit as the season progresses. His walk rate is up, he's pulling the ball on the ground less. His liner rate is abnormally low, and can't help but regress upward. Plus, he's batting an unusually low .412 AVG-.706 SLG on the liners he has hit. That's regressing upward as well.
Votto's in a worrisome place. He became a launch angle guy last season, and it had some positive short-term effects. It hasn't added to his power production, he's popping up for the first time in his career, his K and BB rates are both moving the wrong way, and he's become an extreme grounder puller, inviting overshifts.
The moral of the story? Invest in a player's prime years. Invest in athletes. Hitters, even the greatest among them, have to project to have value beyond their bats. Positional value, defense and baserunning all matter. Teams are getting smarter with their long-term investment strategies, and the decline phases of the game's aging stars will be factored in.
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32d7e2115d4abcec1fefecbc5238194f
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2019/05/29/blake-snell-justin-verlander-facing-off-in-epic-cy-young-rematch/
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Blake Snell, Justin Verlander Facing Off In Epic Cy Young Rematch
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Blake Snell, Justin Verlander Facing Off In Epic Cy Young Rematch
Houston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander throws during the fifth inning of a baseball game... [+] against the Detroit Tigers, Wednesday, May 15, 2019, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) ASSOCIATED PRESS
The 2018 AL Cy Young race was a wild one, with the youngster, the Rays' Blake Snell, prevailing over the grizzled veteran, the Astros' Justin Verlander. I had some pointed words to say about it here.
Bottom line - Snell was great, but he wasn't even that close to Verlander in 2018. Pitching excellence is about both quantity and quality. The raw innings totals gave Verlander a huge edge before we got to the small matter of quality. ERA-, which I think most of us would agree is an outdated metric, gave Snell the edge by 46 to 54.
FIP-, which I think most of us would agree is a somewhat better metric, flips the edge from Snell to Verlander, by a margin of 67 to 72. Then there's "Tru" ERA-, an even better (in my humble opinion) metric which I have developed that incorporates the exit speed and launch angle of all batted balls allowed to determine how a pitcher "should have" performed. Using that metric, Verlander gets better (down to 54), Snell a touch worse (up to 75).
Multiplied out over their total number of innings pitched, Verlander was 46.7 "Tru" Pitching Runs Above Average in 2018. Snell actually ranked 6th in the AL at 21.4, behind Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco, in addition to Verlander.
Well, guess what.....those two are at it again. Below is a list of AL ERA qualifiers through games of May 23, listed in order of "Tru" Pitching Runs:
Name ADJ C TRU- TPR Verlander 92 64 12.7 Snell 82 50 12.0 Glasnow 67 50 11.7 Cole 115 67 10.6 Boyd 95 69 10.1 Minor 84 74 8.3 Morton 82 70 7.8 Odorizzi 73 70 7.8 Berrios 89 77 7.2 Kikuchi 80 78 6.6 Sale 126 77 6.5 Lynn 85 79 6.3 Tanaka 88 80 6.2 Montas 95 80 6.0 German 96 82 4.9 Giolito 98 81 4.9 M.Perez 82 83 4.7 Chirinos 87 84 4.0 Rodriguez 99 86 3.8 Stroman 87 90 3.2 Miley 83 88 3.2 Gonzales 88 93 2.3 Bundy 98 93 1.8 Carrasco 138 94 1.6 Fiers 88 95 1.5 Turnbull 104 97 0.7 Bieber 138 99 0.4 Gibson 121 102 -0.5 Bauer 119 103 -1.1 Porcello 104 105 -1.4 Happ 108 106 -1.6 Nova 98 109 -2.5 Anderson 90 111 -2.8 Pineda 120 111 -2.9 Thornton 124 113 -3.2 Junis 114 115 -4.1 R.Lopez 120 116 -4.4 Leake 123 119 -5.4 Sanchez 123 121 -5.9 Cashner 120 122 -5.9 J.Lopez 136 128 -6.8 Keller 97 122 -6.9 Cahill 136 136 -8.7
The column labeled "ADJ C" contains each pitcher's Adjusted Contact Score, which represents the level of damage a pitcher "should have" allowed on balls in play given his individual exit speed/launch angle mix. 100 equals league average, the lower the number the better.
Adjusted Contact Score has a direct relationship with "Tru" ERA- via each pitcher's K and BB rates. You may have seen some of my previous posts which touch on the K/BB Multiplier. The better a pitcher's K and BB rates, the lower the multiplier, the lower the "Tru" ERA-.
For instance, Snell's 2019 K rate is over two full standard deviations better than league average, his BB rate is over one full standard better. Pitchers with that combination have over time posted a 0.60 multiplier. That holds up pretty well here, as Snell's 82 Adjusted Contact Score (82) multiplied by 0.60 brings you extremely close to his 50 "Tru" ERA- mark.
Similarly, Verlander's K and BB rates are both over one full standard deviation better than league average, giving him a K/BB Multiplier of 0.75. His 92 Adjusted Contact Score multiplier by 0.75 brings you within hailing distance of his 64 "Tru" ERA-.
So far, this year's battle between the two is a classic quantity versus quality showdown. Per inning pitched, Snell has clearly been the better pitcher. His K rate is higher, and he has actually been a better contact manager than Verlander this season, with his Adjusted Contact Score dropping from 96 in 2018 to 82 in 2019 while Verlander's has risen from 86 to 92.
Snell's pop up rate has risen fairly sharply despite a decrease in his fly ball rate. That's hard to do, but is the mark of a great pitcher who can record outs both up and down in the zone. At the same time, Verlander's pop up rate has dropped quite a bit, from over two standard deviations above league average down into the average range. Not huge, earth-shattering changes, but when you're splitting hairs between great pitchers, you get into such details.
Verlander more than makes up for the marginal quality deficit with pure volume. He is leading the AL in innings pitched, while Snell is 37th. Despite that gulf, Verlander leads the young lefty by less than a pitching run at this stage. It should be a fun race to watch all season.
There's one other large difference between the two pitchers that may be of particular interest to the Forbes reader. Snell is providing massive excess value to the Rays in 2019, as his current salary is only $573,700. He's locked up through 2023 on a four-year deal that tops out at $16.6M. Verlander makes $28M this season, and will earn $33M in both 2020 and 2021, when he will be 38 years old.
There are many other stories to be told in the above chart. Scan through the Adjusted Contact Score figures and you will see that our AL Contact Manager of the Year through May 23 was Tyler Glasnow, with a 67 mark. Alas, he is no longer a qualifier for this list, as he will be on the shelf for a length of time. His "Tru" ERA- of 50 ties Snell for league best, and his Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score of 63 ranks third behind current Contact Manager of the Year runner-up Jake Odorizzi (49) and Lance Lynn (54). Glasnow's command has improved by leaps and bounds; when healthy he and Snell should form a lethal lefty/righty combo at the top of the Rays' rotation.
Verlander and Snell rank only 8th and 9th among Fangraphs pitching WAR leaders as of today, with 1.7 apiece. Sure, the list is tightly bunched, with Matthew Boyd leading at 2.2 WAR, but a batted ball-based approach catches some of the things other publicly available metrics are missing.
Fangraphs ranks Shane Bieber 14th with 1.4 WAR. I love Bieber (he ranked 1st on my minor league pitcher rankings in 2018), but he is tied with teammate Carrasco for the worst Adjusted Contact Score in the AL thus far at 138. He has a 182 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score and has allowed an average fly ball exit speed of 94.7 MPH - both figures are worst in the league by far. Now with a K/BB Multiplier as good as his, Bieber can be an absolute star with even league average contact management performance. He has a long way to go to get there, however.
On the other hand, the contact management abilities of Yusei Kikuchi are appreciated more by a batted ball-based approach. He's the rare ground ball pitcher who also has posted a high pop up rate, and his current Adjusted Fly Ball (73), Line Drive (91) and Ground Ball (96) Contact Scores are all better than league average. He walks no one, his overall Adjusted Contact Score of 80 is the AL's third best, and he currently ranks 10th in "Tru" Pitching Runs. He's 22nd in Fangraphs WAR.
We'll dig a little deeper into these and other stories inside the numbers above in the coming weeks. Next, we'll take a look at the early NL Cy Young race, later this week.
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1a836526513172b7e714f4dbe8a4487d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2019/08/16/the-reds-aristides-aquino-is-the-poster-child-for-the-historic-2019-offensive-explosion/
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The Reds' Aristides Aquino Is The Poster Child For The Historic 2019 Offensive Explosion
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The Reds' Aristides Aquino Is The Poster Child For The Historic 2019 Offensive Explosion
Cincinnati Reds' Aristides Aquino reacts in the dugout after hitting his second home run of a ... [+] baseball game in the third inning against the Chicago Cubs, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Aaron Doster) ASSOCIATED PRESS
2019 will go down in baseball lore as the year offense exploded. The league-wide home run record is going down, and going down hard. Almost every team is on track to set their franchise round-tripper record.
Many reasons have been volunteered for the increase, from the focus on launch angle to climate change, you name it. They all to have get in line behind the primary culprit, however, the "new" baseball being used at the MLB and AAA levels.
This new offensive era needs a face, however, a standard-bearer. Could it be, say Josh Bell, the best hitter on the Pittsburgh Pirates? Long known as The Lumber Company, a franchise known for its offense, the Buccos are hideous this season. They are 25th among the 30 franchises in homers, but are still going to set their club record in 2019.
Could it be currently injured Angels' second baseman Tommy La Stella? Coming into 2019, he had hit all of 10 homers in 828 MLB at bats. In 2019, he crushed 16 in his first 283 at bats before breaking his leg.
Nah. There's a better one. How about a player who took until his 5th pro season to break into a full-season minor league, and until his 7th season to reach the AA level. A player never really regarded as a true "prospect". A player who got all of one major league at bat, in his 8th pro season, and then was taken off of the major league roster and made available as a six-year free agent to every other organization.
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A player who then re-signed with the same organization that gave him that one major league chance, just last summer, and is now the talk of the game. He went to AAA, for the very first time, and obliterated the rabbit ball to earn a second chance at the game's highest level. And oh, what he's done with that second chance. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you Aristides Aquino of the Cincinnati Reds, the poster child for the offensive explosion of 2019.
Every season, I compile a list of top minor league position player prospects based on performance and age relative to league and level. The vast majority of starting major corner outfielders, first basemen and DHs - the true bat-first guys - made my list more than once, and ranked quite highly. Aquino made my list exactly once, in 2016, at age 22, when he slugged .519 and smoked 61 extra-base hits in the spacious ball parks of the High Florida State League.
Among 2018 MLB semi-regulars, the player with the most similar background to Aquino was the White Sox' Daniel Palka, a big strikeout guy who crushed the baseball when he made contact. (Palka batted .022 in his second MLB tour this season. These stories don't always end well.)
What has stood out about Aquino is his brief MLB stint to date, in which (through Wednesday's night's games) he was hitting .386-.426-1.023 with nine homers in his first 44 at bats? The thunder.
One of his homers left the bat at 118.3 MPH, matching the hardest fly ball and home run hit in the majors this year. He's tied with Gary Sanchez for the former, and Sanchez and Pete Alonso for the latter. The ball explodes off of his bat when he centers it up.
He's hit all of 13 fly balls as a major leaguer, and nine have left the yard. That's insane. It's also a very small sample size. Four of his flies (30.8%) have been hit at 105 MPH or higher, which is way above the MLB average of 8.0%. It should also be noted that four of his homers have been hit at less than 100 MPH. Only 18% of MLB homers this season have had exit speeds that low. One of Aquino's homers, at 89.7 MPH, is one of the most weakly hit homers hit this season.
He's batting .692 AVG-2.769 SLG on flies this season, for an Unadjusted Fly Ball Contact Score of 667. That's bonkers squared. He "should be" hitting .485 AVG-1.556 SLG on flies, for an Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score of 243, which in a given year would rank near the top of the league. Again, small sample size alert.
He's also been fortunate on line drives, batting .875 AVG-1.000 SLG (162 Unadjusted Liner Contact Score), while he "should be" hitting .690 AVG-.941 SLG (117 adjusted.) He's hitting his grounders very weakly, at an average of 74.1 MPH, and his 33 Unadjusted and 47 Adjusted Grounder Contact Scores match up quite well. All in all, Aquino "should be" hitting .296-.341-.661, pretty darned good but nowhere near his current actual level.
Let's forget the numbers for a second and put on our scouting hats. Again, the samples are as small as can be, but in his one MLB at bat in 2018, Aquino's stance was closed. This season, he has opened up considerably. He's seeing the ball much better, and getting much better extension without lengthening his swing. Still, it's an all-or-nothing stroke, with a bit of an uppercut.
When I was with the Mariners, we had a couple of somewhat similar minor league players. One was Carlos Peguero, who routinely put up awful K/BB ratios but big power numbers, often in quite hitter-friendly minor league parks. He got some brief MLB opportunities, but never made enough contact to stick before having some success in Japan. Peguero, of whom I was never a big fan, was clearly a better prospect than Aquino, but didn't make it in a less power-focused era.
Aquino reminds me even more of a kid named Kalian Sams. He was signed out of the Netherlands in 2007, at age 20. He played in a full-season league in his very first season, but in every other way was a lot like Aquino. Big power? Check. He had a career .450 SLG in the minors despite a low .219 batting average. Contact issues? Check. He struck out in 35% of his minor league at bats.
Every time we discussed minor league cuts and releases, his name was brought up quickly. He was older than, and had worse numbers than his competition. The sound that the ball made off of the bat always stopped us from making the final call. He never did make the major leagues, but he eventually did slug over .500 over a full AA/AAA season in 2013 before his career ran its course.
If Kalian Sams was 25-years-old today, I certainly would not release him. With today's baseballs, in today's stadiums (Aquino's Great American Ball Park is the second most hitter-friendly yard in the game today), he'd have a puncher's chance at success. By just making a little more contact, with a little more plate discipline, such a player can succeed and carve out a role in today's game.
When such a player squares it up, it's out of Yellowstone. Aquino hit one 89.7 MPH, and it left the yard. Four of his nine homers haven't reached 100 MPH. Perhaps the next undervalued resource, the next trendy target of the Rule 5 draft, will be the raw power guy with the huge strikeout totals that is an adjustment away from being a big league contributor. At the end of the day, Aristides Aquino might merely be Wily Mo Pena or Jose Oliva (1994 Braves), but the Reds are losing nothing by giving him the opportunity to prove he's much better.
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43819586f9e1308cce36da424e65996d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2020/12/10/white-sox-acquisition-of-lance-lynn-certifies-contender-status/
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Chicago White Sox’ Trade For Lance Lynn Cements Their Status As An MLB Contender
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Chicago White Sox’ Trade For Lance Lynn Cements Their Status As An MLB Contender
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic continues to sweep the baseball industry. While teams always keep their financial cards close to their vest, one can usually tell the contenders from the pretenders without a scorecard.
This time around, we basically have to wait until clubs make (or don’t make) transactions before their status becomes clear. While a 2020 playoff team like the Reds, for example, seems to be in cost-cutting mode, and the big-market Phillies appear to be eschewing the high end of the market, the White Sox earlier this week made it clear where their priorities lie.
Lance Lynn was acquired from the Rangers for young, controllable righty starter Dane Dunning and lefty pitching prospect Avery Weems. The casual fan might say “meh”—Lynn is a durable mid-rotation guy who lacks material upside. I’m here to tell you that the casual fan would be wrong. The White Sox just acquired one of the very best pitchers in the American League, and while he is signed only for the 2021 season, his salary is a cost-effective $8 million.
The Rangers didn’t get much right the last couple of seasons, but their signing of Lynn as a free agent prior to the 2019 season was inspired. According to the batted-ball based metrics I utilize, Lynn was the third-best pitcher in the American League over the last two seasons. That’s right, third, behind only Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, who was injured in 2020.
There are two basic components to pitching performance: K/BB ratio and contact management. When you’re great at the former and okay at the latter, you’re elite, like Cole. Jacob deGrom, circa 2018-19, is the only pitcher to truly excel at both in the immediate past. That catapults you beyond elite, into the historic category. Lynn isn’t elite at either skill but is very good at both.
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In 2019, Lynn posted a 28.2% K rate, over a full standard deviation better than league average, and a 6.7% BB rate, over a half standard deviation better. He slipped backward a bit in this regard in 2020, with his 25.9% K rate in the league average range, and his 7.3% BB rate still a half standard deviation better.
When you’re better than league average K/BB-wise, as Lynn was by a comfortable margin in 2019 and a somewhat lesser one in 2020, that gives a pitcher some room for error with regard to contact management. Room that Lynn has not needed.
In 2019, Lynn posted an Adjusted Contact Score—relative to 100, the lower number the better, the amount of damage a pitcher allowed on batted balls—of 89. That didn’t put him in contention for Contact Manager of the Year, but it was well above average. Add back his Ks and BBs and his “Tru” ERA- (my proxy for ERA- or FIP-) was a strong 74, good for fifth among 2019 AL ERA qualifiers. Spread that out across his considerable innings bulk, and Lynn produced 27.7 Pitching Runs Above Average, fourth in the league.
Fast-forward to 2020, and Lynn managed contact even better, posting an 82 Adjusted Contact Score, tied for third among ERA qualifiers. Add back his Ks and BBs, and his “Tru” ERA- was 72, seventh among AL ERA qualifiers. Over the many innings he pitched, that was good for 11.6 Pitching Runs Above Average, fifth in the AL.
While his Adjusted Contact Score did improve in 2020, the fundamentals supporting it did not. In 2019, he squelched batted ball authority of all types, particularly flies and liners. In 2020, he was more reliant on suppression of fly ball authority, and he actually allowed materially harder than league average grounders. He lacks a go-to batted-ball frequency tendency, like a materially high pop up or grounder rate, though he’s edging closer in the former category.
In the grand scheme of things, those are minor points. Bottom line: The White Sox just acquired a pitcher who was one of the five best starters in the AL in both of the last two seasons. In terms of two-year Pitching Runs Above Average, only Cole (61.8) and Verlander (44.5) beat out Lynn. Right behind Lynn’s 39.3 mark comes a line of fine hurlers - new teammate Lucas Giolito and Hyun-Jin Ryu (both at 37.4), Kenta Maeda (37.3) and 2020 Cy Young winner Shane Bieber (36.0). Pretty heady company.
But I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet. He’s doing it the way the great ones like deGrom, Cole and Max Scherzer do—with his fastball.
Each year I break down the arsenal of every ERA-qualifying starter and assign each of their pitches a letter grade based on their K/BB and pitch-specific Contact Management performance relative to the league.
In 2019, Lynn had four qualifying pitches. In order of usage rate, they were his four-seam fastball, sinker, curve ball and cutter. He received an “A” grade for his four-seamer and “B+” grades for the other three. The four-seamer’s swing-and-miss rate of 13.9% was over two full standard deviations above the pitch-specific league average, and its 102 Adjusted Contact Score was over a half-standard deviation better.
In 2020, he didn’t throw enough curves to qualify, but he received “A” grades for both his four-seamer and sinker, and a “B+” for his cutter. This time around, the cutter edged ahead of the sinker for the second spot in terms of overall usage.
His whiff rates and Adjusted Contact Scores for both his four-seamer (12.4%, 89) and sinker (9.5%, 68) were over a full standard deviation better than the pitch-specific league averages. His sinker made strong progress in both departments related to 2019 (8.0%, 85).
So what do we have here? One of the best pitchers in baseball—who I’d say has slipped a tad from his 2019 peak—at a very affordable price. How will he meet his end? At some point, he’ll lose a bit off of his fastball, and more of those four-seamers will start going over the outfield fence. He’ll first become an innings-eating mid-to-back of the rotation guy, then worse. The chances of that happening in 2021? Very low.
Most reports I’ve read see Lynn as the Sox’ third starter, behind Giolito and Dallas Keuchel. With Giolito on his way up and Lynn perhaps beginning his downward arc, I’ll concede the top spot to the younger player, but the club’s new acquisition should be penciled in as one of the game’s best No. 2 starters for 2021.
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d043898e05d40bf57704ec8033e665f0
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2021/01/07/washington-nationals-pilfer-josh-bell-from-pittsburgh-pirates/
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Despite Josh Bell’s Rough 2020, Washington Nationals Look Like Big Winners In Trade With Pirates
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Despite Josh Bell’s Rough 2020, Washington Nationals Look Like Big Winners In Trade With Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates' Josh Bell (55) celebrates with Colin Moran after hitting a two run home run off ... [+] Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Kyle Ryan during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) ASSOCIATED PRESS
It’s been slow going on the baseball hot stove front this off-season, even by the tortoise-like standards of the recent past. Before the sport largely took a break for the holidays, the Washington Nationals and the Pittsburgh Pirates did get together to make a fairly significant trade, with the Nats obtaining first baseman Josh Bell for two minor league right-handed pitchers, Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean.
This type of deal—a cost-controlled 28-year-old just two seasons removed from star-level production, in exchange for two non-elite prospects—never used to get made. In the recent past, however, the market value of sub-star-level, bat-only players at the wrong end of the defensive spectrum has clearly declined, and in most cases, I find that decline quite appropriate. It’s kind of like the de-emphasis of the running back position in football. Only the great ones should be paid at the premium level.
I would submit, however, that sometimes the pendulum swings too far in the other direction.
Let’s look at one of the Pirates’ direct competitors in the National League Central, the Milwaukee Brewers. In just the last five seasons, they’ve entertained a cast of thousands at first base. As recently as 2016, they got 41 homers from their primary first baseman, Chris Carter. Remember him? They let him walk rather than pay him an arbitration salary surely to be inflated by those 41 long balls.
He was followed by the likes of Eric Thames, Ji-Man Choi (for a brief interlude), Jesus Aguilar and Justin Smoak. They let each and every one of them walk rather than pay them market value. And guess what: They were right. Some of those players, like Choi and Aguilar, have high floors while the others have a bit more upside as boom-or-bust guys. They figure they can piece that position together on an annual basis, and more often than not, they’ve been right. They’ve reached the postseason multiple times in the process.
I’m here to tell you, however, that Josh Bell is not Thames/Choi/Aguilar/Smoak—he’s potentially much, much better.
I could begin my case just about anywhere, but I’ll start here.
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2019 NL Batting Title Qualifiers With Average Fly Ball/Liner/Grounder Exit Speed > 90 mph:
Christian Yelich Josh Donaldson Josh Bell Manny Machado Trevor Story
2020 NL Batting Title Qualifiers With Average Fly Ball/Liner/Grounder Exit Speed > 90 mph:
Fernando Tatis Jr. Christian Yelich Josh Bell Kyle Schwarber
Pretty short lists. Now, exit speed is not the be-all-and-end-all, but it does mean quite a bit to hit all batted ball types hard. It’s pretty obvious that hard-hit fly balls often go over the fence and hard-hit line drives become precious doubles. It’s less obvious that hard-hit grounders serve as batting average insurance. Other players who suffered through poor 2020 seasons, like Kris Bryant, hit their grounders quite weakly thanks to uppercut swings. Bell’s nightmarish 2020 could have been even worse if he didn’t materially exceed league-average production on ground balls. A .226 seasonal batting average never looked so good.
Now would be a pretty good time to take a step back and see exactly who Bell is as a hitter, and what made him so good in 2019 and so bad last season.
We already know he hits the ball hard. That’s a positive. One notable positive outlier about his 2019 season was his league-average-range fly-ball rate. In his other three seasons as a regular, including 2020, his fly-ball rate was materially below league average. It was over a full standard deviation below, at 23.4%, last season. As a result, his average launch angle plummeted from 13.0 degrees in 2019 to 5.9 in 2020.
One notable negative outlier about his 2020 season was his elevated strikeout rate (26.5%). In his other three seasons, it floated in a narrow band between 17.8% and 19.2%, average to slightly better than league average.
He has shown one consistently negative offensive trait through all four seasons: a below-league-average line drive rate. It’s ranged from 17.7% to 19.0%, never above the 23rd percentile among NL regulars.
So what is Josh Bell? I feel pretty comfortable saying that he isn’t as good as he was in 2019, and not nearly as bad as he was in the Covid-shortened 2020 season. He hits the ball hard and has a history of making contact at a quite consistent level for a masher, but he doesn’t elevate the ball as much as you’d like. The low liner rate means .300-plus batting averages aren’t likely in his future. Glass half full, there’s tons of upside if he can post even a league-average fly-ball rate (see 2019).
In other words, I’m pretty comfortable with valuing him, conservatively, at his 2017-18 level, when he posted “Tru” Production levels (my batted ball-based statistical proxy for wRC+) of 112 and 116. He’s better than 2020 (97 “Tru” Production) and not as good as 2019 (148), although he certainly has the potential to do that again.
Now, this trade didn’t take place in a vacuum where Bell is the sole variable. There are two organizations, two other players and dollars to take into consideration.
Bell has two years of control remaining, and assuming a 162-game schedule, is projected to make $7.2 million in 2021. He rates as a slightly below-average defender at his position. He needs to earn his keep with his bat. He is leaving the Pirates, who do not have a history of maximizing raw talent at bat (Gregory Polanco, with many of the same pros and cons as Bell) or on the mound (Gerrit Cole and Chris Archer, say hello).
The Pirates seemed to already be ten games back two weeks into the truncated 2020 campaign. With no fans in the stands, it had to be a pretty dismal situation in Pittsburgh. The aforementioned Yelich also saw his K rate spike last year and has mentioned the inability to utilize the stadium video room to make in-game adjustments as a potential cause. Did Bell have a similar issue? To be sure, this is just one possibility. I, for one, would be doing extensive vision/visual skills testing on any player whose K rate mushroomed in 2020.
Then there are the prospects, and the not-insignificant fact that there was no traditional minor league season in 2020. Crowe and Yean both have live arms; Crowe is older (26) and ready to compete for a big league job, and Yean is a teenager and far away. They were identified as trade targets more based on their tools—like draft prospects—than their skills, as in our 2020 biosphere there was no way to gauge the latter.
The 2019 world champs, despite their 2020 short-season underachievement, are built to perennially contend, largely because of their star-laded starting rotation, their budding megastar Juan Soto and his sidekick Trea Turner. Bell fits into a win-now environment as the next two years will determine whether he becomes a wildly rich young man or simply a very wealthy one.
The Nats are starting with a durable 112-116 “Tru” Production+ player, with material upside above that if the right adjustments are made. In all likelihood, he’ll be worth his 2021-22 arbitration salaries, and perhaps well more. Crowe/Yean are well worth the risk. In the meantime, the Pirates have divested themselves of one of their few players capable of moving the needle, likely without receiving one in return.
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be86d96c6004b6ece039de9acc17fde4
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2021/01/20/new-san-diego-padre-joe-musgrove-was-much-better-than-his-2020-numbers/
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New San Diego Padres Pitcher Joe Musgrove Was Much Better Than His 2020 Numbers Might Suggest
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New San Diego Padres Pitcher Joe Musgrove Was Much Better Than His 2020 Numbers Might Suggest
FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2020, file photo, Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Joe Musgrove delivers ... [+] against the Cleveland Indians during the first inning of a baseball game in Cleveland. The San Diego Padres are adding yet another pitcher to their rotation, agreeing to bring right-hander Musgrove to his hometown in a trade with the Pirates, according to a person familiar with the deal. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane, file) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Those San Diego Padres are at it again. While much of the baseball industry remains in austerity mode, the challengers to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ NL West supremacy continue to—for lack of a better term—try to win. We discussed this a couple of weeks back here.
The Padres once again dipped into their seemingly bottomless sack of prospects to land right-handed starter Joe Musgrove from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-team deal that also sent lefty starter Joey Lucchesi to the New York Mets. I’ll leave analysis of Lucchesi and the prospects sent to the Pirates to others; let’s talk about Musgrove today.
At first glance, Musgrove’s track record appears somewhat pedestrian: a 29-38 career record with a 4.33 ERA over parts of five seasons in Houston and Pittsburgh. Still, he’s been front and center in a couple of important chapters in the game’s recent history. He was a key, flexible piece of the Astros staff that won the 2017 World Series and was an important component of the package sent to the Pirates in exchange for Gerrit Cole that offseason.
He has been highly sought after in this offseason’s trade market despite posting ordinary numbers with a 1-5 record and 3.86 ERA in 2020. I’m here to tell you that he was way, way better than that once you peel a couple of layers back from his mainstream statistics.
Through 2019, Musgrove was basically a strike-thrower with league-average-range bat-missing and contact management characteristics. And that’s just fine—it translates to a slightly better than league average range pitcher, one who can post ERA- figures in the 90 range.
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When you look at the raw numbers, that’s essentially what Musgrove was in 2020: His ERA- was 89, his FIP- a bit better at 77. Those figures, however, do not take into consideration the quality and authority of contact made against him. My “Tru” ERA- statistic and its contact-specific component, Adjusted Contact Score, do.
Judging by the actual results he yielded alone, Musgrove was a well-below-average contact manager in 2020, posting a 122 Unadjusted Contact Score. Adjusted for exit speed/launch angle, it was a much different story as Musgrove posted an Adjusted Contact Score of 86, a career best.
That’s not all. In an admittedly small sample size, Musgrove’s entire contact management profile changed in 2020. Previously, his batted ball type frequency profile was unremarkable, with no pop up, fly ball or grounder tendencies to speak of. In 2020, his fly ball rate dropped to 24.7%, over a half standard deviation below league average, while his pop up rate spiked upward to 6.5%, over a full standard deviation above league average.
Now, Musgrove did not pitch enough innings to qualify for the ERA title in 2020, but among those who did, only the Twins’ Kenta Maeda had a similar high pop up/low fly ball rate combination.
Musgrove also throttled opponents’ batted-ball authority, holding them to average overall exit speed of 85.1 mph, a full standard deviation lower than league average. This excellence extended across all batted ball types (88.0, 90.3 and 81.6 on flies, liners and grounders; all were well better than league average, the first two were career bests).
He was very unlucky with both his four-seam fastball (161 Unadjusted vs. 84 Adjusted Contact Score) and slider (196 vs. 100) last season.
Each season, I give each ERA-qualifying starting pitcher a letter grade for each of their most often used pitches based on their pitch-specific swing-and-miss rates and contact management results. In 2019, Musgrove earned a “B+” for his slider, “B”’s for his changeup and sinker, and “C+”’s for his cutter and four-seamer. Those of you who have read my work here know how much stock I put into pitchers who earn high grades with their fastballs.
Musgrove made huge strides in that regard in 2020, as his four-seamer moved up a full grade to a “B+” in 2020, largely because of greatly improved contact management performance. (His sinker and slider earned “B” grades.) The loudest contact is made against that pitch, year in and year out. Musgrove’s four-seamer’s 84 Adjusted Contact Score in 2020 was exceptional. It was his main pop up generator.
His low innings total left his changeup and curve with too few balls in play allowed for any sort of 2020 letter grade to be meaningful. Still, a quick perusal of his pitch-by-pitch data shows that Musgrove’s massive 33.1% K rate - over a full standard deviation above league average - isn’t just due to his very good but not elite 14.4% swing-and-miss rate. It’s also due to his better than average ability to generate called strikes, including called third strikes. He does that with multiple pitches, but particularly with his curve ball, which is rarely put into play.
Put it all together, and Musgrove’s “Tru” ERA- in 202o was a glittering 66. Only Trevor Bauer, Brandon Woodruff, Jacob deGrom and Yu Darvish fared better among NL ERA qualifiers.
Now is Joe Musgrove that good? Probably not. But he now clearly possesses better-than-average bat-missing ability, with average to above-average command and contact management ability. Only durability (his career high in innings pitched is 170, and he’s qualified for only one ERA title) remains a concern. Matching him up against other clubs’ third or fourth starters would seem to be unfair as the Padres engage the Dodgers in an NL West arms race.
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903b45b676d8839f139ce29d8886b6bd
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2021/01/27/baseball-hall-of-fame-sinks-further-into-irrelevance-as-writers-elect-no-one/
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Baseball Hall Of Fame Sinks Further Into Irrelevance As Writers Elect No One
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Baseball Hall Of Fame Sinks Further Into Irrelevance As Writers Elect No One
George Napolitano/MediaPunch/MediaPunch/IPx
It’s been a rough, rough year for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Like most other museums, it has been essentially shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its Induction Weekend, which inundates the quaint village of Cooperstown, NY, with baseball fans from across the country, was cancelled this past summer.
The situation only begins there. It has been a tragic year for the Hall of Fame fraternity, with fully 12% of its living player population passing away over the past calendar year. This list of greats, joined recently by Hank Aaron, includes many inner-circle Hall of Famers. So many that I’m reluctant to list them, as I’m unsure where to draw the line.
The Hall has deep personal meaning to me and my family. Before I began working in the game, we made an annual summer pilgrimage to Cooperstown for Induction Weekend. From 1994-2002, we stayed at the Adelaide Bed And Breakfast, on 110 acres just outside of town, for a week each summer. We made new friends and strengthened ties with existing ones, cultivating memories that will last a lifetime. Thinking back, I never imagined the Hall could become a near afterthought within a generation.
Last evening, faced with one of the deepest ballots they’d ever encountered, the Base Ball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) opted to elect exactly no one to the Hall.
That’s right, absolutely no one.
Here and previously at Fangraphs, I have written an annual update on the Hall of Fame voting. Last year, we celebrated the election of Larry Walker. If you don’t feel like clicking, this was my look ahead to the 2021 voting:
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“The good news is that most of these guys will get in. The writers will have plenty of excess ballot capacity moving forward. Only 6.61 players were selected per ballot this time around, with 1.77 of those dedicated to Jeter and Walker. That drops that number to 4.84 players selected per ballot - and means there are 5.16 open slots per ballot available to the holdovers next year. They will joined by the newly eligible Tim Hudson, Mark Buehrle and Torii Hunter, none of whom will provide particularly stiff competition.”
“These guys” are the glut of HOF worthy guys populating both the 2020 and 2021 ballots:
Curt Schilling
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Scott Rolen
Billy Wagner
Gary Sheffield
Todd Helton
Manny Ramirez
Jeff Kent
Andruw Jones
Bobby Abreu
I didn’t include Omar Vizquel (who got more votes than all but the top three names on that list), as I wouldn’t vote for him, for purely baseball reasons. Ditto Sammy Sosa and Andy Pettitte. Sosa, in my mind, was not a Hall of Famer without performance enhancers. Pettitte falls a bit short of the Hall for me, but is clearly worth consideration.
Others would draw different conclusions than I about the players discussed above, but the BBWAA, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to elect absolutely none of them. None reached the 75% vote threshold, a level which is clearly not the problem, in my humble opinion. It didn’t stop Jim Rice, Jack Morris or Andre Dawson - lesser players in my eyes than ALL 11 players with my personal stamp of approval - from getting in.
So how on earth did we get here? The current ballot logjam can be traced directly to the steroid issue. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens may well be the greatest position player and pitcher in the game’s history. I’ve seen a bunch of them, and they’re #1 in my eyes. (Yes, I’m old enough to have seen Willie Mays and Aaron, but not Ted Williams. I’ve seen Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton, but not, say, Warren Spahn.)
Their situations are admittedly complicated. I don’t hold any ill will against any voter that takes a principled stand against their induction, though I would argue vociferously in their favor. Take away any performance enhancers, and they’re still easy Hall of Famers.
Their presence on the ballot for the full 10-year eligibility period has clogged things up. The number of players chosen per ballot by the writers jumped sharply from 6.60 in 2013 to 8.39 in 2014. The average hovered in that range before peaking at 8.46 in 2018, as the writers elected a whopping 15 players from 2014-18, including 10 on their first year of eligibility. The “weakest” selection among that group was likely Trevor Hoffman, who is the second best closer of all time. The writers deserve kudos for their performance over that five-year stretch, performing their task of electing new Hall of Famers despite the presence of two elephants in the room in Messrs. Bonds and Clemens.
Then last year happened. With long-time holdovers Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina cleared off of the ballot and inducted the previous year, the voters finally had an opportunity to put in a bunch of deserving guys. #1 and 2 on the list were Bonds and Clemens. Nope. Their vote totals barely moved.
#3 was Curt Schilling. His vote totals were on a clear induction track from 45.2% in 2017 to 51.2% in 2018 to 60.9% in 2019. He didn’t quite make it in 2020, but he stayed right on his well-worn Hurricane Curt trajectory, with his vote share increasing to 70.0%. 2021 was going to be his year.
In Schilling’s case, it appears to be his politics that have intervened. Many voters have been able to keep their focus on what happens on the field, but a growing number appear to be utilizing a variety of litmus tests, particularly once a player closes in on induction. Like Bonds and Clemens, Schilling has only one more year of eligibility before his candidacy is passed along to the Veterans Committee, and it has become a quest of a small but growing group of Twitter activists to keep Schilling out. His vote share inched up to 71.1% in 2021.
Much of the next tier of candidates saw a big boost in support in 2021 - Rolen (from 35.3% to 52.9%), Wagner (31.7% to 46.4%), Sheffield (30.5% to 40.6%), Helton (29.2% to 44.9%) and Jones (19.4% to 33.9%) were the biggest beneficiaries. Overall, however, voters have dramatically shortened their ballots in 2020-21, with the average number of names per ballot dropping from 8.01 in 2019 to 6.61 in 2020 to 5.90 in 2021.
Put it this way - with the induction of Derek Jeter and Larry Walker in 2020 and the addition of no one particularly noteworthy in 2021, the writers had 5.16 open spots available on their ballots if they changed nothing heading in 2021. They barely used 1.00 of those open spots, and have made their task unnecessarily harder in 2022 by giving Buehrle (11.0%), Hunter (9.5%) and Hudson (5.2%) enough votes to hang around another year. Oh, and Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz, among others, show up on the ballot for the first time in 2022.
Like I said before, there are principled voters saying “no” to Clemens and Bonds. They’re not the problem. Schilling’s regular season credentials are debatably Hall-worthy, though his postseason record is of legend. A principled debate can be had regarding his candidacy - leaving politics out of it.
The problem is the “wasted” ballots. The empty ones, or the random ones with, say, Kent and one other down-ballot guy on it. These exist, and many of them are publicly available at Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker. There are even worse ballots that their owners choose not to reveal to the public - bank on it.
Bottom line - like many aspects of the baseball industry at present, the Hall is becoming a joke. The BBWAA has been given the responsibility and privilege of inducting Hall of Famers, and they have failed. They have been presented with a historic slate of worthy players and have deemed them all unworthy. It’s not time to lower the 75% threshold, or increase the 10-player limit. It’s time to clean out the dead wood on the voter rolls and leave this task to serious people. Otherwise, the Baseball Hall of Fame will become just another relic of the pre-pandemic era.
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845352af6ddb3b9936216723bea76ad4
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2021/02/23/mets-jacob-degrom-brewers-brandon-woodruff-threw-mlbs-best-four-seam-fastballs-in-2020/
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Mets’ Jacob DeGrom, Brewers’ Brandon Woodruff Threw MLB’s Best Four-Seam Fastballs In 2020
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Mets’ Jacob DeGrom, Brewers’ Brandon Woodruff Threw MLB’s Best Four-Seam Fastballs In 2020
Jacob deGrom's four-seam fastball has been the foundation of his success in recent years. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The ever-increasing role of analytics in the game of baseball has fundamentally changed pitching. The days of “establishing the fastball” are gone, as hurlers are throwing more and more breaking balls and starters are throwing fewer overall pitches.
On the surface, these trends are totally understandable and easily provable by the underlying numbers. The third time around the order penalty really does exist, and breaking balls miss more bats than do fastballs, and generally result in less authoritative contact.
I’ve got a paradox for you, however. Why is it that the very best pitchers in the game, including most of the perennial Cy Young contenders, rely on their fastballs for their success?
Yes, the fastball - particularly ones of the four-seam variety - allow the most authoritative contact in the game, with a pitch-specific Adjusted Contact Score of 115.7. (Adjusted Contact Score measures, on a scale where 100 equals league average and the lower the number the better, the level of production that should have been allowed based on actual exit speed/launch angle of all balls in play.) It’s so far behind the other pitches in that regard that every other one is an above-average contact management offering, with Adjusted Contact Scores below 100. And only the two-seamer/sinker has a lower average whiff rate than the four-seamer’s 9.0%.
There are pitchers, however, who routinely post whiff rates of almost twice as much with their four-seam fastballs. We’ll talk about some of them today. Others, like Gerrit Cole, Chris Sale, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander have done it in the recent past, in some of their very best seasons. And to a man, they have done so while managing contact at a level more in line with pitch-specific averages for breaking balls. If you’ve got a great four-seamer, you’re probably great.
There were 33 ERA-qualifying starters who met the total pitches/balls in play criteria to receive a letter grade for their four-seamers. Their average four-seamer usage rate was 33.8%, a figure that has been trending downward in recent years.
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A quick review of my methodology. Each qualifying pitch is graded on its ability to miss bats and manage contact. An average pitch gets a “B” grade, and grades diverge up or down from that average based on pitch-specific performance relative to league norms in those two areas. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, any pitch thrown at least 100 times, with at least 15 balls put into play, qualified for a letter grade. Three of the five “A+” or “A” grade recipients - including the only “A+” - did so over relatively small sample sizes.
If you’d like to catch up on the three previous installments of this series, click here for changeups, here for curves, and here for cutters/splitters.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what made 2020’s top four-seam fastballs stand out:
RHP Yu Darvish - A+ (47 Adj. Contact Score, 17.6% Whiff Rate) - From a qualitative perspective, Darvish threw MLB’s best four-seamer in 2020, but he threw it only 14.7% of the time. Both his pitch-specific Adjusted Contact Score and whiff rate ranked 2nd among qualifiers.
In an admittedly small sample size of 18 batted balls, both his frequency (11.1% liner rate) and authority (26 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score, best among 33 qualifiers) profiles stand out. His four-seam contact management (165 Adjusted Contact Score) was much worse in 2019, driving a “C” grade.
Stylistically, Darvish threw his four-seamer hard (96.2 mph average velocity, 8th), and with plenty of spin (2nd to Trevor Bauer with a 2582 rpm average spin rate) with a significant amount of vertical (9.7 in., 5th) and relatively little horizontal (3.6 in., 25th) movement.
RHP Jacob deGrom - A (105 Adj. Contact Score, 18.4% Whiff Rate) - On a per-pitch basis, deGrom’s four-seamer didn’t quite measure up to Darvish’s, but the Mets’ righty threw his 44.9% of the time, 7th most among qualifiers. While deGrom’s pitch-specific Adjusted Contact Score was in the middle of the pack (with ordinary batted ball frequency and authority profiles), his whiff rate ranked at the very top.
This isn’t deGrom’s first four-seam rodeo. He earned an “A” in 2019, with a slightly better contact management (93) and much lesser (12.2%) bat-missing performance. Oh and he got a four-seam “A+” in 2018 and an “A” in 2017. Baseball’s reigning elite four-seamer right here.
His average four-seam velocity (99.0 mph) ranked 1st among qualifiers, and his average spin rate (2477 rpm) ranked 6th. The pitch had below average horizontal (3.9 in., tied for 23rd) and above average vertical movement (8.9 in., tied for 10th).
Brandon Woodruff was the only qualifying starter with two Grade "A" fastballs in 2020. ASSOCIATED PRESS
RHP Brandon Woodruff - A (97 Adj. Contact Score, 17.5% Whiff Rate) - It’s pretty tough to tell Woodruff’s four-seamer apart from deGrom’s. Woodruff ranked one notch higher in contact management rank, and two behind in whiff rate rank. 2020 was Woodruff’s first year as an ERA qualifier, but his four-seamer would have earned a “B+” in 2019 thanks to a significantly above average pitch-specific whiff rate.
Woodruff’s most noticeable contact management trait was his ability to throttle line drive authority. His 72 Adjusted Liner Contact Score was easily the best among qualifying hurlers.
He didn’t throw his four-seamer quite as often as deGrom, but his 34.5% usage rate did rank among the top half of qualifiers. There were also numerous stylistic similarities, as his average velocity (97.1 mph, 6th) and spin rate (2457 rpm, 9th) ranked closely behind deGrom’s, his average horizontal movement (3.9 in, tied for 23rd) exactly matched deGrom’s, and his average vertical movement (9.4 in., 8th) was slightly higher.
RHP Chris Bassitt - A (73 Adj. Contact Score, 14.7% Whiff Rate) - Never would have guessed this one, but Bassitt ranked highly in both the contact management (4th) and bat-missing (5th) disciplines in his first season as an ERA qualifier.
This ranking was be taken with a couple of grains of salt due to small sample size (16.5% usage rate, only 16 BIP). He squelched fly ball contact expertly, posting a 53 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score, 4th best among qualifiers.
To the eye and by the numbers, Bassitt’s four-seamer was nothing like deGrom’s or Woodruff’s. Its average velocity (93.8 mph, 16th) and spin rate (2160 rpm, 27th) were at best nondescript, and also earned mediocre rankings in average horizontal (4.5 in., 16th) and vertical (7.7 in., 25th) movement. Bassitt’s four-seamer clearly punches above its weight, and it will be interesting to see how it performs over 162-ish innings in 2021.
RHP Kenta Maeda - A (43 Adj. Contact Score, 8.1% Whiff Rate) - Maeda’s changeup also received an “A” grade. His four-seamer ranked 1st in pitch-specific contact management, and a modest 19th in whiff rate. In 2016, his only previous ERA-qualifying season, the pitch earned a “B+”, with a 103 Adjusted Contact Score and 9.4% whiff rate.
This grade, like Darvish/Bassitt’s, came from a small sample size, in Maeda’s case, only an 18.8% usage rate and 19 batted balls. He does received significant credit for containing both fly ball (44 Adjusted Fly Ball Contact Score, 3rd) and grounder (68, 1st easily) authority. Only six of 33 qualifiers posted Adjusted Grounder Contact Scores under 100.
Maeda’s four-seamer’s measurables closely matched Bassitt’s. His average velocity (92.0 mph) ranked 24th, while his average spin rate (2269 rpm, 19th) horizontal (4.1 in., 18th) and vertical movement (8.1 in., tied for 16th) were squarely in the middle of the pack.
JUST MISSED:
Six pitchers earned “B+” grades: Lance Lynn (92 Adjusted Contact Score, 12.4% whiff rate), Aaron Nola (88, 10.7%), Zack Wheeler (83, 9.7%), Lucas Giolito (106, 12.1%), Dylan Bundy (80, 9.1%) and Martin Perez (79, 7.7%). All but Giolito were well above average contact managers with their four-seamers, while Lynn and Giolito were the only two among that group who missed significantly more bats than average, Lynn (49.9%), Wheeler (42.1%) and Giolito (50.6%) posted well higher than average four-seamer usage rates.
THE WORST FOUR-SEAMERS:
A pair of Cubs, Jon Lester (172, Adjusted Contact Score, 2.9% whiff rate) and Alec Mills (206, 5.3%) “earned” “D” grades with their four-seamers. Lester ranked 29th in contact management and 31st in bat-missing, while Mills ranked 32nd and 26th, respectively. Yup, four-seamer numbers can get pretty ugly - neither finished last in either core discipline. Those honors went to Jose Berrios’ 209 Adjusted Contact Score and Patrick Corbin’s 2.1% whiff rate.
2019 “A” GRADE RECIPIENTS:
We’ve already discussed deGrom. The four other 2019 “A” grades went to Cole (116 Adjusted Contact Score, 17.0% whiff rate), Lynn (102, 13.9%), Giolito (91, 11.4%) and Noah Syndergaard (83, 10.8%). As already noted, Lynn and Giolito got “B+” grades in 2020, Cole (121, 11.0%) was the best “B” recipient, and Syndergaard was injured. Yup,, you’ve got to be pretty good to earn a four-seam “A” grade over a full season.
2020’s best four-seamers, on balance, were thrown hard with lots of spin, with less than average horizontal and more than average vertical movement. This table shows all four-seam fastball letter grades.
Only two more pitches to go - sinkers and sliders.
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21b82b9052aa7c9d2928e46553bee1f4
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2013/05/14/with-windows-8-1-all-that-is-old-is-new-again/
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With Windows 8.1 All That Is Old Is New Again
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With Windows 8.1 All That Is Old Is New Again
Microsoft shared more details about Windows "Blue" today. Speaking at the JP Morgan Technology, Media, and Telecom conference in Boston this morning, Tami Reller, CMO and CFO of Microsoft's Windows Division revealed that Windows 8.1 (the official name of Windows "Blue") will be available later this year as a free update through the Windows Store. The scope and purpose of Windows 8.1 take a familiar Microsoft pattern, and puts a new spin on it that hints at how Microsoft will operate in the future.
Tami Reller, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for Windows and Windows Live... [+] Division, speaks about the latest laptop computers during the keynote address for CES 2012 by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the annual Consumer Electronics Show on January 9, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
Most businesses and consumers are accustomed to the service pack. A service pack is a massive update--much larger than a simple patch, but not enough to qualify as a unique iteration of the operating system. Conventional wisdom suggests that you shouldn't adopt a new version of the Windows operating system until Service Pack 1 is released. The service pack incorporates all of the smaller patches and updates that precede it, but also gives Microsoft an opportunity to add new features, or make significant changes in the functionality of the operating system. Despite Microsoft's experience, and ample beta testing, there are inevitably issues with software as complex as the Windows operating system, and the service pack is an opportunity to address issues and fix bugs to make the OS more stable and usable.
Windows 8.1 isn't a service pack, though. It's a new release of the operating system. In fact, initial speculation about the mysterious Windows "Blue" project suggested that it might literally be an entirely new and separate OS. Those rumors, however, defied logic given the fact that Windows 8 was officially released only seven months ago. It could be argued that Windows 8 itself was too soon on the heels of the very successful and popular Windows 7, so launching a whole new OS would be insane.
Windows 8 was a dramatic departure from the traditional Windows operating system. The colorful, tiled Modern (formerly known as "Metro") interface is designed to be a touch interface, and it's intended to move Windows from a strictly PC operating system to embrace the new, mobile world we live in. The breadth of change in Windows 8 puts complaints about the differences between previous versions of Windows in some perspective.
It was a very bold move by Microsoft, but many argue that it was just too much change all at once, and there is an ongoing debate about the success and fate of Windows 8. There has been significant backlash over the lack of a Start button, and other elements of Windows 8. Analysts and media outlets have blamed Windows 8 for plummeting PC sales, while Microsoft claims it has sold over 100 million Windows 8 licenses, and others have defended Microsoft and Windows 8.
So, is Windows 8.1 a "mea culpa" from Microsoft? Perhaps. Microsoft has taken issue with the concept that Windows 8.1 is any sort of apology for Windows 8, or that the latest operating system is the "New Coke" of this generation.
Whether or not it's any sort of acknowledgement of failure for Windows 8, Windows 8.1 is essentially Windows 8 Service Pack 1. It's the big update that fixes the bugs, addresses the issues, and adds new features users want. The fact that Microsoft is not calling it Service Pack 1, and the way Microsoft is positioning and deploying Windows 8.1 is significant, though.
Microsoft typically takes years to develop and release a new operating system. There were more than five years between the launch of Windows XP and Windows Vista, and nearly three years between Windows Vista and Windows 7. People in general have an aversion to change, but Microsoft has fostered a culture where Windows users become so entrenched in the status quo that even minor tweaks to the operating system are a major shock. More than 10 years after its launch, and more than six years after the launch of its successor, Windows XP is still the number two operating system with more than a third of the desktop operating system market.
The shift in Microsoft terminology, and the more rapid pace of software development are part of a necessary culture shift. Following in the footsteps of rival Apple --which releases a major update for Mac OS X every two years--Microsoft is conditioning customers to expect change and adopt new updates rather than vehemently resisting new versions of the operating system. For decades, the concept of a personal computer remained relatively unchanged, but the rate of change in technology is too quick now. If Microsoft only develops a new OS every three to five years, it will miss major innovations, and constantly be playing catch up.
Related on Forbes:
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6d545f5e95c63479fb181d503b71dbf0
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2013/11/15/android-dominates-market-share-but-apple-makes-all-the-money/
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Android Dominates Market Share, But Apple Makes All The Money
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Android Dominates Market Share, But Apple Makes All The Money
We’ve been hearing for years now about how Android is destroying iOS in market share. Ironically, though, Apple continues to make more money than all of the Android smartphone makers combined.
The most recent data from IDC shows that for Q3 of 2013 Android made up 81 percent of devices shipped. You read that right—four out of every five smartphones shipped in Q3 were built on Android. Meanwhile, Apple’s iOS scraped by with a sad and distant second place figure of only 12.9 percent.
Apple executives were probably upset by these figures. They probably had some sleepless nights, and an emergency board meeting to figure out how to turn that ship around and win back some market share. No. Not really.
The reality is that Apple is quite comfortable with the market share data, because the profit numbers are all Apple. Data from Canaccord Genuity shows that during that same period—Q3 of 2013—Apple made more money than all of its competitors combined, taking in 56 percent of the profit in the mobile device market.
The profit data illustrates how Apple’s primary rival is really Samsung—not Android. Samsung made 53 percent of the profit for the quarter. Apple and Samsung combined actually add up to more than 100 percent of all profit for the mobile industry, because all of the other players, like HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, and BlackBerry lost money.
The cause of the discrepancy between market share and profit lies in the second half of the IDC market share statement about Android. It turns out that two thirds of the devices that make up Android’s 81 percent market share are cheap “junk phones”. The remainder is primarily Samsung, which makes up 39.9 percent of the total Android devices shipped.
There is another area where dominant market share isn’t turning out to be an advantage for Android. In spite of a greater than six-to-one advantage in device market share, Android doesn’t sell more apps, or generate more advertising revenue than Apple.
When it comes to real world usage data, Apple has an overwhelming share of smartphone and tablet app sales, Web browser use, and ad network hits. Apple leads Android in enterprise adoption, and in retail shopping use by consumers.
The volume of apps available in the Google Play app store has caught up to Apple, and Android is winning in app downloads as well. Google reportedly comprises 75 percent of all app downloads, compared to only 18 percent for Apple. Yet, Apple made half of all app revenue in the most recent quarter, demonstrating once again that volume and market share don’t translate directly to income.
Android dominates in market share. Android dominates in app downloads. At the end of the day, though, somehow Apple’s iOS is making all of the money.
The bottom line is simple: You can’t reward investors, compensate employees, or pay the bills with market share. Apple can still ignore the market share data all the way to the bank.
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d0f17034ad55d572180ae66d3a76a22d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/03/03/4-tips-for-coming-up-with-brilliant-ideas-under-pressure/
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4 Tips For Coming Up With Brilliant Ideas Under Pressure
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4 Tips For Coming Up With Brilliant Ideas Under Pressure
Depending on which calendar you look at, every day or month is a celebration of something. March is apparently National Ideas Month.
People have ideas all the time. Someone looked at shoelaces, and thought “Hey, what if we wrapped the tips of the shoelace in a plastic sheath to keep the ends from fraying? We’ll call it an aglet!” Someone else had an idea to take a piece of metal and bend it around in a swirly pattern to hold sheets of paper together. Voila! The paperclip.
I had an idea just now. I think it would be awesome to have ice cream for lunch. OK, so maybe some ideas are better than others—but they’re all ideas.
The real challenge, though, is coming up with a good idea when it counts. How can you find that spark of creativity when the pressure is on?
Michael Levin, a New York Times best-selling author and writing coach, has an idea. Levin preaches that creativity is a muscle. You have to use it or lose it, and the more you use it, the better shape it will be in when you really need it.
“I define creativity as ‘the ability to develop great ideas while under pressure,’ ” he says. “Pressure creates diamonds, so why shouldn’t it also create great ideas?”
Fair enough. But, that is also easier said than done for most people. I have all kinds of ideas for topics to write about when I need them least, and yet sometimes have difficulty coming up with topics when I need them most.
Levin explains, “Over time, I’ve developed several tricks to stimulate my creative muscle and help me come up with great ideas for whatever challenge I face—whether it’s writing or figuring out how to arrange a busy family weekend schedule so that everyone’s needs are met.”
Levin shared his four no-fail tips for generating creative ideas under pressure:
1. Ask yourself, “What’s the most dangerous, expensive and illegal way to solve this problem?”
We usually take the same approach to solving problems every time with the resources we have at hand. “This doesn’t exactly translate into breathtaking creativity,” Levin says. So imagine that you have no limits — legal, moral, financial, whatever. You can do literally anything to solve the problem. The way-out ideas you develop may not be practical, but they’ll lead you to new ways of thinking about your problem. And then you can find a non-life-threatening, legal way to solve it!
2. Hide.
We live in a world of constant, thin-sliced demands. Unanswered texts and emails. People waiting for you to say something, do something, read something, decide something. Run and hide. Lock yourself in your car or hunker down in a bathroom stall. Slow down and get your brain back.
It’s all but impossible for your creative brain to operate when you’re responding to endless external stimuli. The best ideas often come when you run from your responsibilities.
3. Count to 20.
Go somewhere where you can be undisturbed, bring a yellow pad and a pen, turn off your phone, and sit there until you come up with 20 ideas for solving your problem. This requires discipline, because most of us are so happy when we have one answer to a problem that we want to move to the next agenda item. Not every idea you invent will be a great one, but that’s okay. It may be idea number 17 that’s truly brilliant, but you’d never get there if you ran back to your desk after you came up with one, two or even five ideas. If you do this daily, you’ll develop 100 new ideas a week. Imagine how strong your idea muscle will be!
4. Give up.
Cardiologists recommend to heart patients that they visit nature, go to a museum, or attend a classical concert. Why? It slows them down and allows them to appreciate beauty instead of seeing life as a constant battle. Surrender your own siege mentality. Life isn’t war, thank goodness. Take a major step away, even for a couple of hours, from whatever battles you’re facing, contemplate the greatness of the human spirit or the wonder of nature, and reawaken the creative energy that our fight-minded world suppresses.
These are good tips to keep in mind next time you’re under pressure to come up with a brilliant idea. I also find that it’s valuable for me, personally, to keep a journal where I write down all of the ideas that occur to me when I don’t need them. That way, I have something to refer back to when the pressure is on.
Levin’s tips work for any ideas, but if you happen to be a writer you can also learn more from Levin on his “Books Are My Babies” YouTube channel. He offers free resources and video tutorials for writers.
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22307cc76a0771071fba7fc5d5d6d496
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/04/05/backlash-against-brendan-eich-crossed-a-line/?sh=558d9a066f8a
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Backlash Against Brendan Eich Crossed A Line
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Backlash Against Brendan Eich Crossed A Line
Brendan Eich recently stepped down as CEO of Mozilla, developer of the Firefox Web browser. It may be more accurate to say he was forced out in the wake of a rising boycott against him. The backlash against Eich is related to his position on gay rights, but many feel that the campaign against him is its own form of discrimination and intolerance. Simply put, there are no winners here, and the whole debacle shows a lack of compassion and common sense from all sides.
It’s a Free Market
After it became public that Eich is (or at least was) opposed to same-sex marriage, and had supported the anti-gay Proposition 8 ballot initiative in California, a coordinated effort was mounted to boycott Mozilla and the Firefox Web browser. Online dating site OK Cupid implemented a filter that automatically detected if visitors were using Firefox, and urged users to “consider using different software for accessing OK Cupid.”
Those that claim that the furor over Eich’s support of Proposition 8 and the backlash against Mozilla are themselves a form of bigotry and intolerance, however, are just wrong. Mostly.
It is not discrimination or intolerance to choose not to do business with a company or individual regardless of the reason. It’s just free market capitalism.
I don’t like Pepsi, so I go out of my way to frequent establishments that serve Coke. I think Burger King’s French fries taste like dirty socks, so I avoid those, and make an extra effort to buy McDonald’s fries—because those are apparently laced with crack or some other highly addictive substance. I reject Hobby Lobby’s efforts to impose religious doctrine on all employees by fighting against providing contraception for employee healthcare, so I choose not to do business with it.
In all of those cases, which companies I choose to do business with, and where I choose to spend my money is a purely individual decision subject to nothing more than my opinion and personal whims. It would be silly to accuse me of “bigotry” for choosing Coke over Pepsi, or “intolerance” for eating McDonald’s French fries instead of Burger King’s, or “discrimination” that I prefer not to do business with Hobby Lobby.
Boycott Them All
That said, I think the backlash against Eich and boycott of Mozilla were misguided and completely unwarranted. There is a case to be made for calling it intolerance when a coordinated campaign is mounted against an entire company because a group of people disagrees with the personal beliefs of one employee.
Turn that scenario around for a second. What if a conservative organization mounted a campaign to boycott an entire company because the CEO is gay? I’m fairly sure most of those who took up torches and pitch forks against Mozilla would find such behavior inexcusable, bordering on criminal.
Personally, I believe Proposition 8—and all other similar attempts to legislate and codify discrimination against any specific group of people—is shameful, and had I lived in California I would have willingly given as much money as I could to support efforts to defeat the ballot initiative. This is the United States of America, though, so Brendan Eich is entitled to believe what he chooses, and to support the causes he feels are worthy.
Brendan Eich and Mozilla are two separate things, though. It makes no sense to choose the companies you do business with—or don’t do business with as the case may be—based on the personal beliefs and ideologies of individual employees. It’s unlikely that Eich’s personal political, religious, or philosophical identity would have any impact on Mozilla as a company, and without the public campaign to oust him most people would have continued happily using Firefox without knowing or caring what Eich thought about Proposition 8.
Besides, why stop at the CEO? If we’re going to demonize entire corporations based on the personal beliefs and ideologies of individual employees why not also boycott Boeing , or Walgreens, or Intel , or Google , or the State of California itself—all of which had employees who donated $1,000 in support of Proposition 8 just as Brendan Eich did? If you think $1,000 of support is heinous, you definitely shouldn’t support the Los Angeles Dodgers, or Merrill Lynch, or Allstate —each of which had at least one employee who donated $10,000 or more to the effort to pass Proposition 8.
According to a database published by the Los Angeles Times, there are 6,470 individuals who donated $1,000 or more to support Proposition 8. That’s a whole lot of companies to burn at the stake.
Corporations Are Not People
The Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case was—and still is—both a travesty and a national embarrassment. Of course corporations aren’t “people”, and of course corporations don’t get the benefit of the freedom of speech, or any other aspect of the Bill of Rights. It is a tragedy that we have individuals sitting on the highest court in the United States who are willing to pimp out our democracy to the highest bidder, but now that the decision was handed down the ball is in Congress’ court to enact a Constitutional amendment that clearly spells it out for the Supreme Court justices too weak to defend democracy.
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights do, however, apply to every individual citizen of the United States. That means that Brendan Eich is entitled to his beliefs, whether we agree with him or not. He is entitled to support the causes that are important to him, no matter how objectionable they may be to you.
The reality is that you shouldn’t necessarily know what his beliefs are or what causes he supports. At the very least, Brendan Eich should have the liberty to believe and support causes as he wishes without being persecuted.
My wife is constantly warning me to keep my political and religious views to myself. She is generally concerned that the same type of judgment and persecution that has occurred with Brendan Eich could come back to bite me. I could potentially lose important relationships or clients if I alienate people with my political and religious views.
My personal philosophy on that is that I don’t really want to do business with anyone who would respond that way in the first place, so it’s no big loss. But, I understand that the real world doesn’t really work that way—and this Brendan Eich incident proves it—so I do limit my audience when I get on my soap box.
It shouldn’t have to be that way, though. Mozilla didn’t support Proposition 8. Brendan Eich did. If companies do something wrong, by all means hold them accountable. If individual employees do something you don’t agree with on their personal time or with their own personal money, that is really none of your business.
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
I get it. Brendan Eich is a bad man. So, don’t play golf with him, and don’t have a beer with him. You can even leave him off the invitation list for your birthday party. But, don’t hold all of Mozilla, and all of its employees, and the entire ecosystem of third-party developers who rely on the Firefox Web browser accountable just because you disagree with the views of one person who works at the company—even if he is the CEO.
Better yet—do invite Brendan Eich for a round of golf and a beer. Sit down and get to know the man and try to understand his position and why he holds the beliefs he does.
Or, just check your politics and beliefs at the door, and enjoy each other’s company. Talk about family, the last movie you saw, and what you like on your pizza. Despite what seems to be very vitriolic polarity in this country recently, it is actually OK to disagree with someone, and still get along.
I’ll give Brendan Eich a standing invitation: If you’re ever in the Houston area, or I am ever on the west coast, I would be more than happy to play a round of golf with you and grab a beer.
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3880c1aae006a5a67012b7d676601273
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/04/16/in-their-own-words-cylance-founder-and-ceo-stuart-mcclure/
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In Their Own Words: Cylance Founder And CEO Stuart McClure
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In Their Own Words: Cylance Founder And CEO Stuart McClure
If you are familiar with the world of computer and network security, there is a very good chance you are familiar with Stuart McClure. At the very least, the name probably rings a bell.
I have actually known Stuart for over a decade now. We were doing ask-me-anything style chat sessions before Reddit made it cool. When I first began writing as the About.com Guide for the Internet / Network Security blog, I hosted an online chat session with Stuart and George Kurtz back when they were still leading Foundstone to talk about their book Hacking Exposed. That book is now in its seventh edition, and is an icon of the information security world.
A lot has changed since then. Foundstone was acquired by McAfee in 2004. Stuart remained with McAfee for a couple years, and then left for greener pastures. Eventually, he returned to McAfee and was appointed as Chief Technical Officer (CTO). Having worked on computer and network security from just about every angle possible, Stuart recognized that there are some fundamental flaws in the accepted model, so he left to form Cylance.
That brings us up to now. I spent some time recently with McClure, founder and CEO of Cylance, and co-author of Hacking Exposed—one of the seminal bibles of information security—to learn more about the man behind the persona, and see what makes him tick.
About Cylance
Why Cylance? There is a plethora of established security vendors that are already household names. Why start a new company, and try to reinvent the proverbial wheel?
According to Stuart, it boils down to one word: math. “Cylance is the first math-based cybersecurity company to detect and prevent attacks. Mathematical prevention is changing the security paradigm by applying algorithmic science and machine learning to determining good from bad at a rate and accuracy unparalleled today.”
The Cylance vision is pretty simple: Cylance wants organizations to not have to worry about cyber attacks. Cylance is on a mission to transform security by coupling industry-leading expertise with cutting edge scientific data analytics for faster, more proactive security for customers.
McClure explained, “Our use of math and machine learning eliminates the current security model of trusting the vendor to stay ahead of the threat. Instead you only need to trust the math.“
I asked Stuart what prompted this new journey to reinvent security. He told me that it wasn’t a matter of a single thought or moment, but the culmination of a few different experiences. “The first came in 1989 when I was victimized by a design flaw on a Boeing 747. I was a passenger on United Flight 811 that blew out the front cargo door in flight. The rapid decompression killed 9 people and the pilot barely saved us all,” relayed McClure. “I realized then how destructive a simple vulnerability can be.”
The second epiphany occurred in 2004 when someone asked Stuart what products he uses to secure his own PC. The honest answer? Nothing. That led him to ponder that question further, and to try and understand why it is that he—and many security professionals—are able to avoid attacks and compromise without using security tools while the general public is constantly under siege. The answer he arrived at is that security professionals rely on their own experiential database to understand how attackers work and the techniques they use. They apply what they know to recognize and avoid threats.
The question McClure asked himself is, “So if we as humans can avoid ever-emerging threats, why can’t computers?”
The founding of Cylance was also partially a product of serendipity. A decade ago, the tools and techniques Cylance utilizes didn’t exist—or at least they weren’t practical. The rise of big data analytics, however, also yields significant benefits for security.
“Math became the obvious choice as it brought all the components together as many other industries have already adopted math to solve their problems: insurance, financial services, pharmaceuticals, genome sequencing, etc.,” explained McClure. “So why couldn’t security?”
Getting to Know Stuart McClure
As a teen, Stuart aspired to be the next Greg Lemond. Lemond was an American cyclist who won the Tour de France three times in the pre-Lance Armstrong era, before the sport was tainted by rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs. His fallback plan was to be an architect.
He had two idols—Greg Lemond and Bill Gates. His admiration for Gates might explain how he ended up in computers and computer security rather than in the Tour de France, or designing structures.
Stuart graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a degree in psychology and philosophy and a minor in computer science applications. Those Denver roots explain why his favorite sports team is the Broncos.
He worked for Ernst & Young before leaving to launch Foundstone. He helped build Foundstone into a respected security company, which was acquired by McAfee. McClure left for a while to work with Kaiser Permanente, but later returned to McAfee, serving as a senior vice president for the security management unit, and then eventually rising to become executive vice president and Global CTO.
I asked him the eternal questions: “Star Wars or Star Trek?” and “Marvel or DC?” McClure prefers Star Wars for its cerebral explanation of the power of the universe, but he appreciates Star Trek for its exploration of the unknown, and he respects the leadership style of Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
As for the comic universes? Marvel wins easily in his book. As Stuart puts it, “Wolverine. End of story.”
McClure is fairly agnostic when it comes to technologies and platforms. He has used them all, and has no strong allegiance to any in particular. He does use a Windows-based laptop as his day-to-day PC, and he has an iPad—but he claims he uses it almost exclusively for entertainment purposes.
The scariest thing Stuart has ever experienced was that fateful airline flight. As far as things he had an actual choice in, though, he cites starting Foundstone as the scariest thing he’s ever done. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that he left a comfortable job to start Foundstone one month before his first child was born.
Today, Stuart gets his inspiration from his family. He told me that his wife is the strongest, most loving person he knows, and his children inspire him to be better every day.
The Future of Cylance
According to Stuart, the team around him is crucial to the success of Cylance. “A company designed to change the world requires a culture of skilled, determined, and persistent risk takers in all disciplines that have a similar vision,” explained McClure. “We have one of the strongest technical teams in the world and strengthened it with proven, world-class talent in operations, sales, and marketing to ensure what we create transforms the world.”
I asked Stuart where he envisions the world of technology—or more specifically security—five years from now. “Unfortunately, five years doesn’t change much in the world of threats. We’ve known how the attackers have worked for decades, nothing new has come of it. We just keep solving the same problems with the same horrible reactive solutions.”
Stuart firmly believes that math is the key to transforming the entire model of computer and network security. “Cylance is leading the way in applying math and science to the security field. We look to be both the trailblazer and the solidifier of the technology in the security industry.”
The biggest obstacle between where Cylance is now, and where Stuart wants it to be is simply will. McClure says that pure persistence is a crucial element for getting Cylance where it needs to be. “Too many people and companies fail because they simply give up. It may be too hard or too long or they simply find something more interesting to spend their time. On your path to achieve your vision there will be obstacles of all types, but to achieve them you simply need to never give up.”
Stuart left me with this parting advice for other would-be entrepreneurs. “Find a problem you are passionate about and put everything you have on the line until you achieve it. Read: Never Give Up.”
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0d2a5bb807f6cb1e43ea9aa094aff240
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/05/27/preserve-your-irreplaceable-memories-with-scanmyphotos/?sh=422a74324655
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Preserve Your Irreplaceable Memories With ScanMyPhotos
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Preserve Your Irreplaceable Memories With ScanMyPhotos
How many print photos do you have in your house right now? How many pictures capturing your childhood, special events, family holidays, and other memorable events fill photo albums or shoeboxes scattered about your home? How devastating would it be if you experience a fire or flood, and all of those irreplaceable print photographs are destroyed? You need to protect those memories.
Print photos have a unique appeal and charm that can’t be replaced by digital photographs. It is a different experience to flip through the pages of a photo album than to browse through a catalog of images on a computer. All of your photographs should be digitized, though—if only as a backup to the original print photographs. The digital images can be stored in the cloud, or stored on a USB thumb drive. You can maintain multiple copies at various locations to guarantee that your memories will be safe no matter what disaster strikes your home.
I tried to do it myself once. I used a flatbed scanner and started scanning my photos. I wanted to scan at a relatively high resolution, so each scan took a while to complete and finish rendering the image. After about 100 of those, I decided that process was too slow, and I started grouping them so I could scan four or five at a time. I got through scanning photographs faster, but it just meant adding more time on the backend to crop out each image and save them as individual photographs again. Eventually I gave up. I have more photos than free time, and it was just too tedious of a project to get through.
I reconciled myself to just not having the older photos scanned. Every photo I’ve taken since 1999 has been digital, so all of the moments and events from my children growing up are already digital, and I decided I’d just have to be OK letting those older memories go if something happened to them. Then I reviewed the ScanMyPhotos.com service.
ScanMyPhotos has been around for over two decades. What started out as a boutique photo processing company, evolved into a business that has streamlined the process of scanning print photos in bulk for customers.
ScanMyPhotos offers a range of services that include negative scanning, slide scanning, video transfer, and photo restoration, but the primary product is the Prepaid Photo Scanning Box. For $99, ScanMyPhotos will ship you a prepaid box you can fill with the photos you want scanned. The box holds approximately 1,800 photographs. The base service scans the photos at 300 DPI, but you can opt for 600 DPI scans for $189.
If you have photos stashed in shoeboxes, the process should be fairly simple. Most of my photos, however, were meticulously organized in photo albums. That meant I had to invest an evening going through every single photo album, and making decisions about which photos to scan, and which ones not to bother with. Some of the photo albums had sticky pages, so removing the photos to place in the ScanMyPhotos box was a bit of a pain.
There is a method for packing the photos that simplifies and expedites the process for ScanMyPhotos. You are supposed to group the photos by size in bundles of 100 or so using rubberbands. ScanMyPhotos will scan them all and burn them to a DVD, and return your original photos and the DVD to you within five to ten business days. There are some additional options available for a fee—like having the photos placed on a USB thumb drive in addition to the DVD, or requesting that the photos be scanned in a specific order, or a bound book of thumbnails providing an index of all of your scanned photos.
It took me a while to carve out the time necessary to sift through my photo albums and choose the prints to have scanned, but once I did the process was very simple and the results were awesome. I boxed up my images and shipped them off to ScanMyPhotos, and about a week later I received the DVD and USB thumb drive with my scanned images. Now, all of those print photos are on my PC, and backed up to an external hard drive, and stored in a folder that automatically syncs them to my Box account in the cloud.
Don’t just take my word for it. ScanMyPhotos has helped over 300,000 customers convert their print photographs to digital images. The volume of business has led ScanMyPhotos to develop a very close relationship with its local post office. ScanMyPhotos also credits some of its success—and the cost-effective service—to the USPS flat-rate boxes that allow them to provide the service while keeping shipping costs down.
One well-known customer is Katy Perry, or more precisely Katy’s father—Keith Hudson. Hudson used ScanMyPhotos to scan all of the family photos after meeting Mitch Goldstone, President and CEO of ScanMyPhotos, at a local Starbucks and learning about the service. I spoke with Hudson, and he had nothing but praise for both the process and the results of using the ScanMyPhotos service. Hudson highly recommends ScanMyPhotos, and told me that Katy declared it one of the best Christmas gifts she's ever received.
I saw a lot of old photos being shared this past weekend in honor of Memorial Day—friends sharing photos of parents or grandparents who lost their lives serving their country. It would be a shame to lose old photos like that in a flood, or other disaster. How many homes have been destroyed just this year from wildfires in California? How many irreplaceable memories have been lost?
The ScanMyPhotos service is fast, inexpensive, and relatively simple to use. Having tried to scan my own photos, and then having ScanMyPhotos do them all for me, I can say that it is money well-spent to use the ScanMyPhotos service.
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373ab75f8a859a095929d94142c27200
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/11/21/dont-buy-a-chromebook-just-for-1tb-drive-storage-offer/
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Don't Buy A Chromebook Just For 1TB Drive Storage Offer
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Don't Buy A Chromebook Just For 1TB Drive Storage Offer
Google announced a new promotion today designed to entice customers to buy a Chromebook. Eligible Chromebook owners have between now and January 15, 2015, to take advantage of the offer of 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage for two years. It sounds good on paper, but most people won’t really get any value out of it, and those who do will have to decide whether they want to continue paying for the service when that two year period expires.
In a post on the Google Drive blog, Google unveiled the 1TB offer—a value of $240 compared to the cost of paying for 1TB of Google Drive storage for two years. The post explains, “That’s enough space to keep more than 100,000 awkward holiday sweater pics safe and shareable in Drive. With that much free storage, you can use your Chromebook for work, play and pretty much everything else you’ll do this holiday season.”
New Chromebooks range from around $200 to nearly $2,000 for a totally maxed out Chromebook Pixel—pretty much the same price range you’ll find for consumer-grade laptops running Windows. Overall, the features and capabilities of a Chromebook are essentially the same as a Windows-based laptop—even when running offline with no connection to the Internet. The primary difference is that it relies heavily on Google for things like email, calendar, music, and productivity tools. There are plenty of third-party apps and services designed for Chrome OS, but you won’t be installing or running your traditional Windows software on a Chromebook.
You might be asking yourself, “If a Chromebook costs about the same as a Windows-based laptop, and has roughly the same capabilities, but comes with an offer of 1TB of cloud storage worth $240, why isn’t that a good incentive?”
That’s a fair question. There are a couple reasons. First, when Microsoft raised the amount of OneDrive storage it provides for free accounts earlier this year, it also shared an interesting factoid about the data storage habits of the average user. “Our data tells us that 3 out of 4 people have less than 15 GB of files stored on their PC. Factoring in what they may also have stored on other devices, we believe providing 15 GB for free right out of the gate – with no hoops to jump through – will make it much easier for people to have their documents, videos, and photos available in one place.”
Both Google Drive and Microsoft’s OneDrive provide users with 15GB of storage for free. Even if you’re part of the 1 out of 4 users that exceeds 15GB, unless you’re an uber power user with an archive of HD movies to store in the cloud, you most likely won’t exceed 100GB. Both Google and Microsoft offer a 100GB plan for $2 per month. All of this works out to mean that 75 percent of the users have less than 15GB of data and will get no value out of the Chromebook promotion, while most of the remaining 25 percent could get by with 100GB of Drive storage, so the actual value of the Chromebook deal is more like $48.
That brings me to the second reason 1TB of Drive storage for two years isn’t a great incentive. Assuming you actually need all of that cloud storage, and actually get value out of having 1TB of space available in Google Drive, you’ll eventually have to pay for that service. At the end of the two year promotional period, you’ll either have to subscribe to Google Drive for $10 per month (based on the current rates), or move all of your data somewhere else.
If you’re still using a Chromebook and/or you’re still relying primarily on the vast Google ecosystem, it probably makes sense to pay for Google Drive because of how tightly integrated it is with the rest of Google’s apps and services. However, if Google isn’t the primary factor in your decision, there are much better deals available. iDrive offers 1TB plans for as little as $5 per month, or for $7 per month you can just subscribe to Office 365 and Microsoft will provide unlimited OneDrive storage (along with a plethora of additional perks and benefits, including the complete Microsoft Office suite).
I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t buy a Chromebook. I’m simply pointing out that providing 1TB of free Google Drive storage for two years is not an incentive that should factor into your decision whether or not to buy a Chromebook, and that even if you do buy a Chromebook you should consider the bigger picture and store your data on the cloud service that will provide you the best value in the long run.
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27cf7cea87bd7924db29b9a531da6ad2
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2015/04/30/microsoft-edge-browser-faces-uphill-battle/
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Microsoft Edge Browser Faces Uphill Battle
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Microsoft Edge Browser Faces Uphill Battle
Microsoft revealed this week that its new Web browser—previously code named “Project Spartan”—will officially be called Edge. The Edge browser replaces the venerable and controversial Internet Explorer but its unlikely that it will achieve the same dominant market share as its predecessor any time soon.
That isn’t a commentary on the Edge browser or its capabilities. I’ve used Project Spartan off and on for months and it is a very capable browser with some interesting innovations.
As the “Spartan” code name suggests Edge starts from the premise of stripping the browser experience bare—removing all of the bells and whistles that have turned browsers into platforms in and of themselves and getting the browser out of the way of the browsing. Edge will also offer extensions a’ la Chrome and Firefox, though, so you will be able to extend its capabilities and customize the experience to fit your needs.
Edge also adds cool features like Cortana voice assistant interaction, and the ability to draw on or annotate Web pages. The marked up Web pages can then be saved or shared across social networking sites or through email.
Edge browser challenges
Whether Edge is a good browser or not, or whether the features and innovations in Edge are cool or not has little to do with its initial success or failure, though. People in general are averse to change and Microsoft loyalists are sometimes zealots about keeping their old, outdated, broken, insecure software. Just look at the backlash Microsoft had to deal with over removing or changing the functionality of the Start button in Windows, or the revolt that occurred when Microsoft ended support for Windows XP.
As despised as Internet Explorer is in many circles, there will inevitably be a vocal segment of the Windows population who will cling to it. They will refuse to upgrade or find some way to install or continue using Internet Explorer from within Windows 10.
Then there are those who have already abandoned Internet Explorer. People who hated Internet Explorer or believe that Microsoft software is inherently insecure are unlikely to embrace Edge. Many will see it as simply a rebrand of Internet Explorer—lipstick on the proverbial pig.
Even those who are willing to give Edge the benefit of the doubt may resist the switch. Those who are already comfortable with Chrome or Firefox can just install Chrome or Firefox in Windows 10 and continue using the browser they know—with all of the extensions, bookmarks, and other customizations they’ve already invested time and effort in.
The challenge for Microsoft is to make Edge compelling. It has to provide enough incentive to win over both Internet Explorer loyalists and anti-Internet Explorer defectors. That won’t be easy.
Edge can still come out on top
The good news for Microsoft and the Edge browser is that the stubborn attitude about change is countered by the fact that there as many or more users who are either too naïve or too lazy to use anything but the default browser. As millions of PCs are upgraded to Windows 10 Edge will capture a significant chunk of market share virtually overnight just by virtue of being the default browser for the operating system.
The initial success depends on how many people actually download and install Windows 10, and how many of those people just stick with Edge as the default browser rather than installing a competing browser like Chrome or Firefox. Ultimately, though, Edge will be measured on its own merits. It will either establish itself as a solid browser with innovative features, or it will prove its naysayers right and fade into oblivion. We’ll see.
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d5b4c78bf6f8c1930a34a6c60e820485
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2016/05/26/microsoft-shares-numbers-on-staggering-success-of-windows-store/
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Microsoft Shares Numbers On Staggering Success Of Windows Store
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Microsoft Shares Numbers On Staggering Success Of Windows Store
Microsoft launched a new promotion for the Windows Store today to simultaneously celebrate the success the Windows Store has experienced so far, and kick off the summer season. The Ready, Set, Summer Collection includes deals on more than 100 apps in the Windows Store designed to help you enjoy your summer.
A blog post from Microsoft explains more about the Ready, Set, Summer promotion. You can pre-order blockbuster movies like Captain America: Civil War, or Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. You can get popular games like Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, or Candy Crush Soda Saga. There are plenty of games, music, and movies to keep you entertained and help you get the most out of your summer.
I had chance to talk with Lisa Gurry, Senior Director of Windows at Microsoft, earlier this week about the Windows Store. She shared with me that the Windows Store has already had more than 6.5 billion visits in just its first year. 6.5 billion…with a “B”. That is roughly equivalent to the entire population of planet Earth. That is almost 18 million visits per day, more than 742,000 per hour, and more than 200 per second. Not too shabby.
In terms of total volume of apps, Microsoft lags behind established leaders like the Apple App Store, and Google Play. The traffic numbers from just the first year are very encouraging, though, and illustrate what a valuable market Microsoft has to offer developers.
There are many benefits for developers when choosing to create apps for Windows 10. For starters, the Universal Windows Platform enables developers to write the code once and leverage across a range of Windows-based platforms and devices, including Xbox One. According to Microsoft, the Windows 10 opportunity translates to double the engagement and four times the revenue per user compared to Windows 8. With more than 300 million Windows 10 devices, that is a significant opportunity for developers to cash in on.
Developers can engage with customers through natural language, gestures, gaze, and even holograms. Gurry told me that Microsoft works hard to empower developers to create immersive experiences that leverage the unique features and benefits of Windows 10. There are more than 1,000 apps in the Windows Store that use Cortana, and Microsoft also enables developers to use Live Tiles, Xbox Live, and Windows Hello.
Tools like Xamarin and Centennial also make it easier for developers to port apps over from other platforms. Xamarin makes it easy for C# developers, in particular, to share code across native apps for Windows, Android, and iOS. Centennial enables developers to convert existing classic Win32 and .NET-based apps to the Universal Windows Platform.
As an aside, Microsoft also stressed that the clock is winding down on the offer to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. You only have until July 29. After that you’re going to have to pay for it. I like Windows 10, so I don’t see anything wrong with paying for it. I just think it would be sort of silly when Microsoft has given you a full year to install it for free. Whatever money you end up spending on Windows 10 is money you could have used in the Windows Store to download great movies, games, and music.
When I spoke to Gurry I noted that it seems we have matured past the point where we measure the success of an app store purely on the volume of apps—and that’s good. I don’t know what the current count is, but it doesn’t really matter if Apple has a billion apps in its App Store if 990 million of them are essentially junk. Quality is much more important than quantity—both to the customers who hope to find some value in the app store, and to the developers who are trying to make money from their efforts.
It may not have the most apps, and it might be missing some key apps available for competing platforms, but there’s no denying the success of the Windows Store. It is still young and the numbers are already impressive. With the opportunity the Windows ecosystem presents, and the tools Microsoft is providing for developers, it seems like it will continue to gain momentum.
Don’t miss out on your chance to take advantage of the Ready, Set, Summer promotion. The deals will only be available on the Windows Store through June 6.
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596230d23006be6f274bbff46d1b38b1
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2016/11/23/trump-needs-to-partner-with-silicon-valley-on-cyber-security/
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Trump Needs To Partner With Silicon Valley On Cyber Security
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Trump Needs To Partner With Silicon Valley On Cyber Security
President-elect Trump has vowed to make securing our digital infrastructure from cyber attacks one of the top priorities of his first 100 days in office. His won’t be the first administration to talk about the importance of cyber security, but unless the Trump administration collaborates with actual experts who know about cyber security there’s little chance he’ll succeed.
Ironically, it can be argued that weak cyber security—specifically the hack of DNC servers and the slow but steady drip of emails from Wikileaks—are actually responsible for Trump’s victory. As he prepares to be sworn in, though, he may be looking ahead to 2020 already and facing the realization that he may be on the other end of that sword next time around.
Trump doesn’t really have any policies, and the few things he has taken a stance on or put forth suggested strategies for he has also flip-flopped on more often than he changes his underwear. Suffice it to say, it’s challenging to guess at what exactly a Trump administration will do to focus on cyber security. So far, though, it seems that Trump plans to lean on the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs to come up with a plan.
“It's clear Trump is not a technologist and has spoken out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to cybersecurity,” cautions Ajay Arora, co-founder and CEO of Vera. “Trump has indicated he will be more aggressive and intrusive when it comes to privacy and could cause a damaging relationship between companies and the trust consumers put into them.”
According to Rick Hanson, Executive Vice President at Skyport Systems, “It’s not enough for a president to ask the DoD and JCS to develop a comprehensive cyber plan. That is nothing new. We as a country need a clear focus from the top of the food chain down. A cabinet position that focuses on Cyber Security, as well as a strong focus and knowledge of the implications by the president himself. We can no longer rely on other agencies to build a plan."
There is no indication that Trump has the slightest clue regarding the challenges of protecting our digital infrastructure or a strategy to address them. Unfortunately, there is little love lost between Trump and Silicon Valley, or vice versa, so finding qualified people willing to weigh in could be an even bigger challenge. Arora stresses, “Both sides need to look past those differences and focus on solving the actual problems at hand. The most important thing to do now, is to look at the core issues from a cyber security standpoint, whether it’s internal threat or external nation states and see what are the most important, most damaging and—most likely—not what provides the most headlines.”
"A plan must be built and executed by those who have an intimate knowledge of cyber infrastructure and the threat landscape that not only exists but is possible,” declares Hanson. “The sooner we secure our infrastructure from the core the more efficient we will be in maintaining the security of our cyber infrastructure. Regulations and guidelines must exist that define what our core infrastructure looks like from the bare metal. Security at the hardware level is essential for a truly secure infrastructure."
Positions related to cyber security have been a bit of a revolving door in Washington DC—filled either by unqualified individuals or qualified people who don’t stay long once they find out how powerless and ineffective the position is. If the Trump administration wants to succeed, it needs to cooperate with experts in Silicon Valley, and—more importantly—grant the latitude, authority, and budget to do more than pay lip service to cyber security.
Arora sums up, “Working with and not against the tech community to solve these problems and looking at them with a level head is a must. We need to take a step back, take the emotion out of it, and start off with a clean slate to work together in solving the major problems.”
One thing is for sure--it will take more than an unhinged tweet storm, or ranting against the media for repeating and relaying things Trump has actually done and said to solve the cyber security problem.
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6af44d0c44f70ab4d33fe587371ad645
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2017/03/31/two-important-questions-about-the-new-default-twitter-avatar/
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Two Important Questions About The New Default Twitter Avatar
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Two Important Questions About The New Default Twitter Avatar
Twitter changed the default avatar to a humanoid silhouette. Image credit Twitter
Twitter made headlines in the tech world today with the announcement that the default avatar is changing from an egg shape to a sort of shapeless human blob silhouette. The move raises two very important questions: “Why?” and “Who cares?”
Twitter shared news of the switch from egg to humanoid in a blog post. The post explains that, in part, Twitter feels like the new default avatar will be incentive for people to stop using the default avatar. “We noticed that some people kept the egg default profile photo because they thought it was fun and cute, but we want people to use this space to show us who they are! The new default image feels more like an empty state or placeholder, and we hope it encourages people to upload images that express themselves.”
Twitter shares a couple other reasons for the switch, and then goes into detail about the process of deciding on which humanoid silhouette blob shape most accurately represents Twitter. For example, “We had to determine how to bring inclusivity into our single default profile photo, given that we don’t require people to specify their gender on Twitter. We felt that the circle of the head in the figure still seemed masculine, even though it technically had no design characteristics to indicate that it was a man. So for inspiration, we looked at how women are portrayed in generic, way finding iconography, such as bathroom signs, and noticed that the only difference between the sexes is the shape of their clothing.”
I don’t dislike the new default avatar per se. I think it’s dumb, just like I thought the egg was dumb, which is why one of the first things I did when I created my Twitter account was change the default avatar. In my opinion, the egg was already plenty of incentive.
That brings us to the important questions. Let’s start with, “Why?”. I mean, of all the things that Twitter could think of, why even bother with this? First of all, the egg makes sense in the context of the Twitter bird. There was a theme. Humanoid blob isn’t an improvement.
If developers are just sitting around looking for things to do at Twitter, there are so many other issues—both small and large—that Twitter could choose to focus its resources on. For example, fake accounts. According to Twitter Audit, 2,075 of the accounts that follow my @Techspective handle—or about 14 percent—are fake. Trump’s account has more than 6 million, and Barack Obama has just under 18 million fake accounts according to Twitter Audit. On a percentage basis, Obama actually has Trump beat—79 percent valid accounts compared to Trump’s 73 percent. Because Obama has more than three times the Twitter followers of Trump, he can also have three times the fake accounts and still come out ahead.
Based on just those three accounts—which is an admittedly small sampling—it seems that roughly 20 percent of all Twitter accounts are fake. Changing the default avatar for those accounts from an egg to a human silhouette doesn’t solve anything.
Or, how about the issues Twitter has with fake news and hate speech. Twitter also needs to focus on monetization and find a way to generate revenue without destroying what makes Twitter unique.
Then there’s the question of, “Who cares?” This doesn’t impact the functionality of Twitter. Changes like not counting images against the 140-character max, or the change this week that excludes @names in replies from the 140-character limit change the way Twitter works and enhance what users can do with it. The default avatar simply doesn’t matter. Period.
If this had occurred tomorrow, I would assume it was just a stupid April Fool’s Day prank. But, I guess we now have humanoid blob silhouettes instead of Twitter eggs. Yay?
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ab8e9711d1eeb2001bc4916cb30bc739
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2017/07/31/microsoft-expands-role-in-cloud-by-joining-cloud-native-computing-foundation/
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Microsoft Expands Role In Cloud By Joining Cloud Native Computing Foundation
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Microsoft Expands Role In Cloud By Joining Cloud Native Computing Foundation
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gestures while speaking during a press briefing on the intersection of... [+] cloud and mobile computing Thursday, March 27, 2014, in San Francisco. Microsoft unveiled Office for the iPad, a software suite that includes programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and works on rival Apple Inc.'s hugely popular tablet computer. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Microsoft has been steadily expanding its relationship with and involvement in the cloud in recent years. Microsoft’s philosophy has evolved – somewhat rapidly – from a more or less Microsoft-centric approach to a broadly inclusive strategy that benefits both Microsoft and Microsoft customers. Last week Microsoft continued with the announcement that it has joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a Platinum member.
“Microsoft is committed to helping organizations of all sizes achieve more, and we see cloud native technologies and open development as a way to enable this,” said Corey Sanders, Partner Director, Microsoft Corp in a CNCF press release about the news. “We have contributed across many cloud native projects, including Kubernetes, Helm, containerd and gRPC, and plan to expand our involvement in the future. Joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation is another natural step on our open source journey, and we look forward to learning and engaging with the community on a deeper level as a CNCF member.”
The CNCF membership follows Microsoft joining the Linux Foundation in 2016. A Microsoft blog post describes the move as a natural next step for Microsoft to invest in open source communities – particularly in the area of containers.
Once upon a time, Microsoft had a much more self-centered view of the world and built its product and marketing strategies around ways to keep customers inside a limited, Microsoft-centric world. I’m not entirely sure it’s a difference between the leadership of former CEO Steve Ballmer and current CEO Satya Nadella, but the transformation does appear to coincide with the transition in leadership. Regardless of the catalyst, Microsoft has shifted to a strategy that understands the complexity of the cloud and the value of open source tools and cross-platform cooperation.
The CNCF press release explains, “Over the past few years, Microsoft has become one of the biggest open source contributors. The company is currently a leading open source contributor on GitHub, open sourced .NET Core 1.0 and its software development kit, partnered with Canonical to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10, and works with CNCF member companies like Red Hat, SUSE and others to support their solutions in its products. Microsoft became a platinum member of the Linux Foundation in 2016 and contributes to a number of other Linux Foundation projects, including Node.js Foundation, OpenDaylight, the Open Container Initiative, the R Consortium, and the Open API Initiative.”
The evolution to a more inclusive view of the cloud is a primary factor in the continued success of Azure. In February, I wrote about how Microsoft Azure is helping ASOS streamline operations and achieve a competitive advantage. “Microservices–including container technologies like Docker—enable organizations to develop and deploy applications as smaller, more manageable components. Containers allow companies to be more agile, and are significantly easier to scale at the same time. The rollout is a major milestone for ASOS, which sees the cloud and micro services as the foundation of a multi-year transformation that will drive the next decade of the company’s story.”
Microsoft is contributing to and leading various open source projects that play a crucial role in the world of cloud computing and containers. Microsoft gaining a seat at the table as a Platinum member of CNCF will hopefully lead to better collaboration and help make the projects and the resulting tools and technologies better for everyone.
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daefe580ca642aaf5fdf3e89f20cabe8
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2017/11/05/enough-already-with-the-stupid-face-id-twin-test/
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Enough Already With The Stupid Face ID 'Twin Test'
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Enough Already With The Stupid Face ID 'Twin Test'
A customer sets up Face ID on his new iPhone X at the Apple Store Union Square on November 3, 2017,... [+] in San Francisco, California. / AFP PHOTO / Elijah Nouvelage (Photo credit should read ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP/Getty Images)
The iPhone X is here, and with it Apple’s new biometric authentication—Face ID. All week I have seen videos attempting to demonstrate whether or not an identical twin can dupe Face ID and allow someone other than the actual iPhone owner to access the device. Just stop. It is a stupid test.
Hacking Face ID
Similar tests were conducted when Microsoft first introduced the Windows Hello facial recognition feature, which utilizes similar technology. I get it. It’s fun to try and hack the authentication for a new device or technology. It’s also pretty good for getting clicks and generating traffic. It just has no real-world value and doesn't provide any useful information for owners (or potential owners) of an iPhone X.
The premise of the “twins test” conducted by media outlets like Mashable and Business Insider seems to be to demonstrate whether or not the facial recognition feature of the iPhone X is absolutely secure. Business Insider found that it works as advertised and Face ID could not be fooled by identical twins. Mashable, on the other hand, found two sets of identical twins capable of thwarting Face ID. The subtle implication—although not substantiated at all by the test itself—is that maybe you shouldn’t trust Face ID.
According to a University of Texas study, only about 32 out of 1,000 people are twins—which translates to roughly three percent of the population. However, the rate for identical twins is only 3.5 per 1,000 births. That means the novelty of breaking into an iPhone X by tricking Face ID only applies to about one third of one percent of the population.
Face ID is 99.997 percent secure
What we’ve learned from these tests is that it is, in fact, possible that some identical twins can fool Face ID and gain access to the iPhone X. What we know from the twins data, is that this is only an issue for 0.35 percent of the world—at most. The fact that the Mashable and Business Insider twin tests got different results suggests that only a certain subset of identical twins can bypass Face ID, which could significantly lower that number.
Instead of worrying about the fact that an identical twin might be able to access the device, let’s focus on the real story here. The fact is, if it takes a truly identical twin to maybe be able to fool Face ID, then for the 99.997 percent of the population of the world who are not part of a set of identical twins, Face ID is pretty damn secure.
If you do happen to be an identical twin and this is an issue that concerns you, you can always use the Emergency SOS feature to quickly disable Face ID facial recognition at your next family gathering to ensure your evil twin won’t be able to access your iPhone X without the passcode.
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a73c7c41efb9e09cb9d1e45fdb28e7d2
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2019/04/01/hostile-planet-presents-wildlife-through-a-unique-immersive-experience/
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'Hostile Planet' Presents Wildlife Through A Unique Immersive Experience
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'Hostile Planet' Presents Wildlife Through A Unique Immersive Experience
Cameraman Tom Walker uses a gyro-stabilized camera to film Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) on the top of... [+] a steep cliff in the Negev Desert, Israel. The crew found conditions tough - following the ibex was often impossible, as they could navigate cliffs that were impassable to human beings. One wrong move would have seen the crew fall hundreds of feet from the vertical cliffs. (National Geographic/Matthew Wright)
Whatever your plans are for tonight, you should change them and tune in to the premier of “Hostile Planet” on Nat Geo. Nat Geo has a tradition of extraordinary wildlife photos and documentaries. It is one of the defining characteristics of Nat Geo. But, this 6-part docuseries raises the bar—leveraging technology and a unique approach to sharing the story for a different perspective than your average wildlife show.
I have always loved the amazing wildlife images from National Geographic. My grandfather was a long-time subscriber to the magazine and had shelves in his den filled with hundreds of issues of the magazine. The written content is pretty awesome as well, but I have always been fascinated by how the photographers—or videographers, as the case may be—are able to capture such candid and beautiful shots.
“Hostile Planet” is a bit different, though. I was given early access to view the episodes and I was struck by two things. First—that this series tells a more raw, honest story about wildlife than most. My kids watch a lot of wildlife shows, and many hint at the dangers and reality of the animal kingdom, but stop short and present it as more of a happy ending. “Hostile Planet”—as the name implies—conveys the brutal reality that surviving in the wild is not easy.
The second thing that I noticed about “Hostile Planet” is that much of it takes wildlife cinematography to another level. Somehow the Nat Geo videographers were able to capture footage that makes you feel like you are there in the middle of the action—like they strapped a GoPro to the back of the animals. It is a more intense and compelling view of wildlife than I have seen from other documentaries.
A Unique Perspective
It turns out that the immersive perspective is not an accident. I had an opportunity to speak with executive producer Guillermo Navarro—an Academy Award-winning cinematographer and director—about “Hostile Planet” and what makes it unique. Navarro explained, “My purpose was to bring much more of a sense of experience—a more immersive sense of belonging for the audience.”
Navarro accomplished this through what he calls “film language”. He talked about how the standard or traditional wildlife show relies on the narrator to tell the story, with the wildlife footage playing more of a supporting role to illustrate that story. He designed “Hostile Planet” to flip that around—to let the film tell the story, and the narrator—survivalist Bear Grylls—take on a less significant role.
Navarro told me, “I wanted to bring the level of the voiceover down as much as possible and allow the film language to tell the story. The film language allows you to experience what it feels like to be with them—to view life from the perspective of the animal.”
Capturing the Experience
Nat Geo wildlife videographers rely on an extraordinary combination of patience, skill, and technology to get the amazing images and scenes they do. They are very experienced in capturing wildlife footage in general, but—to achieve his vision—Navarro asked the film crew to go about things a bit differently.
He told them that is not enough to capture the pivotal scene—a baby gazelle being born, or a lion killing an elephant. He asked them to also capture what happens before, during, and after that event so it can be presented as an entire story—a story that allows the audience to have a broader experience of the beauty and danger of surviving in the wild.
I don’t want to share any spoilers, but there is some truly amazing footage in this series. One of the questions I had for Navarro was how the Nat Geo film crew was able to capture such amazing scenes—including closeups that make you feel like you are literally in the middle of the action.
Navarro shared that there is research done in the first place—intelligence gathered to understand where the animals are likely to be and how they behave. Armed with that information, the film crew can at least set up in a location where they have better odds of encountering the wildlife they seek. After that, though, it’s a matter of patience and luck. Once the wildlife shows up, though, cutting edge camera equipment and zoom lenses, combined with drone footage enable the team to capture footage that allows the audience to truly feel like they are part of the experience.
“Hostile Planet” premieres tonight at 9pm Eastern / 8pm Central on Nat Geo. It is an amazing series that you don’t want to miss.
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7169ebf9d7005b6453b5726ecc60b5f5
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2019/07/16/survey-reveals-challenges-of-effective-privileged-access-management/
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Survey Reveals Challenges Of Effective Privileged Access Management
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Survey Reveals Challenges Of Effective Privileged Access Management
Organizations seem confused about what privileged access management actually means. Image from Pixabay
There is a general perception that cybersecurity is an “us vs. them” proposition—that employees and other authorized users are inherently trusted, and that cybersecurity tools and policies only need to focus on keeping unauthorized users from gaining access to the network or sensitive data. There are certainly attackers “out there”, but the reality is that most successful attacks—even by external attackers—exploit valid credentials that have been stolen or compromised in some way. That’s why effective privileged access management (PAM) is crucial.
Understanding Privileged Access Management
Most people understand the concept of a username and password as credentials that allow you to access certain networks or resources—but what makes some access privileged?
Consider the analogy of a locked room that contains a variety of locked file cabinets. Identity management verifies that you are who you say you are and gives you the key to unlock the room. Access management determines which file cabinets in the room you’re able to open or view the contents of. Privileged access is like having the master key that lets you access all of the rooms and all of the file cabinets at will.
It’s easy to see why it’s important for organizations to limit and effectively manage privileged access.
Confusion about Privileged Access Management
Remediant—a privileged access management vendor—commissioned Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) to conduct a survey examining the challenges organizations face with PAM and the current state and trends related to implementation of privileged access management solutions. One of the most interesting—and concerning—findings is that there seems to be a fair amount of confusion about what privileged access management is.
I spoke with Steve Brasen, Managing Research Director at EMA. He was involved in conducting the survey and preparing the resulting report. He told me, “If I were to call out the most important things, it would be that most organizations do not grasp the concept of PAM. They are confusing privileged access management with identity and access management.”
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“A majority of organizations are using IAM or a password management tool as ‘PAM’,” Brasen added. “There’s not enough awareness about the difference.”
The survey responses illustrate the point. Only 1% of the survey participants indicated that they are not using any privileged access management. At face value that seems very encouraging—apparently 99% understand the value of PAM and are working to do something about it. When you dig a little deeper into the survey results, though, you find that the number one method (50%) of managing privileged access is a directory service—like Azure Active Directory—and that 27% claim to be relying on native endpoint operating system tools. Only 49% specified that they are using a dedicated solution specifically designed for PAM.
Cognitive Disconnect on PAM
Another area of concern from the survey is the disconnect between the relative satisfaction survey participants claim to have with their existing privileged access management strategy, while there is simultaneously very little confidence that the PAM strategy will actually prevent violations of privileged access policies.
More than 8 out of 10 of those surveyed appear to be satisfied with the current tools and strategy they are using for privileged access management. However, almost 40% revealed that they only believe their PAM solution will prevent some inappropriate use of privileged accounts. Startlingly, 8% of the survey participants who stated that they use a dedicated PAM solution shared that they are not confident it will help prevent abuse of privileged access at all.
The survey found that the average number of privileged access policy violations for a year is 3.2, and the average cost to the organization to respond and remediate the policy violation is $5,580. That means that organizations are averaging $23,400 per year in costs to resolve privileged access issues while more than 80% are satisfied with their existing tools and strategy.
Improving Privileged Access Management
Much of the effort involved in managing privileged access is simply granting and revoking access on an as-needed basis. It would reduce the burden on IT administrators if privileged access requests could be automated, and it would vastly improve the overall security posture if privileged access can also be automatically revoked or expire when the need no longer exists.
Of course, first we need to educate organizations about what privileged access management is, and the difference between directory services, password management vaults, identity and access management solutions, and dedicated PAM. With the right strategy and the right PAM solution to help automate and streamline the process, though, organizations can effectively manage privileged access and reduce their exposure to risk.
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ee156e89610cd820cd618a1c9409cb48
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2020/01/09/mcafee-research-highlights-security-concerns-with-smart-home-technologies/?sh=6aab4f145024
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McAfee Research Highlights Security Concerns With Smart Home Technologies
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McAfee Research Highlights Security Concerns With Smart Home Technologies
Smart home technologies can expose homes to risk if they're not properly secured. Tumisu
Smart home devices and technologies are transforming homes. Connected thermostats, door locks, doorbells, indoor and outdoor cameras, garage door openers, light bulbs, refrigerators, and other devices allow people to monitor, protect, and interact with their homes from virtually anywhere and anytime. There is an unfortunate truth, though, when it comes to technology: Convenience is the enemy of security.
If it makes life easier for you, there’s a good chance it also makes it easier for criminals to compromise. Every feature or service of a device or platform expands the potential attack surface and provides more opportunity for failure or exploit. For example, not having any door on your home at all would not be practical—but it would certainly be more secure. Having a door makes it easier for you to get in and out yourself, and provides an easier way for a criminal to get in as well. A connected door lock that lets you unlock the door remotely is convenient—and seems more secure than just leaving a key under the door mat, but it can also be hacked to let an attacker unlock your door as well.
McAfee Uncovers Security Flaws in Smart Home Devices
McAfee published a couple blog posts this week highlighting issues discovered by researchers in some smart home devices. McAfee found that the McLear Smart Ring, and the Chamberlain MyQ Hub can both be exploited and possibly allow criminals to gain access to your home.
The McLear Smart Ring is a ring you wear on your hand that is capable of interacting with NFC (Near Field Communications) enabled door locks. The ring can automatically unlock connected door locks it is paired with so there is no need to carry a key or even remember a code to open the door. McAfee researchers found that the ring can be easily cloned, though, so a criminal could also enter your home without a key or code.
Separate research found a flaw in the Chamberlain MyQ Hub as well. According to McAfee, the MyQ Hub was surprisingly secure for an IoT device and took more effort on their part to find a way to compromise it—but they eventually did. It is a somewhat convoluted hack and McAfee admits that the likelihood of such an attack in the real world is low, however it shows that even when a vendor is conscious of security risks and takes steps to protect the device, a dedicated attacker can often still find a weakness.
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Be Smart about Your Smart Home
I am not saying the sky is falling or telling you not to use IoT (internet of things) devices or smart home technologies. I have a connected doorbell, door lock, indoor and outdoor cameras, thermostats, smoke detectors, light bulbs, smart televisions, and smart speakers throughout my house. I love the convenience and the ability to monitor and manage my house while I’m away. That said, I am aware of the potential security risks, and I understand that it requires some additional due diligence—both as a consumer to choose devices from vendors that take security seriously, and as a homeowner to never fully trust the vendor and make sure I am vigilant about keeping tabs on my devices and my home myself.
In a blog post describing the McAfee findings, Steve Povolny explains, “The issue here is at a higher level; where and when do we draw the line for convenience versus security? The numerous benefits technology enhancements bring are exciting and often highly valuable; but many are unaware of the lengths cyber criminals will go to (for example, we once uncovered a vulnerability in a coffee pot which we were able to leverage to gain access to a home Wi-Fi network) and the many ways new features can reduce the security of a system.”
Povolny recommends that users practice good cyber hygiene. Doing things like changing default passwords on devices, using strong passwords and multi-factor authentication where possible, and keeping IoT devices segregated from the broader home network can help you avoid these sorts of attacks. He also points out that its incumbent on consumers to understand potential security risks and be smart when researching and buying products.
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f2f6a082c9f666925dfd94ce5925fd0f
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2020/02/20/redefining-zero-trust-does-zero-really-mean-zero/
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Redefining Zero Trust: Does Zero Really Mean Zero?
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Redefining Zero Trust: Does Zero Really Mean Zero?
The concept of zero trust security has gained momentum, but the reality is that it is not truly ... [+] "zero" trust. Getty
The concept of zero trust networks or zero trust security was developed in 2010 by John Kindervag—at the time a principal analyst with Forrester. The point of the initiative was to move away from granting blanket trust to users or devices in response to an increasingly complex ecosystem of connected devices and network connections. In the decade since zero trust was introduced, it has gained momentum and grown into its own market segment within the cybersecurity industry. The way it is commonly implemented, however, isn’t really “zero” trust. It is strictly limited or granular trust, but there is still trust and still potential for that trust to be exploited. What if zero actually meant zero, though?
Traditional Cybersecurity Model
The basic model of cybersecurity is built on the model of Prevent, Detect, Remediate, and Predict. According to Amir Ben-Efraim, CEO of Menlo Security, though, the problem is that prevention is never perfect, detection is too late, damage is often already done by the time remediation is complete, and prediction of the next attack is just nonsense.
Companies put defensive measures like firewalls and antimalware in place to try and keep threats out in the first place, and use tools like intrusion detection to identify suspicious or malicious activity that has slipped through the cracks. Remediation teams then work to remove whatever threat was able to gain a foothold or repair any damage. They then take steps to mitigate the next attack by trying to predict where the attacker may try to penetrate their defenses by applying any new lessons or information to hopefully improve prevention and detection for the next attack.
Ben-Efraim points out that preventing attacks relies on the assumption that you can outsmart the bad guys and stay one step ahead, while detect assumes that an organization will be able to recognize and respond to an attack quickly enough to avoid any damage. Given the fact that the average dwell time—the time an attacker is able to infiltrate and exist on an organization’s network before being detected—is measured in months, it’s safe to say that prevent and detect are not very effective in most cases.
(Less Than) Zero Trust
One of the industry’s answer to this problem is zero trust, the practice of authenticating a user’s access to a resource that goes beyond traditional authentication. The problem with most implementations of zero trust is that they’re actually not zero—they’re granular trust. It is admittedly an improvement over the previous model, but the reality is that you’re still connecting users and devices to resources and information based on authentication and trust. Access is more limited, and access may be verified more frequently, but there is still trust granted on some level for some period of time. The difference between granular trust and true zero trust still leaves you exposed to exploit and compromise.
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In most companies, a significant percentage of productivity occurs in email or through the web browser. It’s no coincidence that estimates suggest that email and web browsers are responsible for 90% of attacks. Organizations need to figure out how to effectively implement true zero trust for email and internet access.
Making Zero Really Mean Zero
As long as there are users and devices connecting to network resources and data over the public internet or executing unknown code in a web browser, organizations don’t really have zero trust and they’re still exposed to unnecessary risk.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) understands the internet is dangerous and they launched the Cloud Based Internet Isolation (CBII) initiative in an effort to eliminate web-based threats and the possibility of drive-by downloads. This an example of zero trust being applied to the internet by removing the browsing process from the desktop and moving it to the cloud effectively creating an “air gap” between the Internet and their network.
Isolation is a simple concept that moves the needle towards absolute zero trust. An article from Defense Systems explains, “The platform works by taking a command to open a website and opening a virtual machine in the cloud. That virtual machine runs a new web browser created specifically for the requester, downloads the website and runs it in fully in the cloud.”
Companies need to think more broadly about zero trust and consider better ways to achieve zero trust even for email and the public internet. Menlo Security’s Ben-Efraim stressed that as a CISO or IT security manager, “I want to be able to say that I have achieved true zero trust using a solution that allows me to engage with the world through common channels without exposing any risk. It’s unfortunate that the industry is accepting a zero trust framework that purports to be an advancement but is really just more security that is just “almost safe.”
He added that “True zero trust, especially for the internet, on the other hand, does exist, and it is the perfect answer for eliminating malware, ransomware and zero day threats.”
Zero trust is a great concept in theory. It will be significantly better when organizations move away from granular security and implement tools and processes that enable zero to really mean zero.
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3678283aa07024dee7757bfd1728f9d9
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2020/04/13/cosmos-examines-how-viruses-adapt-and-spread/
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Cosmos Examines How Viruses Adapt And Spread
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Cosmos Examines How Viruses Adapt And Spread
In a distant future when our species has ventured to other planetary systems, our descendants revere ... [+] the wonders of a world that is only a memory. Cosmos Studios
Nat Geo will air a couple new episodes of Cosmos: Possible Worlds tonight. One of the episodes in particular, “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, is especially relevant right now. The episode focuses on the larger capacity for life—specifically human beings—to change. But it also shares information that is very valuable given the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the confusion around the quarantine effort and how social distancing and proper hygiene can help flatten the curve of infections.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of Cosmos: Possible Worlds, examines how the rabies virus targets specific functions of the host, and how that targeting results in ensuring the continued spread and survival of the virus. Mutations that work to make the virus more effective or help it successfully propagate are passed on, allowing the virus to evolve over time.
Take a look at this exclusive video clip from the episode to learn more:
This episode is desperately needed, because many people do not understand what a virus is or how viruses propagate, or how we can protect ourselves from them. Contrary to what some ill-informed elected officials might suggest, a virus is not bacteria. The Novel Coronavirus is not “brilliant” and it has not somehow outsmarted antibiotics. The simple fact is that antibiotics have nothing to do with fighting a viral infection, and viruses continually mutate and adapt over time. It’s not because they’re brilliant. It’s just basic biology and natural selection.
The episode covers more than just the mutation and evolution of viruses—sharing knowledge and information in a way that is simultaneously entertaining and thought provoking. Cosmos is also impressive visually. The video and animations contribute to make the series a must-see.
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I highly recommend watching tonight’s episodes of Cosmos. Cosmos: Possible Worlds is amazing in general, but tonight is uniquely relevant to the ongoing situation with Coronavirus and helping you understand how viruses work. Cosmos: Possible Worlds airs Monday night from 8-10 PM Eastern time on Nat Geo and is available to stream after the show airs.
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f4e4fd966e5b4cb6e4f8aa27beede4d1
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2020/05/12/survey-finds-business-automation-technology-falls-short-of-promise/?sh=1a41c6b1bad1
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Survey Finds Business Automation Technology Falls Short Of Promise
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Survey Finds Business Automation Technology Falls Short Of Promise
Infographic illustrating key insights from Business Automation Technologies and the Customer ... [+] Experience survey. Appian
The evolving tech landscape and the maturing of machine learning and artificial intelligence have driven an increase in automation. Automating routine tasks ostensibly helps the organization operate more efficiently and frees employees to focus on higher value tasks like innovative new products and services for customers. As more and more companies embrace automation, though, we have to examine whether business automation technologies are delivering on their promise to enable companies to better anticipate and serve the needs of customers. A new survey from IDG explores the attitudes of employees with respect to business automation technologies and business-to-customer relationships.
The “Business Automation Technologies and the Customer Experience” survey was conducted by IDG for Appian. IDG surveyed 1,200 individuals across the United States and Europe in early 2020. The survey participants represented companies with 1,000 or more employees from financial services, healthcare, government, and other primary verticals.
Value of Business Automation
Business automation technologies are useful for automating mundane and routine tasks, but they should do more than accelerate work and reduce manual errors. While business automation takes on many tasks that humans have traditionally done, the goal is not to replace the humans. The business automation technologies should provide contextual information and process flexibility so an organization and its employees can foster strong customer relationships that engender brand loyalty.
With the current COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to quarantine and enforce social distancing, many companies around the world have quickly adopted a 100% work from home model, and their customers are facing the same challenges. In theory, business automation technologies can help bridge those connections.
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Insights from Business Automation Survey
Business automation technologies can play a pivotal role in helping companies anticipate and serve the needs of their customers and create stronger customer relationships. The operative word when discussing the value of business automation technologies is “can”. The technology has the potential to accomplish these objectives and help companies achieve these goals—if it is done right. Many of the survey participants, however, indicated that the business automation technologies their companies have in place currently are falling short of that promise.
There is a lot of interesting information in the full survey, but here are some of the key takeaways:
● 65% of respondents say that the automation technologies used by their organizations are only “somewhat effective” (at best) in providing all the data and context needed for a full picture of customers
● Fewer than half (47%) of all respondents report that their organization’s use of technology has significantly increased the amount of time they can spend with customers
● Only 30% of respondents use technology tools that empower them “to a great extent” to address complex issues with creative problem-solving, or to change business processes on-the-fly
● Fewer than one-third (32%) of non-senior executive respondents feel their organization’s technology is highly flexible in helping to solve customer problems (compared to 47% of senior executive respondents who believe so)
I had an opportunity to chat with Matt Calkins, CEO of Appian, about his thoughts on the survey results. He told me that what stood out to him from the survey is that automation also needs flexibility. He stressed that automation should augment human employees and enhance their capabilities and productivity—not seek to replace them. According to Calkins, the true value of business automation technologies lies in bringing human and digital workers together in the same workflow—combining machine learning and artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and humans to deliver better results.
You can view the full survey and dig into more of the details here: Business Automation Technologies and the Customer Experience.
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8c0f22deeb70fe2154af04d0d496079c
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2020/12/15/cryptographers-unveil-breakthrough-in-achieving-indistinguishability-obfuscation/
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Cryptographers Unveil Breakthrough In Achieving Indistinguishability Obfuscation
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Cryptographers Unveil Breakthrough In Achieving Indistinguishability Obfuscation
A new paper titled "Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Well-Founded Assumptions" may have ... [+] unlocked a decades-old encryption puzzle. getty
Is it possible to encrypt a computer program such that the code is completely unintelligible while retaining all of its intended functionality? The concept of indistinguishability obfuscation (iO) was theorized in 2001—but over nearly two decades cryptographers have failed to actually achieve it. Earlier this year, however, that changed with the publication of a paper titled, “Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Well-Founded Assumptions.”
Encryption and Cryptographic Primitives
The whole point of encryption is to convert data or information into an encoded version that can be decrypted or understood without the encryption key in order to prevent unauthorized access. Any cybersecurity expert, however, will agree that encryption is not invulnerable. There is still an underlying pattern and given enough time and skill it is possible to break an encryption algorithm.
Indistinguishability Obfuscation is a cryptographic primitive—a low-level cryptographic algorithm that can be used to build cryptographic protocols for computer and application security. Cryptographic researchers have struggled to achieve iO for nearly 20 years. Since the concept was mathematically formalized in 2001, researchers have attempted to develop iO with provable security guarantees.
Indistinguishability obfuscation takes encryption to another level by compiling a program in a way that hides the logic and knowledge within and makes it completely unintelligible.
Achieving Indistinguishability Obfuscation
A solution has been put forth to the academic community. The achievement was a team effort. The paper has three co-authors: Aayush Jain, a graduate student researcher in the Center for Encrypted Functionalities (CEF) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and research intern at the NTT Research Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab; Huijia (Rachel) Lin, associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington; and Amit Sahai, Symantec Chair Professor of Computer Science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and director of the CEF.
This solution is built on four well-founded assumptions. Each is a puzzle in an of itself that is computationally expensive to solve. By combining Symmetric external Diffie-Hellman (SXDH) on pairing groups, Learning with Errors (LWE), Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) over large fields, and the existence of a Boolean Pseudo-Random Generator (PRG) that is simple to compute, the team developed iO that is based on the difficulty of computational problems with a long history of study, based on complexity, coding, and number theory.
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“The process has been an enlightening one for all of us. The result is deeply satisfying; however, the journey has been equally exciting. Over the past few years, this has led us to explore some really fundamental and beautiful questions in hardness amplification, leakage-resilient cryptographic proof techniques and algorithmic questions related to the sum-of-squares hierarchy and the hardness present in average-case constant degree polynomial systems over the reals. We also interacted with and learned from some of the most amazing people in theoretical computer science,” Jain said.
The key innovation the team discovered is a way to leverage two of the assumptions—LPN over fields and simple Boolean PRG—to create a structured-seed PRG. The structured seed of the PRG consists of a public and private element. What makes this innovation crucial is that the structured-seed PRGs are extremely easy to compute. With the structured-seed PRGs established, the team is able to achieve the goal of iO by drawing upon previous research.
Richer and More Powerful Cryptography
“Up until now, cryptographers could be suspicious about whether iO really worked or existed, but these results are convincing,” said CIS Lab Director and NTT Fellow Tatsuaki Okamoto in a press release announcing the academic paper. “And because iO implies many strong cryptographic functionalities that are considered hard to realize without iO, what this means is that our cryptographic world is now richer and more powerful.”
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a45408dbe6e66046baba07b7a746d11f
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyeast/2020/01/26/g-league-assignments-indiana-pacers-rehab/?sh=7d30e9f8411c
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G League Assignments Help Indiana Pacers Players Get, And Stay, Ready For Their Chance
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G League Assignments Help Indiana Pacers Players Get, And Stay, Ready For Their Chance
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 09: Alize Johnson #24 of the Indiana Pacers exits the court after ... [+] the game against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on January 09, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Celtics defeat the Pacers 135-108. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) Getty Images
The Indiana Pacers have played well throughout their 2019-20 campaign despite basically every member of its roster suffering an injury at some point in time. 11 different players have missed games while banged up, which makes the team’s 30-16 even more impressive.
A further challenge with these injuries is that many of them have been lengthy, and players are typically not quite their normal self after returning from an extended absence. “It’s definitely tough, sitting four or five weeks,” Pacers guard Edmond Sumner told me. “I’m working out as much as I can but it’s not the same things as getting out there and getting NBA experience. Nothing can simulate that for me.”
Playing in games has value in the rehab process, and while Sumner did specify NBA experience, it’s clear that games are more beneficial for a player than practice or gym time when it comes to getting fully healthy. Since not every player can play in the Pacers NBA rotation, however, the organization has been using their G League team in Fort Wayne to get guys back up to speed.
Usually, that process does come as a result of an injury. Sumner and JaKarr Sampson were sent down to the G League after they were hurt for multiple weeks. It helped them recover in full.
But sometimes a player just needs to get up to game speed after being out of Indiana’s rotation for an extended period of time. That was the case when Alize Johnson and Goga Bitadze were sent down to play with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
No matter the reason is for a G League assignment, these games are beneficial for the players who typically ride the bench. They can get game action that escapes them in the NBA. Alize Johnson is the most common beneficiary in this regard, he has actually played more minutes for the Mad Ants than the Pacers this season despite being in Indiana’s rotation early in the year.
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“It keeps me in shape. It keeps all of us in shape,” Johnson said of his time with Fort Wayne. “[The Pacers are] doing a great job sending guys down who don’t really get many minutes [so they can] just stay ready for an opportunity that may occur up here.”
Johnson uses his G League time better than anyone. In eight games with the Mad Ants, he has posted averages of 21.9 points and 15.1 rebounds per game; video game numbers. Those minutes in Fort Wayne, where Johnson is the best player on the floor, helped him refine some skills that were needed for the Pacers to win games this season.
When Indiana was slammed by injuries in the front court earlier this year, Johnson’s services were requested. He spent a week in the rotation; he received over half of his total playing time this season in just three games. Indiana won each of them and played their opponents to an even draw with Johnson on the floor. He filled in ably.
Alize detailed how those assignments with the G League help him when called upon for NBA minutes. “Defensively, just being ready for any action,” he said. Then, the discussion shifted to offense. “Knocking down three-pointers, getting more comfortable. Game time reps, there’s nothing like game time reps.”
Another Indiana power forward, JaKarr Sampson, uses his G League assignments to aide him less with physical skills and more with rhythm and mentality. “Besides shape, I think just mentally, just being able to just flow and play and being able to get up and down the floor is big time,” Sampson said of his games with Fort Wayne. “Just staying in rhythm and being ready when you’re name is called [in the NBA] is great.”
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - NOVEMBER 08: JaKarr Sampson #14 of the Indiana Pacers is seen during the game ... [+] against the Detroit Pistons at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on November 8, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) Getty Images
Sampson, as mentioned above, saw his G League assignment double as a rehab stint. He missed weeks with a back injury, so the Pacers sent him down to the Mad Ants to get his feet back under him. Sampson relished that opportunity.
“I love playing basketball. So when you’re out of the rotation and you’re hurt for a little bit, [you’re] not getting up and down as much,” he said. “It’s good to [play in the G League] in that sense. Get down, play some games, get a feel, and knock the rust off to stay in shape. It’s big time.”
Sampson has been a G Leaguer for most of his career; he has more minutes playing in the minors than in the NBA. But he doesn’t mind. He’s just happy he gets to play. He mentioned at media day that he spent a lot of his time with the Windy City Bulls last season working on his three-point shot, something that helped him land a spot on an NBA roster this season. He is perhaps the biggest fan of the G League on the Indiana roster.
But he isn’t the only fan. Every player who has received the opportunity to play with Fort Wayne has enjoyed it. More recently, first-round pick Goga Bitadze has gotten the opportunity to hit the court with the Mad Ants to get additional playing time. The rookie dominates when he gets G League minutes, showing off a stat line of 21.7 points, 15.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game. His defense still needs work, but his 4.7 blocks per game were impactful and game-altering.
Indiana Pacers center Goga Bitadze (88) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Jan. 19, ... [+] 2020, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) ASSOCIATED PRESS
“It felt really good to go out there and get some minutes,” Bitadze said after his first appearance with the Mad Ants. “I played free,” he added, something that is harder for him to do in his limited NBA playing time.
In November, when there were copious injuries, Bitadze occasionally shared the court with the likes of Sumner and Sampson during NBA action. Those two teammates also, interestingly, saw playing time together in Fort Wayne.
It’s a minor bonus, but on occasion, multiple Pacers players will get sent down for a G League assignment at the same time. When the Mad Ants took on the Wisconsin Herd in late 2019, all three of Sampson, Sumner, and Johnson were with Fort Wayne. They hung 125 points on the Herd and pulled out a tough win. The trio combined for 61 points and 29 rebounds. They were dominant.
“It’s easier to play off of each other,” Sampson said about playing for Fort Wayne with Pacer teammates. “Then you got that bond there.”
Sumner agreed. “It’s better to have guys who are [in Indiana] with you every day and kind of know the scheme of things,” he said. He spent a ton of time with the Mad Ants during his rookie season when he was on a two-way contract; he knows that organization well. But he plays better when he shares the court with the guys he typically practices with.
This year, Johnson has been the one to receive the most time with Fort Wayne. He noted that there is “definitely some chemistry,” when playing with his Pacer teammates in the G League. But the always-leaping forward was more inclined to discuss the rest of the Mad Ants roster, a group he plays well with. “They’re are all great players. There’s a lot of great players on Fort Wayne as well so it doesn’t really make a difference.”
Regardless of who plays with who, the Mad Ants are helpful for Pacers’ players in various ways. They get to directly play off of each other and get more reps together, sure, but they also get to rehab and work on key skills. For a team that has needed contributions from everyone this season, the Indiana Pacers need to be thankful they have the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to help them.
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b582bebb974049b7696d13f2e27f50f0
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyeast/2020/10/23/indiana-pacers-hire-nate-bjorkgren-to-be-the-teams-next-head-coach/?sh=5329cb554d61
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Indiana Pacers Hire Nate Bjorkgren To Be The Team’s Next Head Coach
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Indiana Pacers Hire Nate Bjorkgren To Be The Team’s Next Head Coach
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 18: Assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren of the Toronto Raptors looks on ... [+] against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on October 18, 2019 in New York, New York. (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images) Getty Images
After a long, calculated, and expansive coaching search, the Indiana Pacers have hired Nate Bjorkgren to be the team’s next Head Coach.
Bjorkgren comes to the Pacers from the Toronto Raptors, where he served as an assistant coach for the past two seasons. He was a part of the Raptors’ championship run in 2019, and he helped guide the team to the second seed in the Eastern Conference the following season despite losing a ton of talent. The recent run of success north of the border has shown how strong the Toronto coaching staff, which included Bjorkgren, is.
“Our guys, they were ready for more changes,” Bjorkgren said of the transition from season-to-season after a title. “More defenses. More detailed things we could do on offense. They were hungry. And that’s what you’re going to find with this Indiana Pacers team.”
Prior to his time with Toronto, the 45-year old broke into the NBA as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns. He started as the Head Coach of the Suns’ G League affiliate team, the Bakersfield Jam, in 2014 and dazzled on the job, leading the Jam to an impressive 34-16 record. That performance earned him a spot on the Phoenix bench under then-coach Jeff Hornacek, and Bjorkgren has proved his worth on the sidelines in the seasons since.
The Pacers announced the hire in a statement on Tuesday. “We are very pleased and excited to have Nate as our new coach,” Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard said in the release.
“This was an extensive and thorough search, and when we reached the conclusion, we felt strongly Nate is the right coach for us at the right time,” Pritchard added. “He comes from a winning background, has experienced championship success, is innovative and his communication skills along with his positivity are tremendous. We all look forward to a long, successful partnership in helping the Pacers move forward.”
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Before the coaching search started, Pritchard mentioned that he was looking for a solid communicator, and he went as far as saying that communicating well with players was his “top thing” when looking for qualities in the team’s next Head Coach. On top of that, Pritchard wanted a coach that could bring a more modern style to the Pacers; the team has been in the bottom-five in three-point attempts per game in each of the last four seasons.
Bjorkgren checks off all of those boxes and brings championship experience to boot. “We looked at a couple different characteristics that we wanted out of our coach... [one was] a winning pedigree,” Pritchard said. “Someone who has won, whether it be as an assistant or as a Head Coach in any league... if you’re getting to the top consistently, we put that as a super important characteristic.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 04: Nick Nurse and the coaching staff of the Toronto Raptors during ... [+] the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on January 4, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Matteo Marchi/Getty Images) Getty Images
From an X’s and O’s standpoint, Bjorkgren is astute at getting a lot out of his rosters by having a dynamic coaching philosophy that evolves with his personnel. In this excellent article from Indy Cornrows, Caitlin Cooper lays out some of Bjorkgren’s on-court coaching strengths and displays how he gets his offenses to play faster.
If that variability he brought to past teams is translated to the Pacers, the team will be in a good position going forward. Indiana is one of the few teams in the league that frequently uses two centers at the same time, something that could be looked at as a hinderance to maximizing a roster. Bjorkgren, however, mentioned that he thinks Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis can work well together, stating that he would be “very comfortable” deploying the pair together. “When you talk about those two bigs, they’re just not any two bigs. They are dynamic and they complement each other very well.”
But the shelf life of the duo is unknown and could come to an end sooner as the NBA trends smaller. And on top of that, the team’s star guard, Victor Oladipo, is reportedly looking to move on from the organization. The roster situation could change dramatically for the blue and gold in the coming months and years, which makes Bjorkgren’s ability to adapt all the more important.
The new Head Coach has some previous ties to the Pacers roster, he coached scoring forward T.J. Warren in the G League when Warren was assigned to the Bakersfield Jam as a rookie with the Suns. Warren played in nine games under Bjorkgren for Bakersfield, and in those contests he posted averages of 26.8 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. The two went on to develop a relationship in Phoenix when Bjorkgren was an assistant.
Now, his job with the Pacers will be to maximize Warren and the rest of the roster. “I love this team. I love the pieces that we have and they're going to be a tough team to beat.”
To make them a tough out, Bjorkgren will drastically alter the way the team plays. Beyond the transition to a more modern approach, the Iowa native will tweak the philosophies that the blue and gold build their offense on. His mind for the game allows him to be flexible and inventive, two words that would not describe the Pacers offense over the past few seasons.
Pritchard said that Bjorkgren impressed him with his strategical knowledge during the interview process, and the new Head Coach laid out some of his principles when he was introduced to the media. “You’re going to see weakside movement on the offensive end. You’re going to see different players handling the ball and pushing it up the floor,” Bjorkgren said. “We want to look for more possessions. We want to be attacking and utilize the free throw line [when] getting to the rim. We want to utilize that three-point line and take the shots we want in our offense.”
That will look very different than what Indiana fans are used to. But it was time for the blue and gold to make a change, and Nate Bjorkgren checks off all the boxes that the front office was looking for from their new Head Coach. The transition from one year to the next of Pacers basketball may contain some drastic changes, but those changes are necessary for an Indiana team that has aspirations of a deep playoff run. Bjorkgren could be the coach that finally gets the organization to the place it wants to be.
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c27b7011e92b91d185d5809834d7518e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyeast/2021/01/20/new-pacers-guard-caris-levert-remaining-positive-despite-the-discovery-of-a-small-mass-on-his-left-kidney/
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New Pacers Guard Caris LeVert Remaining Positive Despite The Discovery Of A Small Mass On His Left Kidney
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New Pacers Guard Caris LeVert Remaining Positive Despite The Discovery Of A Small Mass On His Left Kidney
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 30: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Caris LeVert #22 of the Brooklyn Nets in ... [+] action against the Indiana Pacers at Barclays Center on October 30, 2019 in New York City. The Pacers defeated the Nets 118-108. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) Getty Images
The Indiana Pacers recently made a franchise-altering trade, swapping out two-time All-Star Victor Oladipo for young guard Caris LeVert and some additional draft compensation. The Pacers made this trade with their focus on the future, they wanted to get long-term assets in return for Oladipo since his contract was expiring at the end of the current season. Any immediate benefit was an added bonus.
While completing the processes required to execute the deal, the Pacers performed a physical on LeVert. During the medical examination, the guard underwent an MRI that revealed a small mass on his left kidney. As a result, he will be out indefinitely and will undergo further testing.
The Pacers released LeVert’s health update on Saturday, just hours after the trade was officially completed. “On behalf of my family and myself, we want to thank the Indiana Pacers for their support and guidance,” LeVert said in a statement. “We are grateful for their extreme thoroughness during the physical process and I am looking forward to joining the team and being part of this great organization as soon as possible.”
Indiana brass is high on LeVert as a person and as a player, so they went through with the trade despite the medical issue. They could have backed out, but they didn’t. Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard still thinks it’s possible the newly acquired guard could play again this season, and even if he doesn’t, Pritchard is happy to have him for the coming campaigns.
“I'm super confident that we're going to have him on the court. It may not be today that he can help us, but we do believe that he can help us in the not-so-distant future,” Pritchard said to the media on Saturday night. On The Dan Dakich Show two days later, Pritchard was asked to provide a more detailed timeline. “We will know more in the next seven days. [We] won’t really know until you get in there and look at it,” he said. “I think [in] 6-8 weeks he’s picking up a basketball. Maybe a little bit earlier, maybe a little bit later. But I think that’s pretty safe... and then it turns into ‘how fast can he get ready to play a basketball game?’”
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LeVert, for his part, isn’t quite sure when he will return to game action. In his introductory press conference on Tuesday, he mentioned that he needs more medical information before he can approximate how long he will be watching from the sidelines. He doesn’t have an official diagnosis yet, and he is unsure if the mass on his kidney is cancerous. “As far as timeline and everything like that, we will definitely figure that out sometime in the future,” LeVert said. “But right now, we just don’t have those answers.”
When he does get on the court for the blue and gold, LeVert thinks can be better than he was in the past. The time he will have away from the sport will give him a chance to reflect. “I think [the injury] will give me some time off to really evaluate the game, evaluate my body, [and] see what I need to do to fit into the system,” he said. Any improvements to his game will make the Pacers bet on the Michigan product look even smarter.
Indiana Pacers guard Caris LeVert during his introductory press conference. Pacers Sports and Entertainment
LeVert projects to slide into the starting lineup when he does return. He and Malcolm Brogdon could be a lethal backcourt duo for years to come for the Pacers, particularly on offense. They are both capable of effortlessly creating points and tactically warping defenses. Together, they will give the blue and gold forceful one-two punch. “I love the guys on this team,” LeVert said of the Pacers. “[They are] very high character and highly intelligent guys who can play multiple positions... guys that are highly skilled.”
But playing basketball is an afterthought for LeVert. Getting healthy comes first. “Obviously I want to play as soon as possible. I’m a competitor, I love to play the game,” he said. “For me, I think making sure I’m good health wise is most important now.”
Given how much LeVert has been through in recent days, it makes all the sense in the world that the 26 year-old is thinking this way. He was taking a pre-game nap just over a week ago in preparation for a Brooklyn game against the Knicks when he was woken up to the news that he had been traded. He then had to travel from the East Coast to Indianapolis, and simultaneously prepare to make that a permanent move. Upon arrival, he went through the standard physical process that takes places when a player gets traded and found out that he has a mass on his kidney. Any one of those things — being traded, moving, or a scary medical diagnosis — would be stressful for an NBA player. LeVert dealt with all of that in one week.
And yet, he has stayed positive through it all, which is remarkable. But it’s just how he is wired. “I've been through a lot. Not only with basketball, but with life in general,” LeVert said. “Obviously it was tough news to get, but it could always be worse. I kind of look at it like that. I try to look at the positive out of every situation.
“Being negative isn’t going to change the situation at all,” he added later.
That optimism is something that LeVert’s new coach, Nate Bjorkgren, admires about Indiana’s new player. Bjorkgren met with LeVert in a hotel room upon returning to Indianapolis from the Pacers recent road trip, and again the next day at practice. He explained in detail to the media just how sublime he thought those interactions were.
“[LeVert’s] spirits are great,” Bjorkgren said. “Very, very good individual. Just his character. You can see it in his eyes, his positivity. The way he carries himself. The guys are loving having him here,” he added. Clearly, LeVert’s positive attitude leaves an impression on everybody he interacts with.
On the court, Bjorkgren likes that the newest Pacer can play multiple positions and operate at the speed the Pacers want to play at. But, again, the basketball side of things doesn’t matter right now. Not to Caris, and not to the Pacers. LeVert knows his health is the paramount thing in his life, and everything else, including basketball, comes second. “For me, the most important thing is to get my body healthy and make sure I live a long life,” he said.
In the meantime, while LeVert learns more about his health situation, the Pacers will continue to get more comfortable with his diagnosis and strategize what the best course of action is. “We talked 50 times with our doctors, we got totally comfortable with [the injury],” Pritchard said to Dakich. “We got comfortable with the medical, we’re getting more comfortable every single day. He’s probably going to have to have surgery and that’s okay.”
The Pacers interviewed LeVert before the draft in 2016. At the time, they really liked him as a prospect — if they didn’t trade their selection in that draft, they would have chosen LeVert. Now, as fate would have it, the team and the player are finally together, albeit under much different circumstances.
“I’m very excited to be here,” Caris LeVert said of Indiana. In his new home, LeVert has remained positive when few others would be able to. Indiana is hoping that his outlook on life translates to a fruitful relationship between LeVert and the Pacers, both on and off the basketball court.
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5dcb72a336c6e969b1ba18ec648913fd
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyeast/2021/02/22/how-many-all-stars-will-the-indiana-pacers-have-this-season/
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How Many All-Stars Will The Indiana Pacers Have This Season?
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How Many All-Stars Will The Indiana Pacers Have This Season?
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 07: Bojan Bogdanovic #44 of the Utah Jazz grabs the ball between Malcolm ... [+] Brogdon #7 of the Indiana Pacers and Domantas Sabonis #11 of the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on February 7, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Indiana Pacers lost to the Utah Jazz 103-95. (Photo by Lauren Bacho/Getty Images) Getty Images
Last Thursday, the NBA named its starters for the All-Star game, and there weren’t any surprises in the bunch. Some fans and media may debate a few choices here and there, but there’s no denying the talent and merits of the ten players selected as All-Star starters.
The reserves for the exhibition will be announced on Tuesday, and the remaining 14 players to be named All-Stars will inspire much more debate. In both conferences, there are a plethora of players who can make good cases to be selected as All-Stars. The field is as crowded as ever.
One team with multiple players who are in the mix to be selected as All-Stars in their conference is the Indiana Pacers. Indiana has had an All-Star in each of the last three seasons, and it is certainly possible that fans see that streak extend to four this year. But it’s going to be close, and it might come down to what NBA coaches’ value the most in the All-Star selection process.
While a fully healthy Pacers team has a handful of candidates who could represent the team in the big game, multiple members of the squad have dealt with long-term injuries this season. Thus, there are really only three players on the blue and gold who are in the All-Star discussion: Domantas Sabonis, Malcolm Brogdon, and Myles Turner.
“I’m always trying to promote our players as much as I can. I talk about them in the media with you guys as much as I can,” Pacers Head Coach Nate Bjorkgren said of campaigning for his players and trying to get them into the All-Star game. NBA coaches select the reserves for each conference. “With Domantas and Malcom and Myles, and the rest of the guys on this team, they are putting their heart into this thing and into our team. I want to put everything I can into them, to get them places where I know they would like to go.”
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Each of the three players has a case to be named an All-Star this season, though one of their cases is much stronger than the other two. Let’s dig into each of those three player’s candidacies one-by-one.
Myles Turner’s All-Star bid can be summed up in one word: defense. Many impact metrics rank Turner as the most impactful defender in the Eastern Conference, and he leads the entire league in blocks. The Pacers defense is 6.3 points per 100 possessions better with Turner on the floor than it is with him on the bench; he has had a massive impact on winning this season.
The trouble for the Texas product is that it’s really hard to make the All-Star team with a defense-heavy resume. Turner is having a productive offensive campaign, and he’s had some monster nights this season. But only 15 players (in the three-point era) have been named an All-Star in a season in which they scored less than 13.5 points per game and pulled down fewer that seven rebounds. Turner currently sits under both of those thresholds. While the big man does a ton to contribute to winning, defense isn’t rewarded in the same way offense is when it comes to choosing All-Stars, and that makes his case rocky at best. It is incredibly unlikely that Turner will represent the Eastern Conference on March 7th.
NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 17: Myles Turner #33 of the Indiana Pacers is introduced prior to the ... [+] 2017 BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge at Smoothie King Center on February 17, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) Getty Images
Brogdon and Sabonis have much better cases – Brooklyn Nets Head Coach Steve Nash called both of them All-Stars before the Pacers took on the Nets earlier this season.
If Brogdon had maintained his early season pace, he would be an All-Star lock. His production dipped after the Pacers traded away Victor Oladipo on January 16th. Prior to that date, Brogdon was averaging 22.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game. If he carried those numbers through the month of February, he would have been an All-Star without question.
But Brogdon has faltered somewhat since the trade, and he had a few games where his performance was downright pedestrian. His current season averages of 21.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game are still impressive, though, and they are a big part of why Brogdon is on the edge of the All-Star conversation.
Brogdon pairs those numbers with strong defense and off-court leadership; his impact on the Pacers organization is immense. And only five other players — LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and James Harden — are exceeding his averages of points, rebounds, and assists. Harden is the only one of those players in the Eastern Conference. So a strong case can be made for Brogdon to be considered for the All-Star game.
Despite his impressive stats, there are so many deserving players in the Eastern Conference that it’s hard to imagine Brogdon making it to Atlanta for the game. James Harden, Trae Young, Jaylen Brown, Zach LaVine, and possibly even Ben Simmons have stronger cases as guards in the East, so finding a spot on the roster is going to be tough for the former Virginia Cavalier this season. If he can maintain his strong start for a longer period of time in future seasons, however, then Brogdon’s All-Star case will be much stronger.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - JANUARY 27: Malcolm Brogdon #7 of the Indiana Pacers brings the ball up ... [+] court during the first quarter of their game against the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center on January 27, 2021 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) Getty Images
Domantas Sabonis has the best All-Star case of any Pacer. The Lithuanian center was an All-Star last season, and his play this season has him in the thick of the All-Star discussion once again.
Sabonis is the hub for so much of what the Pacers do offensively. He is second in the entire NBA in touches (number of times a player touches the ball) per game at 99.7, and he leads the league in passes made per game at 76.8. So many things that Indiana does on the court go through Sabonis.
“He’s an All-Star,” Brogdon said of Sabonis last week. “He comes to play every night. He leads the way.”
Sabonis’ current stat line is impressive — he’s averaging 21.5 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game. His scoring and assist numbers are career-highs, those two figures are both better than they were last season when Sabonis was named an All-Star.
Only one other player is matching Sabonis’ 21.5 point, 11.5 rebound, and 5.5 assist averages: Giannis Antetokounmpo. That’s elite company to be in, and it speaks volumes about how involved in Indiana’s success Sabonis truly is.
Being named an All-Star last season might help the 24-year old’s case. NBA coaches, who ultimately select the reserves, clearly respect his talent as they voted him into the event last season, and Sabonis is better this year. Teams have been sending double teams at the Gonzaga product often this season, evidence that coaches want to limit the damage he can deliver. The treatment and respect Sabonis gets from opposing coaches helps his chances of being selected as an All-Star once again.
Another factor that could help Sabonis’ candidacy is Indiana’s placement in the standings. The Pacers will be the first team to admit that their record isn’t where they want it to be, but the team still sits in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. In the past, a teams location in the standings has been a factor in the All-Star selection process, so the Pacers being in the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture increases Sabonis’ odds of being named an All-Star for the second season in a row.
It should be noted that Sabonis has an incentive in his contract for being named an All-Star. His base salary is $18.5 million for the current season, but his cap hit is $19.8 million because he has a likely bonus valued at $1.3 million for being an All-Star last season. If Sabonis is an All-Star again this season, his cap hit will again be $19.8 million next season. If he doesn’t make the team, that dollar amount would fall to $18.5 million in the 2021-22 campaign.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 15: Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers in action during 2020 NBA ... [+] All-Star - Practice & Media Day at Wintrust Arena on February 15, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) Getty Images
Beyond Turner, Brogdon, and Sabonis’ cases, a closer look at the All-Star reserve picture in the East makes it clear how tight the All-Star race truly is. Two more backcourt spots, three more frontcourt spots, and two wild card spots remain on the Eastern Conference roster.
The two backcourt spots will be given to a combination of Brown, Harden, and Young. The remaining of those three players will almost certainly receive a wild card spot; it’s a safe bet that this trio will all be All-Stars.
In the frontcourt, Jayson Tatum and Bam Adebayo both have fantastic cases to be named to the Eastern Conference squad, while Khris Middleton sits a tier below them with a solid case. Those three appear to be the leaders for the frontcourt spots, though Sabonis is not far behind.
Assuming one of the two wildcard spots is filled by a guard listed above, that leaves one opening on the Eastern Conference roster for a Pacer. If Turner, Sabonis, or Brogdon want to be named an All-Star, they would need to be chosen over the likes of LaVine, Jimmy Butler, Julius Randle, Gordon Hayward, Simmons, Nikola Vucevic, and Jerami Grant for that spot. That’s a loaded group of names, and most of them have solid cases to make the All-Star game. Sabonis’ resume is as good as any of those players, but the offensive firepower of LaVine and the all around games of Vucevic, Simmons, Randle, and Butler make them fantastic candidates as well. The last All-Star spot may come down to what coaches value more between team success and individual performance.
Ultimately, because the field is so crowded, there is a good chance that no members of the Indiana Pacers make the All-Star game. Someone talented has to be left off the roster, after all. But Turner, Brogdon, and especially Sabonis, have built a case to be chosen to represent the Eastern Conference. Now it is up to the coaches to decide if their resumes are worthy of being selected as All-Stars.
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06aa6934cb0804cc201344b61b4095c4
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyewing/2020/06/29/7-things-successful-people-are-doing-right-now-to-prepare-for-the-next-covid-lockdown/
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7 Things Successful People Are Doing Right Now To Prepare For The Next COVID Lockdown
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7 Things Successful People Are Doing Right Now To Prepare For The Next COVID Lockdown
Successful people are working towards greater success in the event of a second, COVID-19 lockdown. Getty
Most people are feeling some relief from the relaxation of the Coronavirus lockdown measures. Yet, successful professionals are thinking differently. Given evidence of a “second wave” of lockdowns and rumors of a Fall resurgence in the virus, many are using the time to reposition for the a post-COVID marketplace.
Among their goals, successful people and their businesses are better learning to respond to disruption. At the same time, many are seeing the Coronavirus outbreak as a major paradigm shift. Thus, from now on—as they see it—everything from what their customers want and need, to how they’ll compete in satisfying those wants and needs, will change.
Moreover, these changes, while forced and sudden, are not necessarily bad. Disruption—even when external and traumatic—often breeds creativity and innovation. It also gives growth to those who respond to it in the right way. Thus, while many of us are taking time to relax, some successful people are doing at least 7 things to prepare themselves for greater success, such as:
Accepting the paradigm shift as a permanent change. There’s a psychological tendency for us to believe “the big one hasn’t happened”. We believe it will—just not now. Thus, even if the sky falls in on us, we fail to recognize our worst fears have materialized. Worse yet, even when accept catastrophe, our minds reject that it might bring permanent changes. Our thinking habits feed this mindset. For example, the ostrich effect is a mental hangup that leads us to ignore what’s happening. We bury our heads in the sand, hoping things will get better. And status quo bias is another hangup that gets us to resist change, even if we see the necessity of change. Moreover, the endowment effect is a tendency for us to overvalue what we possess—whether it’s something material, a fleeting hope or an idea. We love that endowment so much, we refuse to take beneficial risks for fear of losing it. Taken together, these mental hangups prevent us from recognizing permanent change when it comes. They leave us in dreamland. Yet, successful people resist such biases. They understand burying our heads in the sand is self-destructive. They see the status quo as something that we have to formally test against new ways which might be better. And they question whether their “endowments” are false senses of security. The rewards from relinquishing these hangups pay dividends. They come in the form of thinking more clearly about the future and noting a paradigm shift has come and won’t be shifting back. Donning more entrepreneurial mindsets. Whether you’re a teacher, a corporate CEO or a librarian, the quarantine measures have openly tested you. Perhaps they challenged you to pivot. For others, they called into question the fundamental importance of your job function. Teachers, for example, are likely to remain important during any foreseeable quarantine measure. Yet, the previous lockdown showed the classic teaching model needs pivoting. Not only do most teachers and their employers need to adopt better digital learning platforms, both may need to say goodby to tenure. Corporate executives on the other hand face a different problem. Many of these professionals fulfill general management roles that don’t require any specific expertise. It is hard for them to argue why their role cannot be restructured. As a result, such professionals cannot pivot their way to importance. As individuals, they need figure out what marketable products and services they have to sell and who wants to buy them. Thus, whether the need is to pivot or to re-purpose, successful professionals must adopt an entrepreneurial mindset—even if they continue to work for someone else. Realizing the fine art of pivoting. The first step towards becoming more entrepreneurial is learning to pivot. Successful people realize if everything around them changes, they need to change as well—and fast. They start this process by checking their skills against what change requires. For example, if they work for an events company, a second lockdown could destroy their business model. Yet, that doesn’t mean some important aspects of their model can’t be salvaged. To determine this, the successful person starts by asking ‘dumb’ questions. Can the company’s extensive connections be used or leveraged in other ways? Are the marketing and promotions techniques reusable or adaptable? Can the lockdown be used for R&D to re-emerge later as a better business? Similar questions are asked on a professional career level. In other words, an effective pivot means first checking the extent of the damage from disruption. After this, successful professionals see what can be re-salvaged and re-purposed. Becoming demand-driven. Corporate executives are often accustomed to an established demand for their well branded products. They know what they’re selling will sell and the main challenge is finding the right buyers. This approach to assessing demand is called Total Addressable Market analysis. It works well when things are certain and, as I said, when demand is almost guaranteed. But when things go haywire—say, as they did during COVID-19—this falls apart. While some demand may remain, delivery channels my change dramatically. Furthermore, disruption may create new problems for customers. Thus, smart professionals see disruption as a time to develop new solutions. This approach is called, Total Addressable Problem analysis. It’s startup founder’s thinking. It follows the logic that one’s customers may have one set of problems before a paradigm shift and a different set of problems after. Old solutions might not work for new problems—even when digital. Zoom, for example, has had problems with many corporate users fearing its cloud security. Successful people realize all this. As individuals, they inventory their skills, then see what new problems they can solve. And, as leaders of bigger companies, they imagine how their employer’s solutions might be adapted to solve new problems. In both cases, they re-work old solutions or create new ones, where necessary. Learning to identify new markets for their skills. At the same time, new customers might suddenly appear. For example, with a second wave, an apparent weakness, such as a centralized distribution model, might become a competitive strength—such as local positioning. In other words, nothing is static. Both the customers’s problems and the customers themselves can change. That means they must explore new markets, perhaps even abandoning old ones. As the below-the-belt, novelist Mickey Spillane once said to his critics: “There are a more salted peanuts consumed than caviar." In other words, you might have had a powerful solution that, up to now, has been successful in a niche market. Yet, it might be necessary to explore the prospect of a new market segment created by the lockdown. I’ll leave it you to decide whether that new market consists of peanuts or caviar. Becoming better risk-takers. Another fundamental element to donning an entrepreneurial mindset involves becoming a better risk-taker. Of course, superstar CEOs all believe themselves expert, “risk-takers”. For example, in their books they claim to have had foresight in taking risks others were afraid to take. Yet, golden parachutes, indemnity protections and established brands are all signal this risk-taking, rebel approach is in their heads. Indeed, work by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman and a co-author has shown that many executives making these claims suffer from overconfidence. And overconfidence among top leadership costs the world billions of dollars every year in everything from massive corporate and policy failures to pointless wars. The reason? Overconfidence often combines with another mental bias known as loss aversion. Related to the endowment effect already mentioned, loss aversion leads us to take too much or too little risk, at the wrong times. For example, when the company we work has had a successful run, we don’t pivot when we need to, believing the success will continue. The same thing happens in our professional lives. We get comfortable, resist adjusting, believe things will continue to go well—then we become out-dated. At the same time, with failures or, as in the case of the lockdown, looming losses, we take excessive gambles. For example, working for a major property developer, we plow ahead with finishing a vacation resort, ignoring all the indicators that prospective lockdowns will bring tourism to a halt. In other words, we believe we can defy gravity. Successful professionals are not like this. They recognize that a “loss-avoiding” mindset distorts their view of the future. And one way they get around such a mindset is by assuming whatever change they need to make is just one ‘bet’ among many. In other words, taking a “portfolio mindset” to professional life, reduces reduce loss aversion. Spending time mastering new, necessary tools. Last, adjusting to permanent change often requires re-tooling or enhancing one’s toolbox. Successful people are doing that right now. They're exploring how to use alternative platforms for delivering their products and services. They're also learning new techniques for enhancing those offerings. The breakdown of the food supply chain in the US is a good example. Local farmers—once locked out of the big food market—are now using more sophisticated apps than many of their giant predecessors. Partnered with innovative shipping companies, they’re able to offer higher quality products at competitive prices. Yet, it would be a mistake to assume these small farmers automatically made such changes. It took investments, better risk-taking and, in many cases, outside financial help.
Thus, from a risk and behavioral science perspective, the prospect of a “second wave” of COVID-19 leaves only one course of action. Prepare for another, potential lockdown. It might not come. It might come. In any case, if it does come, smart and successful people are using the present moment to prepare for it. Are you?
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d0aa489c271b8d862a5d9bf1cd56a2d5
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyewing/2020/11/25/5-ways-uber-successful-people-handle-burnout/?sh=7100a4f21706
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5 Ways Uber-Successful People Handle Burnout
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5 Ways Uber-Successful People Handle Burnout
Uber-successful people do more than just manage time, diet and get sleep to kill burnout. getty
Forget about the cost of executive burnout to society. That’s just money. Something to the tune of nearly $200 billion a year stemming from bad decisions made under stress. And that was before COVID-19. The real problem, right now, is with physicians and medical staff. Nearly 75 percent of Americans are worried their medical caregivers burned out.
And the situation with teachers is no better. A recent Gallup survey shows teachers are tied with nurses as the most stressed out professionals. They give more suspensions and bad grades when burned out, so your teenager could be onto something when he or she complains of being picked on.
Though the situation isn’t pretty, it’s preventable. Behavioral science offers us 5 ways uber-successful people handle burnout, which include:
They realize and accept they’re burned out. Many of us buzz around unwilling to admit we are burned out. But if you feel exhausted—even after a long vacation—are noticeably less productive and feel exceptionally cranky, you could be burned out. Successful people don’t let their pride, overconfidence or their unrealistic expectations of themselves get the best of them. And it is a matter of prideful, overconfidence. To believe you can keep performing at your best on a continuous basis—or that everything will fall apart without you—is almost always overconfidence speaking. A better approach is to map out what you have to do but place a factor next to each related to how much you actually depend upon others. That helps you realize how much you might be taking on that really is impossible. The next step is see the above symptoms as really applying to them. They get professional coaches. That probably sounds like we’re repeating some guru’s sales tactic, but we’re not. Mayo Clinic researchers have found evidence that coaching can significantly reduce burnout. In an experiment involving 80 burned out physicians, they found that even after just 6 sessions of coaching, the experimental group felt less burnout and greater well-being. On top of this, professional coaches often helped identify burnout and overconfidence. They don’t ignore the problem. That same, Mayo Clinic experiment showed that ignored burnout can worsen. The group in the study which did not receive coaching became far more burned out during the course of the experiment. In other words, leaving burnout untreated could be dangerous. That’s somewhat obvious for physicians and medical staff. If you are unable to perform, start making mistakes and become cynical, it could cost someone’s life. Yet, the problem could also be severe in other professional realms. For example, there’s research suggesting teacher burnout is contagious among teachers and that follows evidence burnout among nurses and business professionals is also contagious. In other words, predecessors often set the tone for the environment. This phenomenon could ultimately cost people their careers, or even their lives, if such burnout spreads and spirals into depression. Successful people, in turn, try to address the issue directly. They are also known to pave their own way in organizations, once they realize the pace of environment could lead them to burnout. They actively build greater emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence—or the ability to read and understand one’s own and others’s emotions and respond to them—might seem unrelated to burnout. Yet, a recent study found that when professionals studied emotional intelligence, they exhibited greater resistance to burnout. This is at least partly related to their increased ability to handle stress. Emotional intelligence involves various stress coping strategies, as well as resilience training. The effect of emotional intelligence education could also raise greater awareness of ones own personality changes or the changes in others’s reactions. For example, cynicism or increased snarkiness are both signs successful people heed as warnings when called out by their friends and colleagues. They’re okay with imperfection. Scientists have shown that setting clear goals and examining progress actually reduces burnout. This is a type of perfectionism called “perfectionist strivings”. However, another type of perfectionism—“perfectionist concerns”—involves worrying about making mistakes and fears about imperfections and visible failures in the eyes of others. These latter perfectionist concerns create stress and can directly lead to burnout. Hence, the tactic of many uber-successful professionals is to strive towards perfection but not worry about imperfections along the way. This actually enables a constant sense of improvement, which the researchers show further reduces burnout risk.
Certain burnout remedies are par for the course—such as better time, work, diet and sleep management. It’s understood now that, while these are necessary to do, they seldom constitute a sufficient regimen for reducing burnout that’s already present. Instead, science has shown uber-successful people take these extra steps to make sure they get a handle on the problem and rid themselves of burnout for good.
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99331348e16ee3a3cf97ac23b6573cf7
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonymarks/2018/05/29/the-california-supreme-court-deals-a-blow-to-independent-contractors/
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The California Supreme Court Deals A Blow To Independent Contractors
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The California Supreme Court Deals A Blow To Independent Contractors
Shutterstock
The California Supreme Court Deals A Blow To Independent Contractors
In the landmark decision of Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, No. S222732 (Cal. Sup. Ct. Apr. 30, 2018), the California Supreme Court unanimously announced a new test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. Depending upon the nature and structure of certain franchise or licensing relationships, all of which are intended to be independent contractor relationships, this decision raises questions as to whether a court would consider a franchisee and its employees to be independent contractors or employees of their franchisor.
Background
Dynamex involves the classification of delivery drivers for purposes of California's Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) Wage Orders. These orders impose obligations relating to minimum wages, maximum hours and other work conditions (e.g., rest breaks) for California employees. The case was brought by two delivery drivers as a putative class action against Dynamex, a same-day courier and delivery company. Drivers alleged that Dynamex had misclassified them as independent contractors rather than employees. Prior to 2004, Dynamex had classified its drivers as employees. In 2004, the company adopted a new contractual arrangement with drivers and began to classify them as independent contractors rather than employees. Under this new arrangement, all drivers were required to provide their own vehicles and pay for all of their transportation expenses, including fuel, tolls, vehicle maintenance, and vehicle liability insurance, as well as all taxes and workers’ compensation insurance.
Dynamex obtains its own customers and sets the rates to be charged to those customers for its delivery services. It also negotiates the amount to be paid to drivers on an individual basis. Some received a flat fee and some received a percentage of the delivery fee. Drivers were generally free to set their own schedule but had to notify Dynamex of the days they intended to work for Dynamex. On demand drivers had to obtain their own cellular telephone. Drivers made pickups and deliveries using their own vehicles, and were expected to wear Dynamex shirts and badges when making deliveries for Dynamex. Dynamex customers sometimes required drivers to attach Dynamex and/or the customer’s decals to their vehicles when making deliveries. Drivers purchased Dynamex shirts and other Dynamex items with their own funds.
Except in certain circumstances, drivers were free to choose the sequence in which they made deliveries and the routes they took, but were required to complete all assigned deliveries on the day of assignment. Drivers could make deliveries for another delivery company, including the driver’s own personal delivery business.
The Decision
When ruling that the drivers were employees, the California Supreme Court rejected its prior test for determining whether workers should be classified as either employees or independent contractors. Read strictly, the Court adopted a new rule for the limited purpose of interpreting California’s Industrial Welfare Commission’s wage orders. If interpreted more broadly, the new rule could apply to evaluating employment generally, including the classification of workers (i.e., whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee) and whether a worker is a joint employee (i.e., an employee of two employers).
The Court adopted a standard that presumes that all workers are employees instead of contractors. The burden is now on any entity classifying an individual as an independent contractor. Under the newly adopted ‘ABC test,’ a worker is an independent contractor to whom a wage order does not apply only if the hiring entity establishes all of the following:
(A) that the worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of such work and in fact;
(B) that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and
(C) that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed for the hiring entity.
Shutterstock
Impact on Franchising
The initial impact of this case focused on how the decision would impact the ‘gig economy’ –ride hailing apps, as a start. As commentators and others evaluated the scope of the case, its potential application to more types of independent contractor relationships, including franchises, became clear. Dynamex did not involve a franchise relationship and there is no discussion of the franchise business model, leaving open how it might be applied to such relationships. In many franchises, it is the franchisor’s expertise in the licensed business—whether running a pizzeria or frying chicken—that attracted the franchisee in the first place. Many franchisors sell pizzas or fried chicken, just as their franchisees do. Does that mean that the ‘B’ factor is negated, turning all franchisees and their employees into the employees of the franchisor?
In the weeks since Dynamex, one California Appellate Court (Curry v. Equilon Enterprises, LLC) limited Dynamex to the determination of whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor and did not extend the case to ‘joint employment’ cases. We do not know if this case will be appealed or if other courts will follow its lead.
The ‘ABC test’ does not recognize the realities of the franchise business model nor the legislature’s statutory recognition of the franchise relationship. Thus, it remains an open issue as to how, if at all, the test adopted by the Dynamex Court will be applied in the franchise setting.
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a1b8d6450129e5148980a740d883da90
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysilber/2018/03/20/hearst-ventures-a-media-giants-pipeline-to-the-future/
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Hearst Ventures: A Media Giant's Pipeline to the Future
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Hearst Ventures: A Media Giant's Pipeline to the Future
In a period of convulsive turmoil for the media industry, job-one for executives is to stay ahead of disruption and avoid catastrophic strategic mistakes. Which makes a look at a quiet arm of Hearst—Hearst Ventures—timely and illuminating.
In the blue-chip portfolio that comprises the $10.8 billion New York-based media giant, with brands like the Houston Chronicle; Cosmopolitan; O, the Oprah Magazine; Esquire; more than 20 local TV stations; and stakes in A+E and ESPN, Hearst Ventures has operated under the radar. It doesn’t make much news, but according to Senior Managing Director and Head of International Investments Kenneth A. Bronfin, it plays a critical role in forging the parent company’s future.
Ken Bronfin. Hearst.
“Our goal is to provide a good return for Hearst, but also to bring back corporate insights to Hearst,” Bronfin said in a recent conversation. “There are a variety of things that either touch Hearst or one day might be the future of Hearst.”
Hearst Ventures invests at the intersection of technology and media, and since its inception in 1995 has made more than $1 billion in investments. Those investments include many well-known companies, ranging from the pre-IPO Netscape in 1995 to BuzzFeed, Roku and Pandora in more recent years.
The venture business plays at least two critical roles within Hearst, Bronfin says. One, obviously, is to produce ROI for the company. The second is to keep Hearst’s hand in the future and get an around-the-corner look at early-stage companies that may emerge as change agents in the years ahead.
The venture group has a specific methodology for investment, Bronfin says. It starts with identifying key characteristics, mostly around the level of traction a startup is demonstrating in its served market. “It could be an app with millions of downloads,” he says. “We don’t require revenue generation. Companies can be relatively early. We look for companies that have a mostly built-out management team, with a clear strategy. That’s where we start.”
From there, the typical investment will be between $2 million and $10 million in the initial round, and an assumption that there will be a rigorous level of involvement. Bronfin says Hearst seeks seats on the portfolio companies’ boards, or at least as observers to the boards, and lends its own internal resources as well. These services might include distribution, marketing, communications and the like. “That’s what we see as our differentiator,” Bronfin says. “We bring a of resources to help companies as they develop.”
Of perhaps 1,000 companies reviewed, only 10 or 12 get investments. For 2018, Bronfin says, Hearst is bullish on several sectors, including subscription models and advertising for consumer media, voice-input or ambient technologies, artificial intelligence, and video. On the B2B side, transportation and mobility businesses are priorities, as is sports technology.
“Of great interest to us is the transformation around transportation and mobility,” Bronfin says. “Electrification, autonomy, Uber, self-driving cars. Via, the ride-share service. Here in New York, you can drive anywhere for $5.00.”
In China, Hearst Ventures is invested in a peer-to-peer car-rental service, a sort of Airbnb for cars. In Israel, Hearst is invested in Otonomo, a cloud-based service for connected cars. Other investments include the obstacle-race company Spartan Race, a drone-racing league, and even XM Satellite Radio some years back. It all ties to the three objectives Bronfin laid out: ROI, strategic advice for portfolio companies, and corporate insights and innovation feeding back to Hearst. “We have been able to take a longer-term view,” Bronfin says. “You have to make a big commitment up front to build something of substance. Like the investment in BuzzFeed, which provided insights to us in how to form a digital business.”
All of which has helped the parent Hearst Corporation produce record profits in 2017 for the seventh consecutive year, even on flat topline performance in 2017.
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d8d75b2d9349d2ae55992cc9fbc20e90
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysilber/2018/06/15/america-media-acquires-bauer-medias-celebrity-and-teen-brands/
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American Media Acquires Bauer Media's Celebrity And Teen Brands
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American Media Acquires Bauer Media's Celebrity And Teen Brands
Photo by Mathis Wienand/Getty Images for InTouch
American Media, the publisher of National Enquirer, Men's Journal and Us Weekly, announced today that it has acquired 13 brands from Bauer Media USA, including the celebrity titles In Touch, Closer and Life & Style, and nine brands from the Bauer Teen Group.
Not included in the deal are two of Bauer's bestselling magazines, First for Women and Women's World.
With the acquisition, AMI will dominate the celebrity-magazine category. In addition to Us Weekly, and now In Touch, Life & Style and Closer, it owns Star and OK. Meredith's People remains the category's behemoth.
AMI said in a statement that it secured bridge financing from existing investors to fund the acquisition, which would close around the first of July. After that, the statement said, it will refinance its existing debt.
The Bauer titles—including the Bauer Teen Group, including J-14 and Girls World—will become part of the AMI Entertainment Group. Combined, the statement said, the AMI Entertainment Group will reach 38 million readers and deliver the youngest median age in the category.
“Today’s announcement underscores AMI investor confidence in our business strategy as we continue to build and grow our Entertainment Group," said AMI CEO David J. Pecker. "Despite newsstand sales declining 20 percent annually, both Bauer and AMI have continued to invest in the marketplace and we believe there is still a terrific opportunity to grow newsstand revenue.”
American Media has been on a buying spree, acquiring Us Weekly for $100 million and Men's Journal, both in 2017.
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bc3bcc6861c75ad9b11f6a3280ff9ab6
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysilber/2018/09/24/survey-boom-in-content-marketing-continues-as-marketers-increase-spending/
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Survey: Boom In Content Marketing Continues As Marketers Increase Spending
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Survey: Boom In Content Marketing Continues As Marketers Increase Spending
A third of custom-content marketers increased spending this year compared to last year, while 53% are spending about the same and only 8% are spending less, according to new research conducted late last month of more than 300 marketers.
The research, conducted by the New York City-based business-intelligence firm Advertiser Perceptions specifically for this website as part of a larger omnibus survey of the advertising industry, suggests that the momentum around content marketing as a preferred form of brand communications remains strong.
Advertiser Perceptions' Randy Cohen. Advertiser Perceptions
“This part of the marketplace is not going away,” says Randy Cohen, CEO of Advertiser Perceptions. “There is optimism. More people are trying to fit content into what they’re doing.”
Of the various kinds of content marketing, digital native advertising tops the list of preferred formats, with 51% of respondents indicating that’s what they use the most. Defined as in-feed content-based advertising, including digital advertorials, digital native led all other forms by more than 30 percentage points. Thought leadership (defined as trend stories and op-eds) was second, with 20% of respondents indicating they use it most. Custom print was next, with 16% of respondents, and ebooks and white papers were the least common format, with 12% of respondents indicating it’s their most frequently-used form of content marketing.
Part of this relates directly to the ability of marketers to take on content-marketing projects. “Digital advertising is easy to do,” Cohen says. “We know from our own activities, the thought-leadership stuff is much better, but it’s so much harder to do.”
(This, of course, explains why so many “content studios” have proliferated among media companies in the last three years—to help companies that don't have the internal bandwidth to get projects done on their own.)
Respondents also indicated that when they do launch content-marketing initiatives, their main objective is brand awareness. This points to one of the perennial debates around content marketing, especially in the digital age, where KPIs and ROI are easily measurable and few marketing budgets are approved without those tracking mechanisms built in. On the one hand, content marketing is seen as having a different function—serving the top-of-the-funnel prospect, people who are looking to bond with a product before actually buying it. It’s about brand affinity and loyalty first—from which a customer can then be monetized in many ways. On the other hand, see the above about KPIs and marketing budgets.
Brand awareness clocked in as the top objective for 34% of respondents to the Advertiser Perceptions survey. Lead generation and lead nurturing were second, with 24% of respondents indicating that as the primary objective. They were was followed, respectively, by customer loyalty (17%); thought leadership (13%); and amplifying brand affinity and values (12%).
“If you’re doing content marketing that is one to many, your best hope is to achieve awareness, rather than getting measurable results,” Cohen says. “But people are still chasing impressions. You’re doing one thing and measuring another. All of the deeper content marketing is about brand experience as opposed to measurement of results.”
That said, Cohen continues, advertisers do use the data they get from native advertising to iterate on their creative. They want data to influence the next level of content that they create. Agencies in particular, he says, equate that measurement with really understanding the goals and visions of what their clients—marketers—are looking for in the first place. “We’re finding more and more of that,” Cohen says. “That’s a ray of optimism.”
All of these responses, Cohen suggests, point to the tension that sometimes exists in content marketing among publishers, marketers and agencies. To some extent, it’s always been at odds with organic media-company content.
“We see a dichotomy with native and organic content,” Cohen says. “Some do it really well, but the more automatic programmatic campaigns leave a lot to be desired. You can do much better if you understand the marketer’s vision and goals, and you don’t just track eyeballs. There’s an opening here for deeper content-marketing relationships. Marketers are asking for more, but agencies just want to get it done.”
Of the 300 respondents, 40% were marketers and 60% were agencies representing marketers.
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994ecf2376b7bf754b1bd78c3d701bab
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysilber/2019/01/07/dallas-morning-news-cuts-43-jobs-including-20-in-newsroom-in-digital-first-pivot/
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Dallas Morning News Cuts 43 Jobs, Including 20 In Newsroom, In 'Digital-First' Pivot
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Dallas Morning News Cuts 43 Jobs, Including 20 In Newsroom, In 'Digital-First' Pivot
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum, file) ASSOCIATED PRESS
The long, agonizing decline of the American newspaper industry took another major hit Monday as The Dallas Morning News said it is eliminating 43 jobs—20 from the newsroom—in a move, according to Publisher Grant Moise, that will rebalance "our financial resources so we are positioned for success."
The cuts are intended to realign the organization as a subscriber-first digital-news operation, Moise and Katy Murray, the CFO of parent company A. H. Belo, said in separate but similar statements. The eliminated positions were "existing roles" at the company—presumably legacy print-media jobs. The company will be “creating 25 roles’’ to drive the new digital positioning, Murray said in her statement, without elaborating.
The Dallas Morning News, one of the few independent metro newspapers left in the country, is experiencing the same malaise affecting the newspaper industry nationwide: A staggering decline in print ad and circulation revenue; a broad inability (with a few exceptions) to develop traction with web subscriptions; and the rise of social media as an information hub and distribution network, where media-company content serves to monetize the platforms far more than the content creators.
The result has been an astonishing aggregated loss of 45% of newspaper jobs in less than 10 years, from about 71,000 to 39,000 in 2017, and a decline in total newspaper industry revenue of two-thirds during roughly the same period, from about $50 billion in 2006 to an estimated $16 billion in 2017, according to Pew Research Center.
The Dallas Morning News has to some extent been a microcosm of those trends. In the first three quarters of 2018, the parent company reported combined circulation and advertising revenue of $149.6 million, down nearly 19% from $184.5 million in the same period the prior year. Ad revenue alone was off by $29 million. Circulation revenue was off by about $3.5 million. Digital subscriptions (excluding replica versions of the print edition) accounted for only $1 million in The Dallas Morning News' third quarter, barely 2% of total quarterly revenue of $43.7 million for the paper, even through it's attempted a variety of paywall initiatives in recent years. The print circulation is 98,000 on weekdays and 160,000 on Sundays.
A. H. Belo's stock closed at $4.15 on Monday on volume of about 17,000 shares.
Clearly, the collapse of the newspaper business model—first classified advertising and then display advertising and circulation—has wreaked havoc on news-gathering operations, leaving vast swaths of the United States as "news deserts," effectively without daily news outlets.
The 43 cuts at The Dallas Morning News represent about 4% of the total workforce of slightly less than 1,000 employees at A.H. Belo Corp. They come after a smaller round of layoffs in March.
In his statement, Moise said, "After considerable thought and analysis, our management team has determined that our business in the future is largely supported by subscription revenue and the need for more aggressive investment in our digital products. We are rebalancing our financial resources to support these new foundational elements so we are positioned for success and can deliver quality journalism for many years to come.’’
In a conference call on October 31st announcing third-quarter results, Moise elaborated. "The optimism that I see is predominantly on the subscription side, both in digital and print right now," he said. "As we announced last quarter, we hired Sue Kerr from Tribune—she had led all of customer service at Tribune and had been very successful. And with her print, circulation and subscription revenue initiatives, specifically in Hartford, we saw someone who knew the fundamentals of the business that we could change in order to see the print line of subscriptions improve."
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927ba70c502393ac1c3f2daa7632a0dc
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysilber/2019/04/14/acquisition-of-futurism-suggests-a-different-model-for-digital-media-companies/
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Acquisition Of Futurism Suggests A Different Model For Digital-Media Companies
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Acquisition Of Futurism Suggests A Different Model For Digital-Media Companies
Not all digital media businesses are bloated, cash-burning hype machines that eventually collapse under their own weight amid apocalyptic warnings that no business model exists.
Not all of them ride high for a brief, shining moment in the chase for media coverage and traffic, only to have the rug pulled out when Google or Facebook adjust their algorithms. And not all visionary founders end up with a disappointing exit.
Futurism Founder Alex Klokus. Futurism
If the product mix is right, and aggregating traffic at all costs isn't the objective, there's a chance to succeed as a business—and to make a difference. That's one takeaway from last month's sale of Futurism.com, a four-year-old site dedicated to coverage of science, to Singularity University, the technology-education community designed to facilitate global collaboration and innovation. SU offers courses, events and other activities, and is organized around local chapters. It was founded in 2008 by the author and futurist Peter Diamandis and the inventor, technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil. It's backed by Google and Deloitte.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
New York City-based Futurism.com, with an audience of 10 million readers, gives SU a media platform offering science-oriented news and perspective. It also gives Singularity University access to branded-content capabilities that SU can offer to its clients and members.
Specifically, acquired three distinct Futurism units:
Media & Editorial. SU will use Futurism’s website to reach a much broader audience. In addition, SU enterprise customers get access to a targeted, engaged audience with a curiosity about the future and technology.
Creative Services. Futurism’s team crafts custom digital assets for corporate clients. An in-house team creates sizzle reels, campaigns, and unique content.
Film & Studio. Futurism produces short films and documentaries on technology innovation.
Gravity Products, Futurism’s direct-to-consumer product company and home to the best-selling Gravity Blanket, was not part of the acquisition.
"At a time when so many publishers are facing strong headwinds, we see nothing but potential in joining the SU family,” says Futurism founder Alex Klokus. "When I launched it a few years ago—people had no idea about the amount of change that was coming. We really try to make science cool and interesting again."
Futurism started in 2014 as a science page on Reddit. Every week for nearly 18 months, Klokus says, he posted a feature called "This Week in Science." The Reddit page was parlayed into a similar page on Facebook, and from there it expanded into a full-fledged business—with Futurism Studios, a video-production operation, and branded content.
However, Futurism spokesman Matt Van Hoven says, Facebook forced a reckoning with an algorithm change in 2018 that deemphasized publisher content, and Futurism had a decision to make: Either build organically or turn to another platform as a proxy for Facebook.
Futurism chose the former. It worked to build up its coverage and increase brand content. It brought in Foster Kamer, a veteran of Gawker, Complex, Mashable, The Observer and other brands, and added James Del, another Gawker veteran, as publisher. The company now has 20 employees, and the strategy culminated in the sale to Singularity University.
The key to this outcome, Kamer suggests, was to focus—to stop chasing traffic. "We had to reorient away from Facebook," he says. "We had to become more niche, and focus on doing more for fewer people. There’s power in the idea of being a quality publication people choose to find. There’s power in typing a URL in the spacebar."
"We want to become part of people’s lives like that," Kamer continues. "Forget about gadget news, forget about video games, you’ll never read that on our site. You’re going to read about AI, blockchain, the future of transportation, cybersecurity, and more—in a more fun way than scholarly journals."
Going forward, he says, the 2019 plan includes an old-school op-ed page. It'll be heavily curated, and will incorporate the voices of Singularity University leaders on many topics, whether crypto currency, AI, or emerging biotechnology. "We now have access to a lot of expertise that we didn’t have before," Kamer says.
SU won't get involved in content creation at Futurism, and all Futurism units will continue to operate under the Futurism name.
From the business side it’s similar, Del says—there's a lot of synergy between the kinds of companies Futurism has worked with and those that Singularity works with. So the goal will be to provide Singularity clients access to the Futurism studios, and get Futurism clients into Singularity events and other programs. In addition, Del says, Futurism will be launching a new vertical coverage area, specifically in medical technology.
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dfa6f9a6b827ef0f424856f1b0aa6d6a
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyuphoff/2020/06/01/how-to-lead-your-team-through-challenging-times/
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How To Lead Your Team Through Challenging Times
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How To Lead Your Team Through Challenging Times
Every company faces obstacles, but during the COVID-19 pandemic we’re facing crises on multiple fronts — from international supply chain disruptions to domestic shelter-in-place rules and an economic downturn. Businesses right now need leaders who can navigate unchartered water with clarity of vision and purpose even when they can’t see the distant shore.
One of the most critical dimensions of successfully coming through unprecedented times like these is leading your team through this challenging period. I know because I’ve had to learn the hard way.
Times of Crisis Teach Us Valuable Leadership Skills
I’ve seen a number of historic current events in my past 20 years as a business leader. Each one was a little different, and I’ve had to learn how to handle their unique intricacies as they’ve occurred. Some things I got right, but other things I wish I could go back and change.
I’m leaning on the lessons I’ve learned from previous challenges to maneuver through this new challenge.
I was working my first big management job in San Francisco back in the late ’80s when the earthquake hit. I was leading a team in downtown New York during 9/11. And when the ’08 economic crisis hit, I was running a trade show-oriented business. I had to learn on the spot, just like so many other business leaders did, how to effectively lead my teams.
We learn through adversity, and I’m thankful now for the lessons I learned through the other trials I’ve faced in business.
One thing that holds true no matter what the situation is that for any business to be successful, leadership needs to invest in its employees.
6 Lessons Learned on Leading During Challenging Times
1. Communicate Often
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Even before we were working remotely, I was a firm believer in the importance of communication. I regularly hold company-wide conference calls to check in with our employees, let them know what we’ve accomplished together, and give them a sense of where we’re headed; I’ve continued hosting these fireside-chat style video-conferences while working from home. I like to think it creates a sense of normalcy and routine during these times when everything else so often seems atypical.
Even when leaders don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle solved completely, we can still lead our teams by acknowledging that we’re all in this together. It’s helpful to keep staff updated as new developments arise and we, as leaders, make decisions on behalf of the company.
Communicate early, and communicate often.
One thing I like to say to everyone — department heads and staff alike — is to over-communicate. No one knows what you’re thinking or doing if you don’t share it.
Employees need to feel informed and safe for business to thrive. Safety comes in a number of forms, including health, both physical and mental wellbeing; job security; and vision from leadership on the direction of the company. If people are distracted by the very real anxieties we’re all facing and by office rumor mills, they’re not going to be able to perform at their usual high levels. They’re especially not going to be able to adapt and think creatively, which is crucial now that companies are having to change their business models on the fly. Keeping the lines of communication open is a necessity whether your team is remote or on the premises.
2. Set the Tone
Empathy is key. I don’t sugarcoat things. These are tough times, and it’s worth acknowledging that no matter what one’s stance on the pandemic is, it’s causing many people to struggle for a wide variety of reasons. No one has anything to be embarrassed about if they need to reach out to human resources or use our employee benefits program to speak with a physician or mental-health counselor. Reminding staff of such resources as their employee benefits package can help ensure everyone gets the help they need.
At the same time, it’s really important for a leader to demonstrate a positive attitude. If you’re not positive about the future of the business, your staff certainly isn’t going to be either. As a business leader, you have to lead by example and inspire a can-do work ethos through your actions and your words.
3. Be Visible
Part of communication is being visible and engaging. Before COVID-19, I used to regularly walk the floors of the office and attend as many company events as possible, popping in for monthly bagel breakfasts and attending lunch-and-learns when we brought in guest speakers.
While Thomas’ New York and Pennsylvania offices have been working remotely during shelter-in-place orders, I’ve tried to remain visible — even if in a digital sense. I do the majority of my calls now with video, as I’ve found it really makes a difference to be able to see each other. I also actively engage with our company Slack channel, which has been a great resource for getting updates quickly to each other, sending out kudos for jobs well done, and even getting to know each other’s pets!
Leaders should look for ways to get out in front of the company whether it’s virtually or in person. It will probably be a while before staff can gather as a large group, so continuing to implement online forms of communication such as video-conferencing, webinars, and instant messaging helps everyone to stay engaged while working remotely or while practicing social distancing in the office.
4. Keep up Company Culture… While Maintaining Social Distancing
While I’m looking forward to the day we can gather as a large group together again, I am proud of the way my team transitioned to working from home, launching new products like the COVID-19 Resource Hub, a free resource where close to 2,000 manufacturing companies posted their availability of materials and capabilities for producing PPE.
What helped keep staff engaged with work and productive was keeping up the company culture through virtual events. In a lot of ways, it brought us closer together.
We’ll find ways to keep our online interactions going even when we return to the office. This may mean continuing our virtual events, where people can teach their fellow colleagues new skill sets, bond over shared outside interests, and interact online.
Everyone is responsible for their part in creating a positive work environment, but business leaders are at the helm of building a company culture that fuels team-building and empowers individuals to generate new ideas.
5. Implement New Safety Measures
The primary goal is the safety of our employees. The guidelines from the state on openings and social distancing are important, but they come in second to what’s in the best interest of the employees that make business function effectively.
We recently sent out a survey to gauge employees’ feelings about how to safely return to the office, and this is an actionable step human resource departments at other companies can take as well to determine how to best move forward with reopenings. One common response we received that may be of particular interest to companies where employees tend to rely on public transportation is that many people are concerned about riding mass transit. Any way that you can mitigate commuting worries will be welcome by your staff.
As with point 1, it’s important that these efforts are communicated to employees both before they return to the office and as they get settled back into the office. There have always been sanitary measures done behind the scenes that don’t get publicized, and increasing them isn’t enough. Staff needs to know about the measures so that they feel confident that we’re on top of things and looking out for their health. Whether your team is working remotely, clocking in at a factory, or traveling between sites, it’s important to keep staff informed on all matters that could impact their health and wellbeing.
6. Continue Investing in New Technology
The manufacturing sector in the U.S. quickly and efficiently pivoted to solve the crisis of the need for medical supplies and PPE during the coronavirus pandemic. Workers sometimes volunteered their own time, and in some cases even their safety, to help in this cause. This shows the incredible adaptability and innovation of both industrial companies and workers.
One of the things a lot of companies had to learn is the advantage of having a business with strong technological capabilities. For many, this has meant creating an online presence that attracts prospects and existing customers when they can’t conduct business in person. For others, it has meant the implementation of automation and 3D printing.
The COVID-19 pandemic is quickly accelerating the digital transformation of manufacturing. To succeed now and in the future, industry leaders need to adopt real-time resource management and the confluence of physical supply chains with digital supply chains.
Technological investments will help your team whether they’re working remotely or on premises. We may be looking toward a brighter business environment, but if another wave comes you’ll want to know your business can make it through the choppy waters and continue to sail smoothly.
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de9d126fb6675e0ca49bc1ba641440fa
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/toriutley/2015/12/07/great-millennial-leaders-dont-focus-on-innovation-they-focus-on-humility/
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Great Millennial Leaders Don't Focus On Innovation, They Focus On Humility
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Great Millennial Leaders Don't Focus On Innovation, They Focus On Humility
We’ve all worked with someone who is unable to handle criticism. Think about your colleagues who blame, minimize, and, sometimes take the credit, but never give it. Is that you? I hope not, but if it is, there is hope.
The issues of ownership and self-awareness are two important principles that young entrepreneurs cannot overlook. Amid the constant grind to work harder and faster, principles of character can often be forgotten. Character is the defining nature of a person, and what kind of leader would you be if your true nature – your deep down convictions and traits – have never been analyzed?
Leadership is about more than your balance sheet, profit margins, and company’s reputation. True leaders don’t just achieve greatness overnight. To inspire a team and set them up for success, leaders must look within and start with themselves. Do you want employees to work hard? You need to work hard, too. Do you want your team to learn from its mistakes? Then you must learn from yours. The valuable lessons learned through criticism, self-awareness, and owning up to your mistakes are lessons all bosses can lean on while training a team to be great leaders.
Lock & Stock Photos
Self-awareness, more specifically, is the examining and understanding of your own character and motivations. When a leader is aware of his or her motivations, intentions, and state of character, things begin to change. Conversations change, team interactions change, and your entire team’s outlook on failure will change. Self-awareness takes humility, and humble leaders make better leaders. In fact, based on a study by Harvard Business Review, those with a focus on humility show numerous benefits in their careers and companies.
Laszlo Bock, Google’s HR guru, says that bosses who are humble have the ability to learn. Leaders that are constantly examining, constantly learning, and at times – admitting mistakes – foster an environment of creativity, learning, and experimentation. Humble leaders are innovative leaders.
Innovation is the key focus of millennial entrepreneurship. You may have started your career with a focus on challenging the status quo, but perhaps the key to launching into success as an entrepreneur is humility. When your first startup fails, or when others criticize your idea to its core, this valuable trait provides the ability to listen, learn, and grow – without being a jerk. No one likes working with a jerk.
By focusing on innovation alone, entrepreneurs run the risk of overlooking valuable lessons in the name of creativity. True innovation is humility – which is being open to ideas even when they don’t come from you. It is admitting when you made a mistake, when you led your team towards a wrong solution, and when you truly just didn’t know what the right answer was.
Before you encourage your team to discover the next big thing, encourage them to strive towards humility. Create a culture of asking questions, where failure is merely a gateway to opportunity. Foster conversations that focus on how your team can be better, where analyzing past shortcomings is comfortable. Open doors for employees and find team members who know more than you, and then admit it.
So, if you are the colleague who blames, who criticizes, and takes the credit without giving any – examine yourself. Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board and look at your intentions, your motivations, and your shortcomings. Make a list of what you need to work on, be open to criticism from your team, and start pursuing self-awareness in all that you do. If you haven’t been accustomed to these practices, it isn’t the end of your leadership – it’s the beginning. As Carl Bard says, “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
So, when you are encouraged to be innovative, instead, pursue humility. You will learn, you will grow, and you will be challenged – this is the true foundation of great millennial entrepreneurs.
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988ecd1182e82f648305b34e57df7fce
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/toriutley/2016/02/17/what-millennials-can-learn-about-motivation-from-newtons-law-of-motion/?sh=1d85b21b550d
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What Millennials Can Learn About Motivation From Newton's Law Of Motion
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What Millennials Can Learn About Motivation From Newton's Law Of Motion
Fighting the ebb and flow of motivation can be one of the hardest battles an entrepreneurial millennial can face. Growing up in the age of startup culture, our schedules have gotten busier. Since “startup” does not always equate to “livable income,” many millennials are left working multiple jobs, managing busier schedules, and running towards goals faster than ever before. For many of us, the phrase “There just aren’t enough hours in a day” has an entirely new meaning – it’s literal, and we’re facing the struggle daily.
Enter Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientists and quasi-philosophers of all time. You’ll find exactly the answer that can help millennials solve the “motivation problem” hidden in his scientific principles.
Newton’s first law of motion teaches us that “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Let’s break it down.
An object at rest stays at rest Whether you’re in a cycle of rest and relaxation or just being lazy, it’s hard to gain momentum to get anything done when your brain is on a mental hiatus. As Newton states, an unbalanced force must occur or rest will continue. This force, for millennials and ambitious entrepreneurs, can be the “aha” moment that springs us to our feet, gets our attention, and gets us moving. We must be careful not to stay at rest too long so that our innovative natures are subdued by an overextended period of stagnancy – we must take our forceful moments of creativity and ideation as an impetus for action and run with them. An object in motion stays in motion Whether you use Newton’s verbiage or whether you can recall stating, “I can’t stop now, I’m on a roll,” the point is the same. For entrepreneurs, we’ve heard many people tell us to slow down, take a break, or get out of the office at five o’clock. Yet, when we are experiencing inventive thinking coupled with unbridled momentum, we must stay in motion. Rest helps us remember to balance ourselves for the sake of our mental and physical health, but when racing toward an idea, losing momentum can be devastating to the equation of entrepreneurship. Staying at the same speed and in the same direction Think of this concept within scope, keeping focus, and maintaining purpose. When our startups are struggling or when shiny ideas of bigger and better ventures cross our paths, we must remember to avoid losing focus with the distraction of possibility and keep our sights on the goals ahead of us. Keep your momentum, and stay in line. Unless acted upon by an unbalanced force When at rest, an unbalanced force can get you moving again; however, when in motion, an unbalanced force can derail and stall you. Understand the pros and cons of the forces of unknown situations and strive to live in balance. Learn to manage these circumstances when they are negative, and be grateful for them when they get you back in motion.
Newton’s principles can help us make sense of motivation and entrepreneurship, although all entrepreneurs are not created equal. Our industries, families, and biological differences make up the widely diverse landscape of entrepreneurship – we mustn’t lose this. Take Newton’s laws and apply them to your life, understanding your personal balance, personal drive, and areas that may take away your momentum or balance. Find your personal formula, and stick to it.
Among the grand advice of today’s entrepreneurs, this 300-year-old philosophical, scientific law certainly encompasses a “mic drop moment.” On behalf of millennials – thank you, Sir Isaac Newton.
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