A New Media inauguration?

Will Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington today prove to be the biggest new media event ever? Maybe - but it could also turn out to be a triumph for the old media. If you want to watch the event live, then there are innumerable ways. Here in the UK you can see it on BBC1 and, if you have multi-channel TV, on Sky News, CNN or plenty of others. But that is just the beginning. If you're at a computer rather than in front of the telly, it will still be very easy to watch the swearing-in of President Obama live, with everyone from Joost to C-SPAN - and of course this site - offering a live stream. Then there is all the social networking and other interactive bells and whistles. So Facebook and Twitter will be alive with comments and links, and just about every other site will be telling you theirs is the best place to be to experience the swearing-in of the 44th President. One of our rivals, CNN, has what sounds like a great idea. It is asking anyone who is attending the inauguration to take a photo at precisely 1200 (1700 GMT) when Obama takes the oath and send it to the cable news station. They will then use a Microsoft program called Photosynth to create what could be an extraordinary 3D image of a moment in history. The BBC website also has all sorts of plans. There will be a live event page, with reports from correspondents in the field, blog posts, and Twitter messages. There will be video reactions sent in by users of services like Seesmic and Qik, and there will be a "mood map" with people around the world invited to say whether they are optimistic or pessimistic about an Obama administration, and their reactions then flagged on the map. I looked back at our online coverage of the inauguration of President George W Bush in January 2001. It looks pretty plain vanilla - lots of text, but no embedded video or social networking. Of course back then in the dim and distant past, nobody had heard of Facebook, MySpace or Twitter - because they did not exist. So, given all of this innovation, how many people will choose to be online rather than on the sofa for President Obama's inaugural speech? Back in 2001, the BBC site was used by around one million people on an average day, whereas these days an average audience is six million, and that rises to 10 million for really big events, like the US Presidential election back in November. But one of my colleagues, who analyses our web traffic, isn't convinced that the inauguration will be a big online event, pointing out that it doesn't play to the strengths of the internet. He told me that big web events involve a lot of data, like an election, or a lot of conflict, with people coming online to argue. With Barack Obama already elected and the sole focus of the event, there is not much information to digest - and not a lot to argue about. What this feels like is a classic television event. Of modern inaugurations, that of Ronald Reagan in 1981 drew the biggest US television audience with around 42 million people tuning in, while George W Bush's second inaugural address in 2005 was watched by just 15 million. There are predictions that President Obama will bust all records - in the US and globally. So this looks like an event that could see the old media - or at least one of them, broadcast televsion - stage a fightback. But the great thing about the online coverage is that it will be around for years to come, as a resource for history students and schoolchildren. I've been looking at YouTube, where I found plenty of videos of President Kennedy's celebrated inaugural address. Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Chicago was the most popular piece of video ever on the BBC site, with 1.7 million views. Perhaps his inaugural address - if he gets it right - will break that record?

Taken from BBC News

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1 of 2 sisters awaiting transplant gets new heart

A girl of the north of Texas the 7 years old girl which was placed on a list of Clerc's Office with his/her sister last spring obtained a new heart Monday.

The sisters, both placed on the list on April 3, had been diagnosed with the restrictive cardiomyopathy, which means that their hearts put 't slacken as they would have between the pumps, thus they put fill correctly of blood.

Emily 's sister 9 year old, Shayde Smith, always awaits a new heart.

After the five hours surgery Monday, Emily was making marvelously, Dr. says Kristine Guleserian, the paediatric surgeon cardiothoracic who carried out the team during the operation to the children's dallas medical centre.

It seems, told to the girls's mother, Natalie Van Noy impressive.

A difference it is already noted is that Emily's hands and feet are now hot. She was , icy of cold she said.

Van Noy said that Shayde went also to see his/her sister in the intensive care and held its hand.

Guleserian, surgical director of the cardiac programme of transplantation to the children 's and the medical centre of the south-west of University of Texas, indicated that the condition the divided sisters is rare, to less one in million diagnosed children.

One to two years after diagnosis, the possibility of survival is only from the 40 to 50 percent, it said. The condition could cause a blood clot or a sudden cardiac death.

While it isn 't rare so that the children of same parents require for Clerc's Offices, it is rare that they would need them at the same time, WFP Silvestri indicated, a spokesperson for the alliance of Clerc's Office of south-west, one of the agencies of donation of body through the country which provides bodies to the hospitals of Clerc's Office.

Two is at the same time, rather unknown it said.

Emily was a higher priority for the Clerc's Office than Shayde because it had more symptoms, including wheezing charms and its lips, toes and ends of the finger turning blue when it obtained the cold too much.

Guleserian indicated that while they prepared with the surgery, it realized that it, Shayde and the girls 'mother were each of the three collars of wearing of heart. When Guleserian noted these was not Emily carrying a collar of heart, they indicated to him that Emily had broken. Guleserian answered: Us about him to today give nine.

Van Noy said that a friend had given him a collar with an angel of guard in a heart during the summer. Then the girls obtained the same collar for Christmas. She said that Emily's chain broke a few days ago.

Van Noy said it maintaining on a mission to obtain in Emily a new chain for the collar.

Guleserian indicated that she thinks that the successful surgery provided a direction of relief for Shayde on what she will undergo.

Van Noy was appropriate. It is still nervous about it, but it said that now that Emily did it through, it knows that it.

He nonknown what because the girls of the conditions. One of the girls the paediatric cardiologists indicated that while the girls condition seems to run in the families, it has not however proven to be genetic. Their mother said that there is no history of the condition in its family or the family of the girls's father. The younger half-brother has a normal heart.

The girls are area of Boyd, approximately 30 miles of the North-West of Fort Worth.

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Inauguration news posted to social-networking sites

The General Services Administration and the Presidential Inaugural Committee are tapping into social-networking technology to provide the public with detailed reports, real-time updates and photos of the festivities in Washington this week.

For example, GSA's Gov Gab blog is offering coverage of the events, including the opening ceremonies, the swearing-in, and the Kids’ Inaugural Concert featuring the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.

GSA’s Office of Citizen Services is asking for input from the public about what kind of information should be included in the coverage of the inauguration. In addition to the kids’ concert today at the Verizon Center, GSA plans to cover the swearing-in ceremony Jan. 20 and the Commander-in-Chief Ball that night at the National Building Museum.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee is also sponsoring a blog . The site lets people sign up to receive information and updates about free inaugural events via their mobile devices.

Text messages on how to prepare for the inauguration, weather updates, and alerts about buses and trains in Washington are also available.

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Slim May Invest $250 Million in New York Times

The Mexican billionaire thin Carlos is in the talks to invest approximately $250 million at New York Times Co., his newspaper of brought back flagship, because the editor continues the financing to help off-centering a slide of deepening in publicity.

Thin can buy some ten years notes which are convertible in ordinary actions and receive a special annual dividend as high as 10 percent on the investment, times brought back yesterday, quoting people given of the instructions on the talks. The plans of council to meet today to approve the business, which can be announced tomorrow, the newspaper indicated.

NewYork Times, with a facility of the credit $400 million expiring in May, tries to support the money cash and to pay in bottom of the debt while the sales of advertisements dry upwards. The company reduced its dividend in November and tries to raise $225 million an operation of transfer-lease of sale of its head offices of Manhattan. The company also seeks a purchaser for his stake in the team of baseball of Boston Red Sox, according to a person with the knowledge of the talks.

Thin, the man second-rich person of the world according to Forbes Magazine, increases his possessions in the editor of newspapers based in New York on the one hand passive of 6.4 percent as from mean September 4., 68, is outside the investor third-biggest with the company of the family of control of Ochs-Sulzberger.

Per hour of its initial investment, it quoted attractive value of the company. Since mean possessions were reported in a classification of standardization of September, the shares slide 52 percent. They were closed to $6.41 on January 16 on New York Stock Exchange, making the mean value of stake approximately $58.3 million, downwards starting from $121.2 million over September 4.

No right to vote

Wall Street Journal brought back on January 17 which thin was in the talks to invest more with the company, including a possible exit of prefer-actions without the special right to vote.

Catherine Mathis, a spokesperson for NewYork Times, and thin spokesperson Arturo Elias Ayub refused to comment on.

In a note of December to the employees, Jr. of Arthur Sulzberger, the President of company and the editor of his newspaper of flagship, called the 2009 of the financial perspectives discouraging. NewYork Times, the third larger editor of newspapers of the United States, announced a fall of 13 percent in sales of advertisements for the first 11 months of 2008, including a dive of 21 percent in November.

Last month, the company said that it was open options of placement which include the renewable credit, the private public offerings and placements. NewYork Times also indicated that it was in the discussions with lenders and does not envisage to entirely replace the facility of the credit $400 million. The editor finished the third quarters with $1.1 billion in the debt and $46 million cash and the equivalents.

Thin has the mobile supplier of SAB of America Movil and larger Latin of the phone service of America, and the SAB of Telefonos Of Mexico, the largest operator of the land line of this country.

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IBM Lotus Introduces New Portfolio of Integrated Cloud Services

Update news about computer company, IBM. IBM today announced LotusLive, a cloud-based portfolio of social networking and collaboration services designed for business. LotusLive will extend customers' current investments and link to everyday business services. LotusLive.com is now the place to find all of Lotus' cloud solutions including email, collaboration and Web conferencing services. "With LotusLive, we are brining 20 years of experience in collaboration to the cloud," said Bob Picciano, general manager, IBM Lotus software. "We believe our open, integrated platform will dramatically simplify and improve the way businesses interact with their partners and customers. With this offering we're taking Lotus to more people, in more places, than ever before." LotusLive is designed to help companies work smarter by making it easy for them to connect and work together -- with an emphasis on simplicity and ease of use. LotusLive's online services give businesses of all sizes access to Lotus' rich collaboration tools without requiring an up-front investment in IT support resources or infrastructure. "During the open beta I've seen how an open, cloud-based community has the potential to support my organization's rapid development efficiently and effectively, while remaining centralized and manageable," said Darian Hendricks, president and executive director, Robert R. Taylor Network, Inc. "I think there are endless possibilities for building enterprise partnerships with technology that facilitates business relationships around team-based projects." LotusLive is built using open Web-based standards and an open business model allowing it to easily integrate with third party applications. Today Lotus previewed several examples of "Click to Cloud" -- the ability to seamlessly link on-premise solutions with LotusLive services. "Click to Cloud" will help customers extend the value of their existing investments by making it easy to bridge solutions inside the firewall to the cloud. IBM also previewed compelling business partner application integration. IBM announced partnerships with Skype, LinkedIn and salesforce.com that will deliver integrated collaborative solutions to an audience of more than 400 million people worldwide. LinkedIn, an online network of more than 34 million business professionals, announced today it intends to work with IBM to connect the LinkedIn network with LotusLive. LotusLive users will be able to search LinkedIn's public professional network and then instantly collaborate with them using LotusLive services. Salesforce.com today demonstrated integrating LotusLive services within its CRM solutions, helping to simplify and improve customer interactions. Businesses will be able to extend the customer and opportunity management work done in the Salesforce CRM application with the collaborative capability of LotusLive. Skype has announced plans to integrate its voice and video with LotusLive to create a seamless communications experience. This integration will allow LotusLive customers to conveniently call Skype contacts from within their LotusLive contacts. Learn more about the LotusLive portfolio at: www.LotusLive.com. IBM, Lotus, LotusLive, and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

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New Dallas Cowboys stadium official ensures a fan-friendly experience

Paul Turner won't get credit or blame for how the Dallas Cowboys play this fall or the design of the team's $1.1 billion stadium.

Paul Turner

But most everything else happening at the new stadium will fall on the shoulders of this former Philadelphia Eagles staffer. As the Cowboys' game day experience guru, Turner was hired to ensure that nothing in the parking lots or concourses detracts from fans' enjoyment of the game.

"We're the team off the field," he said. "We can't affect what happens between the white lines, but we contribute to all the other experiences on game day."

Turner, who was hired last summer as director of event operations to oversee responsibilities ranging from the concession stand to restroom lines, signed on to a job that's mostly invisible to the public.

For his job, he literally traces the footsteps of a hypothetical fan from the parking lot to the seats. He tries to guess where the fans' eyes will naturally go so he can help place the more 3,000 "wayfinding" signs.

So far, he's wandered the construction site, pored over stadium maps and marked the spots where each of the 1,500-plus employees will be stationed on game day.

"Everything is mapped out," Turner said. "It's like diagramming a football play. You make sure everyone has a position and is in position."

Turner was hired from the Eagles, where he worked as event services manager from 2004 to 2008. He also held a similar position at the Portland Trail Blazers' basketball arena.

In Philadelphia, Turner started the year after Lincoln Financial Field opened. This time, he'll have nearly a year to plan for the opening of the Cowboys, stadium. The first event – which hasn't been announced – is expected in June.

Leonard Bonacci, director of event operations and Turner's former boss in Philadelphia, said the Cowboys made a smart hire. He said Turner has the analytical mind and temperament for such a challenge.

"It's like you're the mayor of a small city," Bonacci said.

Unlike a mayor, this job doesn't get much publicity or credit from the outside world. And when it does, that's not always a good thing, said Dexter King, CEO of Coppell-based International Association of Assembly Managers.

"People recognize when they've experienced a hassle," he said. "I don't know that they always notice when everything is so great. You don't want them to experience anything but great. You want everyone to see it as a seamless experience."

Turner said his job requires a combination of experience and the ability to see the stadium with fresh eyes. One of the hardest tasks is stripping away his knowledge of the stadium.

"It's trying to put myself in the shoes of that guest and walk around and see things as they would see them," Turner said.

He said he sometimes watches people in public places to study where they look and how they interact with their surroundings. Those observations as well as practical experience with the ebb and flow of crowds during a football game help him understand the "choreography" of staff placement.

Turner said he knows that fans will rush to the concession stands and restrooms at halftime.

"As people queue up for the restrooms, we want to make sure that's an orderly process and they're not interfering with a concession line," he said.

When additional concession stands open, Turner said he already knows that extra staff will be needed to direct the lines and make sure they don't stretch into the concourses and choke the traffic flow.

"We don't want to invent these things on the fly or react to guest needs," he said. "Our job is to anticipate them and design it into the operations."

Technology also is giving him new tools, Turner said. He is setting up a phone number that will allow fans to send a text message to the Cowboys and report troublemakers at the stadium.

Staff also will have two-way pagers to allow them to quickly call a dispatcher for help.

"All of that activity gets logged, so we're tracking the different things that are happening throughout the course of a game," Turner said. "That gives us the data that we need to analyze our operations."

Turner has been working with sports facilities for nearly a decade, but he got his start in a less rough-and-tumble environment. In the early 1990s, he was house manager for the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Southern California and handled the guest services for people more likely to be wearing ties than football jerseys.

"I went from Martha Graham to monster trucks," Turner said about this switch to arena management a few years later.

The change might sound jarring, he said, but the work is remarkably similar. Sports are entertainment of a different sort.

"Just like a stage, everything is engineered so that you as an audience member only see what was designed to be seen," Turner said about sports. "It's a show. It's a performance."

As entertainment, sports have to compete for dollars and leisure time with many other options from increasingly demanding consumers, King said.

"We're a society that wants it now and wants it in a certain way," he said. "Our culture today is much more sophisticated in how they pick and choose than they were 25 years ago."

Turner said he takes the approach that every detail matters – even the small ones. He said he expects an employee who sees a messy condiment stand to straighten it up, even if that isn't his or her job.

That's an approach made famous by the Walt Disney Co., where Turner graduated from the company's customer service program. At Disney, top executives are expected to pick up trash when they see it on the ground at one of the company's theme parks, although Turner said he adopted that philosophy before he took its classes.

Turner said that in the coming months, the initial planning for the Cowboys stadium will wrap up, and June will be the first chance to test a year's worth of work.

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Ulsterman will see Obama inauguration

Ulsterman is placed to be pilot at the person of the historical inauguration of America of the black president of initially.

Barry Newry-born Turley travels to Washington to be among tens of thousands designed to stripe the streets to observe tomorrow Barack Obama officially sworn in inside like forty-fourth President of the United States.

The consultant in public relations and two friends will join four million people approximately who are tilted for grouiller in the city for the ceremony because of the senator of Illinois of the 'election establishing the record of S and the massive bases vote it justified during the countryside of last year.

Barry, which followed Obama operations political since its inaugural speech to the nomination of the preceding candidate John Kerry de Democrat, waits with interest to test the history in manufacture.

Speaking with the bulletin before its voyage four days about a life, he said that he had always kept an eye on Obama and thought if no matter who were going to upwards shake things in the American policy, he would be the man to do it.

By admitting its possibilities of reaching close to the ceremony in the open air Capitol Hill be rather thin , Barry indicated the day would be not only one terminal limiting for the appointed president.

Inauguration coincides with my fortieth birthday thus it is almost a gift of birthday to me. It will be large right of going and to belong to him and to be there on, of day it said.

It will be probably the largest crowd which forever be in Washington: more than there for Martin Luther King was not and certainly more but the inauguration for Clinton or Bush.

It would be large to be enough narrow to locate it personally, but I think just to be there with an great event in the history of the world will be immense.

After having followed the progress of Obama of the primary educations of election, its epic battle with Hillary Clinton for the candidature of Democrat, through with the decisive victory over John McCain on a promise of change, Barry did not have any intention to miss the glory of crowning of a remarkable history.

I thought if I put 't go to this then the whole sequence of operations that I the VE thus interested will have gone. The countryside will be never identical still when Obama functions in four years time and it is the last event of place-piece in its voyage to be actuated. I just decided that I was not going to miss this unique opportunity.

The event most largely envisaged recent periods was prolonged to include five days of celebrations in the USA. It began Saturday when Obama and its family appeared with various functions while travelling from Philadelphia to Washington by rail.

A concert in the open air yesterday with the described superstars commemorative of Lincoln such as Beyonce, U2 and Bruce solid masses and free Springsteen.

Observed by million around the world, the new president will take the oath of taking up the duties, using Abraham Lincoln 'bible inaugural of S, on the stages of Capitol Hill before addressing the nation.

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Barack Obama: Don't fix Don't Tell

Someone should tell incoming president Obama that it would be a big mistake to change the "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" policy in favor of one that "will allow gays to serve openly in all branches of the military forces." What the excellent "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy -- designed by the late sociologist Charles Moskos - did essentially was tell servicemen and women "We will not ask and we will will not pry if you will not make a point of your sexuality." The issue was one of blatancy, of expressiveness. The military was trying to control for expressive expressions of a homosexual sexual preference, just the way it attempts to tamp down expressions of heterosexual interest in gender-integrated military units. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a compromise and a very sane one, which recognized that military men and women serve in very intimate, stressful conditions and that unwanted sexual attention - even perceived sexual attention - would make those conditions even more oppressive. As someone who has spent a lot of time on army bases, navy vessels, and training camps (as research for a book that was not about gays in the military) I can tell you that gays currently serve in the military fairly openly - in that most servicepeople on a base or a ship can tell you who is gay or who is not. These communities are simply too small and intimate for this to be otherwise.

Opponents of "Don't Ask" say that it forbids homosexuals from, say, keeping a photograph of a partner on their desk. This may be, but the new law is more likely to be invoked in courts when the military tries to discharge a man or woman who acts exhibitionistically and disruptively. The charge will, in effect, be sexual-orientation neutral (he or she was disruptive) but lawyers will seize on the newly created discrimination category to claim that he or she is being discriminated against for being "an open homosexual"... and in a sense they will be right, if "open homosexual" is defined as one who is very blatant about his or her sexuality. In other words, it will be impossible to draw a line between what is too open and what is just normal, garden variety "I want to keep a photograph of my partner in my sleeping-bunk" type open. Once again the people who will profit the most will be lawyers.

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Suspects named in cocaine bust

The agents with the regional work group of the North-West of drug stopped seven people and saisissents approximately 2 kilos (approximately 4.4 books as long as that which wrote the means of release kilogrammes ) of cocaine close to the inn of Hampton on the ordering of Bennett, after testimony of two businesses of drug on Saturday January 17.

Acting on an end, the agents observed four people to make 4:30 TOKEN ENTRY of business towards. When the agents approached the men 'car of S to stop them, a man ran away himself, lt Rick Sucee said. Hoping to elude the agents, it ran to Mike neighbor 'world of S RC on the ordering of airport and hid in top, Sucee indicated.

Unfortunately for him, several customers saw it and when a police officer of Bellingham led after the businesses on the ordering of Bennett to help the agents, these customers decreased in bottom of the car and directed the leader towards the man the 'place of S, Sucee indicated. The leaders stopped the fourth man after a short fight.

While the agents finished to the top initial research on the order of Bennett, they received the information of another business of cocaine approximately to occur in the same place, according to a release of work group. Towards 6:30 TOKEN ENTRY, detectives observed three people to make the deal and stopped them without incident.

In addition to cocaine, the agents seized approximately $46.000 cash and three cars.

Those the seven people who were reserved in the prison of the county of Whatcom on the drug-related expenses are: Jr. movement D. Pablo, Terry L. Phair, Alfred J. Vongs, plaster of Handbook J., Brodie L. Stevens, emeries J. Buford and brewer of Deanna K.

The work group is dubious how the seven suspects are associated. The case was being studied Sunday.

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Obama's Inauguration in Modesto: Plenty to do

If you can’t make it to the inauguration of Obama, downtown Modesto might be the next best place to get a feel for the big day. The State Theatre will host inauguration ceremonies at its Inaugural Gala Event starting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, and the Gallo Center for the Arts will host the Community Inaugural Ball at 7:30 p.m. The nearby Fat Cat Music House, along with Tresetti’s World Caffe, Clayton’s and the Barkin’ Dog Grill, also will get in the spirit, offering a place to party and special inauguration dinners. The event at the State Theatre begins with hors d’oeuvres and music at 5 p.m., with the ceremony beginning 45 minutes later with the presentation of colors. There will be guest speakers, including Modesto City Council member Garrad Marsh and Ruby Kennedy of the Women’s Auxilliary. Among the other speakers will be Michael Burtch of the Stanislaus County Democratic Central Committee and Frank Johnson, vice president of the NAACP/Modesto-Stanislaus. Then, on the theater’s big screen, attendees can watch the swearing-in ceremony and the inaugural address from earlier in the day. At 7:30 p.m. at the Gallo center’s ball, people will be able to dance to live music, enjoy refreshments and watch televised events from Washington, D.C. Tickets for the State Theatre event is $10 for general admission and $5 for students and children 12 and under. Tickets for the Gallo event are $20, but that can also get you into the State Theatre event for free. In addition, the Fat Cat Music House will have an Obama Party, which goes from 6 p.m.-2 a.m., and include live music and a projection screen TV. Cost is $5 or for free if you have a ticket to the State Theatre event. Meanwhile, Tresetti’s and Clayton's will offer a special inaugural menu, and the Barkin’ Dog will have music and dining with no cover charge.

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