Well, what do we have here? Somewhat under the radar, Google has hired the computer games veteran Noah Falstein to the position of Chief Game Designer. Yes, that's right, the search giant, not normally?known for its games development, appears to have a major gaming project in circulation, at least something that?requires someone as experienced as Falstein at its helm.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OwR2Enz-OwE/
How could a site for explaining rap lyrics make good on its $15 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz? Because it?s also a collaborative text-annotation platform that enterprises are asking for. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, the Rap Genius founders told me they plan to monetize by building installation of their site for big companies and government agencies. Biz Genius is coming.
After our free-wheeling interview on the Disrupt NY about the startup that offers crowdsourced annotations and explanations of song lyrics, religious texts, poetry, and now News Genius for current news, Rap Genius co-founder Ilan Zechory explained to me the genesis of its future business model. ?When we raised money we got on the radar of some companies. Ben [Horowitz whose firm funded the startup's entire Series A] has a background in enterprise sales and he has these connections in government and enterprise, and he asked if we?d be interested? says Zechory. The three co-founders talked it over and agreed to investigate the opportunity.
Zechory tells me enterprise collaboration around documents is still in a sorry state. ?Right now they upload [a file] to some document storage system that?s garbage, and they email around it, but they need to comment on it directly. You have a bunch of people working on the same idea and the need to centralize all that information and conversation in one place where the source document is right there. We can provide a place where anyone can comment on a document, and beyond that there?s notifications built in sothe relevant players in the discussion will get alerted when other people add stuff. It?s the perfect tool for internal communication. It doesn?t replace email, but if you have something meaty you need people to read, think about, and give feedback on, we?re the perfect platform.?
Essentially the plan is to let businesses upload documents or images on their private Enterprise Genius installation. There they can choose specific lines of text or parts of an image to with annotations, such as references to background materials, potential corrections, or their sign-offs. Co-workers could then discuss comments in-line, vote up and down different annotations, and work towards a finished document.
Rap Genius would face some stern competition in the space from Google Docs, Microsoft SharePoint, Asana, and other focused enterprise products. Still, it could serve a purpose for businesses that have to consistently do collaborative editing and approvals of documents. The team says big IT companies, natural resource giants, and even secretive government agencies have all expressed interest in private enterprise versions of Rap Genius. Co-founder Mahbod Moghadam jokes that a version for security analysts sharing interpretations of intel could be called ?Spook Genius?.
The company certainly won?t be abandoning its focus on its free, public platform for adding references and explanations to any text. Zechory notes, ?We?ll keep generating more leads but we have to think about how to prioritize [enterprise] with building cool things for consumers on the music and news site. Probably in a year or 18 months we?ll build a product for enterprises. By combining advertising and eventually premium accounts on its free sites with paid licenses to an enterprise version, Rap Genius might be able to generate serious revenue. Along with bringing more knowledge and transparency to the world, that money could fund further innovation, and attract an exit big enough to net Andreessen Horowitz a return on an investment some called crazy.
Read the eyebrow-raising quotes from our Disrupt talk with Rap Genius, and watch the wild video below
[Image Credit: Vice]
Rap Genius is your guide to the meaning of rap lyrics You can listen to songs, read their lyrics, and click the lines that interest you for pop-up explanations ? we have thousands of canonical rap songs explained (2Pac, Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z ? even the beginning of the Torah..) Our aim is not to translate rap into ?nerdspeak?, but rather to critique rap as poetry Anyone can create an account and start explaining rap. Highlight any line to explain it yourself, suggest...
? Learn moreSource: http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/rap-genius-enterprise/
Members of a German broadcast team for the Alabama-based Eternal Word Television Network, Martin Rothweiler and Christina Blumrath, hold a discussion outside the Vatican on Friday, March 3, 2013, in preparation for the papal election. Eternal Word Television Network isn't just talking about Vatican politics or the church sex scandal in its run-up to the papal vote. Rather, "Pope TV" is airing shows about how the new man may affect church liturgy, teachings and Vatican diplomacy. The network, with 336 total employees, has about 50 staffers in Rome working on conclave coverage being aired in English, Spanish and German, said chief executive Michael Warsaw. (Jeffery Bruno/EWTN)
Members of a German broadcast team for the Alabama-based Eternal Word Television Network, Martin Rothweiler and Christina Blumrath, hold a discussion outside the Vatican on Friday, March 3, 2013, in preparation for the papal election. Eternal Word Television Network isn't just talking about Vatican politics or the church sex scandal in its run-up to the papal vote. Rather, "Pope TV" is airing shows about how the new man may affect church liturgy, teachings and Vatican diplomacy. The network, with 336 total employees, has about 50 staffers in Rome working on conclave coverage being aired in English, Spanish and German, said chief executive Michael Warsaw. (Jeffery Bruno/EWTN)
Stephen Beaumont, production manager at Eternal World Television Network in Irondale, Ala., prepares to air video of the papal conclave from the Vatican on Monday, March 11, 2013. The network, with 336 total employees, has about 50 staffers in Rome working on conclave coverage being aired in English, Spanish and German, said chief executive Michael Warsaw. Eternal Word Television Network isn't just talking about Vatican politics or the church sex scandal in its run-up to the papal vote. Rather, "Pope TV" is airing shows about how the new man may affect church liturgy, teachings and Vatican diplomacy. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
IRONDALE, Ala. (AP) ? A global broadcasting operation based in Alabama is offering a different kind of news coverage of the election of a new pope.
Nestled among the Protestants and pine trees of suburban Birmingham, Eternal Word Television Network isn't just talking about Vatican politics or the church sex scandal in its run-up to the papal vote. Rather, "Pope TV" is airing shows about how the new man may affect church liturgy, teachings and Vatican diplomacy.
While other media explained the basics of the smoke signals used at the Vatican to signal the vote outcome ? white puffs mean there's a new pope, dark smoke means there isn't yet ? EWTN analysts discussed the pontiff's influence on the use of candles and crucifixes during worship. In a live Mass aired Tuesday, a priest asked viewers to pray for the conclave in Rome.
Faith and religious practices are a constant theme on the non-profit EWTN, which doesn't air commercials but does broadcast papal appearances and pronouncements the way ordinary U.S. cable news channels cover an American president.
Started by a nun in a cramped garage more than three decades ago, EWTN now produces television broadcasts available in 225 million households in more than 140 counties and territories. The network, with 336 total employees, has about 50 staffers in Rome working on conclave coverage being aired in English, Spanish and German, said chief executive Michael Warsaw.
Aside from its television side, EWTN also operates two radio networks and a shortwave broadcasting operation; web-based programs; and a U.S.-based newspaper, the National Catholic Register.
Warsaw said EWTN's coverage of the conclave is purposely different from that in the secular media, focusing more on how a new pope might affect faith practices and how that translates into the lives of believers.
"It's a spiritual moment in the life of the church. It's, we believe, the Holy Spirit guiding the cardinal electors to choose the right man," he said.
EWTN is sometimes on the upper reaches of the cable dial and isn't available in many homes, but many Catholics pay attention nonetheless.
Surveys show about 9 percent of adult U.S. Catholics, or about 5 million people, watch EWTN at least once every six months, and EWTN.com is one of the most-visited Catholic websites in the United States, according to Mark Gray, a senior researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
"As Catholic media go, they draw a huge audience," said Gray. Audience numbers will likely go up because of all the news from the Vatican, he said.
Critics fault the network for focusing too much on what's happening in America and at the Vatican while essentially ignoring the rest of the world's Catholics.
Faithful viewer Louis Sanchez, however, keeps coming back. Sanchez said he likes EWTN because it focuses not just on the politics and controversy within the church but also on faith, the church's very reason for being.
"The regular media is managed so they can show only one side of the story," said Sanchez, of Memphis, Tenn., who visited the EWTN studios with his wife and two children Monday. "They don't show you the religious side, and EWTN does."
Plus, Sanchez said, he's a big fan of the "Vatican Insider" of EWTN, Rome bureau chief Joan Lewis.
"It's like she has access to everything," he said.
Founded by Mother Angelica in 1981, EWTN is located in conservative, Deep South state. Though Hispanic immigrants have helped expand parishes statewide in recent years, Alabama's coast was the center of the state's Catholic population for generations.
EWTN looks much like any other TV operation: There's a control room with TV screens in front of big desks filled with brightly lit buttons; a studio with stage lights hanging overheard; a forest of satellite dishes in the back of the 10-acre complex.
But it has other things you don't see at secular operations, like white statues of angels and saints scattered around the exterior. There are indoor and outdoor chapels for Mass; crucifixes hanging in hallways; and photos of Mother Angelica, who is retired from the media and lives in a convent in north Alabama.
The network operates on a nonprofit basis and neither sells ads nor accepts money for its programming, yet it brings in millions annually. Federal tax forms filed by nonprofit groups show EWTN took in $36.3 million in 2011, nearly all of it in donations, and ended the year with more than $40 million in assets.
Warsaw said the network's 24/7 focus on Roman Catholicism gives it an advantage when big events happen, such as the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI and the selection of a successor. But while the network is tweeting and offering live updates about the selection process, just like other media outlets, it won't necessarily worry about being the first to break all the big news leading up to the announcement of a new pontiff.
"Our mission is not to be first, our mission is to be right and to provide the right perspective and context," said Warsaw, who will be in Rome for the conclave.
Massimo Faggioli, an Italian who teaches theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., said EWTN is unique in its size and reach, but he faults the operation for being too hesitant to air opinions outside Vatican orthodoxy.
"I can't even watch it. It gives always an official version of how thing should be: The Vatican version and the American Catholic version," said Faggioli.
EWTN's stated goal on federal tax forms is to "communicate the teachings and the beauty of the Catholic church and to help people grow in their love and understanding of God and his infinite mercy," and Warsaw doesn't make any apology for communicating Vatican beliefs to viewers.
The papal election gives the network another chance to put church business into spiritual terms for a wide audience, he said.
"While you certainly can't deny that there is an aspect of the election of the pope that is political, it's not entirely political," said Warsaw.
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The 1D wax statues will make their debut in London in April before making stops around the globe.
By Jocelyn Vena
Harry Styles gets measured for Madame Tussauds wax statue
Photo: Madame Tussauds
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1703403/one-direction-madame-tussauds-wax-statues.jhtml
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Chief of Staff Mishaal al Zaben greets the 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers who were held hostage as they arrive in Amman after crossing into Jordan from Syria on Saturday.
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By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Reuters
Twenty-one United Nations peacekeepers captured by Syrian rebels and held for three days in a southern Syrian village crossed safely into neighboring Jordan on Saturday, rebels and a U.N. official in Damascus said.
The Filipino peacekeepers were taken by the Martyrs of Yarmouk rebel brigade to the border, about 10 km (6 miles) south of the village of Jamla where they had been held since being captured on Wednesday.
"They are all on the Jordanian side now and they are in good health," said Abu Mahmoud, a rebel who said he had crossed over into Jordan with them.
In the Syrian capital, Mokhtar Lamani, who heads the Damascus office of U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, confirmed that the men had crossed into Jordan.
The Jordanian government initially appeared taken by surprise by the arrival of the peacekeepers - who had been expected to be retrieved instead by a U.N. convoy inside Syria and possibly taken to Damascus.
That convoy was held up earlier on Saturday in a village north of Jamla, a rebel activist said.
Youssef Badawi / EPA
Mokhtar al-Lamani, head of the Damascus office of the UN-Arab League envoy to Syrian Lakhdar Brahimi, said that the 21 UN peacekeepers have been freed by Syrian rebels handed to the Jordan authorities.
The group - part of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) that has been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights since 1974 - was seized by the Martyrs of Yarmouk rebel brigade three days ago.
They were held in Jamla, a village one mile from the Israeli-occupied Golan and 6 miles north of the Jordan border. After their capture insurgents described them as "guests" and said they would be freed once President Bashar al-Assad's forces withdrew from around Jamla and stopped shelling.
A brief truce was agreed on Saturday morning to allow for the peacekeepers' retrieval. Although the two-hour window of that ceasefire passed at midday (1000 GMT) before they could be extracted, the relative calm prevailed long enough for the rebels to take them south to Jordan.
A rescue effort on Friday was delayed by heavy bombardment and abandoned after nightfall, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said.
Regional spillover
Syria's two-year civil war has spilled periodically across the Golan Heights ceasefire line and Syria's borders with Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, threatening to engulf the region. The conflict began as peaceful protests, but turned violent when Assad ordered a crackdown on the demonstrations.
Ladsous warned on Friday that once the peacekeepers were freed, "we would strongly expect that there would not be retaliatory action by the Syrian armed forces over the village and its civilian population".
Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said the army had been targeting areas outside Jamla where he said the rebels were concentrated, not the village itself. "We know for sure what we are doing and we know where the peacekeepers are," he said.
"The Syrian government forces are doing exactly what they have to do in order to bring back safely the peacekeepers, guarantee the safety and security of the inhabitants of these villages (and) get these armed group terrorists out of the area."
In several videos released on Thursday, the peacekeepers said they were being treated well by civilians and rebels.
The United Nations said the captives had been detained by about 30 rebel fighters, but Abu Issam Taseel, a Martyrs of Yarmouk activist, said the men were "guests", not hostages, and were being held for their own safety.
Under an agreement brokered by the United States in 1974, Israel and Syria are allowed a limited number of tanks and troops within 20 km of the disengagement line.
A U.N. report in December said both the Syrian army and rebels had entered the demilitarized area between Syrian and Israeli forces. It said that violence in the area showed the potential for escalation across the frontier, jeopardizing the ceasefire between the two countries.
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Four years after deciding to set up his company, and still with no sort of formal education, George Ryan now has a thriving business in Hatchwise and makes six figures. On top of all that, Hatchwise has been featured in articles twice in Inc. Magazine over the past two years.?
In this Small Business Big Marketing podcast,?George answers questions including:
About these podcasts: The Small Business, Big Marketing?podcasts are characterised by plenty of chit chat from Tim who'll typically kick off with nuggets of advice and tell shaggy dog stories before diving in to the episode's topic. Sit back, relax and enjoy!?
Duration:?38:12 minutes?
Links to resources mentioned in the show:?http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/hatchwise-george-ryan/
To subscribe to this show in iTunes, please head here.
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Tim Reid is the host of the Small Business Big Marketing Show that discusses how other small business owners from around the world go about their marketing. It's fun, entertaining and always full of helpful ideas and insights for you to apply to your business....immediately!
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