SCU in the News: August 8 - August 27, 2010

Social entrepreneurs bring lessons to Silicon Valley by Mike Cassidy, SJ Mercury News
Nineteen social entrepreneurs have come to Santa Clara University to learn the ins and outs of building a successful enterprise. But it turns out these leaders of for-profit and non-profit companies have a lot to teach Silicon Valley about the real challenges of running a business.

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ncoming college freshmen face a minefield of ethical issues and choices. Ethics professor Kirk Hanson and his students have come up with a guide to navigating those risks and challenges, which range from excessive partying to plagiarism, to dealing with difficult roommates. We discuss the ethics guide with Hanson, who directs Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

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SAN FRANCISCO Discerning Internet users know that glowing online reviews of things like books or restaurants cannot always be trusted. But federal regulators are serving notice that if you stand to gain financially from the review you are writing, you should be upfront about it.

The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency introduced last year. The guidelines have often been described as rules for bloggers, but they also cover anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products through Facebook or Twitter.

They are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.

Under the settlement, Reverb Communications and one of its executives, Tracie Snitker, agreed to remove all of the iTunes reviews that appeared to have been written by ordinary people but were actually written by employees of the company, which is based in Twain Harte, Calif.

The settlement also bars Reverb and Ms. Snitker from making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections. The settlement did not involve any monetary penalties. We hope that this case will show advertisers that they have to be transparent in their practices and help guide other ad agencies, said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer in the advertising practices division of the trade commissions Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the trade commission, it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation. Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion, she said. Ms. Snitker said that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.

When the guidelines were announced, many bloggers and users of services like Twitter complained of government overreach, and worried that they would have to disclose even tenuous connections with companies or services they wrote about.

But Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the commissions first enforcement action under the guidelines should be seen as good news by those who were concerned. This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser, Professor Zittrain said.

The action could be useful to public relations companies that want to resist requests from clients that they play dirty, he said. When a client says Where are my good reviews? I am paying for them, you can say, We cant do it because it is illegal, Professor Zittrain said.

According to the commissions complaint, Reverb employees, including Ms. Snitker, posted positive reviews about clients games from November 2008 to May 2009. The reviews were posted under account names that would give readers the impression that they had been placed by ordinary consumers, the complaint says.

The reviews typically gave the games four or five stars and included comments like Amazing new game and One of the best apps just got better. The complaint does not identify the game developers whose work was reviewed. Reverbs Web site lists more than 60 current and former clients, including Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games. The complaint said Reverb was paid a commission of a portion of sales by its game developer clients.

Given that fake reviews are widely understood to be common in the iTunes Store and on many Web sites, it was not clear why the trade commission had singled out Reverb. But the blog MobileCrunch reported last August that it had obtained a company document in which Reverb said it had hired a small team of interns whose tasks included writing influential game reviews. Eric Goldman, former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were a pervasive problem on the Internet. It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with, said Mr. Goldman, now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director its High Tech Law Center. Many sites dont have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews. While the case against Reverb is the first brought under the commissions new guidelines, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the State of New York had reached a $300,000 settlement with Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery outfit, over faked reviews of its products on the Internet.

In a press release, the attorney general said the action was a strike against the growing practice of astroturfing, in which employees pose as independent consumers to post positive reviews and commentary to Web sites and Internet message boards about their own company.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Discerning Internet users know that glowing online reviews of things like books or restaurants cannot always be trusted. But federal regulators are serving notice that if you stand to gain financially from the review you are writing, you should be upfront about it.

The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients' games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency introduced last year. The guidelines have often been described as rules for bloggers, but they also cover anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products through Facebook or Twitter.

They are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.

Under the settlement, Reverb Communications and one of its executives, Tracie Snitker, agreed to remove all of the iTunes reviews that appeared to have been written by ordinary people but were actually written by employees of the company, which is based in Twain Harte, Calif.

The settlement also bars Reverb and Ms. Snitker from making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections. The settlement did not involve any monetary penalties.

"We hope that this case will show advertisers that they have to be transparent in their practices and help guide other ad agencies," said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer in the advertising practices division of the trade commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the trade commission, "it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation."

"Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion," she said. Ms. Snitker said that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.

When the guidelines were announced, many bloggers and users of services like Twitter complained of government overreach, and worried that they would have to disclose even tenuous connections with companies or services they wrote about.

But Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the commission's first enforcement action under the guidelines should be seen as good news by those who were concerned.

"This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser," Professor Zittrain said.

The action could be useful to public relations companies that want to resist requests from clients that they play dirty, he said.

"When a client says 'Where are my good reviews? I am paying for them,' you can say, 'We can't do it because it is illegal,' " Professor Zittrain said.

According to the commission's complaint, Reverb employees, including Ms. Snitker, posted positive reviews about clients' games from November 2008 to May 2009. The reviews were posted under account names that would give readers the impression that they had been placed by ordinary consumers, the complaint says.

The reviews typically gave the games four or five stars and included comments like "Amazing new game" and "One of the best apps just got better."

The complaint does not identify the game developers whose work was reviewed. Reverb's Web site lists more than 60 current and former clients, including Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games. The complaint said Reverb was paid a commission of a portion of sales by its game developer clients.

Given that fake reviews are widely understood to be common in the iTunes Store and on many Web sites, it was not clear why the trade commission had singled out Reverb. But the blog MobileCrunch reported last August that it had obtained a company document in which Reverb said it had hired "a small team of interns" whose tasks included "writing influential game reviews."

Eric Goldman, former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were "a pervasive problem on the Internet."

"It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with," said Mr. Goldman, now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director its High Tech Law Center. "Many sites don't have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews."

While the case against Reverb is the first brought under the commission's new guidelines, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the State of New York had reached a $300,000 settlement with Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery outfit, over faked reviews of its products on the Internet.

In a press release, the attorney general said the action was "a strike against the growing practice of 'astroturfing,' in which employees pose as independent consumers to post positive reviews and commentary to Web sites and Internet message boards about their own company."

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SAN FRANCISCO — Discerning Internet users know that glowing online reviews of things like books or restaurants cannot always be trusted. But federal regulators are serving notice that if you stand to gain financially from the review you are writing, you should be upfront about it.

The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients' games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency introduced last year. The guidelines have often been described as rules for bloggers, but they also cover anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products through Facebook or Twitter.

They are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.

Under the settlement, Reverb Communications and one of its executives, Tracie Snitker, agreed to remove all of the iTunes reviews that appeared to have been written by ordinary people but were actually written by employees of the company, which is based in Twain Harte, Calif.

The settlement also bars Reverb and Ms. Snitker from making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections. The settlement did not involve any monetary penalties.

“We hope that this case will show advertisers that they have to be transparent in their practices and help guide other ad agencies,” said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer in the advertising practices division of the trade commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the trade commission, “it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation.”

“Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion,” she said. Ms. Snitker said that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.

When the guidelines were announced, many bloggers and users of services like Twitter complained of government overreach, and worried that they would have to disclose even tenuous connections with companies or services they wrote about.

But Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the commission's first enforcement action under the guidelines should be seen as good news by those who were concerned.

“This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser,” Professor Zittrain said.

The action could be useful to public relations companies that want to resist requests from clients that they play dirty, he said.

“When a client says ‘Where are my good reviews? I am paying for them,' you can say, ‘We can't do it because it is illegal,' ” Professor Zittrain said.

According to the commission's complaint, Reverb employees, including Ms. Snitker, posted positive reviews about clients' games from November 2008 to May 2009. The reviews were posted under account names that would give readers the impression that they had been placed by ordinary consumers, the complaint says.

The reviews typically gave the games four or five stars and included comments like “Amazing new game” and “One of the best apps just got better.”

The complaint does not identify the game developers whose work was reviewed. Reverb's Web site lists more than 60 current and former clients, including Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games. The complaint said Reverb was paid a commission of a portion of sales by its game developer clients.

Given that fake reviews are widely understood to be common in the iTunes Store and on many Web sites, it was not clear why the trade commission had singled out Reverb. But the blog MobileCrunch reported last August that it had obtained a company document in which Reverb said it had hired “a small team of interns” whose tasks included “writing influential game reviews.”

Eric Goldman, former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were “a pervasive problem on the Internet.”

“It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with,” said Mr. Goldman, now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director its High Tech Law Center. “Many sites don't have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews.”

While the case against Reverb is the first brought under the commission's new guidelines, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the State of New York had reached a $300,000 settlement with Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery outfit, over faked reviews of its products on the Internet.

In a press release, the attorney general said the action was “a strike against the growing practice of ‘astroturfing,' in which employees pose as independent consumers to post positive reviews and commentary to Web sites and Internet message boards about their own company.”

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SAN FRANCISCO Discerning Internet users know that glowing online reviews of things like books or restaurants cannot always be trusted. But federal regulators are serving notice that if you stand to gain financially from the review you are writing, you should be upfront about it.

The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency introduced last year. The guidelines have often been described as rules for bloggers, but they also cover anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products through Facebook or Twitter.

They are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.

Under the settlement, Reverb Communications and one of its executives, Tracie Snitker, agreed to remove all of the iTunes reviews that appeared to have been written by ordinary people but were actually written by employees of the company, which is based in Twain Harte, Calif.

The settlement also bars Reverb and Ms. Snitker from making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections. The settlement did not involve any monetary penalties. We hope that this case will show advertisers that they have to be transparent in their practices and help guide other ad agencies, said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer in the advertising practices division of the trade commissions Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the trade commission, it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation. Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion, she said. Ms. Snitker said that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.

When the guidelines were announced, many bloggers and users of services like Twitter complained of government overreach, and worried that they would have to disclose even tenuous connections with companies or services they wrote about.

But Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the commissions first enforcement action under the guidelines should be seen as good news by those who were concerned. This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser, Professor Zittrain said.

The action could be useful to public relations companies that want to resist requests from clients that they play dirty, he said. When a client says Where are my good reviews? I am paying for them, you can say, We cant do it because it is illegal, Professor Zittrain said.

According to the commissions complaint, Reverb employees, including Ms. Snitker, posted positive reviews about clients games from November 2008 to May 2009. The reviews were posted under account names that would give readers the impression that they had been placed by ordinary consumers, the complaint says.

The reviews typically gave the games four or five stars and included comments like Amazing new game and One of the best apps just got better. The complaint does not identify the game developers whose work was reviewed. Reverbs Web site lists more than 60 current and former clients, including Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games. The complaint said Reverb was paid a commission of a portion of sales by its game developer clients.

Given that fake reviews are widely understood to be common in the iTunes Store and on many Web sites, it was not clear why the trade commission had singled out Reverb. But the blog MobileCrunch reported last August that it had obtained a company document in which Reverb said it had hired a small team of interns whose tasks included writing influential game reviews. Eric Goldman, former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were a pervasive problem on the Internet. It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with, said Mr. Goldman, now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director its High Tech Law Center. Many sites dont have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews. While the case against Reverb is the first brought under the commissions new guidelines, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the State of New York had reached a $300,000 settlement with Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery outfit, over faked reviews of its products on the Internet.

In a press release, the attorney general said the action was a strike against the growing practice of astroturfing, in which employees pose as independent consumers to post positive reviews and commentary to Web sites and Internet message boards about their own company.

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Teachbook.com, which has yet to officially launch, provides tools for teachers to manage their classrooms.

5:52 PM PDT, August 25, 2010

Teachbook.com has two employees and fewer than 20 users signed up for its free Web community. The site has yet to officially launch.

But the Northbrook, Ill., company, which provides tools for teachers to manage their classrooms and share lesson plans and other resources, has been thrust into the spotlight by social networking giant Facebook, which sued the start-up for using "book" in its name.

"We've been sitting here scratching our heads for the last couple of days," Teachbook's managing director, Greg Shrader, said Wednesday. "We're trying to understand how Facebook, a multibillion-dollar company, feels this small enterprise in Chicago is any type of threat."

Palo Alto-based Facebook, which was founded in 2004 and has more than 500 million users, filed its trademark infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Jose last week, asserting that the "book" part of its name is "highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking websites."

"If others could freely use 'generic plus BOOK' marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix BOOK could become a generic term for 'online community/networking services' or 'social networking services,'" Facebook argued in the lawsuit. "That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook Marks."

Suing similarly named companies for trademark infringement is well-worn territory for technology companies. EBay Inc., for example, locked horns with an e-commerce site called PerfumeBay for years before the other company changed its name to Beauty Encounter.

"As companies mature, it becomes common that they start bringing trademark enforcement actions against people with names that bug them," said Eric Goldman, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and director of the school's High Tech Law Institute.

Shrader said the term "book" is a natural fit for his website, since it relates to teachers and education.

But Facebook believes that Teachbook is unfairly riding on its coattails by using the suffix "book" to reference the larger site's established reputation.

"It's not that they are using 'book' — we have no complaint against Kelley Blue Book or others," Facebook said in a statement. "However, there is already a well-known online network of people with 'book' in the brand name."

Teachbook filed a trademark application in March 2009, and Facebook opposed the registration last year. There were "ongoing discussions" over use of the name, Shrader said, and he believed that "we were working constructively" with Facebook. He is now expecting to file a response to the technology company's lawsuit in court.

"Effectively they're bombing a mosquito here, and we're not sure why they want to do that," Shrader said.

wawong@tribune.com

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Discerning Internet users know that glowing online reviews of things like books or restaurants cannot always be trusted. But federal regulators are serving notice that if you stand to gain financially from the review you are writing, you should be upfront about it.

The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients' games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency introduced last year. The guidelines have often been described as rules for bloggers, but they also cover anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products through Facebook or Twitter.

They are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.

Under the settlement, Reverb Communications and one of its executives, Tracie Snitker, agreed to remove all of the iTunes reviews that appeared to have been written by ordinary people but were actually written by employees of the company, which is based in Twain Harte, Calif.

The settlement also bars Reverb and Ms. Snitker from making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections. The settlement did not involve any monetary penalties.

''We hope that this case will show advertisers that they have to be transparent in their practices and help guide other ad agencies,'' said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer in the advertising practices division of the trade commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the trade commission, ''it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation.''

''Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion,'' she said. Ms. Snitker said that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.

When the guidelines were announced, many bloggers and users of services like Twitter complained of government overreach, and worried that they would have to disclose even tenuous connections with companies or services they wrote about.

But Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the commission's first enforcement action under the guidelines should be seen as good news by those who were concerned.

''This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser,'' Professor Zittrain said.

The action could be useful to public relations companies that want to resist requests from clients that they play dirty, he said.

''When a client says 'Where are my good reviews? I am paying for them,' you can say, 'We can't do it because it is illegal,' '' Professor Zittrain said.

According to the commission's complaint, Reverb employees, including Ms. Snitker, posted positive reviews about clients' games from November 2008 to May 2009. The reviews were posted under account names that would give readers the impression that they had been placed by ordinary consumers, the complaint says.

The reviews typically gave the games four or five stars and included comments like ''Amazing new game'' and ''One of the best apps just got better.''

The complaint does not identify the game developers whose work was reviewed. Reverb's Web site lists more than 60 current and former clients, including Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games. The complaint said Reverb was paid a commission of a portion of sales by its game developer clients.

Given that fake reviews are widely understood to be common in the iTunes Store and on many Web sites, it was not clear why the trade commission had singled out Reverb. But the blog MobileCrunch reported last August that it had obtained a company document in which Reverb said it had hired ''a small team of interns'' whose tasks included ''writing influential game reviews.''

Eric Goldman, former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were ''a pervasive problem on the Internet.''

''It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with,'' said Mr. Goldman, now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director its High Tech Law Center. ''Many sites don't have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews.''

While the case against Reverb is the first brought under the commission's new guidelines, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the State of New York had reached a $300,000 settlement with Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery outfit, over faked reviews of its products on the Internet.

In a press release, the attorney general said the action was ''a strike against the growing practice of 'astroturfing,' in which employees pose as independent consumers to post positive reviews and commentary to Web sites and Internet message boards about their own company.''

Copyright © 2010 The New York Times Company

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(Source: Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.))By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Aug. 27--A Mt. Diablo Unified School District trustee asked taxpayers to reimburse him nearly $1,000 for a class on solar installations, shortly before he went to work as a solar contractor for a construction firm.

The district paid Gary Eberhart $983.75 in January, the same month he had enrolled in a UC Berkeley Extension course titled "Advanced Solar PV System Design and Project Management." Eberhart said he completed the class, but declined to say when.

Eberhart should pay back the money, said Judy Nadler, a government-ethics expert at Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

"From the public's perspective, it could very easily look like they paid for job training for this individual," said Nadler, a former Santa Clara mayor. "Actions like this can lead to mistrust."

Eberhart refused to speak with a reporter, demanding instead that questions be submitted by e-mail. He answered some questions, but not others, such as whether the course prepared him for his new job as vice president of solar business development for Redding-based Seward L. Schreder Construction, which he started July 26. A UC Berkeley Extension spokeswoman said the solar class ended April 28. According to the school's website, the class teaches students how to manage solar projects and helps them gain "project-management-level proficiency."

Eberhart also declined to say what process the reimbursement request had gone through. His fellow trustees never

voted on the payment.

The elected trustee said he believed the training, which he called "professional development," would be helpful as Mt. Diablo negotiated a solar-panel installation that could cost as much as $68 million. Eberhart's class corresponded with his immersion in Mt. Diablo's negotiations with Chevron Energy Solutions for the solar project. District e-mail records show the board member was closely involved as administrators tried to finalize a no-bid contract with Chevron in June and July.

"The class at Berkeley will make me a better school board member as we implement a districtwide solar (roll) out," Eberhart said in his written response. "I feel more prepared to ask informed questions on behalf of the community that I serve."

Public agencies are not supposed to rely on the expertise of a single board member when making contract decisions, Nadler said. Facilities employees should be the ones learning about solar installations, she said.

"It's like an attorney serving on a city council and offering legal opinions," she said.

More Articles on: Energy , Energy , Energy

Mt. Diablo trustee asked public to pay for his solar training

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Contra Costa Times

A Mt. Diablo Unified School District trustee asked taxpayers to reimburse him nearly $1,000 for a class on solar installations, shortly before he went to work as a solar contractor for a construction firm.

The district paid Gary Eberhart $983.75 in January, the same month he had enrolled in a UC Berkeley Extension course titled "Advanced Solar PV System Design and Project Management." Eberhart said he completed the class, but declined to say when.

Eberhart should pay back the money, said Judy Nadler, a government-ethics expert at Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

"From the public's perspective, it could very easily look like they paid for job training for this individual," said Nadler, a former Santa Clara mayor. "Actions like this can lead to mistrust."

Eberhart refused to speak with a reporter, demanding instead that questions be submitted by e-mail. He answered some questions, but not others, such as whether the course prepared him for his new job as vice president of solar business development for Redding-based Seward L. Schreder Construction, which he started July 26. A UC Berkeley Extension spokeswoman said the solar class ended April 28. According to the school's website, the class teaches students how to manage solar projects and helps them gain "project-management-level proficiency."

Eberhart also declined to say what process the reimbursement request had gone through. His fellow trustees never

voted on the payment.

The elected trustee said he believed the training, which he called "professional development," would be helpful as Mt. Diablo negotiated a solar-panel installation that could cost as much as $68 million. Eberhart's class corresponded with his immersion in Mt. Diablo's negotiations with Chevron Energy Solutions for the solar project. District e-mail records show the board member was closely involved as administrators tried to finalize a no-bid contract with Chevron in June and July.

"The class at Berkeley will make me a better school board member as we implement a districtwide solar (roll) out," Eberhart said in his written response. "I feel more prepared to ask informed questions on behalf of the community that I serve."

Public agencies are not supposed to rely on the expertise of a single board member when making contract decisions, Nadler said. Facilities employees should be the ones learning about solar installations, she said.

"It's like an attorney serving on a city council and offering legal opinions," she said. "That's why you have a city attorney."

Like most California public agencies, the Mt. Diablo district has dealt with severe budget problems the past two years. It was facing a nearly $25 million budget deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year, during which Eberhart was paid back for the class.

In a June letter to the district community, Superintendent Steven Lawrence warned that Mt. Diablo could face a state takeover unless it dramatically reduced its spending. The district has laid off employees and is asking remaining workers to consider furlough days and benefit reductions.

District records show that Eberhart's payment was approved Jan. 26 by then-interim Superintendent Richard Nicoll, who retired five days later. The payment included about $190 for two textbooks, which Eberhart has not given to the district since completing the class.

"I still have the textbook as we are continuing to deal with the roll out of solar in our school district and occasionally I use it for reference," he wrote.

District policies note that board members can be reimbursed for attending statewide workshops and conferences, but only after they have completed the courses. The policies do not address classes such as the one Eberhart took; district records since January 2009 show that no other trustees were reimbursed for similar classes.

Mt. Diablo's general counsel, Greg Rolen, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

The reimbursement process went against common sense, Nadler said. Nicoll was essentially approving reimbursement for his boss, she said, and the district made the payment without requiring that Eberhart complete the course.

Staff writer Theresa Harrington contributed to this story. Matt Krupnick covers higher education. Contact him at 925-943-8246. Follow him at Twitter.com/mattkrupnick.

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SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Aug. 24 -- The University of California at Santa Cruz issued the following press release:

Dozens of students gained valuable experience in nanotechnology and energy research labs this summer through an internship program at the Advanced Studies Laboratories (ASL), a collaborative partnership led by UC Santa Cruz and NASA Ames Research Center. The student research projects, ranging from solar energy technology to thermoelectric devices, were on display in a poster session held last week in the ASL facility at NASA Ames, located at Moffett Field in Mountain View.

Much of the funding for the internship program is provided by the Bio-Info-Nano Institute (BIN-RDI), which is affiliated with ASL and was established through a NASA grant with support from Congressman Mike Honda (15th district). UCSC's Silicon Valley Initiatives also provided funding for summer interns. 'The internship program expanded by leaps and bounds this year,' said BIN-RDI director Richard Hughey, a professor of computer engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC. 'We have about 15 students from UCSC and San Jose State University, there's another BIN-RDI program with a like number of students from Santa Clara University, and then there are various NASA programs that fund interns at ASL. It's a great opportunity for students to take part in nanotechnology research and training.' Salvador Vasquez, an undergraduate in electrical engineering at UCSC, said working in a research lab has been a great experience for him. 'You learn how to work as part of a large research group, and you also get a sense of what graduate school is like,' he said. 'I'm thinking about going to graduate school, and I might not have considered that if I hadn't had this experience.' Vasquez has been working in the Thermal Characterization Laboratory led by Ali Shakouri, professor of electrical engineering at UCSC. His summer project involved using a technique called thermoreflectance imaging to look for defects in solar cells that can affect their efficiency and reliability.

In addition to Shakouri, other UCSC faculty with research labs at the ASL facility include Glenn Alers, adjunct professor of physics; Sue Carter, professor of physics; Bin Chen, adjunct professor of electrical engineering; Joel Kubby, associate professor of electrical engineering; and Nobuhiko Kobayashi, associate professor of electrical engineering and co-director of ASL. Several faculty from Santa Clara University, an ASL affiliate, also have labs at the facility.

Nathan Green, who graduated from UCSC in June with a B.S. in applied physics, studied solar concentrators in the Solar Energy and Renewable Fuels (SERF) lab led by Alers and Carter. Luminescent films can be used to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells and increase efficiency. But exposure to water and oxygen in the atmosphere can degrade the films, so Green studied the effectiveness of sealing luminescent films in an oxygen- and water-free environment to prevent degradation. 'With a solar concentrator, you don't need as many photovoltaic cells, so it can potentially reduce the cost of solar energy systems,' he said. Kobayashi had five students working in his Nanostructured Energy Conversion Technology & Research (NECTAR) lab this summer. The NECTAR lab investigates nanoscale materials and technologies for the development of efficient, reliable, and cost-effective devices that convert light and heat energy sources into useful electrical power. Undergraduate Andy Liang worked with Kobayashi and graduate student Kaelan Yee on a project to measure the efficiency of thermoelectric devices, which convert heat into electricity. 'People don't expect to find materials science research at UCSC, but it is an important area of research for us now,' Kobayashi said. 'The internship program is a great opportunity for me to interact with students and get them involved in this research.' The eight-week internship program included seminars presented by ASL, NASA, and Santa Clara University researchers; a two-day workshop on Ethics in Science and another workshop on Technical Writing and Communications; a tour of the NASA Ames campus; and weekly seminars presented by the interns. Santa Clara University chemistry professor and senior associate dean Amy Shachter worked with Hughey to design the SCU internship program at ASL. SCU undergraduate Sarah Ghanbari won an award for the project 'of greatest benefit to society' for her poster describing a microfluidic system for rapidly detecting disease-causing organisms in water samples. Ghanbari worked with SCU bioengineer Unyoung (Ashley) Kim on the project, which aims to develop inexpensive, portable devices for use in the developing world.

Currently, a major focus of ASL and BIN-RDI is the establishment of a shared facility to provide state-of-the-art equipment for nanotechnology and materials science research. The Materials Analysis for Collaborative Science (MACS) facility recently acquired a new scanning electron microscope with x-ray analysis technology that enables rapid chemical analysis of samples. Other major instruments will be installed this fall, including a new transmission electron microscope and an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) instrument. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com

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To find the colleges that make their students rich, we first control for student background, looking at things like the average SAT scores of incoming students, and the percentage of student body that receives financial aid. Then we calculate, based on those background factors, how much you would expect graduates at each school to earn in their careers--and we compare that to their actual earnings. Schools that do the best job raising their students above expectations rank higher on the list. Click here for the full story.

RankNameAvg Salary*CityState

Total cost**

Williams College

$120,684.00

Williamstown

Mass.

$49,530.00

Dartmouth College

$120,468.00

Hanover

N.H.

$50,547.00

Stanford University

$116,954.00

Stanford

Calif.

$51,760.00

Santa Clara University

$110,351.00

Santa Clara

Calif.

$50,556.00

St. Mary's College of California

$97,415.00

Moraga

Calif.

$49,340.00

University of Chicago

$111,863.00

Chicago

Ill.

$53,310.00

Georgetown University

$108,991.00

Washington

D.C.

$54,200.00

United States Military Academy

$105,985.00

West Point

N.Y.

$0.00

Occidental College

$100,176.00

Los Angeles

Calif.

$50,409.00

Polytechnic Institute of NYU

$101,069.00

Brooklyn

N.Y.

$43,940.00

Bentley University

$95,948.00

Waltham

Mass.

$47,958.00

University of California, Berkeley

$103,554.00

Berkeley

Calif.

$47,194.00

University of San Francisco

$93,430.00

San Francisco

Calif.

$49,030.00

San Jose State University

$90,546.00

San Jose

Calif.

$29,961.00

St. John's University

$85,978.00

Queens

N.Y.

$46,160.00

Duke University

$109,957.00

Durham

N.C.

$50,925.00

University of Southern California

$100,602.00

Los Angeles

Calif.

$51,881.00

Manhattan College

$95,260.00

Bronx

N.Y.

$36,810.00

Colgate University

$101,142.00

Hamilton

N.Y.

$51,090.00

Pace University

$85,031.00

New York

N.Y.

$45,185.00

*Average salary is for alumni 10-19 years after graduation, according to data from Payscale.com.

**Total cost is for out-of-state students living on campus during the 2008-09 academic year, and may include tuition, room and board, books, fees, and other expenses, where applicable.

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The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients' games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency introduced last year. The guidelines have often been described as rules for bloggers, but they also cover anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products through or .

They are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.

Under the settlement, Reverb Communications and one of its executives, Tracie Snitker, agreed to remove all of the iTunes reviews that appeared to have been written by ordinary people but were actually written by employees of the company, which is based in Twain Harte, Calif.

The settlement also bars Reverb and Ms. Snitker from making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections. The settlement did not involve any monetary penalties.

“We hope that this case will show advertisers that they have to be transparent in their practices and help guide other ad agencies,” said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer in the advertising practices division of the trade commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the trade commission, “it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation.”

“Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion,” she said. Ms. Snitker said that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.

When the guidelines were announced, many bloggers and users of services like Twitter complained of government overreach, and worried that they would have to disclose even tenuous connections with companies or services they wrote about.

But Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the commission's first enforcement action under the guidelines should be seen as good news by those who were concerned.

“This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser,” Professor Zittrain said.

The action could be useful to public relations companies that want to resist requests from clients that they play dirty, he said.

“When a client says ‘Where are my good reviews? I am paying for them,' you can say, ‘We can't do it because it is illegal,' ” Professor Zittrain said.

According to the commission's complaint, Reverb employees, including Ms. Snitker, posted positive reviews about clients' games from November 2008 to May 2009. The reviews were posted under account names that would give readers the impression that they had been placed by ordinary consumers, the complaint says.

The reviews typically gave the games four or five stars and included comments like “Amazing new game” and “One of the best apps just got better.”

The complaint does not identify the game developers whose work was reviewed. Reverb's Web site lists more than 60 current and former clients, including Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games. The complaint said Reverb was paid a commission of a portion of sales by its game developer clients.

Given that fake reviews are widely understood to be common in the iTunes Store and on many Web sites, it was not clear why the trade commission had singled out Reverb. But the blog MobileCrunch reported last August that it had obtained a company document in which Reverb said it had hired “a small team of interns” whose tasks included “writing influential game reviews.”

Eric Goldman, former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were “a pervasive problem on the Internet.”

“It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with,” said Mr. Goldman, now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director its High Tech Law Center. “Many sites don't have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews.”

While the case against Reverb is the first brought under the commission's new guidelines, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the State of New York had reached a $300,000 settlement with Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery outfit, over faked reviews of its products on the Internet.

In a press release, the attorney general said the action was “a strike against the growing practice of ‘astroturfing,' in which employees pose as independent consumers to post positive reviews and commentary to Web sites and Internet message boards about their own company.”

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Files lawsuit against Web site for teachers called Teachbook

By Wailin Wong, Tribune reporter

9:26 p.m. EDT, August 25, 2010

Teachbook.com has two employees and fewer than 20 users signed up for its free Web community. The site has yet to officially launch.

But the Northbrook-based company, which provides tools for teachers to manage their classrooms and share lesson plans and other resources, has been thrust into the spotlight by social networking giant , which sued the local firm for using "book" in its name.

"We've been sitting here scratching our heads for the last couple of days," Teachbook's managing director, Greg Shrader, told the Tribune on Wednesday. "We're trying to understand how Facebook, a multibillion-dollar company, feels this small enterprise in Chicago is any type of threat."

Facebook, which was founded in 2004 and has more than 500 million users, filed its trademark infringement lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., asserting that the "book" part of its name is "highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking Web sites."

"If others could freely use 'generic plus book' marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix 'book' could become a generic term for 'online community/networking services' or 'social networking services,'" Facebook argued in the lawsuit, according to Wired.com. "That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook marks."

Suing similarly named companies for trademark infringement is well-worn territory for technology companies. EBay Inc., for example, locked horns with an e-commerce site called Perfume Bay for years, prompting the other company to rename itself Beauty Encounter.

"As companies mature, it becomes common that they start bringing trademark-enforcement actions against people with names that bug them," said Eric Goldman, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and director of the school's High Tech Law Institute.

Shrader said the term "book" is a natural fit for his Web site, since it relates to teachers and education.

But Facebook said Teachbook is unfairly riding its coattails by using the suffix "book" for a service that overlaps with what the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company provides.

"It's not that they are using 'book'; we have no complaint against Kelley Blue Book or others," Facebook said in a statement. "However, there is already a well-known online network of people with 'book' in the brand name."

Daliah Saper, principal attorney at Saper Law Offices in Chicago, said Facebook is "doing a good job of protecting its brand" against competitors that are trying to trade off its fame.

"People root for the underdog, but, legally, (Facebook's) reward for creating a strong and distinctive brand is the right to capitalize on its strong and distinctive brand," Saper said.

Before Facebook became known as a massive online network, it was a generic term for student directories, either printed or digital, that contained photos and biographical information and were distributed within universities.

As an undergraduate at Harvard, Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg created a Web site called Facemash, which culled photos of female students from online university facebooks and asked users to rate the women's attractiveness.

Facemash lasted just a few days. Zuckerberg's next project was thefacebook.com, a Web community for Harvard students. The site later grew to encompass members from a handful of other universities, eventually opening up to anyone older than 13. It also dropped "the" from its name in 2005.

Teachbook filed a trademark application in March 2009, and Facebook opposed the registration that year. There were "ongoing discussions" over use of the name, and Shrader said he believed the two sides were "working constructively," but he is now expecting to file a response to the lawsuit in court.

Facebook said it doesn't object to Teachbook building a specialized social network. It wants the new site to pick a different name.

"Of course, the Teachbook folks are free to create an online network for teachers or whomever they like, and we wish them well in that endeavor," the company said. "What they are not free to do is trade on our name or dilute our brand while doing so."

But Shrader said he takes issue with the merits of Facebook's arguments and the company's tactics.

"Effectively, they're bombing a mosquito here, and we're not sure why they want to do that," he said.

wawong@tribune.com

Other trademark name disputes

•In 2003, Microsoft tries to get a 17-year-old Canadian named Mike Rowe to hand over the domain name MikeRoweSoft.com, which he registered for his Web design business. After a few months of intense media attention, the two sides reach an out-of-court settlement in which Rowe transfers the name to the company in exchange for, among other perks, a free Xbox console.

•In 2004, eBay sues a California e-commerce company called Perfume Bay. In 2008, Perfume Bay renames itself Beauty Encounter.

•In 2004, Vonage, a provider of voice over Internet protocol telephone service, sues AT&T over its now-discontinued CallVantage Internet phone service, saying the name was too similar. AT&T agrees to call its service AT&T CallVantage to distinguish it from Vonage.

•In 2010, sends a cease-and-desist letter to a Wisconsin priest who has God Squad decals on his car, saying the images look too much like the retailer's Geek Squad logo. The priest removes the decals.

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SAN FRANCISCO Savvy Internet users know that glowing online reviews of things like books or restaurants cant always be trusted. But federal regulators are giving notice that if you stand to gain financially from the review you are writing, you should be up front about it.

The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write positive reviews of a clients games in the Apple iTunes store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency unveiled last year. The guidelines were often described as rules for bloggers, but they also covered anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products via Facebook or Twitter, and they were meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.

Under the settlement, the California firm, Reverb Communications, and its owner, Tracie Snitker, agreed to remove all of the iTunes reviews that appeared to be written by ordinary people. The settlement also bars Reverb and Ms. Snitker from making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections. The settlement did not involve any monetary penalties. We hope that this case will show advertisers that they have to be transparent in their practices and help guide other ad agencies, said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer in the advertising practices division of the agencys Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the F.T.C., it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation. Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion, she said. Ms. Snitker noted that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.

When the guidelines were announced, many bloggers and users of services like Twitter complained of government overreach, and worried that they would have to disclose even tenuous connections with companies or services they wrote about. But the agencys first enforcement action under the guidelines should be seen as good news by those who were concerned, said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser, Professor Zittrain said.

The action could be useful to public relations firms who want to resist requests from clients that they play dirty, he said. When a client says Where are my good reviews? I am paying for them, you can say, We cant do it because it is illegal, Professor Zittrain said.

According to the commissions complaint, Reverb employees, including Ms. Snitker, posted positive reviews about clients games between November 2008 and May 2009. The reviews were posted under account names that would give readers the impression that they had been placed by ordinary consumers, the complaint says.

The reviews typically gave the games four or five stars and included comments like Amazing new game and One of the best apps just got better. The complaint does not identify the game developers whose work was reviewed. Reverbs Web site lists more than 60 current and former clients, including Digital Leisure, Harmonix, MTV Games and O-Games. The complaint said that Reverb was paid a commission of a portion of sales by its game developer clients.

Given that fake reviews are widely understood to be common in the iTunes store and on many Web sites, it is not clear why the F.T.C. singled out Reverb. But the blog MobileCrunch reported last August that it had obtained a company document in which Reverb said it had hired a small team of interns whose tasks included writing influential game reviews. Eric Goldman, the former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were a pervasive problem on the Internet. It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with, said Mr. Goldman, who is now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director of the schools High Tech Law Center. Many sites dont have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews. While the case against Reverb is the first brought under the commissions new guidelines, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced a $300,000 settlement with Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery outfit, over bogus reviews of its products on the Internet.

In a press release, the attorney general said the action was a strike against the growing practice of astroturfing, in which employees pose as independent consumers to post positive reviews and commentary to Web sites and Internet message boards about their own company.

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Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, Calif., sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland, Calif., hair and makeup stylist who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Joe McCloud, Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee - and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."'

HAULIN' HITS

261,000: Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue-sharing partnership

4,030: Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

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August 17, 2010. Audrey Voss, 16, a hauler from the Peninsula who posts under the YouTube i.d. "wowaudrey", describes a Disney writing utensil pack as she makes her back-to-school haul video, with items from the Valley Fair Shopping Mall Disney Store in her bedroom. Items she bought had a Tinker Bell motif and included a sweat shirt, back pack, a writing utensil pack and a school supplies pack. (LiPo Ching/Mercury News)

Sixteen-year-old Peninsula resident Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another Bay Area teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman from Oxnard who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos -- as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" -- and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly

More from Fashion+Style

dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey -- known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" -- sat in her Peninsula bedroom Tuesday amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your

favorite children's character," Audrey, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland hair and makeup stylist at Visions Beauty Salon who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Fremont resident Joe McCloud, San Mateo resident Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey of Hollister to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee -- and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."

Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833.

Haulin' hits

261,000

Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue-sharing partnership

4,030

Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450

YouTube hits

searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110

YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

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Teachbook.com has two employees and fewer than 20 users signed up for its free Web community. The site has yet to officially launch.

But the Northbrook-based company, which provides tools for teachers to manage their classrooms and share lesson plans and other resources, has been thrust into the spotlight by social networking giant Facebook, which sued the local firm for using "book" in its name.

"We've been sitting here scratching our heads for the last couple of days," Teachbook's managing director, Greg Shrader, told the Tribune on Wednesday. "We're trying to understand how Facebook, a multibillion-dollar company, feels this small enterprise in Chicago is any type of threat."

Facebook, which was founded in 2004 and has more than 500 million users, filed its trademark infringement lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., asserting that the "book" part of its name is "highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking Web sites."

"If others could freely use 'generic plus book' marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix 'book' could become a generic term for 'online community/networking services' or 'social networking services,' " Facebook argued in the lawsuit, according to Wired.com. "That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook marks."

Suing similarly named companies for trademark infringement is well-worn territory for technology companies. EBay Inc., for example, locked horns with an e-commerce site called Perfume Bay for years, prompting the other company to rename itself Beauty Encounter.

"As companies mature, it becomes common that they start bringing trademark-enforcement actions against people with names that bug them," said Eric Goldman, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and director of the school's High Tech Law Institute.

Shrader said the term "book" is a natural fit for his Web site, since it relates to teachers and education.

But Facebook said Teachbook is unfairly riding its coattails by using the suffix "book" for a service that overlaps with what the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company provides.

"It's not that they are using 'book'; we have no complaint against Kelley Blue Book or others," Facebook said in a statement. "However, there is already a well-known online network of people with 'book' in the brand name."

Daliah Saper, principal attorney at Saper Law Offices in Chicago, said Facebook is "doing a good job of protecting its brand" against competitors that are trying to trade off its fame.

"People root for the underdog, but, legally, (Facebook's) reward for creating a strong and distinctive brand is the right to capitalize on its strong and distinctive brand," Saper said.

Before Facebook became known as a massive online network, it was a generic term for student directories, either printed or digital, that contained photos and biographical information and were distributed within universities.

As an undergraduate at Harvard, Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg created a Web site called Facemash, which culled photos of female students from online university facebooks and asked users to rate the women's attractiveness.

Facemash lasted just a few days. Zuckerberg's next project was thefacebook.com, a Web community for Harvard students. The site later grew to encompass members from a handful of other universities, eventually opening up to anyone older than 13. It also dropped "the" from its name in 2005.

Teachbook filed a trademark application in March 2009, and Facebook opposed the registration that year.

There were "ongoing discussions" over use of the name, and Shrader said he believed the two sides were "working constructively," but he is now expecting to file a response to the lawsuit in court.

Facebook said it doesn't object to Teachbook building a specialized social network. It wants the new site to pick a different name.

"Of course, the Teachbook folks are free to create an online network for teachers or whomever they like, and we wish them well in that endeavor," the company said. "What they are not free to do is trade on our name or dilute our brand while doing so."

But Shrader said he takes issue with the merits of Facebook's arguments and the company's tactics.

"Effectively, they're bombing a mosquito here, and we're not sure why they want to do that," he said.

- - -

Other trademark name disputes

* In 2003, Microsoft tries to get a 17-year-old Canadian named Mike Rowe to hand over the domain name MikeRoweSoft.com, which he registered for his Web design business. After a few months of intense media attention, the two sides reach an out-of-court settlement in which Rowe transfers the name to the company in exchange for, among other perks, a free Xbox console.

* In 2004, eBay sues a California e-commerce company called Perfume Bay. In 2008, Perfume Bay renames itself Beauty Encounter.

* In 2004, Vonage, a provider of voice over Internet protocol telephone service, sues AT&T over its now-discontinued CallVantage Internet phone service, saying the name was too similar. AT&T agrees to call its service AT&T CallVantage to distinguish it from Vonage.

* In 2010, Best Buy sends a cease-and-desist letter to a Wisconsin priest who has God Squad decals on his car, saying the images look too much like the retailer's Geek Squad logo. The priest removes the decals.

-- Wailin Wong

----------

wawong@tribune.com

Photo (color) The Teachbook Web site was sued by Facebook for using "book" in its name. The site shares educational resources.

Copyright © 2010 Chicago Tribune Company

Return to Top

Teachbook, a social networking site for teachers, may have to change its name if Facebook gets its way in court.

In a trademark infringement lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, Facebook argues that the "book" in Teachbook's name reflects an intention to "call to mind the Facebook marks, and to unfairly benefit from their fame."

Facebook is asking the court to ban Teachbook from using the name. Facebook also opposes an application that Teachbook filed last year to trademark its name.

Facebook says in its complaint that the word "book" is "highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking websites." The company argues that allowing other social networking sites to add a "book" to the end of their names would weaken Facebook's trademark.

Greg Shrader, managing partner of Teachbook, says that Facebook is wrong "on the merits" of the lawsuit. "We weren't aware that they owned the Internet or the word 'book,'" he says.

He adds that Teachbook's focus is helping teachers professionally. "We frankly don't think that folks who are looking to socialize with their friends are going to be confused by a site that provides productivity tools to teachers."

But Facebook also alleges that Teachbook markets itself as an alternative to Facebook. According to the complaint, Teachbook boasted that it allowed teachers to manage their profiles so that only other teachers and school administrators could view the pages while noting that some schools "forbid their teachers to maintain Facebook and MySpace accounts because of the danger that students might learn personal information about their teachers."

The fact that Teachbook is presenting itself as a rival to Facebook could weigh against any claim that Teachbook is using the word "book" in order to confuse consumers into thinking it's affiliated with Facebook, says Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman.

"Facebook may be on a quixotic quest," Goldman says. "It's not clear to me that Teachbook is going to infringe on Facebook."

Return to Top

Teachbook.com, which has yet to officially launch, provides tools for teachers to manage their classrooms.

Text Size

la-fi-0826-facebook-suit-20100825

Teachbook.com has two employees and fewer than 20 users signed up for its free Web community. The site has yet to officially launch.

But the Northbrook, Ill., company, which provides tools for teachers to manage their classrooms and share lesson plans and other resources, has been thrust into the spotlight by social networking giant Facebook, which sued the start-up for using "book" in its name.

"We've been sitting here scratching our heads for the last couple of days," Teachbook's managing director, Greg Shrader, said Wednesday. "We're trying to understand how Facebook, a multibillion-dollar company, feels this small enterprise in Chicago is any type of threat."

Palo Alto-based Facebook, which was founded in 2004 and has more than 500 million users, filed its trademark infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Jose last week, asserting that the "book" part of its name is "highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking websites."

"If others could freely use 'generic plus BOOK' marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix BOOK could become a generic term for 'online community/networking services' or 'social networking services,'" Facebook argued in the lawsuit. "That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook Marks."

Suing similarly named companies for trademark infringement is well-worn territory for technology companies. EBay Inc., for example, locked horns with an e-commerce site called PerfumeBay for years before the other company changed its name to Beauty Encounter.

"As companies mature, it becomes common that they start bringing trademark enforcement actions against people with names that bug them," said Eric Goldman, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and director of the school's High Tech Law Institute.

Shrader said the term "book" is a natural fit for his website, since it relates to teachers and education.

But Facebook believes that Teachbook is unfairly riding on its coattails by using the suffix "book" to reference the larger site's established reputation.

"It's not that they are using 'book' — we have no complaint against Kelley Blue Book or others," Facebook said in a statement. "However, there is already a well-known online network of people with 'book' in the brand name."

Teachbook filed a trademark application in March 2009, and Facebook opposed the registration last year. There were "ongoing discussions" over use of the name, Shrader said, and he believed that "we were working constructively" with Facebook. He is now expecting to file a response to the technology company's lawsuit in court.

"Effectively they're bombing a mosquito here, and we're not sure why they want to do that," Shrader said.

Return to Top

San Jose Mercury News

Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, Calif., sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland, Calif., hair and makeup stylist who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Joe McCloud, Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee - and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."'

HAULIN' HITS

261,000: Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue-sharing partnership

4,030: Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, Calif., sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland, Calif., hair and makeup stylist who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Joe McCloud, Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee - and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."'

HAULIN' HITS

261,000: Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue-sharing partnership

4,030: Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

http://www.mercurynews.com

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, Calif., sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland, Calif., hair and makeup stylist who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Joe McCloud, Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee - and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."'

HAULIN' HITS

261,000: Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue-sharing partnership

4,030: Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, Calif., sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland, Calif., hair and makeup stylist who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Joe McCloud, Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee - and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."'

HAULIN' HITS

261,000: Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue-sharing partnership

4,030: Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110: YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

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Sixteen-year-old Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos - as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" - and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University in California, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey - known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" - recently sat in her bedroom amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a high school junior in San Jose, Calif., explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, Calif., sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

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Dozens of students gained valuable experience in nanotechnology and energy research labs this summer through an internship program at the Advanced Studies Laboratories (ASL), a collaborative partnership led by UC Santa Cruz and NASA Ames Research Center.

The student research projects, ranging from solar energy technology to thermoelectric devices, were on display in a poster session held last week in the ASL facility at NASA Ames, located at Moffett Field in Mountain View.

Much of the funding for the internship program is provided by the Bio-Info-Nano Research and Development Institute (BIN-RDI), which is affiliated with ASL and was established through a NASA grant with support from Congressman Mike Honda (15th district). UCSC's Silicon Valley Initiatives also provided funding for summer interns.

"The internship program expanded by leaps and bounds this year," said BIN-RDI director Richard Hughey, a professor of computer engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC. "We have about 15 students from UCSC and San Jose State University, there's another BIN-RDI program with a like number of students from Santa Clara University, and then there are various NASA programs that fund interns at ASL. It's a great opportunity for students to take part in nanotechnology research and training."

Salvador Vasquez, an undergraduate in electrical engineering at UCSC, said working in a research lab has been a great experience for him. "You learn how to work as part of a large research group, and you also get a sense of what graduate school is like," he said. "I'm thinking about going to graduate school, and I might not have considered that if I hadn't had this experience."

Vasquez has been working in the Thermal Characterization Laboratory led by Ali Shakouri, professor of electrical engineering at UCSC. His summer project involved using a technique called thermoreflectance imaging to look for defects in solar cells that can affect their efficiency and reliability.

In addition to Shakouri, other UCSC faculty with research labs at the ASL facility include Glenn Alers, adjunct professor of physics; Sue Carter, professor of physics; Bin Chen, adjunct professor of electrical engineering; Joel Kubby, associate professor of electrical engineering; and Nobuhiko Kobayashi, associate professor of electrical engineering and co-director of ASL. Several faculty from Santa Clara University, an ASL affiliate, also have labs at the facility.

Nathan Green, who graduated from UCSC in June with a B.S. in applied physics, studied solar concentrators in the Solar Energy and Renewable Fuels (SERF) lab led by Alers and Carter. Luminescent films can be used to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells and increase efficiency. But exposure to water and oxygen in the atmosphere can degrade the films, so Green studied the effectiveness of sealing luminescent films in an oxygen- and water-free environment to prevent degradation.

"With a solar concentrator, you don't need as many photovoltaic cells, so it can potentially reduce the cost of solar energy systems," he said.

Kobayashi had five students working in his Nanostructured Energy Conversion Technology & Research (NECTAR) lab this summer. The NECTAR lab investigates nanoscale materials and technologies for the development of efficient, reliable, and cost-effective devices that convert light and heat energy sources into useful electrical power. Undergraduate Andy Liang worked with Kobayashi and graduate student Kaelan Yee on a project to measure the efficiency of thermoelectric devices, which convert heat into electricity.

"People don't expect to find materials science research at UCSC, but it is an important area of research for us now," Kobayashi said. "The internship program is a great opportunity for me to interact with students and get them involved in this research."

The eight-week internship program included seminars presented by ASL, NASA, and Santa Clara University researchers; a two-day workshop on Ethics in Science and another workshop on Technical Writing and Communications; a tour of the NASA Ames campus; and weekly seminars presented by the interns.

Santa Clara University chemistry professor and senior associate dean Amy Shachter worked with Hughey to design the SCU internship program at ASL. SCU undergraduate Sarah Ghanbari won an award for the project "of greatest benefit to society" for her poster describing a microfluidic system for rapidly detecting disease-causing organisms in water samples. Ghanbari worked with SCU bioengineer Unyoung (Ashley) Kim on the project, which aims to develop inexpensive, portable devices for use in the developing world.

Currently, a major focus of ASL and BIN-RDI is the establishment of a shared facility to provide state-of-the-art equipment for nanotechnology and materials science research. The Materials Analysis for Collaborative Science (MACS) facility recently acquired a new scanning electron microscope with x-ray analysis technology that enables rapid chemical analysis of samples. Other major instruments will be installed this fall, including a new transmission electron microscope and an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) instrument.

About Advanced Studies Laboratories

The ASL addresses the capabilities and priorities of UCSC and ARC, invigorating the facilities in Building N239 through the inclusion of new and unique equipment, and enlivening and expanding the research productivity of both organizations. The ASL provides for the establishment of cooperative working space where ASL-affiliated researchers and students from various organizations can work together sharing resources and expertise.

Academic researchers will team with NASA scientists and engineers to create new adaptations for flight instruments, independent space probes and rovers, and human missions. ASL shared-used, open-access facilities are co-located with NASA Ames experts on astrobiology, Earth and planetary science, and biological and chemical engineering. By succeeding in this partnership, we are creating a new exemplar research organization: a model that advances innovation and deployment of technology and can be adopted by other locations and discipline areas. The possibilities are.........bright.

NASA Ames Research Center

Mail Stop 239-24

Moffett Field, CA 94035

Phone: (650) 604-1202

Fax: (650) 528-4034

Copyright © Advanced Studies Laboratories

Associate professor publishes book, is chosen as guest editor August 25th, 2010

2010 Young Innovators Under 35 August 25th, 2010

Key Bio Nano Consulting partner develops novel nanolitre scale technique for determining protein stability and ligand-binding affinity August 25th, 2010

SU research team uses nanobiotechnology-manipulated light particles to accelerate algae growth August 25th, 2010

Associate professor publishes book, is chosen as guest editor August 25th, 2010

Making Better Photonic Devices August 25th, 2010

Energy

SU research team uses nanobiotechnology-manipulated light particles to accelerate algae growth August 25th, 2010

MesoCoat Inc. exclusively licenses transformational surface engineering technology developed at a National Lab August 24th, 2010

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Print

When you're angry, complaining on the Web about a business or the person who runs it can be tempting.

But you might want to think a bit before putting up an online rant. While website hosts are generally protected from liability for comments posted by others, those who write such diatribes can be sued, points out the Los Angeles Times.

Expressing an opinion is often OK. But disparaging a business operator or accusing a public official of criminal conduct are danger zones, as a growing number of those who are criticized on the Web turn to the courts for redress.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," says Eric Goldman, an Internet law expert at Santa Clara University. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Posting anonymously also may offer little or no protection if an Internet Service Provider is ordered by a court to reveal the poster's identity.

Last month, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a District of Nevada order requiring identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the Times article reports.

Additional coverage:

IP Law Blog: "Anonymous Online Video and Blog Posters Beware"

Jolt Digest: "Ninth Circuit Argues for Less Stringent Test for Protecting Anonymous Online Commercial Speech"

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But you might want to think a bit before putting up an online rant. While website hosts are generally protected from liability for comments posted by others, those who write such diatribes can be sued, points out the Los Angeles Times.

Expressing an opinion is often okay. But disparaging a business operator or accusing a public official of criminal conduct are danger zones, as a growing number of those who are criticized on the Web turn to the courts for redress.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," says Eric Goldman, an Internet law expert at Santa Clara University. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Posting anonymously also may offer little or no protection if an Internet Service Provider is ordered by a court to reveal the poster's identity.

Last month, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a District of Nevada order requiring identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the Times article reports.

Additional coverage:

IP Law Blog: "Anonymous Online Video and Blog Posters Beware"

Jolt Digest: "Ninth Circuit Argues for Less Stringent Test for Protecting Anonymous Online Commercial Speech"

Return to Top

Law schools, once viewed as a guaranteed path to a high-paying career, are coming under fire as disillusioned graduates find a tighter job market than they say they were led to expect.

A small but growing coalition of graduates, on blogs with names like "Scammed Hard" and "Shilling Me Softly," blame their alma maters for luring them into expensive programs by overstating their employment prospects.

In July, Law School Transparency, a non-profit founded by two Vanderbilt law students, requested that 200 schools submit salary and employment data for 2010 grads, which they aim to post online.

One recent grad even went on a hunger strike on Aug. 5. "We have a new crop starting, and no one's telling them anything about this," says Zenovia Evans, 28, of Denver, who uses the name "Ethan Haines" on her blog, UnemployedJD.com.

The first in her family to finish college, she says that "no one wants to say, 'Hey, career office, you failed me,' " but "I couldn't take this lying down." She says she owes more than $150,000 in loans.

The American Bar Association, which accredits law schools, acknowledges such concerns. A report in November, noting the average student borrowed $59,324 for a public law school and $91,506 for a private one in 2007-08, cautioned prospective students to "have a clear picture of the debt they will incur and the expected earning power."

Among 2009 graduates, 88% are employed, down from 92% in 2007; they were more likely than in previous years to hold part-time or temp jobs or those not requiring a law degree, says the non-profit National Association for Law Placement. Summer job openings for second-year students, often the first step to getting hired full time, "shrank dramatically" this year, it says.

Meanwhile, the number of law school applicants for this fall rose 2.2% to more than 87,000.

Ohio University economist Richard Vedder says the question goes beyond law. "We are entering the age of the overeducated American, the person with college degrees who cuts hair, trims trees, drives trucks," he says.

Kelsey May, a 2010 University of Tulsa law school grad and co-author of What the L? 25 Things We Wish We'd Known Before Going to Law School, agrees law school can be tricky to navigate but says the anger is "misplaced. ... There should be some level of (personal) responsibility."

Accredited schools typically collect and post information about recent graduates using ABA surveys. But data can be incomplete — and misleading. Even with widely reported hiring cutbacks, "we had some schools reporting 100% employment," probably because unemployed grads didn't respond, says Donald Polden, Santa Clara University law school dean. He chairs an ABA committee on legal education and admissions that is now looking at how to report data "in a more robust way."

Georgetown Law student Roger Gordon, who says he has racked up $175,000 in loan debt, wants more than that. In June, he petitioned the Supreme Court to decide whether people who take the bar exam even need three years of law school. "If you count on law schools to do the right thing, you're going to be waiting a long time," he says.

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Law schools, once viewed as a guaranteed path to a high-paying career, are coming under fire as disillusioned graduates find a tighter job market than they say they were led to expect.

A small but growing coalition of graduates, on blogs with names like "Scammed Hard" and "Shilling Me Softly," blame their alma maters for luring them into expensive programs by overstating their employment prospects.

In July, Law School Transparency, a non-profit founded by two Vanderbilt law students, requested that 200 schools submit salary and employment data for 2010 grads, which they aim to post online.

One recent grad even went on a hunger strike on Aug. 5. "We have a new crop starting, and no one's telling them anything about this," says Zenovia Evans, 28, of Denver, who uses the name "Ethan Haines" on her blog, UnemployedJD.com.

The first in her family to finish college, she says that "no one wants to say, 'Hey, career office, you failed me,' " but "I couldn't take this lying down." She says she owes more than $150,000 in loans.

The American Bar Association, which accredits law schools, acknowledges such concerns. A report in November, noting the average student borrowed $59,324 for a public law school and $91,506 for a private one in 2007-08, cautioned prospective students to "have a clear picture of the debt they will incur and the expected earning power."

Among 2009 graduates, 88% are employed, down from 92% in 2007; they were more likely than in previous years to hold part-time or temp jobs or those not requiring a law degree, says the non-profit National Association for Law Placement. Summer job openings for second-year students, often the first step to getting hired full time, "shrank dramatically" this year, it says.

Meanwhile, the number of law school applicants for this fall rose 2.2% to more than 87,000.

Ohio University economist Richard Vedder says the question goes beyond law. "We are entering the age of the overeducated American, the person with college degrees who cuts hair, trims trees, drives trucks," he says.

Kelsey May, a 2010 University of Tulsa law school grad and co-author of What the L? 25 Things We Wish We'd Known Before Going to Law School, agrees law school can be tricky to navigate but says the anger is "misplaced. ... There should be some level of (personal) responsibility."

Accredited schools typically collect and post information about recent graduates using ABA surveys. But data can be incomplete -- and misleading. Even with widely reported hiring cutbacks, "we had some schools reporting 100% employment," probably because unemployed grads didn't respond, says Donald Polden, Santa Clara University law school dean. He chairs an ABA committee on legal education and admissions that is now looking at how to report data "in a more robust way."

Georgetown Law student Roger Gordon, who says he has racked up $175,000 in loan debt, wants more than that. In June, he petitioned the Supreme Court to decide whether people who take the bar exam even need three years of law school. "If you count on law schools to do the right thing, you're going to be waiting a long time," he says.

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY

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We?ve written extensively about how frustrated law school graduates have become with the state of the job market.

A growing number graduates, it appears, are now venting their frustration.

On blogs with names like “Scammed Hard” and “Shilling Me Softly,” law graduates are blaming their alma maters for luring them into expensive programs by overstating their chances of landing a job upon graduation, the USA Today reports.

One recent graduate, Zenovia Evans (pictured), 28, of Denver, even announced a hunger strike August 5 on her blog, UnemployedJD.com, according to USA Today.? Evans has been blogging under the name Ethan Haines, but her true identity is now revealed!

“No one wants to say, ‘Hey, career office, you failed me,' ” Evans told the paper, but “I couldn't take this lying down.” She says she owes more than $150,000 in loans. (Here'sa post from ATL about Evans's hunger strike and the phenomenon of mad (really mad) law grads.)

Accredited law schools typically post information about the employment rates of recent graduates, but data can be misleading, USA Today reports. “We had some schools reporting 100% employment,” probably because unemployed grads didn't respond, said Donald Polden, Santa Clara University law school dean. He chairs an American Bar Association committee that is looking at how to report employment data “in a more robust way.”

Law School Transparency, a non-profit founded by two Vanderbilt law students, sent a request in July to 200 law schools to provide salary and employment data for 2010 grads. The groups would like to post that information online.

Despite the frustration and the still-mediocre state of the job market, applications to law schools for the coming year surged 2.2%, to more than 87,000.

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BERKELEY, Calif. (RNS) Faatimah Knight's college decision came down to eight schools where she would have majored in English, or Zaytuna College, where she could study Islamic classical teachings in an environment that embraces all aspects of her Muslim faith.

The Brooklyn native is part of the inaugural class of what Zaytuna's founders hope will be the country's first accredited, four-year Muslim liberal arts college—a flagship of higher learning with an Islamic identity yet open to all faiths.

Knight, 18, chose Zaytuna, she said, because she wants to grow in her faith, learn more about the religion that inspired her parents to convert from Christianity and be able to defend Islam during a time of stepped-up suspicion.

Four years of college, Knight said, “has to bring me more than book smarts.”

“I want to feel like I'm improving as a person. I want to feel like I'm improving in terms of my character,” she said. “I'm almost positive that I can only get that here.”

Knight, an aspiring writer, is one of 15 Zaytuna students who started classes Tuesday (Aug. 24). Zaytuna College grew out of a pilot seminary program at the Zaytuna Institute, which graduated a handful of students in 2008. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, an American-born convert from the San Francisco Bay Area who studied Islam abroad, started the institute in 1996, offering continuing education classes in Arabic and Islamic studies.

Yusuf began planning Zaytuna's transition to a full-fledged college two years ago with two colleagues: Imam Zaid Shakir, a Berkeley convert who studied Islam abroad; and Hatem Bazian, a professor at the University of California Berkeley and a Palestinian native who's lived in the Bay Area for nearly 27 years.

The three are among the best-known and most-respected Muslim scholars in America, said Zahra Billoo, the programs and outreach director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations' San Francisco Bay Area chapter.

The college will seek accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and founders hope to graduate students who can work in any profession, including serving the Muslim American community as imams, nonprofit managers and Islamic school teachers.

Co-founder Bazian said the college is needed because of a lack of native-born Muslim professionals with a strong understanding of their faith and the needs of U.S. Muslims.

“We feel the college is very important in that it provides a grounding for the community in its own tradition—not in a sense to create a difference with the larger society, but to actually normalize its presence within the larger society, that there is no contradiction between being an American and being Muslim,” Bazian said.

While Muslims have been in the U.S. for centuries, most immigrated here within the last 40 years, with 80 percent of U.S. Muslims arriving after 1980, said Farid Senzai, a member of Zaytuna's management committee and the research director at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Michigan-based think tank focused on U.S. Muslims.

Over several generations, Muslim Americans have built an infrastructure of mosques, schools and advocacy organizations. Now, with a population estimated to range from 2 million to as many as 8 million, and growing financial stability, they're beginning to build academic institutions, Senzai said, just as Catholics and Jews did generations ago.

The college could help bridge the gap between different segments of the community, such as immigrants and native-born Muslims, said CAIR's Billoo. It could also provide ranks of homegrown imams to lead the country's estimated 2,000 mosques instead of foreign-born leaders who sometimes face cultural, language and generational gaps.

Zaytuna is offering two majors to start: Arabic language, and Islamic law and theology. There are plans to add advanced degrees, adult education classes and professional certificate programs in areas such as Islamic medical ethics, Islamic finance and religious training for imams and undergraduates.

Zaytuna, which means “olive tree” in Arabic, also hopes to be a vehicle for interfaith dialogue. The college was intentionally planted in progressive Berkeley, an intellectual hub with a sizable Muslim community. The college will be housed at the American Baptist Seminary of the West for five years until founders can establish its own campus.

The college can help promote cross-cultural understanding, when visitors “see it in action,” said Senzai, who also teaches political science at Santa Clara University.

“In fact, these kinds of institutions in the long term are absolutely necessary for bridging the divide that currently exists and the misunderstanding that many have about Islam and Muslims,” he said.

For permission to reprint or reuse this article, please contact Michelle Stacho for a reprint agreement form with payment authorization.

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WASHINGTON — The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

While bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found they are not protected from lawsuits, even if comments are anonymous. Some postings have led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran a Web-based radio show, believed it "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., this month convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used-car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University in California. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for outsiders' comments. However, they can be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

Seattletimes.com, like many news websites, promises to safeguard the privacy of users — including those submitting comments — by not releasing personally identifiable information to third parties. But The Seattle Times makes exceptions when public safety is at stake or when compelled to disclose user identities by law-enforcement authorities.

The Supreme Court has said the First Amendment's protection for freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring disclosure of the identities of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, successor to the well-known Amway.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," Judge Margaret McKeown wrote.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet had "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication." Moreover, the "speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to 'catch up to the lie,' " he wrote.

Media-law experts say such lawsuits are hard to track because many arise from local disputes and rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. One person's complaint sometimes prompts others to vent with even sharper, harsher complaints.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting a comment, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of online complaints may believe he or she has no choice but to take legal action.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits," Goldman said. "They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees."

He is particularly concerned about teenagers and what they post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media-law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"Before you speak ill of anyone online," Baron said, "you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

Seattle Times staff contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.

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If Amazon's algorithms can predict what kind of products you like, maybe similar programs can guess what criminals might like to steal. Los Angeles police hope to use predictive computer modeling to stop crime in its tracks, according to the L.A. Times :

"As police departments have gotten better at pushing down crime, we are
looking now for the thing that will take us to the next level," LAPD
Chief Charlie Beck said. "I firmly believe predictive policing is it."

Predictive policing is rooted in the notion that it is possible, through
sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes,
to predict where and when crimes will occur. At universities and
technology companies in the U.S. and abroad, scientists are
working to develop computer programs that, in the most optimistic
scenarios, could enable police to anticipate, and possibly prevent, many
types of crime...

One, who recently left UCLA to teach at Santa Clara University near San
Jose is working to prove he can forecast the time and place of crimes
using the same mathematical formulas that seismologists use to predict
the distribution of aftershocks from an earthquake.
What's wrong with that?  It's the assumption of one of the researchers:

"But humans are not nearly as random as we think. . . . In a sense,
crime is just a physical process, and if you can explain how offenders
move and how they mix with their victims, you can understand an
incredible amount."
The paradox is that while criminal behavior might be relatively predictable now, if the program succeeds, that might change. Burglars and robbers might start targeting other kinds and locations of homes and businesses. And if the predictive software catches up with those, they might deliberately inject some randomness into their behavior -- deliberately disorganized crime.

Other law enforcement theorists have urged randomization for the police themselves; see "Police behaving predictably: The other enemy" at Officer.com. According to it, other computer scientists are randomizing security routines at L.A. International Airport. Of course average Los Angeles street criminals are not sophisticated conspirators. But if successful predictive programs take the less imaginative out of circulation, the survivors will probably be a more ingenious, and less predictable lot. That's why white-collar crime is such a moving target. Scams are constantly evolving.

Crime "just a physical process"? Earthquakes, even in Southern California, don't swap tips on how to foil seismometers.

Crime - Police - Los Angeles - Santa Clara University - Los Angeles Police Department

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One of the happiest surprises of recent years has been the fun I have had being an aunt.

I have loved seeing my 16 nephews and nieces grow up and take on occupations ranging from corporate manager to world traveler (one nephew is currently hiking through South America). I have served as a mentor on occasion, comparing notes with a nephew who is a writer, and purchasing new hiking boots for the traveler.

A growing number of scholars say aunts, and uncles too, aren't getting the respect they deserve as central figures in family life. Two recent books, “Aunting,” by Laura Ellingson and Patricia Sotirin, and “The Forgotten Kin,” by Robert Milardo, say these relatives play a central role in kids' development. While I can live without adding the words “aunting” and “uncling” to our vocabulary, as scholars are trying to do, I think they have a point.

In “Aunting,” Dr. Ellingson of Santa Clara University, and Ms. Sotirin of Michigan Technological University, both assistant professors of communication, illustrate the many roles aunts can play in a child's life–from caregivers and keepers of family rituals, to role models for careers or for carving out your own, eccentric style.

Among the dozens stories in the book, one aunt kept a family tradition alive for more than 30 years and over two generations, by holding an annual Fourth of July family reunion with hot dogs, baked beans and fireworks. Others served as role models for developing a career in families where most moms stayed home, or vice versa. One interviewee said her aunt rose to head a charity, showing her a woman could assume leadership. One nephew said, “If it weren't for my ‘crazy' aunts, I probably would have gone on believing that women ‘need' to be at home with their kids and that's just the way it is.”

Many of the best stories are about eccentric aunts, such as one with “really red lipstick and frizzy red hair” who yelled a lot. Another, called “crazy Aunt Hazel,” was the family eccentric and its only smoker, and wore whatever garish colors pleased her. Still other aunts taught the interviewees arts lost on other family members, such as knitting or crocheting. One young man described his aunt as the only person in the family who encouraged him to be anything other than a farm worker. She bought him science equipment and books, inspiring him to explore science and math and go on to college.

Readers, do you have close bonds with nieces or nephews? Have these relationships surprised or disappointed you in any way? Did your own aunts (or uncles) serve as mentors or role models? Do you think our society places too little value on these ties?

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It appears that blogging, that noble pastime, has touched off a surge in litigation by those who feel they were defamed or otherwise treated poorly by Internet postings.

Here's an article on the trend by the LA Times.

Hal Turner (pictured) as we havenoted has faced numerous prosecutions, and was recently convicted, for posting incendiary comments about Seventh Circuit judges.

But blogging has given rise to many other suits, some of which have forced Web sites to reveal the identity of anonymous writers.

A Pennsylvania judge, the Times reports, recently ruled that a community Web site must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a “jerk” who put money from the taxpayers in “his pocket.” The official sued for defamation.

A North Carolina official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local Web site called him a slumlord.

Web sites generally are not liable for comments by outsiders, but they can be forced to divulge a poster's identity, the Times reports.

“Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online,” said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University. “People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, ‘My dentist stinks.' ”

As is the case with print articles, Internet postings that offer mere opinions typically are insulated from liability. Far more serious, though, is when a?writer makes claims that purport to be fact.

Goldman told the Times that he is particularly concerned about teenagers who post online. “Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say,” he said. “We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids.”

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Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.

Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.

"This is not research to prove that the iPad is great," he says. "There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game."

Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and -- no small matter -- to lighten the typical college student's backpack.

Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drew complaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.

Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.

"The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," says Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He focuses on how multimedia can enhance learning. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

A Matter of Distraction

There's a lot to like about digital learning. Santa Clara University student Christopher Paschal, 19, for example, appreciated the

© 2010 USA TODAY under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.

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Blogger beware: Postings can lead to lawsuits

A false sense of Internet security can mean legal quagmires for critics who are careless about facts.

The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a 2nd Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009. Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought it "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But this month a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the 1st Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," CLICK HERE

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By David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

“It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet,” said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges “deserve to be killed” for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought it “was political trash talk,” his lawyer said. But this month a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a “jerk” who put money from the taxpayers in “his pocket.” The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars “junk.” The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

“Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online,” said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University.

“A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, ‘My dentist stinks.' “

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a “jerk” and a “buffoon” may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly “pocketed” public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

“A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down” once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish “anonymous” pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an “Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings” against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

“The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited,” wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet had “great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication.” Moreover, the “speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to ‘catch up to the lie,' “ he wrote.

Media law experts say lawsuits over Internet postings are hard to track because many of them arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals to high courts.

Media law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

“The first thing people need to realize, they can be held accountable for what they say online,” Baron said. “Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the ‘send' button.”

Read all 1 comments / share your thoughtsLatest comments

Fascinating stuff, the law.

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WASHINGTON The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously. Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought it "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But this month a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University.

"A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Return to Top

WASHINGTON — The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

“It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet,” said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges “deserve to be killed” for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought it “was political trash talk,” his lawyer said. But this month a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a “jerk” who put money from the taxpayers in “his pocket.” The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars “junk.” The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

“Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online,” said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University.

“A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, ‘My dentist stinks.' ”

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a “jerk” and a “buffoon” may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly “pocketed” public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

“A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down” once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish “anonymous” pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an “Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings” against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

“The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited,” wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet had “great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication.” Moreover, the “speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to ‘catch up to the lie,' ” he wrote.

Media law experts say lawsuits over Internet postings are hard to track because many of them arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals to high courts.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the “thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper.” They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes, one person's complaint prompts others to vent with even sharper, harsher complaints.

“There's a false sense of safety on the Internet,” said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University.

“If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment” before posting a comment, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

“These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees,” Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about teenagers and what they post online. “Teenagers do what you might expect: They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things,” he said. “We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids.”

Media law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

“The first thing people need to realize, they can be held accountable for what they say online,” Baron said. “Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the ‘send' button.”

———

(c) 2010, Tribune Co.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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WASHINGTON — The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought it "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But this month a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University.

"A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Return to Top

WASHINGTON — The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

While bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran a Web-based radio show, believed it "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., this month convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used-car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University in California. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. However, they can be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said the First Amendment's protection for freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring disclosure of the identities of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, successor to the well-known Amway.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," Judge Margaret McKeown wrote.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet had "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication." Moreover, the "speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to 'catch up to the lie,' " he wrote.

Media-law experts say lawsuits over Internet postings are hard to track because many arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals to high courts.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes, one person's complaint prompts others to vent with even sharper, harsher complaints.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting a comment, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may believe he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits," Goldman said. "They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees."

He is particularly concerned about teenagers and what they post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect: They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media-law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

Return to Top

The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a 2nd Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought it "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But this month a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University.

"A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the 1st Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet had "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication." Moreover, the "speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to 'catch up to the lie,' " he wrote.

Media law experts say lawsuits over Internet postings are hard to track because many of them arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals to high courts.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes, one person's complaint prompts others to vent with even sharper, harsher complaints.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University.

"If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting a comment, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees," Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about teenagers and what they post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"The first thing people need to realize, they can be held accountable for what they say online," Baron said. "Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

--

david.savage@latimes.com

PHOTO NO ESCAPE KEY Blogger Hal Turner may face time in prison for his rant about judges. "There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," one lawyer said.

PHOTOGRAPHER Jessica Hill Associated Press

Copyright © 2010 Los Angeles Times

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Note: A version of this article originally appeared at Search Engine Land .

Introduction

Many publishers run “house ads” to self-promote their own offerings. Google does too. However, Google differs from most publishers because it auctions ad space on its network. Thus, when Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in—an impermissible conflict of interest. This post explains when Google uses house ads, why I think Google house ads undercut the auction integrity, and what Google should do differently.

Google's House Ads

I have seen Google house ad campaigns in at least three circumstances:

1) Occasionally, Google uses AdWords ads to explain problematic organic search results. Two prominent examples are the search results for “Jew,” which regularly displays an anti-Semitic organization as a top organic result, and “Michelle Obama,” which last year displayed an offensive image as a top organic result. In these situations, Google runs an AdWords ad that links to an explanation of its search algorithms.

2) Google promotes its own services to increase their visibility. In preparing this post, earlier this year I approached Google about its usage of house ads, and a Google spokesperson informed me that Google has “run search marketing campaigns on Google for search products like iGoogle, Google Maps, and mobile products as well as for specific issues in order to provide information to our users.” Barry Schwartz recently gave an example of an image house ad promoting image ads . The latter point may include defensive keyword purchases, such as when it displayed ads for some of the search terms it highlighted in Google's Super Bowl commercial .

In some cases, Google's house ads appear in ad spots unavailable to other advertisers, such as its promotion of Nexus One on its home page. Barry Schwartz has catalogued examples of Google's home page advertisements . This post focuses on house ads in AdWords, but I will come back to these non-traditional ad spots in a bit.

3) As a type of public service announcement, Google runs house ads in AdWords during crises to promote a crisis response page—mostly recently, in response to the BP oil spill.

Why Google House Ads in AdWords Are Problematic

Google characterizes AdWords is an advertising auction system for advertisers to bid on keywords against each other. Google runs these auctions as the auctioneer—a term Google doesn't use and presumably would avoid, but an appropriate descriptor of Google's proclaimed role vis-à-vis advertisers. Because Google merely conducts the auctions for advertisers, Google argues that it does not set AdWords advertising prices; instead, the prices are set by the market (i.e., the collection of advertisers' auction bids). Google's positioning as an auction conductor has emerged as a central defense to the increasing antitrust attention being paid to Google's remarkable share of the search advertising market.

However, Google's positioning breaks down when Google buys house ads via AdWords. In those situations, Google is both running the auction and bidding in that auction as an advertiser. The conflicts of interest in this situation should be self-evident, but let's look at them in more detail.

Google Can Win Every Auction It Enters.

When Google runs a house ad in AdWords, it does not cost Google anything out-of-pocket. However, those clicks aren't necessarily “free” because Google's ads have opportunity costs. Clicks on Google's house ads may siphon away clicks from revenue-generating ads, which may reduce Google's revenue from the bidded term.

Google's spokesperson told me that Google's house ads “are subject to internal marketing budgets.” I assume this means that a Google department running house ads must “pay” for its clicks by transferring money from its department budget to a different Google department. In theory, the scarcity of marketing budgets forces Google departments running house ads to internalize the opportunity cost, even if no cash changes hands.

However, I don't believe this cures the defects in auction integrity for at least four reasons. First, Google's behavior lacks any auditability or verifiability; as outsiders, we have no idea what Google is doing under the hood. Second, Google has access to better information to optimize its bidding than any other bidder. That information may not be functionally available to individual employees placing auction bids, but because of the first point (lack of auditability/verifiability), we as outsiders don't know that either. Third, because all Google bids just involve internal funds transfers and no out-of-pocket cash payments, Google can easily increase departmental budgets to enable more aggressive bidding—after all, if no cash changes hands, it's just funny money anyway. Fourth, actual ad placement depends on ad quality scores, and Google has acknowledged that it has “exceptionally high Quality Scores” which should automatically give it a bidding advantage over everyone else. And, once again, no one else can audit or verify Google's self-designated ad quality scores.

As a result, Google's advantages over other bidders should allow it to “win” its auctions whenever it decides to bid.

Google's Bids Can Affect the Prices Paid by Its Advertisers.

As far as I know, Google has never publicly addressed how its house ads affect the prices paid by other bidders. In response to my inquiry, the Google spokesperson opaquely informed me that “Google's ads are not guaranteed to appear in any given spot. How this affects CPCs depends on the quality scores and bids of others in the auction.” I interpret this to mean that Google's presence in the auction could affect the CPCs paid by other bidders. Let's take a look at how this might happen.

Google auctions aren't winner-take-all. Instead, Google runs a “second-price auction.” As Google describes it , each advertiser-bidder pays “the minimum amount necessary to maintain their position on the page,” which is the amount bid by the next-lowest bidder. To illustrate this, assume a keyword with the following bids:

Bidder 1 bids $1.25 per click

Bidder 2 bids $0.75 per click

Bidder 3 bids $0.50 per click

Pursuant to the second-price auction, Bidder 1 pays $0.75 per click (i.e., the amount that Bidder 2 bid). After all, if Bidder 1 had only bid $0.75 per click, it still would have shown up as the top bidder. Bidder 2 pays $0.50 per click, the amount required to stay in the second position.

[Note: my examples assume that the bidders have the same ad quality scores and that one bidder's presence or behavior does not cause Google to recompute the ad quality scores of other bidders.]

Now, consider what happens when Google enters a bid in this auction.

Google bids more than $1.25 per click [the result is the same if Google bids $1.25 or $1M per click]

Bidder 1 bids $1.25 per click

Bidder 2 bids $0.75 per click

Bidder 3 bids $0.50 per click

I'll just focus on Bidder 1, who was getting first position for $0.75 per click before Google's entrance. Due to Google's entry into the auction, Bidder 1 now pays the same per-click amount to show up in second position rather than first.

Bidder 1's reduced position may change the commercial value of the consumers who investigate the links. That is, the consumer who clicks on the second ad may have a different profit potential than the person who clicks on the first ad. In some cases, clicks on lower-placed ads may be more profitable per click, so we don't know a priori if this is good or bad for any particular advertiser.

We can anticipate that Bidder 1's lower position will reduce the overall volume of clicks it gets at that price. A second position ad usually gets substantially fewer clicks than the first position ad. Further, if Google syndicates the house ad via AdSense, then Bidder 1's ads may no longer be syndicated in AdSense (for example, if Google syndicates only 1 ad via AdSense). [Note: when Google house ads are syndicated, Google pays the AdSense publisher for clicks out-of-pocket—but presumably Google pays a wholesale discounted price , while all other advertisers must pay the 100% retail price.]

Naturally, some advertisers will seek to reclaim their prior ad position by increasing their bids. Indeed, Google's AdWords tools will automatically encourage advertisers to pay more to generate more clicks. For advertisers using Google's automated bidding tool (sometimes called the “Budget Optimizer”), Google may automatically increase an advertiser's bid to increase click volume. Thus, Google's entry into the auction could cause other bidders to increase their bid amounts in a variety of ways.

Let's revisit my discussion about Google's opportunity cost of clicks on house ads. If the other bidders' prices stay the same and Google siphons away some clicks from them, Google's ads have a clear opportunity cost. However, if Google's entry into the auction prompts other bidders to pay more, some or all of that opportunity cost will be made up by increased revenue on the remaining clicks. It's even possible that Google's house ads could create net new profit. From an auction integrity standpoint, it's unacceptable for Google's entry into the auction to affect the prices bid or paid by other bidders (its advertisers), whether Google's profits increase or decrease.

Alternatives for Google

Google's spokesperson told me that “[l]ike hundreds of thousands of other businesses, we believe in the value of search marketing to connect with web users.” That makes sense to me, and I encourage Google to go for it—just not by bidding against its other advertisers. Google can benefit from keyword advertising other ways without undermining its auctions' integrity.

First, Google can buy keyword ads from third parties. Apparently Google already does this regularly, including buying ads from Yahoo and Bing. See this comprehensive survey as well as this example .

Second, as Google already does on occasion, Google can create new ad units outside AdWords exclusively for house ads. Running ads in a separate ad unit would obviate the need for Google to compete with advertisers in an auction, although I imagine some advertisers still will be annoyed by any click siphoning.

Third, Google could refuse all advertiser bids on terms that Google chooses to use for house ads. Advertisers wouldn't be thrilled if Google did this either, but it would maintain the auction integrity for those terms. This would be the most expeditious way for Google to handle objectionable organic search results, although creating a new unit outside AdWords would work as well.

Conclusion

I feel a little silly writing nearly 2,000 words explaining why auctioneers should not bid in the auctions they run. We all already knew that. Yet, Google apparently violates this basic rule every time it runs house ads in AdWords auctions. Google should fix this—and restore integrity to its AdWords auctions—by no longer competing with its advertisers in those auctions.

Google's Response

A Google spokesperson sent me this response:

"As we've always said, all search engines run ads to inform users about services that they provide. Google is no exception to this practice. We believe in the value of our advertising platform and use it in the same way that other advertisers do."

About the author : Eric Goldman is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. His research and teaching focuses on Internet, IP and marketing law topics, and he blogs on those topics at the Technology & Marketing Law Blog .

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:
Here's Two New Apple iAds To Check Out: AT&T And "The Switch" Movie Google Becomes Evil, The Video A Google Movie Might Be The Most Boring Ever

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The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

While bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges. Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought this "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But earlier this month a jury in Brooklyn convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled that a community Web site must identify Internet addresses of people who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used-car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." He sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University in California. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, Web sites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false facts.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it states a fact.

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish anonymous pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, a brand used by direct-sales giant Amway.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge M. Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet has "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication."

Media law experts say suits over Internet postings are hard to track because many arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes one person's complaint prompts others to vent.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees," Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about what teenagers post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media law experts say bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"The first thing people need to realize (is) they can be held accountable for what they say online," Baron said. "Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

-------------

dsavage@tribune.com

Photo Courts have found that bloggers can be sued, even if their remarks are posted anonymously. Some comments have even led to criminal charges. ANTONIO PEREZ/TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS PHOTO
Graphic Dissecting the blogosphere
The blog aggregator and directory site Technorati delved into the who, why and how of blogging in its "State of the Blogosphere 2009" report.
Gender 67% male
Education 75% college degree
Age
18-24 7%
25-34 25%
35-44 28%
45-54 21%
55+ 18%
Blog is primary source of income 83% say no
Blog at least in part to speak their mind 71%say yes
Have you ever worked in traditional media? 65% say no
Blogs are just as valid media sources as traditional media 46% say yes
Blogs are getting taken more seriously as sources of information 69% say yes
What fields do you think blogging has had the greatest impact on? 57% say politics
Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding
What bloggers blog about
Personal musings 45%
Technology 41%
Politics 32%
News 30%
Computers 28%
Business 25%
Music 24%
Travel 20%
Religion 19%
Science 19%
Film 19%
Environment 17%
Economics 16%
NOTE Survey of 2,900 bloggers conducted by Penn Schoen and Berland in 2009
SOURCE Technorati
TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS

Copyright © 2010 Chicago Tribune Company

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WASHINGTON -- The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

While bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges. Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought this "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But earlier this month a jury in Brooklyn convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled that a community Web site must identify Internet addresses of people who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used-car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." He sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University in California. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, Web sites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false facts.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it states a fact.

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish anonymous pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, a brand used by direct-sales giant Amway.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge M. Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet has "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication."

Media law experts say suits over Internet postings are hard to track because many arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes one person's complaint prompts others to vent.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees," Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about what teenagers post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media law experts say bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"The first thing people need to realize (is) they can be held accountable for what they say online," Baron said. "Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

COLUMN Nation & World

Copyright © 2010 Orlando Sentinel Communications

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WASHINGTON -- The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

While bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges. Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought this "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But earlier this month a jury in Brooklyn convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled that a community Web site must identify Internet addresses of people who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used-car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." He sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University in California. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, Web sites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false facts.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it states a fact.

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish anonymous pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, a brand used by direct-sales giant Amway.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge M. Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet has "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication."

Media law experts say suits over Internet postings are hard to track because many arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes one person's complaint prompts others to vent.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees," Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about what teenagers post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media law experts say bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"The first thing people need to realize (is) they can be held accountable for what they say online," Baron said. "Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

dsavage@tribune.com

Copyright © 2010 The Baltimore Sun Company

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A false sense of Internet security can mean legal quagmires for critics who are careless about facts.

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la-na-blogger-suits-20100823

Reporting from Washington —

The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges. Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a 2nd Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own web-based radio show, thought this "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But earlier this month a jury in Brooklyn convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the 1st Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet has "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication." Moreover, the "speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to 'catch up to the lie,' " he wrote.

Media law experts say suits over Internet postings are hard to track because many of them arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals to high courts.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes, one person's complaint prompts others to vent with even sharper, harsher complaints.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting a comment, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees," Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about teenagers and what they post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"The first thing people need to realize, they can be held accountable for what they say online," Baron said. "Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

Return to Top

Reporting from Washington ? The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously. Some postings have even led to criminal charges. Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a 2nd Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009.

Turner, who also ran his own web-based radio show, thought this "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But earlier this month a jury in Brooklyn convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the 1st Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet has "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication." Moreover, the "speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to 'catch up to the lie,' " he wrote.

Media law experts say suits over Internet postings are hard to track because many of them arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals to high courts.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes, one person's complaint prompts others to vent with even sharper, harsher complaints.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting a comment, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees," Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about teenagers and what they post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"The first thing people need to realize, they can be held accountable for what they say online," Baron said. "Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

david.savage@latimes.com var afterLoginLocati

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The most surprising thing about a federal appeals court's decision in the Proposition 8 case this week wasn't its conclusion - that same-sex marriages remain barred while the case is on appeal - but the court's lack of an explanation.

The three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco wasn't required to state its reasons for issuing a stay Monday that put the marriages on hold until the court decides whether Prop. 8 violated the constitutional right to marry one's chosen partner. That ruling won't come until at least early next year.

But the court's one-sentence order left thousands of gay and lesbian couples wondering why they had to shelve their wedding plans, and millions of voters on both sides uncertain about why Prop. 8 remains in effect after a federal judge found it unconstitutional.

The panel of Judges Sidney Thomas, Michael Hawkins and Edward Leavy is assigned to rule on all emergency motions in the nine-state circuit this month. Its Prop. 8 order contains no clues about the court's view of the 2008 initiative's constitutionality, a decision that will come from three different judges yet to be identified.

The panel would have denied a stay if it had concluded Prop. 8 was clearly unconstitutional, so its decision suggested that the measure's sponsors had at least an arguable case.

But the order did not even hint at the answer to a critical question: how allowing same-sex couples to marry during the appeal would cause "irreparable harm," a legal requirement for a stay.

In his Aug. 4 ruling overturning Prop. 8 and in a subsequent order denying a stay, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the measure's sponsors had failed to show any prospect of harm in allowing same-sex weddings - to the sponsors, the state or the institution of marriage. The appeals court panel evidently disagreed, but didn't say why.

"The question is, why can't couples get married today? And there's no explanation," said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine Law School and a longtime professor of federal court procedure. "I find that very discouraging" for lawyers and the general public, he said.

"This one is frustrating," said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a constitutional law professor at Santa Clara University. "They did not directly respond to any of the points made by Judge Walker in his order lifting the stay."

John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University in Orange County and a conservative counterpart to the liberal Chemerinsky, said no explanation was needed.

A judge's ruling that overturns a state law "constitutes irreparable harm as a matter of law," Eastman said. "The state has a fundamental interest in ensuring that its laws are upheld."

In the case of Prop. 8, however, the state is not defending the measure. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown opted not to. The appeals court will decide whether the initiative's sponsors have legal standing to represent the state's interests during a hearing the week of Dec. 6 in San Francisco.

Walker allowed Protect Marriage, the conservative religious group that sponsored Prop. 8, to defend the measure in his court during a trial in January. But Walker said in his Aug. 4 ruling that he doubted the organization has standing to appeal, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's comment in a 1997 Arizona case that a state usually has sole authority to defend its laws.

In their 95-page brief to the appeals court, Prop. 8's backers argued that California rulings recognize the right of an initiative sponsor to represent the voters' interests. They also said letting Walker's ruling take effect would allow same-sex marriages that could be invalidated if a higher court overturned the decision, a confusing situation that a stay would prevent.

Chemerinsky said the appeals court panel should have addressed those arguments, at least briefly, in Monday's order. He contended the judges would have had trouble explaining how Protect Marriage met any of the requirements to suspend Walker's ruling - a likelihood of winning on appeal, evidence of significant harm if the ruling took effect, and a showing that a stay was in the public interest.

But such explanations are rare for the court's monthly emergency-motions panel, which has hundreds of cases on its docket, said Rory Little, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

In this case, he noted, the plaintiffs - two same-sex couples, a gay-rights group and the city of San Francisco - made it clear that they opposed a stay but wouldn't appeal one. As a result, Little said, the panel probably decided it could take the customary approach to an important case - preserve the status quo, without a written opinion, but schedule an early hearing.

Santa Clara's Gulasekaram agreed. The panel, he said, probably concluded that the public interest was best served by maintaining marriage restrictions that have been in place for decades and were reaffirmed by the voters in 2008.

"For gay persons in general, and more specifically, gay persons wanting to be married, this is not a satisfactory outcome," Gulasekaram said. Any explanation the court offered, he said, probably wouldn't "ease the burden of being told that another half-year of waiting won't be a big deal."

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1

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The most surprising thing about a federal appeals court's decision in the Proposition 8 case this week wasn't its conclusion - that same-sex marriages remain barred while the case is on appeal - but the court's lack of an explanation.

The three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco wasn't required to state its reasons for issuing a stay Monday that put the marriages on hold until the court decides whether Prop. 8 violated the constitutional right to marry one's chosen partner. That ruling won't come until at least early next year.

But the court's one-sentence order left thousands of gay and lesbian couples wondering why they had to shelve their wedding plans, and millions of voters on both sides uncertain about why Prop. 8 remains in effect after a federal judge found it unconstitutional.

The panel of Judges Sidney Thomas, Michael Hawkins and Edward Leavy is assigned to rule on all emergency motions in the nine-state circuit this month. Its Prop. 8 order contains no clues about the court's view of the 2008 initiative's constitutionality, a decision that will come from three different judges yet to be identified.

The panel would have denied a stay if it had concluded Prop. 8 was clearly unconstitutional, so its decision suggested that the measure's sponsors had at least an arguable case.

No hint at harmBut the order did not even hint at the answer to a critical question how allowing same-sex couples to marry during the appeal would cause "irreparable harm," a legal requirement for a stay.

In his Aug. 4 ruling overturning Prop. 8 and in a subsequent order denying a stay, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the measure's sponsors had failed to show any prospect of harm in allowing same-sex weddings - to the sponsors, the state or the institution of marriage. The appeals court panel evidently disagreed, but didn't say why.

"The question is, why can't couples get married today? And there's no explanation," said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine Law School and a longtime professor of federal court procedure. "I find that very discouraging" for lawyers and the general public, he said.

"This one is frustrating," said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a constitutional law professor at Santa Clara University. "They did not directly respond to any of the points made by Judge Walker in his order lifting the stay."

John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University in Orange County and a conservative counterpart to the liberal Chemerinsky, said no explanation was needed.

A judge's ruling that overturns a state law "constitutes irreparable harm as a matter of law," Eastman said. "The state has a fundamental interest in ensuring that its laws are upheld."

State won't defend Prop. 8In the case of Prop. 8, however, the state is not defending the measure. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown opted not to. The appeals court will decide whether the initiative's sponsors have legal standing to represent the state's interests during a hearing the week of Dec. 6 in San Francisco.

Walker allowed Protect Marriage, the conservative religious group that sponsored Prop. 8, to defend the measure in his court during a trial in January. But Walker said in his Aug. 4 ruling that he doubted the organization has standing to appeal, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's comment in a 1997 Arizona case that a state usually has sole authority to defend its laws.

Backers' argumentsIn their 95-page brief to the appeals court, Prop. 8's backers argued that California rulings recognize the right of an initiative sponsor to represent the voters' interests. They also said letting Walker's ruling take effect would allow same-sex marriages that could be invalidated if a higher court overturned the decision, a confusing situation that a stay would prevent.

Chemerinsky said the appeals court panel should have addressed those arguments, at least briefly, in Monday's order. He contended the judges would have had trouble explaining how Protect Marriage met any of the requirements to suspend Walker's ruling - a likelihood of winning on appeal, evidence of significant harm if the ruling took effect, and a showing that a stay was in the public interest.

But such explanations are rare for the court's monthly emergency-motions panel, which has hundreds of cases on its docket, said Rory Little, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

'Not a satisfactory outcome'In this case, he noted, the plaintiffs - two same-sex couples, a gay-rights group and the city of San Francisco - made it clear that they opposed a stay but wouldn't appeal one. As a result, Little said, the panel probably decided it could take the customary approach to an important case - preserve the status quo, without a written opinion, but schedule an early hearing.

Santa Clara's Gulasekaram agreed. The panel, he said, probably concluded that the public interest was best served by maintaining marriage restrictions that have been in place for decades and were reaffirmed by the voters in 2008.

"For gay persons in general, and more specifically, gay persons wanting to be married, this is not a satisfactory outcome," Gulasekaram said. Any explanation the court offered, he said, probably wouldn't "ease the burden of being told that another half-year of waiting won't be a big deal."

"This one is frustrating. They did not directly respond to any of the points made by Judge Walker in his order lifting the stay."

Professor Pratheepan Gulasekaram, Santa Clara University

Copyright © 2010 San Francisco Chronicle

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The most surprising thing about a federal appeals court's decision in the Proposition 8 case this week wasn't its conclusion - that same-sex marriages remain barred while the case is on appeal - but the court's lack of an explanation.

The three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco wasn't required to state its reasons for issuing a stay Monday that put the marriages on hold until the court decides whether Prop. 8 violated the constitutional right to marry one's chosen partner. That ruling won't come until at least early next year.

But the court's one-sentence order left thousands of gay and lesbian couples wondering why they had to shelve their wedding plans, and millions of voters on both sides uncertain about why Prop. 8 remains in effect after a federal judge found it unconstitutional.

The panel of Judges Sidney Thomas, Michael Hawkins and Edward Leavy is assigned to rule on all emergency motions in the nine-state circuit this month. Its Prop. 8 order contains no clues about the court's view of the 2008 initiative's constitutionality, a decision that will come from three different judges yet to be identified.

The panel would have denied a stay if it had concluded Prop. 8 was clearly unconstitutional, so its decision suggested that the measure's sponsors had at least an arguable case.

But the order did not even hint at the answer to a critical question: how allowing same-sex couples to marry during the appeal would cause 'irreparable harm,' a legal requirement for a stay.

In his Aug. 4 ruling overturning Prop. 8 and in a subsequent order denying a stay, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the measure's sponsors had failed to show any prospect of harm in allowing same-sex weddings - to the sponsors, the state or the institution of marriage. The appeals court panel evidently disagreed, but didn't say why. 'The question is, why can't couples get married today? And there's no explanation,' said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine Law School and a longtime professor of federal court procedure. 'I find that very discouraging' for lawyers and the general public, he said. 'This one is frustrating,' said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a constitutional law professor at Santa Clara University. 'They did not directly respond to any of the points made by Judge Walker in his order lifting the stay.' John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University in Orange County and a conservative counterpart to the liberal Chemerinsky, said no explanation was needed.

A judge's ruling that overturns a state law 'constitutes irreparable harm as a matter of law,' Eastman said. 'The state has a fundamental interest in ensuring that its laws are upheld.' In the case of Prop. 8, however, the state is not defending the measure. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown opted not to. The appeals court will decide whether the initiative's sponsors have legal standing to represent the state's interests during a hearing the week of Dec. 6 in San Francisco.

Walker allowed Protect Marriage, the conservative religious group that sponsored Prop. 8, to defend the measure in his court during a trial in January. But Walker said in his Aug. 4 ruling that he doubted the organization has standing to appeal, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's comment in a 1997 Arizona case that a state usually has sole authority to defend its laws.

In their 95-page brief to the appeals court, Prop. 8's backers argued that California rulings recognize the right of an initiative sponsor to represent the voters' interests. They also said letting Walker's ruling take effect would allow same-sex marriages that could be invalidated if a higher court overturned the decision, a confusing situation that a stay would prevent.

Chemerinsky said the appeals court panel should have addressed those arguments, at least briefly, in Monday's order. He contended the judges would have had trouble explaining how Protect Marriage met any of the requirements to suspend Walker's ruling - a likelihood of winning on appeal, evidence of significant harm if the ruling took effect, and a showing that a stay was in the public interest.

But such explanations are rare for the court's monthly emergency-motions panel, which has hundreds of cases on its docket, said Rory Little, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

In this case, he noted, the plaintiffs - two same-sex couples, a gay-rights group and the city of San Francisco - made it clear that they opposed a stay but wouldn't appeal one. As a result, Little said, the panel probably decided it could take the customary approach to an important case - preserve the status quo, without a written opinion, but schedule an early hearing.

Santa Clara's Gulasekaram agreed. The panel, he said, probably concluded that the public interest was best served by maintaining marriage restrictions that have been in place for decades and were reaffirmed by the voters in 2008. 'For gay persons in general, and more specifically, gay persons wanting to be married, this is not a satisfactory outcome,' Gulasekaram said. Any explanation the court offered, he said, probably wouldn't 'ease the burden of being told that another half-year of waiting won't be a big deal.' E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

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The future of crime fighting begins with a story about strawberry Pop-Tarts, bad weather and Wal-Mart.

With a hurricane bearing down on the Florida coast several years ago, the retail giant sent supply trucks into the storm to stock shelves with the frosted pink pastries. The decision to do so had not been made on a whim or a hunch, but by a powerful computer that crunched reams of sales data and found an unusual but undeniable fact: When Mother Nature gets angry, people want to eat a lot more strawberry Pop-Tarts. Officials in the are using the anecdote to explain a similar, but far more complicated, idea that they and researchers say could revolutionize law enforcement. 'As police departments have gotten better at pushing down crime, we are looking now for the thing that will take us to the next level,' LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said. 'I firmly believe predictive policing is it.' Predictive policing is rooted in the notion that it is possible, through sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes, to predict where and when crimes will occur. At universities and technology companies in the U.S. and abroad, scientists are working to develop computer programs that, in the most optimistic scenarios, could enable police to anticipate, and possibly prevent, many types of crime.

Some of the most ambitious work is being done at UCLA, where researchers are studying the ways criminals behave in urban settings.

One, who recently left UCLA to teach at Santa Clara University near San Jose is working to prove he can forecast the time and place of crimes using the same mathematical formulas that seismologists use to predict the distribution of aftershocks from an earthquake.

Another builds computer simulations of criminals roving through city neighborhoods in order to better understand why they tend to cluster in certain areas and how they disperse when police go looking for them. 'The naysayers want you to believe that humans are too complex and too random that this sort of math can't be done,' said Jeff Brantingham, a UCLA anthropologist who is helping to supervise the university's predictive policing project. 'But humans are not nearly as random as we think,' he said. 'In a sense, crime is just a physical process, and if you can explain how offenders move and how they mix with their victims, you can understand an incredible amount.' The LAPD has positioned itself aggressively at the center of the predictive policing universe, forging ties with the UCLA team and drawing up plans for a large-scale experiment to test whether predictive policing tools actually work. The department is considered a front-runner to beat out other big-city agencies in the fall for a $3-million grant to conduct the multiyear tests.

LAPD officials have begun to imagine what a department built around predictive tools would look like.

Automated, detailed crime forecasts tailored to each of the department's 21 area stations would be streamed several times a day to commanders, who would use them to make decisions about where to deploy officers in the field.

For patrol officers on the streets, mapping software on in-car computers and hand-held devices would show continuous updates on the probability of various crimes occurring in the vicinity, along with the addresses and background information about paroled ex-convicts living in the area.

In turn, information gathered by officers from suspects, witnesses and victims would be fed in real time into a technology nerve center where predictive computer programs churn through huge crime databases.

If any of this ever becomes reality, it will be in large part because of , a bookish, soft-spoken former Fulbright scholar who oversees the department's crime analysis unit. With the blessing of former Chief William J. Bratton and now Beck, Malinowski has spent the last few years immersing himself in the world of predictive technologies.

In law enforcement circles, where confusion and skepticism about predictive policing run deep, he has established himself as one of only a few people who know both what it is to be a cop and how predictive technology could fit into the job. Malinowski was recently summoned to Washington by U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, who wanted a tutorial on the topic.

It is not by chance that the LAPD is pursuing predictive technologies. No city in the U.S. stands to gain more from the potential payoff than Los Angeles.

The city is one of the most severely under-policed in the country, with just shy of 10,000 police officers on its payroll. At any given time, only a fraction of them are on duty, spread across 469 square miles that are home to more than 4 million people. Predictive tools, if they work, would allow the LAPD to get more out of its meager force.

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BUENOS AIRES - Google and Yahoo won an appeal of a lawsuit brought by an Argentine entertainer, Virginia Da Cunha. Her name and some photos showed up in search results connected with sex sites. The appeals court ruled Google and Yahoo weren't liable for defamation for third party content.

Although Brazil drew much attention last week for its fast embrace of Twitter, it is also a hotspot for injunctions, although those are less broad than the Argentine ones. Twitter would have to worry about what its users put up should it decide to start operations in Brazil. Marcel Leonardi, a Brazilian professor of Internet law at Fundacao Getulio Vargas-Sao Paulo estimates that Google currently faces at least 600 lawsuits in Brazil. This also affects innovation.

Mr. Leonardi says that while companies with deep pockets like Google can bear the costs of litigation, that "it is hard to imagine a new service, perhaps a Brazilian Twitter, springing up in such a hostile legal environment." He contends this is because "no one will be willing to face the consequences of being held liable for everything their users do." Brazil is currently debating legislation, but it faces much opposition.

Lawyers think it is unlikely that something similar will even be debated in Argentina. Although Google and Yahoo Argentina won the Da Cunha case and may have the momentum for change, they face many more battles from unhappy private citizens. Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Center at Santa Clara University in the United States, questions that approach to regulating the Internet. "These third parties want the right to veto search results they don't like, but it's doubtful they will exercise that veto power in a manner that improves the information economy."

He cites the example of people with the same names as the Argentine plaintiffs also being blocked as a result of all the injunctions. Google and Yahoo Argentina were found liable for defamation in May against a model named Maria Belen Rodriguez. But two Argentine models have the same name. The plaintiff is lesser-known. In fact, when local media first reported the sentence, some published photos of the wrong Maria Belen Rodriguez.

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Sophisticated analysis of data can sometimes tell police where criminals are headed. It's academic now, but the LAPD plans to get involved.

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The future of crime fighting begins with a story about strawberry Pop-Tarts, bad weather and Wal-Mart.

With a hurricane bearing down on the Florida coast several years ago, the retail giant sent supply trucks into the storm to stock shelves with the frosted pink pastries. The decision to do so had not been made on a whim or a hunch, but by a powerful computer that crunched reams of sales data and found an unusual but undeniable fact: When Mother Nature gets angry, people want to eat a lot more strawberry Pop-Tarts.

Officials in the Los Angeles Police Department are using the anecdote to explain a similar, but far more complicated, idea that they and researchers say could revolutionize law enforcement.

"As police departments have gotten better at pushing down crime, we are looking now for the thing that will take us to the next level," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said. "I firmly believe predictive policing is it."

Predictive policing is rooted in the notion that it is possible, through sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes, to predict where and when crimes will occur. At universities and technology companies in the U.S. and abroad, scientists are working to develop computer programs that, in the most optimistic scenarios, could enable police to anticipate, and possibly prevent, many types of crime.

Some of the most ambitious work is being done at UCLA, where researchers are studying the ways criminals behave in urban settings.

One, who recently left UCLA to teach at Santa Clara University near San Jose is working to prove he can forecast the time and place of crimes using the same mathematical formulas that seismologists use to predict the distribution of aftershocks from an earthquake.

Another builds computer simulations of criminals roving through city neighborhoods in order to better understand why they tend to cluster in certain areas and how they disperse when police go looking for them.

"The naysayers want you to believe that humans are too complex and too random — that this sort of math can't be done," said Jeff Brantingham, a UCLA anthropologist who is helping to supervise the university's predictive policing project.

"But humans are not nearly as random as we think," he said. "In a sense, crime is just a physical process, and if you can explain how offenders move and how they mix with their victims, you can understand an incredible amount."

The LAPD has positioned itself aggressively at the center of the predictive policing universe, forging ties with the UCLA team and drawing up plans for a large-scale experiment to test whether predictive policing tools actually work. The department is considered a front-runner to beat out other big-city agencies in the fall for a $3-million U.S. Justice Department grant to conduct the multiyear tests.

LAPD officials have begun to imagine what a department built around predictive tools would look like.

Automated, detailed crime forecasts tailored to each of the department's 21 area stations would be streamed several times a day to commanders, who would use them to make decisions about where to deploy officers in the field.

For patrol officers on the streets, mapping software on in-car computers and hand-held devices would show continuous updates on the probability of various crimes occurring in the vicinity, along with the addresses and background information about paroled ex-convicts living in the area.

In turn, information gathered by officers from suspects, witnesses and victims would be fed in real time into a technology nerve center where predictive computer programs churn through huge crime databases.

If any of this ever becomes reality, it will be in large part because of Lt. Sean Malinowski, a bookish, soft-spoken former Fulbright scholar who oversees the department's crime analysis unit. With the blessing of former Chief William J. Bratton and now Beck, Malinowski has spent the last few years immersing himself in the world of predictive technologies.

In law enforcement circles, where confusion and skepticism about predictive policing run deep, he has established himself as one of only a few people who know both what it is to be a cop and how predictive technology could fit into the job. Malinowski was recently summoned to Washington by U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, who wanted a tutorial on the topic.

It is not by chance that the LAPD is pursuing predictive technologies. No city in the U.S. stands to gain more from the potential payoff than Los Angeles.

The city is one of the most severely under-policed in the country, with just shy of 10,000 police officers on its payroll. At any given time, only a fraction of them are on duty, spread across 469 square miles that are home to more than 4 million people. Predictive tools, if they work, would allow the LAPD to get more out of its meager force.

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Many investors suppose the outperformance of small stocks to be settled knowledge backed up by academic research. This article shows that the historical evidence for small stock outperformance is much more ambiguous than conventionally understood. Based on truncated views of the historical record and a misinterpretation of what the academic research shows, investors appear to have deceived themselves about the performance boost to be expected from owning smaller stocks. is a professor in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. emcquarrie@scu.edu

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It takes a total of one conversation to figure out that the meeting of ambitious entrepreneurs at Santa Clara University is not your typical Silicon Valley gathering of geeks ready to launch the next big thing.

Rajnish Jain has ducked out of a session on developing markets and forecasting revenues to tell me about his latest venture. No. Not the next "FarmVille" or the next iPad application. Jain is building a company in the Himalayas that turns pine needles into cheap and clean electricity for modest mountain homes.

Yeah, pine needles. It's a triple win that starts with a tiny piece of biomass. Removing the needles from the forest floor reduces the risk of wildfire, eliminates the need for villagers to cut down trees for firewood and gives them jobs They collect needles for a nearby gasification plant and receive free electricity in return.

"It is not just about making money," says Jain, who lives in the Himalayas, a place he calls the most beautiful on Earth. "We can actually create entrepreneurial success and quality of life and ecological sustainability and make money."

"It's not just about making money." Imagine.

In Silicon Valley we're often inspired by entrepreneurs who have engineered a way to make staggering amounts of money for themselves and their shareholders. We stand in awe of the clever way some of our best and brightest capitalize on a need people never knew they had.

No doubt many valley entrepreneurs follow their hearts. They are passionate about doing something that has never been done or doing something better than the next person does it. They often provide a social good -- jobs, an easier way to do things.

But the entrepreneurs who participate in Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator tend to follow their hearts in a different way.

The 19 so-called social entrepreneurs represent for-profit and nonprofit companies working to make life better in Tanzania, Uganda, India, Ghana and other developing countries. They are working to solve problems by bringing refrigeration to remote dairy farms in India, producing very low-cost hearing aids with solar-powered batteries or using cloud computing technologies to provide cheap cell phone service to rural Madagascar.

And to further their causes they have come to Santa Clara's manicured campus for two weeks to learn about value creation, distribution channels and "servicization of business models."

But what strikes me is that while the entrepreneurs have come to learn, they have, in fact, an awful lot to teach -- a lot to teach about the true entrepreneurial spirit and what it means to face some real challenges in business. Like trying to run a wheelchair and disability device manufacturing operation in Nigeria without reliable electricity.

"On average you get an hour supply a day," says Cosmas Okoli, CEO of Mobility Aid and Appliances Research and Development Centre in Lagos, Nigeria. "You have to literally maintain your own generation."

Okoli, who relies on a wheelchair as a result of childhood polio, says business success in Nigeria requires being ready for anything, "being ready to absorb shock," as he puts it. It's one trait the entrepreneurs at Santa Clara University share. They share something more important, too.

"I think the common thing is they actually are personally moved by the problem they're trying to solve," says Al Hammond, a teacher and mentor at the incubator.

Laura Stachel, an obstetrician and public health doctoral student at UC Berkeley, was moved by what she saw on a research trip to Nigeria doctors trying to perform cesarean sections in the dark, without a way to refrigerate blood for transfusions because of power outages. Yes, women died.

Stachel and her husband, Hal Aronson, a solar power expert, came up with a suitcase-size solar lighting pack that brings light to dark operating rooms. The packs include walkie-talkies to summon doctors in emergencies. Stachel's organization has installed a solar-powered blood bank refrigerator at one big city hospital and is working on other refrigeration solutions.

"The idea of trying to help someone that is right in front of you is intuitive," says Stachel, who founded WE CARE Solar. "Once I knew the problem was there, I just couldn't turn my back on it."

It's powerful motivation. And the gathering on Santa Clara's campus provides just a glimpse into what an entrepreneur can achieve when the return on investment is measured in lives changed and saved rather than in dollars deposited in the bank.

Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536.

Copyright © 2010 San Jose Mercury News

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In the late 1940s, Fred Lico, then a junior at Santa Clara University, had a song in his heart, and it's lucky that he wrote it down and saved it, because now another generation has had a chance to enjoy it. His song, "There Santa Clara, There With You," was heard for the first time in about 60 years when it was performed at the university this spring.

A lifelong resident of Willow Glen, Lico had returned from serving in World War II to finish his college education at SCU when he penned the song. Lico, who has played piano since grammar school, wrote both music and lyrics to "There Santa Clara, There With You."

The song was written as a choral piece about Santa Clara University, and Lico would play it for friends when they were spending time at the university's recreation area, where there was a piano. "At that time, we didn't have a music department or glee club or anything like that, so the only time I ever played it was when we got together as a group," Lico says.

After graduating in 1949, Lico filed the song in his music archives in his basement and didn't think of it again until a friend mentioned it at the college class reunion in the fall of 2009—in front of SCU's president, the Rev. Michael Engh, who encouraged Lico to bring the song to Ryan Brandau, the university's new director of choral programs. Brandau arranged "There Santa Clara, There With You" for SCU's choral groups, and Lico was present for its performance on May

7 at a choral concert highlighting music of war and peace. "I got a standing ovation, and people were coming over and congratulating me. I was almost amazed at the reception," he says.

Lico doesn't recall what exactly inspired him to write the song, but the era in which it was written provides some context. "Maybe I was looking for a lot of the friends who went in the service with me and either never came back to the university or never came back from the service, I don't know," he says.

Following graduation, Lico joined the family business, working in sales for the San Martin Winery, which his father and uncles purchased from the Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) after Prohibition.

He met his future wife, a flight attendant for United Airlines, at Lou's Village in 1953. The couple raised two sons, who both reside in the Bay Area. He is now a widower.

During his career, he served as president of the Santa Clara Winegrowers Association and was on the board of directors of the California Wine Institute and the California Wine Advisory Board.

Lico was president and national sales manager for San Martin Winery, and when it was sold in 1973 to Norton Simon Inc., the sales agreement required that he remain in his position for five years. After Lico retired from the wine business in 1978, he was involved in developing family land, including the construction of Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Gilroy, of which his family currently has 50 percent ownership.

"There Santa Clara, There With You" is among eight to 10 songs that Lico wrote. The songs weren't published, but Lico enjoyed music as a hobby and performed as a fill-in pianist with different small orchestras in San Jose. He still resides in Willow Glen.

Return to Top

In the late 1940s, Fred Lico, then a junior at Santa Clara University, had a song in his heart, and it's lucky that he wrote it down and saved it, because now another generation has had a chance to enjoy it. His song, "There Santa Clara, There With You," was heard for the first time in about 60 years when it was performed at the university this spring.

A lifelong resident of Willow Glen, Lico had returned from serving in World War II to finish his college education at SCU when he penned the song. Lico, who has played piano since grammar school, wrote both music and lyrics to "There Santa Clara, There With You."

The song was written as a choral piece about Santa Clara University, and Lico would play it for friends when they were spending time at the university's recreation area, where there was a piano. "At that time, we didn't have a music department or glee club or anything like that, so the only time I ever played it was when we got together as a group," Lico says.

After graduating in 1949, Lico filed the song in his music archives in his basement and didn't think of it again until a friend mentioned it at the college class reunion in the fall of 2009—in front of SCU's president, the Rev. Michael Engh, who encouraged Lico to bring the song to Ryan Brandau, the university's new director of choral programs. Brandau arranged "There Santa Clara, There With You" for SCU's choral groups, and Lico was present for its performance on May

7 at a choral concert highlighting music of war and peace. "I got a standing ovation, and people were coming over and congratulating me. I was almost amazed at the reception," he says.

Lico doesn't recall what exactly inspired him to write the song, but the era in which it was written provides some context. "Maybe I was looking for a lot of the friends who went in the service with me and either never came back to the university or never came back from the service, I don't know," he says.

Following graduation, Lico joined the family business, working in sales for the San Martin Winery, which his father and uncles purchased from the Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) after Prohibition.

He met his future wife, a flight attendant for United Airlines, at Lou's Village in 1953. The couple raised two sons, who both reside in the Bay Area. He is now a widower.

During his career, he served as president of the Santa Clara Winegrowers Association and was on the board of directors of the California Wine Institute and the California Wine Advisory Board.

Lico was president and national sales manager for San Martin Winery, and when it was sold in 1973 to Norton Simon Inc., the sales agreement required that he remain in his position for five years. After Lico retired from the wine business in 1978, he was involved in developing family land, including the construction of Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Gilroy, of which his family currently has 50 percent ownership.

"There Santa Clara, There With You" is among eight to 10 songs that Lico wrote. The songs weren't published, but Lico enjoyed music as a hobby and performed as a fill-in pianist with different small orchestras in San Jose. He still resides in Willow Glen.

Return to Top

(LINK) to Mike Cassidy's August 19 column in the San Jose Mercury News, "Social entrepreneurs bring lessons to Silicon Valley".

Excerpt: But the entrepreneurs who participate in Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator tend to follow their hearts in a different way.

The 19 so-called social entrepreneurs represent for-profit and nonprofit companies working to make life better in Tanzania, Uganda, India, Ghana and other developing countries. They are working to solve problems by bringing refrigeration to remote dairy farms in India, producing very low-cost hearing aids with solar-powered batteries or using cloud computing technologies to provide cheap cell phone service to rural Madagascar.

And to further their causes they have come to Santa Clara's manicured campus for two weeks to learn about value creation, distribution channels and "servicization of business models."

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Section: Web , Google

A law professor at Santa Clara University in California is accusing Google of an “impermissible conflict of interest” in regards to its practice of bidding in Adwords auctions in order to place ads for their own products and services. These are known as house ads. Eric Goldman says the practice distorts ad value and just isn't fair to other advertisers. He is urging Google to use unique ad units for its house ads or to prevent other advertisers from bidding on the words it wants. Google says it's always been company policy that departments that want to advertise must bid like everyone else and use their marketing budgets to pay for them.

What do you think? Is Google playing fair?

Read [ CNet ]

Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell . | Comment on this Article »

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A law professor has attacked Google over the "conflict of interest" when the company places adverts for its own services using its Adwords auction system.

“House ads” are run by publishers to advertise other products from the same company, that might be PC Pro advertising one of its sister sites or magazines, or Google advertising its own Nexus One phone.

However, because Adwords is effectively an auction in which the highest bidder benefits from priority placement, if Google places adverts through that system it is bidding in an auction that it is actually running.

When Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in — an impermissible conflict of interest

“Many publishers run 'house ads' to self-promote their own offerings - Google does too,” said Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, in his blog.

“However, Google differs from most publishers because it auctions ad space on its network. Thus, when Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in — an impermissible conflict of interest. I think Google house ads undercut the auction integrity.”

According to Goldman, Google told him that its house adverts “are subject to internal marketing budgets,” which suggests departments would drop out of the bidding when the price of placing an advert eventually becomes too great.

However, Goldman also believes rival bidders are unfairly disadvantaged because they don't have the same access to data as Google.

“In theory, the scarcity of marketing budgets forces Google departments running house ads to internalise the opportunity cost, even if no cash changes hands,” Goldman said. “Google's behaviour lacks any auditability or verifiability; as outsiders, we have no idea what Google is doing under the hood.”

Google says the fact it uses the same procedure as everyone else for Adwords merely reflects the company's conviction in the service.

"As we've always said, all search engines run ads to inform users about services that they provide," a company spokesperson said. "Google is no exception to this practice. We believe in the value of our advertising platform and use it in the same way that other advertisers do."

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Googles house ads including those promoting products like Google Maps undercut the integrity of auctions run by the search giant, Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman argues in a new piece. Google differs from most publishers because it auctions ad space on its network, Goldman writes in a post that appeared on his own blog as well . Thus, when Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in an impermissible conflict of interest.

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August 17, 2010. Audrey Voss, 16, a hauler from the Peninsula who posts under the YouTube i.d. "wowaudrey", describes a Disney writing utensil pack as she makes her back-to-school haul video, with items from the Valley Fair Shopping Mall Disney Store in her bedroom. Items she bought had a Tinker Bell motif and included a sweat shirt, back pack, a writing utensil pack and a school supplies pack. (LiPo Ching/Mercury News)

Sixteen-year-old Peninsula resident Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another Bay Area teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman from Oxnard who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos -- as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" -- and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey Voss -- known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" -- sat in her Peninsula bedroom Tuesday amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose

your favorite children's character," Audrey, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland hair and makeup stylist at Visions Beauty Salon who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Fremont resident Joe McCloud, San Mateo resident Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey of Hollister to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee -- and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."

Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833.

Haulin' hits

261,000

Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue sharing partnership

4,030

Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450

YouTube hits

searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110

YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Peninsula resident Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another Bay Area teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman from Oxnard who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos -- as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" -- and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey Voss -- known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" -- sat in her Peninsula bedroom Tuesday amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose

your favorite children's character," Audrey, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland hair and makeup stylist at Visions Beauty Salon who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Fremont resident Joe McCloud, San Mateo resident Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey of Hollister to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee -- and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."

Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833.

Haulin' hits

261,000

Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue sharing partnership

4,030

Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450

YouTube hits

searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110

YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Peninsula resident Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another Bay Area teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman from Oxnard who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos -- as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" -- and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey Voss -- known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" -- sat in her Peninsula bedroom Tuesday amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose Advertisementyour favorite children's character," Audrey, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland hair and makeup stylist at Visions Beauty Salon who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Fremont resident Joe McCloud, San Mateo resident Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey of Hollister to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee -- and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."

Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833.

Return to Top

August 17, 2010. Audrey Voss, 16, a hauler from the Peninsula who posts under the YouTube i.d. "wowaudrey", describes a Disney writing utensil pack as she makes her back-to-school haul video, with items from the Valley Fair Shopping Mall Disney Store in her bedroom. Items she bought had a Tinker Bell motif and included a sweat shirt, back pack, a writing utensil pack and a school supplies pack. (LiPo Ching/Mercury News)

Sixteen-year-old Peninsula resident Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another Bay Area teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman from Oxnard who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos -- as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" -- and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey -- known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" -- sat in her Peninsula bedroom Tuesday amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your

favorite children's character," Audrey, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland hair and makeup stylist at Visions Beauty Salon who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Fremont resident Joe McCloud, San Mateo resident Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey of Hollister to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee -- and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."

Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833.

Haulin' hits

261,000

Haul videos posted on YouTube by users of the site's ad-revenue-sharing partnership

4,030

Videos posted this year under YouTube tags "mall haul 2010" and "mall hauls 2010"

5,450

YouTube hits

searching mall haul celebrity "juicystar07"

5,110

YouTube hits searching mall haul celebrity "allthatglitters21"

Return to Top

Sixteen-year-old Peninsula resident Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another Bay Area teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman from Oxnard who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos -- as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" -- and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey -- known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" -- sat in her Peninsula bedroom Tuesday amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your Advertisementfavorite children's character," Audrey, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued: "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland hair and makeup stylist at Visions Beauty Salon who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Fremont resident Joe McCloud, San Mateo resident Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey of Hollister to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee -- and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."

Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833.

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Here, in House Minority Leader John Boehner's words, is the best ethical argument against construction of the mosque blocks away from ground zero in Manhattan: "The fact that someone has the right to do something doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do. That is the essence of tolerance, peace and understanding. This is not an issue of law, whether religious freedom or local zoning. This is a basic issue of respect for a tragic moment in our history."

To see why even the best ethical argument against building the mosque is wrong, it's helpful to turn to an old and very dead white guy, an erstwhile favorite of conservatives, and a Founding Father of the Republic -- James Madison.

Let's grant Boehner's point that what is at stake here is more than a matter of law. Let's also acknowledge that Americans can mistake a right to do something for the permission to do anything. Even so, we have to ask: What's the ethical basis of the right to religious freedom?

In his "Memorial and Remonstrance" of 1785, Madison bases his ethical argument on notions of conscience and human freedom. About such ultimate matters, each person holds this right inalienably "because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men." Furthermore, Madison appeals to a common human nature to argue that this inalienable right is shared equally by all. Last, he argues that the right is also founded on the duty each person has to "render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him."

Today's liberals might not share the language or logic of Madison's argument. But today's conservatives certainly do -- at least usually. At the least, Madison does not speak of a frivolous right. Rather, he provides the ethical basis for a right that protects the very core of a human being. And that core is what is at stake for the Muslim Americans who want to build the mosque.

But what of Boehner's second claim: That building the mosque is not the wise thing to do?

Here, again, Madison is instructive -- and unsparing. He was keenly aware of the bloody, sectarian division that prompted so many of the faithful of minority religions to flee to America. But what could America do differently to create peace amid such pluralism in a way that the Old World could not? For Madison, the way to peace was not by restricting the right of religious freedom but by its strict observance. This "equal and compleat liberty," he argued, unleashes the energies that overcome the social discord of silos of religious difference.

Boehner's final point is especially challenging. How do Americans as a people make sense of the agony of that beautiful September day? One way is by walling ourselves off from each other and demanding respect for our pain. The other, better way, is the risk of freedom. Madison warns of the consequences of not taking that quintessential American risk: "If with the salutary effects of this system under our own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of Religious freedom, we know no name that will too severely reproach our folly."

David DeCosse is the director of campus ethics programs at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Posted By: Lois Kazakoff (Email, Twitter) | August 19 2010 at 05:04 PM

Listed Under: Open Forum

Open Forum: Build the mosque

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Tyler Tjomsland / For The Daily News From left, Matthew Pyrch, David Kirkpatrick and Devin Hanson are physician assistants at Kirkpatrick Family Care.

When Matthew Pyrch was working as an environmental scientist in California's Bay Area, he often worked alone, performing tasks such as testing groundwater for contaminants.

"I missed interacting with people," he said. "I kind of looked at job satisfaction and my long-term goal. I felt good about what I was doing, but it was hard to see immediate results."

His new career as a physician assistant couldn't be more different, and it puts Pyrch and two of his colleagues at the Kirkpatrick Family Care clinic firmly in the middle of a trend that's helping combat a nationwide shortage of primary care providers.

Pyrch and two other physician assistants have replaced four doctors who have left the Longview clinic during the last 18 months.

"All three of these guys have the PA credentials and take care of most things that physicians ordinarily do," said Dr. Richard Kirkpatrick, owner of the clinic. "In some settings around the country, PAs work as ‘go-fors,' but in our situation, they must function as primary care providers" while working under a doctor's supervision.

Kirkpatrick said PAs are licensed to "do just about any procedure that the doctor himself or herself would do" and can prescribe medication. "It's real flexible in terms of the law," he said.

Physician assistants are becoming essential, Kirkpatrick said, because an aging population needs more health care, doctors are retiring early and medical students are pursuing more lucrative specialties instead of primary care.

The three new physician assistants — which include Devin Hanson and Kirkpatrick's son Dave Kirkpatrick — had other careers before going into general-practice medicine. Kirkpatrick said he is impressed with their PA training.

"These guys are amazing," he said Wednesday. "They're fresh out of school with knowledge that most 10-year doctors have because their training is so practical. They're basically thinking like internists."

For example, his son Dave recently came to him with an unusual diagnosis.

"He said, ‘Hey, I found a right renal bruit,' " — a kinked artery in the kidney that makes a whooshing sound similar to a heart murmur, Rich Kirkpatrick said. "The woman had come in with a sore throat, and here Dave discovers the bruit by listening to her back and chest. That's the way an internist would approach the problem rather than an urgent care doctor who would say, 'Oh, sore throat. Watch out for germs.' "

Becoming a physician assistant is somewhat of a short-cut to seeing and treating patients.

Rather than the 12 years of schooling it takes to become an internist or general practitioner, physician assistants can finish their schooling in about eight years (four years of college, a year or two of health care work and about three years at a PA school). Physician assistant schools cost about $60,000 to $70,000 compared to $200,000 for medical school, Kirkpatrick said.

'Volunteering anywhere'

Pyrch, 30, got his bachelor's degree in biology and environmental science from Santa Clara University in California in 2003. When he decided to go into medicine, he started "volunteering anywhere" he could, including the microbiology lab at Stanford University Hospital, which led to a part-time job there, he said.

He ended up working at Stanford for two years in the lab and as an in-patient phlebotomist while he acquired the work hours and classes to get into physician assistant school at Duke University. He earned a master's in health sciences in 2009 and started work at the Kirkpatrick clinic Jan. 28.

He sees about 18 to 20 patients a day. He said his greatest interests include sports medicine and managing chronic diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, "but I'm seeing a little bit of everybody."

He trainied at large institutions, but he said he enjoys working in the smaller practice.

"It gives you a better sense of the community," Pyrch said. "I feel like there's a lot more flexibility with a small practice, and it's a greater chance for physician assistants to take on more responsibilities. It's a great place for a new grad to learn."

Third generation

It's little surprise Dave Kirkpatrick, 34, has been drawn to medicine "pretty much my whole life," he said. He's the third generation of Kirkpatricks practicing medicine in the Lower Columbia region.

"I think my grandfather (Neal) and my dad were thinking I would end up in medicine," he said. "If I wasn't so old when I went back to school, I probably would have gone to medical school. But I had a wife and family. I wouldn't have been done until I was 40."

After he graduated from a Seattle high school in 1994, he earned a bachelor's in psychology from the University of Puget Sound, but couldn't find a job in his field, he said. He worked for three years as an business account executive with a Seattle company.

"I felt kind of called back into psychology," he said, so he pursued a master's degree in clinical psychology.

"While I was in doing my doctoral, I found I was drawn into the hard science of medicine versus the abstract of psychology," he said. He graduated from Emory University in Atlanta in late 2009 with a master's degree in medical sciences and started working at the Longview clinic Feb. 28.

He said he sees about 16 patients a day. "I'm a fairly new grad, but it's going to be expected for me to see more" as he gets more experience, he said.

He said there are advantages and disadvantages working with family.

"The advantage is I truly believe he is a great doctor," he said of his father. "Every job has a learning curve, then you throw in family dynamics. I didn't want that to change our father-son relationship. So far, it's been really good."

Life-changing diagnoses

Hanson, 38, has been involved with the medical community since high school, when he started working in emergency medical services.

"I was used to doing the patching up, but I never got to see (patients) afterward," he said.

He earned a bachelor's degree in government with a minor in psychology from Eastern Washington University, then a bachelor's in paramedicine. After working for four years as the lead paramedic for American Medical Response in Vancouver, he was accepted into the University of Washington's MEDEX program, from which he graduated in 2006 with a degree in medical sciences.

Before joing Kirkpatrick Family Care on June 16, he worked at Garfield County Hospital in Eastern Washington as emergency department manager and at an urgent care family practice in Vancouver.

With his background as a paramedic, Hanson said he considered being a physician assistant in emergency medicine.

"I dabbled in that, but I really like seeing a variety of complaints," he said.

He said he sees about 22 patients a day. He likes the variety of cases he sees and the help he can offer.

"At least once a week, you see a diagnosis that can be life-changing," he said. "It can be something as trivial as a chronic skin condition or some other medical problem. Ideally, it's something that's curable."

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Sixteen-year-old Peninsula resident Audrey Voss' videos have earned more than 6,400 views. Julia, another Bay Area teen, has had about 19,500 people watch her on YouTube. And the 336 videos posted by a young woman from Oxnard who goes by the name "dulcecandy87" have been viewed nearly 47 million times, all told.

What's the big draw?

Lip gloss. Hoodies. Pencil cases.

That's right, shopping.

All these young women, and thousands more, are cranking out "haul" videos -- as in "here's all the stuff I hauled home from Forever 21 and the Walgreen's makeup department" -- and inviting friends and strangers alike to check out their latest purchases. The videos, which range from oddly captivating to crashingly dull, represent yet another way in which the Internet is both nurturing new communities and redefining retail.

"Haul videos are blogs meet videos meet consumer ratings," said Kirthi Kalyanam, J.C. Penney Research professor at Santa Clara University, who studies retailing. "In product categories like cosmetics, where look and feel are important and are not that easily communicated via text, video blogs can be powerful."

With the back-to-school shopping season in mind, Audrey -- known on YouTube as "wowaudrey" -- sat in her Peninsula bedroom Tuesday amiably describing a nostalgic collection of Tinkerbell-themed school supplies as the camera on her laptop recorded the scene.

"One big thing to do at my school is to choose your favorite children's character," Audrey, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, explained to the YouTube audience. In patter only slightly less polished than that of a veteran Home Shopping Network host, she suggested that viewers might choose school supplies in a polka-dot or animal-print theme, "so that you're exhibiting your style in class."

She continued "The first thing I got was this backpack, which was $19.50. It looks like this. It has a raised leaf with a ladybug on it," she said, pointing out a leaf-shaped outer pocket.

A couple of minutes later, Audrey's newest "haul" video was done, just in time to catch (and influence) any last-minute shoppers.

Julie Gerstein, an associate editor of TheFrisky.com, a fashion and celebrity website, said haul videos provide "a way for these girls to show alliances to particular culture markers within their groups" and to build a virtual community, as they subscribe to and comment on each other's videos. "What you buy is who you are, to these girls who are doing these videos," she said.

The "hauling" phenomenon is a rare bit of good news for retailers at a time when the economy is still hobbling.

"Some of these video bloggers already have a following, so a retailer can tap into this," Kalyanam said. "The retailer can also leverage a video made by a consumer, which costs the retailer no money."

YouTube now features about 261,000 haul videos posted by the approximately 15,000 users who participate in the company's ad-revenue-sharing "partners" program, a company spokeswoman said. That means the total number of haul videos on the site is likely to be much higher.

As hauling has gained popularity, companies have begun courting some of the genre's celebrities, including Blair and Elle Fowler, aka "juicystar07" and "allthatglitters21," sisters from Tennessee, and "dulcecandy87" from Oxnard, sending them merchandise to review online. But most young women and girls declare somewhere on their YouTube profiles that they buy everything in their hauls with their own money and are not being paid to praise (or pan). Audrey has two part-time jobs and purchases all the items featured in her haul videos herself.

Lauren King, known on YouTube as "Iammissboogy," is a 25-year-old Oakland hair and makeup stylist at Visions Beauty Salon who posted her first haul videos more than a year ago. She's reviewed only one product at the request of a retailer (something from "Bubble Babez"), and has commented on makeup, jewelry and accessories in her videos.

"Anything interesting to me, I'm sharing with everybody, pretty much," she said. "I try my hardest to be as informative and honest as possible, not just to give my opinion of how (a product) looks on me."

"Iammissboogy" has a lot of on-camera panache. But not surprisingly, some haul videos are kill-me-now boring. One young woman in Connecticut, for example, made a nine-minute tribute to her favorite type of toothbrush. The video was sponsored by a toothbrush manufacturer.

It's the banality-on-parade exhibited in so many haul videos that led Fremont resident Joe McCloud, San Mateo resident Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey of Hollister to launch HaulBlog.com, a site that parodies haulers.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," McCloud said of the first time he saw a haul video. "I'm dumbfounded by how ridiculously mind-numbing it is."

Now he and his partners are spending their free time deftly mocking haulers with short videos about tube socks, razors and McDonald's coffee -- and racking up more than 900 YouTube subscribers in the process.

"The surprising thing," he said, laughing, "is it's actually the haul community that has embraced us the most."

Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833.

Copyright © 2010 San Jose Mercury News

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A blogger sued for allegedly reposting a Las Vegas Review-Journal article has raised an argument that, if accepted, could affect a broad swath of copyright infringement cases. The blogger, Jan Klerks, who publishes the noncommercial site www.skyscrapercity.com, about urban development, argues that the newspaper granted him an implied license to republish its articles by encouraging readers to save the pieces and send them to others.

The

Las Vegas Review-Journal "offered the allegedly infringed work to the world for free when it was originally published," he argues. "It encouraged people to save links to the work or to send links to the work to others anywhere in the world at no cost and without restriction. ... Accordingly, based on this implied license, the allegedly infringing copy was, in fact, authorized by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and therefore, is not an infringement."

Klerks raised the argument as part of a motion to vacate a default judgment entered against him earlier this year. He says that he didn't appear in court because he wasn't properly served and that the judgment should be set aside because he has valid defenses, including an implied license.

If courts agree that the paper did create an implied license, publishers could find it more difficult to sue bloggers, or even threaten to sue them, for copyright infringement. But whether the argument will gain traction in court appears to be an open question.

"Is there an implied license here? Possibly," says Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University.

Even so, he says, it's not clear that an implied license would allow someone to copy an article to a blog, as opposed to send it to one other person via email. "The problem with implied licenses is that we never know the scope of them until a judge tells us."

Klerks is just one of around 100 small publishers and bloggers

sued by Righthaven, a copyright enforcement outfit that has acquired the rights to dozens of Las Vegas Review-Journal articles.

The company has grown famous for suing people who posted news articles -- and links back to the

Review-Journal -- without first contacting the publishers and asking them to take down the material. Since launching in March, Righthaven has sued mom-and-pop outfits, nonprofits like NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and political organizations including the Democratic Party of Nevada.

Las Vegas Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick justifies the lawsuits as a valid way to combat theft of its intellectual property. But critics, like University of North Dakota School of Law professor Eric E. Johnson, see the cases as a shakedown.

"Filing federal lawsuits against frightened individual bloggers who are without significant legal or financial resources, and doing so without any attempt whatsoever to resolve the dispute informally, is deplorable behavior," Johnson writes on his

blog. "That would apply to anyone. But for a newspaper to do it is abhorrent."

At least 20 of the lawsuits appear to have settled, with most of the deals confidential. In a few instances, however, the terms were made public. NORML

paid $2,185. Other settlements reportedly were as much as $5,000, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Some of the remaining defendants are fighting back in court, raising a variety of arguments. In addition to Klerks' implied license theory, some defendants argue that their posts were a permissible fair use.

In some of the cases, the bloggers allegedly posted short excerpts of the news articles. In others, however, the bloggers appear to have reposted the entire article, which makes their fair use argument appear weak.

While there may be individual exceptions -- such as when the blogger also served as the source for the article -- it's generally hard for people to argue they made fair use of material when they have copied the entire work, says Kim Isbell, a staff attorney with the Citizen Media Law Project.

Still, even if some defendants won't get far arguing fair use, they might have other defenses, says Isbell. Some of the bloggers reside in states other than Nevada, in which case they might be able to prevail. "The non-Nevada defendants have a decent argument that the court has no personal jurisdiction over them," she says.

Additionally, some publishers were sued based on posts made by users. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act generally provides that Web sites are immune from liability of they remove infringing material upon request, but only if they have complied with certain technical requirements, including registering a designated agent with the U.S. Copyright Office. Even if the site owners haven't done so, they wouldn't necessarily be liable for a user's post unless they actively encouraged infringement, according to Isbell.

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Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.

Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.

"This is not research to prove that the iPad is great," he says. "There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game."

Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and -- no small matter -- to lighten the typical college student's backpack.

Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drew complaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.

Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.

"The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," says Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He focuses on how multimedia can enhance learning. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

A Matter of Distraction There's a lot to like about digital learning. Santa Clara University student Christopher Paschal, 19, for example, appreciated the search function in his economics e-textbook, and said the included video clips offered "an alternative method of learning," and eliminated "the monotony of endless pages of reading." (continued...) 1 | 2 | 3 | � 2010 USA TODAY under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.

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Last month Politico reported on a 'little-noticed' section of the Wall Street reform bill. It gives the feds power to kill contracts with firms that fail to initiate workplace diversity. The law requires 'fair inclusion' of women and minorities and 'goes further than previous attempts by regulators to promote diversity in the financial sector.'

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a small black presence in a variety of financial occupations in 2009. Eighteen thousand, or 5.6 percent, of the nation's securities, commodities and financial-services sales agents were black. About 5 percent of the country's 94,000 financial analysts were black. That same year, women of all colors held 16 percent of executive and board positions in the financial sector.

The lack of diversity means that white men with similar opinions usually make decisions that affect the whole world -- the majority of which doesn't look, or think, like them. Forcing firms to diversify, some suggest, will provide substantial benefit. Imagine the disasters that might have been mitigated if black females instead of white males had managed the toxic mortgages that harmed so many.

But would a black manager's decisions actually have been different? Some observers wonder about the value of greater diversity in finance. Santa Clara University professor Hersh Shefrin is an economist who has been a pioneer in behavioral finance, which looks at psychological factors that underpin financial decisions. Shefrin says that he gets the principle behind industry diversity: 'There may be a benefit to having a loan officer who has personal experience with the people they're lending to.'

But he adds, 'Having said that ... I can't see [the diversity provision] making much of a dent in improving the sorts of problems that led to the global financial crisis. We have to remember that the culture of banking has more to do with the structure of firms than with the personal tendencies of employees.'

Work for Someone Else's Company, and Priorities Shift

Shefrin thinks that the financial sector's corporate culture prevents a diversity of opinion, even if it exists. He cites specific instances, prior to the mortgage crisis, in which female underwriters warned their supervisors about giving loans to underqualified applicants. 'Do you know what they were told by their superiors?' he asks. 'They were told, 'You approve the loan -- and if you don't, I will.' Then they were told that they'd been put under review for firing. There is great pressure applied to these people.'

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Google runs house ads for its own products along with other advertisers (lower right). Should it be both auctioneer and auction participant?

Auctioneers generally aren't allowed to bid in their own auctions; why should Google be any different?

That's what Santa Clara University professor of law Eric Goldman is wondering, publishing an essay Wednesday on his personal blog and Search Engine Land calling on Google to stop bidding in AdWords auctions to run "house ads" that promote Google products. Google's involvement in the process distorts the value of search ads for other advertisers trying to bid on the same keywords and makes it impossible to know whether Google is playing fair, Goldman wrote.

"Thus, when Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in--an impermissible conflict of interest," Goldman wrote.

Google will occasionally run AdWords ads promoting its own products or services--house ads--alongside search results. It will also buy ads to promote charities or public service announcements, or to explain weird or offensive search results, such as it did last year with Google Image searches for Michelle Obama.

The placement of search ads is determined by a combination of two factors: the price the advertiser is willing to pay per click and the quality of their ad. Goldman argues that Google has too much knowledge about quality scores and prices that advertisers are willing to pay to fairly participate in the same process as advertisers who naturally lack similar access.

Google told Goldman that individual departments that want to run house ads have to bid just like anybody else without special knowledge, and that they have to use their marketing budgets to pay for those ads. While that may be true, their mere presence in the auction is a conflict of interest that can't be ignored, he argued.

Goldman wants Google to use unique ad units to promote its own wares, such as it has done in the past with Chrome and Nexus One ads on its home page, or at least prevent other advertisers from bidding on terms that it wants to use for house ads. It's an interesting read, and is recommended in its entirety.

Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. .

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Google says that it is fair game for its internal departments to bid on keywords to promote Google products using Google's AdWords advertising services, but those departments have to go through the bidding process, without special treatment, like anyone else. That's not enough for Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, who wrote on his personal blog that this still isn't kosher and is calling out the search giant on its questionable practice.

According to Professor Goldman, "Google differs from most publishers because it auctions ad space on its network. Thus, when Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in—an impermissible conflict of interest...Google house ads undercut the auction integrity..."

The reason that the practice is being criticized is that in traditional auctions, auctioneers are not even allowed to bid in their own auctions. In this case, Google--via its self-owned and controlled individual departments or divisions--is in fact bidding in its own auction for key words to place ads next to search results when certain search term(s) are used. These ads are called house ads.

The conflict of interest occurs because Google knows too much about the internal practices, which may help it negotiate better pricing. According to Google AdWords policy, ads are priced based on two factors: price that advertisers are willing to pay per click and quality of the ad. According to Goldman, "Google has never publicly addressed how its house ads affect the prices paid by other bidders." Additionally, being that Google is both auctioneer and bidder, it has too much knowledge about quality scores and prices that other bidders are willing to pay.

If you're interested in the topic, you can visit Professor Goldman's personal blog for a much more detailed read.

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Critics say system encourages deception, doesn't focus on value

As the annual binge of college rankings crests this week, Ethan Haines isn't just fed up. He's fed out.

The unemployed law school grad launched a hunger strike Aug. 5 to protest U.S. News & World Report's law school rankings and the undue influence he believes that yearly index has on college selections and, eventually, law firm hires.

His criticisms: The magazine's rankings contain “inaccurate” employment stats and “ineffective” career counseling. What's more, law schools collaborate with the magazine which, Haines argues, skews the profession's already-brutal entry-level environment.

“This is a plea for reform,” Haines wrote in an e-mail interview. He has forwarded his “official notice” to 10 law schools plucked “randomly” from U.S. News' top 100. He wants them to address “the public's overwhelming reliance on these controversial rankings” which, he contends, hurts law students by “increasing the cost of legal education.” Haines won't reveal his age or alma mater because, he said, his anonymity boosts the sense that young lawyers have a “united front.” But his blog describes what he's feeling — cramps, headaches, muscle weakness — and what he's lost, 10 pounds in 12 days.

“If the same tactics are used in (ranking) undergrad as in law school, then I have the same concerns,” Haines wrote to msnbc.com. “If you are undertaking a major where your undergrad institution is irrelevant, then you should not be cajoled into attending a higher-ranked institution at a higher cost just because someone says that is the only way to get hired.” For some students, the chance to attend college “is a matter of survival. Rankings ... should not exploit this desire.”

Haines' ravenous rant comes amid a feast of fresh college rankings. This month, U.S. News & World Report (law schools), the Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine all published separate lists. On Tuesday, U.S. News offers its “2011 Best Colleges” analysis.

Echoing the unemployed lawyer, however, a backlash is building against the thickening crowd of college reviewers. According to many parents, students and educators, the annual lists are misleading and unhelpful — and some fail to focus on a pressing issue: value.

“I do not like the rankings,” said Kristin Hiemstra, a high school guidance counselor in Chapel Hill, N.C. “The same way designer labels define the perceived value of the popular high school clique, designer college rankings define the perceived value of a particular school's education. In the same way poor-fitting designer clothes are a waste of money so is a poor (college) match. ... When a student is a good match for a school, they will learn more about themselves. ... This highly personal aspect of education is not measurable.”

Of course, many students pick colleges simply because the schools score high in exclusivity. The name on the diploma can make or break a job applicant's candidacy.

“When the Wall Street Journal ranked Johns Hopkins (University) as one of the 10 most expensive schools in the country, it cemented our decision — though it sounds strange,” said Judy Schaffer, who lives in Teaneck, N.J. Her son attends Hopkins. “We are willing to pay for the prestige, networking and quality of staff that Hopkins offers. ... The people who belittle the importance of top-ranked schools may not understand the value of the connections these schools provide.”

Still, the once-mighty power of college rankings has unquestionably slipped among parents who are shopping more cautiously for education, said Mike Sexton, whose two daughters recently graduated from colleges.

“The (lists) have lost their misplaced position of importance,” Sexton said. The erosion of their relevance, he added, has been accelerated by market clutter: “Every magazine has to have some slant on colleges and everybody and their mother keeps writing new books on college admissions.”

A college admissions executive himself, Sexton has joined other academics in specifically chastising U.S. News & World Report.

“I share some wide-held concerns about the ability for the magazine to determine ‘best.' This is not unique to U.S. News,” said Sexton, vice president of enrollment management at Santa Clara University. “In America, we want to keep score. We want winners and, therefore, ‘lessers.' We want simple answers to often complex questions, the college search being a prime example.”

Sexton is one of 15 college admissions officials who advise the Education Conservancy, a nonprofit launched in 2005 to help applicants “overcome commercial interference in college admissions,” its website says. In 2007, the Conservancy drafted a letter, signed by 65 college presidents, rebuking the U.S. News & World Report rankings as a tool of “false precision” that overemphasizes “prestige” and encourages “wasteful spending.” The 65 presidents, representing schools including Dickinson College, Drew University and San Francisco State, pledged not to cooperate with the magazine or use its rankings in promotional materials.

U.S. News & World Report still surveys, according to the magazine, more than 1,400 colleges to assemble its hierarchical pecking order of undergrad schools. To stack the schools, the magazine uses a weighted set of data points provided by the universities, including student retention, student selectivity and alumni giving, the magazine's website explains. What's more, U.S. News asks college presidents to assess their peers — asking them to score the academics at competing colleges from five (“distinguished”) to one (“marginal”).

“We believe we're filling a void,” said Robert Morse, the magazine's data research director. “The cost of education is going up faster than ever. There are reduced counseling resources at high schools from budget cuts. People are left on their own to try figure out where the best schools are. We're providing information to help them do that.”

That law colleges and legal firms apply significance to the U.S. News rankings is not the magazine's fault, said Morse, who vowed to “try to reach out to” Haines. He added that the rugged financial realities faced by new lawyers, including a decline in top-paying jobs, are beyond any magazine's control. “Students are getting frustrated — they're frustrated at the legal profession and the economy.”

But within the larger world of undergraduate schools, U.S. News also has been chided by educators for raising the stakes of student recruitment. Several colleges have overtly manipulated — and, thus, elevated — their standing in the magazine's rankings. A lofty position on that index can lure more applicants and, of course, increase revenue. During a 2009 gathering of the Association for Institutional Research in Atlanta, one educator revealed how such “gaming” occurred at Clemson University. Catherine Watt, who headed Clemson's institutional research office until 2006, told the forum that Clemson artificially inflated faculty salaries, purposely gave rival schools low grades and fudged class-size stats — all to ascend the U.S. News rankings.

“You're going to see this sort of gaming behavior in any system where the grading rubric is public knowledge,” said Jodi N. Beggs, who earned a master's degree in economics at Harvard University and who is completing her Ph.D. there.

Beggs was impacted by the rankings trickery in 2005 when she lectured on economics at Northeastern University. “I had to give two identical (non-interactive) lectures back-to-back because the department capped enrollment in the classes at 49 so that it could get a high score on (lists that lauded schools for) how many classes had fewer than 50 students. I don't think that this was really beneficial for the students; it (also) added to the costs for the university.

“I am not trying to criticize the university,” Beggs added. Northeastern was simply “playing within context of the system that has been set up for it.”

One of the chief distinctions the Princeton Review draws between its lists and competitors' rankings involves “gaming.” Because the Princeton Review collects feedback only from surveys of 12,000 students and parents — and plugs those into three previous years of data — “our rankings are not gameable,” said Robert Franek, senior vice president of the publication.

Best known for its lineup of top party schools, the Princeton Review (which is not affiliated with Princeton University) bases its assessments on how “students rate their schools. ... Best fit is what matters the most ... And that requires knowing way more about a school than its academic credentials.

“All college ranking lists aren't the same. But since the early 1990s when we debuted ... so many others have (emerged), it is understandable that people ... tend to see them all in the same old boat,” Franek added. “To some extent, applicants are suffering from ‘rankings fatigue.' Which ones can you trust?”

© 2010 msnbc.com.  Reprints

Video: Where are the best colleges?

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Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.

Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.

"This is not research to prove that the iPad is great," he says. "There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game."

Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and -- no small matter -- to lighten the typical college student's backpack.

Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drew complaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.

Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.

"The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," says Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He focuses on how multimedia can enhance learning. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

A Matter of Distraction

There's a lot to like about digital learning. Santa Clara University student Christopher Paschal, 19, for example, appreciated the

© 2010 USA TODAY under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.

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Mobile Tech Today

There's no doubt that the technological trend toward iPads and e-books in education offers students more and better information at lightning speed. But is more necessarily better? Some argue that the online environment promotes "superficial" learning, and studies suggest that gee-whiz technology doesn't necessarily help students study better.

Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.

Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new

technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.

"This is not research to prove that the iPad is great," he says. "There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game."

Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading

digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and -- no small matter -- to lighten the typical college student's backpack.

Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drew complaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused

network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.

Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.

"The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," says Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He focuses on how multimedia can enhance learning. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

A Matter of Distraction

There's a lot to like about digital learning. Santa Clara University student Christopher Paschal, 19, for example, appreciated the

1 | | | Next Page >

© 2010 USA TODAY under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.

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Mobile Tech Today

There's no doubt that the technological trend toward iPads and e-books in education offers students more and better information at lightning speed. But is more necessarily better? Some argue that the online environment promotes "superficial" learning, and studies suggest that gee-whiz technology doesn't necessarily help students study better.

Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.

Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new

technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.

"This is not research to prove that the iPad is great," he says. "There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game."

Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading

digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and -- no small matter -- to lighten the typical college student's backpack.

Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drew complaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused

network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.

Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.

"The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," says Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He focuses on how multimedia can enhance learning. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

A Matter of Distraction

There's a lot to like about digital learning. Santa Clara University student Christopher Paschal, 19, for example, appreciated the

1 | | | Next Page >

© 2010 USA TODAY under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.

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AND GOVERNMENT HEAVYWEIGHTS WILL BE IN WASHINGTON TODAY TO TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH MORE OF YOUR MONEY COULD GO INTO SAVING THE SYSTEM. MORE THAN SIX PERCENT OF BORROWERS NOW MORE THAN 60 DAYS BEHIND ON PAYMENTS MANY OF THE NATIONS HOME LOANS ARE NOW OWNED OR GUARANTEED BY FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC- BOTH TAKEN OVER BY THE GOVERNMENT IN 2008- AND TODAY THE SUBJECT OF A SUMMIT ON THE GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IN THE MORTGAGE MARKET, "I think we need far less government in our mortgage market and far more actual market incentives in actual market discipline and risk taking in our mortgage market. " TODAY'S SUMMIT IS UNLIKELY TO BRING QUICK CHANGES, THOUGH ALL AGREE THERE IS A LOT AT STAKE. FORMER SENATOR TED STEVENS WILL LAY IN REPOSE AT A CHURCH IN ANCHORAGE LATER TODAY. THE PUBLIC WILL BE ABLE TO PAY THEIR RESPECTS FROM 10AM TO 8PM. A FUNERAL SERVICE IS PLANNED FOR TOMORROW, THE 86-YEAR-OLD AND FOUR OTHERS WERE KILLED IN A PLANE CRASH AUGUST NINTH. STEVENS WAS THE LONGEST-SERVING REPUBLICAN SENATOR IN US HISTORY, WITH FORTY YEARS IN OFFICE. HERE'S ONE WE ALL PROBABLY REMEMBER, ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY IN 1998, PRESIDENT CLINTON TESTIFIED HE HAD AN "INAPPROPRIATE PHYSICAL RELATIONSHIP" WITH AN INTERN, THIS WOMAN, MONICA LEWINSKY. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME A SITTING PRESIDENT HAD TESTIFIED BEFORE A GRAND JURY INVESTIGATING HIS BEHAVIOR. THAT NIGHT CLINTON WENT ON NATIONAL TV, WHERE HE ADMITTED TO MISLEADING PEOPLE ON THE SUBJECT AND APOLOGIZED. CLINTON WAS LATER ACQUITTED ON IMPEACHMENT CHARGES AND FINISHED HIS TERM. ONCE AGAIN GONZAGA UNIVERSITY IS PROVING ITSELF TO THE NATION, THEY'VE DONE IT CONSISTENTLY NOW IN ATHLETICS AND IN ACADEMICS, US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, RANKING GU AS THE NUMBER FOUR BEST REGIONAL UNIVERSITY IN THE WEST, NUMBER TWO IN ALUMNI GIVING, NUMBER FOUR BEST VALUE AND 17TH IN THE NATION FOR ENGINEERING, ROUNDING OUT THE TOP FIVE REGIONAL UNIVERSITIES IN THE WEST, TRINITY COLLEGE IN TEXAS AT NUMBER ONE, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY AT TWO, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY AT THREE, GONZAGA UNIVERSITY IN FOURTH TIED WITH MILLS COLLEGE IN CALIFORNIA, ALSO MAKING THE TOP TEN LIST, WHITWORTH UNIVERSITY AT NUMBER NINE, IT APPEARS THAT A DETROIT-AREA TEENAGER HAS A BAD CASE OF "BIEBER FEVER. " HE'S A FAN OF JUSTIN BIEBER WHO ENDED UP IN A CYBER FIGHT WITH THE SINGING SENSATION, AND WHAT HE DID IS MAKING NATIONAL HEADLINES, 5-YEAR-OLD KEVIN KRISTOPIK WANTED TO FIND JUSTIN BIEBER'S PHONE NUMBER. SO, HE DID SOME RESEARCH AND FOUND BIEBER'S BEST FRIEND RYAN BUTLER'S FACEBOOK PAGE, AND FROM THERE FOUND THE PHONE NUMBER, AND SENT THE SINGING STAR SOME TEXTS SAYING HELLO, JUSTIN BIEBER WASN'T HAPPY, ENDED UP TWEETING KEVIN'S PHONE NUMBER TO HIS FANS, PRETENDING IT WAS HIS OWN, KEVIN RECEIVED 30- THOUSAND PHONE CALLS OVER THE COURSE OF THE DAY, SO DOES HE REGRET HACKING INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S FACEBOOK PAGE AND STARTING IT? "I REGRET IT. I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT. UM, BUT, I, I THINK MAYBE I DESERVED A PUNISHMENT. BUT I ALSO THINK THAT JUSTIN TOOK IT OVERBOARD. HE, I THINK HE ABUSED HIS POWERS AS A CELEBRITY. " BY THE WAY, JUSTIN BIEBER WAS IN THE DETROIT AREA THIS WEEKEND PLAYING TO A PACKED HOUSE, NO MENTION OF KEVIN, OR THEIR CYBER FIGHT, WAS MADE AT THIS CONCERT. WEATHER TZ JOINING US ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE JOINING US ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE THIS MORNING, KELLY MCPHEE OF EDEN PRAIRIE FACING MIDWEST CITY, OKLAHOMA IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME OF THE AMERICAN LEGION WORLD SERIES, MIDWEST CITY WILL HAVE TO BEAT EDEN PRARIE TWICE BECAUSE THE BOYS FROM MINNESOTA HAVE NOT LOST IN THIS TOURNAMENT.

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Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.

Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.

"This is not research to prove that the iPad is great," he says. "There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game."

Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and -- no small matter -- to lighten the typical college student's backpack.

Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drew complaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.

Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.

"The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," says Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He focuses on how multimedia can enhance learning. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

A Matter of Distraction There's a lot to like about digital learning. Santa Clara University student Christopher Paschal, 19, for example, appreciated the search function in his economics e-textbook, and said the included video clips offered "an alternative method of learning," and eliminated "the monotony of endless pages of re

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Photograph courtesy of the Los Gatos Storm Championships are hard to come by, but the Los Gatos Storm soccer team is making a habit of it. The Storm won the NorCal Premier League Cup final 4-2 over Juventus FC. This marks the second time in three years the Storm has claimed the cup. Players include, front row from left, David Frank (San Jose Frogs FC, PSA staff coach), Gabriel Luna (Cabrillo College), Cesar Garcia (Cruz Azul) and Dannylo Ayllon (San Jose Frogs FC), and back row from left, Eric Mash (Santa Clara University), Dan Oak (San Jose Frogs FC), Trevor McManamon (Boston University), Sam Najmeh (University of San Francisco), Chris Salcido (PSA staff coach) and Oscar Monjaras Cermeno (San Jose State). This team photo was taken on the soccer field at the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos, which is the Los Gatos Storm's home field.

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(Page 2 of 3)

Flock's new browser has a clean, uncluttered interface with a minimum of buttons and tabs. And because it is built on Chrome's open-source software, it can run any software extension available for Chrome, including features that allow the browser to automatically translate a Web page into English from other languages, or preview Adobe PDF documents without having to download them.

"It's hard sometimes to do less, in order to do more," Hardin said of the simplified design for the new browser. "That was a big focus -- to keep the power but still to keep it really simple."

Flock pulls your Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds into a single bar that scrolls down the right side of the page. When you see something interesting, you just click and the browser takes you right there. You can create your own custom groups to share content, or, by clicking on a bubble icon at the top of a page, instantly share a Web page with all your Twitter followers and Facebook friends. An upgrade will soon allow users to incorporate LinkedIn; a Mac version will soon be ready.

While Flock is a browser, MyWeboo is best thought of as a Windows file manager for the social Web. But instead of navigating between the C: drive and the E: drive on your PC, you click between Facebook or MySpace in the Internet "cloud."

Like Flock, MyWeboo has an interface that emphasizes simplicity, and there is a nice little bonus -- one of the MyWeboo "drives" is 1 gigabyte of free storage, one way that MyWeboo has elements of a cloud service like Google Documents. Besides allowing you to share pictures or other content to a large circle of friends via Facebook or Twitter, you can also use e-mail services like Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail to share with a selected group.

"We kept it simple," Keng said of the design. "We took a lot of things out."

MyWeboo, like Flock, is still a beta service that is constantly going through changes and refinements. Keng, who will be a freshman studying computer engineering at Santa Clara University in the fall, says the service has about 16,000 users. While Flock has a revenue-sharing deal with Google that makes it the browser's default

engine, MyWeboo already includes some display advertising, and Keng is bubbling with other ideas to monetize the service. She is also enlisting a corps of interns across the country to evangelize for MyWeboo on campuses such as San Jose State University. (continued...)

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© 2010 San Jose Mercury News under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.

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August 16, 2010 The Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association at 107 By Barbara Molony, Santa Clara University, PCB-AHA 2010 President
Some of us are old enough to remember differential pricing by region. Before the 1970s, ads in national magazines often listed two prices for clothing or appliances—one a general price and the other for purchases made “West of the Rockies.” Those mountains formed a remarkable barrier to commerce, and historians found crossing them daunting as well. At the dawn of the last century, when most of America's universities were located east of the Mississippi and transcontinental travel was slow, a West Coast historian would need two to three weeks to attend an annual meeting of the still-young AHA. Western AHA conferences like this past winter's meeting in beautiful San Diego were unheard of. In fact, before World War II, the AHA met only three times in cities touched by the Mississippi—New Orleans in 1903, St. Louis in 1921, and Minneapolis in 1931—although Midwestern venues like Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, and Madison often attracted the AHA. From the earliest years of the Association, members bravely traveled to meetings throughout the northeastern quadrant of the United States in the dead of winter. Recognizing that the association was one of American historians, not simply of United States historians, the AHA expanded its scope, meeting in Toronto in 1932. Clearly, East Coast bias was not the reason why no meetings were scheduled outside the region. Travel inconvenience for the majority of members—Easterners and Midwesterners—was more likely at play. The West Coast hosted its first annual meeting only after air travel became common and affordable. San Francisco lured the AHA in 1965 and six more times since then. Soon, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Diego welcomed the AHA. The AHA has changed in many ways during the past century—how strange the opening salutation of George Bancroft's 1886 presidential address to his “Brothers of the American Historical Association” would sound today—and geographic diversity is among those changes. In all, almost 25% of AHA annual meetings since 1965 have been in West Coast cities, and historians from around the country and the world have been able to travel to AHA meetings throughout North America. The Pacific Coast Branch of the AHA owes its birth in 1903 to the AHA leadership's decision to launch an auxiliary for West Coast historians who could not easily attend annual AHA meetings. But even after air travel made attending the AHA meetings easy, the PCB has continued to thrive as an organization. As the second oldest (after the AHA, of course!) ongoing historical association in the United States that encompasses every historical era and world region, we continue to redefine ourselves for the 21st century.  We have significant ties to the AHA, but also an independent executive office (Executive Director Peter Blodgett) and an excellent scholarly journal, Pacific Historical Review . The PCB awards two book prizes, two article prizes (the Koontz and the Turrentine Jackson), and a dissertation prize each year. This year, we initiated a new award, the PCB-AHA Presidents' Graduate Student Travel Award, to assist graduate students who are presenting papers at the conference. AHA members in the 22 states west of the Mississippi and four westernmost Canadian provinces are members of the PCB—as are subscribers to Pacific Historical Review who reside outside the region. Welcome to all of you who may not have known of your membership in the PCB! We hope you'll join us next August in Seattle, and invite your friends and colleagues from outside the region to PCB-AHA meetings. The conference will take place August 11-13, 2011, and its theme is Horizons of Change: The Unexpected, Unknown, and Unforgettable . Please see the PCB web site for the Call for Papers. The PCB has continued to expand its scope in recent years. This year's annual meeting , hosted by Santa Clara University from August 12 through August 14, had 56 panels and roundtables on U.S., Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African history. Environmental, feminist, diplomatic, cultural, religious, immigration, labor, borderlands, and economic historians presented papers, and two Presidential Panels were dedicated to the work of leading historians Asunción Lavrín (Latin America) and Rachel Fuchs (France). Although PCB conferences have tended to focus more on the history of the modern era, this year's conference boasted a remarkable five panels on medieval history. Scholars from throughout the United States and Canada as well as Europe, South America, and New Zealand are contributing to this year's program. And, as always, we welcome the Western Association of Women Historians, who hold a luncheon and lecture in conjunction with the PCB AHA meeting. As I hand over the presidency to Janet Fireman (editor-in-chief, California History ), I look forward to ever more fruitful ties with the AHA and to expanding our base of active members in the western region of the United States and Canada. Share this post: Email this page to a friend | Share | | | | Interested in joining the AHA? See our member benefits or join now ! Comments Submit a Comment: Name Please include first and last name. Remember E-mail http:// Message   Your e-mail is required but won't be posted. 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In an emerging battle over regulating Internet access, companies are taking sides.

Facebook, one of the companies that has flourished on the open Internet, indicated Wednesday that it did not support a proposal by Google and Verizon that critics say could let providers of Internet access chip away at that openness.

Meanwhile, an executive of AT&T, one of the companies that stands to profit from looser regulations, called the proposal a "reasonable framework."

Most media companies have stayed mute on the subject, but in an interview, media mogul Barry Diller called the proposal a sham.

And outside of technology circles, most people have not yet figured out what is at stake.

The debate revolves around net neutrality, which in the broadest sense holds that Internet users should have equal access to all types of information online, and that companies offering Internet service should not be able to give priority to some sources or types of content.

In a policy statement on Monday, Google and Verizon proposed that regulators enforce those principles on wired connections but not on the wireless Internet. They also excluded something they called "additional, differentiated online services."

In other words, on mobile phones or on special-access lanes, carriers such as Verizon and AT&T could charge content companies a toll for faster access to customers or, some analysts worry, block certain services from reaching customers altogether.

Opponents of the proposal say the Internet, suddenly, would not be so open anymore.

"All of our life goes through this network, increasingly, and if you can't reach your boss or get to your remotely stored work, or it's so slow that you can't get it done before you give up and you go to bed, that's a problem," said Allen Hammond IV, director of the Broadband Institute of California at Santa Clara University School of Law. "People need to understand that's what we're debating here."

Decisions about net neutrality rest with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and legislators, and full-throated lobbying campaigns are already under way on all sides.

The Google-Verizon proposal was essentially an attempt to frame the debate.

It set off a flood of reaction, much of it negative, from Web companies and consumer-advocacy groups.

In the most extreme situation that opponents envision, two Internets could emerge — the public one known today, and a private one with faster lanes and expensive tolls.

Google and Verizon defended the exemptions by saying that they were giving carriers the flexibility they need to ensure that the Internet's infrastructure remains "a platform for innovation."

Carriers say they need to be able to manage their networks as they see fit and generate revenue to expand them.

"Fast lanes"

Much of the debate rests on the idea of paid "fast lanes." Content companies would have to pay for favored access to a carrier's customers, so some websites or video services could load faster than others.

That would be a big change from the level playing field content companies now enjoy, Diller said last month. Speaking of the telecommunications carriers, he said, "They want the equivalent of having the toaster pay for the ability to plug itself into the electrical grid."

These fast lanes are fairly easy to understand. But what confused many was the suggestion by Google and Verizon that future online services that are not part of the public Internet should also be exempt from equal-access rules.

These services would be "distinguishable from traditional broadband Internet-access services," the two companies said in a joint blog post. "It is too soon to predict how these new services will develop, but examples might include health-care monitoring, the smart grid, advanced educational services or new entertainment and gaming options."

Exemption queries

Some experts were puzzled as to what these services might be and why such an exception might be necessary.

"Broadband that's not the Internet? I don't know what they're talking about," said David Patterson, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. "They seem to have an idea of something other than the public Internet as a way to ship information, but by nature, to have value it has to go to a lot of places, and right now, that's the packet-switched Internet."

Josh Silver, chief executive of the nonprofit group Free Press, said the exemptions amounted to "the cable-ization of the Internet," in that cable subscribers pay extra for premium tiers of service and for certain channels.

Silver's group is promoting a petition to the FCC titled, "Don't Let Google Be Evil." Silicon Valley investors have expressed trepidation that the new rules, if adopted, could dampen innovation, particularly for mobile startups.

Rise of wireless

The wireless Internet is quickly emerging as the dominant technology platform, said Matt Cohler, a general partner at Benchmark Capital, a prominent venture firm in Silicon Valley that has invested in startups, such as Twitter.

"It is as important to have the right protections in place for the newer platform as it is for the older platform."

Facebook sounded a similar note, saying in a statement that it supported net-neutrality principles for both wired and wireless networks.

"Preserving an open Internet that is accessible to innovators — regardless of their size or wealth — will promote a vibrant and competitive marketplace where consumers have ultimate control over the content and services delivered through their Internet connections," the company said.

Google's compromise

Technology companies, such as Amazon.com and eBay, also expressed concern with Google's compromise, but have been less vocal.

Some startups see possible advantages in tiered access. Danny Stein, the chairman of eMusic, a music-download service, said there needed to be Internet service that remained open and neutral, "but that doesn't mean there can't be premium options to appeal to some amazing consumer experience outside of the garden of net neutrality."

The silence of big-media companies, Comcast and the News Corp. for example, has been noticeable.

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WE'RE JOINED ON THE PHONE BY THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR FROM SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY. THAN I YOU FOR BEING WITH US, SIR. WHAT AHAPPENS NOW IN THE FEDERAL APPEALS COURT? HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE? WELL THE APPEALS COURT HAS SET A FAIRLY AGGRESSIVE SCHEDULE FOR ARGUMENT SO WE'RE LOOKING AT THE PAPERS IN THE CASE BEING FILED WITHIN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS AND ARGUMENTS SET FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF DECEMBER AND THEN FOLLOWING THAT, A FEW MONTHS UNTIL THE NINTH CIRCUIT ISSUES ITS OPINION. PROFESSOR, CAN I ASK YOU A QUICK QUESTION? OKAY THE PROPONENTS OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE HAVE THE OPTION OF TRYING TO GET OF APPEALING THIS STAY NOW TO THE SUPREME COURT IN THE INTERIM WHILE WE AWAIT FOR THE ENTIRE COURT TO HEAR IT? THE OPPONENTS OF PROPOSITION 8? THEY DO. I THINK THINK FOR STRATEGIC REASONS THEY WOULD DO THAT BUT THEY WOULD HAVE THAT OPTION. LET ME ASK YOU. DOES THE NINTH CIRCUIT TAKING THIS CASE MAKE IT MORE LIKELY NOW THAT ULTIMATELY THIS IS GOING TO BE BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES? WELL CERTAINLY, THE NINTH CIRCUIT TAKING THE CASE IS THE NECESSARY STEP BEFORE IT GETS TO THE SUPREME COURT. BUT ONE OF THE THINGS THAT THE ORDER TODAY FROM THE NINTH CIRCUIT SPECIFICALLY ASKED THE LITIGANTS TO ARGUE ABOUT IS WHETHER THE PROPONENTS OF PROPOSITION 8 ARE THE RIGHT LITIGANTS TO BE PRESSING THIS APPEAL. IF THEY'LL THEY ARE NOT THIS CASE MIGHT NEVER GET TO THE SUPREME COURT. WE'LL KEEP WATCHING. THANK YOU FOR BEING WITH US. THANK YOU. STAY WITH NBC BAY AREA FOR THE CONTINUING COVERAGE OF TODAY'S DECISION. WE'LL HAVE LIVE COVERAGE TONIGHT AT 6 00 AND 11 00.

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After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Jordanian pianist Zade Dirani, Known simply as Zade, began a grassroots effort to let the world know that what the hijackers did was not representative of his people or religion. His four-year tour included performances in synagogues, churches, community centers and homes, aswell as the more traditional concert venues. Today the 30-year-old musician splits his time between Miami Beach and Los Angeles. His CD and DVD is "One Night in Jordan," which shows off his compositions. Keep updated on his latest tour dates at zade.com.
Q What is your favorite vacation destination?
A Positano, Italy. The village is nestled on the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy, on the edge of a mountain overlooking the water. The bougainvillea framed against the white walls, the fresco domes, the scent of jasmine gently traveling through narrow pathways and the reflection of the entire village in the sea all conspire to create the ultimate enchantment. I have a love affair with the Mediterranean Sea in general. It has a certain magic that has been of tremendous inspiration to my music. . . . One day I would like to open a restaurant on the Amalfi Coast.
Q Where are your favorite weekend getaways?
A When in the United States, Laguna Beach, Calif.; when in the Middle East, Byblos, Lebanon.
Q What are your favorite hotels?
A Hotel Palazzo Murat (palazzomurat.it) in Positano, the Ciragan Palace (kempinski.com/istanbul) in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea (kempinski.com/deadsea) in Jordan.
Q What are your favorite restaurants?
A Bab Al Mina (babelmina.com) in Byblos, Lebanon, Ago (agorestaurant.com) in Miami Beach, Fla., Fakher Al Deen in Amman, Jordan, Three Square CafØ & Bakery (rockenwagner.com) in Venice, Calif., Ivy at the Shore (ivyattheshore.com) in Santa Monica, Calif., and Simon Pearce (www.simonpearce.com/category/restaurants.do) in Quechee, Vt.
Q What are your five favorite cities?
A London The city's majesty captivates me.
I love the museums and history. I also like getting away to Windsor and Canterbury whenever possible.
Paris St. Germain des Pres is a lovely Parisian neighborhood, and Cafe de Flore is my favorite place to have cafe au lait and read a good book.
New York City The city feels like the center of the world. I like hanging out in SoHo, walking the cobblestone streets, browsing art galleries and meeting friends for drinks at the Mercer Hotel.
Beirut It boasts beautiful eastern Mediterranean architecture and some of the best music in the Middle East, and the food is out of this world. Actually, my favorite burger in the world -- after In-N-Out -- ironically, can be found in Beirut at Roadster Diner. The one I like has melted mozzarella cheese. . . . I think it's called Dynamite and rightfully so.
San Francisco When I first came to the United States, I was 18 years old, and I was studying at Santa Clara University. My friends and I used to take weekend trips to San Fran. I remember the first time, none of us knew where we were going, and we just decided to experience the city by foot, much like I do now everywhere I go. It was also in San Fran that I was first introduced to Starbucks and got hooked ever since.

COLUMN CELEBRITY TRAVELER ZADE DIRANI

Copyright © 2010 Orlando Sentinel Communications

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We must begin discussion about rationing health care

The classic question is this: What is a life worth?

Citing Jewish teaching, Washington, D.C., Rabbi Daniel Zemel said that if you put one human life on one side of a scale, and you put the rest of the world on the other side, the scale is balanced equally.

"Perhaps," Princeton bioethics Professor Peter Singer writes, "that is how those who resist health care rationing think." Certainly, when the life in question is ours or a loved one, its value rises.

Tell us your view

The Record wants to know what you think about health care rationing. We want to hear from readers, including our religious and civic leaders, those in the medical community and those who've had to make tough decisions about health care for themselves or a loved one.

Please send your comments to editor@recordnet.com or to Letters to the Editor, The Record, P.O. Box 900, Stockton, CA 95201.

But it is exactly that question that Americans must address, because the value of a life is at the heart of the hard decisions this nation must make about allocating health care. Should an 85-year-old man undergo a heart transplant? Should he receive that heart if it means a 35-year-old mother of two will go without? Should a heart pacemaker be given to a patient whose organs are failing but whose life might be extended a few weeks by the procedure?

These questions are simpler in the abstract than they are if you are or someone you love is the one in the hospital bed. We all want the best health care available. We'll fight vigorously for that care if it is needed by our child or spouse or parents. But at what point are we just prolonging death rather than life? At what point is the cost simply too high?

We've rationed health care. We do it by the patients' ability to pay. Those with money, or health insurance, simply get better health care than those without.

One of the flash points of the debate preceding the vote on the health care reform bill was the fear that health care will be rationed by nameless, faceless, heartless government bureaucrats. There would be "death panels" who would "pull the plug" on grandma. The reality, of course, is that under the existing system, insurance company bureaucrats made such life-and-death decisions every day by deciding what procedures and medicine will be covered and what will not be.

"If our aim is to use costly resources more effectively, then we ought to deny treatment to all patients whose prognosis indicates a short life span, chronic illness, or little likely improvement in the quality of life, rather than denying treatment simply on the basis of age," Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez of Santa Clara University wrote in 1990.

They were not advocating "death panels," to use the catchphrase of reform opponents. But they, and an increasing number of medical professionals, ethicists, economists and others, are saying there must be a more uniform system of deciding who gets what, when and how much.

These difficult questions cross the boundaries of religion, culture, age, upbringing, personal experience and income. The economic reality is that at some point, our country needs to decide what level of care will be funded by tax dollars. The fastest growing age group in America is people older than 80. We are living longer and our health is better. But inevitably, with age comes increasing health problems and the costs associated with them.

Medicare, the nation's primary provider of health care insurance for America's aging and disabled, moves closer to insolvency every year. The speed at which it reaches that point increases as our population ages.

We must begin a calm, rational national discussion about what this nation can and cannot afford for medical care. That means looking at the value of life itself. We do this already, of course, as Professor Singer wrote last year.

Twenty years ago, he noted, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences looked at the cost of installing seat belts in all school buses. Doing so might save one life a year, but at a cost of $40 million. The idea went nowhere. In 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Commission set new fire resistance standards for mattresses after a study concluded that while it would cost $343 million, some 270 lives could be saved. Since the commission valued a human life at around $5 million, the conclusion was the standard was a good value.

All this makes it seem like just a math problem. Anyone who has sat beside the bed of a dying loved one knows it is far from that. But math, money and economics are a real part of this.

According to CBS' "60 Minutes," "Last year, Medicare paid $55 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives. That's more than the budget for the Department of Homeland Security, or the Department of Education. And it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenses may have had no meaningful impact. Most of the bills are paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked."

We can't go on like this. But we can't stop until we have a national discussion about the value of life. We must hold these discussions in our churches and synagogues and mosques, in our schools and civic organizations and halls of government. And we must hold them in the quiet across our breakfast table.

Eventually, we must come to accept that medical science, powerful and life-giving as it is, is never going to be powerful enough to give us endless life.

But surely with its power to sustain the sickest among us, it has the power to also bankrupt us.

Health care is a limited resource. We must ration just as other nations have done for years. But we must ration in rational ways.