Naomi Reiter

Tea Party for Tolerance

Political party affiliation is a personal choice, but some parties seem to be significantly less tolerant than others, especially the Tea Party (or as Bill Maher refers to its members, the "Tea Baggers"). According to Wikipedia, "82% [of Tea Party members] do not believe that gay and lesbian couples should have the legal right to marry, and that about 52% believed that 'lesbians and gays have too much
political power.'"

That's pretty frightening to ALL Americans when you consider that marriage is a civil right. After all, denying civil rights to ANY group of Americans is a nasty slippery slope that our beautiful country doesn't want to slide down (again). And to think that a group of Americans identified strictly by their lifestyle has "too much political power" indicates some personal fear, which leads to intolerance, hate, and violence.

What's interesting is that Tea Party members may not realize that a "Tea Party" (a.k.a. a Tea Dance) is actually an afternoon outdoor social enjoyed by the gay and transgender community. That's right Tea Baggers, you named your intolerant political party after an extremely tolerant, fun, positive, hard body, outdoor
dance party. 

In the spirit of tolerance, I say we hold a Tea Party for Tolerance! Who's with me?

'Libel Tourism' Deflected by SPEECH Act

President Obama today signed the SPEECH Act—a federal "libel tourism" bill—into law, thereby protecting Americans' First Amendment right to free speech without having to worry about being indicted in other countries.

Introduced in the Senate by Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Ranking Member Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), the bill passed both houses of
Congress unanimously. 

"Libel tourists" file libel lawsuits against American writers in countries that do not have our strong free speech protections, and the new law (HR 2765) guards U.S. writers from these frivolous suits against their spoken, printed, and posted words by granting a "a cause of action for declaratory judgment relief against a party who has brought a successful foreign defamation action whose judgment undermines the First Amendment"—and provides for legal fees. 

"In signing the SPEECH Act into law, President Obama has established a needed defense of freedom of expression in the United States and for every American who choose to exercise it responsibly,” said Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, Director of the American Center for Democracy, and founder of the movement against libel tourism.

Ehrenefeld had personal experience with libel tourism when she was sued in the U.K. by an al-Qaeda funder after she published a book, In Funding Evil, on the subject. She lost the case despite a lack of jurisdiction, but New York State Legislature quickly passed "Rachel's Law," in April 2008, enabling the New York courts to take jurisdiction over foreign libel plaintiffs who sue New York authors and publishers abroad. Seven states have followed New York's lead since then, and now, every American is protected under the SPEECH law.

As publishing has developed a more prominent presence on the Internet and mobile platforms, this new law is timely in its enforcement of the U.S. Constitution and American mores.

Naomi Reiter to wed Prescott Shibles

Hey, check out this item from the Manasquan Coast Star... :D

Click here for our overseas debut! 

Publishers: 'Unclench your hoard of content gems'

Publishers traditionally protect their assets, dragon-like, in an effort to offer their audience something fresh and unique. That model is now giving way to audience demand for an interactive content experience. It's time for online publishers to get a little kumbaya and embrace the open application programming interface (API).

“Have an elegant contextual integration between social media and your content,” KickApps CEO Alex Blum declared to publishers during a discussion about how to monetize social networks and communities at the Digital Innovators' Summit 2010 in Berlin.

To do that, publishers are working with the APIs of various “it” social platforms. So how does an API work? An open API is an interface with a set of functions for a software system, cloud-based, that allows developers to create the seamless relationship between a publishing brand and social platforms such as Facebook that Blum suggested.

In response to the question of how publishers were supposed to keep up with the ever-evolving Facebook—a platform riddled with redesigns and third-party applications—Facebook, Germany, commercial director Scott Woods stressed the importance of developers in the publishing process.

According to an Inside Facebook post, Facebook use in Germany between February and March saw a nearly 16 percent uptick—growing by over one million users to reach 7,737,080 in March—so Woods is likely aware of the need for publishers to plug into what they may see as the Brat Prince Facebook. 

But with all that unique content, publishers are poised to create and sell useful applications, games and other interactive content to place on platforms like Facebook, which has 400 million global users, according to Woods. eMedia Vitals' Sean Blanda recently tweeted from South by Southwest that mobile news applications are garnering longer user engagement than games (“nearly 10 minutes per session”). Woods advised asking users what they expect from you and what they're doing on your site in order to blend your media brand into user activities. 

“You have to change with the constantly evolving platform,” offered Woods, advising online publishers and their developers that Facebook has launched a road map for developers, both long- and short-term. Google Wave, Twitter and most other social platforms also make their APIs available to developers, in order to encourage engagement from media and e-commerce businesses. 

“What it comes down to, publishers, is that you must unclench your hoard of content gems and trust that users want a community-based approach to content,” said Woods. “[It's about] getting users closer to your brand.”

Google Promises no Changes to Picnik—Yet

I'm a big fan of open-source image editing service Picnik. I like it so much, I even shelled out around $25 to become a premium user this year. Not only is it the only well-oiled cloud-based image editor I've found, its freemium model is generous—all essential editing features are included in the basic service. Photoshop may still be king, but for small netbooks like mine, three-year-old Picnik is the way to go.

When I received an ominous email from Picnik (ominous not in design—Picnik is notoriously upbeat—but for the fact that no news is good news) March 4, I naturally became apprehensive. Was the service discontinued? Did they decide that their fair premium price was a little too fair?

It turns out the big news is that Picnik was purchased by Google (the deal was announced March 1). The service will remain the same, for now, and Picnik users will not be required to set up a Gmail account—yet. (But, really, who doesn't have one of those?)

Let's just hope that, as Google slowly but surely takes over every facet of our lives, it remains a kind and generous leader.

Cozy up to 2010 Olympic Games on Twitter

I can't even stand how excited I am for the 2010 Winter Olympics—too bad I live 3,000 miles away from this year's host, Whistler, British Columbia, and I'm really bad at showing up for TV shows on time. But I do have UberTwitter installed on my BlackBerry, which is how I get most of my news these days (I know).

So, clearly I'm going to have to appease myself with a whole lot of Winter Games coverage via short-burst text messaging. Interested?

Here are 5 Twitter profiles to keep you abreast of what's going on up north:

@WhistlerBlckcmb 

@CityofVancouver 

@Shaun_White 

@ApoloOhno 

@verified/olympians 

Go U.S.A.!

Sa Pa Se?

I've always believed that disasters of any magnitude occur to shock us out of our self-absorption and remind us to be a community. Whether or not that level of organization to the universe exists is a mystery, but the fact remains that it is time for us to pull together as a global community to help the people 
of Haiti.

We can't even begin to comprehend what they are going through. Give up your lattes this week, do your own manicure this month, stay in for game night for a few Saturdays, anything to give a little to people who have nothing. 

Long term, Haiti now has a generation of amputees and Healing Hands for Haiti is going to need help to build the island's first physical medicine and
rehabilitation institute. 

We're all in this life together.

Map bule.

Back to Basics: Ed2010 in 2010

We love Ed2010! It helped us get a toe hold in this slippery industry called publishing. Take a look at this chat with founder and president Chandra Turner (also executive editor at Parents magazine—ooh-la-la-la!).

B&N Nook: What Goes Around Comes Around?

I've been reading up on e-readers lately and it appears that one of the most interesting features of Barnes & Noble's Nook is its "LendMe" technology, as described on the company website:

Share favorite eBooks with your friends or family. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time. Just choose the eBook you want to share and send it to your friend's nook – or to any PC or Mac OS® or any iPhone™ or iPod touch® with the free Barnes & Noble eReader software downloaded on it. *BlackBerry® & other smartphones will be coming in early 2010.

The tagline for LendMe is "What goes around comes around." So, if I buy a B&N Nook ($259, back-ordered until February 2010), and pay around $10 to read a copy of The Time Traveler's Wife, then "lend" my copy to my friend who bought a Nook ($259), B&N makes $528—instead of $538, had my friend bought her own copy of The Time Traveler's Wife to read on her Nook. (However, B&N probably only has to pay one licensing fee for the copy of The Time Traveler's Wife that I bought, rather than two fees had each of us bought a copy.) 

Further, B&N has tapped into a tried-and-true psychological phenomenon that has worked for everyone from the airport beggars of the 70s to the neo-hippy kids of the 90s: Give a person something—no matter how small—and that person will feel compelled to pay you back in some way. For example, my friend and I are in B&N and see that if we both buy a Nook, we can share books, so one of us gets free books, or we both get them for half the price if we work together. We each buy a Nook and B&N has already made $518 off of the two of us, and will continue to make money off of us, either incrementally as we purchase one book to share, or in upgrades as we become accustomed to using our devices and will need the latest models.

Of course, if I share the content to my friend's PC, Mac, iPhone or iPhone Touch, my friend will have had to register with B&N and download its e-reader software, with the added bonus that any content I share will act as a personalized advertisement for B&N's Nook. Apparently, what goes around does come around—right back to B&N.

Shiny New Ad Models

I posted this poll nearly a year ago when the sky was falling. In the end, the majority of respondents (46 percent) thought that magazine ad revenue would have bounced back by now. Maybe it has--People Stylewatch gained more than 87 ad pages in December (year-over-year), according to min editor-in-chief Steve Cohn. 

Twenty-three percent of my poll respondents thought that print and online magazine ad sales would come around in 2010, but I see exciting new platforms, apps, blogs and other hybrid new media innovations that will at once make our lives ever more interesting, and kill off legacy media ad sales for good. 

When I first posted this poll, my vote was for 2010, but that's right around the corner and I can't wait to see the new ad models that will emerge with each shiny new toy.