uk-shec.org

Other Third-party Reaction

Facebook will continue to make independent decisions about the timing and rollout of products. While these must be consistent with the Principles and in compliance with the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, they will not be subject to the notice and comment or voting requirements.

We’re also putting together a council.

User Council

The Statement of Rights and Responsibilities was drafted to address the common issues raised by users on the officially established Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities Group, jointly administered by the company and two concerned users, Julius Harper of Los Angeles and Anne Kathrine Yojana Petterøe of Oslo, Norway.

Facebook press release on new governance plan

10:58
[Comment From Gabriel:] For anyone interested, I just found this document (http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=85587) probably explaining what is happening exactly… basically, users will be able to review, vote and edit on any change proposed to their TOS

Following the first Town Halls, The Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities will be the first set of policies subject to a vote, which may include other alternatives. The vote will be open to all Facebook users active as of February 25, 2009. The results of the vote will be made public and will be binding, if more than 30 percent of all active registered users vote.

We’re happy to roll out these policies today

Openness and transparency isn’t just an end state. It’s a process to get get there.

If there’s a large amount of discourse, then we’ll put something up for a vote.

Did you not learn from previous changes that caused an uproar, like beacon, that users were likely to rebel against changes in your terms of service? Why did it take this latest flap to implement these changes?

11:10 One of the 10 Principles of Facebook Service is “Ownership and Control of Information,” which i assume means *user* ownership and control…

The other thing that’s important: The mechanisms we’ve rolled out for user involvement and empowerment.

11:26 Schrage: What was was proposed as the new TOS was consistent with other sites. The irony was that some of the most critical blogs had their own TOSes that were more broad than ours.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO

11:21 Z: If there’s a change we put out that’s noncontroversial, there won’t be a vote. But if it looks controversial, we’ll put it to vote.

The rights and responsibilties are the operating rules of the site, for us and for the users too.

After the comment period ends, Facebook will review and consider submissions. Facebook will then republish the Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, incorporating any changes it has made. The company will also provide users a summary of the most common and significant comments received, including its response to those comments, where appropriate.

11:31 Stacy Kramer, Paid Content:

But Mark said the comparison was not appropriate. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard.

Z: Our new TOS was similar to other TOSes on the Web. It was more of a contract than a governing document.

11:21 Z: It’s really critical we bake this user feedback into governance

Releases draft principles and statement of rights and responsibilities for user review, comment, and vote

The silver lining of the last few weeks: People feel a visceral connection to the rights and responsilbites, and this gives us a good way to involve them

Ironically, the change we made was to shorten the previous TOS from 15 pp to 5. But we made a few mistakes.

What did you learn from News Feed experience that you could have taken into this. Why did it take so long? (sounds like my question?)

We should have been communicating about them (newsfeed, beacon) more broadly. Ultimately it was very good. We learned that being as transparent as possible was a good thing.

There will be periods of time for discourse.

Within the framework of our rules, we’ll build the best product we can.

Question: Do you comply with the laws of the most stringent country you operate in?

“As people share more information on services like Facebook, a new relationship is created between Internet companies and the people they serve,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. “The past week reminded us that users feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, not just the information they share.”

Transparency and User Input

“The idea that a major company like Facebook would give its users a vote in how the service is governed is remarkable,” said Julius Harper, a Facebook user and a co-founding administrator of the People Against the New Terms of Service group on Facebook. “This decision should go far in restoring people’s trust, and I hope it sets a precedent for other online services to follow.”

Facebook Opens Governance of Service and Policy Process to Users

Elliott: Look at the statement of rights and responsiblities. We have terms for users, developers, advertisers. We’ve shrunk 44pp of materials to about 5, including all three of those terms.

2. This is more foundational. This is one of the only online services where people share so much information.

11:37 Over and out!

Over the coming weeks, users will have the opportunity to review, comment, and vote on these documents. An update to the Privacy Policy is also planned, and this change will be subject to similar input.

11:35 Last question: Ray Valdez, Gartner: How do you fill the gap between plain english agreement and the legal governing doc on the site?

11:05 This new community-aware TOS plan is really interesting… can’t wait to hear Zuck discuss it.

11:17 Z: New changes to the doc will be through a process of notice and comment.

Answer: Not on topic.

11:36
[Comment From Danny:] good luck!

Previously:
EPIC readying federal complaint over Facebook privacy policy.
Facebook: Relax, we won’t sell your photos.
Facebook backs down on privacy terms.

Z: THis is all about trusting our users. And it will result in the best outcome: the best community.

11:14 Zuckerberg:

What we’re annoucning today is new forms of user contols.

We’re talking today about policy, not product.

Facebook privacy press conference live blog 10:49 Rafe: Good morning

The new docs do more than address the confusion over what happened over the past few weeks.

11:18 And now… Questions.

11:16 Z:

It’s a big step, but we’re trying to move the world towards openness.

Last week, we put up old terms after we put up new terms.

Soon, the vast amount of info on the Web will by like this, just shared by ordinary people. So terms of service need to become like this: governing documents.

Ted Elliott: FB General Counsel: We comply with all laws (i think that’s what he said)

There will be hundreds and thousands of product changes going forward, and that’s not what we’re talking about. This is about the rules and framework.

11:36 I’m going to go write up a Webware post on the new terms/policies now.

11:18 Z:

11:17 Z:

If users approve the draft Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, then all future policy changes would be eligible for a vote by users, provided the level of intensity of user interest would justify it. User interest would be determined by the number of users who comment on any proposed change during the comment period.

11:15 Zuck:

11:37 Sorry i couldn’t get to them all or forward them to the FB team. Will keep them all in mind as I work on my followup.

The governing docs are the framework of how we think about that.

11:23 My question now:

The purpose for FB is to make the world more open and transparent.

Founded in February 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

11:11 Schrage: You (press) should all have copies of the release now. (I do, it’s in the story)

11:20 Kara Swisher: How did you change things without this plan in place. It seems like you just changed the TOS w/o thinking about it.

Elliott: We comply with appropriate laws (didn’t answer as far as I could tell)

Zuckerberg: This announcment is about policy, not product.

Facebook shared today’s news with industry experts and concerned users who offered the following comments in response:

There are new principles… these are the aspirational goals we have for FB and how we want to craft FB going forward and make FB more open.

11:32 Kramer: How important is this financially?

“Companies like ours need to develop new models of governance,” Zuckerberg added. “Rather than simply reissue a new Terms of Use, the changes we’re announcing today are designed to open up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies and our future.”

11:02
[Comment From Alonis:] Hi all! So FB is proposing users will be able to review, vote and edit on any change proposed to their TOS ? Well, golly! That would be a great way to handle online community TOS agreements!

We took last week as a strong signal of how much people cared about FB and how much they want to govern it.

11:28 Question from a guy at Forbes (missed his name, sorry): As an increasingly international organization… are you considering international laws?

“This truly breaks new ground by sending a message to the Facebook community that their expectations about how information is used really do matter,” said Jules Polonetsky, co-chair and director of the Future of Privacy Forum. “A company formally handing over a business decision to a user vote is a dramatic step forward for transparency and user control.”

If these documents are approved, then all future policy changes would be subject to notice and comment periods of varying lengths, depending upon the nature of the change. Following the comment period, Facebook would publish a final policy proposal that reflects the comments received.

The document evolved from the Facebook Principles, and will govern Facebook’s relationship with users and others who interact with it. Once finalized, the Statement will take the place of Facebook’s existing Terms of Use, Developer Terms of Service, and the Facebook Advertising Terms and Conditions.

To be clear: We do not say we own user content and we’re sorry for the confusion.

11:24 Z: 1. Beacon wasn’t a change in terms, it was a feature.

Direct Voting

Elliot Schrage, VP Privacy

More About the New User Participation Mechanisms

PALO ALTO, Calif. - February 26, 2009 - Facebook today announced a new approach to site governance that offers its users around the world an unprecedented role in determining the future policies governing the service. Facebook released the first proposals subject to these new procedures–The Facebook Principles, a set of values that will guide the development of the service, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that make clear Facebook’s and users’ commitments related to the service.

11:36 Thanks all for your attention and comments.

The Facebook Principles are derived from the belief that certain values should guide the company’s efforts to achieve its mission of making the world more open and connected. The 10 Principles include the “Freedom to Share and Connect,” “Fundamental Equality” of people on Facebook, “Ownership and Control of Information,” and other basic tenets of the Facebook service. Achieving these Principles should be constrained only by limitations of law, technology, and evolving social norms about sharing.

The document also codifies the specific requirements that users be given notice, an opportunity to comment, and, in certain cases, approval authority through a vote for policy changes.

11:23 Schrage: We underestimated the sense of ownership people feel over the site.

Z: It doesn’t matter what the industry standard is. This was an opportunity to have a dialog…

11:10 HERE WE GO.

This also addresses specific concerns raised by users on the Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities Group. Users are invited to comment on the Principles, and on the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, by joining the following new groups specifically created for such comments; Principles at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54964476066; and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities should join the group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67758697570.

Principles of the Facebook Service

Statement of Rights and Responsibilities

“This is an unprecedented action. No other company has made such a bold move towards transparency and democratization,” said Simon Davies, director, Privacy International. “The devil will be in the detail but, overall, we applaud these positive steps and think they foreshadow the future of Web 2.0. We hope Facebook will realize these extraordinary commitments through concrete action, and we challenge the rest of the industry to exceed them.”

11:29 Brian Deacon, Investors Businss Daily: What are you doing to deter phishing and ID theft issues.

11:13 Zuckerberg: Today we’re talking about the new governing documents for Facebook from here on.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted a press conference that started at 11 a.m. PST Thursday to discuss “the new steps Facebook is taking to improve user understanding and ownership of the Facebook terms of service and, more generally, the policies of the Facebook service.” The play-by-play is here. Facebook’s full announcement is posted below as well.

Facebook also announced its intention to establish a user council to participate more closely in the development and discussion of policies and practices. As a start, the company indicated that it would invite the authors of the most insightful and constructive comments on the draft documents to serve as founding members of the group.

About Facebook

11:35 And that’s it!

The document, which condensed almost 40 pages of legal jargon into fewer than six pages, emphasizes clarity and accessibility. It reaffirms that users, not Facebook, own the content they share through Facebook services and that Facebook’s permission to use that content expires when users delete the content or terminate their accounts.

11:11 On the call:

“Facebook’s decision to adopt a notice and comment model of rule making demonstrates a truly unique commitment to transparency,” said Aron Cramer, president and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility. “This step sets a new standard for corporate transparency and stakeholder engagement by applying the principles of social networking in fundamentally new and important ways.”

10:59 Gabriel, that’s what this conference will be about. Intresting new way to get the community involved in writing its own laws. Surprised it took FB this long to figure this out.

Ted Eillot, General Counsel

11:36
[Comment From Sean:] Thanks Rafe. Appreciate this.

Facebook committed to holding virtual Town Halls following the announcement of the new Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities for 30 days, with the comment period scheduled to close at 12:01 a.m. PDT on March 29. During this time, users have an opportunity to comment on the proposed policy.

TeliaSonera in Sweden and Norway has signed on. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI are onboard, and in Canada, it’s Rogers Wireless, Telus, and Bell Canada. Sixteen more telecommunications companies will launch their LTE 4G services after 2010.

With earlier launches of new mobile-network standards, handset availability has been a limiting factor for the commercial launch of the service. In the GSA report, two mobile players have already predicted release dates of their LTE phones. Sweden’s Ericsson says it will have an LTE-capable platform for commercial release in 2009 and will deliver mobile products based on the platform in 2010. South Korea’s LG has announced that its first LTE mobile phones will likely reach the market in 2010.

Fierce competition has arisen to become the world’s first LTE operator in an arena regarded as the next generation of mobile phone service and a huge draw for customers.

For users, 4G wireless technology is primarily about higher data rates to match the increasing capabilities being offered by phones. But consumers probably won’t experience the full impact of 4G until 2012 or 2013, when Strategy Analytics forecasts that the global LTE handset market will increase from 70 million sales units to 150 million.

Twenty-six operators are committed to the long-term evolution 4G standard, according to research released this week by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. While the forum for GSM and 3G suppliers worldwide decidedly has a stake in promoting LTE, the number indicates growing momentum for the standard, which promises download data rates of at least 100Mbps.

Ten network operators are ready to launch their networks by 2010, according to the report. In the U.S., these include Verizon, which committed to 4G at the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February; MetroPCS; and CenturyTel.

First, PC unit growth is decelerating and the remaining source of growth is increasingly in the sub-$1,000 market where Apple does not play. Second, even in the best of scenarios, Apple’s earnings per share growth will decelerate meaningfully from June quarter levels. A combination of tough compares (with the previous years figures) and investments in
iPhone growth drive our December quarter earnings per share to a decline of 8 percent year over year, down from +29 percent growth June.

Apple fell as low as $105.77 a share in intraday trading, down substantially from its close of $128.24 on Friday. Apple’s shares sold off sharply after Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock.

In a worsening consumer spending environment we are downgrading from outperform to sector perform on: 1) reduced visibility growth, margins. 2) elevated risks to valuation.

Morgan added that it expects Apple to offer a more conservative guide to Wall Street and investors for the three-month period ending in December.

Morgan Stanley not only revised its recommendation for the stock, but also lowered its fiscal 2009 earnings estimate to $5.47 a share from $5.91 a share.

In listing its reasons for its revisions, Morgan Stanley said in a research note:

Apple’s shares fell 17.5 percent in early trading Monday, as two noted brokerage firms scaled back their recommendations to a “hold” from a “buy.”

RBC noted in its report that its September data showed the number of those intending to purchase a
Mac laptop within the next 90 days has dropped to 29 percent, compared with 34 percent in August, and those expecting to purchase a Mac desktop fell to 26 percent from 30 percent in the same period.

RBC Capital, meanwhile, downgraded Apple’s stock based on “elevated risks” from a slowdown in consumer spending.

According to RBC’s research note:

Save time with Thunderbird’s Quick Search
Custom views are great if you know ahead of time what you’ll be looking for, but you can also create a “view” on the fly by converting a search into a virtual folder. Press Alt-I, Tab to move the cursor to the search box, press Alt-down arrow to display the search-parameters drop-down menu, use the arrow keys to navigate to your desired parameter, press Tab again to select it, and type your search term. When the results appear, choose Save Search as a Folder, rename the folder and make other changes (or accept the defaults), and click OK. The folder appears in the left pane in whichever location you chose for it in the New Saved Search Folder dialog box.

Compared with Outlook and other commercial e-mail programs (are there any other commercial e-mail programs left?) Mozilla’s free Thunderbird e-mail client has a lot going for it. Not the least of Thunderbird’s time-saving features are its search capabilities.

To create your own message view, click Customize in the View drop-down menu, and choose New in the Customize Message Views dialog box, or select one of the existing views and click Edit. In the Message View Setup window, choose either “Match all of the following” or “Match any of the following,” and make your selections in the location and parameters drop-down menus. Enter the text you want to search for in the text box, and click the plus sign to add additional parameters. When you’re done, click OK twice. The view you just created will appear in the View box, and messages matching your selected parameters will display automatically.

(Credit:
Mozilla Foundation)

If you don’t see the search toolbar directly above the main Thunderbird window, click View > Toolbars > Search Bar. By default, you can view all your mail, all your unread mail, all mail with one of Thunderbird’s five built-in labels attached (Important, Work, Personal, To Do, Later), mail from people in your address book, messages received recently, mail with attachments, and mail that the program has identified as “Not Junk.”

Create a custom view in Thunderbird to filter your messages with a single click.

(Credit:
Mozilla Foundation)

Tomorrow: The perils of trying to break the Microsoft habit.

Thunderbird's View options let you sort your mail into several prefab categories.

According to a developer who had contacted AppleInsider about the news, the change means that some applications are getting more exposure among iTunes shoppers. Developers had even gone so far as to change their pricing to get better screen real estate on the store’s pages.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

While this information has been available on the
iPhone version of the App Store since the 2.2 firmware update, users searching for new applications in iTunes have had a less exploratory experience.

iTunes now features the top free and paid applications, which sandwich each category's listing pages.

Apple on Thursday night rolled out a new look to its App Store directory, putting more of an emphasis on both the top paid and free applications within each category’s listing pages. These lists now appear on the left and right sides of the results, giving users a chance to see what’s currently the cream of the crop.

“Thus all I need to do to intercept the messages from his girlfriend is to place the phone in emergency mode and wait 30 seconds for the next sickly sweet message,” Kraft writes.

Setting the iPhone to emergency call mode allows someone to see incoming text messages even if the passcode lock is turned on.

The unnamed boy, son of blogger Karl Kraft, turns on the passcode lock and disables SMS Preview in order to prevent his parents from seeing any messages, Kraft wrote on his blog.

A 12-year-old who uses his
iPhone mostly for texting with his girlfriend has discovered what looks like a new vulnerability with the device.

A different security hole related to password-protected iPhones was discovered in August, and last month a researcher disclosed that the iPhone captures all the activities of a user in order to enable the cool fading applications effect.

Those settings block the display of incoming text messages and show an alert saying “New Text Message” if an SMS comes through while the phone is locked. However, if the phone is set to emergency call mode the incoming text messages are previewed.

(Credit:
Karl Kraft)

Apple representatives did not return e-mails seeking comment.

Last, but definitely not least, every PC user must acknowledge that the day will dawn when their system crashes for good–whether due to a malware attack or (more likely) a hardware or software failure. Keep your data backed up. In addition to creating an image backup of your hard drive once or twice a year, using a program such as Acronis’ $50 True Image Home (15-day free trial), use an online backup service to keep your important data files fresh.

Does this mean you should cancel your broadband account and dig out the ham radio? I don’t recommend it. In fact, reports such as these show the folly of believing that our Web browsing is ever completely safe. No hardware or software will ever be 100 percent secure.

Early indications are that there will be no quick fix for clickjacking, which enables a PC to be infected with malicious software simply by clicking a disguised link on a Web page. All browsers are equally vulnerable, and there appears to be no sure solution, at least in the short term. Even disabling JavaScript and other advanced Web features won’t prevent an infection.

Yes, keep your antivirus definitions up-to-date. Yes, use a firewall. Download and install Giorgio Maone’s NoScript extension for
Firefox (donation requested) to gain site-by-site control over the scripts that run in the browser.

But even these precautions are no substitute for common sense. Be careful about the sites you visit and the links you click. View your e-mail as plain text; Microsoft’s support site provides instructions for doing so in Outlook 2003 and 2007. In Mozilla Thunderbird, simply click View, Message Body As, Plain Text.

To the short list of life’s certainties–death and taxes–we can now add “Web threats.”

Free-to-play games have already created junior economies in Asia. Frank Yu recently wrote on GameSetWatch that “winning–or gaining power–in online games in China is as much about purchasing items as it is about skill or hard work.” He adds:

Clearly, console games aren’t going away in the next five years. And if $8 billion in revenue can be generated just through services, then they are unlikely to go away for a much longer period of time.

If designers and developers had other business alternatives to monetize their games, they would if they could. For now, they design the games to painlessly help users spend ever larger sums of money on virtual items. I’m sure Western publishers are looking at and exploring this model as well.

I wrote previously that a more-likely scenario than the death of the console is one in which the console can play games of all types, including those that are browser-based or require a download installation.

In another post on video game “megatrends,” I noted that Internet connectivity is key to extending the commercial lifespan of games and also provides monetization methods beyond sale of the actual games. “The ability to download new content or play against others online extends the lifespan and the potential audiences,” I wrote.

Internet-connected game consoles will generate $8 billion in revenue for the Big Three companies through online content and services in 2013, according to a report released Thursday by research firm Parks Associates.

Console developers would be well served to figure out more monetization methods in order to avoid falling prey to PC and browser-based games. Their ability to remain profitable depends on their ability to adapt to the different ways people choose to consume and play games.

Silicon Hutong has written a concise summary of what happened:

I tend to think this particular episode, in contrast to Yahoo China, Google China, and MSN’s complicated dealings with Chinese censorship, is really not such a big deal. I also think this degree of examination of possible motivations on the part of the censors is a stretch.

- The activists told the Associated Press that they had contacted athletes directly and provided free downloads to the athletes and urged them to play it in Beijing as an act of solidarity.

- The activists then issued a press release telling the world that this was, in effect, a protest, and that at least 40 athletes in the village had downloaded the tunes.

- The album went live in the days leading up to the Olympics;

The post goes on to examine at great length the ups and downs of Apple’s apparent decision to feature this content. It also opines that “the content itself was not a problem - what set the Chinese government off was the concern over a potential protest in the Olympic Village. Apple was a target only to the extent that it was seen by the Chinese authorities as aiding that protest.”

- The Games ended, the athletes went home, and the site was unblocked.

The iTunes Store was blocked in China two weeks after an album released by Tibet activists appeared, but after the Olympics Games concluded, it was available once again.

- The album was featured on the front page of the site - a choice I would wager was made by Apple, not by the activist organization that produced the album;

- Pro-Tibetan activists have been attempting to leverage Beijing’s hosting of the Olympics to draw attention to their cause;

- The album is available for purchase here in Beijing under the same conditions as everything else on iTunes - got a foreign credit card that bills to a foreign address, and the songs are yours.

- The site was then blocked, fifteen days after the album went up.

It’s very possible that rather than concerns specifically about a protest, the album (and whole store) was blocked after the activists’ press release merely because that was the first the censors heard of it. Unblocking the store after the sensitive political period of the main Games is pretty standard behavior, just as many sites were restored after the actual unrest in Tibet earlier this year.

APT hopes to solve those problems. It’s a Web-based product that aims for a smoother and more efficient ad-buying process with a drag-and-drop interface, simple analytics, and all-in-one client “dashboard.” Geared toward not just advertisers, but also digital publishers, media companies, ad networks, and agencies, the technology uses multiple kinds of targeting–geographic, demographic, and behavioral–to achieve what Yahoo says will be the best possible destination for graphical ads with a minimal amount of work.

“In 1960, New York City alone had eight daily newspapers. Every significant daily had offices around the world, and print journalists were the rock stars of their day,” Hamm said. “Today we see Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing his California gubernatorial candidacy on Leno, and Barack Obama announcing his vice presidential candidate, Joe Biden, by text message.”

It might seem odd for Yahoo to unveil a new product with an actor famous for playing a fictional figure on the Madison Avenue of four dozen years ago. But Mad Men, which won an Emmy Award on Sunday for Best Drama, is a wild hit in New York’s media and advertising circles, and that’s who Yahoo is trying to court. They’re the ones whom Yahoo has to convince that its new ad platform, called APT, will make their lives and jobs easier.

Yahoo first began to talk about this extensive display-ad strategy in April, then calling the product AMP. On Wednesday, the company announced that the re-named APT’s first clients are two Bay Area newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News.

(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

Jon Hamm in a promotional still from 'Mad Men.'

“Don Draper knew how to connect,” Hamm continued. “He’d recognize that what my friend Jerry Yang is about to share with you will rock the advertising world in the same way that radio and television did way back when.”

“I do feel a little strange being up in front of a group of people, in front of cameras, talking about advertising, instead of smoking nine cigarettes and drinking three or four glasses of Scotch,” Hamm said, referring to Draper’s hard-living attitude, “although maybe if this was a little later in the day we could do that.”

Actor Jon Hamm, star of AMC's 'Mad Men,' speaking at a press conference unveiling Yahoo's new APT platform.

Since Google hasn’t yet cornered display advertising as effectively, and the landscape now consists of dozens of different ad networks, Yahoo sees opportunity with APT. Bringing along the dashing Jon Hamm, speaking just as suavely as his Don Draper alter ego, couldn’t hurt. In his address to the audience, Hamm drew parallels between the digital advertising revolution and the challenges faced by the Mad Men characters as they dealt with the explosion of television advertising in the early 1960s. Today, the ad industry needs to adapt to a climate that demands innovative, straight-to-consumer marketing and up-to-the-minute delivery.

(Credit:
AMC)

And with its aggressive focus on display advertising, some may see the beleaguered Yahoo’s move as effectively conceding the search ad market to rival Google; the two have, in fact, partnered in a controversial deal that followed Yahoo’s failed acquisition negotiations with Microsoft. It would pull in more revenue for Yahoo, but it would also further cement Google’s position as the clear industry leader.

One member of the consortium was on hand to testify on Yahoo’s behalf: Dean Singleton, president of the MediaNews Group, which owns the Mercury News. “We are launching a new era with this extraordinary platform, APT from Yahoo, which will drive a sea change in how we operate as newspapers and capture opportunities,” said Singleton, who also serves as publisher of the Denver Post and Salt Lake Tribune.

“We challenged ourselves to make the whole process of doing business in the digital world easier, more transparent, and more profitable,” Yang said of APT’s development. “APT from Yahoo is all about spending less time managing digital advertising and spending more time delivering business results.

But APT won’t be without competition. AOL has amassed its own ad service, Platform-A, out of a number of start-up acquisitions, and earlier this week announced the addition of an ad exchange called BidPlace to the platform. Google, the digital-ad leader that has spooked Madison Avenue, is still best known for its text ads but has made move after move to court industries like television, radio, and newspapers.

“Today’s digital advertising process is broken,” Decker said in the press conference, part of the fifth annual New York Advertising Week festivities. “As we see it, we count more than 30 different operational steps, 30, from a time that an ad is conceived to the time that it runs on a publisher’s site and is optimized for their strategy.”

Yang said that APT’s genesis is rooted in the company’s relationship with Right Media, an advertising exchange start-up that Yahoo acquired last year after initially purchasing a 20 percent stake in 2006. “That move really also enabled us a core foundational network technology that’s going to be able to be part of this new system that we’re announcing today,” he explained.

NEW YORK–When Yahoo finally debuted its display-ad platform in a press conference here on Wednesday, CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker had an unusual guest on hand: actor Jon Hamm, who plays 1960s-era advertising exec Don Draper on the critically acclaimed drama Mad Men.

But, he said, it was the Newspaper Consortium that really sparked the demand. “(Members were) telling us (of) the need for a far more robust digital advertising platform,” Yang said. “It was becoming far more difficult for them to find the exact audiences, it was taking them too much time to find them if they found them at all, and they needed to be more effectively monetizing their inventory in the digital world.”

For an industry that’s become captivated with the alluring Mad Men, that just might be enough of a pitch.

Both publications are already part of Yahoo’s Newspaper Consortium, which is an ad network for participating media companies. APT will become available to other Newspaper Consortium partners over the course of the rest of the year and into 2009, followed by other clients in the publisher, advertiser, and agency sectors. Also in 2009, Yahoo’s own ad industry will shift to the APT platform.