Justin Guy Souter

We (I have an African American father and an Irish American mother) were raised on the front lines of racial change, where the new rules about interracial intimacy often clashed with the old - both in public and in our own families. The affection we were so comfortable showing our white mothers at home drew stares, and worse, from both whites and blacks in public. It was in our families where we first felt love and protection as well as the first sting of racial prejudice. And many of us forged a black identity, one that was not at odds with being mixed-race, but arose out of our experiences as mixed people: from an awareness that the racial dilemma we were born into has its deepest roots in anti-black prejudice. For us, being black and mixed-race are not mutually exclusive. We have learned to live with the contradictions. Perhaps it's time for everyone else to learn to live with them too. - Justin Guy Souter

The popularity of social networking site Facebook has soared dramatically over the past year seeing it become the social site of choice for journalists, politicians, bloggers – and businesses. But what is in it for businesses? Pascal Fintoni, head of e-business at the North East Regional Portal, looks at how North East firms can use Facebook to reach new audiences. - Justin Guy Souter

A list of companies that were blind-sided by the internet, they didn’t understand the impacts of the power shift to the participants, or how fast information would spread, or were just plain ignorant. Criteria of “Punk’d” includes a situation where the story would have not been told if social media was not available, or if social media enhanced the situation. This doesn’t include fake blogs, companies who deliberately tried to cheat the system get their own honorable mention. Although this punk’d list is the one to stay off, the one you want to get on is the Groundswell awards. Update: I’ve added severity status for some of these Punk’d using the Categorization of Brand Backlash Storms) - Justin Guy Souter

Wind forward four years to this past weekend and an online storm that has erupted over Motrin, an over-the-counter painkiller sold in the USA, and an advertising video produced by the brand owner McNeil that very quickly offended some mothers. The storm of protest that has embraced so many different online communication channels – from blogs to video and especially to social networking micro-channels like Twitter – has already prompted an apology from McNeil on the Motrin website and the withdrawal of the video from that website. - Justin Guy Souter

Under her post, this comment from a Yahoo shareholder says it all: "You guys have no idea how pissed I am at how misleading Yahoo has been to its shareholders. "One day we're hearing from Yang and his stooge Roy about how Yang is the only guy set to lead the company and how no one else knows Yahoo like Yang, and now where hearing that this conversation has been happening for months. Couldn't Yang have done the honorable thing months and months ago and saved us about $35b in the process? "If I hadn't lost so much on this moron I'd sue them into oblivion. Clearly the board was asleep at the switch and forgot that they had some responsibility to the shareholders." - Justin Guy Souter

Product Overview Verdiem’s Edison is a free energy-monitoring application for eco-conscious consumers. You can use it to more actively control your PC’s energy consumption — and subsequently your household’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Feature Summary Made for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista PC users, Verdiem’s Edison enhances the operating systems’ existing power settings with increased overall energy savings and provides a consumer-friendly user interface that makes it easy to set up and manage. Endorsed by Microsoft and Climate Savers, Verdiem’s Edison enables consumers to measure, monitor, and manage their PC energy efficiency in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. - Justin Guy Souter

Local Hero joins a trio of movies - along with Silent Running and Love and Death - which habitually jockey for position as my second favourite film of all time. Since the movie first opened in the early 1980s, I must have watched it around 100 times - which turns out to be about 99 times more than its creator Bill Forsyth. Inspired by a news story about oil companies buying up land in Orkney, Local Hero tells of a Houston executive who comes to Scotland to purchase an entire village, only to be seduced by this remote place's strange magic. - Justin Guy Souter

How addictive are computer games? Eleven million people around the world regularly play a game online called Warcraft which is why there's been such a clamour about its latest edition. But should we be worried that young people could become addicted to games like that? Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones reports. - Justin Guy Souter

Microsoft layed out its “Azure” foundational infrastructure for the cloud during the keynote kick-off on day one of the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) here in Los Angeles. The goal of Azure is to provide developers who want to write applications that run partially and/or entirely in a remote datacenter with a platform and set of tools. Microsoft did not disclose pricing, licensing or timing details for Azure. The company is planning to release a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build of Azure to PDC attendees on October 27. (The CTP consists of a software development kit and access to Microsoft’s cloud. - Justin Guy Souter

Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo, is to stand down as the internet portal's chief executive officer. His departure follows lengthy criticism of his stewardship of the company, which has seen its share price collapse to about $10. - Justin Guy Souter

"They wed the most beautiful girls; they are building big houses; they have new cars; new guns," he says. "Piracy in many ways is socially acceptable. They have become fashionable." Most of them are aged between 20 and 35 years - in it for the money. - Justin Guy Souter

London, 11 November 2008 — AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) announced that the use of social networking tools as part of everyday working life has led to an increase in efficiency, according to an independent market report released by AT&T. The pan-European survey of more than 2,500 people in five countries, conducted by Dynamic Markets, shows that of those employees using social networking tools in the workplace, 65% say that it has made them and/or their colleagues more efficient. In addition, 46% say that it has sparked ideas and creativity for them personally. - Justin Guy Souter

Social networking fosters collective intelligence, collaborative work and support communities. Tools and behaviors from the consumer world are now making the transition to the corporate world, with diverse implications for changing the way businesses operate. This paper explores 10 opportunities presented by social networking, along with 10 associated challenges. - Justin Guy Souter

Social Networks — Changing the way we work. According to an independent market report, European business users are embracing the benefits of 'Web 2.0' technology to improve their productivity and efficiency. The survey highlights the fact that CIO's need to think about the implications for their networking strategy and ensure they are equipped to embrace the opportunities created by social networking. - Justin Guy Souter

Since 1999, we have created and managed more than 300 online customer communities to help our clients deeply engage with, and listen to, customers in ways that deliver extraordinary insights, generating phenomenal business results. We enable companies to operationalize what it really means to be close to the customer throughout their organization by offering full service community capabilities--from strategic planning and design to member recruitment to expert facilitation, and customer insights and analysis reporting. - Justin Guy Souter

"Aoife - thanks for your comment! I am seeing DC Business later this week, so perhaps will run this past them. Also, I hope to be in contact with Codeworks about something else, and could raise this... Happy to hang out at the Baltic, as long as David is back safely from his night fell running..." - Justin Guy Souter

Webjam is the solution of choice for local communities, interest groups, charities, fan clubs and families who want to easily connect online and share content in a controlled and safe environment. Webjam allows you to give a sense of purpose to your online connections and create a relevant and personalised presence for your groups and communities - Justin Guy Souter

This illustrates the practical implications of a large following on Twitter. In addition, of course, there is the sheer vanity of amassing more followers than your friends. The question, “How do I get more followers on Twitter?” is unspoken because admitting that you want more followers is to acknowledge that you don’t have many. Thus, you probably don’t need this advice, but you may “have a friend” who will find it useful. - Justin Guy Souter

If you do want to find out who’s unfollowing you, then you should head to Qwitter. Qwitter not only helps you in letting you know who unfollowed you, but also tells you after which tweet did your followers decide to unfollow. This might give the user an idea as to why the follower has decided to unfollow. - Justin Guy Souter

To grow big, sponges need essential nutrients, including carbon, nitrogen and other metabolites. These are provided by smaller organisms such as algae and cyanobacteria, with which the sponges have a symbiotic relationship. But these smaller organisms need light to survive. Because of this they usually live on the outside of sponges. In 1994, however, researchers discovered that algae sometimes do live deep within the bodies of sponges, creating a mystery as to how they survive there. The answer, as Brummer's team has now confirmed, is that they live off light beamed down to them. - Justin Guy Souter

Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: “What are you working on?” As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where past conversations can be easily accessed and referenced. - Justin Guy Souter

The clear winner in the Obama campaign was marketing. It helped that the product was worth talking about, but without the massive, well-run marketing machine, we’d be talking about a very different president elect today. - Justin Guy Souter

It’s easy to feel a bit glum with all the financial news. People are worried about their futures. They’re unsure where to put what little money they have left. Everyone is wondering what comes next. Clearly, I have no better ideas than you on that, but I do have some thoughts on what you can do to prepare for the news ahead. These tactics all fall into the bucket of “if apples all start falling off the tree, at least try to be the shiniest, best-placed, easy to pick up apple out there” school of thought. - Justin Guy Souter

“You have to be at the top of your game,” said Salma Nakhlawi, 13, who has been brushing up on her math skills along with her hand-eye coordination so that she can play the video game Dimension M with her friends. “I used to hate math, but I’ve started to like it. I actually understand it more.” This fall, New York City is rolling out Dimension M — M stands for math — in 109 middle schools across the five boroughs after trying the game out in two dozen schools, including I.S. 30, last year. Like a modern twist on “Jeopardy!,” the fast-paced video game quizzes students on prealgebra and algebra topics ranging from prime numbers to fractions and complex equations. A correct answer brings 500 or more points, a wrong one as few as 25; the player with the most points wins. (No prizes, just glory.) - Justin Guy Souter

ut, of course, it's not hard to understand why the political leaders in Britain and the US felt they had to paint a positive picture of Stalin and the Soviet Union. The reality was that the Soviet Union was a vital ally and the West needed to keep the Red Army fighting the Germans. The trouble is that the legacy of these "expedient lies" has still not entirely left us. Which is why I hope people will come to realise just how appalling Stalin was, and students might think twice before hanging pictures of Stalin on their walls. - Justin Guy Souter

Yesterday's election will go down in history for the highly sophisticated way that both campaigns--but especially president-elect Obama's--leveraged the Web to mobilize volunteers, get voters to the polls, and keep field organizers informed so that they could make tactical adjustments in the final days and hours. - Justin Guy Souter

If you’re in internet marketing and you want half a chance to succeed on Twitter, pay attention. I don’t know who you’ve been listening to telling you how to make it on Twitter, but if they’re telling you to do these five things, then they don’t understand social media, and you shouldn’t listen to them - Justin Guy Souter

A bivy bag, bivouac, bivi, or bivy sack is a lightweight alternative to traditional tent systems. It is essentially a waterproof fabric shell designed to fit over your sleeping bag. It acts as a barrier against the wind and rain and provides extra insulation. Good bivy bags consist of Gore-Tex and are breathable, allowing humidity to pass and so reducing moisture inside for the occupant. - Justin Guy Souter

Yoga has long been considered beneficial to the body, but could it be a cure for lower-back pain? Yoga teacher John Aplin is certain that it can. After he broke his back in a walking accident 12 years ago he was impressed by the effect yoga had on his recovery. - Justin Guy Souter

Barack Obama is turning to the web as he prepares to become US president. Via a website called Change.gov, the Obama campaign plans to provide a guide to the transition process. - Justin Guy Souter