<![CDATA[Ding Ding TV Forum - 硅谷首創華語網路電視]]> <![CDATA[Would you pay to promote a Facebook post?]]>
View Photo Gallery — Facebook’s phenomenal rise: In seven years, the social networking site has grown from a project hatched in a college dorm to the largest social networking site in the world, well on its way to hitting its goal of having 1 billion users.

From The Washington Post By Hayley Tsukayama, Updated: Friday, May 11, 10:59 AM

Facebook is testing a feature that lets users pay to highlight a particular post at the top of their friends’ news feeds.

The feature is being tested in New Zealand, where a user told a local news site that he had been given the option to pay for more visibility.According to the report on Stuff.co.nz, the feature offers the promoted posts for different price points to different users — some are getting the offer to promote posts for free, while others are being asked to pay a fee to use the tool.

The faces of Facebook: As the company prepares to go public, here are some of the people behind the social media giant’s innovations in technology, management and policy.
Gallery

Mother’s Day 2012: Gift ideas for tech-savvy moms
Here are some of the cool gadgets out there that may impress the female technophile in your life.
More technology coverage from Post Business

When asked for comment, a Facebook spokesperson said, “We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.”

It’s a rare move from Facebook , which has always made its money by pitching its public social data to advertisers rather than trying to make money off its users directly.

On Thursday, the company said that it will be adding paid apps to its platform, which has only supported some in-app payments up to this point.

Both moves would help the company generate revenue in new ways, particularly as users shift to mobile and away from the desktop display ads that have spurred the company to its current success. Finding new avenues for revenue is important for Facebook not just as a company, but also because of its upcoming market debut.

Late Wednesday, the company updated its S-1 filing to address the shift to mobile, underscoring that it currently does “not generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products” and that it has no proven success in doing so.

Opening the option of paid posts to the average user is certainly one way to generate new revenue. On the other hand, I have a little bit of trouble imagining what I, as a regular user, would want to pay to promote in ads to my own friends. What would you pay for? Leave us a note in the comments.

Related stories:

Facebook launches an app center

Achenblog- Facebook IPO show: Why I’m not buying

Facebook IPO: Addressing the mobile problem]]> <![CDATA[麋角湾]]>
麋角湾

廖康



说起蒙特瑞半岛附近的麋角湾Elkhorn Slough，没有人知道这名字是怎么来的。难道这里曾经有过麋鹿？也许这里曾是贩卖麋角、鹿茸的港口？游人们胡乱猜测着，不断否定着。船长说：“你们看，这条水道又弯又长，还有这么多叉道，像什么？”

“麋鹿的角！”大家异口同声地回答。

“如果你们能到前面山坡上看看，就更像麋角了。”

望着远处海湾尽头的山坡，我觉得这地界真像《水浒传》里描写的梁山泊。Slough虽然可以译作海湾，但实际上，这是一条深入陆地七英里的水泊。中间的水道深可行轮船，两旁水湾岔道无数，杂草密布，仿佛随时都可能从芦苇荡中撑出一叶扁舟；持篙的不是混江龙李俊，就是浪里白条张顺，嘴里咬着钢刀，向游人收买路钱……

“看，右前方有一只鹭鸶，”船长低沉的男中音把我从遐想中拉回来。果然，一只白色的大鸟悠闲地站在水边，一条细长的黑腿直立，另一条蜷起，长长的黄喙和弯曲的脖子构成S型，喙尖指向平静的水面。突然，它一点头，喙间多了点什么，大概是条小鱼。白鹭摆动了一下小小的脑瓜，扬起脖子。

这一路，我们看到很多野生动物：海豹、鱼鹰这类常见的家伙就不必说了，还有很多海獭；有的单独仰在水面上，或安详地闭目养神，或用石块敲打着贝蟹；有的成群地在一起浮游，一片褐色，远看好像是个木筏子。还有大嘴巴鹈鹕，像鹰似的，不怎么扇翅膀，却滑翔得很快，跟鹰不同的是，它们总是一队队贴着海面低飞。还有燕鸥、游隼什么的。其实我并看不出它们跟其它的海鸥和鹞子有什么不同，但听船长说出那些美妙的鸟名，就足以让我神游像外。还有长趾蝾螈。开始，我根本不知道salamander是什么东西，就觉得那名字有异国情调。等我看见，才知道是娃娃鱼。敢情咸水里也有这宝贝！只是比中国的娃娃鱼小得多。

这趟水路虽然赏心悦目，但还不能完全见到麋角湾的好处。下船上车，沿朵兰Dolan路开三英里，到麋角路左转，弯弯曲曲的马路便带我们来到麋角湾国家科研保护区。这一带接近麋角湾的尽头，较浅，海水漫延开来，形成一片片沼泽湿地；这里灌木丛生，青草萋萋，黄花遍野，紫卉星罗。三条小径引人走入长谷圈、五指湾和蜂鸟岛，引人走入寂静、蛮荒的自然王国。

说它寂静，是指那里没有人声，虫鸣鸟唱却是不断，但更显得幽静。“噗”的一声，一只狐狸从草甸子里跃起，不知是在追赶什么，窜入灌木丛中。说它蛮荒，却是近景和表象：荒草、死水、废弃的马厩……但远处仍看得见麋角湾火力发电站两个高大的烟囱。更让我吃惊的是，走到蜂鸟岛边上，竟然要跨越一条沿着海湾铺设的铁路。

这年头，这条铁路似乎不再用了。但铁轨没有生锈，路边仍有牌子，让行人小心。蜂鸟岛虽然很小，却有一株巨大的橡树，看上去很不合比例。夸张点说，如果那颗树倒了，整个小岛都会被掀起来。四周水面上浮起淡淡的雾气，让小岛产生一种仙幻飘渺的氛围。岛上莺歌燕舞、生机勃勃，也有文明的遗迹——斑驳的木梯扶手和贝壳垒砌的小水池。如果允许我们在这里搭个小木屋独处，此生足矣！我们在那里盘桓良久，设想着住在岛上将如何与外界联系。突然，小岛震动起来，一列运煤的火车隆隆驶来，惊醒了我们的美梦。铁路一边是海湾，一边是水泊。火车走远了，看上去，仿佛行驶在水上。

2012年5月11日
]]> <![CDATA[母亲节聚会 - 硅谷回音的喜筵]]> 硅谷回音创办两年，这是我们第二次举办母亲节的聚餐活动。地点还是在位于Cupertino中信广场的上海乔家栅。



硅谷回音是一个社区网站，它就好像一座搭建沟通的桥，让我们可爱的网友们从网络走进真实的生活，彼此增进友谊，交流沟通信息，并积极参与社区各项有意义的活动，发挥我们越来越大的潜能和作用。



今年的母亲节聚餐活动，参加的人数比去年多了许多。红花的倡议才贴到网上，就引来许多网友的踊跃报名。原本预定的三大圆桌，不得不一改再改，扩充到五桌。到真正聚餐的那一天，满打满算一共占用了六张大餐桌，才容纳下所有前来聚会的朋友。

非常高兴，一共有62名网友前来参加这个母亲节活动。



非常高兴，前市长、圣塔可拉拉县议员候选人胡宜兰女士，也来参加我们的聚会，并倡导大家为支持她的参政议政，投下神圣的一票。



非常感谢，我们热情的网友 - 雪玲所在公司为此次午餐提供赞助。让我们享受到一顿免费午餐。



最后，红花也代表硅谷回音，感谢大家的光临，一起欢度母亲节聚会。

胡宜兰前市长来到硅谷回音的母亲节聚会，呼吁大家支持她，投下神圣的一票。
胡宜兰，我们都会支持你！
网上的网友，生活中的朋友

我们因为硅谷回音而相识。
表扬立委同学，他一直用摄像机记录下我们活动的精彩瞬间。
这张餐桌人到得最早，却最晚吃到菜肴。。我们用极大的耐心，等待姗姗来迟的午餐。等桌上寥寥无几时，菜饭才到桌。
这张餐桌的朋友们，是吃的最开心，聊天最开心，有始有终的客人。谢谢你们的参与。
听说这张桌子的她们最会点菜，为何？ 上海人多嘛。。
这张桌子上坐的，可都是名人。。我为了吃菜方便，就坐到另外一桌。不知道和政要名人在一起吃饭，是不是吃得拘束？
老朋友相聚，开心畅谈
夫妻相伴，为硅谷回音捧场。
         
胡宜兰很有亲和力，愿意为华人争取最大权益。她智慧、干练，无人能敌。
请大家支持胡宜兰，为她投下自己信任的一票！
胡宜兰的名字，排列在表格的第一位，英文名字是：Kris Wang。 表格已经发出，请大家关注胡宜兰！！！
]]> <![CDATA[TAJCCNC proudly presents you 2012 i-Sing Singing Contest!]]>
If you love to sing, want to share your lovely voice with others, or if you know a friend who likes to sing, apply i-Sing today!!
You will have a chance to win $1000 cash prize, Mini Cooper, and free professional singing tips from
Judge of Golden Melody Awards 2012 (台灣金曲獎評審) also ETTV TopIdol (東森新人王評審)!
*For sponsorship to promote your business through TAJCCNC events, please contact us*

Apply online before 5/14: www.tajccnc.org/ising
For more i-Sing detail Call: 650-733-4988

i-Sing Competing Groups:
    Junior Solo (age below 40)
    Elite Solo (age above 40)
    Duet (no age limit)

i-Sing Date & Time
    Preliminary: 5/20 (Sun) 10:30-12:30 or 12:30-2:30

Music Tunnel KTV Cafe, San Jose
(1132 S. De Anza Blvd, Ste 10, San Jose)

    Final: 6/3 (Sun) 2:00-5:00
Culture Center if taipei Economic and Cultural Office in SF
(1269 Forgewood Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089)


台灣北加州青商會感謝您長期的支持，一年一度i-Sing華語歌唱大賽開跑了!
趕快廣邀親朋好友，鼓勵參與支持青商會努力為推展華語所創辦的 i-Sing 歌唱大賽!

由於去年i-Sing 首次賽事相當成功, 今年灣區也多了很多不同的歌唱大賽。
今年，我們為了與其他比賽區分，做了一些改變。 當然，也依照舊例，保有高額的獎金。

第二屆北加州青商會盃2012 i-Sing 華語歌唱大賽將於下列日期、地點舉行:
    初賽 5/20 (日) 10:30-12:30, 12:30- 2:30 Music Tunnel KTV Cafe (1132 S De Anza Blvd Ste 10, San Jose)
    決賽 6/3 (日) 2:00-5:00 金山灣區華僑文教服務中心 (1269 Forgewood Ave., Sunnyvale)

1) 演唱組別:
    青商組 Junior Solo (40 歲以下)
    社會組 Elite Solo (40 歲以上)
    重唱組 Duet (無限齡)

2) 獎金與獎品部份不僅更為豐厚(第一名最高獎勵價值$2000)，青商組第一名與最佳人氣王將直接跳過海選進入"東森新人王" 北美參賽!
3) 有別於去年決賽自選一首曲目，今年青商組將更有看頭! 決賽將增加指定曲項目。依語言類別各出指定曲三首 (國、台、粵)。
決賽者需熟練三首，並於現場抽出一首當場演唱。增加參賽者挑戰性與比賽可看性! *社會組及重唱組則只需唱一首自選曲*
4) 為了節約環保，今年報名也非常方便。所有作業簡單、明瞭，讓所有年齡層能輕易線上報名。
    報名及詳情請看 www.tajccnc.org/ising
5) 今年，青商會將準備印製年刊數百份，發給青商會會員、並於i-Sing 歌唱大賽及未來所有活動發放。公司行號,商業團體, 自營事業, 若有興趣贊助青商會，增加媒體曝光率, 達到商業廣告效果, 我們有個中不同合作方案，請直接與我們聯繫!
Apply online before 5/14: www.tajccnc.org/ising
For more i-Sing detail Call: 650-733-4988
]]> <![CDATA[社会媒体是言论自由的天然突破口]]>

［立委按］

女儿历史课要求写一篇 research paper，选取一个对社会发展有影响的当代人物或机构，论述其成就和意义。社会发展的领域包括政治、经济、教育、卫生、慈善和人权。虽然技术领域不在列表上，女儿还是选了她心目中的 传奇偶像人物 Steve Jobs，因为他 made a ding in the universe, 可以从教育或其他领域谈他的技术革命带来的影响。可是选题提交上去，没被老师批准，说 Steve 前不久刚去世，铺天盖地都是关于他生平事迹的资料，使这个选题具有不对称的优势。于是女儿转选即将上市的社会媒体巨头 Facebook 的创始人 Mark Zuckerberg，还是技术改变世界的传奇人物，结果以同样理由不得通过。女儿有点扫兴，这两位是她读得最多，最有兴趣研究的人物，其余的人物和机构大多提不起兴趣来，少数有意思的名人如诺贝尔奖获得者南非的曼德拉和美国前副总统戈尔都已经被其他同学抢占了。想了半天说，那我就写盘尼西林的发明者弗莱明吧，说明医药的革命性突破在偶然里面包含了必然，伟大发现是预备给有准备的心灵的（prepared mind）。可是弗莱明不算当代人物，也不行。

最后老师把一个古巴人权斗士 assigned 给她了，算是命题作文。于是上网查资料，做笔记，折腾半个多月，终于写出了这篇研究文字，其主旨就是“社会媒体是言论自由的天然突破口”。特转载于后，与各位分享。虽然只是一个美国中学生的粗浅笔记，可能对转型期的当代中国也许也有些意义。

论述这篇的主题并不难，高技术支撑的社会媒体成为言论自由的平台和突破口是自然而然的事儿。除非当政者退回到前数字时代，废除互联网，任何长城都不可能完全阻挡信息的自由流通。古巴的人权英雄 Yoani Sánchez 女士抓住了时代的机遇，以其勇敢智慧和不屈不挠成为世界人权史上第一批利用技术对抗独裁的先驱之一，因此成就一世英名（以她的国际名声和影响，有望获得明后年的诺贝尔和平奖）。美国这边的论文训练，除了 thesis （中心思想）要鲜明突出外，还要求承转起合（transition）到位，段落要有 topical sentence，人物和事件要有背景介绍，材料来源必须详细标注来源，最后的总结概括阐述其意义和价值后，还需要几句话谈 so what，即从长远的角度预示其历史意义。女儿问：她很了不起，已经为人权做出了很大贡献，so what？我给她提示了两点：一是星星之火，榜样的力量是无穷的，等群众都觉悟了，追随她的结果就会演变成改变世界的力量。第二点就是和平演变，追求自由是人类的天然权利和本性，钳制言论自由和基本人权的反动力量和独裁政权，终将为保护自由的民主社会所替代。但这个过程不一定要伴随流血和革命，和平演变对国家和人民最为有利。女儿有些懵懂，但还是把这两点融合进去了。

不知她的老师买不买账？

Blogging Through Silence

Living with a fear of speaking is not easy, while the free worldtakes for granted the freedom of speech, the citizens of Cuba are stilldeprived of this basic human right.  Yoani Sánchez, who uses the power ofWordpress blogging to air her views freely, is one of Cuba's best-known humanrights activists to fight for free expression.  Sánchez manages to use herblog as a forum to exercise free speech in the totalitarian reign of Castro inCuba.  Her use of Internet and technology to blog through silence pioneersa new direction for the movement of human rights in the world.

The end of The Cold War twenty years ago did not end entirely thecommunist dictatorships.  Today, there are still a few extremist regimessuch as Cuba and North Korea.  The communist Cuba, founded by Fidel Castrohalf a century ago, still continues the system of Stalin in which free speech isa political taboo: "Stalinism with conga drums," says Ms. Sánchez asshe compares it to the former totalitarian Soviet Union (“Cuban Revolution”). The press in Cuba is under strict government censorship.  Thetraditional media such as newspapers and television act as a propaganda devicefor the government to control the people who also cannot elect their ownleaders.  The current leader, Raúl Castro, was not elected but wasappointed by the former leader, his brother, Fidel Castro.

Born in 1975, Yoani Sánchez spent her childhood worry-free at atime when Cuba was fully supported by the former Soviet Union.  However,her generation had to go through the time of hardships when the Soviet Unioncollapsed and the soviet aid was discontinued.  Soon there was severe foodshortage along with difficulty for all necessities.  Disappointed anddisillusioned with her home country, she moved to Switzerland in 2002 where shegot used to the life of style in the free world.  Her husband ended up notbeing able to find a professional job in Switzerland and the couple decided toreturn to Cuba in 2004.  After studying computer science, Ms. Sánchezlater started her career as a freelance writer and was determined to be a freeperson.  Starting from 2008, she began signing her blog with her realname, a brave move in Cuba. (“Generation Y: My Profile”)

Yoani Sánchez’s blogging enters a taboo area in Cuba.  Timemagazine comments about Sánchez saying, "under the nose of a regime thathas never tolerated dissent, Sánchez has practiced what paper-bound journalistsin her country cannot: freedom of speech" (“The 2008 Time 100: YoaniSanchez”). Traditionally, journalists who dare to break the silence arepunished -- even sent to jails!  This has happened to a number ofdissidents and journalists, including Yoani’s husband who used to be a journalistand was sent to prison (“Desde Aqui: The Year of Yoani”).  The regimecontrols the people through fear and terror and using the police to enact theseefforts to brainwash the citizens. Saying what you think in Cuba can bedangerous. In 2002, Cuba imprisoned dozens of journalists, who declaredthemselves dissidents and published criticisms of the regime. Many are still inprison (“Desde Aqui: The Year of Yoani”).  Most Cubans are so afraid ofbeing labeled a critic that they are reluctant to utter the words "FidelCastro" in public.  Sánchez believes that the fear of Cuba's ownsecret police is the main reason why the vast majority of people choose to keepsilent. “Fear leads Cubans to restrict what they say and do,” Sanchez states(Sánchez xii).  Worse still, people who live in a totalitarian country fortoo long tend to generate an "internal policeman," for subconsciousself-censorship (“Cuban Revolution”).

To break the silence as well as the internal fear, Sánchez startedexercising free speech by blogging in the cyberspace.  The use of blogsand twitter allow her to publish her opinions and report events in Cuba anytime she gets access to the Internet.   The digital revolution, alsoreferred to as the information age, helped to provide a platform for Yoani tochange the society, in her own way, as part of the worldwide human rightsmovement.  In April 2007, Sánchez launched her blog, Generación Y(Generation Y: My Profile).  Within a short time, "her name passedfrom anonymity to popularity" in 2008 (“Desde Aqui: The Year of Yoani”). Thanks to her honesty in describing the true life of Cubans under thecommunist regime, and her excellent writing ability, her blog was an instanthit and has become internationally influential.  Generación  Y hasabout 14 million hits a month and is now translated into seventeen languages byvolunteers (“In Cuba, the Voice of a Blog Generation”). In fact, her blogbecomes a must-read for any serious researcher who needs to study contemporaryCuban society (“Cuban Revolution”). Her numerous awards, recognizing herpioneering work, include Time magazine's “One of the 100 MostInfluential People in the World” in the "Heroes and Pioneers" category, “Spain's Ortega y Gasset Prize” for “Digital Journalism”, andthe prize for “Best Weblog” in “The BOBs” contest (“The 2008 Time 100: YoaniSanchez”).

Sánchez’s work shows that freedom can only be earned by people whostrive for it.  Freedom is not a gift one can expect or beg for from adictator.  The Internet provides a new platform for all people to takefreedom into their own hands.  With her knowledge of computers and theweb, Sánchez is grasping this historical opportunity.  Her voice isinstantly carried over the country and around the world.  The Internet isa new space, a gray area where the Cuban regime does not yet have explicitregulations, nor can it enforce practical means to stop people from expressingand publishing.  While many people still choose to blog only anonymously,Yoani broke the silence in signing her blog and commenting on any subjects towhich she turns her attention, including taboo subjects like corruption,political systems, and democracy.  Her description of Cubans' daily livesprovides a true picture of their society, which is not depicted in the officialjournals of the country.   "You have to believe that you arefree and try to act like it," she says. "Little by little, acting asthough you are free can be contagious" (“Cuban Revolution”).

Yoani Sánchez is wise to move one step at a time, trying not tobreak explicit laws, only pushing the limits in the gray area.  Shechooses not to associate herself with existing dissident groups.  Underthe pressure from the international community, Cuba has to be cautious inhandling her.  It has blocked her blog within Cuba, trying to stop herwords from spreading and impacting the Cuban people; but it cannot block manyof her mirror sites hosted outside the country.  From time to time, herblogs are also made into CDs and smuggled back to Cuba (“Cuban Revolution”).  Thisis the power of The Internet: unless the government abandons The Internet andgoes back to the pre-digital age, the government cannot block the freeinformation flow.  When Sánchez cannot directly reach her blog site, sheasks her foreign friends to help publish the posts she has emailed them. (“Desde Aqui: The Year of Yoani”)  Over time, other Cuban writershave begun to follow her example and the Desde Cuba website, famous for hostingher blog, has since seen an increase of Cuban bloggers, including her husbandReinaldo's and several other popular writers’ blogs.  In 2009, PresidentObama wrote a letter to compliment her great efforts in using technology forfree speech.  "Your blog provides the world a unique window into therealities of daily life in Cuba.  It is telling that the Internet hasprovided you and other courageous Cuban bloggers with an outlet to expressyourself so freely, and I applaud your collective efforts to empower fellowCubans to express themselves through the use of technology" (“GenerationY: My Profile”).  With her pioneering work, Sánchez’s free speech is now afact of life in Cuba albeit only in a limited space.  Sánchez’s effort hasmade a lasting difference in the human rights campaign. Her persistence andsense of responsibility have earned her a great reputation in the world. She is a symbol in the digital age for fighting for freedom of speechunder a dictatorship.  Gradually, governments in totalitarian countriesmay have to face the fact of free expression as more and more people follow herexample in publishing in social media and exercising their freedom of speech. When a variety of voices are heard in cyberspace, the same process willeventually occur in the traditional media, sooner or later.  As freedom ofspeech is exercised long enough, it will become a natural style of living, andthere will be no way back.  It is imaginable that a democracy, whichprotects people's human rights, will eventually replace the existingtotalitarian governments.  As an old saying goes, a single spark can starta prairie fire.  Sánchez is just that spark.  Everything she has doneis only a beginning in Cuba, but a remarkable breakthrough in human history.

Works Cited

"CubanRevolution." Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal. Web. 11 May2012.<http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119829464027946687-2qWBoM9EpwF1S0_7hn6prJNeJqo_20080121.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top&apl=y&r=139874>.

Escobar,Reinaldo. "The Year of Yoani." Desde Aqui / From Here.Wordpress, 31 Dec. 2008. Web. 11 May 2012.<http://desdeaquifromhere.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/the-year-of-yoani/>.

Hijuelos,Oscar. ""The 2008 Time 100: Yoani Sánchez"" TimeSpecials. Time Inc., 30 Apr. 2009. Web. 11 May 2012.<http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733756_1735878,00.html>.

Rohter,Larry. "In Cuba, The Voice Of a Blog Generation." The New YorkTimes. The New York Times, 06 July 2011. Web. 11 May 2012.<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/books/yoani-sanchez-cubas-voice-of-a-blogging-generation.html?_r=1>.

Sánchez,Yoani. "Generation Y » My Profile." Generation Y: My Profile.Wordpress. Web. 11 May 2012.<http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?page_id=108>.

Sánchez,Yoani. Havana Real: One Woman Fights to Tell the Truth about Cuba Today.Brooklyn: Melville House, 2011. Amazon.com: Havana Real: One Woman Fights toTell the Truth about Cuba Today (9781935554257): Yoani Sanchez, M. J. Porter:Books. Amazon.com, Mar. 2011. Web. 11 May 2012.<http://www.amazon.com/Havana-Real-Woman-Fights-Truth/dp/1935554255>.

]]> <![CDATA[传统观念大反思:还该不该信奉棍棒底下出孝子zt]]>
高长广:现在家庭大多只有一个孩子,犯了小错,不打,犯了大错,也不打。舍不得呀!为什么现在那么多孩子都骄横跋扈?有时不打,你是害了他。我们门口有个初中,我看到那些孩子我都害怕。我绕着走。晓之以理,动之以打,这才是正道。自己的孩子谁也舍不得打。你有别的好方法,那就更好了。

杨柳依依:棍棒锻造不出栋梁,打骂代替不了教育。家长好好学习,孩子天天向上,因为家长的言传身教潜移默化地影响孩子的一生。理性的家长应有正确的人才观:品为上,学次之。本分善良自食其力者都叫成才。“狼爸”的言行没有多少值得学习和借鉴的,他的教育方法是对人性的扭曲。

徐建和:孩子进北大并不代表今后的人生必然成功,也不能就此肯定家庭教育的成功。棍棒教育压抑孩子天性、扭曲孩子心灵,即便侥幸“打进北大”,仍不免留下诸多“硬伤”。成功的教育首先要让孩子身心健康、人格健全,以成绩论英雄显然是在舍本逐末,追捧“狼爸”也无非是在走应试教育的老路。

愚鉴:教育孩子成才,绝对没有一个固定的模式。咱们中国传统的“因材施教”,其实已作出最正确的答案。

wabjtam:培育人才是百年大计,需要包括家长在内的教育者做大量艰苦细致的工作,远不是“三天一顿打”、闹得四邻不安所能济事的。有些家长教育子女时,不是因材施教、因势利导,而是以打代教,千头万绪的问题企图一打了之。这种行为无异于拔苗助长,违反了事物发展的规律,后果是可想而知的。

王乐良:多少孩子在溺爱娇惯中长大,却没人用强力把孩子塑造成自强、有礼貌、有良知、懂感恩的人,这是家庭学校教育的失败。适当的惩罚,让其知道敬畏、知道反省、知道义务和责任,是必要的。但惩罚不可过度。

wblhs:教育上,千万不能把个别经验看成具有普遍性的真理。古人说,教无定法,是说被教育的对象有个体差异,教育方法当然要随之改变。倘若拿固有的办法去教育孩子,无异于刻舟求剑。

林瑶:同科室老师讨论过这个问题,都表示很头疼孩子的教育问题。孩子总是不配合自己的教育方式。其实,孩子若不是学习的料儿,你就是往死里打、打死他,也无用。到时目的没“打成”,打出了孩子的逆反心理,可就得不偿失了!

马啸宇:棍棒教育早已证明是错误的教育方法,“狼爸”的偶然成功又被重新推崇。萧先生一路把孩子打进北大,也打痛了中国应试教育的神经!难道要成才必须像驯猴子那样,先施以棍棒再喂颗甜枣?即使各种高难度动作手到擒来,为你挣足了票子面子,可你用链子绑着他,他快乐吗?难道成才标准,就是培养高智商木偶?
王秀兰:成功的儿女必有成功的教育。经验可以说各有千秋,没必要纠结于是不是棍棒。但是最根本的一条就是,家长能不能做到棍棒同起同落。如果你举他落,你东他西,就让子女无所适从,不知对错,再好的方法也不会有好的效果。

每文:学习是苦差,玩乐是美事,无人天生好学而厌烦玩乐,孩童尤其如此。要把孩子对玩耍的兴趣转移到学习上来,确实是个复杂问题。过程虽艰难,但不能靠简单的打骂来解决,棍棒教育捋直了性格却扭曲了心灵。历来上名校的学子多了,有几人是靠打骂成才?

泉乡逸士:俗话说“严父出孝子,严师出高徒”。而父母恰恰是孩子的第一任老师,父母教育孩子严一些固然好,前提是做父母的要狠得下心来。

liuli580129:俗话讲:“溺爱无孝子,棒打出孝郎”。这种简单粗暴的教育方式在当下不太适用了。再小的孩子家长也要以成人的方式进行沟通和交流,以平等的方式了解孩子的想法和需求。家长的独断专行往往是教育孩子失败的罪魁祸首。

马修:我小时候几乎没挨过父母的棍棒,虽然很调皮,但终归没干什么大坏事,就煳里煳涂长大成人,明白了很多道理。每一个孩子在父母眼里都是唯一,所以教育的方法自然有所不同,不可一概而论。

刘正涛:孩子的成长是长期的过程,而让孩子走向成功需要的是培养孩子各方面的能力。健全的人格,健康的身体,富有爱心,积极追求理想,与人和谐相处,勇于承担责任,乐于学习,这些才是教育赋予孩子的。孩子成功与否不在于能不能上北大。坚持民主、平等、鼓励的原则教育孩子胜于棍棒教育。    ]]> <![CDATA[［立委快讯］硅谷回音2012母亲节聚会：请投票给胡宜兰]]> http://youtu.be/Ovtb0EMWUmA


［立委快讯］华裔女性的杰出代表，老市长胡宜兰女士亲临硅谷回音2012母亲节聚会，祝硅谷女性的妈妈们母亲节快乐。说到选战的辛苦，在这最后冲刺的时刻，她真情流露，说：来到硅谷回音，就好比回到娘家一样，我们都是华裔女性，有着相同的背景和经历，请大家把话传出去，为我们华裔女性争取到这个席位！

只有三个星期了，请广为宣传，请投票胡宜兰女士！Vote Kris Wang，我们的老市长，华裔姐妹的代表，立委的安徽老乡！


]]> <![CDATA[最新消息：雅虎的刚上任两个月的CEO因学历造假即将辞职]]>
Scott Thompson 雅虎CEO因履历上的电脑学位并非事实遭遇质疑，被迫“因个人原因”下台。





互联网巨头雅虎这几年管理混乱，风雨飘摇，人心涣散，人才大量流失。其创始人及前 CEO 杨致远战线太长，一再失误，空有雄心，回天无力，雅虎股价持续下挫，成为投资人弃之可惜食之无味的鸡肋。董事局好不容易下了决心，请杨致远出局，找到了这个据说能力超强的新CEO，开始了大刀阔斧的裁员和公司重构，却闹出这么个丑闻，使得CEO不得不谢罪下台，雅虎前途是一片黯淡。本来就是个巨大的烂摊子，Scott 的改革也未见得奏效，但不改必死，让一个有经验的执行长改革一下，也许可以死里逃生，也未可知。


消息说，雅虎不认为他20几岁时的学历问题对他现在的领导能力有任何影响，本意是想保他。无奈压力太大，也不排除有想尽速搞垮雅虎的人在背后推波助澜，雅虎董事局似乎不得不出此下策，临时换帅。


据统计，在美国履历造假也是普遍现象，高达近五成。大部分履历造假都得以逃避惩罚，因为雇主很少做真正的背景审查。不过，企业高管的履历造假丑闻引发诚信问题，有损公司信誉，迫使董事局有时不得不忍痛自断其臂。但也有董事局顶住压力，为了公司的最大利益，坚持保住履历有瑕疵者的职位的先例。Bausch & Lomb CEO Ronald Zarrella 就是如此，丑闻以后他被迫让出了一百万的奖金，以平息股东的愤怒，得以保住其位，励精图治，五年以后成功出卖了公司，从而收获了三千万。


http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57433355-93/yahoo-ceo-thompson-reportedly-set-to-resign/



A study conducted in 2009 by payroll and HR outsourcing firm ADP found that 46 percent of reference checks turned up discrepancies. If it seems surprising that nearly half of job applicants fudge their credentials in one way or another, another stat explains why: It's really easy to get away with it. According to the Society for [size=; font-size: inherit,inherit]Human[size=; font-size: inherit,inherit] [size=; font-size: inherit,inherit]Resource[size=; font-size: inherit,inherit] [size=; font-size: inherit,inherit]Management, just under half of companies check to see if job applicants have the degrees they claim to hold. An even smaller percentage verifies that job-seekers actually went to the schools they say they attended.
Most of these job-seekers obviously aren't CEOs, but Thompson isn't the first chief executive to have a resume that doesn't match up to the facts. RadioShack CEO David Edmondson resigned in 2006 after the Fort Worth Star-Telegram discovered that he hadn't earned the two degrees he claimed. Kenneth Lonchar, CFO of Veritas Software, resigned in 2002 after the company found out he didn't hold the MBA he claimed to have earned.
These executives don't always leave. When it was discovered in 2002 that Bausch & Lomb CEO Ronald Zarrella hadn't really gotten an MBA from NYU's Stern [size=; font-size: inherit,inherit][backcolor= transparent]School[size=; font-size: inherit,inherit][backcolor= transparent] [size=; font-size: inherit,inherit][backcolor= transparent]of[size=; font-size: inherit,inherit][backcolor= transparent] [size=; font-size: inherit,inherit][backcolor= transparent]Business, he had to give up more than a million dollars in bonus compensation. The longtime company executive got to keep his job, though. Five years later, Zarrella netted nearly $30 million from a private equity takeover of the company.
The irony is that Thompson's degree didn't really matter when Yahoo hired him, Challenger said. "No company wants someone who's been lying on his or her background, but in terms of job searches for executives, companies don't care much about what they did when they were 22. They care about what they did in the last five or 10 years."
Yahoo is standing behind Thompson, saying in a statement, "This in no way alters the fact that Mr. Thompson is a highly qualified executive with a successful track record leading large consumer technology companies."


from：
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/04/11539696-yahoo-ceo-scott-thompsons-resume-error-could-get-him-booted?lite

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=362400&do=blog&quickforward=1&id=570603]]> <![CDATA[慈濟46週年慶-母親節，慈濟日， 佛誕節]]>
浴佛節一般是在寺廟進行，為了讓更多的人洗潔心靈，得到佛祖的保佑，此次浴佛節走進社區。在舊金山，奧克蘭，還會陸續舉辦10多場浴佛節。 同時，臺灣，美國，全世界都會同一天舉辦浴佛節。

在浴佛典禮上，弟子們統一著裝，手捧鮮花，隨著歌曲“無量義經”的響起，邁著整齊的步伐，走向浴佛臺。廣場上聚集了前來浴佛的人群，浴佛典禮在正午3點舉行 ，前來瞻仰的人群站在烈日下，靜靜的站在浴佛臺兩側，場面震撼人心。

浴佛的功德，最重要是一念清淨心和恭敬心，虔誠地供燈燭、供香湯、供花香，是為眾生積福德資糧，期望心聲共振上達諸天聽，祈求人心淨化、社會祥和、天下無災難。關於更多浴佛節信息，請登陸www.tzuchi.org。

同時也借此機會，宣揚省小錢，做大事的善舉。慈濟誠邀您加入慈濟愛的隊伍，一起發揮5元的力量，為困難的人帶來希望，為黑暗的角落點亮一盞明燈。捐款方式：現金，支票，網上捐款www.tzuchi.org.





本帖包含的部分附件只能 访问 社区查看
]]> <![CDATA[梦想无界，创新不息——《美国凭什么》书评]]> http://www.cqwb.com.cn/cqwb/html/2012-05/13/content_311895.htm

自从改革开放以来，中美交流日益增多，中国人对美国的了解也越来越多，各种各样关于美国的书也汗牛充栋，但其中的看法却是两个极端，不是把美国骂得一无是处，就是把美国捧成天堂。《美国凭什么》正好弥补许多书的不足，可以说是目前市场上最客观公正写美国的书了。

　　作为一个常年生活在美国的人，我对书中所写有很多共鸣。美国到底为什么这么强大，她的生命力在哪里？美国有哪些值得我们中国学习，哪些我们必须避免，在书中都写得详详细细。一个国家之所以成为世界霸权，不能只靠军事上的征服，要靠全方位的领先。美国靠的是什么呢？我觉得书中所写的“梦想无界，创新不息”就是最好的答案。

　　美国是全世界最有创造力的地方。对创造力的培养从小就开始了。书中所写“美国的基础教育观念对于单纯掌握知识并不是很注重，而主张培养探索精神和自主性，使得美国孩子未来的发展更具多样性和创造性；因而在高等教育中能够造就大批出类拔萃的优异人才，还有许多没有高学位甚至高中没有毕业的美国人也能找到适合自己性向的职业，在谋生中获得乐生的情趣。”所言不虚。

　　我上小学的孩子，在入学百天的时候，老师要求他们做一件事表达自己对这百天的感受。有的同学用100颗糖豆贴了一只蝴蝶，表示这是他向未来起飞的开始；有的画了个地球，上面摆了100棵绿纸剪的树，表示要为环保做贡献。我儿子用100个红色的圆形不干胶纸粘贴了一个大问号，表示他希望未来要学更多知识。每个孩子的创意都不同，也没有标准答案，这就是美国从小灌输孩子的东西。美国的教育方式不会让孩子死记硬背，而是将知识融会贯通，创造出自己最独特的东西来。目前中国的教育还是填鸭式的，孩子们的创造力和想象力被扼杀了。曾有个海归的孩子到中国上学，因为写的答案和标准的不同，被判为不及格，让孩子的自尊心备受挫折。一切都循规蹈矩，怎能让新的想法脱颖而出呢？

　　身处美国创造力最活跃的硅谷，我深切感受到这种无所不在的活力。尽管遭受经济危机的影响，但硅谷的创新却一刻都没有停止。苹果公司失去了乔布斯，新的ipad和iphone照样推出。每天都有各种新技术出现的消息，你会感到如书中所说：“人们预期，下一个革命性的重大科技突破，最可能发生的地方仍是美国。”美国的科技是引领世界潮流。乔布斯的理念可以说是很好地体现了美国创新精神的精髓：不是顾客需要什么，我们给什么，而是我们告诉顾客，你们需要用什么。

　　书中也不避讳美国的问题，比如华尔街是如何欺骗不懂金融的百姓，玩弄资本的运作，导致这场全球性的金融海啸，让全世界的人都损失惨重。书中特别提出，中国的金融事业才刚刚开始，美国的惨痛教训一定要记取，不能重蹈美国的覆辙。

　　中国目前在世界上的影响力也越来越大，如何全面客观地看待美国，学习美国成功的经验，吸取美国失败的教训，对于现在的中国人来说是至关重要的。而本书恰恰给出了最好的答案。

　　《美国凭什么》 [美]庞忠甲 [加]陈思进 著 北京联合出版公司 2012年4月出版     定价：39.80元]]> <![CDATA[丁磊(網易創始人)做客北加州清華校友會30週年慶]]>


丁磊(網易創始人)做客北加州清華校友會30週年慶典

在清華大學豪邁的跨入新百年之際，北加州清華校友會力邀海峽兩岸清華校友中的傑出代表、全球華人高科技產業領軍人物，做精彩演講和深入討論。來自矽谷的清華校友和科技精英，和北美各地清華校友代表，清華企業家協會和企業家網絡協會會員，兄弟學校校友會、企業、社團的代表共400多人，共聚一堂，慶祝清華校友會30週年。

演講嘉賓
Keynote speech:
丁磊 ，Founder/Former CEO, NetEase (網易)
陳來助，President of Solar Business Operation/Former CEO, AU(友達光電)

Panel discussion:
王金林, CTO, Answers.com/Announce Media
張於慶, President, InnoSpring / Co-founder, TEEC Angel Fund
王大成, Founder Partner, Acorn Campus Ventures
孔繁建, Founding Managing Partner, Vivo Ventures
Jun (Alex) Gao, VP of Product Marketing, Vobile

時間
2012年5月20日 1-5pm

地點
Intel Headquarter ,SC12 Auditorium
3600 Juliette Ln., Santa Clara, CA 95054


會議議程
1:00-1:30pm Registration and Opening Remarks
1:30-2:15pm Opening Keynote: 丁磊
2:15-2:45pm Tsinghua 101th Anniversary & THAA-NC 30th Birthday Celebration Ceremony
                        (唱校歌，THAA-NC前會長介紹，及2012-2013交接儀式)
2:45-3:30pm Panel Discussion: 清華新百年的機遇與挑戰
3:30-3:45pm Q&A
3:45-4:30pm Closing Keynote: 陳來助


報名參加 (open to public for free)
http://tsinghua30thaanc.eventbrite.com


協辦單位
清華企業家協會 (TEEC)
清華企業家網絡協會 (TEN)

]]> <![CDATA[北大校友会未名论坛暨20周年年会 黄怒波，吴志攀主讲]]>
5月19日中午，北大校友会未名论坛暨20周年年会 黄怒波，吴志攀主讲


未名论坛是北京大学北加州校友会的高端论坛，邀请国内外重量级人物，和校友和社区朋友们探讨一些严肃的大话题。未名论坛秉承北大“兼容并蓄”的传统，一贯面向校友和社区开放，已成为湾区思想激荡的高端交流平台。

2012年未名论坛主题是传承与发展，以北大人为例，探讨中国学子与母校教育，创业，及社会责任。2012年也是北大114年校庆，五四运动93周年，和北大北加州校友会创会20周年。我们特别邀请到近期热门新闻人物，北京中坤投资集团董事长黄怒波，和北大常务副校长吴志攀。并颁发首届北大杰出校友“社区贡献奖”。

黄怒波是北大中文系校友，北大企业家协会的发起人，连年入选“福布斯中国富豪榜”、“福布斯中国慈善榜”及“胡润百富榜”、“胡润慈善榜”，2009年被《福布斯》杂志评选为“亚太慈善英雄”。近期的热门新闻是，中坤与冰岛政府本月初就租借冰岛东北部一块土地已达成一致, 投资2亿美元，租期99年。黄怒波一手创办的中坤集团，正在全世界聚焦的镁光灯下展示它的世界休闲地产王国。在当代中国民营企业“正在走出去”的先遣分队中，黄怒波对惶恐的西方世界高声解释“中国民营企业”的含义。黄怒波是一个传奇式的企业家，他自称，“一流的登山家，二流的企业家，三流的诗人。”去年黄怒波成功抵达北极点，成功实现了他“7+2”（即登顶世界七大洲最高峰，并到达两极极点）的梦想。作为成功企业家，他提倡和力行的是，“让我们为社会再多做一些”。

北大常务副校长吴志攀创造的“校长撑腰体”也正备受网友追捧，“你是北大人，看到老人摔倒了你就去扶。他要是讹你，北大法律系给你提供法律援助；要是败诉了，北大替你赔偿！”三言两语之间，尽显一所中国百年名校的豪迈与担当。

黄怒波的成功背后，有何故事，他的梦想又是如何，他回报社会情结从何而来？吴校长的“撑腰”说是在什么场合产生的？他本人又怎样看各种“撑腰体”流行？

5月19日中午，北大北加州校友会诚邀您和亲友们，和黄怒波，吴志攀领队的北大代表团共进午餐，新知故旧，欢聚未名论坛，尽情探讨教育，创业和社会责任感等大小话题。

黄怒波，吴志攀专程为5月19日的未名论坛而来，是湾区之行的唯一一次公开活动。本次论坛由才貌双全的北大校友，前中央电视台节目主持人耿姝主持，是领略她风采与机锋的难得机会。论坛选址环境优雅的法式酒店SOFITEL，座位有限，报名从速。

网上报名及论坛详情：
http://pkuaanc-ac-20120519.eventbrite.com/

]]> <![CDATA[服务器出故障]]> ]]> <![CDATA[亚太裔传统月 驻洛杉矶总领事向传统侨社表敬意]]> （AACYF洛杉矶讯）
      每年五月是美国亚太裔传统月。近日，中国驻洛杉矶总领事馆总领事邱绍芳邀约罗省中华会馆全体理监事及成员侨团负责人做客总领事馆，向南加州传统侨社100多年来带领侨胞在美发展、维护侨胞利益、在促进美中关系和两岸关系发展上等方面所做的贡献表达敬意。

    邱绍芳总领事在致欢迎词时表示，他首先要向罗省中华会馆以及成员侨团表示敬意，罗省中华会馆是南加州最有影响力的侨团，成立近130年来，带领当地侨胞们落地生根、开花结果，开创出了自己的天地。特别是在服务侨胞、维护华人权益、弘扬中华文化等方面所做的大量工作，展现了华裔族群的良好风貌，获得了主流社会的赞赏和肯定。

   邱绍芳总领事指出，罗省中华会馆以及成员侨团从成立以来，都非常关心家乡。无论何时，都以赤子之情，参与和支持故乡的发展建设，体现了血浓于水的感情。邱绍芳总领事希望罗省中华会馆以及成员会馆的朋友们在联系两岸、促进中美关系等方面能继续积极努力。同时加强与总领馆的沟通，总领馆也愿意提供沟通平台，更好地服务侨胞。
    
    罗省中华会馆的代表在致辞中表示，会馆从成立以来照章程规范运作，一直在为侨胞努力付出，在主流社会和华裔社区有目共睹。从支持孙中山在海外的革命活动开始，海外侨胞更是乐见国家的繁荣和强大。希望在今后能加强与总领馆的沟通。

   当天邱绍芳总领事以及卞立新副总领事、孙伟德副总领事，教育参赞、商务参赞、文化参赞以及侨务组的领事们在门口迎接来宾，大厅内大屏幕上的联谊主题“乡韵乡情话乡音”，让这些传统侨社的中流砥柱们倍感亲切。参加当天联谊活动的近百位罗省中华会馆理监事成员中，许多都是第一次踏足总领馆。各大会馆的理监事们纷纷与邱总合影留念，侨务组的领事们也与来宾们开诚布公、真诚交流，气氛热络、融洽。

   根据章程，罗省中华会馆的理监事由各成员会馆委派，依各会馆规模大小，代表出席中华会馆的理监事名额从各1名到各4名不等。罗省中华会馆有27个成员会馆和侨团，共有138名理监事。近年来各大成员会馆注重吸引新侨代表、华裔新生代代表参与，理监事成员的年龄、工作和学历结构也随时代发展而变化。美各级政府在涉及到与南加州华裔社区相关议题、需要沟通访问时，基本上都是直接与罗省中华会馆联络。
本帖包含的部分附件只能 访问 社区查看
]]> <![CDATA[大华99 又一新店即将开业 --- 焕然一新！]]>




]]> <![CDATA[New Technologies & Business Models for Health]]> May 16, 2012 | 8:00am - 3:30pmSobrato Center for Non-Profits350 Twin Dolphin DriveRedwood City, CA94065
Health Tech Conference:
New Technologies & Business Models for Health
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Redwood City

Online registration closes at noon on Tuesday, May 15th.
Walk-ins are welcome. $40 more at the door.
Description:
Join us as we bring together healthcare, technology, government and communication leaders to discuss opportunities and challenges in the growing field of mobile and information technologies for health. Engage with entrepreneurs and the venture community who are fundamentally transforming healthcare by creating and financing cutting-edge technological innovations. This transformation offers unprecedented opportunities for providing new and improved models of healthcare delivery in support of improving quality of patient care, increasing efficiencies and accountability, and decreasing cost of care. There are legislative challenges to be faced and the role of government, “smart” regulation and standards in the future of health will be discussed. Come listen to and meet experts in the field.
AGENDA:
8:00am - 8:45amRegistration/Continental Breakfast & Networking
8:45am - 9:00amWelcome and Introductions
9:00am - 9:30amKeynote: Revolutionizing Care Delivery through Innovation and Mobile Health
Wil Yu, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
9:30am - 10:15am
Next Gen Health IT: From Information to Integration, Interconnectedness & Intelligence
    Rebecca Chiu, MedHelp
    Matthew Douglass, Practice Fusion
    Shadaab Kanwal, Kaiser Permanente
    Moderated by: Andy Brooks, SciMed Partners, Inc.
10:15am - 10:35amMorning Break
10:45am - 11:15amKeynote: The Government Role in the Future of Health
David Saÿen, Collaborations for Health  
11:15am - 12:00pm
Keynote: Digital Health, Regulated or Not?
Jafar Shenasa, Proteus Biomedical
12:00pm - 12:45pm

Panel Discussion: The Changing Investment Landscape & Business Models in Health: Latest Trends & How Innovators can Create Value and Differentiate
    Vibhor Rastogi, Intel Capital
    Don Ross, HealthTech Capital
    Bijan Salehizadeh, NaviMed Capital
    Moderated by: Noel Gillespie, Procopio
12:45pm - 1:30pmDemo Table Showcase & Lunch Break
1:30pm - 2:15pm
Panel Discussion: Technology & Social Innovation to End Health Disparities
    Dr. Sophia Chang, California Healthcare Foundation
    Lisa Hammann, Genentech
    Katherine Kim, San Francisco State University
    Vineet Singal, Anjna Patient Education
    Moderated by: AJ Chen, Healthline Networks
2:15pm - 2:45pmKeynote: Novel Paradigms for Chronic Disease Management
Dr. Jeffrey Kaye, Oregon Health & Science University
2:45pm - 3:30pmNetworking
3:30pmConference Concludes
LOCATION:
Sobrato Center for Non-Profits
350 Twin Dolphin Drive
Redwood City, CA 94065

PRICING:

Early Bird Discount through Apr. 27: $130 General Public, $110 Members, $60 Platinum Pass; $65 Students
Online Price through May 15: $150 General Public, $130 Members, $80 Platinum Pass; $75 Students
A valid student identification card is required upon check-in.
Walk-In: Additional $40 at the door

SPONSORS:
SVForum Photo Policy
A special thank you to our organizing committee:
AJ Chen, Healthline
Susie Fares, SciMed Partners
Eilish McCaffrey, startupadvisory@gmail.com
Marco Smit, Health 2.0
David Snyder, 42TEK
Paul Wcislo
Marta Gaia Zanchi, Medinnovo

SPEAKER BIOS:
Andy Brooks, Senior Managing Partner, SciMed Partners. Andy heads the HealthcareTechnology practice for SciMed Partners, Inc., focusing on bridging the gap between IT capabilities and the needs of the healthcare
marketplace to drive higher quality care and lower-cost solutions. Mr.
Brooks has more than 15 years experience in high-tech business
operations and investment, including venture capital, public equities,
capital markets, and company operations, with extensive startup
experience as both investor and entrepreneur. Prior to joining SciMed,
Mr. Brooks held positions with Crescendo Ventures; JPMorgan
Securities, Inc.; the NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc.; Bloomberg, LP; and
various high-tech software and networking startups.
Sophia Chang, MD, MPH, Director, Better Chronic Disease Care, California Healthcare Foundation.The better chronic disease care program focuses on improving care for Californians with chronic diseases. The Foundation's work in this area includes improving provider effectiveness, through patient engagement and technology, and promoting appropriate care toward the end of life.  She is the former Director of the Veteran Health Administration’s Center for Quality Management in Public Health, which catalyzed improvement using innovative quality management techniques and clinical information systems.  Her previous positions include: Director of HIV/AIDS program, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; Medical Director, San Francisco Health Plan--a managed health care plan for Medicaid recipients; and Director of AIDS Health Services for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  Dr. Chang continues to practice general internal medicine at San Francisco General Hospital as a UCSF faculty member.  She holds an M.P.H. from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.D. from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an undergraduate degree from Amherst College.
AJ Chen Ph.D. is an advocate of applying information technology for achieving health equity for everyone. As the Director of Semantic Technology at Healthline Networks Inc., AJ is responsible for core semantic technologies that power top health search engines reaching 100M consumers per month.  He chairs the Data Committee on the Region IX Health Equity Council for the National Partnership to End Health Disparities, and contributes to the Consumer eHealth Consortium at National eHealth Collaborative. He was a winner of the HHS Healthy People Developer Challenge in 2011. AJ was the founding Chair of SVForum Semantic Web SIG. Previously, AJ developed whole genome sequencing technology for personalized medicine at leading genomics companies. AJ partnered with Nobel Prize winner Dr. Barry Marshall to promote testing and eradicating H. pylori after doing post-doc research in Immunology at Harvard and Duke medical schools. AJ earned his PhD in Biological Chemistry from University of Utah and BS in Chemistry from Fudan University.
Rebecca Chiu, Business Development, MedHelp. Rebecca heads up business development for Medhelp, the largest online health community and a global leader in consumer health engagement. 12 million visitors come to MedHelp's site on a monthly basis to get personalized advice from doctors or fellow patients, track their health conditions through online health tools and mobile apps, and discover content most relevant to their condition. Before MedHelp, Ms. Chiu has had a successful track record on building companies and investing in early-stage companies. She was part of the executive team of 118218 Le Numero, which became the market leader in directory assistance market in France in 9 months, generating $100M in annual revenue. She was also a venture capital investor at Advent International and Schroder Finance Partner, investing in early-stage companies and helping portfolio companies on strategic, operational, and fund raising initiatives. Ms. Chiu holds an M.A. and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School.
Matthew Douglass, VP of Engineering, Practice Fusion. Matthew joined Practice Fusion in 2007 and oversaw the development of the underlying SaaS technology framework that enables rapid development within Practice Fusion. With extensive experience in developing secure, mission-critical internet applications, he established Practice Fusion's Adobe Flex infrastructure, three nines uptime guarantee and API platform. Prior to Practice Fusion, he created and expanded scalable applications for large businesses in the energy and financial investment sectors including Fisher Investments, Suez Energy North America, Dacott Consulting and CMS Energy. Matthew has spoken on healthcare technology at SDForum, Health 2.0, MIT and Microsoft events. Outside of the office: Running marathons, playing softball and rooting for the Texas Rangers. Passionate about: Unlocking health data from paper charts in an effort to streamline health communication and give patients direct access to their information.
Noel Gillespie, Partner, Procopio. Noel Gillespie is the chair of Procopio’s Medical Technology Practice Group and a member of the Firm’s Clean Tech Practice Group. Mr. Gillespie regularly assists clients with strategic patent portfolio development and implementation so as to protect their technology and help them achieve their business objectives. This process includes developing claim strategies that create market barriers and protect or create revenue streams, as well as preparing and prosecuting U.S. and foreign Patent Applications. Mr. Gillespie has extensive experience in dealing with telecommunications companies, especially wireless telecommunications companies, wireless health, health IT, medical device companies, clean tech and software/Internet companies. For example, Mr. Gillespie has helped clients build portfolios and protect or build market positions in the areas of wireless sensors for health applications, smart grids, semiconductor memories, lab and chip technology and energy efficient data storage.
Lisa Hammann, Senior Director of Access Solutions Operations, Genentech.Over the last ten years, she has held several roles at Genentech in brand and managed care marketing, market planning and value-based health care.  Prior to her time at Genentech, she worked at GeneSage, an early-stage genetic health services company, at the Pacific Business Group on Health and at the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies.  She holds a Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and an English degree from Yale University.
Shadaab Kanwal, Executive Director Research & Health Policy; Quality & Care Delivery Excellence IT, Kaiser Permanente. Shadaab is a recognized visionary strategist, business advisor and patient focused technology steward; serves as the Executive Director Research & Health Policy; Quality & Care Delivery Excellence and Community Benefits IT portfolio at Kaiser Permanente. Shadaab brings 18 years of distinguished operations and technology leadership experience that formed strategic intent for innovation and produced competitive advantage for UCLA Health Sciences, OhioHealth, MAYO Clinic, United Healthcare and Catholic Healthcare West. Prior to Kaiser Permanente, he executed emerging medical technologies, created IT governance and alignment building collaborative alliances, simplified deployment of complex clinical and business softwares and led development of actionable informatics and analytics built by high performance teams; to facilitate strategic imperatives of meaningful use, clinical innovation and revenue cycle transformation. His recent endeavors orchestrate the delivery of smart technology, innovative learning systems and integrated healthcare analytics. These efforts enable; value-based complex care and clinical transformation, enhanced patient progression, safety and performance improvement with risk management; ensuring multi-region community benefits, responsible research Initiatives and clinical strategy.
Dr. Jeffrey Kaye is a Professor of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering and the director of the Layton Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Center, as well as director of the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology (ORCATECH)  at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR. Dr. Kaye oversees the ORCATECH Living Laboratory (OLL), a population of community-dwelling seniors who have agreed to participate on an ongoing basis in research on technology-based health monitoring, intervention, and support of independent aging. The Living Lab is used to explore technologies to support independent living, to assess new behavioral markers, and to evaluate approaches for assessing neurological and other relevant health changes, all in the participant’s home. The ORCATECH Living Lab is one of only two such centers in the world and has received funding from INTEL. He has received the Charles Dolan Hatfield Research Award for his work and is listed in Best Doctors in America. He is an author on over 200 scientific publications and holds several major grant awards from federal agencies, national foundations and industrial sponsors. He received his medical degree from New York Medical College and trained in neurology at Boston University. He completed a fellowship in brain aging at the National Institute on Aging.
Katherine Kim, MPH, MBA, Professor in Residence, San Francisco State University, Health Equity Institute.  Her research focuses on the application of mobile health and health information exchange technologies to health promotion and healthcare delivery systems, including the business model and policy implications. She is currently principal investigator on iN Touch: mobile platforms for observations of daily living in youth with obesity and depression (funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and co-investigator on SCANNER:  Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research (funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). She has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry with hospitals and medical groups, as an entrepreneur--CEO of a venture-funded startup (one of only 2% of venture funded startups led by women nationally), leader of a business incubator, and Founder and President of Kim Consultants—and in software product development with Oracle.  Ms. Kim received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Harvard, her MPH and MBA from UC Berkeley.  She is currently pursuing a PhD in health informatics from UC Davis, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.
Vibhor Rastogi, Director, Intel Capital. Vibhor focuses on software investments in vertical markets including HealthCare. Vibhor is currently a board observer at CareCloud, a S. Florida based company focused on the ambulatory physician market and IPCommerce, an open payments platform. At Intel, Vibhor has also held marketing and finance roles in the graphics and smartphone business units. Prior to Intel, Vibhor was a Management Consultant at Deloitte Consulting where he provided consulting services to senior executives at Fortune 500 clients in multiple industries and was the recipient of several awards for excellence in client service and firm development. Vibhor’s Healthcare consulting experience spans Payers, Providers and Big Pharma. Vibhor has an MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma and was awarded the Student Managed Investment Fund Scholarship for academic excellence and community leadership. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur where he was the recipient of the Dean’s award for academic excellence.
Don Ross, HealthTech Capital. Don has 10 years Angel investing experience and currently is a Board Director, Sand Hill Angels (SHA) and Co-Chair, SHA Deal Quality Committee. His investments have included companies in mobile, tech, eHealth, diagnostics, and medical devices. Don has private board experience and startup operating experience as CEO and VP. He cofounded and sold a life
sciences publishing company and is co-author of two college-level nutrition textbooks. Don earned a BA, Architecture with honors, Berkeley.
Bijan Salehizadeh, M.D., NaviMed Capital. Dr. Salehizadeh has 12 years of healthcare operating and investment experience.  Prior to co-founding NaviMed Capital, he was a General Partner at Highland Capital Partners, where he focused on venture and growth stage healthcare investments.Prior to joining Highland in 2003, Dr. Salehizadeh spent several years in marketing at Medtronic where he worked closely with Mr. Canann.  Before Medtronic, Dr. Salehizadeh held a variety of senior management roles with HealthCentral, a venture-backed healthcare information technology company that went public in 1999.  He is currently on the board of directors of Auris Surgical, BÂRRX Medical, Hyperion Therapeutics, OpGen and Predictive Biosciences, and has sourced or been actively involved in Highland’s investments in Baronova, Entourage Medical, Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, kyruus, AVEO Pharmaceuticals (IPO), and Conor Medsystems (IPO; acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $1.4 billion in 2007). Dr. Salehizadeh holds an A.B. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, an M.D. and Master’s in Science in Health Policy from Columbia University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.  He is also a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program.
David Saÿen, Regional Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. David and his immediate staff are focused on external and intergovernmental affairs, while operations units in the office provide technical assistance and conduct a variety of reviews, evaluations, and inspections of activities in CMS’s programs. The San Francisco Regional Office spans a vast geographic area, has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the nation, and serves more than 14 million Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries. David brings more than 30 years of Federal service and experience in health and human services programs to the position of Regional Administrator. Between 2002 and 2007, as Associate Regional Administrator for Medicare Health Plans Operations, he led all Medicare private health plan contract operations for Medicare Advantage and the Medicare Prescription Drug benefit in the San Francisco region. David is a Senior Fellow of the Council on Excellence in Government. He received the HHS Secretary's Distinguished Service Award on two occasions. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and an MBA in Health Administration from Temple University in Philadelphia.
Jafar Shenasa, Regulatory Affairs, Proteus Biomedical. Jafar Shenasa is a regulatory and clinical affairs professional who has worked with various medical device companies for the past 15 years.  Currently, Jafar is the Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs at Proteus Biomedical, a company developing intelligent medicine products for adherence and patient monitoring.  Prior to joining Proteus, Jafar held multiple positions at Aspire Medical, diaDexus, Novacept, and Medtronic CardioRhythm.  He earned his Bachelor's degree in Physiology from McGill University and a Master’s degree in Neuroscience from Universite de Montreal in Canada.
Vineet Singal, Founder, Anjna. Vineet is a Stanford senior and wants to use his skills as a social entrepreneur to solve problems in healthcare and medicine. Vineet is the founder of Anjna, a national network of undergraduates and faculty that aim to create technology-based health education programs at free clinics nationwide. Previously, Vineet successfully led 100KCheeks, an initiative to register 100,000 new bone marrow donors using social media. His work has been featured in Forbes, New York Times, Huffington Post, PBS etc. and has delivered talks at TEDxTampaBay, Techonomy, Medicine 2.0 and INK/TEDIndia. He has over seven years of research experience (Stanford, NIH, Mayo and Mount Sinai) and has published several papers in prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals.
Wil Yu, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Wil leads nationwide healthcare innovation efforts for the U.S. through the Dept. of Health and Human Services. He leads several innovation grant programs and created the "Investing in Innovations" program, i2, which utilizes prizes and challenge to spur early stage innovations and community building. He is also the Director of the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects program, funding breakthrough developments in health IT. Key innovations supported by his office include: mobile health, predictive analytics, gaming in healthcare, and clinical/business intelligence. He is also a Senior Advisor at the newly formed CMS Innovation Center, assisting with initiatives supporting the exploration of new approaches to the development of innovative care delivery and payment models, including ACOs. In collaboration with HHS' CTO and the White House Startup America initiative, he leads the DC-to-VC effort - promoting market development, entrepreneurship, and investment in health technology through targeted engagements between policy-makers, innovators, and investors. Wil co-founded the Federal mHealth Collaborative, advancing the development of national mHealth policies and programs.
]]> <![CDATA[【何人可摄影习作选：渐行渐远系列】。请各位欣赏并指教。]]> 下面是我的摄影习作选的系列之八：【何人可摄影习作选：渐行渐远系列】。我将于每个周五呈上一张或一组习作，请各位欣赏并指教。谢谢。

渐行渐远在梦境 之一



渐行渐远在梦境 之二

]]> <![CDATA[《品味非常》健康生活大赛]]> 赞助《品味非常》健康生活大赛
时间：2011年7月21日  11am -4pm
地点：3350Scott Blvd, Building54, Santa Clara, CA 95054
Tel: 408-244-8883, 408-220-3099, 408-396-2601
主办：由《品》杂志，丁丁电视联合举办，湾区多家媒体赞助，湾区多家社团协办.
非常多家庭参与：特别为家庭设计的比赛，围绕日常生活柴米油盐。多位艺术家，儿童现场表演，美食评论家，作家，健康饮食专家，250-300位观众到场。
非常有品味：由资深主持人丁维平主持，由《品》杂志著名专栏作家撰写生动精彩的报道。将有品酒专家的讲解，美食营养专家点评。
非常有趣味：精心设计比赛环节，趣味横生笑声不断，体现团队精神，观众互动
非常直接的参与：商家，饮食专家，和热爱生活和美食的湾区家庭，一次面对面的接触
非常多互动：丁丁电视现场直播，现场观众参与评比，打分，互动和网路亲友观众投票。
非常有效的推广：本节目将通过丁丁电视在网路上现场直播，并举行由现场观众和网路观众的当场投票和互动，扩大影响力，并由《品》杂志做图文报道，活动之后该比赛视频将在丁丁电视首页重复播放30天，YOUTUBE，土豆，新浪网等多个平台播放，所有赞助商家都会出现在电视节目和杂志上。这将是一个树立形象，打造品牌的极好契机，也是一个直接与消费者互动沟通的机会。








]]> <![CDATA[你既然認定這路,何必在意要走多久.]]>


你既然認定這路,何必在意要走多久.
成功沒有輸贏,只有先後.
最大的敵人是自己心中放棄的聲音]]> <![CDATA[高度]]> 不要說機會從未出現，它曾經來過，只是你舍不得放下手裏的；
不要說神不與你同在，祂就在身邊，只是你太忙了常常把祂忽視。
太多時間我們只定睛在自己的需要和問題上面,眼目狹窄到看不到神的祝福.
就如同困在迷宮裡的螞蟻,不知該往何處才能脫困,
但其實如果只要離開桌面30cm,就能輕易俯視整個迷宮,如何走到出口是一目瞭然的.
當停止使用自己狹隘的眼光判斷和處理事情. 解答往往就在眼前.
沒有任何人能比神更愛你，神要給你的祝福也沒有任何人能給你，

在天上的父神,永遠願意用他慈愛的雙手引領我們,只要我們願意讓他幫助.

.
]]> <![CDATA[Silicon Valley China Wireless Mobile Forum]]>
Date: June 20 - 21, 2012
Time: 9:00am – 6:00pm Beijing Time
Venue: Nikko New Century Beijing, No. 6 Southern Road Capital Gym, Beijing, China, 100044

China Wireless Network Convergence Conference, hosted by China Radio Association, is the most important government supported annual conference about technology and market in mobile Internet, wireless network, and telecommunication industries. It features the speeches from high-level decision makers in the central government ministries, as well as presentations from domestic and foreign leading technology and service providers. The exhibition show case the latest development in Mobile Internet, Wireless Network, and Telecommunication industries in China. For more information, please visit http://www.rac-cwcc.com/

This year, Silicon Valley China Wireless Technology Association, will host Silicon Valley China Wireless Mobile Forum, as a track on the second day of the conference. The forum will focus on ‘Technology and Market Convergence in the Mobile Internet Era’. For more information, please visit http://www.svcwireless.org/svcw/cwcc-conference.

Registration Contact:  registration@svcwireless.org]]> <![CDATA[AAMA EMC Leadership and Innovation in Executive Suites]]> Date: May 17, 2012
Time: 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Venue: 2421 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA (All Star Conference Room)

Register today, seats are limited! http://grip.eventbrite.com

Innovation is often the key driver of an organization’s growth and performance. It can be the single best way to differentiate from competitors. Today’s successful leaders must not only be strategic thinkers, but innovators as well. And tomorrow’s successful leaders must be able to drive organizational innovation by tapping into the knowledge and creativity of their teams.
Please join EMC for a wine and cheese reception and a unique opportunity to learn how some of today’s leaders have applied innovation throughout their professional journey. This diverse panel of business leaders will share different perspectives on innovation - within a major multinational corporation, through academia and start-up companies, as a change agent through talent, from an engineering and R&D lens, and in terms of acquisition vs. organic innovation.

Panelists:
Dr. Charles Fan, SVP, EMC
Dr. Orna Berry, Corporate VP and GM for Israel COE, EMC
Dr. William F. Miller, CEO, Nanostellar
Ms. Winnie Wan, Executive Chairman, CEO, Co-Founder of OncoHealth Corp
Dr. Jim Walsh, CTO of GlobalLogic
Moderator:
Charlene Yu Vaughn, CEO, The Algonquin Group]]> <![CDATA[CAPITAL ACCESS 2012 - THE FIFTH AAIM-AAMA LP EVENT]]> CAPITAL ACCESS 2012 - THE FIFTH AAIM-AAMA LP EVENT
Wednesday, May 23, 2012; 6:00 PM-8:00 PM at The Orrick Building
405 Howard Street, San Francisco

Register today!


This is an exciting time to be an investor. New initiatives are being launched by institutional investors and fund-of-funds to take advantage of sustained U.S. economic growth and the growth opportunities of Asia. Learn how their initiatives, such as California-focused and emerging market investments, drive returns in 2012.

Please join your friends and colleagues for a lively and informal evening of discussion and networking featuring "can't-miss" Bay Area institutional investors, Orrick, AAAIM and AAMABoard members.

Panelists Include:
Jonathan Barker, Venture Partner, Thomvest Ventures
David Fann, President and CEO, TorreyCove Capital Partners
Dolph Hellman, Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP (moderator)
Heidi Poon, Investment Officer, City of San Jose Retirement Services

Click here for more information!

Agenda      
6:00-6:30    Doors open with refreshments and networking
6:30-6:35    Introductions by Clayton Jue (AAAIM) and Hanson Li (AAMA)
6:35-6:45    Panel discussion led by Dolph Hellman
6:45-8:00    Closing  
  
Fee: Free to staff of pensions funds, endowments, foundations and SWFs.
Please email aama@aamasv.com for your complimentary registration.
$40 to AAMA members and $50 for non-members.
Questions: aama@aamasv.com
Registration: Click here

With special thanks to our sponsor


2. Thuy Vu,  Host of CBS’ “Eye on the Bay”, 3-time Emmy Award Winner Will Moderate for AAMA Social Media Conference

AAMA Social Media Conference
Friday, June 8, 2012; 1:00 PM - 8:00 PM at 2F One Ferry Plaza, San Francisco

Preliminary Agenda:      
1:00-1:30    Registration & Networking
1:30-2:15    Opening Keynote: Geoff Donaker, COO, Yelp!
2:15-3:15    Moderated Fireside Chat Session
Moderated by Thuy Vu, Host of CBS’ “Eye on the Bay”, 3-time Emmy Award Winner
Social Video: John Ham, Co-Founder, UStream
Social Commerce: Gedioen Aloula, Global Head of Digital Strategy, Visa
3:15-3:30    BREAK
3:30-4:00    Entrepreneurship in Social Media

Ankit Agarwal, CEO of Micello
Jeff Fedor, CEO of Monstro
Hancheng Liang, CEO of HSGH.com
Jostein Svendsen, CEO of Wevide
4:00-4:30    M&A in Social Media: Founder’s Perspective
Jameson Hsu, Mocihi Media
Ken Chiu, Funzio
4:30-5:00    Afternoon Fireside Chat

Social Reputation: Don Hoang, Director of Business Development, Klout
5:00-5:50    Closing Panel: Investment Trends in Social Media
Connie Chan, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Tim Chang Managing Director, Mayfield Fund
Sergio Monsalve, Partner, NVP
Canice Wu, President, Plug and Play
5:50-6:00    Closing Remarks
6:00-8:00    AAMA Social Media Party
Register Now! to enjoy early bird rate!

3. Save the Date for AAMA Asia Connect Conference: The Mobile Future September 19, 2011

Save the Date and Time: Wednesday; September 19, 2012 from 8am to 5pm
Location: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
Agenda and Registration: Details coming soon

Please join the AAMA Connect Asia Conference as industry experts and thought leaders address the key questions surrounding the way mobile technology is changing the way we live, work, and play. The conference will feature panel discussions, fireside chats, and networking opportunities with the industry’s hottest entrepreneurs, investors, and executives from the Silicon Valley and Asia, the two technologies epicenters of the world.]]> <![CDATA[Chinese Clay Art, USA]]> Newsletter Vol. 105    May 2012
     in this issue Call for Ceramic Sculpture Artists---The 2nd China Changchun International Ceramics Symposium The Grand Opening Ceremony of Chinese Ceramic Art Masters' League (CCAML) and Chinese Culture Promotion Society - Ceramic Art Center Chinese Clay Art: Opening Ceremony at New Location -10% off on all purchases May 19, 2012 The Diary of Chinese Delegation in the US-by Guangzhen ZhouThe 5th biannual Big Fish Small Pot, the International Teapot Competition and Show at American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CaliforniaThe List of the Best Schools in the MFA ceramic art program in the US (USNEWS)Chinese Students in the US for the ceramics programAbout Ceramic China Tour
For online version with pictures or previous version of our newsletters, please click Newsletters
"CHINESE CLAY ART" is a newsletter emailed to professional artists, curators, collectors, writers, experts, educators and students in the ceramic field, who want to know about ceramic art in China and things related. This newsletter will be a bridge between China and Western countries for the ceramic arts. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.
An earlier newsletter is on the Web at: http://www.chineseclayart.com
Chief Editor: Guangzhen "Po" Zhou
English Editor: Rachel Zhou
(Copyright 2012, the Chinese Ceramic Art Council, USA. All rights reserved.)
Call for Ceramic Sculpture Artists---The 2nd China Changchun International Ceramics Symposium
Application Deadline: May 30th, 2012.
The organizing committee will be providing the international round-trip flight tickets, a compensation of 8,000 yuan (1 USD = 6.3 RMB), and free accommodation in Changchun, as well as assistants and interpreters. The complete ceramics works will be permanently collected and displayed at the institution of Changchun Municipal People's Government.
A well-known cultural city in northeast China, Changchun Municipal People's Government successfully held the 1st Changchun International Ceramics symposium in 2011, and 12 ceramists from 10 countries participated in the event, contributing their excellent ceramic works for the city Changchun.
From July 25 to August 15, 2012, Changchun Municipal People's Government will hold the 2nd China Changchun International Ceramics Symposium, with the theme of "Eternal and Classic - Traveling across history and future", to further promote international cultural exchanges, improving the cultural taste of the city as well as increasing the city's international influence and popularity. About 20 ceramic artists will be accepted this year.
Application process:
1. Compose at least 3 or more ceramic proposals based on the Symposium's theme; the size should be at least 80cm in height.
2. Please send colored design drafts or photos of your proposals and their digital files in JPEG, BMP or TIFF format. The digital photo should be no less than 1 megabyte.
3. Fill in a registration form and enclose your passport photo, your studio photo and your resume. The digital photo should be no less than 1 megabyte. Your ceramics portfolio is also appreciated.

Please send all of your information to:
The Culture Section, Changchun Municipal Foreign Affairs Office
No. 2626 Renmin Street, Jilin Province, P. R. China
Postcode: 130041
E-mail: cctaoyi@sina.com
Contact:
Miss Liu Shuang
Liaison of the 2nd Ceramics Symposium
Changchun Municipal Foreign Affairs Office
Tel: +86-431-88776734, +86-15948333800
E-mail: cctaoyi@sina.com, shuang962464@sina.com
Guangzhen Zhou, Chief Editor


The Grand Opening Ceremony of Chinese Ceramic Art Masters' League (CCAML) and Chinese Culture Promotion Society - Ceramic Art Center


A new ceramic artists' organization and its ceramic art center will be hosting its opening ceremony in Shanghai International Convention Center, Shanghai, China on June 3, 2012. The organization has about 200 members nationwide, from schools and historical ceramic production cities, as well as a few overseas Chinese people. Guangzhen Zhou, a California-based Chinese American and Board Member of the Association of Clay and Glass Artists, has been selected as vice-president of CCAML.
Over the past few decades, there have been three types of ceramic-related titles of "National Master" granted by the central government in China. These titles are "the National Master of Arts and Crafts", "the National Master of Ceramic Art", and "the National Master of Ceramic Art Design". The mission of the new organization is to join together these three kinds of masters to promote Chinese ceramic art and to improve the relationship in the world of ceramic art. CCAML will be hosting the Shanghai International Ceramic Cultural Festival in October 2012.


Chinese Clay Art: Opening Ceremony at New Location -10% off on all purchases May 19, 2012


As of May 10th, Chinese Clay Art Corp / Clay Ground has relocated. We are going to host an opening ceremony on May 19, 2012 from 10am to 5pm during which we offer 10% off on all purchases and 5% off for clay class enrollment on Saturday, May 19th only.! All online, email, fax, and phone orders show on the date of May 19 will receive a 10% refund check of the amount (before tax, handling and shipping charges).
This promotional event is ONE DAY only!
Our new address is:
1518 S. De Anza Blvd., San Jose, CA 95129.
Our new location is about a half a mile south from the original location, and can be found on the other side of De Anza Blvd before Prospect Road (across from Duckett Way and we are just behind Silicon Valley Piano). Thanks for your continued support!
Our phone and fax numbers have been kept with no changes, and our mailing will remain the same as well:
PO Box 1733, Cupertino, CA 95015.


The Diary of Chinese Delegation in the US-by Guangzhen Zhou


This project was titled: "Go Abroad, 100 participants for the NCECA conference Seattle 2012". I planned to get 100 Chinese participants to come over for the conference in Seattle 2012. Finally, we had about 50 participants altogether from Beijing, Shanghai, Jingdezhen, Yixing, Hangzhou, Chengdu (Western China) and Dalian (Northeastern China). The first Chinese delegates for NCECA numbered only seven in 1999, but, today, the group is getting much bigger. The name list is as follows:
The group leader Shi Juntang, chairman of Yixing Ceramic Professional Association, with a group of 11 Yixing artists from the Teapot Town of China. Many of them are provincial ceramic masters, while one of them is a national ceramic master.
The group leader and professor Zhou Wu and Dai Yu-xiang with a group of 17 from China Academy of Fine Arts in Hongzhou. These are ceramic art educators and their students.
The group leader, the general manager Gu Zhihua and his assistant manager Chen Weikai from Shanghai Art Fair Committee with a total of five from Shanghai
Professor Zhu Legeng and Fang Lili (husband and wife) China Institute of Art Research, Beijing.
Ms. Ding Shan, College of Art and Design, Hsinghua University, Beijing
Artist Zhou Xiaobing and his wife from Chengdu (Western China)
Artist Mr. Liang Wenlun from Dalian (Northeastern China)
Publisher, Mr. Liu Xianjin from "China Ceramic-Art" Magazine
Professors and educators from Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute: Ms. Zhang Jingjing, Ms. Liu Xiaoyu, Ms. Yang Bing and Mr. Lu Xiaoni
Plus, a few of them are currently studying in the US.    
March 28, Chinese artists set up an exhibition at the Clay. The group leader Shi Juntang, chairman of Yixing Ceramic Professional Association Art room (the convention center, room 611, offered by my friend Mr. Mel Jacobson).
The group of 17 from China Academy of Fine Art was on their own most of the time during the conference, after I got their shuttle bus from the airport to their hotel. A few of them spoke fluent English.
March 29, we hired a travel agent with a bus for a one-day tour in Seattle. We visited Boeing, Space Needle, Washington University, and the Bellevue Art Museum.
March 30, 9:30 to 11am, in one of the Shelton Hotel meeting rooms, all of the Chinese attendants were invited by NCECA president Keith J. Williams for a meeting. We were there, exchange cards, books, gifts, smiles, and we have taken pictures together.
March 31, we all left for San Francisco. After the tours and banquets with Bay Area friends, Professor Stan Welsh from San Jose State University, Sandy and Bob Kinze, Barbara and Charley Brown, some of them left to Las Vegas and I was then leading a group of 13. We toured in the East coast, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon, and arrived in Los Angeles on April 10th.
April 13, we were invited by the Largest Teapot Collectors in the World-Mrs. and Mr. Kamm (Gloria and Sonny Kamm) and toured in their house and viewed their collection.
My first time visiting Kamm's house was in 2010, and I had been accompanied by Tony Huntley. I am glad to know that Mr. and Mrs. Kamm are going to donate all of their collection - 17,000 pieces - to Fuller Craft Museum, south of Boston, Massachusetts (www.fullercraft.org).
April 14, 2012, we spent all day in American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California.
Working together with Professor Tony Huntley of Saddleback College, we started with a slide talk of a brief introduction of Chinese artists. One of the Yixing artists began to pound clay to demonstrate traditional teapot making. We then had a hands-on teapot workshop with over 40 American friends. Some of them had come from very far away. In the evening, there was the opening of the 5th biannual Big Fish Small Pot, the International Teapot Competition and Show at American Museum of Ceramic Art
The trip ended with a 5-day tour in Hawaii from April 15-20.


The 5th biannual Big Fish Small Pot, the International Teapot Competition and Show at American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California


The grand prize winner is: "In Between West Meets East" by Natasha Dikareva, who was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine, and immigrated to the US in 1995. The sea shell became a teapot. The teapot is part of her Shell Dwellers series that reflected a common thought of many people in the world. She said: "Although I may want to hide at times, I know we can find common understanding among our stories if we show them to others."
On opening night, a DVD of Yixing was showing at the lecture room. Seven Yixing artists had donated their teapots to AMOCA, and Serina Nakazawa, the grand prize winner of the 3rd biannual Big Fish, Small Pot exhibition handed over a teapot to Mr. Shi Juntang, the chairman of Yixing Ceramic Professional Association for donation to the Yixing Ceramic Museum. Please visit Teapot Show
Read on...


The List of the Best Schools in the MFA ceramic art program in the US (USNEWS)

1 Alfred University--New York State College of Ceramics
2 Cranbrook Academy of Art
3 Rhode Island School of Design
4 The Ohio State University Columbus
5 California College of the Arts
6 Ohio University
7 Arizona State University
8 University of Colorado Boulder
9 Louisiana State University
10 University of Nebraska Lincoln
11 Virginia Commonwealth University
12 University of California Davis
13 Temple University
14 School of the Art Institute of Chicago
15 University of Florida
16 Syracuse University
17 University of Minnesota Twin Cities
18 Indiana University--Bloomington (Hope)
19 University of Wisconsin Madison
20 West Virginia University


Chinese Students in the US for the ceramics program

In 1989, the first student from mainland China who came over to the US to study ceramic art landed in Los Angeles - his name is Guangzhen Zhou, from Shanghai, China. During the past few years, the number of Chinese students who choose to study aboard has been increasing rapidly, including those in ceramic art programs. If any of you (your schools) would like to promote your MFA program (ceramic art related only) please send me a link to the website.
Read on...

About Ceramic China Tour

Due to the relocation of our business, we have to cancel Ceramic China Tour in May-June, but we may do the tour in October. Please check out our newsletter in the next few issues.
Thanks for your support and understanding!
Read on...

email: chineseclayart@hotmail.com
phone: 1-800-689-2529
web: http://www.chineseclayart.com
]]> <![CDATA[Cooking Demos by Martin Yan, Charles Phan,]]>
Cooking Demos by Martin Yan, Charles Phan, and Other Celebrities at the 8th Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration Saturday, May 19th
SAN FRANCISCO (May 15, 2012) - Learn how to cook delicious pan Asian dishes at the 8th Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration's cooking demonstration stage located at Ellis and Larkin Streets! Appearing throughout the day will be celebrity chef Martin Yan, The Slanted Door's owner and executive chef Charles Phan, co-owner of Nombe Restaurant Mari Takahashi, cookbook author Andrew Nguyen, chef Steve Cortez, and BBC America's Chef Kayne Raymond.

    
The 8th annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration will be held Saturday, May 19, 2012 in San Francisco's Civic Center to Little Saigon from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., stretching from the Asian Art Museum up to Little Saigon. The event is free and open to the public. Here is a look at this year's celebrity chefs:



Martin Yan

Martin Yan is "no different from any other chef"

Having hosted more than 3,600 episodes, Martin Yan has become one of the most famous Asian Americans in the world, but he's more than just a TV personality.

"I don't think of myself as a TV chef," he says. 'I'm no different from any other chef. You just have to be passionate and have a love of cooking."

Yan formally began cooking at the age of 13, when he left his native Guangzhou for a cooking apprenticeship in Hong Kong. He eventually moved to California and graduated from UC Davis with a master's degree in food science.
Today, most people know him as the enthusiastic chef with lightning-quick hands who starred on Yan Can Cook, but Yan's life as a TV chef started by accident.

"I was helping out a friend on a cooking show in Alberta," said Yan. "The radio station called me and said that the scheduled chef was sick. So I showed up, and they liked me."

At the festival, Yan will not only be demonstrating his culinary skills. He will also be showing his intense pride of his heritage, a sense he wants to instill in every visitor.

"I hope that young people today are proud of their Asian heritage," he said. "It's important to understand your heritage. To know where you are going, you have to know where you came from."  

Charles Phan, inventor of modern Vietnamese cuisine

Charles Phan


Charles Phan is Executive Chef and Owner of The Slanted Door Group of restaurants located in San Francisco, California, which includes: The Slanted Door, Heaven's Dog, Wo Hing General Store and three locations of Out The Door as well as the California Academy of Sciences' Academy Café and The Moss Room.
Born in Da Lat, Vietnam, in 1962, the Phan family relocated just before the fall of Saigon, they spent two years in Guam before settling in San Francisco in 1977.
Phan opened his first restaurant, The Slanted Door, on Valencia Street in San Francisco's Mission District in 1995. The restaurant moved to its current location in the historic Ferry Building in 2004.

Winner of the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef: California in 2004, The Slanted Door was also nominated in the Outstanding Restaurant category in 2008. In 2010 & 2011, Charles was nominated for an Outstanding Chef award by the Foundation. In 2011 he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America.
Andrea Nguyen, non-chef and great cook


Andrea Nguyen

As for Andrea Nguyen, she refuses to be called a chef.
"I'm a professional home cook," she claims. Nguyen has had no formal culinary training, owing all her cooking experience to what she learned in cookbooks.

For years, Nguyen worked away from the kitchen, in positions as diverse as her cooking ingredients. She has been a university administrator, a bank examiner and a community consultant, among others. It all changed when she decided to give in to her culinary aspirations and worked at a restaurant in Los Angeles for one year.

"After that, I wanted to set my emphasis on other aspects of food," she said.

After her year in the restaurant business, Nguyen decided to go back to her roots.

"I've always been fascinated by cookbooks," said Nguyen, whose interest started at the age of 10. Today, she is the successful author of several cookbooks.

Her latest book is Asian Tofu: Discover the Best, Make Your Own, and Cook It At Home, which was released in February. Her debut cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award and two International Association of Culinary  Professionals awards. She writes a popular culinary blog at www.vietworldkitchen.com.

Steve Cortez, not just a chef

Steve Cortez

Unlike Nguyen, Steve Cortez welcomes the title "chef." But he uses the titles "engineer" and "teacher" as well.

"As much as I enjoy this, there isn't a lot of money in it," said Cortez. "I'm doing this for the love, fun and experience."

According to Cortez, in an industry where the average chef gets paid about $14 per hour, moonlighting is a necessity.

This hasn't deterred the San Francisco native from spreading his knowledge of Asian cuisine across the Bay Area. Cortez has taught cooking classes and hosted numerous corporate culinary lessons.

"I like to do something elaborate but not too complex," said Cortez. "My job as an instructor is to make it easy to replicate."

Having traveled to 80 countries, Cortez has a wide knowledge of global cuisines. By communing with locals in Africa and eating on the streets of Asia, Cortez has discovered a craft that transcends all borders.

"Food is always a great passion anyone can enjoy," said Cortez. "Not all of us drive sports cars, but all of us eat."
Mari Takahashi.
Mari Takahashi, Japanese cuisine caterer
Mari, who grew up in Yokohama, Japan, worked for several multi-billion-dollar American bio-tech and high-tech companies traveling all over the world before changing her career.  
She moved on to open her catering company, Mari's Catering, Inc., which is specialized in Japanese and California cuisine in 2004 to satisfy the needs of on-site Sushi chef catering. With Gil, Mari opened Sozai Restaurant and Sake Lounge, voted Best Japanese Food San Francisco by Citysearch in 2008.
  
Chef Kayne Raymond


Chef Kayne Raymond

Chef Kayne Raymond brings his passion for cooking to BBC America's all-new original adventure cooking competition "No Kitchen Required." With appearances on Food Network's "Chopped," Raymond has served as the Private Executive Chef to a slew of exclusive clients, including the CEO of Oracle.
  
After extensive training in his hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, Raymond took his talents across the globe, cooking in kitchens throughout Australia, England and the US. Raymond worked with some of the culinary world's best and brightest including: celebrated New Zealand chef Peter Gordon, Henry Harris & Simon Fawcett of Fifth Floor Harvey Nichols of London, OXO Tower at the River Thames and Hugo's Bondi Beach.
  
Raymond currently resides in San Francisco, California with his wife and daughter.
  
[backcolor= transparent]Cooking Demo Schedule
10:50 a.m. - Kayne Raymond
11:30 a.m. - Andrea Nguyen
12:30 p.m. - Mari Takahashi
1:30 p.m. - Charles Phan
2:30 p.m. - Martin Yan
3:30 p.m. - Steve Cortez

What:
Eighth Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration



When:
Saturday, May 19, 2012

11 a.m. - 6 p.m.


Where:    
Civic Center/Little Saigon District

Larkin and McAllister Streets

San Francisco, CA


Information:
www.asianfairsf.com


To arrange interviews with any of the celebrity chefs before or the day of the festival, contact Angela Pang at apang@asianweek.com or (415) 373-4002.



###

About the Asian Heritage Street Celebration
The Asian Heritage Street Celebration is a showcase of all Asian and Pacific Islander cultures. We promote Asian Pacific American identity by bringing together community, and encouraging the sharing of differences and appreciation of diversity. AHSC is the largest gathering of Asians in the country and is held every third Saturday of May in San Francisco, California. It is produced by the AsianWeek Foundation. AsianFairSF.com


About the AsianWeek Foundation
AsianWeek Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and develop Asian Pacific American identity, community and diversity.  AWF encourages the sharing of differences and appreciation of diversity, working to strengthen relations between all Asian and Pacific Islander cultures, newer and older generations of Asian Pacific Americans, and Asians and non-Asians. AsianWeekFoundation.org
]]> <![CDATA[对今天食品安全的客观看法]]>
从另一个方面说，现代商品经济用杀虫剂除草剂保鲜剂等等是必然的，纯有机的东西成本太高，不符合长途贩运的要求。在美国有多少苹果外面不涂蜡？有多少橘子不先用橘腐净浸泡？你懂得橘腐净是什么吗？你以为你早晨吃的美国麦片里面就没有杀虫剂的残留吗？
一些人对杀虫剂除草剂保鲜剂防腐剂大惊小怪，其实真正的问题不是用不用，而是怎么更科学地使用（量化和选择相对安全的杀虫剂等），寻找成本和安全之间的最佳平衡。
没有防腐剂就没有现代食品工业。没有防腐剂就会有更多的人吃进腐烂变质的东西。防腐剂有害但是利大于害是非常明显的。]]> <![CDATA[2012湾区中国音响展]]>
]]> <![CDATA[China, India Dealmakers Count Big-Time inForbes' Midas]]>
China, India Dealmakers Count Big-Time inForbes' Midas List of Top 100 VCs

What a difference it makes to have China and India included in theForbes' Midas List 2012.
One-quarter of the top 100 ranked VCs in the 2012 Forbes list have China and India deals sprinkled into their portfolios spanning Europe, Israel and the U.S. This top tier group includes three VC leaders who have spearheaded their firms' push into Asia: Jim Breyer, Accel Partners, #1; John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins, #12; and Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital, #13.
Jim Breyer, Accel
This year's list reflects the importance of China and India as emerging hotspots of technology innovation, as well it should! China and India already account for 17% of total venture capital invested -- and are continuing to grow in relation to the U.S., which still claims a sizeable 70% share. Overall, the 2012 rankings highlight the trend of Silicon Valley dealmakers that have gotten on the fast track to China and India. SeeForbes.
Here's my tally of China dealmakers on the list in 2012 (RED = New): Scott Sandell, New Enterprise Associates, #14;  Neil Shen, Sequoia Capital China, #24; Andrew Yan, SAIF Partners, #27; Yuri Milner, Digital Sky Technologies, #29; Suyang Zhang, IDG Accel, #35; John Walecka, Redpoint Ventures, #43;Dongliang Lin, IDG Accel, #48; David Yuan, Technology Crossover Ventures, #50; Tim Chang, Mayfield Fund, #54; Ping Li, Accel Partners, #58; David Chao, DCM, #60; Thomas Ng, GGV Capital #66; Brian Ascher, Venrock, #67; Ruby Lu, DCM, #76; Erhai Liu, Legend Capital, #84; Jenny Lee, GGV Capital, #94; Ajay Agarwal, Bain Capital Ventures, #95; and Richard Liu, Morningside Ventures, #100.
For perspective, here's the four India dealmakers on the 2012 list: Rob Chandra, Bessemer Venture Partners, #28; Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures, #34; Navin Chaddha, Mayfield Fund, #46, and Subrata Mitra, Accel India, #99.
Keep in mind that the 2011 Midas list did not factor in China and India deals; and a separate Forbes ranking was later published for China VCs.
Interestingly, many of these players and their Chinese and Indian deals are featured in my books,
]]> <![CDATA[第二届《品位非常》美食健康文化节开始报名]]> 第二届《品位非常》美食健康文化节开始报名
详情请电：408 244 8883,  415 992 2880


]]> <![CDATA[飞扬花蕾夏季展演]]> 飞扬花蕾夏季展演

本帖包含的部分附件只能 访问 社区查看
]]> <![CDATA[華體會舉辦十周年運動大會籌款及誓師大會]]> 敬愛的華體會贊助商、幹部及義工：


     自2003年華體會創辦以來，今年已是第十年，感謝您十年來的支持與愛護！華體會在全體幹部及義工的努力之下，已儼然成為中港臺地區以外最大的華人體育組織。每年的運動大會吸引了上萬人次熱愛體育的華裔朋友參加。各項比賽屢創佳績，為北加州的華人創造了強身健體的平臺！
每年的拮据的經費曾另我們多次興起放棄繼續舉辦的念頭，但每當在運動場上看到華人的下一代興高采烈的參與競賽，家長們熱情的對我們舉辦運動會表示感激，令我們感動的一年年苦撐下去。


     今年，我們依然需要您的繼續支持與合作。5月18日我們將在華體會舉辦十周年運動大會籌款及誓師大會，希望您與您的家人及朋友一起共襄盛舉！讓今年第十屆北加州文化體育協會運動大會比往年更盛大、更成功！沒有您的支持，華體會就沒有今天！所有上萬名參加運動會的選手們都會感激您的奉獻與愛心！

時間：2012年5月18日（星期五）7:00pm
地點：北加州華人文化體育協會     48761 Kato Road, Fremont, CA, 94538
入場券： 25元 （包括自助晚餐、飲料、紅酒）
                 前兩百名報名者贈送2012年7月7日由華體會主辦第二屆美國國際藝術節，由
                 北京150位金帆青少年藝術團演出的音樂會門票入場券兩張及華體會咖啡杯一個


誓師大會內容：由灣區著名歌手、藝術家20餘人演唱文藝晚會，并有抽獎摸彩
請填妥下表Fax: 510-353-9688或E-mail:shaodan1110@yahoo.cn  回華體會秘書處，謝謝！

                                                                                                            北加州華人文化體育協會    敬邀


我將與朋友           人，共          人將參加5月18日華體會籌款及誓師大會 ，
姓名：
電話：
E-mail:
            

















]]> <![CDATA[浄化呼吸法课程]]> 生活的艺术独创的浄化呼吸法课程将于 6/15---6/18 在 San Jose Convention Center 盛大举行。
欢迎不想走病老死之路，而想让自己的生命得到提升的人参加此课程。
此课程将由经验丰富的囯际老师指导， 并由湾区当地的20+位老师辅助。如有需要，会安排中文翻译。
这将是生活的艺术在美囯最大的一次课程，其能量是难以想像的。
如果您无法参加， 请传递此伩息给您的朋友。因为它的的确确是一个非常珍贵的礼物。

中文报导：
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcyUOMBEHFA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFuTNdKKc7A&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaDhcIpy5X8&feature=relmfu

Sign up for the course:
http://takeabreathbayarea.org/


"Don’t worry about whether you like it or not, just do it and see. Sometimes you don’t like doing things in the beginning, but later on, you will reap the fruit of that action." - HHSSRS]]> <![CDATA[Robert F. Kennedy’s estranged wife Mary dead at 52]]> Mary Kennedy, ex-wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., died Wednesday,a source told the Associated Press.
File: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Mary. (AP/Brian Snyder, Pool)
Kerry Lawrence, an attorney, confirmed her death, but he does not know the cause.
The Bedford, N.Y. police department said that at approximately 1:36 p.m. they responded to call of a deceased body found at the Kennedys' home. They are  investigating an "unattended death." They are not releasing the identification of the body until family members have been notified.
TMZ says a spokesperson for Mary's familyreleased a statement, saying,"We  deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her. Our heart goes out to  her children who she loved without reservation."
An unnamed source told Radaronline.com that Mary committed suicide.That information has not been confirmed.
After 16 years of marriage, RFK Jr.  filed for divorce from Mary  in May 2010. They have four children, and Mary is RFK Jr.'s second wife.
Just days after RFK Jr. filed for divorce, Mary was charged with DUI, reports TMZ.  RFK  Jr. is reportedly currently dating actress Cheryl Hines.
RFK Jr.  is the son of former Sen. Robert Kennedy and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.
]]> <![CDATA[呈上一幅二十一年前的绘画习作请各位坛友欣赏。]]>
请欣赏。请指教。


我的思绪



]]> <![CDATA[Why Facebook ads are different]]> Why Facebook ads are different


View Photo Gallery — Facebook’s phenomenal rise: In seven years, the social networking site has grown from a project hatched in a college dorm to the largest social networking site in the world, well on its way to hitting its goal of having 1 billion users.

From Washington Post By Hayley Tsukayama, Updated: Wednesday, May 16, 8:48 AM

Facebook’s road to its market debut hit a bump Tuesday when General Motors said it will stop paid advertising on the social network.
According to Forrester analyst Melissa Parrish, the move should be a wake-up call for the social network. Parrish has been hearing from companies who, like GM, have been dissatisfied with the way their ads are performing on Facebook for a while. She expects that others might look at GM’s move as validation of their own concerns.



Facebook acquires Instagram: After the social network’s announcement that it would purchase the popular photo-sharing app, here’s a look at some other acquisitions Facebook has made over the years.





Top consumer gadgets

Here are some of the top consumer gadgets that have been creating a lot of buzz this season.

Online marketing firm WordStream has an explanation for why Facebook ads may not be as effective as those from its top competitor, Google.
According to the firm, the size constraints Facebook places on ads, its lack of experience on mobile ads and the limited types of ads it can offer make Google a more appealing option. Google has more diversified ad media, thanks to YouTube, its search engines and the fact that it runs ads that appear on non-Google sites.
But where Facebook marketing excels is in community building and brand development, especially since the company can more closely target based on stated interests users have shared with the social network.
Executives from Ford and Subaru said Tuesday that they’ve found success by building Facebook campaigns that ask for user input and aim to build a conversation around companies.
In its July 2011 white paper, “The Power of Like,” media analytics firm comScore noted that it’s not necessarily direct fans but friends of fans that should measure the reach of a brand on Facebook.
“A Facebook analysis of the top 100 brand pages suggests that for every Fan, there are an additional 34 Friends of Fans that can be reached,” though this varies based on the brand. On the top 1,000 Fan pages, the firm found, this multiplier can grow to as much as 81 times. The paper looked at three companies — Starbucks, Bing and Southwest — in addition to taking a broad look at the state of social advertising.
The comScore study said that Facebook also has the unique opportunity to let fans influence their friends by sharing brand choices. In turn, the study found, that builds loyalty and generates incremental purchases.
According to the study, “typical approaches that focus on raw fan counts, or the total number of engagements on a given piece of content, fail to depict the potential and realized scope of social media brand impressions.”
However, as effective a tool as Facebook may be for marketers, much of that reach can be achieved through advertising on the social network without paying the social network a dime. Almost all of comScore’s data measures unpaid advertising methods and, of the three test cases, only Starbucks had social impressions that rivaled its display ad initiatives.

Related stories:
Facebook to offer as many as 421 million shares in IPO
]]> <![CDATA[Silicon Valley International Art Competition]]>
Silicon Valley International Art Competition
]]> <![CDATA[“吃得有營,活得更型”營養和體力活動免費粵語講座]]>
本帖包含的部分附件只能 访问 社区查看
]]> <![CDATA[Disco Queen Donna Summer Dead At Age 63]]>
Disco Queen Donna Summer Dead At Age 63


From Yahoo News
Donna Summer, whom millions of fans revered as "the Queen of Disco," has died at the age of 63 in Florida after a battle with cancer, the Associated Press confirmed with the singer's family Thursday morning.
flash: http://d.yimg.com/nl/ymusic/site/player.swf
Summer performing in October 2011The news comes as a surprise to those who were not aware that she was ill. The legendary superstar was publicly active as recently as last June, when she appeared as a guest panelist on Bravo's music reality show Platinum Hit.
Donna Summer's music videos
However, a report by TMZ, which initially broke the story, notes that those close to the singer--known for mega-hits including "Last Dance" and "Bad Girls"--revealed she had been trying to hide how sick she was. A source said that Summer did not seem to be in that bad of shape two weeks ago.
She is survived by her adult daughters Mimi (by her first husband, actor Helmuth Sommer), Brooklyn and Amanda (by second husband Bruce Sudano).
PHOTOS: Donna through the years
In addition to her status as a pioneer in the dance music genre, Summer was a five-time Grammy Award winner, the first artist ever to score three back-to-back No. 1 double albums, and was nominated--but not chosen--for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. She is credited with influencing stars ranging from Madonna and Michael Jackson, to Beyonce and Rihanna. Her last album, Crayons, was released in 2008.]]> <![CDATA[Coffee buzz: Study finds java drinkers live longer]]> Coffee buzz: Study finds java drinkers live longer
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, Associated Press
May. 17, 2012 5:37AM PDT
In this Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008 photo, espresso flows into a cup at a coffee house in Overland Park, Kan. A large U.S. federal study concludes people who drink coffee seem to live a little longer. Researchers saw a clear connection between cups consumed and years of life. Whether it was regular or decaf didn't matter. The results are published in the Thursday, May 17, 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
MILWAUKEE (AP) — One of life's simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn't matter.
The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it's a guilty pleasure that may do harm.
"Our study suggests that's really not the case," said lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute. "There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking."
No one knows why. Coffee contains a thousand things that can affect health, from helpful antioxidants to tiny amounts of substances linked to cancer. The most widely studied ingredient — caffeine — didn't play a role in the new study's results.
It's not that earlier studies were wrong. There is evidence that coffee can raise LDL, or bad cholesterol, and blood pressure at least short-term, and those in turn can raise the risk of heart disease.
Even in the new study, it first seemed that coffee drinkers were more likely to die at any given time. But they also tended to smoke, drink more alcohol, eat more red meat and exercise less than non-coffee-drinkers. Once researchers took those things into account, a clear pattern emerged: Each cup of coffee per day nudged up the chances of living longer.
The study was done by the National Institutes of Health and AARP. The results are published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Careful, though — this doesn't prove that coffee makes people live longer, only that the two seem related. Like most studies on diet and health, this one was based strictly on observing people's habits and resulting health. So it can't prove cause and effect.
But with so many people, more than a decade of follow-up and enough deaths to compare, "this is probably the best evidence we have" and are likely to get, said Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health. He had no role in this study but helped lead a previous one that also found coffee beneficial.
The new one began in 1995 and involved AARP members ages 50 to 71 in California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Atlanta and Detroit. People who already had heart disease, a stroke or cancer weren't included. Neither were folks at diet extremes — too many or too few calories per day.
The rest gave information on coffee drinking once, at the start of the study. "People are fairly consistent in their coffee drinking over their lifetime," so the single measure shouldn't be a big limitation, Freedman said.
Of the 402,260 participants, about 42,000 drank no coffee. About 15,000 drank six cups or more a day. Most people had two or three.
By 2008, about 52,000 of them had died. Compared to those who drank no coffee, men who had two or three cups a day were 10 percent less likely to die at any age. For women, it was 13 percent.
Even a single cup a day seemed to lower risk a little: 6 percent in men and 5 percent in women. The strongest effect was in women who had four or five cups a day — a 16 percent lower risk of death.
None of these are big numbers, though, and Freedman can't say how much extra life coffee might buy.
"I really can't calculate that," especially because smoking is a key factor that affects longevity at every age, he said.
Coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart or respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, injuries, accidents or infections. No effect was seen on cancer death risk, though.
Other research ties coffee drinking to lower levels of markers for inflammation and insulin resistance. Researchers also considered that people in poor health might refrain from drinking coffee and whether their abstention could bias the results. But the study excluded people with cancer and heart disease — the most common health problems — to minimize this chance. Also, the strongest benefits of coffee drinking were seen in people who were healthiest when the study began.
About two-thirds of study participants drank regular coffee, and the rest, decaf. The type of coffee made no difference in the results.
Hu had this advice for coffee lovers:
— Watch the sugar and cream. Extra calories and fat could negate any benefits from coffee.
— Drink filtered coffee rather than boiled — filtering removes compounds that raise LDL, the bad cholesterol.
Researchers did not look at tea, soda or other beverages but plan to in future analyses.
Lou and Mariann Maris have already compared them. Sipping a local brew at a lakefront coffee shop, the suburban Milwaukee couple told of how they missed coffee after briefly giving it up in the 1970s as part of a health kick that included transcendental meditation and eating vegetarian.
Mariann Maris switched to tea after being treated for breast cancer in 2008, but again missed the taste of coffee. It's one of life's great pleasures, especially because her husband makes it, she said.
"Nothing is as satisfying to me as a cup of coffee in the morning," she said.

]]> <![CDATA[创业中华 相约杭州--2012年侨界海外精英创业创新峰会]]> 创业中华 相约杭州--2012年侨界海外精英创业创新峰会
时间: 2012年7月29日 星期日下午1点至2012年8月1日 星期三下午4点
报名截止日期：2012年5月30日
地址: 杭州
会议简介
继2010年8月、2011年8月两次成功举办“侨界海外精英创业创新峰会”之后，为服务“科教兴国”、“人才强国”战略，最大限度地激发侨界高新技术人才在建设创新型国家中的积极性、创造性，吸引更多的海外高新技术人才以多种形式为国服务、回国创业，确定中国侨联联合杭州市人民政府等单位于2012年7月下旬继续举办“创业中华 相约杭州—2012侨界海外精英创业创新峰会”。

会议内容
1、主题论坛与互动交流。结合中国侨联今年将举办的“中国华生（杭州）生物论坛”以及杭州市十大主导产业之一的生物技术产业，组织以生物技术为主的创新人才和团队，举办主题论坛与互动交流，推进生物技术创新成果转化。
2、实地考察杭州创业创新环境。参观杭州主要开发园区，吸引一批符合杭州经济发展需求、具有一定引领作用的海外高层次人才和项目落地。
3、推进创新基地建设。推进以“乐富海邦园”为代表的新侨回国创新平台建设。围绕建设规划、引智重点、发展方向等内容与与会人士进行交流。
4、高层次人才和高新技术项目对接洽谈。按照“事前配对，事中对接，事后跟踪”的要求，做好高层次人才与高新项目的对接。
会议报名和详情
请点击这里
若已参加华源2012发现之旅Group B, 可点击这里

]]> <![CDATA[Monte Jade Science & Technology Association]]> Monte Jade Science & Technology Association (West) 22nd Annual Conference
When: Sunday, May 20, 12:00 PM - 9:15 PM
Location: Santa Clara Convention Center, 5001 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara

DESCRIPTION
Monte Jade's objective is to promote the cooperation and mutual flow of technology and investment. This provides an opportunity for professionals and corporations on both sides of the Pacific to network and share valuable experiences in investment, opportunities, management, technology and business information exchange.
EVENT FORMAT
Afternoon Porgram
12:00-1:00pm Registration & Networking
1:00-1:10pm Welcoming Speech
1:10-2:00pm Keynote Speech -“Innovation: Past, Present, and Future”
2:00-3:30pm “The Transformation of Cloud Computing”
3:30-4:00pm Networking & Coffee Break
4:00-5:10pm " Litigation Facing Technology Companies” & “Social Media
5:10-5:20pm Closing Remarks
Evening Program
5:20-6:00pm Networking & Exhibits, Cocktails
6:00-7:00pm Dinner
7:00-7:15pm Transition of Officers
7:15-7:45pm Keynote Speech -” Working in a network-centric world: Opportunities, Challenges and Adventures”
7:45-9:15pm “D Major” Peng and Friends”
9:15pm Final Door Prizes
REGISTRATION
Register here.
]]> <![CDATA[China Wireless Network Convergence Conference]]> China Wireless Network Convergence Conference
Silicon Valley China Wireless Mobile Forum-Co-hosted by SVC Wireless & RAC
When: Wednesday/Thursday, June 20-21, 9:00 AM-6:00 PM (CST)
Location: Nikko New Century Beijing, No. 6 Southern Road Capital Gym, Beijing, China
DESCRIPTION
China Wireless Network Convergence Conference, hosted by China Radio Association, is the most important government supported annual conference about technology and market in mobile Internet, wireless network, and telecommunication industries. It features the speeches from high-level decision makers in the central government ministries, as well as presentations from domestic and foreign leading technology and service providers. The exhibition show case the latest development in Mobile Internet, Wireless Network, and Telecommunication industries in China.

SVC Wireless Technology Association will host Silicon Valley China Wireless Mobile Forum, as a track on the second day of the China Wireless Network Convergence Conference. The forum will focus on ‘Technology and Market Convergence in the Mobile Internet Era’.
Conference Scale
Approved and Guided: China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
Organized: RAC and SVCWireless
Speakers: 60 persons
Audience: 500 persons
Exhibition: Exhibition area: about 5000 sqft
Number of exhibitors: about 25 vendors
Speakers, Sponsors & Exhibitors
China Internet Association, China Telecommunication Standards Association, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Bluetooth SIG, Wi-Fi Alliance, ZigBee Alliance, NFC Forum, Femto Forum, Continua Health Alliance
Registration
         Price (Not covering flight, lodging meal and other travel expenses):
         SVC Wireless Members: $150
         Non Members: $200
         Click here for detailed registration information

]]> <![CDATA[2012 AAMA Connect Series: Social Media Conference]]> 2012 AAMA Connect Series: Social Media Conference
Harnessing the Power of Social Networks for Growth
When: Friday, June 8, 1:00 PM-8:00 PM
Location: 2F, One Ferry Plaza (Behind Ferry Building), San Francisco
DESCRIPTION

As the population of Facebook grew from nothing to that of the third largest country in the world, new forms of businesses formed around the social collaboration model. Social media is used to promote brands, build loyal customer networks, measure influence, and strengthen reputation. Social media is no longer a niche, but a way of life that’s penetrating the corporate worked with the social enterprise concept. It’s for work, it’s for shopping, and it’s for gaming. Everything is now social. Come join AAMA Social Media conference to learn about hottest social businesses and ideas that are transforming the world!EVENT FORMAT

1:00 – 1:30 Registration & Networking
1:30 – 2:15 Opening Keynote: Geoff Donaker, COO, Yelp!
2:15 – 3:15 Moderated Fireside Chat Session
3:15 – 3:30 BREAK
3:30 – 4:00 Afternoon Panel: Global from the Start
4:00 – 5:00 Moderated Fireside Chat Sessions
5:00 – 5:50 Closing Panel: Investment Trends in Social Media
5:50 – 6:00 Closing Remarks
6:00 – 8:00 AAMA Social Media PartyREGISTRATION
Register here.
Promo code: SMPASS
]]> <![CDATA[Facebook co-founder Saverin targeted by U.S. senators]]> Facebook co-founder Saverin targeted by U.S. senators for tax ‘avoidance scheme’


View Photo Gallery — Who are Facebook’s major shareholders?: Facebook filed for its initial public offering Feb.1, giving us more insight how the tech titan operates. Here’s a look at some of the social networking giant’s shareholders and their affiliations with the company.

From The Washington Post By Hayley Tsukayama, Thursday, May 17, 6:53 AM

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has come under increased scrutiny following news that he had renounced his U.S. citizenship to become a resident of Singapore.
The move drew criticism as reports pointed out that the move would save Saverin — who owns a part of Facebook — millions of dollars in taxes after the company goes public.


Who is selling Facebook shares?: Facebook filed its eighth amendment to its S-1 on May 16, which shows that some of the social network’s existing shareholders have increased the number of shares they plan to sell in the company’s public offering. Here’s a look at who has upped their offerings and who has decided to stay put.
Video

The Washington Post’s Hayley Tsukayama reports on the three things you need to know about the Facebook IPO, which will drop this week.
Saverin has denied that he is moving for tax purposes, and has said that his decision was based solely on his business investments.
On Thursday, Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) announced plans to introduce a bill to respond to Saverin’s move, which a news release from Schumer’s office called an “avoidance scheme.”
“The senators will call Saverin’s move an outrage and describe a plan to re-impose taxes on expatriates like Saverin even after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country,” the release said, adding that the legislation would bar individuals like Saverin from re-entering the country.
Casey’s office said the bill is called the “Ex-PATRIOT” Act, which stands for the “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” Act.
Under the proposal, “any expatriate with either a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of at least $148,000 over the last five years will be presumed to have renounced their citizenship for tax avoidance purposes,” according to a release from Schumer’s office, and they would pay 30 percent capital gains tax — the same rate as people pay in the U.S.
If an expatriate can prove he or she has a legitimate reason for renouncing U.S. citizenship, no penalties will apply.
The bill would tax any prospective gains an expatriate who has renounced his or her citizenship in the past ten years who did so for purposes of tax avoidance. In Saverin’s case, Schumer spokesman Brian Fallows said that if the Facebook co-founder liquidates all his holdings in the company before the bill is passed, he will escape penalty. However, if he takes his time selling off his assets, for the purpose of letting it grow and then seeks to sell off and he would pay 30 percent on those earnings.
According to Schumer’s office, 1,780 people gave up their citizenship in 2011, a rise from 235 in 2008.
In a statement, Casey said that actions such as Saverin’s are an insult to middle-class Americans. “We simply cannot allow the ultra-wealthy to write their own rules,” he said. “Mr. Saverin has benefited greatly from being a citizen of the United States but he has chosen to cast it aside and leave U.S. taxpayers with the bill.”
For his part, Saverin told the New York Times in an interview Wednesday that he first filed to give up his citizenship in January 2011, more than a year before Facebook filed its paperwork to go public. “I was born in Brazil, I was an American citizen for about 10 years. I thought of myself as a global citizen,” he told the Times.
According to the report, the citizenship switch became official in September, and was published in a government filing at the end of April. He told the Times that he had complied with all the known laws and that he paid an exit tax.
Saverin, who became a U.S. citizen in 1998, co-founded Facebook at the age of 21. Two years later, he left the company after a conflict over the company's direction and settled a suit with the company.
On Tuesday, Business Insider published an account describing how Zuckerberg ousted Saverin from the company. According to the report, Zuckerberg cut Saverin out by incorporating a new company in Delaware, which then acquired Facebook’s original LLC. Shares of the new company were then distributed, but Saverin’s were diluted to fewer than 10 percent.
Now, Saverin owns around 4 percent of the company, which is estimated to be worth around $3 billion.
Saverin has the reputation of being a playboy who enjoys an extravagant lifestyle, a characterization that he told the Times was not accurate.
“It’s a misperception, especially the playboy,” he told the newspaper. “I do have a Bentley. I do go out. I’d rather not go into personal details.”
When asked for comment on the Schumer-Casey legislation, Saverin’s spokesman Tom Goodman said, “We continue to tell the truth, which is Eduardo’s decision had nothing to do with taxes and everything to do with his desire to live and work in Singapore. He is a native of Brazil. People seem to be responding to perception, not reality, and that is unfortunate, to say the least. We are unequivocal in our position that taxes were not a factor in his decision.”]]> <![CDATA[Facebook Goes Public]]> Facebook is set togo public this week in a historic IPO that could value the world’s largestsocial network at more than $100 billion. Follow this SpecialEdition of Facebook's big event. We’ll be serving up the bestnews,commentary and analysis dailyto keep you informed about the IPO -- and what's next for the company.
All the news are collected from global medias.
Facebook could be the next Google, whose shares now trade at more than six times their offering price, but it could also suffer the fate of Zynga, Groupon and...

]]> <![CDATA[What I saw in Zuckerberg's bungalow]]>
What I saw in Zuckerberg's bungalow

May 17, 2012: 12:25 PM ET from CNN
    [backcolor= transparent]Facebook's wild, nascent summer of 2004 was loosely chronicled in the blockbuster The Social Network. This is what it was really like.

Editor's Note: When I was still in college and dreaming of getting paid to write, my friends started a magazine. I wanted to contribute. At the first ideas meeting I mentioned a social network that was quickly taking over all the Ivies and would soon, we all knew, arrive at our campus. The site's creators had dropped out of Harvard to work on their project full time. They were in Palo Alto, and I'd be home in California for the summer. Maybe I could make the six-hour drive to visit them? So I did. I drove up and visited and met Zuck and attempted, in a somewhat naïve but earnest way, to make sense of what Thefacebook was and what it might eventually become.
On the way up, I got a speeding ticket, so arrived later than planned. I walked in through a wide-open front door; I saw the burnt out Tiki torches and the aftermath of generally minor, college-ish debauchery; I met Zuck, who was standoffish but generous with his time and driven and careful in a way that seemed well beyond his, or my, years. And he told a funny "your mom" joke.
Below is the article I wrote about Thefacebook as it ran in The Passenger magazine in 2005. Of course it feels dated, and, to me, the writing feels young. (Also, I ripped off the conceit of the first paragraph from a Charles P. Pierce essay. At least it was in good taste.) Perhaps most embarrassing of all, for everything I saw, I didn't see the money. In some way, though, not seeing all the riches that lay ahead for Zuck and Co. allowed me some clarity. There is, it turns out, something even bigger, even cooler, than $100 billion. And it's this thing, I think, that drove Zuck then -- that drives him still.
By Ryan Bradley, senior editor
Mark Zuckerberg with Dustin Moskovitz, circa 2004.

FORTUNE -- We should have seen it coming.
We should have known better and barred the doors, battened the hatches, hid the children and said a prayer. But no. We invited it into our homes. Let it stay. Gave it space, a desk or even a room. Gave it our time, our money, our phone lines. Provided for it. Ogled it and praised it. Loved it for its size, its immeasurable size. Loved it with that American love for open spaces, the same love that led our great grandparents to cross plains, deserts and mountains-new territories and the unknown.
We should have seen it coming. We kick ourselves and wince. We fed it everything, this insatiable beast: credit card numbers, social security numbers, names of first pets and mother's maiden names. Christ, some of us learned sex from it, had sex on it, watched people having sex in ways we still do not understand. But we kept one thing forever hidden from it, until everything we'd given wasn't enough-and the internet took our face.
It was a gradual taking. Sites like Hotornot.com and UglyPeople.com allowed the especially cruel and invested among us to judge strangers, wondering all the while why they had volunteered for such abuse. We found pretty faces, ugly faces, photoshopped faces. Faces not of people with exotic names and bodies, but faces from our state, our county, city, school, dorm, class; low-resolution faces full of braces and pimples. Slowly, the sites began masquerading in purpose beyond procrastination. The middle-aged could find former classmates at the yearbook picture database Classmates.com. The lonely could find a date at AmericanSingles.com or LoveCompass.com or Lavalife.com or PlentyofFish.com or Datingpearl.com or, well, just about anywhere in the limitless cyber-universe full of faces and possibility. Low-resolution faces connected with low-resolution faces and somewhere along the way our bastions of education decided they'd have a go. MIT and Columbia tried their own inter-campus, face-based networking programs, and then Harvard tried the same.
Problem was, all initial attempts at networking came from administrators, squares, rubes that had lost touch with the student body long ago. The suits scratched their heads and slumped their academic shoulders and questioned the sanity of youth while a streaker ran past their window. These face-sites didn't have what we wanted, didn't have the searching capabilities, didn't let us say what we wanted to say or find other people who were interested in cheese, Russian literature and Fela Kuti.
But Zuck! Zuck could do it. Zuck was our guy. Zuck was one of us and knew what we wanted. And Zuck could do it faster, better, sooner than the squares. And Mark Zuckerberg did. He created Thefacebook.
"Harvard [administrators] were working on their own inter-campus networking program, but Zuck approached them and he said he'd do it in a week and he'd do it better--and he did," says Zuckerberg's friend and Thefacebook compatriot Dustin Moskovitz.
The audacity! Saying you'll do something better and faster and then doing it. Zuck had a knack for knowing what students would want, and he knew how to program the necessary features. He knew that college students want options--the option of self-expression, the option of listing our sexual leanings, the option of finding classmates, the option of making ourselves look more attractive and interesting than we actually are. Zuck and company gave us all of these things, and more--because Zuck knew that what we abhor above all is stagnation, and as long as Thefacebook kept growing and changing, we would be drawn to it.
And Thefacebook grew and grew, taking over the Harvard campus, the Ivy League, the private schools, the state schools, the East Coast, the West Coast, the Midwest, the South, the country.
And now the beast dwells in a small bungalow at the end of a cul-de-sac in Palo Alto, cared for by five kids not from the West but westerners nonetheless. Five kids busily staring into glowing screens, eyes red, wrangling bandwidth. I walked in the front door on an unseasonably warm September evening. The door was open and ignored. Half-finished chip bags, pizza boxes, bottles of Corona and Pacifica and empty bags of In-N-Out covered every bit of counter space around Zuck's Sony laptop. There was an electronic hum, barely audible, and the faint sound of crickets from the backyard. All five sat at tables, five different tables, each surface covered with its own unique assortment of excessive litter surrounding a computer. Zuckerburg, the founder, creator, and leader of the outfit, looked up for a moment, then returned to his laptop and the programming jargon that flashed across the screen. Dustin Moskovitz, also supposed to be a junior at Harvard, also stopping out for a year, also 20, acknowledged me with a quick smile. Moskovitz had told me on the phone, a few hours earlier, to "keep an open mind" when I came to visit.
Moskovitz and I had been corresponding over email for months. They were a dodgy lot, these five kids slumped over keyboards and staring into glowing screens. I was happy to finally pin them down.
Wed Jun 23: Hi Ryan, I guess just give us a call when you're around. We're not planning to take any vacations during the summer, so you'll be able to meet with us for an hour or so. We are pretty busy though, so just make sure to contact us the day before.
Wed Jul7: Yeah, sure. Well, maybe Friday wouldn't be best for us as we're planning on throwing a party. I guess you could go if you wanted, but we tend to run around getting stuff when we do that. Are you planning on staying around a few days?
Sun Aug 8: Hi Ryan, We're actually extremely busy this late in August. We've sort of entered crunch time. However, I think our normal press guy should be returning state-side relatively soon. You may have better luck trying to get in contact with him again (press@thefacebook.com) and arranging an interview that way. I apologize for the inconvenience,
Dustin
Wed Aug 11: Hi Ryan, I talked it over with Mark. I guess if you came the last week of August or early September (we stopped out, so not going back to Harvard...), you could chill for a while.
Fri Sep 3: Man, you're killing me Ryan. Can you make it to a party on Saturday? (during the day). Maybe Wed. or Thur. but next week will probably be the most intense week of thefacebook' s existence (i know a reporters dream) so it may not be possible. I'll have to let you know sooner to the date.
It was the most intense week of Thefacebook's existence. The crew was busy releasing Thefacebook on college campuses, crunching in hours to make sure the release date corresponded to the beginning of the school year in early September. In the past week Thefacebook had opened on 41 new campuses, and had been wildly popular (in varying degrees of wild popularity) on each. Drawn on a whiteboard was a tournament-style bracket system that pitted the schools against each other in terms of Thefacebook popularity--Uconn vs. Rutgers, Irvine vs. Brandeis, UT vs. Vassar. At the time of my visit, Thefacebook had opened on more than 120 college campuses. Three months later, that number had grown to more than 200. At each of the 203 campuses--from American to Yale--the popularity is phenomenal, always over 60 percent. At Harvard, student-members make up well over 90 percent of the student body.
"It's always kind of a surprise which schools Thefacebook really takes off on," Moskovitz says.
He takes me through several new features, some recently released, some still being tested. He tells me how important it is, for them, to keep Thefacebook "built by college students, for college students." How it's a networking tool, a study tool; how, with a new calendar feature, Thefacebook makes our lives more organized and easier.
He pauses, again flashing a smile, "But most guys still just use it to look for chicks."
And will It ever stop? We search ourselves, our photos, others' photos--searching for reinvention, an opportunity to appear better, more interesting, more social, more than we really are. We question our friendships, our social networks. Hidden in our rooms, we secretly scan pages looking for more attractive, more interesting, more exotic faces. And can we help it?
Best-laid plans.

One of the more fascinating new features Thefacebook offers is the creation of "groups." The groups feature allows a user to invite other users into his or her group, through which online message board discussion ensues. But it's also just a group. Which is to say that Thefacebook has, brilliantly, recreated the real life social scene online--complete with cliques and gossip, playing into all of our insecurities. Now we can be more attractive, have more friends, be in more groups then we ever were in high school. And isn't college about reinvention?
There is a pool in Zuck's backyard, but the lights have burnt out from too many pool parties. There are tiki torches, burnt out for the same reason. I look at the empty bag of In-N-Out next to the Cape Cod salt and vinegar chips next to the Corona next to the pizza box next to cases of blockbuster movies (Zoolander, Happy Gilmore) next to Zuckerburg's laptop next to Zuck and contemplate the lifestyle we have enabled them to lead. Our overwhelming desires, our collective insecurities, our wanting Thefacebook to be the all-encompassing collegiate phenomenon that it has become landed in between piles of chips and beer in a Palo Alto bungalow.
We could have seen it coming. Zuck had been on the techno-radar since high school, turning little programming projects into multi-million dollar ideas. There was the software he and a Phillips Exeter friend, Adam D'Angelo, came up with that tracked the listening habits of users on Winamp, an MP3 player program. D'Angelo, now a student at CalTech, works with Zuck and Moskovitz in Palo Alto. He and Zuck had offers in the millions for their program from the likes of Microsoft and America Online, but they sat on it and by the time they were ready to sell the offers had been dropped.
And then there was Facemash. A short-lived, much controversial site in the vein of Hotornot.com that pitted two Harvard faces against each other and allowed users to vote on which was the more attractive. The site was taken down, amidst public outcry, in less than a week. There was its predecessor, Coursemash, a program that allowed students to network with people enrolled in the same classes.
Zuck himself was an indication of things to come. A kid who, friends say, gets so absorbed in his little ideas that he forgets to eat or sleep and rarely leaves his slouched, edge-of-seat position in front of his laptop until his little idea is manifested or dropped. Most are dropped, or passed around through his group of friends and never released to the public.
A kid who, in an interview with the Harvard Crimson, said of his little facebook idea: "I do stuff like this all the time. Thefacebook literally took me a week to make."
A kid who's too low-key to appear arrogant and arrogant enough to appear genius.
Zuck was quiet, almost nervous in my presence. He joked about how every college publication does at least one story on Thefacebook. How I'm not with Time, but hey, it's press. How, um guys, do you want to take this picture? How he doesn't really have time to talk now, or tomorrow, or in the next few days or weeks. How they do get paid a marginal amount, like all software engineers, but couldn't disclose how much and wouldn't let me photograph his newest scheme, scribbled on a large whiteboard, standing on end near his table of trash and his laptop. Everything in the bungalow is near a table and trash and a laptop.
I asked them why. What makes them work seven-, eight-hour days for a little cash from the ads on the site? Why don't they just cash out? Buy an island or something?
"I don't know," Moskovitz says, "what kept us going through all this Zuck?"
"Your mom."
"No, she wasn't a part of this yet."
But, really, the bungalow could be filled with bottles of Cristal, not Corona. These kids could be living like rockstars, not hunched and red-eyed and weary. Forget the pay, forget the pool and the cul-de-sac and the mild climate. Why are they still there, working to bring Thefacebook to every damn college kid in the nation?
"I think ... well, I mean, everyone on Harvard's campus knows Zuck by name. I think he's kind of into that," Moskovitz says.
Milan Kundera, in his novel Immortality, speaks not of a religious immortality of the soul, but of a different, earthly immortality. A kind everyone can achieve in his or her own life. "Greater immortality," Kundera writes, "means the memory of a person in the minds of people who never knew him personally."
And there it is, plainly spelled out on the bottom of our screens--thousands of screens, everyone's screen—

a Mark Zuckerberg production
Thefacebook © 2005

And when the empty boxes of chicken nuggets, the half-eaten candy bars and the squalor of a pool without lights fades away, what we will remember in 10, 20, 30 years is Thefacebook. And wasn't that a funny part of college? Wasn't it silly how much time we spent on it? Wasn't it strange that I name dropped and networked and cared so much about something so intangible? And maybe, just maybe, we'll remember Zuck. Not so much the name, really, but the idea of Zuck. A kid, like us, whose little idea took off and took over. And maybe, just maybe, we'll tell our kids about It.
I left soon after snapping some photos and trying in vain to pry more team members away from their glowing computer screens. Zuck, nervous still, asked that I take a picture that didn't show any of the beer bottles, as he and Moskovitz are underage. They quickly jumped on the couch and joked around--posing for a mock embrace. When I was finished the pair returned to their computers. Business as usual. I checked my watch. 10:53 p.m. Still unseasonably warm. Thefacebook guys showed no signs of stopping.
As I got up to leave, Zuck and Moskovitz gave nods of acknowledgement--Moskovitz threw up an arm. Not stopping, not looking away from the glowing screens. Each carving out their own piece of immortality.
]]> <![CDATA[Facebook’s bulls and bears: who’s in, who’s not]]> Facebook’s bulls and bears: who’s in, who’s not
From The Washington Post


View Photo Gallery — Facebook’s phenomenal rise: In seven years, the social networking site has grown from a project hatched in a college dorm to the largest social networking site in the world, well on its way to hitting its goal of having 1 billion users.


By Hayley Tsukayama, Thursday, May 17, 9:02 AM

Facebook is expected to set the final price for its initial public offering Thursday, after announcing that shares will be somewhere between $34 and $38. At its highest end, that means the company could raise up to $16 billion in the offering.
Facebook has more than its share of bullish investors who seem unfazed that the company has yet to figure out the monetization game.


The Washington Post’s Hayley Tsukayama reports on the three things you need to know about the Facebook IPO, which will drop this week.

Gallery




Top consumer gadgets



Here are some of the top consumer gadgets that have been creating a lot of buzz this season.



Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told Bloomberg that he’d buy the offering at any price. He said Mark Zuckerberg is an astute businessman and reminds him of his former business partner, Steve Jobs.
“I was thankful to have a partnership with Steve Jobs and I see Mark Zuckerberg closer to the combination of us,” he told the news organization. “When he speaks he speaks with a lot of idealism for the users and a lot of good ideas for the product overall.”
Analysts who’ve initiated coverage on Facebook also are optimistic about the company’s chances. Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia has a one-year target price of $46 for Facebook, and a two-year target price of $59. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has a $44 price target on the stock.
The social network has clearly seen some indication that it can count on buyers to snap up shares in the high-30s, but it also faces an increasingly vocal set of critics.
The most common question that dogs Facebook is how will it keep its revenue growth on pace with its user growth. The social network is exploding: it has 901 million monthly active users, up from 800 million as recently as February.
But its revenue growth hasn’t been as steady, illustrating that the company doesn’t have a good grip on how to make money from its users. The company makes a little over $4 from each of its global users, and about $9.51 from each of its users in the United States and Canada, TechCrunch noted. General Motors said earlier this week that it will stop paid advertisingon the site because it wasn’t getting a good return on its investment — though other car companies,mainly Ford, were quick to say that had more to do with GM’s ads than any problems with the social network.
The fact that so much of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising makes the company a hard read for investors who want to stick around for more than just the first pop from the market debut.
Among those sitting out this round: Warren Buffett. In an interview with Bloomberg, Buffett said he is “agnostic” on the company, because it’s hard to value. Barron’s also ran a big feature advising folks to stay away from the offering, saying it will be overpriced, after looking at the price to earnings ratio.
“If the deal is priced at $35, Facebook will be valued at around 70 times projected 2012 earnings of 50 cents a share and 18 times estimated revenue of $5 billion,” the report said, looking at the low end of the company’s initial pricing range. (With the updated range, that number is closer to 75 times)
By comparison, Google — the company whose IPO Facebook is set to eclipse — “trades for less than 15 times 2012 profit estimates and under six times revenue,” the report noted.
]]> <![CDATA[Facebook Prices Its IPO at $38]]> Facebook Prices Its IPO at $38

From The Wall Street Journal By SHAYNDI RAICE , ANUPREETA DAS and JOHN LETZING

Facebook Inc. FB 0.00% set its final price at $38 a share, as the social network gets ready for its initial public offering on Friday.
The social network priced at the top end of the range it set earlier this week, when it said it would price its IPO at $34 to $38 a share from $28 to $35 a share, in a sign of the tremendous investor appetite for the offering. At $38 a share, Facebook is valued at $104 billion, the biggest-ever valuation by an American company at the time of its offering.
Facebook is set to raise $18.4 billion from its IPO, becoming the second-largest U.S. IPO of all time behind Visa Inc.'s V -2.14% 2008 offering that brought in $19.65 billion, according to Dealogic.
The price was set only a short time before it was announced. Earlier in the day, Facebook executives and senior bankers on the deal were holed up in a meeting discussing the price, said people familiar with the matter. The company tried floating higher numbers to investors but was rebuffed, said one of the people.
The Menlo Park, Calif., company's shares are set to start trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday morning with the stock symbol FB.



Facebook's IPO is a crowning moment for Silicon Valley's latest tech boom. Last year, Web companies including LinkedInCorp., LNKD -7.52% Groupon Inc.GRPN -4.90% and Zynga Inc.ZNGA +0.61% went public in the first sustained drumbeat of Internet offerings for years.


Facebook's IPO

Read about the major stakeholders and how much they own, explore the IPO filing, see the company's history and track the performance of other tech companies since they went public.

View Interactive
That has continued this year, with Internet companies such as Yelp Inc. going public, while enterprise-technology companies such as Splunk Inc. also staged strong IPOs. Other Web companies that are still closely held, such as Twitter Inc. and Dropbox Inc., are viewed as possible IPO candidates in the future.
Facebook's final pricing comes amid recent financial disclosures that threw some cold water on the ballyhooed IPO. Last month, the company reported that its first-quarter sales fell 6% from the fourth quarter to $1.06 billion, while profit slumped 32% to $205 million over the same period.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors Co.GM -1.37% plans to stop advertising with Facebook after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers' car purchases. The move raised questions about Facebook's online advertising business, which currently generates the bulk of the company's revenue.
Still, Facebook remains one of the few firms among the recent crop of Internet start-ups making public debuts that is profitable. In 2011, Facebook posted a profit of $1 billion and $3.7 billion in sales, compared to a loss of $56,000 and $272 million in sales as recently as 2008.
And Facebook enjoys the highest profile of the recent generation of Web firms, with an audience of more than 900 million users globally, which by itself would make it the third-most-populous nation in the world. That giant user base was built in less than a decade; co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room in 2004.
Anticipation for Facebook's IPO has built to frenzied levels in recent weeks. In a sign of the intense interest, Facebook said Wednesday it would boost the size of its IPO by 25%, or about 100 million shares, as early investors sell as much as $3.8 billion in additional shares. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., GS -1.14% Tiger Global Management and Facebook director Peter Thiel—who was one of the social network's first investors—more than doubled the amount of stock they plan to sell.
Neither Facebook itself nor Mr. Zuckerberg are changing how many shares they will offer. Mr. Zuckerberg is selling shares worth up to about $1.2 billion in the IPO, and his personal stake after the offering will be worth up to $19.1 billion.
Even before Facebook filed papers for an IPO in February, the firm's shares were in high demand. Facebook stock was being traded on the secondary market—where sellers of shares in private companies can link up with buyers, usually with a company's permission.



Do advertisers have any idea how to use Facebook to their advantage? The answer will determine if the social network sinks or swims in the public market, says Rolfe Winkler on Mean Street. Photo: Reuters.



Dennis Berman joins Mean Street to discuss which investors are in and which are out as Facebook faces its IPO Friday, and why it spells a gloomy forecast for the social media giant. Photo: Reuters.
Before trading in Facebook was stopped on secondary platform SharesPost at the end of March, the shares were auctioned for $44.10, implying a total company valuation of nearly $103 billion.
Facebook's IPO, which have gone off without a reported glitch so far, represent a win for the three main underwriters Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Morgan Stanley, MS -0.59% which won the coveted lead left spot in the deal, was considered a shoe-in for its experience in technology IPOs. Goldman Sachs was expected to come in second because of its $1.5 billion private offering in January 2011, but was beat out by JP Morgan, which put its top bankers on the effort to woo Facebook and is playing a central role in the IPO.
For J.P. Morgan, the plum underwriting role is a bright spot given the bank's recent troubles with trading losses. So far this year, the bank ranks as the top bookrunner on U.S. listed IPOs for a total deal value of $1.5 billion, excluding Facebook's public offering, according to Dealogic data.

]]> <![CDATA[Can Anything Take Down the Facebook Juggernaut?]]>


Can Anything Take Down the Facebook Juggernaut?
From WIRED


Illustration: Mister Mourao

Sometime in early 2004, as Mark Zuckerberg was furiously coding the first iterations of The Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, the Internet passed what then seemed to be an impressive milestone: 750 million people worldwide had become connected. The exact birthdate of the Internet is difficult to pin down, but it’s fair to say that it took at least three decades for the net to reach a population of that size.
Today, after just eight years in existence, Facebook now has more than 750 million users all by itself. At that astonishing rate of growth, the company is on track to accomplish much more than just a multibillion-dollar IPO. Facebook is on the cusp of becoming a medium unto itself—more akin to television as a whole than a single network, and more like the entire web than just one online destination. The evidence for that transformation goes well beyond the sheer number of users. Many businesses now bypass the traditional web altogether, limiting their online presence to Facebook. Already the platform has spawned one billion-dollar company (the social gaming giant Zynga) and swallowed another (the photo network Instagram). The average time people spend on the site has increased from four and a half hours per month in 2009 to nearly seven hours—more than twice that of any major web competitor.
Facebook’s growing dominance suggests that the platform may very well represent the third major evolution of the network age. First the Internet popularized the crucial organizing principles of peer-to-peer architecture and packet-switched data. Then the web ushered in a new set of governing metaphors that were fundamentally literary in nature: a network of “pages” and footnote-like links. Powerful as they were, though, both those platforms were organized around data, not people. From a computer scientist’s perspective, this might not have seemed like a shortcoming. But most human beings don’t naturally organize the world through metaphors of domains or hypertext; instead they mentally map the world according to their social networks of friends, family, and colleagues.
So it should come as no surprise that we now find ourselves gravitating toward a new platform grounded in those social maps. And the bigger we make the platform, the stronger its gravitational pull. The Internet—meaning everything from email to file trading to voice-over-IP phone calls—was always technically larger than the web, but the web’s mass adoption managed somehow to overwhelm the vessel that contained it. The web became the main attraction; the packets and DNS lookups became the plumbing, essential but invisible. Facebook now threatens to perform that same jujitsu against the web itself. The difference, of course, is that no one owns the web—or in some strange way we all own it. But with Facebook we are ultimately just tenant farmers on the land; we make it more productive with our labor, but the ground belongs to someone else.It took the Internet 30 years to reach 750 million users. It took Facebook 8.

The sheer magnitude of Facebook’s success is one reason why, as the company charges toward what will likely be the most successful public offering in the history of capitalism, its critics are growing in number. Troublesome corporate behavior is easier to swallow when there are other choices out there, when you have the option to take your business to another store down the street. But when one company owns the whole street, each little transgression is amplified. A few years ago, the primary critique of Facebook revolved around its prodigious capacity for wasting our time. Today the complaints run much deeper: Facebook, we’re told, is a threat to core social values, to privacy, to the web itself.
The most vociferous of Facebook’s detractors contend that it has a long track record of aggressive, if not downright abusive, privacy policies. An early attempt at personalized advertising, Beacon, was famously aborted after users filed a class-action suit claiming that their personal activities online (including purchases made from various ecommerce sites) had been revealed to advertisers and friends without their knowledge. The company’s new Open Graph protocol gives developers the ability to share user behavior in one Facebook app—third-party programs that, like Zynga, run inside Facebook—with other apps that might want the data. For example, if you announce in a recipe app that you’ve cooked a particular dish for dinner, that news can be broadcast to your feed or put to use by a dieting app that tracks how many calories you’ve consumed.
No doubt Open Graph will lead to some wonderfully inventive and useful new tools, not to mention a vast universe of mindless social entertainment. The problem is that most of us don’t have time to monitor all the various ways our actions are going to be shared and tracked across the network. Launch an Open Graph app using your Facebook ID and you’ll get a warning that says something along these lines: “This application may: post status messages, notes, photos, and videos on my behalf; access my data at any time; access my data when I’m not using the application.” Technically, this language is simply describing the consequences of a “seamless sharing” world (in Facebook’s preferred phrase). But as a practical matter, do users know what they’re signing up for?
To Facebook’s credit, the company has given people very granular control over their privacy—the privacy settings page includes dozens of separate options that can be toggled on or off. And it has a long track record of success in putting users at ease, eventually, with new features; initial criticism usually softens into acceptance and, soon, enthusiasm. It’s easy to forget that even the News Feed feature, which now seems unobjectionable (and indispensable), sparked a backlash when it was launched. When the company makes mistakes, it seems to learn from them: Beacon was pulled, and recent updates have greatly simplified the privacy-settings page so users don’t get overwhelmed with the initial dashboard of options.

]]> <![CDATA[Ahead of Facebook I.P.O., a Skeptical Madison Ave.]]> BY TANZINA VEGA, EVELYN M. RUSLI AND PETER EAVIS

Illustration by The New York Times

The Facebook pages of Target, Walmart and Home Depot. Retailers’ pages focus mainly on building brand loyalty, rather than creating targeted ads.
With Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has created a seemingly perfect home on the Web, one where people feel comfortable chatting with friends, playing games, sharing photos and videos, listening to music and revealing the most intimate details of their lives.

The $100 billion question is whether Facebook will be a perfect home for advertisers, as well.

Facebook, the social networking giant, is on the cusp of an initial public offering that is shaping up to be a success. There has been such an investor frenzy that the company supersized its offering on Wednesday. It now plans to sell nearly 18 percent of the company to the public — up from around 14 percent — in an I.P.O. that could value the company at more than $100 billion.

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Despite the overwhelming level of interest, Facebook is facing fresh concerns over its ability to attract enough advertising revenue to justify that stratospheric valuation. On Tuesday, General Motors, the third-largest advertiser in the country, shut down its Facebook budget, about $10 million, saying that those ads were simply not doing enough to sell automobiles.

For Facebook, the loss of $10 million is not a big deal. The company generated $3.7 billion of revenue last year, 85 percent from advertising.

But the loss underlines the company’s need to convince a skeptical Madison Avenue that Facebook pages are the perfect vehicle for marketers and to convince eager investors that it can increase its advertising revenue, and quickly.

“It’s one of the most powerful branding mechanisms in the world, but it’s not an advertising mechanism,” said Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the giant advertising agency.

G.M. aside, many companies remain committed to the social media platform as a way to engage and connect with consumers. Advertising executives, industry analysts and institutional investors just aren’t convinced that activity will translate into huge and growing profits for Facebook. It is a concern shared by some of the company’s bankers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Companies like Home Depot,Wells Fargo and Merck have a presence on Facebook with their own pages. But they are mainly focused on fashioning content to build brand loyalty, rather than creating targeted advertising.

Even G.M. has said it plans to keep dedicated Facebook pages, stressing that it is an important avenue for reaching car buyers. The automaker just doesn’t want to pay Facebook — a decision that analysts worry other companies could make.

“My colleagues and I have spoken with several other advertisers who were already thinking of putting their dollars elsewhere,” said Melissa Parrish, an analyst at Forrester. “Now that G.M. has done so in such a large and public way, many of the fence-sitters will know that they’re not alone.”

As with all advertising, companies want to know what they’re getting for their money, and with Facebook, the answer isn’t clear. While the social network collects large amounts of data on its users, Facebook is much more reluctant than Google and other online sites to share that information with advertisers.

Facebook currently allows marketers to buy audiences, say women between the ages of 18 and 35 who live in a specific neighborhood. But Facebook is essentially a walled garden, so what users may do on the Web beyond Facebook — where they shop, what they read — isn’t available for advertisers who want to home in on people’s behavior. Instead, Facebook provides basic information on just how many users “like,” or follow, a particular ad or page

“Facebook’s a silo,” said Darren Herman, the chief digital media officer at the Media Kitchen, an agency that helps clients on Facebook. “It is very hard to understand the efficacy of what a Facebook like, or fan or follow is worth.”

Already, investors are putting a price on those Facebook users. At a market value of $100 billion, investors are estimating that each person with a Facebook page is worth roughly $110. But that’s based on the potential profits — not what Facebook is making off them now. Last year, each Facebook user generated $4 worth of sales for the company.

If the company doesn’t live up to those promises, the stock may suffer. While new investors are betting that Facebook will be the next Google, current owners of the social network are taking some of their money off the table, including DST Global, Accel Partners and Goldman Sachs.

“Over time, Facebook will be able to increase its revenue,” said Mr. Sorrell of WPP. “But whether it will be able to justify its valuation, well, time will tell.”

Facebook has spent years trying to court Madison Avenue.

In 2005, the advertising group was largely run out of the company’s satellite New York “office,” the modest Upper East Side apartment of Kevin Colleran, one of Facebook’s first sales employees.

“We told advertisers it was $5,000 minimum,” Mr. Colleran said in an interview earlier this year. “But, really, we would take what we could get.”

As Facebook expanded beyond the college network, finding advertisers became easier. Companies were wowed by the growing number of users and the minutes people spent on the site.

But Facebook’s young chief was hesitant to clutter the site with ads. Its biggest competitor, Myspace, was clogging users’ profiles with loud advertisements, creating a jarring aesthetic. Mr. Zuckerberg, who has often said that Facebook was not designed to be a business, firmly told his team he would not sacrifice product for the sake of revenue.

“Mark made it clear: he said get me ads that make the experience better,” Mr. Colleran, who has left the company, said.

That philosophy has helped shape its current pitch. Rather than simply providing traditional ads, the social network encourages companies to engage with users by telling them stories. Facebook believes that such interaction is less intrusive than other online ads that take over a user’s screen or push down content.

Some companies are aggressively jumping onto the platform. Last year,Wal-Mart started a Facebook app that customized offers for more than 3,800 of its American stores. “A national message is often not as relevant as being able to say, we’ve got sunscreen in the South and we’ve got rubber boots in the North,” Stephen Quinn, chief marketing officer for the Wal-Mart U.S. division, said at the time of the October introduction.

But not all companies are persuaded. For one, Facebook has been relatively protective of its user data, citing privacy concerns. But data is critical to creating tailored ads.

Facebook also doesn’t have the full palette of advertising options. For example, companies can buy space only directly through Facebook, rather than through a network, where advertisers have more control. And Facebook limits the types of ads. While it allows companies to use video or social features, Facebook doesn’t let advertisers take over its home page or dress up their ads with a lot of bells and whistles.

“Facebook doesn’t have a clear enough story to tell marketers,” said Ms. Parrish of Forrester.

Investors piling into Facebook will be doing so on faith. To buy the shares, they have to believe that the company will be able to milk an ever-increasing amount of revenue from all the Web site’s social interactions, without alienating users with intrusive advertising or breaches of privacy.

Some analysts see evidence that Facebook is already successfully weaving ads into users’ interactions, without excessive intrusion. If this approach works, the returns on such Facebook ads could be five times higher for advertisers than regular ads, said Ken Sena, an analyst at Evercore Partners.  Mr. Sena said he thought that Facebook’s advertising revenue could reach $14.9 billion in 2017, up from $3.2 billion last year.

Still, there are warning signs. Facebook’s advertising revenue actually fell in the first quarter of this year, from the fourth quarter. And some analysts think ad revenue will grow quite a bit more slowly this year than last.

This is where comparisons with Google, which went public in 2004, become apt. On its first day of trading, Google closed at $100.34 a share, which was 69 times the company’s earnings. Back then, Google’s revenue and earnings were growing faster than Facebook’s today.

If Facebook goes public with a $100 billion market value, it would trade at 103 times the profits it made in the 12 months through the end of March. In that case, investors aren’t just saying Facebook is the next Google, they are betting it is better than the I.P.O. of Google — a lofty goal by any measure.

Bill Vlasic, Stephanie Clifford, Christine Hauser and Katie Thomas contributed reporting.alue of some shares already vested]]> <![CDATA[Could Facebook Become the First $1 Trillion Company?]]> 14 hours ago by Sarah Kessler

You’re right if you think it’s premature to talk about Facebook as a contender to become the first $1 trillion company.

The social network is expected to go public Friday at a valuation of around $100 billion. Should Mark Zuckerberg find a way to multiply that value by 10 in the coming years, it would have a value higher than the GDP of all but 17 countries.

The grandiosity of the goal has has not, however, stopped Facebook from reportedly telling its new employees that it aims to be the first company to reach the milestone. Facebook’s high-level employees are fond of saying it is “1% finished,” and, according to a Facebook representative who lead a recent tour of the headquarters, the phrase is one of Mark Zuckerberg’s favorites.

SEE ALSO: Is Facebook Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory?
While the idea that a seven-year-old social network could become the world’s first trillion dollar company — blasting by established giants like Apple, Exxon Mobil and Walmart — might seem ridiculous, it’s not out of the question.

To put it in the words of technology analyst and Enderle Group president Rob Enderle:

“It’s not probable, but it’s possible.”

How It’s Possible

Facebook brought in $3.7 billion in revenue last year. It is valued at around $100 billion — 27 times that revenue.

In theory, if this multiple were to remain constant, Facebook would need to bring in $37 billion in order to reach a $1 trillion valuation. Let’s say Facebook somehow managed to continue the 120% annual revenue growth it has experienced on average over the last two years. It would hit $37 billion at some point in 2014.

But by at least one analyst’s watch, that puts it neck-and-neck with Apple. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted in April that Apple shares will reach $1,000 — pushing the company over the $1 trillion valuation mark — in 2014.

To be first, Facebook would have to grow revenues even faster than it has in the past.

The most likely source of this growth would be advertising. Facebook, which depends on advertisers for 85% of its income, announced a new suite of advertising products in February. Meanwhile, a report from BIA/Kelsey released earlier this week predicts social media ad spending will grow from about $3.8 billion in 2011 to $9.8 billion in 2016.]]> <![CDATA[The secrets of Facebook's profit engine]]> By Miguel Helft & Jessi Hempel

FORTUNE -- In Facebook's video IPO roadshow, Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, delivers a powerful line intended to impress potential investors: "In the United States, every day on Facebook is like the season-finale of American Idol -- the most popular show on television -- times two." It's an impactful boast, but as it turns out, Sandberg is playing it pretty safe. Every day, 188 million people log into Facebook in the U.S. and Canada. That's actually four to five times the number who tuned in to the season finale of American Idol. Wow, indeed.
And yet, Sandberg's boast also highlights a problem. American Idol's season finale brought in more than $40 million in advertising, according to industry estimates. On a typical day last year, Facebook (FB) took in just $5.6 million or so in the U.S. So conservatively, each set of eyeballs trained on the mewling of contestants on Fox is worth at least 30 times more than those checking in with friends and family on Facebook. And it's not just television that Facebook lags behind. Every one of its 900 million users generates a little more than $4 in revenue for Facebook in a year. By comparison, Google (GOOG) grosses at least 7 times more from each one of its users. In other words, Facebook makes gobs of money because of its massive reach, not because it is a particularly effective advertising medium.
As Facebook seeks to justify and sustain a mammoth valuation that seems certain to top $100 billion, it faces enormous challenges. First and foremost, the social networking service must find a way to accelerate the growth of its advertising business, which slowed to 45% in the most recent quarter from nearly twice that rate the year before. And it must do so in the face of headwinds from the rapid shift of users from the Web to mobile devices, where Facebook's monetization efforts are still nascent. In short, for all its promise and its potential to revolutionize entire industries, Facebook must prove to advertisers and investors that it can build a global ad business to match the power of a social networking product that has become a habit for nearly one of every seven people on the planet.
MORE: How does the social media giant really work?
To be sure, the fact that Facebook's advertising prowess lags behind its preeminence as a social hub is by design. Zuckerberg has always made the Facebook product his top priority, sometimes at the expense of the company's ad business. But now that Facebook will be a public company, his team will be under enormous pressure to deliver financial results that keep investors happy. Here are three things he should focus on to achieve that.
No. 1 Advertising
Facebook ads have become table stakes for any online display advertising campaign, but as these ads move from experimental purchases to the cornerstone of many advertising strategies, Facebook must show to advertisers that these spots deliver significant returns.
In the past year, Facebook's approach to advertising has changed. Now, rather than simply sending salespeople out to sell its ad inventory, Facebook has begun to hire MBA-carrying "relationship managers" with experience in the industries from which the advertisers hale. These folks call their clients "partners" instead of "advertisers" and encourage large bands like Procter & Gamble (PG) to stop chasing "Likes" and, instead, look at what people are actually saying and doing on Facebook that relates to them -- engagement. Facebook believes that if brands can jumpstart these conversations on fan pages and within apps they'll naturally buy more ads.
Facebook attempted to coin new language for this when it launched its latest advertising strategy last February. Advertisers can pay Facebook to highlight "sponsored stories" in users' Newsfeeds. The idea is that users will only see these sponsored stories when they are posted by a friend or a business with which they've already chosen to connect. It sounds great, but the effectiveness of sponsored stories is far from proven. In fact, some brands are questioning the value of advertising on Facebook altogether. GM (GM), which last year spent $10 million with Facebook, decided to stop advertising on the platform because the company's marketing executives weren't seeing the impact they desired. Unlike Google, which stumbled on a magic formula with search marketing, Facebook has yet to find its silver bullet.
No. 2 Mobile
Facebook's users are decamping to mobile devices faster than the social network can keep up. American Facebookers who use the service on both their desktops and on mobile apps are spending more time on their smartphones and tablets -- about 7.4 hours each month, according to Comscore (SCOR) -- than on the website itself -- about 6.5 hours each month.
MORE: Meet the man behind the Facebook IPO
This poses two significant challenges for the company. First, mobile screens are small so Facebook users see fewer ads. This unsettling trend is disproportionately impacting some of Facebook's most important advertising markets. In recent regulatory filings, Facebook said the shift is happening fastest in places like the United States, Brazil and India.
Second, even if Facebook can figure out how to serve up more and better mobile ads, the company lags behind its rivals on mobile strategy. Apple (AAPL) and Google make the operating software for the most popular smartphones on the market. It's possible that over time, Google could integrate its Facebook competitor, Google+, into its Android phones and tablets more seamlessly than Facebook, giving it an advantage with consumers. In the last couple years, Zuckerberg has attempted to forge closer ties with Apple. The companies have held multiple rounds of discussions, according to people with knowledge of the talks. But they have yet to find a compelling way to collaborate, and in the meantime, Apple has chosen to integrate Twitter, rather than Facebook, into its mobile software.
To combat its rivals, Facebook has moved aggressively to acquire mobile assets. Most notably, Facebook recently agreed to purchase the photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion. The company will get a fast-growing product with tons of users and -- perhaps more importantly -- a pool of talented programmers experienced in designing for handheld devices. The sale isn't expected to close, according to recent regulatory filings, until later this year.
No. 3 China
Call it Facebook's black hole: The world's biggest social network, as of now, has no presence in China. With some 500 million people online, China is the world's largest Internet market by number of users. About half of those users are active on locally grown social networks. It's a vast and potentially lucrative market for Facebook, but for the time being it's likely to remain elusive.
Zuckerberg's interest in China is no secret. He has been learning Mandarin and has visited the country on various occasions, most recently in March, when he traveled to Shanghai with his Chinese-American girlfriend, Priscilla Chan. Inside Facebook, Zuckerberg's has led intense discussions among senior management on the risks and rewards of going into the Chinese market, according to people familiar with the situation. And he has held discussions with various Chinese Internet companies, including search giant Baidu, to explore potential joint ventures, which would almost certainly be required for Facebook to be allowed to operate in the country.
MORE: Facebook IPO date has tax implications
Zuckerberg is also said to be eyeing China as a source of talented engineers. In recent months, however, the internal and external discussions about China have died down as the attention of Facebook's senior brass has been focused on the I.P.O., the people familiar with the discussions said. In its I.P.O. prospectus, Facebook acknowledged the obvious, saying the Chinese market "has substantial legal and regulatory complexities," but that the company will "continue to evaluate entering China."
For now, Facebook is likely to focus its international expansion efforts in countries like Japan and South Korea, where it is struggling to compete with local rivals, and emerging markets like India and Brazil, where Facebook has made significant inroads but has lots of room to grow. Down the line, Zuckerberg and Co. will no doubt try to formulate a China strategy. Whether it will ever pay off is an open question. After all, it's the Chinese government, not Facebook, that will have final say on whether Facebook can enter the market there. That leaves investors thinking of China as potential bonus whose value may never be realized. "I'm not paying anything for China," says Lou Kerner, founder of the Social Internet Fund, which invests in private shares of social and mobile companies.
-- with reporting by Alex Konrad]]> <![CDATA[Facebook’s Missing Risk Factor]]> BY PETER EAVIS

Did Facebook’s documents for its initial public offering leave out an important “risk factor?”

Risk factors occur in the I.P.O. filings of all companies. They are the dubiously precise passages of legalese that warn potential investors of ways in which the company selling shares can stumble. Facebook’s filings have plenty of them, a clear sign that lawyers cobbled together some pretty creative ways for the social network to trip up. For instance, one risk factor goes like this: “If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users decrease their level of engagement with Facebook, our revenue, financial results, and business may be significantly harmed.” You can almost hear the portentous music in the background.

But as gloomy as the lawyers tried to be, they arguably left one risk factor out. So DealBook submits the necessary passage below, free of any legal fees.

Facebook’s enlightened self-interest approach to running its business is highly unusual in corporate America and may in fact prove impossible to sustain over the long term.

In his shareholder’s letter, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, describes how he thinks Facebook can harness the profits to maintain a great social network. He wrote:

“By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term — and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and building more great services. We don’t wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company.”

That’s lovely. And Google would argue it has fused high ideals with even higher profits. But it was easier to understand how Google was going to achieve huge earnings when it went public than it is to see how Facebook can turn its social interactions into advertising gold.

It may prove extremely difficult for Facebook to notch up growing profits without impinging on its users’ experience. If so, don’t be surprised if Mr. Zuckerberg decides at that point to put user experience above profits.

To be fair to Facebook and its lawyers, it did include a risk factor that warns that sometimes its mission and profits might not be compatible. It said, “We frequently make product decisions that may reduce our short-term revenue or profitability if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and benefit the aggregate user experience and will thereby improve our financial performance over the long term.”

But, as you can see from how the sentence ends, even here the company couldn’t help but insist that it can have its cake and eat it, too.

Maybe this is how the risk factor should actually have been written:

Facebook’s enlightened self-interest approach to running its business is highly unusual in corporate America and may in fact prove impossible to sustain over the long term.

Since formation, our company has always striven to put user experience above the goal of making serious coin for ourselves and our shareholders. We’ve done pretty well on that front so far.

But we can see a dilemma looming. We need more ads on our network, to make the earnings that would justify a stock that trades at 100 times our earnings.

However, we’re not stupid, and we know people hate advertisements, even those ones placed oh-so subtly onto their Facebook pages by friends or by our fiendishly clever algorithms. Our founder, C.E.O. and chairman, Mark Zuckerberg, thinks we can make a lot of money and not degrade user experience along the way, but if we had to choose profits over people, there is a chance he will choose people. We have already stated that this could have a short-term negative impact on profits, but we also ought to concede that there could a long-term drag as well.

Don’t forget that Mr. Zuckerberg calls the shots around here. After the I.P.O., he will own shares that represent 55.8 percent of the company’s voting stock.]]> <![CDATA[10 Things Facebook Won't Say]]> Even post IPO, the social network that wants users to share everything may not always be quite so forthcoming.
By JAMI MAKAN

1. "We were in the right place at the right time."
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In the hit movie The Social Network, a college student dumped by his girlfriend reacts by building a crude precursor to "Thefacebook" website. And while Mark Zuckerberg, the entrepreneur portrayed, has said the girlfriend "doesn't exist in real life," the success of his invention is anything but fiction. Facebook has 900 million regular users, up from 500 million two years ago, and is now the most visited site in the U.S., according to data tracker Hitwise.

While social networking wasn't new when Facebook appeared in 2004, industry observers attribute its success to a mix of luck, ambition and strategy. "Mark had all three in spades," says David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect. By initially limiting access to students from select colleges, Facebook (which declined to comment on much of this article) could choose where and when to roll out, protecting it from too rapid growth. The early requirement that people use real names was also a boon. "There was an appetite on the Internet to be yourself and connect to your real friends," says Kirkpatrick.

Additional reporting by Jonnelle Marte.]]> <![CDATA[The Future Is More Than Facebook]]> Social media is already passé in Silicon Valley. America's innovation engine is now focused on transportation, energy and manufacturing.
By RICH KARLGAARD

In March 1986, Microsoft ended its first day as a public company with a market capitalization of $780 million. Its value grew more than 700 times that over the next 13 years and made Bill Gates, in 1999, the richest man ever with a net worth of $101 billion. When Facebook goes public this Friday its market cap could easily hit $100 billion, bringing founder Mark Zuckerberg's net worth to more than $18 billion. That's about 50 times what Mr. Gates was worth after Microsoft's IPO.

Facebook's big payday should be cause for celebration in a liberal democracy. Instead it has provoked two kinds of anxiety. Both imply America's best days are over.

The first is that America's innovation engine, Silicon Valley, is again overheating. Evidence: Last month Facebook swapped $1 billion in pre-IPO shares and some cash for Instagram, a two-year-old start-up with 11 employees and no revenue. A week later, another Silicon Valley start-up called Splunk, slyly allied with the decades's two hottest buzz generators—cloud computing and big data—went public at a $1.5 billion value on just $121 million in sales this year. Yet shareholders swooned for Splunk and bid up its $17 IPO share price to $37 in the first two days of trading.

This has to be a bubble, right?

The second worry is that only a certain kind of company is getting rich in the Obama economy. These are outfits that make algorithms—bits of software code cleverly strung together to take the form of an iPhone operating system, a LinkedIn social network, or a proprietary trading scheme.

The modern-day code rockers are not mere nerds, either. They form an Algorithmic Army of slightly surreal folks like, well, Mr. Zuckerberg. They seem to be pale men with oddly flat voices and faraway gazes who prefer to hide out in the bathroom during the IPO roadshow. When finally coaxed onto the stage to face investors, the great Zuckerberg appeared in a hoodie.

That can't be America's future, can it?

The debate about whether America will own the global economy in the 21st century or else become a dude ranch for rich Chinese and Brazilians hinges on whether innovation can break out of the box. Can it go mainstream and transform the really big things: transportation, energy, electricity, food production, water delivery, health care and education?

Enlarge Image

Bloomberg
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg

If it can't do that—or if it is thwarted by high taxes and complex regulation—then welcome to the new normal of 2% annual growth. Our future will become sadly familiar. Just follow Spain, France and Great Britain down history's sinkhole of lost status and influence.

But America can do better than that, and it will. In fact, the seeds are being planted now. In Silicon Valley, investing in social-media companies is already passé. Last year, as private investors were bidding up Facebook's valuation to $100 billion, the veteran Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee said "the next 500 social-media companies will lose money." He's broadly right. The time to make big returns in Facebook and in social media has passed.

There's a growing interest among bright minds to apply "exponential technologies" (the phrase used by Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, founders of Singularity University) to solve problems much larger than whom to friend on Facebook. Transportation is one of those big deals. Would you rather own a car, an iPad or a Facebook membership? Thought so. By 2050 the planet will have nine billion inhabitants and three billion cars. This will create huge demand for fuel and road access.

Silicon Valley's biggest new thing, therefore, is not Instagram or Splunk but Google's robot-driven car. The Google car is only four years old. In 2008, it could barely get around pylons in a parking lot. Last year it got down San Francisco's snaky Lombard Street with no human driver and today it races over mountain passes with only R2-D2's second cousin behind the wheel. This rate of progress is normal in the algorithmic world, but it is new in the physical world.

Manufacturing? America will own the mid-21st century. Geopolitical instability and rising oil prices will wreck the late 20th-century rationale for outsourcing. Chinese labor costs are rising 20% a year while robotic costs are dropping by 30% a year. Do the math.

"Made in the USA" is set to have a major comeback. The showstopper will be 3-D printing, which makes physical objects from a digital file. It will turn our artists into artisanal manufacturers and reward American-style creativity.

Energy? America's natural-gas and shale oil boom will bridge us to 2030 or so when solar energy and algae-based fuels will be closer to market parity and begin to make a real contribution. As long as I'm on the topic of the natural-gas boom, what key technology made this happy surprise possible? High-tech horizontal drilling. Who knew? We were all too busy fiddling with our iPhone apps to see it coming.

Question: If America could have only one of the following—Facebook, Twitter or horizontal drilling—which would be the smarter choice?

Happily, we don't have to make that choice. America remains the world's innovator, a country without limits.

Mr. Karlgaard is publisher of Forbes.]]> <![CDATA[A Trip Down Memory Lane: Facebook’s Private Years]]> From The Wall Street Journal

By Zoran Basich

With Facebook set to enter the public markets tomorrow–it just priced its IPO at $38 per share–we took a trip through the archives of venture-capital publication VentureWire to check out stories about the company dating back to its earliest days.

Here’s a sampling:


Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
MAY 4, 2005 – NEW COMPANY, WEIRD NAME

Headline: “Thefacebook Raises $12M First Round For Expansion”

Why it was important: Accel Partners invested $12 million in the year-old company’s first round of financing. That turned out to be a wise decision, as Accel’s stake now figures to be worth around $7.7 billion.

Money quote: “(Accel Partners Managing Partner Jim Breyer) said that several consumer Internet companies as well as media companies were interested in investing in Thefacebook, but Accel Partners wanted to remain the sole investor and had ‘enough capital to put together the financing.’”

APRIL 3, 2006 – FIRST TALK OF VALUATION

Headline: “Facebook Seeks Buyer, With Big Ambitions About Sale Price”

Why it was important: The company and its investors were already showing that they had a pretty high opinion of Facebook’s worth, one that wasn’t always shared by the outside world.

Money quote: “Kevin Efrusy, a Facebook investor with venture-capital firm Accel Partners, which put about $12.7 million in the Palo Alto, Calif., Web start-up last year, thinks the company could eventually be valued in the billions of dollars.”

Money quote #2: “A top News Corp. executive, Ross Levinsohn, told an analyst conference in New York, ‘Certainly we’re not paying $2 billion for Facebook. That makes no sense for us.’” (The year before, News Corp. had paid $580 million for MySpace.com.)

APRIL 19, 2006 – MORE INVESTORS COME CALLING

Headline: “Facebook Gets $25M From VCs, Former Paypal CEO”

Why it was important: Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners come on board before the company’s valuation skyrocketed. The two firms’ stakes are now worth around $1.39 billion and $1.53 billion, respectively.

Money quote: “In a statement, Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg — who started the company when he was a student at Harvard University — said executives are ‘still in the early stages of building Facebook’ and are ‘building this company for the long term.’”

JULY 20, 2007 – THE FIRST ‘ACQ-HIRE’

Headline: “Facebook Makes First Acquisition, Buying Parakey”

Why it was important: It was the first of what would be many acquisitions where Facebook bought a start-up mainly to bring talented entrepreneurs on board; this time it was Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, co-founders of Web browser Firefox.

Money quote: “Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook, which says it has 27 million active users…”
(That seemed pretty big at the time, but that’s about 1/30th of its user base now.)

OCTOBER 25, 2007 – HELLO, MICROSOFT

Headline: “Microsoft Bets On Facebook Stake And Web Ad Boom”

Why it was important: Microsoft was criticized for overpaying—it invested $240 million at a $15 billion valuation—but with Facebook’s value continuing to soar it ended up being the first of many pricey investments that now look like a bargain.

Money quote: “’Some of our competitors might be willing to spend a lot of money to secure deals. We are not willing to participate in those types of transactions,’ Google co-founder Sergey Brin told journalists following a company meeting with financial analysts.’

MAY 9, 2008 – I TOLD YOU SO

Headline: “Facebook’s Worth Still A Hot Topic”

Why it was important: Early investor Kevin Efrusy of Accel Partners took the opportunity to gloat a little that his much-criticized statement in 2006 that Facebook was worth $2 billion was now looking very conservative. Not everyone was sold, though.

Money quote: “’Would Viacom buy Facebook for $15 billion? Absolutely not,’ said Wade Davis, senior vice president at Viacom. ‘Nor did we want to pay $1 billion. There is a lot of hype, a lot of activity, but a lot of dollars aren’t being made.’”

OCTOBER 15, 2010 – FEVER PITCH

Headline: “Company-Specific Secondary Funds Tempt Investors, But Many See Risks”

Why it was important: As the frenzy to obtain shares in pre-IPO Facebook kept growing, new funds started popping up that sought to buy up Facebook stock on behalf of non-professional (albeit accredited)  investors. That raised red flags among some observers, who thought these funds were taking advantage of Facebook hysteria to mislead unsophisticated investors.

Money quote: “If they told you up front that there’s a lot of risk and you could lose it all, that’s a different story. But that’s not how they pitched it. They pitched it as a fund that will get you into the IPO.”

JANUARY 4, 2011 — THE BIG BOYS

Headline: “Facebook Nets $500M Investment At $50B Valuation From Goldman, DST”

Why it was important: This funding round brought a major global player to the table and showed that the old venture model of rushing to an IPO at the earliest opportunity no longer held true for the hottest consumer tech companies–Facebook was taking its time and building a warchest to stay private longer.

It also brought the interest in private Facebook shares to a frenzied peak: Goldman had to exclude U.S. clients from a separate equity offering of as much as $1.5 billion due to the intense media coverage of the plan, which it feared might run into trouble with the SEC.

Money quote: “Across Silicon Valley, ‘the incentive for going public has lowered and the penalty for going public has increased,’ said Ben Horowitz, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, which in November bought Facebook shares from Accel Partners in a private transaction.”

FEBRUARY 1, 2012 – TAKING THE PLUNGE

Headline: “Facebook’s IPO By The Numbers”

Why it was important: The company’s S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission was perhaps the most highly anticipated one ever, since it gave the public its first look at some of the numbers and internal workings at Facebook.

Money quote: “845 million: The number of monthly active users at the end of 2011, an increase of 39% from the year before.”

Which brings us to today, Facebook’s last day as a private company. Will the company’s smooth sailing continue as it cruises into the public markets, or will it encounter stormier seas? We’ll start finding out soon]]> <![CDATA[Facebook Investors’ Worth on IPO Day]]>
From The Wall Street Journal By Scott Austin

Now that Facebook has set the price of its shares for its IPO at $38–for a $104 billion valuation–here’s a look how much the largest shareholders’ stakes are worth:
Mark Zuckerberg
 Chairman and CEO
 Shares: 533.8 million
 Worth: $20.3 billion
“Zuck,” as he’s known to friends and family, launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room in 2004. Eight years later, at age 27, the hoodie-wearing college dropout is now one of the richest person in the world. He’ll be celebrating his birthday in style — he turns 28 on May 14.
BloombergJim Breyer
Accel Partners
Led by Partner Jim Breyer
Shares: 201.4 million
Worth: $7.7 billion
In one of the most storied bets by a venture-capital firm, Accel took a chance on Facebook in 2005 with a $12.7 million investment at a $93 million valuation. Mr. Breyer, 50, who also sits on the boards of Wal-Mart, Dell and News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, also kicked in $1 million of his own money.
Associated PressDustin Moskovitz
Dustin Moskovitz
Co-founder
Shares: 133.7 million
Worth: $5.1 billion
A college roommate of Mr. Zuckerberg and eight days younger, Mr. Moskovitz also dropped out of Harvard and moved to Palo Alto, Calif., to start up Facebook. He left the company in 2008 to launch Asana, maker of a Web-collaboration tool.
BloombergYuri Milner
DST Global
Led by Yuri Milner
Shares: 131.3 million
Worth: $5 billion
The 50-year-old Russian investor wooed Mr. Zuckerberg in 2009 with a major investment in the social network. Subsequent investments followed in Facebook, as well as in other high-profile Web start-ups such as Groupon, Twitter and Zynga.
BloombergSean Parker
Sean Parker
Investor, former President
Shares: 69.6 million
Worth: $2.6 billion
Characterized as a fast-talking, wheeler-dealer in “The Social Network,” Parker co-founded Napster and became Facebook’s first president after meeting Zuckerberg early on. He now works at venture fund The Founders Fund, and reunited with Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning to found Airtime.com.
Reuters
Goldman Sachs
Investor
Shares: 65.9 million
Worth: $2.5 billion
The banker made waves in early 2011 when it engineered a $1.5 billion infusion for its non-U.S. clients at a $50 billion valuation. Despite this friendship, Goldman lost the coveted “lead left” underwriting position to Morgan Stanley, instead taking the No. 3 spot.
BloombergPeter Thiel
Peter Thiel
Director
Shares: 44.7 million
Worth: $1.7 billion
The German-born Stanford University graduate is often called the “don” of the PayPal Mafia after co-founding the online payments company and selling it to eBay in 2002. Mr. Thiel, 44, became an angel investor as well as a hedge fund manager and wrote Mr. Zuckerberg a $500,000 check in 2004, as also noted in the movie, “The Social Network.”
BloombergSheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg
Chief Operating Officer
Shares: 41.2 million
Worth: $1.6 billion
Ms. Sandberg. 42, was hired from Google in 2008 to help Facebook build a profitable business and give more professional executive support to the young CEO. The Harvard graduate’s resume includes a stint as chief of staff for the Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton and board positions at Walt Disney and Starbucks.
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